On The Black Sage Road BY JEANNETTE LEBLANC
Phantom Creek
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USH GREEN ACRES OF VINES stretch across the sun-bleached landscape of an arid valley desert in the south Okanagan. From the air it could be a study in geometry, an agricultural quilt where the pattern is dictated by water resources, and farms in transition from orchard to vineyard. The Black Sage Road runs along the east side of the valley, meandering southwards from the outskirts of Oliver toward Osoyoos. This 30-kilometre drive is home to some of the most lauded wineries in British Columbia and earliest vineyard plantings in the area. The region has a long history – a part of the unceded territory of the Syilx (sjilx) Indigenous people, and well before the Okanagan became a hotspot for new world cool-climate viticulture. British colonists took liberty to assign traditional Syilx lands
28 Culinaire | May 2021
to European ‘settlers’, and in 1877 the Osoyoos Indian Band registered under the Indian Act as a reserve. More than a century later they and seven other Bands are now part of the Okanagan Nation Alliance, formed in 1981 as First Nations government in the Okanagan. Indigenous peoples of this area have tended these lands for generations, and as we explore the region it’s on their lands we travel. The nsyilxcən (Nis-yeel-ten) language, part of the Salish language, was originally spoken here and the Band is working to bring the language back into daily life. Two regional parks have been returned to their Syilx names: Haynes Point is now (again) Sẁiẁs (swee-yous) Provincial Park, and McIntyre Bluff to its original place name of nʕaylintn (Ny-lin-tn).
EARLY DAYS
The Osoyoos Indian Band is an integral part of this region’s wine history. Of their 32,000-acre reserve lands, almost one-third is used to grow grapes. The Band was instrumental in developing the Black Sage Road as a serious viticultural area. Before Helmut Becker ran the Becker Project (1977 to 1982), proving more than 30 vinifera varieties could produce premium quality wine in the Okanagan, the Osoyoos Indian Band began planting Inkameep Vineyard on the Black Sage Road in 1968. It was one of the first in the South Okanagan and eventually grew to more than 350 acres. Later, Nk’Mip Cellars opened in 2002 with a 21-acre vineyard and was the first Indigenous owned and operated winery in Canada. After the Inkameep Vineyard,
