It’s been a minute, but we are excited that we can once again get back to normal programming with our annual harvest update, and we are beyond excited to bring you all the news from a truly spectacular vintage in the Similkameen. We spoke to winemaker Michael Clark for some behind-the-scenes, in-the-eye-of-the-winemaker insights into what is destined to become the 2025 vintage.
Clos du Soleil Harvest 2025: Harvest Update
What did Clos du Soleil harvest this year?
The Clos du Soleil team harvested beautiful, healthy crops from all four of our vineyards: our original Estate Vineyard, our La Côte Vineyard, our Les Collines Vineyard, and our Whispered Secret Vineyard. While all vineyards suffered some vine death from the 2023/2024 freezes, all of them also had many surviving vines, which are now totally healthy and from which we harvested excellent, high-quality fruit this year. In addition, as always, we worked with a small number of external BC growers who also grew excellent fruit for us, as they have done so for many years, and we truly appreciate these long-term partnerships.
How many tons of grapes did Clos du Soleil crush in 2025?
Clos du Soleil harvested 85 tons of grapes this year. While this is still down from our peak production pre-freezes, because we are still recovering from vine loss, it is by all measures a huge improvement over the last couple of years. We have excellent Similkameen Valley wines to bring to market; moreover, we expect to be back to peak production within the next couple of years!
When did harvest start, and when did it end?
We started harvesting extremely early this year! Most harvests at Clos du Soleil start in September, but this year we had a significant number of varieties picked before the end of August. This was due to the hot (but not excessively hot) growing season, which really promoted fruit maturation, coupled with the fact that some of the recovering vineyards were naturally primed to mature fruit faster, and lastly, the fact that at Clos du Soleil we focus on picking certain varieties quite early in order to maintain freshness, high acidity, and moderate alcohol. However, despite the early start, harvest still lasted a long time, and we were picking fruit up until the start of November. A long harvest, to be sure, but this was appreciated by the team because it gave us lots of time to really focus on each incoming variety and not feel rushed. The results will be evident in the wines we have produced.
Most memorable moment of the 2025 harvest?
Our Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2025 is stellar. So if you ask us about a memorable moment, it would be the date we picked our Cabernet Sauvignon, coupled with every single moment since then when we have tasted it in the fermentation tank. We are truly excited about all of our wines from 2025, but especially our Cabernet Sauvignon. It will be an outstanding vintage.
Favourite post-work beverage during the 2025 harvest?
Does sleep count as a post-work beverage? That is a rhetorical question; of course it does.
Favourite energy-boosting snack during the 2025 harvest?
Shout out to “Tree To Me“, a local restaurant around the corner from Clos du Soleil, which provided many, many, many energy-boosting snacks and meals to us throughout harvest. A personal highlight for me is their burgers.
Favourite music played during the 2025 harvest?
Clos du Soleil’s winery team has extremely sophisticated musical tastes (ahem). So sophisticated that we are reluctant to share them. They might just be our primary winemaking secret.
Which wine destined to come out of the 2025 vintage are you, the winemaker, most excited about?
It is always hard to choose, because every single wine that we make shows a different aspect of Similkameen terroir. So, with that in mind, I’ll offer three different exciting examples: (i) our Sauvignon Blanc from our Les Collines Vineyard, destined to form the backbone of Capella 2025, is excellent and always highlights the complexity of our stony Similkameen terroir; (ii) our Rosé this year includes some new surprise varieties and we think has the potential to be one of our best ever; (iii) as mentioned before, our Cabernet Sauvignon this year might be one for the history books, and I’m so excited about the potential of that wine! Of course, it still needs to spend a year or two in barrel before it will ever see the light of day… so, we have to be patient!
Final thoughts on the 2025 vintage?
This was a vintage of joy and hope. The last two vintages have been extremely difficult ones in BC, and particularly in the Similkameen Valley. But this year everything turned around: we had healthy vines, producing a fantastic crop of grapes, and the resulting wines are excellent. The Clos du Soleil team had had two fairly relaxing vintages before this, and so we were 1000% revved up to make the 2025 vintage an excellent one. Spirits were high, and when you taste the wines, you will understand why.