So I must apologize for the long gap between this and my last
post. As many of you reading this may
know, in that span of time I got married, and I can say with complete honesty
and sincerity that it was the best day of my life. As my wife has stated several times since,
there’s not a single detail about the day that she’d change (and nor would I for
that matter) so I think that pretty well sums up the experience in a sentence.
The following is the 3rd and final post about our
experience touring the British Columbia’s Okanagan wine country. There are some real gems to follow so I hope
you enjoy the conclusion of this brief series.
We start this adventure with Desert Hills Winery:
Desert Hills Estate Winery
After being picked up at our home base at Burrowing Owl, Desert
Hills Estate Hills Winery was the first stop on our HOHO wine tour with OK
Wine Shuttle.
A minor diversion here, the HOHO wine tour is a fun, relatively
inexpensive way to see a lot of wineries in a short period of time. We
"only" hit 5 but that's because we were adamant that we wanted to go
to Black Hills Winery at the end of our day and it eats up an hour and a half.
Our driver was knowledgeable and able to cater the experience to several
differing interests and based on your individual preferences. There were 6
small groups of us on a 15 passenger van and somehow we all still got to go to
the wineries that we wanted, and caught a few on the recommendation of our
driver that we otherwise might not have experienced. To this day I'm not
100% sure how it all works but it does and it was a lot of fun.
Desert Hills was a winery that we'd had prior experience with and
thoroughly enjoyed their 2014 Gamay Noir so we were excited to be able to catch
it as part of this tour. This is a relatively small tasting room so the
addition of our full van didn't aid the tight quarters. With that said,
the tasting menu was generous. 9 wines in all, they let our full group
sample their entire lineup. The star of the show from our perspective was
again, their Gamay Noir. It is a nicely balanced wine with bright acidity
and red fruit flavors. The 2015 vintage has a smokiness to it that adds
another layer of complexity to this wine. We did find the rest of their
offerings to be a bit thin for our liking, lacking a bit of depth and structure
that varietals like Syrah and Cabernet are known for in their best examples.
The Gamay is worth a try but I'd try to get to this winery early and
avoid the crowds as best you can.
Hester Creek Winery
Hester Creek was officially our biggest positive surprise of the
trip. A winery that was not on our radar previously sits solidly in our
top 2 or 3 winery experiences of the trip. Once again messing with the
timeline of this series of posts, we made a dinner reservation at Hester
Creek's Terrafina restaurant on the first evening of our trip. We were
able to enjoy our evening out on the grape vine covered patio at this lovely
restaurant. The view from the patio is a manicured lawn and garden of
roses and lavender fading out into the estate vineyards that flow into the
valley below. Sunsets over this desert landscape are nostalgic for me and
conjure up images of the Arizona sunsets I grew up with. The only image
of the night that surpassed this sight in its beauty was the one seated
directly across the table from me.
The fair was exquisite. Lindsay had done a little research
and discovered that a wine called "The Judge" was their top rated
(and conveniently most expensive) wine produced at this winery. It also
has the honor of being the wine with the most bad ass name in the Okanagan.
As this was our pre-moon, we spared no expense and ordered a bottle of
it. After allowing it to rest for about 20 minutes in a decanter, this
wine was served to us in what had to be 650 ml glasses. They were
enormous and appropriate for a wine called the Judge. The aromas coming
off this wine were haunting. As the other guests on the HOHO bus can
attest, my sales pitch on this wine is that I literally had dreams about it
when we went to bed that night, and it's not far from the truth. Lindsay
was nearing annoyance with my obsession with sniffing the contents of these
giant glasses all evening. Dark fruits, floral notes, spice and oak
jumped out of the glass. The meal that accompanied this exceptional wine
was great too. I would rate it a small notch below Burrowing Owl's Sonora
Room on food quality alone but it more than made up for it with service and
atmosphere. It was a very memorable dining experience.
Visiting the winery the next day was a treat as well. The
winery and tasting room are beautiful. Red brick, wood, and iron accent
the room, the centerpiece of which is a big stone bar and cobble stone floors.
It has a rustic elegance about it that is a theme throughout the
restaurant, tasting room, and wine shop. A live band in the wine shop was successful in remaining in the background as an accent that enhanced the experience rather than diverting your focus and distracting. It was a
holistic approach to the winery experience only enhanced by the quality of the
wines being offered. As we were quite familiar with their flagship
offering from the previous evening, we focused more on their single varietal
and standard label blends. I'd highly recommend the Character red, the
Cab Franc, and the Cabernet Merlot because at sub $20 prices, they're hard
wines to beat. They by no means rival The Judge, but they're also less
than half the price. I must mention here that we did prefer their
standard label offerings to their "reserve" wines. We picked up a bottle of
each along with a Magnum of our new friend the Judge.
Church and State Winery
For our third winery of the day, we broke off from the main group
to enjoy a "big red wine" focused winery in Church and State.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of information on this winery as the
staff in the tasting room was a bit less than forthcoming with information.
The winery is very modern and the views, as are always true in this
region, were beautiful. The tasting bar looks into the barrel room which is a
cool backdrop for a wine tasting. The vibe in this winery is completely
irreverent, which makes sense if you've ever caught any of the labels of their
"Lost Inhibitions" line (if you haven't seen these labels, I
encourage you to look them up as they're quite entertaining).
The wines themselves are fantastic. As advertised, this is a
winery that does big reds and does them well. They are saturated, heavily
oaked, and expressive. We thoroughly enjoyed their "Coyote Bowl
Series" Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Meritage blend. Top to
bottom, there was not a wine we didn't enjoy in this tasting and this was
another winery that we brought multiple bottles home from. If you're
looking to visit a winery for the atmosphere, I don't know if I'd put this at
the top of my list but if you're seeking out quality South Okanagan red wines,
these are fantastic and certainly worth a try.
Tinhorn Creek Winery
We had Tinhorn Creek on our must visit list for a bit of a
sentimental reason. As noted, Lindsay and I are not white wine drinkers
in order of preference. However, with our pending wedding, we recognized
that a good portion of our guests would be enjoying white wine so we sacrificed
our palates in honor of their well being and tried several white wines.
One particular evening, our local wine store had a sale on the 2014
Tinhorn Creek Pinot Gris. In order to make sure we had some "good
wine" to enjoy that evening, we had a glass of red wine with dinner before
deciding to try out the Pinot Gris. To our surprise, we loved it.
So much so, we killed the whole bottle, called the wine store to reserve
a couple cases for the wedding, and still had the remainder of our red wine to
drink
A free sample of the latest (2015) vintage of the aforementioned
Pinot Gris was given out upon entry into the tasting room and wine shop.
At the official tasting we were offered 4 wines of our choice, so
naturally, Lindsay and I chose differently so we could attempt all 8 different
wines. Tinhorn's "Oldfield Series" is their reserve series of
wines catered to the palate of their original winemaker. As with our
friends at Hester Creek (The Judge being the obvious exception to this), our
preferences leaned toward their standard label wines and not their reserves.
It's counter intuitive but it was a big lesson learned on this trip.
The overall quality of the wines I'd call good but not great. They
are a bit thinner, more fruit forward styles but lacking in depth and
complexity. We found the Oldfield series wines to be a bit acidic and out
of balance. The highlight for us was the wine shop, fully stocked with wine
based jams, sauces, and their full line of wines. It was quite elaborate
and easy to burn a half hour in. Overall, we're glad we didn't miss this place
on account of its ties to our wedding but I don't know that I'd call it a can't
miss for others.
Black Hills Winery
The final stop on our tour and trip was at Black Hills Winery.
This winery is as close to the Napa experience as we found in the
Okanagan. Black Hills goes to great lengths to avoid the crowded, often
impersonal, bar-style wine tastings that a majority of wineries employ (though
some with reasonable success). Theirs is a seated event with a server to
explain the full suite of offerings and a little history and culture of the
winery. Tastings here are double pours of each wine and also the most
expensive of any tasting we found in the valley ($20 per person) and take up to
an hour and a half. There is also a menu of wine friendly foods to
enhance your tasting experience.
We sat at a window table that overlooked a swimming pool area and
the vineyards. A beautiful setting as is always the case at these
wineries. It's hard to overstate the natural beauty of this region.
On offer this day were their Viognier (the 2015 showing much better than
a 2014 bottle we'd had previously), their Syrah, varietal Carmenere, and the
flagship Nota Bene. I'll have to say, these wines are built for people
like Lindsay and me. They are dense, structured, fully extracted wines.
They're rich and fruit forward with great balance and ripe tannins. We
absolutely loved all of them. We'd had prior experience with the wines
from this winery and the visit and current vintage lived up to, and in some
cases, exceeded already high expectations.
If you're in this region, on quality of the wines, serenity of the
scenery, and quality of the experience, it would be a shame to miss this
winery. It takes a time commitment not required by others but that's some
of the beauty of the experience, and part of the enjoyment of wine. You
have time to sit, and sip, to think about what's in the glass, and converse
with your table mate. That to me is what gives me so much joy in drinking
wine and Black Hill does a great job of trying to provide that experience, to
tie what's in a glass into a broader context and to give their customers the
opportunity to ponder and enjoy it.
I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our trip and the
beauty of this region and the amazing wines and great values it has to
offer. Now members of several Okanagan
wine clubs, we fully intend to make at least an annual trip back to this region
and see what new and exciting wineries and experiences await. And if you’re looking for an exciting new
wine region to visit that not many of your friends will have been to (if you’re
reading anywhere but Western Canada), I hope you’ll consider giving he Okanagan
a try. I can’t imagine you’d regret it.
