Welcome back! And thank you
for joining me on the second part of our South Okanagan wine adventure. In my previous post, I went into some detail
of the wineries we visited the first morning of our trip on the Naramata
bench. This post will pick up right
after we departed from Naramata and journeyed southward toward Osoyoos. It begins at what ended up being perhaps our favorite
winery of the trip:
Painted Rock Estate Winery
After departing the Naramata bench, we headed south along the
eastern bank of Skaha Lake to Painted Rock Estate Winery. If I were to rate all
of the wineries we visited on the basis of two criteria, overall wine quality
and pictures worthy of a post card, Painted Rock would get the top overall
score. Please note you were warned in advance of my gushing over this
winery.
Painted Rock sits up on a cliff overlooking Skaha Lake on 60 acres
of land. Due to the rugged terrain, only 25 acres of the property is
under vine. Standing in the newly constructed open air tasting room, you
look out over the vineyards and into Skaha Lake. The view of the
vineyards, resembles an infinity edge pool; gazing out toward the lake, the
neat rows of lush grape vines appear to flow directly into blue water in the background.
To the south of the vineyards sits a huge rock face that contrasts
beautifully with the lush vines and sapphire waters below. It's striking in its
beauty. That there were preparations under way for a wedding to be held on site
the day following our visit is no mystery.
The new tasting room, designed by local Penticton architect Robert
Mackenzie, is the perfect setting to enjoy both the scenery and their fantastic
lineup of wines (though I do wish I’d made it by for a tasting in the old,
small yellow shack on the property that was the home of the winery’s first
tasting room). One of my favorite elements of the current tasting room,
the white table top bar that actually lights up, though only slightly, allows
you to take in the true color of the wine before you get down to drinking.
The wines are rich and expressive of both vintage and vineyard.
Sitting up on the hill, these vines catch a lot of rays, and it shows
through in the richness of the wines. The 2014 Syrah smells like fresh
cracked pepper but tastes ripe and structured. The flagship "Red
Icon," another Bordeaux style blend, had only been in bottle for 2 weeks
upon our tasting but was drinking as if it had been in bottle for a year.
Again, full bodied, dark fruit and great structure and tannins to these
age-worthy wines. On the merits of this
tasting, we added this to our list of wine clubs we joined on this trip.
Side note on Cab Franc - this is yet another winery that intends
to make a single varietal Cab Franc in their next release based solely on the
unexpected quality of the fruit being produced on site. Our gracious host
for the afternoon mentioned that the past two vintages, a certain block of Cab
Franc vines were producing exceptional grapes, inspiring their winemaker to
both increase its quantity in the blends and to go out on a limb and make a
single varietal (released only to wine club members).
Their distribution is small, and by the sounds of it intentionally
so. Proprietor John Skinner’s previous life was in finance and he has
parlayed his contacts in the Chinese finance industry into sales leads for a portion
of his annual production. With anywhere from 20-50% of their sub 10,000 case annual
production sold abroad prior to the vintage being released, these wines can be
tough to find. If you’re fortunate enough to find them, I can't recommend them
highly enough.
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery
Our final true tasting of our first the day of the trip was at
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery just north of Osoyoos Lake. This also
happened to be our lodging for the weekend. Burrowing Owl holds some of
my highest praise and is the source of some of my biggest head scratches
through the weekend. As we spent a lot of time here, I had ample time to
overanalyze this place.
The Winery and the Wines - We had as much experience with
Burrowing Owl going into this trip as we had with any BC winery. With
over 160 planted acres on 3 vineyard sights, their production is massive and
their distribution wide. It is astonishing they've been able to maintain
the quality and consistency they have in their offerings. We tried their
2012 Cabernet Sauvignon (fully reviewed in my prior post) and fully anticipated this being one of our favorites based on
our prior experiences. However, we found that there were 2 wines we
appreciated even more. The 2013 Athene was on release as well. This
is a 50/50 Cab Sav and Syrah "cofermented" wine. Cofermentation
was a new one on me and involves crushing and fermenting the wines pre-blended
(as opposed to crushing and fermenting each varietal individually and blending
at a later date). It's a risky proposition but the results were
fantastic. It was darker, richer and more vibrant than the 100% varietal
Cab Sav. The other wine we thoroughly enjoyed (and was our favorite
overall from this winery) was the 2012 Meritage. Once I discovered that
Cab Franc was the dominant varietal in this blend at 43%, it was no mystery why
we loved it so much.
The winery experience itself was one that was a bit of a head
scratcher. I'll have to say that the multiple different attendants we
worked with both to purchase wine and complete our tastings were some of the
least knowledgeable we encountered on our trip. There were no prior
releases on site, wine clubs to join, or any notable effort at marketing to the
general public. My questions about annual production and where we could
find prior vintages went frustratingly unanswered. Where others wineries
were happy to share notes on their wine making philosophy, vineyard specifics
and history, the only nugget we got from our hosts at the winery was a bit of
an awkward tale about removing burrowing owls from the vineyard site during
planting (they are deemed to be pests in the vineyard apparently) and
relocating them to a bird sanctuary. In what I have to assume is a
rationalization of their guilt, they winery was named after the eradicated
pests. It appears to me that the commercial success of this winery must
primarily be generated through distribution and commercial accounts. It
definitely helps that the product quality is on par with the best in their
industry.
The Guest Houses - Our experience with the guest house, in
contrast to my frustration with the wine tasting experience, was stellar.
The suites were beautiful and the service was top notch. Our hosts
greeted us, walked us to our rooms, detailing the onsite amenities and features
of the suite. In all of our travels, there have been few experiences that
have exceeded this one in both service and setting. Waking up to the site
of acres of lush vineyards fading into the valley and ultimately out to Osoyoos
Lake off in the distance, and spending an afternoon in the onsite swimming pool
and patio is the essence of why we wanted to take this vacation. The fact that there was a hot breakfast served to us every morning, complete with a new egg dish (think benedicts and frittatas) and a daily hot pastry, only enhanced an already incredible experience. Staying
at a winery, and one in as beautiful a setting as this one, is truly a unique
experience and one you shouldn't go your life without experiencing.
The Sonora Room Restaurant - Breaking with the sequence or our
trip, we did enjoy what was the single finest meal of our trip at The Sonora
Room restaurant on site at Burrowing Owl winery. If you are looking for a
unique wine experience or library wines from Burrowing Owl, this is the place
for you. On this evening, they had vertical tastings of their 2007-2010
vintages of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The wine list had multiple
vintages of all of their most popular wines so you could create any experience
for yourself that you wanted. The menu itself was stellar.
For our meal, we opted for the vertical tasting of Pinot Noir.
It was my first real experience with a true vertical tasting and I will
say the 2007 vintage stood out for me. Smooth, mellow and earthy.
It was a perfect paring for my meal to follow. 2007 was closely
trailed by 2009 for similar qualities that will ultimately shine through after
another couple years rest. The 2008 and 2010 vintages were more fruit
forward and more acidic than the '07 and '09 vintages and really resembled one
another with the 2010 again only needing a couple years to catch up to its
older counterpart.
For starters we enjoyed a silky smooth mushroom veloute. Our
mains were an oven roasted Cornish hen with a pan sauce (these were flavours
that take time to build - deep, dark and rich) and a poached arctic char (light,
delicate and cooked to perfection). We followed up the meal with a 3 way
tasting of chocolate (sorbet, soufflé cake, and "cold hot chocolate” - all
decadent in their own right with the cake stealing the show) and pared it with
Burrowing Owl's "Coruga" port style wine. All in all, this was
a fantastic wine and dining experience and one that we'll remember for years to
come. Compliments to a truly talented chef for executing a near perfect
meal.
Nk' Mip Cellars
As our first winery of the second day of our trip, Nk' Mip
(pronounced INK MEEP) is a winery I had no expectations for. As the first
winery in North America to be wholly owned and operated by an Aboriginal tribe,
there is no precedent from which to draw expectations. We'd enjoyed one
of their Pinot Noirs in the past but hadn't done much research into the winery
itself. Despite my lack of expectation, I'll have to say, this place
exceeded whatever expectations I could have set for myself. The winery
itself is a relatively small part of a much larger complex that sits amongst
vineyards that expand down near the shores of Osoyoos Lake. The broader
complex includes a cultural center dedicated to the history and culture of the
Osoyoos Indian Band, a four-star resort, 9-hole golf course, and conspicuously
does not include a casino (a welcome omission in my opinion).
Set in the desert, the pueblo style architecture and desert
landscape of the complex play to its surroundings . The tasting room
itself has been newly renovated and has a modern appeal. We showed up
right at opening. A half hour later, we had our first tasting. A
bit disorganized on the start but we'll chalk it up to the staff their product
a bit too much the night before. What struck me about this winery is
that, while some of their peers in Osoyoos are dedicating their land to warm
weather varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, Nk' Mip predominantly
produces and excels in the cooler weather red varietals like Merlot and Pinot
Noir. Their varietal Cab Sav and Meritage blends were their least
successful of the tasting. The Merlot was fruity with lots of raspberry
on the nose and palate. The star of the show however was a Riesling ice
wine. It had a complex nose of lilies and apricots and did not overwhelm
with its sweetness. A fine example of an ice wine, and a big step above
some of its more famous producers in Ontario. Overall, I wouldn't say
this winery produced the big, complex wines we'd tasted and enjoyed so much
throughout our prior day’s tastings, but it is definitely worth the visit to
see the facilities, walk through the vineyards, and experience some of the
cultural elements they offer up as part of your experience.
La Stella Winery
La Stella Winery is the Italian style sister winery of the French
themed La Vieux Pin Winery (which we did not make it to on this trip).
The setting and architecture do inspire images of Tuscany with an Italian
style villa built atop a steep vine covered hill that runs down to the shore of
Osyoos Lake. Our tasting this day was on the winery balcony overlooking
the beautiful lakefront vineyards. As we'd previously tried and thoroughly
enjoyed the 2013 Fortissimo, this one was a must hit on our list of wineries to
visit on our trip. I am sad to say, our enjoyment of their offerings fell
far short of our lofty expectations.
Our host was gracious and knowledgeable. She made a strong
effort at selling these wines to us on the basis of their merits. The
vineyards are managed organically though not technically certified as such.
The vines are allowed to grow each season without leaf thinning and
apparently up to 50% of the fruit is dropped prior to harvest. Typically
this is to select the best quality fruit on the vine and focus the vines'
efforts on ripening and pumping all of their energy into fewer fruit clusters.
In the wine making process, there are no additions of sulfites (which is
great for those with sulfite sensitivities) and the fruit is triple sorted to
select the best clusters and berries for each specific use. All of this
serves to set some pretty lofty expectations for the wine. Unfortunately,
at least for the 2014 vintage, the added effort in the vinification did not
translate to the glass.
We were able to sample 2 of their white wines, their rose (which
we thought was their best effort) and 3 of their most prestigious reds.
While at home and drinking their 2013 vintage Fortissimo, a Merlot
dominant red blend with the intriguing addition of the Italian Sangiovese
grape, we found the wine fruit forward, structured, and complex with a smooth
mouth feel. The 2014 version unfortunately did not stack up. We found
this wine thin, acidic, and tannic. This unfortunately was true for their
flagship Maestoso (100% Merlot) and premium blend "La Sophia" wines as
well, which price at $90 and $80 per bottle respectively at the winery (by far
the highest price tags we found on our trip). In both cases, the acid and
tannins overwhelmed the fruit character of the wine and pulled them
consistently out of balance in our estimation. I've questioned my
evaluation of these wines thoroughly now and I become more confident every
time. These wines had everything going for them, a super technical
vineyard management system (which I'm a huge sucker for), a beautiful setting,
the psychological advantage of high price tags, and a prior experience with
their wines that was positive enough to make this a must stop location on our
trip. Yet "the proof is in the glass" rang true here and I
unfortunately cannot recommend these wines, and certainly not at the prices they’re
being offered (though I would even hesitate at prices more in line with their
neighboring competitors).
La Stella rounded out the part of the trip in which I had to spit
(as I was driving, I didn’t think it safe to drink the wines at all of these
wineries – to my surprise, spitting was not as unpleasant as I would have
imagined.) While it was a bit of a disappointment
overall, it was not the end of our trip.
We had several great wineries to come on our fully guided wine tour that
will be the focus of the final part of this series. Hope you’re enjoying it!
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