Winery Vineyard Covid Survey

In May 2020 we sent out three surveys; growers, wineries and industry suppliers. We combined the results in our print magazine. Below is the full survey and answers from our winery and vineyard survey only.

Winery Vineyard Covid Survey

How are selling your wine during this time of shutdown? Check all that apply.

Comments

  • Markets
  • Discounted shipping.
  • Reduced wholesale pricing in ALBERTA (which we hope the retailers will use to reduce the price of our wines at AB liquor store for the consumers as well.
  • Online ordering.

Has your wine club membership or amount of orders increased during this time?

  • Yes 64%
  • No 4%
  • Same 7%
  • No Wine Club 25%

Comments

  • We have slowly gained wine club members and they are definitely our bigger purchasers.
  • High in March and slowly declined

Were you already selling wine via your website?

  • Yes 82%
  • No 14%

Have you experienced a delay or shortage of supplies in the past 6 weeks? Check all that apply.

  • No Issue 63%
  • Fertilizer, chemicals or irrigation supplies 15%
  • Lab supply products 4%
  • Bottles 15%
  • Closures 4%
  • Larger winemaking equipment 4%

What have you been concerned or worried about?

Comments

  • Most concerned about the health of my clients in the restaurant business
  • Bringing back our worker but at reduced hours and how that will affect his CERB.
  • Future sales look iffy. We are very dependant on tasting room sales from May Long through October
  • Tasting rooms closed Fewer bookings for vacation cottage

Will you apply for the new funding available to farmers announced by the federal government on May 5?

  • Yes 44%
  • No 36%

Comments

  • MAYBE.... the only thing announced that we may be qualified for is this: Creating a $77.5 million Emergency Processing Fund to help food producers access more personal protective equipment (PPE), adapt to health protocols, automate or modernize their facilities, processes, and operations, and respond to emerging pressures from COVID-19 so they can better supply Canadians with food during this period.
  • I am hoping so.
  • No sure if we will qualify.
  • it will help pay for the costs associated with quarantining of the TFWs we had hired.
  • Not sure.
  • Will not help as is for food farmers not wine grape farmers.
  • Doesn't seem to apply to vineyards. Not enough to cover all sectors.

What are you expecting will happen during the summer months regarding your business and tourism? Or what do you hope will happen?

  • Reduction in tasting room sales
  • Don’t think we will be open to the public.
  • Our customers are mainly tourists so i am worried they will not come... a lot of our revenue is from the wine shop
  • Expecting status quo for remainder of year with very slow re-opening. Totally different atmosphere in tasting room. (now only a sales room)
  • Less sales, less tourists
  • We guess the large wineries will be able to open for business as they have the large buildings better able to be adapted for distancing protocols.
  • Hope the BC population will visit
  • We'll likely go to an appointment only model with no more than 4 people at a time. Depending on what the new guidelines are.
  • SLOW
  • 30% or less of the visitor traffic we saw last year, which was already lower than previous years.
  • Business will be much different. Tourism will be down.
  • I think locals will support local businesses more but that will be a drastically small number compared to the tourists we normally see coming to our valley.
  • I think sales will tank. Online sales can’t keep up with tasting room.
  • Hoping we can reopen the wine shop, and restore some sales.
  • We expect it to me SLOW.
  • Partial opening to tourism.
  • It will all be dependent upon the government phased re-opening, but most likely we will have tastings by appointment only, with maximum group size of 4 people. Possibly more outdoor tastings than indoor.
  • Who knows - but tourism will be down
  • I don't suspect our operations will be the same this summer. I think this summer is a write off. We will not be able to recoup lost revenues even if we open back up at lesser capacity.
  • Expecting significant reduction of onsite sales.
  • I think it will be a lot slower than people think/expect.
  • Hope will get back to sales in tasting room but not counting on it.
  • It will be terrible.
  • Hope for limited opening to tastings in smaller groups. Domestic (travelling by car) tourists can carry more wine than plane travelers.
  • Time will tell
  • Hoping for tasting room to reopen gradually with safe measure for both workers and clients

What plans or thoughts do you have for re-opening your business?

  • We are concerned about making ourselves and visitors feel safe. Having the right protocol in place.
  • Maybe later in the year.
  • Take it slow.
  • Will see what the rules are.
  • We will have to install outdoor handwash station and only allow a maximum of two small groups or one large group at a time into the wine shop... we will have to modify our wine shop in order to install sneeze guard the length of our bar and cash area between the server and the customers.
  • Have no plans in place for the re-opening process
  • We'll likely go to an appointment only model with no more than 4 people at a time. Depending on what the new guidelines are.
  • Move from tasting bar to table service. Table reservations system. Limit the amount of people we see. No browers the wine shop.
  • We will re-open if allowed, and follow Provincial Health & Work Safe BC rules. We will limit #s, and restrict visitors to the outdoors.
  • We will likely use reservation apps to control crowds and will promote our outdoor experiences more than ever
  • Observing guidelines and requirements set by health authorities.
  • We plan on re-opening with thoughts on how to do things safely with less staff and no tourism.
  • Tastings by appointment, one way traffic, limit group size, increase tasting fees.
  • We are beginning to look at our cleaning/sanitizing/disinfecting protocols as well as where potential touch points are for a customer interaction so that we can eliminate or mitigate those. We hope for somewhat of a phased re-opening. Perhaps re-opening for sales only sooner, and then eventually offering tastings once they are allowed again and we can conduct them safely for both customers and staff.
  • Target is May long weekend with special precautions
  • We won't open until we feel that we can offer a safe space for people to experience. Our tasting room is very small so it may only be 1 person at a time and no samples offered, just bottle sales or having a glass/ sharing a bottle outdoors with friends weather permitting.
  • We have plans in place with sanitation stations, half amount of seats for restaurant. diversify via bakery and distillery
  • Hoping for save on foods store tastings and in store tastings.
  • None at the moment
  • We're still open without tastings. Hoping to reopen to small groups.
  • Might not be able to do wine tastings
  • Work by appointment and use the outdoor space as much as possible. increasing hygiene measures

Do you employ foreign workers?

  • Yes 39%
  • No 61%

If yes, how many do you usually employ?

  • 1-3 55%
  • 4-10 27%
  • 11-19 9%
  • 20+  9%

Were you worried foreign workers would not be able to enter into Canada?

  • Yes 75%
  • No 20%

Comments

    •    It's our first time, and they arrive this week.

    •    Concerned about spreading the virus

    •    But only for the industry as a whole.

    •    Arrived in February

    •    Subcontract farm managers need these workers.

    •    Our workers were already here at the end of February before any closures occurred.

    •    Arrived/arriving 4 weeks late

    •    Isolated in Vancouver for 14 days.

    •    They arrived luckily on march 12th, and got quarantine right away

Do you have your foreign workers in place now?

  • Yes 38%
  • No 57%

How many local staff did you layoff or decide not re-hire?

Comments

  • Hopefully within a week or so
  • We have re-hired our worker at reduced hours.
  • When wineshop reopens
  • We're hoping to hire 2-3 depending on what the parameters are for the tasting room.
  • We wont.
  • Jun. 1
  • In the next month we will start to slowly hire back
  • Harvest only
  • Next year.
  • Our tasting room had not re-opened yet for the season, so we have had to delay bringing those staff back. We will likely be bringing the one returning tasting room staff person in within the next week or two to begin training with the new protocols. The 2nd staff person will be brought in as soon as the need will be there.
  • Depends on how busy the wine shop is all will be rehired
  • Unknown
  • When wine shops are allowed to open
  • Mid-May for any new hires
  • When tasting room reopen hopefully

Do you feel safe going about your day-to-day activities?

  • Yes 50%
  • Some Days Yes - Some No 50%
  • No 0%

Comments

  • I live on a farm so live pretty well isolated
  • Waiting for the first outbreak in our area.
  • We're fortunate to have vineyard space & household family members to work with us in the office, but keeping employees safe during this time is a worry.
  • 100% safe. I do not live a fear-based existence. Be smart, wash your hands, stay your distance. All good.
  • In the workplace, we all feel safe. Early on, we adopted new distancing and disinfecting protocols as well as closing the doors to any non-staff members. The entire staff has also been limiting any time in public to weekly or bi-weekly shopping as needed and taking precautions there. In staff discussions, the only concerns have related to seeing some other people's public behaviour.
  • We are temporarily closed and only offer delivery. Very low impact at this time so yes, feel safe. If we were to open up I think our feelings might change a little as we expose ourselves a little more to public interaction.
  • Depends on the personal space others give me.

Are you thinking of planting any other food related crops for sale or personal use along with what you are currently growing? Check all that apply.

  • No 64%
  • Vegetables 39%
  • Herbs 21%
  • Berries 14%

Comments

  • Although we ONLY sell wine and grow only grapes for commercial / business. This year we have planted a much larger garden than normal (and with more types of veggies) for our own consumption. We already had/have tree fruits and some berries for our own personal consumption...
  • We have always planted the above. it's no change
  • Our farm already has 8 acres of organic veggies. We are now considering a very large green house and packing facility for year round production

Do you have these items available? Check all that apply.

Comments

  • Our worker is ONLY an outside worker... so that is not an issue as yet. We have PERSONAL masks and some sanitizer for our own use only so far.
  • also gloves
  • Cannot find masks yet. working on distancing markers and if we need plexiglass barriers.
  • We will incorporate distancing markers and likely plexiglas barriers once we decide to re-open our doors.
  • We manufacture sanitizer as well during Covid, we have lots. Masks are not available to purchase.
  • Have latex gloves but can not find any more right now.
  • Hands free door opener (Toe-pener is the name I gave it)

Have you experienced any “gifts” during this slowed down period?i.e. extra time to catch up on tasks, projects, re-evaluating life, extra time for family etc. or anything else you can tell us.

  • Same as usual except opening the tasting room in May
  • Zoom family meetings... a couple of customers who were very lonely have taken us up on our offer of phone chats to keep them from feeling isolated. This is part of the post we did on Facebook on April 5th: "If you are in isolation alone, in Canada, and you are lonely, and feel the need to talk to a human... to cheer you or just to commiserate with.... PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Direct Message your phone number to our winery Facebook page Castoro de Oro Estate Winery and we will find some time to give you a call... mental health is so important. We care. <3 " :-) Be warned though we will likely give you some of those jokes we are known for in our wine shop... ;-) #BCwine #ShopLocal #SupportLocal #BeLocal #choosekind #Love
  • Family time
  • Working with our kids/teens in various roles: vineyard work, bottling, office work.
  • My houses are extremely clean. My desk and office is extremely clean. My taxes and paperwork are up to date.
  • We have been incredibly busy. We've had to lay-off staff (or not hire new staff), leaving us (owners) to take on all tasks. The vines don't stop because of Covid-19.
  • No - I have been working everyday 10 hour days to do the jobs my employees used to do
  • Yes. Able to tackle projects that were overdue.
  • No. with layoffs, our small team is working hard to keep up.
  • No.
  • We have been able to better focus on our marketing plan and the execution of many items within it. We have thankfully seen growth in our online sales program, which was only recently upgraded (in early February with a new website launch).
  • Re-evaluating life - no extra time because of Labor shortage
  • We have had people pre-purchase gift certificates to help us stay afloat. Many core staff are still working full time producing sanitizer, so we're still at work producing that, while our other operations are basically at a halt. Some staff have maybe had more time to spend with family or doing additional projects, while others are still working full time.
  • No gifts. Less time seems available.
  • We did renovations, and were obviously forced to get into online sale etc.
  • No still have a vineyard to look after which doesn't stop growing. Also bottling still to do
  • No
  • This has been an opportunity to share responsibilities among all family members. With Mom and Dad still working our boys (10 & 11) are cooking, cleaning and helping on the farm.
  • No at all, it has been super busy and so much more stressful so less efficient in our work.

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PreSpring Issue 2024