BCBusiness

130 BCBUSINESS JULY/AUGUST 2017 OKANAGAN CRUSH PAD: LIONEL TRUDEL In 2004, Nk'Mip Cellars, under winemaker Randy Pickton, won its first honour, a gold medal at the Okan- agan Fall Wine Festival, for its 2002 QQ Chardonnay; last year it was named Canadian Winery of the Year in the 2016-17 InterVin International Wine Awards. Its most popular wine is Dreamcatcher, a Riesling- Sauvignon Blanc blend created by assistant wine- maker and OIB member Justin Hall. Pickton is gradually handing the reins over to Hall, says visitor experience manager Cassandra Capone. "The whole idea is to give First Nations people, especially the Osoyoos Indian band members, job opportunities they might not have had otherwise, so to have him as our head winemaker one day would be really exciting." Set in the semi-desert hills above Osoyoos and designed in a Santa Fe style, the 18,000-square-foot winery offers three daily tours year round except Christmas and New Year's. "We go into the vineyard; we'll go through the winery itself," Capone says. "In the summertime, there isn't a lot of action going on in there, so we can actually walk among the tanks." VINEYARDS: 350+ acres planted in Oliver and 21 in Osoyoos, all on the 32,000-acre OIB land PRODUCTION: 18,000 cases a year 7 OKANAGAN CRUSH PAD In addition to its own Haywire and Narrative brands, Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie's Summerland winery makes wine for clients who have vine- yards but no production facility. "Maybe they're just getting started in the industry, so we shepherd them along," explains hospitality manager Kristina Neilsen. "We act as an incubator for them while they get their feet on the ground, and then they graduate from our facility and usually go on to open their own wineries." Since 2011, Okanagan Crush Pad has graduated more than 14 custom crush clients. The nine-acre Switchback vineyard on a hill overlooking Okanagan Lake was originally an apple orchard, purchased in 2005 and converted to grapes the following year. In 2012, Coletta and Lornie bought the nearby 312-acre Garnet Valley Ranch, where they have begun planting what will eventually be a 70-acre vineyard with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling. Both vineyards were certified organic in 2014, and Okanagan Crush Pad makes its own Hay- wire wines using natural methods and breath- able concrete tanks, with native yeast and minimal additives. It sources grapes from other Okanagan growers for its Narrative collection of wines and wine-based spirits, including Bolly Water gin pro- duced for Vancouver restaurateur Vikram Vij. VINEYARDS: 28 acres planted PRODUCTION: 45,000 cases, including 27,000 for custom clients, in 2016 8 OLIVER TWIST ESTATE WINERY Denice and Bruce Hagerman launched their winery on the Black Sage Bench near Oliver in 2006, selling to Gina Harfman six years later. The winery was one of the first in the province to use exclusively twist tops. Out of 12 bottles of wine with corks, chances are one will be bad, says Hagerman, who now works for Harfman. Most consumers don't take it back, but they never buy that wine again, she explains. Unlike many winemakers, the pair do their own bottling, capping and labelling on-site. The more self- sufficient a winery is and the more of its own grapes it uses, the better for winemaking and controlling costs, Hagerman notes. "The nice thing is we can go out there when it's ready, we can pick, we can get it in," she says. "When the wine is ready to bottle, Gina and I bottle it. We don't have to wait to be put on a list." While sipping samples at the wraparound bar in the tasting room, visitors can watch the production process through windows into the crush pad. Oliver Twist's signature grape is aromatic Kerner, a hybrid cross of a white Riesling and red Trollinger, but Harf- man and Hagerman produce three tiers of wine from multiple varieties: Oliver Twist, eight wines based on Hagerman's original recipes; the more modern, higher-end Reserve series; and the lively new Nos- talgia series, with Boogie Woogie White, Rockabilly Red, Pink Cadillac rosé and Cherry Baby port. VINEYARD: 17 acres, 14.5 planted PRODUCTION: 3,000-6,000 cases a year 9 TINHORN CREEK VINEYARDS Tinhorn Creek's most distinctive feature is its two vineyard sites, says winemaker Andrew Windsor. One is on the Golden Mile Bench, B.C.'s first sub-appellation; the other is the Diamondback Vineyard, on the Black Sage Bench across the val- ley. The two terroirs allow Tinhorn Creek to grow a range of grapes–Gewürztraminer thrives in the east-facing Tinhorn Creek Vineyard; Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Gris in Diamondback, which soaks up afternoon sun–and make a portfolio of different wines. The Tinhorn Creek varietal series focuses on the grape, while owner Sandra Oldfield's signature Oldfield Series wines, recently rebranded Oldfield Reserve, emphasize the site–or sites, in the case of 2Bench Red and 2Bench White. Once the grapes get into the winery, next door to its Miradoro Restaurant, which offers a panoramic view of the valley and vineyards, Windsor takes a hands-off approach that reflects the sites and the vineyards and not necessarily the winemaker's style. "We tend to use more natural processes than most, certainly for a winery of our size," he says. "The 2016 vintage was done almost exclusively using natural fermentation processes and natural malolactic fermentation." Winemakers he has worked with in Australia and California are trained to manipulate the grapes so they control the process from start to finish and reduce risk, Windsor notes. The result is wines that become a little less genuine thanks to the addition of acids. "Then that wine, regardless of what the vintage is, is going to have a certain acid flavour profile which will never change," Windsor explains. "The most beautiful thing about wine is the variability." VINEYARDS: 150 acres; about 130 planted PRODUCTION: Average 35,000 cases a year NATURALLY INCLINED Tinhorn Creek Vineyards (top) and Okanagan Crush Pad (below) take a hands-off approach to winemaking

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