Some N.S. wineries worry as approaching cold temperatures threaten grapevines

Wineries throughout the region are keeping a close eye on the weather as an approaching cold snap threatens their grapevines.

John Eickelenboom has placed 80 round bales of hay throughout his vineyard in Port Williams, N.S.

“They’re about 1,300 to 1,400 pounds a piece,” Eickelenboom says.

Friday evening, he plans to light the bales on fire with the hope the heat will bring up the temperature around his vines, providing enough warmth to save them.

“This is my only insurance protection I get,” says Eickelenboom.

Eickelenboom's vineyard covers nearly 15 acres. He says with temperatures sent to plummet to lows he’s never seen in his 50 years of farming, he could lose all of his grapevines.

“You have to think, what are you going to do, what are you going to do when the whole vineyard dies? Start again, farmers are tough. I’m not whining and crying, I’m going to get through it,” Eickelenboom says.

There is a slightly different concern at Bent Ridge Winery in Windsor, N.S.

Owner Glenn Dodge grows a variety of grapes that aren't meant to handle extreme cold temperatures.

“We are having temperatures drop here by two to three degrees an hour over the next 15 hours and that’s pretty substantial,” says Dodge.

Dodge says the warm temperatures experienced so far this winter caused some vines to start to produce buds.

“You can go out and you can clip some of the buds to see if there’s any green left in them. If it’s brown or black inside, those have been destroyed,” says Dodge.

According to Dodge, the true extent of the damage won’t be known until spring.

That means months of waiting and hoping for farmers that their livelihoods survive this weekend’s potentially crop killing temperatures.