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GOODS: Feenie Wins Silver With Haywire At The 2012 Canadian Culinary Championships

Okanagan Crush Pad is located at 16576 Fosbery Road in Summerland, BC | 250-494-4445 | okanagancrushpad.com

The GOODS from Okanagan Crush Pad

Kelowna, BC | BC’s own Chef Rob Feenie, food concept architect for Cactus Restaurants Ltd., won silver at the national Gold Medal Plates competition. Chef Feenie selected Haywire Winery’s Pinot Noir to pair with his dish at the Canadian Culinary Championship’s grand finale. Feenie captured a national silver medal when he and his team created a Fraser Valley rabbit duo – a rabbit bacon presse, with foie gras boudin, brown butter carrot puree and black truffle jus, accompanied by Haywire’s Pinot Noir at the Canadian Culinary Championships grand finale event for the Gold Medal Plates national competition. As the only competing chef from BC and paired with a BC winery, Chef Feenie took home the silver medal in front of the home crowd on Saturday night. The team from Haywire is especially proud: Chef Feenie also chose Haywire’s Pinot Gris for his dish at the Vancouver Gold Medal Plates competition last fall, where he captured the gold medal.

After nine competitions across the country, the winning chef from each of the nine cities met at the national competition. The winner of the gold and the Canadian Culinary Champion was chef Marc Lepine of Atelier Restaurant in Ottawa.

Winery owner Christine Coletta was “so proud to see Rob Feenie win the silver.” She notes, “it was great to see culinary talent from across Canada in the Okanagan, and to have our Okanagan wine be part of the silver medal win at home was priceless.”

About Haywire 2010 Pinot Noir

Extreme mountain viticulture at its best. Made from 100% Pinot Noir from the Wise Brothers’ Secrest Mountain Vineyard that sits above the town of Oliver. The brothers worked hard, but it was one of those cross-your-fingers autumns. But as luck would have it, the late ripening and warm fall of 2010 allowed excellent flavour development; very pure strawberry and cherry characters. The grapes were gently treated, with the great majority of them going into the fermenter as whole berries. The fermentation was conducted at a ridiculous, almost fatally hot temperature for the yeast. This did allow us to extract very fine tannins without extending our maceration at the risk of the fruit character. Like a good Okanagan Pinot Noir should, this has the fruit, acid, and structure for foods heavy in tomatoes. $27.00 (BC)

About Haywire

Haywire is made in Summerland, BC, at Okanagan Crush Pad, where owners Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie established Switchback Vineyard in 2006 and opened the winery in 2011. The wine is the first release from Okanagan Crush Pad wines made by Michael Bartier and consulting Italian viticulturist Alberto Antonini. For more information, visit www.okanagancrushpad.com.

About Chef Rob Feenie

The driving culinary force behind Cactus Restaurants Ltd., the award-winning collection of twenty one casual fine dining restaurants in BC and Alberta, Rob Feenie is also one of Canada’s most recognized and celebrated chefs. At Cactus Restaurants, Chef Feenie leads the culinary team, blending his talent for creating elegant, globally inspired cuisine with his passion for simple dishes using fresh, local ingredients. During Chef Feenie’s tenure, the restaurant group has been named “Best Casual Chain” for four straight years at the annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant awards, a reflection of the influence he has had on the evolution of Cactus’ menu selections and its commitment to sourcing the best fresh, local and sustainable products wherever possible. For more information about Cactus Restaurants, visit www.cactusclubcafe.com.

About Gold Medal Plates

Gold Medal Plates features superb wines and the premier chefs in each city, paired with Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes, in a competition to crown a gold, silver and bronze medal culinary team in each city, and subsequently nation-wide at the Canadian Culinary Championships. The event has garnered tremendous support from the food and wine industry and is considered to be the finest culinary competition in the country. For more information, visit www.goldmedalplates.com.

Details

16576 Fosbery Road, Summerland, BC | V0H 1Z0
Winery phone: 250-494-4445 | Order wine: 604-800-3738 [email protected]
Web: www.okanagancrushpad.com | Facebook | Twitter

Gallery

  • Crush Pad
  • OCP_4coletta_lornie_dumayne_oct2014
  • Tasting Room
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  • OCP Tasting_room1
  • OCP | Coletta & Lornie
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  • Tasting Room
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  • OCP | Echo on barrel
  • OCP
  • OCP | Lionel Trudel photo
  • OCP Patio | Lionel Trudel photo
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The People

Christine Coletta, Owner
Steve Lornie, Owner
Michael Bartier, Winemaker
David Scholefield, Winery advisor
Alberto Antonini, Consulting viticulturist & winemaker
Leeann Froese, Media relations
Alison Scholefield, Orders & General Inquiries
Karen Kho, Sales & Events

About Okanagan Crush Pad

Okanagan Crush Pad Winery, is based in beautiful Summerland, British Columbia, overlooking the 10-acre Switchback Vineyard site and Lake Okanagan. The winery is home to Haywire and Bartier Scholefield, as well as other brands that have been made at the custom crush facility. With a team of dedicated industry leaders, OCP’s mantra has been to improve the quality of Okanagan wines through shared space and ideas. Since September 2011, the winery has opened its doors to provide home to smaller producers and growers within the Okanagan Valley, while focusing on their own boutique line of hand crafted wines. Keeping with the philosophy that less is more, grapes are handled with minimal intervention with an eye on pure fruit expression that accentuates the Okanagan’s distinctive terroir. Aided by six concrete egg fermenters by Sonoma Cast Stone, Okanagan Crush Pad is the first Canadian winery to introduce these modern vessels to the market.

Okanagan Crush Pad boasts an impressive state of the art facility, but owners Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie stress that it is their winery team that remains the hallmark of their success. Respected winemaker, Michael Bartier is an Okanagan native that has a refined understanding of the valley. Coupled with the global experience of internationally acclaimed wine consultant Alberto Antonini and OCP’s wine advisor David Scholefield, the team strives to create distinctive, quality driven BC wines. The winery is responsible for the boutique labels Haywire and Bartier Scholefield but is equally committed to bringing small producers from field to market.

The winery is not open regularly to the public but is designed to be a shared working space for winemakers to work closely together. Tastings and visits to the winery can be made by appointment through Alison Scholefield at [email protected].

Accolades

Bartier Scholefield Rosé

Review on Tim Pawsey’s www.HiredBelly.com | “Bartier Scholefield 2010 Rosé gets better every time we taste it. Looks pretty too. Lovely salmon colour in the glass, raspberry earthy notes on top.”

Recommendation in Georgia Straight by Jurgen Gothe | This one delivers hints of ripe strawberries as well as truffles—no mean feat!—for an intriguing—guess the grapes, Uncle Frank!—dinner companion. Not-quite-salmon-but-beyond-apricot is the colour. Think I could sell that to Sherwin-Williams? Great, crisp finish.

Bartier Scholefield White

Review by Christopher Waters in The London Free Press, 24 Hours Edmonton, 24 Hours Vancovuer, Fort MacMurray Today | It boasts terrific integration and focused peach/apricot character that makes real the cliché that a blended wine is better than the sum of its parts. Made in a unoaked, old school way to amplify the flavours that came with the fruit, you could say it’s a “no B-S white.”

Haywire Pinot Gris

One of Julianna Hayes Top Wine Picks for 2011 – Okanagan Saturday | “Intense aromas of pear, golden apple, yellow grapefruit and lemon meringue pie. Delivers all that character on the palate with mineral and mouthwatering acidity. Stylish.

Reviewed by Kasey Wilson in The Globe and Mail | It’s a deliciously pure, fresh white that displays citrus and delicate mineral nuances highlighting our lighter West Coast cuisine. Influential Tuscan-born winemaker Alberto Antonini acts as a consultant to Haywire, helping craft terroir-driven wines like this one.

Review in Tidings by Harry Herstscheg, 89 points | Fragrant orchard blossoms tease the nose, while ripe pear flavour rides lemony acidity along a crisp, lively palate. Generous lees contact gives a rounder mouthfeel. Flinty minerality lingers.

Haywire Rosé

Reviewed in the Okanagan Sunday | “Haywire 2010 Rose ($25) – Cranberry, cherry, blood orange with some earthy notes. Refreshing.”

Review in Tidings by Harry Herstscheg, 88 points | “Attractive salmon pink colour. Delightful scents of all manner of red fruit. Bright cherry and cranberry flavour upfront set up lean, lingering mineral notes.

Haywire Pinot Noir

Reviewed in Vines magazine | On the nose this has pleasing strawberry and pepper notes. The palate keeps that same delicious peppery character, with the addition of cherry and some subtle herbaceous hints. Some slight grip from fine tannins adds structure and great acidity on the finish rounds out this truly enjoyable wine.”

There is 1 comment

  1. The wine by Haywire and Feenie’s dish was so good at the Canadian Culinary Championships!
    I am a duck fanatic and this was a treat for any foodie!

    The Wanderfull Traveler