It may be the middle of winter, but Quails’ Gate Winery is bringing the heat to its vineyard with infrared technology.
The West Kelowna winery is testing an infrared vacuum LED tube to stay sustainable through the winter or even a cold snap.
“It’s a light source that produces more heat than light and the idea is to heat the vine itself rather than the air around it, above that critical freeze temperature,” said Rowan Stewart, Quails’ Gate winemaker.
The technology is expected to bring the vines about 6 C warmer than the surrounding air, which is significant in avoiding bud loss.
“-24 C is usually where you would see 50 per cent bud death and after that it progresses pretty quickly to 100 per cent, so if you warm -25 C to -20 C you could save your harvest,” Stewart said.