Three days in the Okanagan Valley
British Columbia, Canada
Tasted Saturday, June 18, 2011 - Monday, June 20, 2011 by David Paris (dbp) with 1,377 views
Introduction
Most of my wife's family lives in British Columbia, and her cousin was getting married in Kelowna on June 19th. I had only ever had two Okanagan wines in my life before this weekend, but of course knowing that this valley is the heart of BC's wine scene, I was excited to explore some of the wineries and see what Okanagan wine is all about. We departed North Vancouver at 7am in order to get as much tasting in as possible. I was a bit too eager, though, as driving through the pass and into Kelowna I was pulled over for doing 141kph in a 110 zone. Whoops! I couldn't believe it, especially since this was a bonafied speed trap (with 6 cop cars waiting), but he let me off! He said he knew I was here as a tourist (we told him we were here for a wedding), and he didn't want to ruin our trip. Apparently if I was going 9kph faster (40 over), it'd be one week of impound for the car, and a $1000 minimum fine. Ouch! What could have been a disaster star to our trip turned out to be an awesome one. On with it!
One interesting law in Canada is that a tasting room can not serve you more than 4oz of wine. Therefore, pours are either minuscule, or you only get 4 wines... as it turns out, we found a few work arounds down the line...
Flight 1
June 18th
Flight 2 - Rollingdale Winery (7 Notes)
This was voted the best organic winery of the year by some publication. The whole of the estate is farmed organically, but they still purchase quite a bit of fruit so they can't label most of their wines as certified organic. I think the Pinot Grigio, which was just bottle the day before, was the only wine that said organic on the label. It was also the best wine of the bunch. The tasting room was just in the middle of a hanger looking cellar, in the middle of vine fields... pretty utilitarian, so I especially wasn't prepared for the wineries that were to come... 
Flight 3 - CedarCreek Estate Winery (6 Notes)
I was originally tipped to this place after visiting their website and seeing a truly spectacular shot of the winery with the Okanagan lake in the background. The scenery was just beautiful. The website shot was taken at the top of the vineyard though, so the guests never really got that view. It also marked a good starting place as it was the last winery on the road, so as we traveled back north towards Kelowna, and the hotel, we were able to make the next stops along the way.
This was a beautiful spot, with a restaurant attached where we had lunch. The food was pretty good, but my muscles in my pasta tasted a bit rancid. The wine here was all quite mediocre, with no personality. It's done in a very standard, international style, and I'm sure it sells well as it tastes like pricey California consumer wine. At least they had a spot for the pretty Natasha to pose:
Flight 4 - St. Hubertus (5 Notes)
I guess this place is owned by two brothers, one who produces under the St. Hubertus label, and the other under Oak Bay. Again only four pours each (though I tried one of Natasha's wines). Nothing exciting here...
I guess there was a burn just a few years back on the mountain top just above all these vineyards. You can see some of the charred remains of some evergreen trees in this photo taken just outside the door of the tasting room: 
Flight 5 - Summerhill Pyramid Winery (8 Notes)
A pleasant stop. They had one of the cheesiest statues I've ever seen at a winery at the entrance... how can they expect anyone to take them seriously with this thing here?
Surprisingly enough, the staff were the most knowledgeable of any visit yet, and the wine was pretty good. Here too you could only have 4 wines, but I had Natasha join me for the start of the tasting, and we "shared" two sets of tastings, so 8 wines... somehow though after the first pour she disappeared with her family and they didn't mind pouring the remaining 7 wines just for me. The Sparkling wines were particularly good, and at $25, not a bad value.
Flight 6 - Mission Hill
I heard mixed things about Mission Hill... a couple locals said the wine isn't any good, but here on CT they have some of the highest quantitiy of Okanagan bottles tracked, and some pretty decent scores. We did not expect to find massive, sprawling grounds like this when we visited, though... 
Unfortunately the tasting room closed at 5pm, which is when we arrived (our book said 6!). But the grounds remained open, so we got to walk around. The first photo shows the bell tower, which at 5pm, began ringing, and didn't stop for 5 minutes. There were about 3 different bells all going at once. It was really cool. Later in our trip we heard that they put something like $35 million into this property a few years ago. I forget who owns it, but it's one of the massive beverage conglomerations. Several places have voted this one of the 10 most beautiful wineries in the world.. I'd love to come back and get a tour of the whole grounds. A beautiful spot.
Flight 7 - Quails' Gate (6 Notes)
At a Pinot Noir tasting from around the world I put on earlier in the year a Quails' Gate Pinot Noir showed up, so I wanted to come check this place out. Of course that Pinot was horrible, but things showed better today. We did find the finest Pinot Noir of our trip here, though the price didn't really make sense. Overall the wines were quite good, and the building was nice as well.
Flight 8
June 19th
After the wedding in Lake Country, it turns out we had a number of hours to kill so we decided to hit up some local wineries on the way back to the Hotel. A couple beautiful spots again. Of course I did not have my notebook, so I didn't take any formal notes, just recorded a brief audio note in my phone, and kept track of scores.
Flight 9 - Gray Monk (6 Notes)
Some ok wines here, but pretty basic stuff. At least they weren't overdone, and trying to be like California wines like some of these places. These were just light, simple wines that were all pretty decent. I was amazed how little everyone behind the bar knew about the wines, though. I was asking some very basic questions about the stuff and no one could answer any.
While we were here, my niece, Shyla, noticed us all drinking wine, and began asking for some water. The woman behind the bar got a fresh wine glass for her and gave her some water. Of course without that caption, it just looks like I'm teaching her how to appreciate wine at a young age... 
Flight 10 - Ex Nihilo (4 Notes)
Definitely a little uppity of a place, but the Bordeaux blend was quite nice. They have some connection to the Rolling Stones, as they actually have the Stone's tongue photo on one of their bottles. A few other bottles, particularly the icewine, had beautiful etched bottles. A nice stop, with a couple nice barrel rooms with tasting tables in the middle. 
Flight 11
June 20th
Flight 12 - Inniskillin (11 Notes)
This was on our way back to the US on Monday... just decided to make a couple quick stops farther south in the valley, just 15 miles from the US border. I hadn't realized when we got here that Inniskillin is a Constellation Brand, another massive beverage conglomeration. No bother, the winery seems to be run fairly independently, and they had some of the better wine we had. The Dark Horse Estate Riesling Icewine was so good I purchased a bottle. The woman pouring was also the most knowledable of anyone we ran into, and one of the friendliest. She offered to allow me to try as many wines as I like if I was willing to spit. Okay, sounded good to me... of course the wines I liked I wound up swallowing while she wasn't looking. A definite worth while stop...
Flight 13 - Burrowing Owl (4 Notes)
Really only picked this place because it looked like another resort style winery (some CT reviews looked alright, too). Pretty impressive grounds here too. Unfortunately the wine was done in this attempted international style, and they didn't show much character. A nice visit for the beauty of the grounds, but not for the wine... after this stop, it was a long 9 hour drive back to Portland. 
Flight 14
When taking this photo I noticed what had been obvious throughout this journey: Everything here is irrigated. It had been (uncharacteristically) pouring rain for days prior to this beautiful day, and they were still irrigating as scheduled on this day. This is basically a desert, so of course they have to in order to have any hope of producing wine... I still feel as if you should not be growing grapes somewhere that they could not survive naturally, but oh well... 
Closing
I was amazed at the beauty of the Okanagan valley. All of the wineries are right along the lake, with spectacular views. I can't believe the number of wineries with beautiful grounds. The amount of money spent in this place is shocking. It's as fancy, or fancier, than some Napa places. Certainly more money is spent in the tasting rooms than most places in the Willamette Valley. Surprising, considering how young the wine industry is here.
There's some good white wines made here, but I found very few interesting reds. In general they are just over extracted messes. Several people I had talked to along the way just thought the youth of the industry was partly at play here, as they try and find their own way and stop just trying to taste like everything else. It will be interesting to see how the culture here evolves, and I certainly plan return trips to this area to explore the wines in even greater depth.
2010 Rollingdale Pinot Grigio Organic Estate 89 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley
(6/18/2011)
Really fruit forward nose, which is slightly sweet and nice, expressing some cantaloupe, pumpkin candy, and some ash. The palate shows some really nice texture, good pleasing soft fruit, which is slightly sweet. Slightly tart finish, with mild acid and slight sweetness of fruit, though not in a residual sugar kind of way. One of the best Pinot Grigio's of the trip.
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2007 Rollingdale Pinot Noir Reserve 83 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley, Okanagan Valley VQA
(6/18/2011)
Tart, slightly sour aromas. It actually smells like straight grape juice, with a high concentration of skins. More grape juice type stuff on the palate. It tastes slightly under ripe. Really strange, interesting flavors. Tart finish, almost like some candy. It tastes like Norton or some other North American varietal. Totally weird...
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2008 Rollingdale Merlot Organic Iversen 86 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley
(6/18/2011)
Fruity, ripe aromas. The palate shows some candied red fruit, mild tartness, and pretty pleasing soft nature. Tart acids on the finish, which pucker the mouth, and the overall impression is pretty light bodied. Not too bad.
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2007 Rollingdale Cabernet Sauvignon La Gauche 85 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley
(6/18/2011)
Pretty exuberant fruits on the nose, blackberries, blueberries, and black currants. The palate is mildly gritty and powdery (like chalk powder). Nice tartness. Light on the finish, with a tart and gritty texture. Only 12.9% alcohol
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2008 Rollingdale Cabernet Sauvignon La Gauche 84 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley
(6/18/2011)
This one also has 10% Merlot, and is 13.5% alcohol. Certainly similar to the 2007, with lots of big fruit. The palate here though is larger, grittier, and shows some soft candied red fruits. Tart and gritty finish.
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2009 Rollingdale Estate Red 83 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley
(6/18/2011)
Comprised of 90% Marechal Foch and 10% Merlot. This smells very light, but fruity; almost like soft, under flavored jelly beans. The palate is big and candied, showing gummy fruit and very slight tannin. The finish is mild. Not bad... a pretty easy slurper, even if it's straight forward and uncomplex.
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2007 Rollingdale Pinot Noir Icewine 72 Points
Canada, British Columbia, Okanagan Valley, Okanagan Valley VQA
(6/18/2011)
This wine was $70 and the woman behind the bar was actually telling people that it's great to put in mixed drinks, or even jello shots. I wonder if the winemaker knows she's telling people such things... in any case, I would probably agree that's about all it's good for, though. The aromas are a little funky, though generic. It smells like fermenting apples. The palate is similar, but this time the apples that are fermenting are also slightly rotten. It has thick texture, but doesn't feel very good in the mouth. The finish is slightly tart, but pretty rancid, funky, and generic. Just a little bit of alcoholic sugar water.
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