Discovering Wines in the Great (Red) North - Part 3 of 3 Osoyoos and a Little Wine called "The Judge"

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 3^rd 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.