Okanagan Wineries

We went up to the Okanagan wine dis­trict for the Canada Day week­end this year, and I think it’s about time I wrote down some of my impres­sions of the vine­yards and the wine. We took my friend Sally (she of G&T fame who knows a lot about wine), and had a great time. Tim mostly enter­tained the off­spring while Sally and I tasted the wine, which seemed like a good divi­sion of labour to all of us. I typ­ic­ally like wines with body and heft, such as shiraz, much of the caber­net fam­ily, and rieslings; my impres­sions of oth­er wines depend on what they evoke (sit­ting on the deck in sum­mer, or some food pair­ing). So here are some notes about the winer­ies and the wines, none of them are any­thing sci­entif­ic or indeed any­thing oth­er than my impres­sion of that day!

Hawthorne Moun­tain Vineyards

Great view, but a very com­mer­cial vine­yard with lots of schnick-schnack to buy. I’d bought some caber­net franc here in 1995–6 which was great after a few years cel­lar­ing, but the 2003 Caber­net Franc they had on offer this year was too light and did­n’t give me any con­fid­ence it would devel­op the way I like. The pinot gris was good so I got some of that. The gewürztram­iner was ok though we’d had bet­ter at oth­er winer­ies, so that did­n’t go home with us, and although I thought the See-ya-later pinot noir could devel­op, I did­n’t feel like tak­ing the risk.

Wild Goose Vine­yards & Winery

Very friendly people, good whites (some have won prizes) though not what I’d call earth-shat­ter­ingly great. I bought a mixed case of whites, includ­ing the 2004 Riesling, 2003 Stony Slope Riesling, and the 2004 Gewürztraminer.

Stag’s Hol­low Winery

Unfriendly serv­er but a good vid­al (2004 Tra­gic­ally Vid­al), which is an unusu­al grape, and the 2002 Renais­sance Mer­lot struck me as worth tak­ing home, so I bought a couple of bottles for the cel­lar. It should be really good in a couple of years.

Hainle Vine­yards Estate Winery

Nice people, organ­ic wines; they’ve learned a lot about mak­ing organ­ic wines pal­at­able since I last vis­ited in 1996 or so. Good bis­tro for lunch out­side on the deck as well. The 2002 Hainle Chardon­nay, 2002 Hainle Pinot Blanc, 2002 Deep Creek Pinot Meuni­er (nice rich taste, like the Hawthorne Moun­tain one from 1995 or so), and 2003 Deep Creek Z2 were all good, the 2003 Hainle Syrah ok. Bought a mixed bunch to cel­lar, mostly the Pinot Meuni­er and Chardon­nay as they’re in short sup­ply and I figured I prob­ably could­n’t find them in Vancouver. 

Arrowleaf

New winery and quite far north. Friendly people. Bought a couple of bottles of 2002 Zei­gelt for the cel­lar, and some 2004 Bac­chus (nice light grape) and 2004 Gewürztram­iner for drinking. 

St Hubertus Estate Winery

Much of the winery was des­troyed in the big fire of 2003, but they’ve rebuilt with a big­ger tast­ing room. The rub­ber stamps are now in the tast­ing room rather than in a sep­ar­ate build­ing; they add a touch of eclecticism to the place. Decent selec­tion of wines. We picked the 2004 Dry Riesling to take home (with Tim warn­ing by this stage that we did­n’t have much room left in the car!)

Raven Ridge Cidery

Not quite a winery, this one, but a cidery con­nec­ted to an orch­ard with a good res­taur­ant. I picked up their last two bottles of Spark­ling Cider as well as a bottle of Brae­burn iced cider (like ice wine, but tastes of apples), just for a change. 

Tour­ing Okanagan winer­ies is an excel­lent exper­i­ence, and hav­ing the kid around meant we also tried out some of the oth­er tour­ist things rather than just sit­ting in the car. So although we did­n’t see as many winer­ies as the 1996 trip, we still filled the car and have wine enough to last us for quite a while!