Travels au vin, part III (the conclusion)
Okay! Here we go... the conclusion:
So now, the last 7 wineries…
Right up the street from Eau Vivre is the venerable Crowsnest Winery. One of the starting planters of white wine grapes in the area, they have branched out, becoming a bakery, restaurant, and even a bed and breakfast in the area. The woman who sold me wine, who I assume is a proprietress, and her husband are from Germany, from the Leipzig area. Given the standard German Rieslings I’m familiar with, this all indicated to me that I should be expecting whites in that kind of style - often the sweeter, milder, less acidic variety of white than those usually produced in BC, the USA, or France. Indeed, they even went further than that, sometimes even providing a spiced white in the style of a gluhwein or perhaps schnapps, but instead seasoned with chai spices.
Their whites were all pleasant, but in particular their chardonnays were impressive. As noted before, chardonnay usually runs higher in acidity than most whites. As compared to reds I’m not sure, but reds also have a tannin structure which obscures these kinds of tastes because the bitterness causes the tongue to react on its own. Their chardonnays were wonderful - crisp aromas of apple and even gewürztraminer stone fruits like lychees or peaches - and in that gewurz style, the acidity was nicely balanced at the end so as to make sure the sweetness came out to balance as an aftertaste. It was perfect with my breakfast that morning, which was a spicy salami and roasted vegetable sandwich that I had packed along with me from La Ghianda in Vancouver the day before. The chai white was interesting - with the spices of cloves, cinnamon, and other elements commonly found in tea masala - but I found the idea was more appealing as an idea than in execution, because the white just wasn’t sweet enough to match well. Then again, I didn’t have it hot, which may have been the only way to properly appreciate it. Other wines of note there were their pinot noir (smooth, but in my opinion a touch too smooth, almost losing any kind of sensations when drunk for some time) and the rosé. Information at http://www.crowsnestvineyards.com/
Next after Crowsnest was Herder, which Jeri told me I had to go to if only to appreciate the house. And wow, what a house it was - beautiful and expansive, it overlooked the valley to the south. A husband-wife team, their experience included having done wine studies at UC Fresno, then working in a Paso Robles winery before eventually moving north to strike it out on their own. They took a bet that red wines grown in the California style could make it in the Similkameen, and were right. An excellent impromptu tour of the preparation facilities also ensued, since everything was in the basement. Pressing and picking season were just starting, with their large fermenters prepared. Reds done with a hot fermentation, then cold, whilst whites were mostly cold all the way through, temperature and climate controlled not just by air but with press-throughs of cold and hot glycol for each tank specifically.
Making small talk whilst having a pile of reds to sample (and enjoying the sun through the windows - seriously, the tasting room has a 16 foot ceiling and the architecture is a combination of Spanish with California, so think red clay brick look with American modernity), the wines were superb here all the way through. Merlots were strong-backed and needed some time to unlock, but I could see that they would become supple in a few years, and which complimented the aforementioned breakfast sandwich I was still eating. A syrah which was much thicker than a standard wine, it wasn’t exactly syrup when it came out but it certainly was more viscous, with rich and spicy aromas of dark fruit, cinnamon and pepper coming out, and the flavour being a rich, concentrated, thick experience, almost in the Australian style.. A Cab franc so crisp and spicy that they almost bordered on being acidic - which I thought a good thing. And finally, I got to have a three year vertical of their own blend Josephine, which is a combination of their cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot in varying amounts from year to year (though merlot is always the dominant). As such, the flavors of each year vary slightly, emphasizing different aspects of the wine. However, the sophistication runs consistent from all years - a big, bold nose of blackberries, a spiciness and chocolate accent that reminds me almost of graphite, and within that all, a sophisticated, light tannic taste that bespoke of the French oak barrels in which it is stored. They also had whites, but those were pretty inconsequential after a place like Crowsfoot. Webpage can be found at http://www.herder.ca/
Further down the road I then came to Cerelia, which had just closed before I could get to it yesterday. Cerelia looked like one of those residential developments in the middle of nowhere - i.e. a big house that looks no more than 5 years old, surrounded by a bunch of prairie field and a road to and from it, but nothing else. The proprietress greeted me with her large dog and young children, and then took me to her tasting facilities, which were also her storage ones. I can’t really say that I remember too much, except that their meritage blend of merlot, cab sauv and cab franc, which was quite tasty - it was quite light, I remember that, and such an easy sipper that it would make a perfect palate cleanser at any point before, during or after a meal. Perhaps it has to do with the bigger concentration of cab sauv in the wine - a 60-35-5 breakdown with merlot being the dominant. When I open up a bottle from there, I’ll have to do another review. I suspect that by then, I was suffering from some palate fatigue. Link to the winery at http://www.cerelia.ca/
After Cerelia came Orofino. Orofino already had the distinction of making perhaps my favorite eiswein period, their 2004 pinot noir. A tasting salon in the style of Herder (but far less opulent), they were also closed just as I got there at five o’clock the last night, though the proprietress did apologize because they were just rushing out to meet company that night. As it was, Orofino’s wines are along the southern slope of the mountains that line the valley, meaning they get a stronger exposure to the sun with a slightly dustier soil, which reflects in their varietals. Their chardonnay, for example, has a bit darker of a yellow tint than most, with more of an acid bite, which would suit certain seafoods well but just had too much of a biting, crisp apple aroma in addition to the sour wine to suit my tastes. Gewurztraminer was a bit bland, because the hotter climate negated a lot of those beautifully soft floral notes I found in other Okanagan wineries. The syrah, though, was a heady tour de force, with a warm, toasty aroma with black cherries, cinnamon and pepper, and some other promising aromatics that I couldn’t really identify (leather, perhaps?). Upon tasting, it was still closed off and would take a few years to mature, but had an underlying warmth and structure that I’m sure will go well with steak or game meats. I did end up getting some of their cabernet sauvignon, mostly because I hadn’t gotten any up to this point and because I was fairly confident their cabernet would outshine the merlot given the climate. When I get the opportunity, I’ll have to open one of my bottles again. Go to http://www.orofinovineyards.com/ to get more information.
Following Orofino was Seven Stones. An unassuming winery by the south side of the Crowsnest, it had a humble cottage feel, which was magnified by the well-maintained fallow grassland to the south, which must have been grazing grounds for sheep and cattle (else someone’s really trying to develop a golf course there, which wouldn’t be such a bad idea, either). Walking in, the store had a country charm, with a lot of unassuming decorations and a semi-polished look to the wood. The proprietors spoke with a French accent, and not of Quebec but of France - we had some fun in a back-and-forth dialogue, where they were stunned that someone fluent in French could come from Saskatchewan and on top of it all, was Asian.
Wines at Seven Stones were done in the very French style, which means very subtle flavors, a lot of French oak, and honing of the tannins such that a complex structure was made of them alone in order to act as both the bridge and the vessel upon which the wine was served. Making mention of their Canadian Wine Awards plaques, they showed them off, though it’s hard to when somehow the best in show plaque for the most competitive wine category in Canada looks like a cheap ripoff of a participation plaque one gets for competing in ten-pin bowling as a child. Heck, the Scrabble trophy I came up with for the BC Championships looks better, even. As it is, the critics were very much on their mark - the merlot here outshone Orofino’s (and to a large extent, all other wineries) for its very woody aroma with a heightened accent of berries on the nose, almost as if you were smelling a fresh-cut wooden case filled with summer fruit pickings during the year in France, and without the spice notes. This kind of merlot was the type to make me seriously stop and re-examine my prejudices against the grape, because upon tasting, even though the grape is tannic, Seven Stones’ wine was crafted such that along with the tannins was an inherent bone dry taste which would still the tongue’s complaints of bitterness, instead allowing slight aftertastes of licorice and anise - spices that have an aroma, yes, but not ones that are piquant to the point of awakening the senses. However, what really stood out at Seven Stones to me was their Legend, which was their form of Bordeaux blend. Termed one of BC’s four iconic wines by John Schreiner, the combination of 48% cab sauv, 32% merlot, 12% petit verdot and 8% cab franc yielded a very still taste, though one that refused to unlock a lot of its secrets on the tongue. The nose, though, was quite complex, including berries, spices, wood, smoke, and even a bit of an awakening sensation of junipers on the tongue. This wine is very complex, very tannic, and a very good value buy if one compares the price to Oculus, which, while nice, I don’t think is as great as Schreiner makes it out to be. Link at http://www.sevenstones.ca/
After Seven Stones came Forbidden Fruit, perhaps my favorite of the stops. A decent drive out of the way, Forbidden Fruit is a large orchard of all organic fruits that the same farm then uses to produce a variety of fruit wines. Combinations involving all sorts of Similkameen-grown fruits are used, and they even have some from grapes, though those didn’t make most of my focus. A whimsical tasting room, it also had the distinction of being the most generous, offering spiced cheese, chocolate brownies, brie, and freshly baked baguettes in the room, all available without even having to pay (though there is a donation box). The proprietors are a very nice German couple that even have buckets of various fruits - I even ended up buying a nice box of plums as well as a basket of crisp, but juicy Asian pears, which makes them worlds above what I tend to find at T&T.
So what kinds of wines did Forbidden Fruit have to offer? Well, there were the aperitif and light sippers for appetizers - those included an apple, an Asian pear, and a cherry done in rose-style. Of them, they all had vivid fruit aromas and on the aftertaste, did not have the exact complexities of the reds or whites I’d been having but had very clean, crisp tastes with a slight hint of sweetness, something which would endear these wines to the Asian market. I personally fell in love with the Asian pear wine, myself.
These were then followed up with their wines that were around the level of late harvests - a strawberry and a peach wine. While the strawberry was nice, the peach one was very vividly peaches and when chilled slightly tasted absolutely amazing - there was the full taste of peaches but none of the syrupiness one associates with canned peaches, nor was there any roughness, so they really did peel the peaches well, which is a challenge if the peaches were ripe when peeled. I could see myself having a glass of this while sitting in my recliner on a cold January night, the gas fireplace going and some Starcraft 2 in the background (maybe I’m the wino nerd). It truly is a complex wine - very light and unsuspecting on the nose, a hedonistic pleasure that even has a touch of slight acid (like ripe peaches do) to round off the taste, and it runs very long on the tongue without much effort, it probably is my single most favorite wine of the trip.
To conclude came the dessert wines, which they served in chocolate cups! Black plum mistelle (a port-style fortification) had a deep, dark flavor to it, something which would very much accent a chocolate cake, toffee pudding, or anything with a bit of a sticky caramel base along with an overlying sweetness. An apricot mistelle was extremely refined, a touch heady, but overall a wonderful, sweet experience that did not overpower the palate - something very much akin to Optima from Quail’s Gate, only more fruit-specific with an aroma underscoring this preparation. Their concluding sweet cherry wine was also beautiful, though I found it a touch too strong for my tastes. In the end, I ended up falling in love so much with the Asian pears and the peaches that they pretty much dominated my purchases. To learn more about this winery, visit their page at http://www.forbiddenfruitwines.com/
Finally, before I had to start the drive back to Vancouver to make it to my folks for dinner, I decided to make the last part of the trek to Osoyoos to get gas and make a pilgrimage to one of Canada’s hottest wineries, the Nk’Mip winery operated by the eponymous First Nations band. I had expected a humble winery in town, with maybe a bit of a bit of a cultural experience thrown in. What I didn’t expect was the hotel, spa, golf course, and apartment complexes in construction that they advertised hotel rides to purvey. This was foreshadowing that I probably wouldn’t have the same kind of intimate experience as before, and unfortunately life is not like a Jeffrey Archer mystery novel - there’s no ridiculous plot twist right at the end to destroy all expectations.
Nk’Mip has been recognized as one of the top five wineries in Canada and it shows. All of their wines are well-cultivated, with the whites all reflecting light fruit notes of citrus and melons, and their reds all having varying depths of berry fruits, some even getting to the jammy sweetness that is reminiscent of California cabs or French syrah. Of my tasting, their pinot gris and pinot blanc are probably their better whites - light on acid, aroma of apples and pears mixed with a slight hint of lemon zest and some florals, they are fine to sip on their own or would go well with poultry or light seafood. Having bought my quota of whites by now, I ended up being more attracted to their malbec (dark berries but not burnt like a cab franc - a heady feeling, almost like having an Aussie shiraz but without the large alcohol hit to go with it), cabernet sauvignon (their standard winner - well-balanced with a small set of spices on the nose including pepper and cinnamon, with a perfect tannin complement that makes it easy to drink now but will reward the patient after a few years) and finally, their Merri’y’m, which is their Bordeaux blend, and on a par with Oculus or Osoyoos Larose’s La Grand Vin.
Where I didn’t enjoy my visit was how the whole operation is treated. After six family-style wineries, and all being sophisticated enough to suit my tastes, going to a large commercial atmosphere reminiscent of Summerhill was not my cup of tea. Having professional tasters that were brusque, just there to pour for you and not to discuss anything in the wines, was disconcerting. In fact, I had to walk a trio of women who were visiting the winery through the various reds in particular, because the sellers really didn’t care to talk to any of us. In addition, when I was thinking on Merri’y’m, I had a feeling I could find the bottle at the Okanagan Valley winery store that’s a few streets up from me, but the seller claimed there were none in Vancouver as they had just put in an order. Having her impatient expression, assumption of knowing the wine stores in Vancouver and her sales pressure tactic, I was not enamored, particularly when I went to my favorite store later to discover, lo and behold, the same wine available. Thus, the wines are fantastic from Nk’Mip, but in terms of having a good winery experience, I would not recommend this for the beginner (or rather, for anyone who wants a conversational experience). However, if you look around http://www.nkmipcellars.com/ , I'm sure that at the worst you can probably find instructions on how to reserve a tee time or set up an open house examination.
Overall, I enjoyed my trip out to Similkameen. On a wine experience, I’d say the sophistication of the wineries is lesser than those in the Okanagan, but the people on average are far nicer. Nk’Mip is probably like what I would’ve experienced at Mission Hill had I decided to go there, so that would cancel out, but Kelowna is what attracts customers year-round - places like Osoyoos tend not to attract so many because it’s another 2 hours drive out, but the wineries in the vicinity are, in my opinion, definitely worth the effort to make a trip out to.
So that concludes my trip to the Okanagan! In a few weeks, hopefully I'll have some good information from Napa when I go out to California. If people are interested in reading some of my wine reviews, I'd be happy to post some up, but they're probably lacking in organization. Oh, and when my friend Tiffany gets pictures back, I can do a review of C Restaurant as well!
Anyway, let me know what you'd like to see next from me, if anything. Take care!