Please visit the website for current info about upcoming events, dinners, workshops and classes Gift Certificates Available
For full details visit www.deerholme.com BY RESERVATION ONLY
4830 Stelfox Rd, Duncan
For ReservationS 250 748 7450 CHOOSING A VINEYARD SITE Chris Turyk - I love wine, a lot. I’m a Certified Sommelier, WSET Diploma graduate, and get in everyones way at unsworthvineyards.
A Find us at the Duncan Farmer’s Market on Saturdays!
Charcuterie, Grazing Boxes and Entertaining Ideas
www.picklespantry.ca I 250-266-2464 JOIN US
WEDNESDAY to SATURDAY look for our daily specials on 40 Ingram Street
www.theoldfirehouse.ca 18
Downtown Duncan
(250) 597-3473
mbitious accurately describes vineyard establishment at the best of times. in most regions given their terrain. Besides pointing out the apparent lunacy required in initial vineyard establishment, worth exploring is the reasoning behind why vineyards are established where they are. Some vineyards work with the existing landscape using slope to maximize sun exposure, while others tailor the landscape to suite their needs; most sites entail a combination of the two. For those who have travelled classic wine regions you’ll agree that, the slope of least resistance, hardly describes where these vineyards are. Slopes that exceed 45 degrees are not unheard-of which makes it near impossible to stand let alone tend to a vine. Figuring why farmers would subject themselves to this remains a mystery - until you taste the results.
Most of these vertical vineyards reside short distances from perfectly reasonable, arable gently sloping land, easily able to host a vineyard and at the risk of offending any vineyard managers - vines will grow practically anywhere. Initially the Phoenicians and later the Romans knew this fact and took full advantage. Traditional flat farmland was reserved for various other agricultural products from grains to livestock to annual and perennial crops. This practice followed the Romans for millennia and we owe some of the greatest vineyards in the world to it as they used the vine to accommodate for the landscape. Tailoring the landscape to meet vineyard needs shows another historical lesson in vineyard establishment. During the 1600s the Dutch had a penchant for a winelike-beverage from what is now Bordeaux. Desiring more cultivatable land, seeing a swamp, and leading the world in engineering, they decided to dam and drain what is now the most successful wine region of all time. They achieved their
