In June 2021, the sunny and oh-so-spirited Justin Hall became the new, head winemaker at Nk’Mip Cellars in the southern Okanagan Valley (pronounced in-ka-meep). What’s remarkable about this bit of news is Justin is a proud member of the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), one of seven bands that make up the Okanagan Nation in central…
Tag: Okanagan Valley
B.C. Winery Nk’Mip Cellars: A Remarkable Indigenous Success Story Driven by Trailblazing Chief
Wine writers love to wax poetic about wines that speak to a ‘sense of place’. Yes, it’s a bit of a tired maxim, one that’s often overused and steeped in hyperbole. But when you actually, truly DO find a wine producer who delivers on ‘place’, it’s a pretty big deal. So what does it mean?…
Culmina Family Estate Winery: The Triggs of the Trade
I don’t think it would be a stretch to describe Culmina’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Sara Triggs as a tour de force. Like Gordon Fitzpatrick who you met in my last post – Sara is a second-generation winemaker, and like Gordon, a descendant of Canadian winemaking royalty. Sara’s parents are Don and Elaine Triggs (see…
Second Generation Winemaking Families: Fitzpatrick Family Vineyards Sparkle
Kiefer Sutherland, Kate Hudson, Angelina Jolie, Rashida Jones…….Sara Triggs? Gordon Fitzpatrick? What do they have in common? Some serious star power and a lot of familial fame. In the next two posts, you’ll meet the sons and daughters of industry legends who have stepped out of their parent’s shadows to carry on a family tradition….
CheckMate: Anthony von Mandl’s Master Class in Terroir Curation
Checkmate Artisanal Winery: 4799 Wild Rose Street, Oliver, Okanagan Valley, BC CheckMate doesn’t boast a high-end, architecturally inspiring winery – yet. What it has, instead, is a chessboard of ten, site-specific, small-lot vineyards in the southern region of the Okanagan Valley that provide a fabulously distinct range of Chardonnay and Merlot fruit. If you are a…
Anthony von Mandl’s Kelowna Triple Threat: Mission Hill, Cedar Creek & Martin’s Lane Wineries
If you live inside (or outside) of Canada there’s a good chance you have limited experience with the full breadth of Canadian wine…and by limited I mean not much at all! Protectionist provincial politics, byzantine interprovincial shipping laws, and the generally glacial pace of change in industry regulations mean we have an utter dearth of…
Harry McWatters: The Force behind the BC Wine Industry
He’s been called a legend, a maverick, the godfather of wine and British Columbia’s Robert Mondavi. As I chat with BC wine pioneer, and Okanagan Valley resident Harry McWatters about the highlights and lowlights of the BC wine industry over the last half century, I can’t help but think he’s the grape growing equivalent of…
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