Nova Scotia's wine industry is still trying to recover from last year's late spring frost that damaged the grape crops.
With only a month to go before they open to the public, Luckett Vineyards is still surveying the damage from last year's devastating frost, where they lost 70 per cent of their crops.
“We're in the vineyard pruning right now, looking at it, it looks a bit shaky for this year, but we'll have to wait and see,” said Pete Luckett.
Last June, a severe frost impacted agricultural industries across Nova Scotia and ruined 50 per cent of grape crops -- a potentially damaging blow to an industry that by government estimates is worth approximately $200 million a year.
Some wineries chose to look outside the province for help.
“What a lot of the wineries made a decision to do, was to bring in juice from Ontario, to supplement their juice that they were able to produce from Nova Scotia grapes and then put that into a blended product with Nova Scotia and Ontario juice to make wine from that,” said Jerry White of the Winery Association of Nova Scotia.
Luckett Vineyards is one of the wineries that chose to import in order to fill the gap and help keep up with demand.
“If we weren't able to import from out of province, it means that myself and probably many of the other wineries would have a major shortage of inventory,” Luckett said.
With the help of Ontario farmers, Luckett has introduced a new product called “Sometimes, You Have to Make the Call,” which is made up of 85 per cent Ontario grape juice.
“The call was for us to make?” Luckett said. “Wine using Ontario grapes.”
It’s unclear at this time what long-lasting damage last year's frost will end up having on grape crops if any this year.
To make it transparent for the consumer, wines that are 100 per cent Nova Scotian will be labelled “wines of Nova Scotia.”
Wines that are 85 per cent Nova Scotian will be labelled “Nova Scotia wine,” and wines that are primarily out of province product will be designated “Product of Canada.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Natasha Pace.