Grape Squeeze

The biggest and most ambitious wine festival in the province takes place in the Okanagan Valley every fall, beginning the weekend before Thanksgiving and ending on the Monday of the long weekend. There are hundreds of special events, tastings, concerts, and wine-soaked fancy dinners to choose from, all up and down the valley. Approximately twenty years ago I accidentally stumbled upon the tail end of the festival, but this year I made plans to attend.  Louis and Elizabeth from Chilliwack’s Bravo Restaurant & Lounge organized accommodation, transportation, and winery visits as they gathered a group of their wine friends together, and Mark and Leighanne who are Okanagan wine agents organized tours of several more wineries. We launched from the Sandy Beach Resort Motel in Osoyoos at high noon on Saturday, October 1st on board our private bus. From there we collected more friends from different points along the roadway, and once the bus was full to overcapacity we headed up the highway to Oliver.  Our first stop was the Oliver Twist winery. We were treated to a barrel tasting of Syrah with Denice Hagerman, the co-owner and Winemaker herself, and a vertical Merlot tasting. Then onward to Le Vieux Pin where we were given samples of all of their extraordinary wines including some library wines put away and only pulled forth for very special occasions. We got to meet the winery chickens (aka insect control officers) before carrying on to Quinta Ferreira where John Ferreira, the owner, met us in his underground barrel caves to pour us samples of all of his red wines. After that we went to the wine shop to try the whites and a poll was conducted amongst the women as to which Chardonnay we preferred, the oaked or the unoaked. The consensus seemed to lean towards the oaked Chardonnay. Hester Creek Estate was our next stop and again we were assembled in a private boardroom in the barrel cellar for a sampling of six of Hester Creek’s iconic white and red wines. Our final stop for the day was Cassini Cellars where our now rather noisy and uninhibited group was treated to sips of the best wines, which owner and Winemaker Adrian Cassini himself poured for us.  Most of us spent the evening at a local pub near our motel, eating more than we should have and dancing. This is what I remember of what I am willing to tell you about.

Dinner that night was planned at the restaurant at Spirit Ridge Resort next to Nk’mip Cellars, and our special guest was Bill Eggert, owner, farmer, and Winemaker at Fairview Cellars. Because we know each other through business, I got to be his date for the evening which made me a Rock-Star-by-Association because all of us in the wine industry regard Winemakers as sort of Miracle-Worker-Magicians. The room was beautiful and our group was noisy, but the food was lovely and the servers kept their composure throughout the evening.  My weekend ended far too early when I got up at 6:30am on Monday morning and needed to be ready to leave before eight. My weekend roomies and I drove home together, and I arrived back safely in Chilliwack with armloads of Okanagan fruit, a memory bank fuller of memories, and several new Facebook friends.