In the photos: Above: the BCDB bottle shop within the consumer tasting room. Below Left to Right: winemaker Howard Soon with just some of his 2008 awards; Dirty Laundry wine bottles with clothes pegs; Robin's Ridge Pinot Noir; and the gift box for Ex Nihilo's Sympathy for the Devil Icewine.
CONSUMER TASTING EVENT AT THE 2008 OKANAGAN FALL WINE FESTIVAL YIELDS PLEASURES, DISAPPOINTMENTS AND A FEW SURPRISES.
We dropped into the main consumer wine tasting of the
2008 Okanagan Fall Wine Festival, and we have to say, that after attending many such festivals in our time, this one may have been the most enjoyable and comfortable. The venue at the
Penticton Convention Centre was brightly lit and attractive with well designed traffic flow lines and a limitation on ticket sales which resulted in a tasting experience that felt relaxing and social, as opposed to the headache inducing, elbow-jostle that these events can sometimes descend into. Granted, we were there on the more industry-attended Friday night, as opposed to the Saturday tasting which was expected to attract a largely consumer crowd, but throughout the night it was nice to be able to speak to nearly all the winemakers or winery reps at their booths without feeling like we were blocking anyone behind us from getting to the pours.
As with most wine tastings, the evening produced a mix of satisfied expectation, disappointments and a few surprises. Some items noted:
* Perhaps the most popular winemaker in the Okanagan (and deservedly so),
Howard Soon was at the
Sandhill booth, surrounded by so many award plaques for his wines -- many of them for small lot vineyards -- that he looked as though he could plate a banquet dinner service with them. Festival Judges had given a gold medal thumbs up for Sandhill’s
2006 Small Lots Syrah Phantom Creek Vineyard, and
2006 Cabernet Franc.
* We spotted wine scribe
John Schreiner criss-crossing the room with notebook in hand, in an ongoing valiant attempt to keep up with the boom of new wineries to the local scene, all of which must be accounted for in his next book on the BC wine industry. John figures that between Vernon and Keremeos there are at least 40 new properties that are in some pre-stage of wine production, with about 20 of those expected to produce their first vintage in 2009 --bringing the grand total of Okanagan wineries up around the 180 mark. Many of the 2008 crop of new wineries were present at the tasting offering some under the rader wines to be discovered, including one we thought showed good possibilities - a
Robin Ridge 2006 Pinot Noir and
Merlot.
*
Crystal Froese was in attendance to represent the “New Winery of the Year”,
Dunham & Froese Estate Winery . Said an ecstatic Crystal: “I was sitting [at the awards ceremony] and listening to the announcer explain the category, and I looked around the full room to see which of the new wineries won. Then they announced Dunham & Froese!! "It is funny, my husband
Kirby has been in the industry for almost 20 years and even though our own winery is just starting out it just didn’t occur to me that it would be us [who would be] chosen!" Congratulation to the Froeses and their partners
Gene and
Shelly Covert for winning that prestigious category.
*
Road 13 Vineyards (formerly Golden Mile Cellars) presided over by the loose-cannon-on-deck charms of owner
Mick Luckhurst, were well represented with a large booth in the centre of the room. All the better to show off the wide variety of wines produced by talented winemaker
Michael Bartier (who is doing interesting work blending Chardonney from grapes produced from vineyard lots specifically identified as to terroir/soil characteristics). The winery was also sporting its smart new label design and branding. Kudos to wine marketer
Chris Coletta and company for their admirable work on that transformation. Road 13 won gold for their
2006 Merlot,
2006 5th Element Red and
2007 Old Vines Chenin Blanc. * Kudos also to Chef
Ned Bell who was taking a few hours off from his hot
Cabana Bar and Grille restaurant in Kelowna to check out the wines. Ned had just received the green light from the
FarmFolk/CityFolk people to start organizing a “
Feast of Fields Okanagan” for 2009. He says he has few misconceptions about the tremendous amount of work involved but that he is extremely excited to get started on the new project. Well, as the old saying goes, if you want something done, assign it to a busy person. Bell will be getting plans underway as early as next week during the next meeting of the
Okanagan Chefs Association, which will take place at Cabana.
* Love or loathe their winery name, we thought
Dirty Laundry Winery's idea to hang little wooden clothes pegs around the neck of their wine bottles was a clever bit of fun.
* Wine writer, grower, educator and future Master of Wine
Rhys Pender and wife
Alishan were present to promote their wine education company
WinePlus+. Pender says that his successful start up is largely being filled by industry staff eager to improve or deepen their wine knowledge and tasting skills, but that many people who are simply wine lovers are enrolling in the multi-level program as well. To prove his point that almost everyone could do with a little skill sharpening he was offering tastings from a covered bottle that almost no one could identify, experts included. The red wine that looked like a Pinot Noir, had the body of a Merlot and a fair amount of juicy fruit and spice, although not nearly enough to be a Syrah turned out to be an Okanagan Gamay.
*
Robin Openshaw at the
Hester Creek Vineyards booth reported that work on Hester Creek's massive new winery building, currently being carved right into the Golden Mile hillside at the end of Road 8, was progressing well and in the whalebone stage of production. (More on this later.) Hester Creek was the proud winner of a gold medal for their
2007 Pinot Gris.
* And in the exotic category,
Jeff Harder of
Ex Nihilo Winery (Latin for “out of nothing”) displayed his $42
2005 Merlot, as well as his
Sympathy for the Devil Icewine -- the exclusive licensing of the Rolling Stones trademark obtained via his personal friendship with rocker
Mick Jagger. It’s a story that has been splashed across the front page of the
Province but given low key coverage in the more serious wine press. Given its novelty aspect, that may not be surprising, but as it always is, the back up is in the bottle. It will be interesting to see if the public decides the wine is “something” or not.
As you may know, the first consumer tasting takes place right after the Friday luncheon awards ceremony. The list of winners is one of considerable length: 38 Gold medals, 119 Silver medals and 124 Bronze. Including the top three awards: Best White:
2007 Lang Vineyards Riesling Farm Reserve; Best Red:
Sandhill Wines Small Lots Syrah Phantom Creek Vineyard; and Best New Winery:
Dunham & Froese Estate Winery. Perhaps the judging team deserves an award of their own for the amount of work that must have been applied to the decision making process.
You may download a PDF of the complete list of 2008 award winners from
this link on the Okanagan Wine Festivals website.
