When I left off last week, we had just wrapped up our visit at Road 13, one of the oldest vineyards in BC having first being planted with Vitis Vinifera (wine) grapes in 1969.  The cool weather that the valley has been experiencing is playing havoc with vineyards up and down the valley, not just at Road 13.  It looks that once again, the quality of the wine will be made in vineyard meaning that those growers who do not manage their plants will pay the price when harvest time rolls around. 

Working our way up the valley, our next stop was the brand new River Stone Winery, just north of Oliver on Tuc-El-Nuit drive.  Owned by Ted Kane and his wife Lorraine, they have operated the property for almost ten years after moving from Edmonton.  Prior to moving and starting the vineyard, Ted was a Respiratory Therapist for 12 years but had always been interested in winemaking and grape-growing.  So much so that he planted vines in a hothouse in Edmonton to acquire the knowledge of growing and trellising all the while reading books on the subject.

Backing up the hands on approach were viticulture and viniculture classes at OUC in Penticton where he graduated with stellar alumni John Weber of Orofino and Warwick Shaw of Tantalus.  Obviously that class was taught very well.

Like many start-up family wine farms, someone needs to have a fulltime job to pay the bills while the vines are growing.  Lorraine is a family doctor in the nearby Osoyoos and fortunately was raised on a farm and understands the vagaries which are inherent to the wine industry such as the weather and financial concerns.  However, when not in the clinic or at the hospital, Lorraine can be found in the gardens that surround the winery or developing her palate by sampling the wines and but is of the mind that a good wine is one that you like.

All the wines are delicious but the standouts were the 2009 Cabernet Franc and 2009 Corner Stone, a Bordeaux-inspired blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.  The Cab Franc is a gorgeous wine.  Loaded with cassis, blackberry and raspberry fruit aromas with hints of dark chocolate, roasted coffee, smoke, tobacco leaf and licorice, the aromas on this wine just kept on coming out of the glass.  The texture on the palate is soft and juicy with chocolate, vanilla, crisp acidity, firm yet supple tannins.

Softer and more structured, the Corner Stone is luscious to enjoy now for its luscious black fruit aromas and flavours of black raspberry, cassis with hints of smoke, licorice and tobacco leaf blending with the toasty, chocolate and vanilla characteristics from its aging for 14 months in French Oak.

After leaving River Stone, it was up to the Naramata Bench to the new Poplar Grove Winery.  My wife and I had stumbled across Poplar Grove during our first summer here in the Okanagan in 1996.  A wine shop staff member at Hillside Winery had mentioned that “you have to try the wines at this new winery back up the road called Poplar Grove”.  We dropped in and have been fans ever since.

In 1991 Ian, who was a boilermaker and welder by trade, purchased a small 2.5 acre apple orchard on the Naramata Bench.  A self-taught wine lover, he was looking more for privacy, which the 1600 apple trees provided than planting a vineyard and starting a winery.  However, after talking to his neighbours Bohumir and Vera Klokocka, the original owners of Hillside Winery, he realized that the property was well suited to planting grapes.

After ordering some Merlot and Cabernet Franc plants from Bordeaux in 1992, Ian took his chainsaw to the apple trees. In the spring of 1993 he planted the vineyard and began to study grape growing and commercial wine production by trying to learn from the best in the international industry.  Ian’s research led to Justin Myers at Silver Oak Cellars in Napa Valley and Dr. Paul Pontillier of the iconic Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux and to their lectures and publications on winemaking.

This was supplemented by trips in the “off season” to New Zealand and Australia, which is harvest time in the southern hemisphere, over the next couple of years to hone the winemaking craft.

The first crop of Merlot and Cab Franc was harvested in 1995, and the wine was made in the old garage on the property.  The barrels (all 7 of them) were bought used from Silver Oaks and those wines went on to win Gold Medals at the 2007 Fall Okanagan Wine Festival’s International Judging and the rest is history.

But that’s not all.  In 2007, Ian had a chat with his neighbour Dr. Tony Holler about the future of Poplar Grove.  Dr. Holler is a successful Vancouver businessman, having sold ID Biomedical, his Vancouver-based flu vaccine company, to GlaxoKlineSmith for $1.7 billion. It was his dream to own a winery in the area where he grew up. So a partnership was formed and Dr. Holler was able to give the winery an injection of capital. Poplar Grove had now entered a new era.

Over the past four years, over 100 acres have been added, a brand new $10-million winery has been constructed and in 2008 Stephan Arnason took on the position of winemaker leaving Ian to concentrate on the role of Executive Winemaker, overseeing all aspects of the winery.  Poplar Grove, which was the quintessential, tiny family-owned winery, has morphed into a larger artisan facility while still maintaining that “Garagista” attitude and now focusing on making more of their top-notch wines from estate-grown fruit.

One of our all-time favourites of Ian’s wines is his Cabernet Franc and the 2007 does not disappoint.  This is a gorgeous wine, loaded with cassis, blackberry and raspberry fruit aromas with hints of dark chocolate, roasted coffee, smoke, tobacco leaf and licorice, the aromas on this wine just kept on coming out of the glass. The texture on the palate is soft and juicy with chocolate, vanilla, crisp acidity and firm tannins.

BC wines are just getting better all the time.