There is no way to measure how the scenic attributes of a wine region affect its success. But when ‘spectacular’, ‘stunning’ and ‘gorgeous’ are the first words from the mouths of every visitor, praise for the wine quality is often not far behind. For inspiring awe, the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province, ranks with South Africa’s Western Cape and Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island. One never really stops marvelling, and feeling just a bit small, in the Okanagan.
Fruit basket
Like Central Otago, it is remote compared to most wine regions – a five-hours drive inland and over a mountain range from Vancouver or Seattle on the Pacific coast: or seven hours west and over a different mountain range or two from Calgary. But the landscape, centred by the 135-km-long Okanagan Lake, has made it a destination for skiers, golfers, sailors, retirees and grape trekkers. The city of Kelowna (population 120,000) is one of the fastest-growing urban areas in Canada, and a town built for pleasure. And in 30 short years the number of wineries has gone from a handful to over 150. All this with a scant 4,000 ha of vineyard.
The Okanagan Valley, fenced in by mountains on the east and west, has always been a fruiting zone. The earliest settlers of the late 19th Century recognised the advantages of its unique climate. First the massive lake itself, at 232 metres maximum depth, doesn’t freeze in winter, moderating the shoreline temperatures. Second, it has a very sunny growing season where – at 50 degrees of latitude – those arid summer days that regularly hit 30°C are extra long. And where the nights – at 340 metres above sea level cool, preserving acidity - are ideal for tender tree fruits like apples, peaches, plums and some of the best cherries to inhabit the earth. There is even a town on the shores of the lake called Peachland.
But now Peachland, like a string of communities along the lake and south to the American border, is all about vinifera grape growing. This far north, the ever-present threat of late spring frosts, early autumn frosts, and the occasional polar event in its otherwise mild winters, were all the conventional wisdom early farmers needed to avoid planting any grapes other than winter hardy hybrids. But in the 1960s, vinifera trials with Germanic varieties were successfully carried out at government request; and by the early 1980s, Pinot varieties were introduced. By 1988, when Canada negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, a handful of serious vinifera growers – lead by Harry McWatters, then of Sumac Ridge Winery - pushed for the uprooting of all hybrids as the only way to establish quality good enough to compete with the expected incoming wave of California wines. At this time, McWatters and others also began extending the vineyard area southward past McIntyre Bluff, a gigantic rock face that chokes the valley into its narrowest point. To the south along Black Sage Road and Golden Mile on benches above the valley floor, it was even more arid, right down to the town of Osoyoos on the American border at the 49th parallel. The influence of Okanagan Lake has vanished here, barely replaced by the much shallower, smaller Osoyoos Lake. Wild sagebrush thrive here, along with rattlesnakes, cougar, coyotes and bears – that just love the juiciness of ripe Syrah. And the sun is fierce enough to ripen many other red grapes like Merlot, Cabernet Franc and, arguably, Cabernet Sauvignon. Since 2005 there has been headlong rush to experiment with Malbec, Petit Verdot, Carménère, Zinfandel, Pinotage, Tempranillo and Italian varieties.
The Okanagan, it could be said, is one of the viticultural wonders of the world, for the wide range of grapes that thrive along its 200-km corridor – with cool-climate Germanic/Alsatian cultivars north of Kelowna, to moderate-climate Pinots in the middle zone from Kelowna down to McIntyre, (Pinot Gris is most widely planted white), to hotter-climate reds and whites from there south. Even white Rhône varieties like Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne are starting to turn heads. And there is some Albarino and Trebbiano out there too.
DVA development
Despite the diverse range of terroirs from north to south, and from one side of the valley to the other where morning and evening shadowing has an effect, there is still only one official DVA – Okanagan Valley. There is mounting pressure to create small ‘sub-appellations’, and the recent creation of smaller regional winery marketing and ‘wine route’ groups hint at what these might be called. Ranging from north to south: there is the West Kelowna Vintners Association, Corskscrew Drive (Summerland and Peachland), Naramata Bench, Okanagan Falls, Golden Mile (which just successfully received the first sub-app status) and Osoyoos. The remarkable, smaller Similkameen Valley, just over the western Hills from Osoyoos, already has its own official DVA. And Creston Valley, about 150 km east, again on the US border, will one day join the gallery. There are three other DVAs in coastal British Columbia.
Government has played a central role in the development of the B.C. wine industry, which comes as no surprise when one realises that this province has been socialist for long stretches of its history, and still runs a liquor board wholesale and retail function. And although governments in Canada tend to over-regulate wine, it did bring structure to a fledgling industry. It worked with vintners to establish a regulatory body called the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), which now also operates a string of about 30 retail stores selling only B.C. VQA wine. There is also a British Columbia Wine Institute that examines policy, lobbies government and looks after broad marketing programs.
The wineries have not had difficulty attracting their own to the Okanagan. British Columbians are fiercely proud of their God-given land, and became almost instantly loyal to their own wine once true quality began to show up in the glass. In the past five years, coinciding with wider availability through VQA stores, B.C. wine has become the number one selling regional wine in British Columbia, registering a 20% sales increase in 2013. This is due in part to the food- and wine-savvy metropolis of Vancouver on the coast (home to the Vancouver International Wine Festival, one of the largest, longest-running festivals in North America). And that loyalty has spilled over into neighbouring Alberta, where a free retail wine market reigns. Visitors and investors from oil-rich Calgary and Edmonton have had a huge impact on the rapid development of the market and industry in the past decade.
The next stage of development for the business of B.C. wine is into Canada’s populous eastern provinces of Ontario (which has an even larger wine industry guarded by the LCBO) and Quebec which also has a small wine industry and a powerful liquor board monopoly in the SAQ. Until June 2012 it was actually illegal to personally direct order/ship Canadian wines between provinces without going through the monopolies, and each province still has the power to veto direct shipments. So Ontario and Quebec remain opposed, and B.C. wine is treated just like an import – currently a hot button issue in Ontario.
Limited supply
The Okanagan Valley is on the threshold of an international breakout, but it faces some challenges. Many important American and British wine writers have touched down for a look-see and flown home raving. The Okanagan was recently named the second-best wine region in the world by USA Today. B.C. wine is entered in west coast, national and global wine competitions with good success. But there is actually not much wine available (production in 2013 was 17.7m L). There is a glut of new producers and not a lot more land that can be commercially planted. So prices are and will remain high, making the wines a hard sell in world wine capitals where most only know about Canadian icewine. Where they have no idea about the quality of the Pinot Noirs, Syrahs, Cab Francs, Chardonnays, Gewürztraminers that are now being routinely produced.
So the Okanagan actually does not really need to look far beyond its own paradise. Its spectacular setting is indeed the engine of its success. Producers are focused on building the tourism infrastructure to serve the masses that will continue to come to hike, ski, sip and savour. The Okanagan Wine Festivals organisation stages large spring and fall events and wine competitions. Mission Hill Family Estate Winery set the tone in the late 1990s when Anthony von Mandl opened an extravagant hilltop edifice with Acropolis aspirations. Many other great tasting rooms and restaurants have opened since, along with an endless stream of resorts large and small. Burrowing Owl, Tinhorn Creek, Summerhill Pyramid Winery and Cedar Creek have top restaurants. The posh White Spirit Lodge Resort at Nk’Mip Cellars is managed by a local aboriginal band. And there are many in independent restaurants; indeed Kelowna is home to the Canadian Culinary Championships.
Why not visit?
The Okanagan may seem impossibly farflung – especially for Europeans – but when you do come, you’ll find a starting point of the wineries to visit above. It is a list of the top-performing Okanagan wineries in the 2014 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. In this competition medals are given a points score, and the aggregate score of the winery’s five top-scoring wines determines the ranking. There are many other wineries, often smaller, that did not enter the competition, and when you visit and inquire, you will quickly discover who they are.
Sub-regions
There are five sub-regions, with significant climatic differences: Kelowna/Lake Country: Heavier soils, sandy loam, clay, limestone. Naramata/Penticton: Long, frost-free autumn due to lake proximity. Okanagan Falls: Diverse soils and aspects, with some terraced slopes. Oliver: Well drained gravel, clay and sandy soils. Osoyoos: Deep sand soils.
2014 National Wine Awards of Canada Ranking of Top 12 B.C. Wineries
Mission Hill Family Estate
Nk’Mip Cellars
Quails’ Gate Estate Winery
Road 13 Vineyards
Stag’s Hollow Winery
Lake Breeze Vineyards
St. Hubertus & Oak Bay Estate
Thornhaven Estates Winery
Orofino Vineyards
Church & State Wines
CedarCreek Estate Winery
JoieFarm Winery
