ABSOLUTE | WINE

Ceda rCree k & Home Bloc k Years of Sustainability & Stewardship

It was 1986. The Honourable Senator Ross Fitzpatrick, lifelong Okanagan resident, and powerful believer in all things Okanagan, decided it was a great time to build and open a winery. Which he did, and he called it Cedar Creek. He was fully aware that a North American Free Trade agreement was in the works, and that American wines would have much freer access to Canadian markets. Many were pulling out vines and replanting fruit. But not the Senator. He said, “We simply have to be true to what this particular soil, planted with the right grapes, will give us. The American wines are not the same. So we just have to be

focused on quality.” He said those words during an interview at his home, which is situated almost directly across from the winery. His vision proved to be both accurate and potent. Pinot noir and chardonnay were the estate stars, but there has been remarkable, sustained success with ehrenfelser, and with fruit from the far south of the Okanagan, the red wines have had great success also. There have been challenges, certainly. You can still see the char lines on the mountain behind the winery, from the great fire of 2003. At its height, one night in August, Fitzpatrick and his son Gordon locked the door to the winery, looked up at the fiery hills, and silently said goodbye to his winery. It was a sudden, virtually inexplicable change in the winds that saved the winery.

White Willow Photography

Okanagan Confidential

CedarCreek is one of BC’s first 8 wineries. With four generations of agricultural heritage and more than three decades of experience their single vineyard wines are a true expression of their terroir.Located 20 minutes from downtown Kelowna we are an ideal destination for locals and those touring wine country. Situated on a hillside, you are treated to a panoramic view of lush vineyards, Okanagan Lake, immaculate grounds and our beautiful gardens. We are committed to providing guests an intimate and educational experience in an exceptional setting. Our entire team is excited to bring the wine country experience to a whole new level at CedarCreek this year with our brand new tasting room, and year-round restaurant, Home Block, opening late Spring 2019.

CedarCreek Estate Winery 5445 Lakeshore Road Kelowna, British Columbia 778.738.1020 cedarcreek.bc.ca

FAVOURITE THINGS

Surfing I have spent all of my life by the sea and surfed from childhood. While I am landlocked at the moment, it will ALWAYS top any list of my favourite things!

VALLE Y INNO VATO RS

We speak to Winemaker Taylor Whelan at Kelowna’s spectacular CedarCreek Estate Winery

Left photo: CedarCreek Winemaker, Taylor Whelan

What attracted you to winemaking ? I find the cross-discipline aspect of winemaking appealing. Not only is there microbiology and organic chemistry involved, but viticulture (and ecology), logistics, business, hospitality, public relations, and artistry. The job is constantly evolving and is always presenting new opportunities and challenges.

With the wines that you make , what are you tr ying to achieve ? In the Estate range, we are aiming to make wines which are varietally correct and can express the fresh and lively characters we believe the Okanagan can offer in a wine. In the Platinum range, we are trying to focus on the qualities of specific sites – be it soil, slope, aspect, vine age, or clone. We then reflect those in the wine by using traditional or artisanal winemaking techniques such as concrete fermentation, natural fermentation, skin contact (on whites), whole bunch fermentation, and any other technique we feel can best compliment or reflect the aspects of the site we hope to show.

What are the future plans in store for your winer y/ vine yard ? Plans abound – we are currently in the process of transitioning to organic viticulture across all of our vineyard holdings and to develop organic winemaking in the winery as well. We have moved honey bees onto the property at CedarCreek and have chickens in our vineyards in the south Okanagan. We are also continuing to acquire premium vineyard properties focused mostly in Kelowna and Lake Country, where we feel there is the most potential for identifying unique soil types and establishing exciting vineyards with cool climate varieties. On top of that, we are working to complete a brand new tasting room, our new year-round restaurant, Home Block at CedarCreek, and a dedicated Platinum Club area to host our most valued customers at an even higher level.

What is your all -time favourite food & wine pairing ? Entrecôte à la Bordelaise – a Ribeye steak served with a Bordelaise sauce and tarragon to brighten things up, served with a cabernet-dominant Bordeaux blend. It’s a classic, but wine pairings don’t get any better.

Skiing I love nothing more than skiing the slopes at our local hill, Big White. Fresh air, big sky views and beautiful Okanagan powder

Relaxing lakeside Again fresh air fresh water, family swims and incredible views

Time has marched on, and the special estate chardonnay and pinot noir vines today, on the Home Block Vineyard, are nearing 30 years old. Fitzpatrick, long since retired, decided he would sell the winery, but only to someone who understood and appreciated what the legacy means. So he went straight to Anthony von Mandl, propietor of von Mandl Family Estates. It was a meeting of the minds, and the sale was completed only a few years ago. Things have only evolved from there, in ways Fitzpatrick completely approves of. Winemaker Taylor Whelan says, “I was extremely fortunate coming here. The wines were already excellent. I could tweak here and there, but the wines and the vineyards were in exceptional shape.” He has been able to turn his attention to the winery’s organic programs, which, he says,

“will be complete by the end of the 2019 harvest, so next year’s vintage will be completely organic.” This is mean feat; the rigours of certification are immense. “We knew it would mean utilizing natural tools and building complex and resilient systems in the vineyards, which would lead to better fruit and better wine.” Whelan is thoughtful and articulate. The organic certification clearly excites him, most of all because sustainability and stewardship actually translate into better wines at the end of the day. He adds an anecdote about honey bee hives, of which Viticulturist Kurt Simcic introduced 18 hives into Home Block Vineyard two years ago. “Grape vines are self-pollinating,” Whelan says. “But bees help with the promotion of wild flowers, beneficial plants such as crimson clover and mustard, and beneficial

Okanagan Confidential

Named ‘Canadian Wine Producer of the Year’ at the International Wine & Spirits Competition in London, England, and awarded numerous international trophies and medals at the highest levels of competition, the winemaking philosophy at Summerhill Pyramid Winery (established 1991) is that organic and biodynamic is the royal road to producing exceptionally beautiful, authentic, terroir based wine.

Also home of the Summerhill Pyramid Bistro, featuring fresh, seasonal wine paired menus and a panoramic view of Okanagan Lake.

Summerhill Pyramid Winery 4870 Chute Lake Road, Kelowna, British Columbia 250.764.8000 summerhill.bc.ca

FAVOURITE THINGS

Community gatherings in the Summerhill Pyramid

ORGAN ICPIONEE R

We speak to founder/proprietor Stephen Cipes, at Kelowna’s spectacular Summerhill Pyramid Winery

Left photo: Stephen Cipes

With the wines you make , what are you tr ying to achieve ? Our original vision since 1991 was to make the most delicious tasting organic wines in the world with the ideal growing conditions here and bring pride to all Canadians, and we’ve done that! We have won so many top trophies including best sparkling wine in the world in London England! Our wine was named the best chardonnay wine in the world at a recent competition in France! Our red blend Keter was just chosen to be served at the G7. We have something really exceptional here to share with the world.

The world is a big place , wh y did you choose the Okanagan ? I am a New Yorker. I was born in Manhattan and lived my whole life in New York until 1986, when I started seeing unprecedented greed around me. I wanted to get off the money-go-round and live close to the earth. At that time there were less than 40,000 people living in Kelowna. We loved it! Everyone here called the US the “excited states”, and it was true! Our lives were so peaceful here. I loved just driving the tractor and planting plants from Europe on my hands and knees. Then we got excited by the potential to make fantastic sparkling wines from the intensely flavoured grapes here and went back into business. This time for the love of it!

What attracted you to wine making ? Wine making is the ultimate collaboration between man and nature. A green bean is a green bean, and a glass of milk is a glass of milk, but wine is so subtle and nuanced, and everthing affects the flavour. It is the ultimate co venture of man and nature! The most authentic wines are made with minimum intervention winemaking. You have to do the magic in the vineyard assuring the vines are in harmony with all the nature around them. It’s called permaculture where we give back to nature, not just be sustainable. www.Organicokanagan.Com has a declaration to return the valley to organic practices and is receiving international attention and signatures from chiefs, mayors, celebrities and so many enthusiastic homeowners and farmers!

Taking kids for speed boat spins around Okanagan Lake

Winery Chef Jeremy Luypen’s vegan prominent menu

insects.” So far so good. Whelan continues, “there was a side benefit that we didn’t expect. As our harvest dates for pinot noir approached, we were hit with a lot of rain. That can be devastating, since the delicate skins can split, resulting in infection and reduced quality. As Kurt and I walked the blocks to survey the damage however, I noticed something I hadn’t ever seen. Our fruit was absolutely covered in honey bees, hundreds of thousands of them, methodically cleaning the fruit that had split.” What a sight it must have been. The end result was the “cleaned” grapes had a greatly reduced risk of infection, particularly from botrytis, and so the grapes could stay on the vine a full week more, adding vital quality to the fruit. Home Block Vineyard produces Cedar Creek’s flagship Platinum series, and we were able to taste them all recently.

2018 Block 9 Ehrenfelser, made exclusively from the 3 acres of Block 9, and thus greatly reducing the number of bottles made, is a luscious, almost viscous wine, perfect for summer sipping as an aperitif wine. But it pairs with almost any dish you might think of paring with a riesling, so bring on the Asian flavours. Orange and honey notes make this a very charming wine. Block 1, 2018, is pinot noir, but they made it Rose. Harvested in two sessions, one of which targeted “mineral, zest, and citrus,” says Whelan, while the second session targeted strawberries. This is a lovely wine, complex without hitting you over the head. Block 5, 2017 Chardonnay shows a balance and elegance that emerges as you let the wine adjust in glass. Whelan and his team were a bit surprised that the effects of organic farming would take hold on the

Okanagan Confidential

Culmina Family Estate Winery is the result of a lifetime of experience in the wine industry for Don, Elaine and Sara Triggs. Having worked in the industry for a combined 40+ years, Don and Elaine began in 2006 with a simple goal: to make the highest quality wines possible from their own family estate. Culmina is a familyowned wine estate operated by the Triggs and a small team of dedicated professionals. For the Triggs, ownership does not mean standing on the sidelines, but rather a full-time, hands-on commitment to every aspect of the business. Their singular objective: to maximize the quality of the wine produced from their Golden Mile Bench property.

Culmina Family Estate Winery 4790 Wild Rose Street Oliver, British Columbia 250.498.0789 culmina.ca

FAVOURITE THINGS

Playing vinyl, two turntables

VALLE Y FAM ILY

We speak to Sara Triggs, Marketing Director and second generation wine family member at Oliver’s spectacular Culmina Family Estate Winery

Left photo: Don, Elaine and Sara Triggs

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE THE GOLDEN MILE BENCH? Our goal was to produce an icon-quality Bordeaux-style red blend, with the first step finding the right site that would allow us to do so. With the help of Bordeaux-based consultant, Alain Sutre, and after an exhaustive search Penticton and south, we found the ideal site south of Oliver in the new sub-appellation. Extensive study on the site confirmed its potential for red Bordeaux varieties, featuring extensive minerality in the area’s unique alluvial fan soils.

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL FOR CULMINA? Literally translated from Latin, Culmina means ‘peak’ - or for us, what we’re aiming for in quality. We’ve focused all of our efforts and energy to meeting this objective: from planting everything from virgin land, to matching up the terroir with the best vine material that we can find, increasing the vine density in the vineyard by 50% in the hopes of increasing the competition between the vines to force the roots systems deep into the sub soil. All in all, to try and encourage our Golden Mile Bench terroir to come through in the wines as much as we can.

WHAT FUTURE PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR THE ESTATE? Lots of exciting things are on the way this fall, including more exclusive offerings in our “Number Series”, a small lot program focused on innovation and exploration, and exclusive to our Fellowship. A in interesting new Riesling will be released in the fall, and a couple of reds are in the works for 2019. We are also hosting three “Sunday Sessions” to celebrate our 5-Year Anniversary this summer. Each seminar will focus on different aspects of our portfolio, with the August 12th Session focused on Riesling and Chardonnay and the September 9th on our Bordeaux-red varietal wines.

Checking out new restaurants when travelling

Hanging out with the new winery, pup, Holly - a pint-sized Pembroke Welsh Tri-coat Corgi

fruit so rapidly, and pronouncedly. Mineral and lime notes in previous vintages are turning to lemon and floral notes in this vintage, making for a superb, complex chardonnay. The 2018 Platinum Border Vista Sauvignon Blanc is simply sensational. Not like any sauv blanc from New Zealand or France, nor like anything in the Okanagan, this wine is structured, nuanced, delicious. Classic sauvignon blanc qualities, of freshness, sharp acidity on the backbone, and terrific pineapple and gooseberry notes, make this a mustget. As in, get a case. The 2016 Block 2 and Block 4 pinot noirs have a lot in common. But Block 2 is slightly more Burgundian in style, a bit lighter, yet bursting with fresh fruit, and incredible balance. Block 4 has more weight, what we could call a more New World style, a bit more extraction and darker berry fruits. Both are excellent. And then, even more exciting news from Cedar Creek. Home Block at Cedar Creek restaurant is now open. This

is a destination-quality place, complete with a gigantic Grillworks woodburning oven and rotisserie. The farmhouse style restaurant is built from 100-year old reclaimed barn wood, some concrete, and local fieldstones. Executive Chef Neil Taylor sources locally, with a few select imported products as well. His most recent success as Espana, and he brings with him some of those Spanish influences. This is truly an exciting addition to the already bounteous Kelowna and Okanagan dining scene. Cedar Creek wines are available by the glass and the bottle, at extremely reasonable prices, so this is a marvellous opportunity to expand your palate. What Senator Fitzpatrick begat, and what Anthony von Mandl is nurturing and continuing to grow, now and into a sustainable future, is a marvellous part of the Okanagan’s steady, sure rise as a wine region that, while small by most standards, deserves its place on the world stage. Make sure to come and see, and taste, for yourself.

Okanagan Confidential

Great wines are born from the courage to see what’s possible. Over the past 21 years, the team at Poplar Grove has worked with the vineyards to nurture their potential into each bottle. Experience breathtaking views of the Okanagan Valley while sipping on a selection of our signature wines. In 2011, the doors to Poplar Grove’s brand new winery opened. The new winery space is home to a production facility with a showcase barrel hall, an expansive tasting room with sweeping views of the valley and the Vanilla Pod restaurant.

Poplar Grove Winery 425 Middle Bench Road North Penticton, BC 250.493.9463 poplargrove.ca

Poplar Grove Winery - The Legacy 2011

FAVOURITE THINGS

Valley GU Y

We speak with Tony Holler, proprietor of Poplar Grove Winery. Born in Summerland and familiar with the Okanagan’s fruitful bounty, he sets out to make world-class wines.

Left photo: Tony Holler

The world is a big place , wh y did you choose the Okanagan ? I was born in Summerland and grew up farming my family’s apple orchard so I was no stranger to the beauty and bounty of the Okanagan Valley. About ten years ago, my wife Barb and I decided that the Okanagan Valley was the most beautiful place we had ever been. My passion is great wine and I knew that the Okanagan Valley could produce the fruit that would allow us to make world-class wines. We decided then and there to move back to the Okanagan Valley.

What makes the Okanagan wine scene so exciting ? The Valley has attracted so much talent, all with an incredible amount of commitment to the land and to continuous improvement to the winemaking processes. Each year, the Okanagan wine community’s knowledge of the climate, the soil and their land grows. Discovering mesoclimates and microclimates, deciding which clone and root stock is best suited to the soil, and using this information to inform the planting of new vineyards throughout the valley is very exciting.

What are the future plans in store for your winer y? Now that the doors to Poplar Grove’s brand new winery are open year round, our plan is to invite the world to visit us on the Naramata Bench. We can’t wait for everyone to experience our signature wines! A few years back, we created the Poplar Grove Wine Club. Becoming a wine club member is the newest way to be a part of the Poplar Grove family. Our members enjoy discounts on direct wine purchases and invitations to exclusive events at the winery. Together, we are growing our wine club and I personally invite everyone to join us on our journey to make truly great wines!

What is the best insider tip for pairing food and wine together ? The best tip I have ever heard for pairing food and wine is to make sure you are eating and drinking exactly what you like with your favourite people in a fantastic place. One July long weekend as great friends and I were sitting at Poplar Grove on the Vanilla Pod Restaurant patio waiting for the fireworks, we opened a bottle of the 2007 Legacy and had it with Chef Bruno’s seared rare beef tenderloin topped with warmed olive oil and finished with sea salt. It was a perfect Okanagan summer evening with the greatest of friends, and the food and wine couldn’t have tasted any better.

Spending time in OUR vineyards with friends and family Tony Holler, Barb Holler and the vineyard crew

Heirloom tomato salad from the Vanilla Pod Restaurant, made with vineyard grown tomatoes

My Dog Mia