After consecutive years of extreme winter cold damaged vineyards across the Okanagan, many grape growers were faced with difficult decisions about how to move forward. At Bench 1775 Winery in Penticton, recovery meant removing and replanting thousands of damaged vines.

With support from the Enhanced Replant Program, the winery is replanting nearly 30,000 grapevines across several vineyard blocks.

“It’s been a great project because it’s nice to have the support to get some funding to go toward replanting,” says Robin Milos of Bench 1775 Winery. “We definitely lost a huge amount of our vines due to the cold snap in ’24 as well as in ’23.”

The back-to-back cold events significantly impacted vineyards throughout the region. While replanting is an important step toward recovery, rebuilding a vineyard takes time. “It’s a bit too early to really talk about success, seeing as the plants need to go in the ground and then grow,” says Milos. “They can take up to five years to produce a proper crop.”

In the meantime, the support is helping the winery maintain stability during a challenging period.

“What it has done is it’s helped keep everybody’s job secure,” says Milos.

For Bench 1775, the project is about more than replacing damaged vines. It is an investment in the long-term sustainability of the winery and its ability to continue producing wine from grapes grown in British Columbia. The winery has remained committed to producing wine using locally grown fruit despite the challenges facing the sector. “We haven’t bought a single grape from across the border to make any wine with, so this just helps us to keep on that path,” says Milos.

As vineyards across the Okanagan continue to recover from cold events, replanting projects like this one are helping rebuild production capacity and support the long-term resilience of BC’s grape and wine industry. For other producers considering similar recovery projects, Milos encourages them to explore available funding opportunities. “I would definitely recommend this to any other farmer that needed some help,” says Milos. “There’s so many different options and it makes the whole thing very easy and way less daunting.”

Funding for the Enhanced Replant Program has been provided by the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The program is delivered by IAF.