A few observations from my annual BC wine trip in September.
First, I always go the weekend before the festival, as the wineries in which I am normally interested sell out quickly if you go later, and they don't have the wines in bottle with labels on if you go much earlier!
I noted a new development this year, however - more wineries were releasing at different times over the year, and this makes it more difficult for sceptics like me who prefer not to buy without tasting. In several cases (Fairview, Black Hills) they had sold out earlier in the year and were closed when I went by, although I heard that they may have held back a bit of product just so they'd be able to open up again for the festival.
I always do a 3 day tour - day one in the North - sometimes going to the Kelowna side, often not, one day down South in the OK Falls and Oliver area, and one full day on the Naramata bench, which I'd call the Napa Valley of BC. Someone has probably already called it that, but if not, you heard it here first!
DAY 1- The North
HAINLE - the lunch room at the wine outlet used to be perfectly located for a quick sustenance stop after negotiating the Peachland connector (watching the Radar detector can be such arduous work). We were slowed for far too many miles by what was a dead ringer for a police car, but turned out to be a fire chief's car from Armstrong BC. They should make them paint them red or something! As we were driving in the minivan instead of one of the more interesting cars (we did the trip last time in a 1971 Jensen Interceptor - 8 cases, only bottomed once gassing up in Hope) because we had an extra person with us (forced incarceration in the back seat of an Interceptor would render anyone but a 6 year old a cripple, and SWMBO unaccountably refuses to ride back there), it was a more sedate trip than usual anyway. Getting back to the point, they have now closed the lunchroom, and as that was the only reason we stopped there, having never been all that impressed with the wines, we passed them by this year.
GREATA RANCH - a nice and relatively new sales room down on the lake 9 km. south of Peachland. The wines are made by Cedar Creek, as a sort of second label, but based on my experience they are certainly not second rate. Well worth a stop, although I did manage not to buy anything except a bottle for our friend's in Penticton, with whom we were staying.
SUMAC RIDGE - two reasons to stop here - the often excellent wines and the lunch room. Now only part of the McWatters Wine Empire (Harry now runs Hawethorne as well). Tasted the usual range, and the one that stood out enough for me to buy some was the 2002 Cab Franc Black Sage Vineyard - a steal at $15.50. The 2000 Pinnacle was good, but at $50, not nearly good enough to get past the cellar door chez Spohn! The restaurant is also very good and fed two hungry wine maniacs and one semi-bored spouse in fine fashion.
THORNHAVEN - this was an obligatory stop as I had discovered an excellent slightly off dry Gewurztraminer (I am still searching for that perfect Alsatian style Gewurz that I know BC is capable of producing) in their 2002 vintage. Sad to report, none of the wines showed any distinction at all, though the pourer was kind of cute….. I don't know what has happened here or if the 02 Gewurz was a one-hit wonder, but I advise that you tatse before you buy! BTW, there is no truth to the rumour (printed in the festival guide) that Calliope is selling out of this winery. For those who don't know, Calliope is a joint venture between winemaker Ross Mirko (formerly at Cedar Creek) and his wife, Cheri. I first met them when they were sharing the wine making facility and sales room at Poplar Grove a few years ago, and after talking to Ross and tasting his wines, I have been buying ever since. He was supposed to be at a couple of other sales rooms, but in the end you have to either find the right door to tap three times on and leave money under the third rock from the right, or contact them by e-mail - see their site at
We called it a (short) day and went for dinner with friends and a bunch of good wine that for which I did not take notes - it was after all a holiday.
DAY 2 - The South
T89/100 Very rich, round, smooth palate with quite grainy tannins. Big coffee, smoky oak, vanilla, peppery, black olive, clove and black cherry flavours. - Gismondi on Wine, Aug. 2004
I somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy a special 'two-pack' (no, of wine, not the deceased rapper), one with cork and one with Stelvin closure, for those with the patience to cellar them and try them side by side in a few years. After cruising around the golf course, only to find a 'closed' sign at Fairview, we headed off south.
SILVER SAGE - Holy Schutstaffel Batman! Winemakers of the SS! We had this eerie feeling as we drove into Castle Wolfenstein…..er, sorry, Silver Sage. It may have been the giant bottle on their sundeck adorned with a dead ringer for the Nazi SS symbol - don't these guys have any PR consultants?? This is the winery where, tragically, Victor Manola and Frank Supernak (Prpich, now Blasted Church) did the Duke of Clarence/ butt of Malmsey thing and died when they fell into an open fermentation tank. The wines are, to put it mildly, a mixed bunch. Some are pretty average wines made from the normal varietals, but some boggle the imagination. Apparently sage isn't just a name, as one of their pride and joys is a Gewurz in which they steep said vegetation - and charge more for it than the unadulterated product. As if that were not bizarre enough, this winery, which prides itself on naturally made wine without additives, make an ice wine (Pinot Blanc based, I think, but I was back-pedalling too fast at this point to quite catch the details) with a chilli pepper floating in the bottle. Grus Gott, what have we here? You vill taste zis wine and you vill enchoy it!! I opted for allowing them to experiment on she-who-must-be-obeyed, who related to me that it wasn't all THAT bad, after the first wave of heat (and surprise) passed…….
BLACK HILLS - again, this one was sold out and closed, but it bears mention as their red Nota Bene gets better and better every vintage - and has to be one of the weightiest BC reds - and their new attempt at a dry Bordeaux white blend, Alibi, shows promise, though I'm not sure what they thought they needed to apologise for.
BURROWING OWL - off to Hooters. I'd already taken delivery of my 03 Chardonnay
- too tempting to pay the extra $15 a case and have it delivered the next day, and at the point I ordered it, I still thought I'd be taking the other car (repairs to the undercarriage of an overloaded 33 year old British car cost a lot more than $15!). We had lunch here at the quite nice restaurant, and I was gratified to see that the waiter that had been there last year was absent ("Hi, my name is Norman and I'll cherish you and be your best buddy for the next two hours……)
Tasted the Chard, which I'd already bought, and had a glass of the 02 Syrah with an excellent lunch - they do an antipasto platter for two that I highly recommend!
Back up the highway to make our appointment at Blue Mountain (they do not advertise, allow their location or any information to appear in the tourist guides, nor welcome drop-ins, so when you make an appointment, you darned well better be on time!) Sadly, had to drive right by the tank farm at Vincor/Jackson Triggs without the time to stop and taste. Perhaps another time (yeah, right).
BLUE MOUNTAIN - I'd called Jane Mavety the previous day to set a time, but both she and the pair of killer hounds were notable by their absence when I showed up. The referenced dogs are really quite nice Cocker Spaniels that once savaged (to hear her tell it, anyway) my friend's young daughter, by nipping her in the leg. I can just about hear Jane saying "Please don't feed the dogs…."
The only things not sold out right now are the Brut sparkling wine, and the
2003 Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. I bought some Pinot Gris (which I much preferred to the less expensive Pinot Blanc) and some Chard for the cellar.STAG'S HOLLOW - I've followed this winery for years. An interesting mix of capably made varietals and quirky wines harking back to earlier days, like 'Tragically Vidal'. Guess they couldn't use 'Gore Vidal'….. A stand out was their Sauvignon Blanc at $17 - tons of character (though not in the idiom of grassy or cat's pee) at a fair price.
WILD GOOSE - right next door, this winery has gone from $8 mundane wine to some now rather decent current product. I bought some 2003 Riesling ($14.50), which was very good in the Alsatian style, and their 2002 Merlot ($16). This is always worth a visit just to see if they have a winner in their current stable.
BLASTED CHURCH - formerly Prpich Cellars, this winery has distinguished itself with quirky labels. I bought a couple of bottles of 2003 Riesling at $15 that turned out to be a bit so-so when we tried it (not available for tasting at the winery - and bottled in Stelvin), and some 2002 Cabernet, which I did taste and which is decent at $24
We called it a day and went to dinner with 10 people and I forget how many wines.
DAY 3 - The Middle (Naramata)
Drove by the magnificent and a bit over the top new winery location for Red Rooster to visit:
LA FRENZ - Good track record for this relatively new winery. The winemaker/owner is Jeff Martin, who used to be at Quail's Gate. They started up on their own a few years ago, sharing winery space at Poplar Grove, and opened their new winery recently. While Jeff makes some interesting reds (as he did at Quail's Gate with the Old Vines Foch), in my opinion his very best wines are whites, often made with varietals few others are playing with. They do the obligatory Chard, but also a Viognier, Semillon, a sweet Muscat wine, and Cab Sauv, Merlot, and a lower end blend of those two with some added Pinot Noir. Just this year he has started a new premium selection called Reserve at $35 that I found promising and I grabbed a few (along with some 03 Semillon, now sold out, and 02 Merlot) for the cellar.
NICHOL VINEYARDS - We next blasted up to the top of the Naramata bench to visit this small and often interesting winery to pick up some stuff I had ordered previously. They do Cab Franc, Pinot, a Syrah that looks lighter than it eventually turns out to be, and some oddball varietals like St. Laurent and Michurinetz that most people have never heard of - but great fodder for blind tastings!
KETTLE VALLEY - lots of interesting stuff made here, and for the first time the 'winery' was moved out of the large garage that also housed the tasting room, so Colleen had room to spread out. Only place I've seen a Gewurztraminer slushy for sale! They do the usual run of varietals, but also blend, and watch out, as they use names that you might mistakenly assume are for low end early drinking wines - which isn't always the case. The Rock Oven Red, for instance, is a cab-shiraz (they have a microclimate that allows them to reliably ripen shiraz, right at the winery, but they call wine made from that 'Syrah' - this is from other vineyards) blend. They also do a Malbec that boggles the mind. I honestly still don't know what to make of it - interesting wine in any case, so I bought some more to help me make up my mind whether I really like it or don't like it. They are still attempting to get a website running and many of their wines must be purchased direct as they make small (40-80 cases) amounts of some.
LANG VINEYARDS - I drop in on some wineries every few years just to see if there has been some improvement since my last visit. The rumour of a good Viognier tempted me back, but they weren't pouring it and the rest of the portfolio was unremittingly average. Maybe the new winemaker (Mirko of Calliope) will change this.
POPLAR GROVE - this has been one of my favourites for many years. When we showed up, they were just finishing the Pinot Gris harvest. For anyone that has not 'helped' at a harvest (I helped mostly by staying out of the way), it is not the romantic and hygienic process you might think. The pickers are covered in drying sticky juice and can't touch anything without adhering to it. The clumsier ones also sport the odd gash from their shears ("No, no, cut the STEMS, not your fingers"), are invariably hot and sweaty and sometimes bloodied. Not much romance there.
Take the cover off one of the primary fermenters (large chest-high square plastic tubs) to smell the must, and you'll almost be bowled over by the swarm of fruit flies that rise out of them. As for the unpressed juice, that has gone through the destemmer and is allowed to sit for a bit, before it is taken to the press, there is a veritable swarm of wasps buzzing around it, and they do sting (What was that you said, Ian - sounded like 'futz'….). And if you think that each and every wasp is picked out of the bladder press by hand…….but perhaps the larger swarms add a certain pettilance on the tongue to some of the whites?
When we left, after a nice lunch on their new deck, they were getting ready to test the sugars in the merlot grapes, and Ian said that the rain hadn't fattened and diluted the grapes as much as people had thought. Poplar are pretty much sold out, although I did pick up some 2003 Reserve Chard, and some
2001 Reserve which wasn't to be released until this weekend. I was impressed by the new winery building - first class all the way, and I'm sure that Ian will add his own design features as he used to be a welder and you can see tanks and machinery that he built from scratch. Maybe I can talk him into coming down to the 'big city' to do a dinner with his wines some time.And that was what we did on our long weekend.