Tinhorn Creek is located at 32830 Tinhorn Creek Road in Oliver, BC | 1-888-484-6467 | www.tinhorn.com

The GOODS from Tinhorn Creek

Oliver, BC | Tinhorn Creek’s Sandra Oldfield (@SandraOldfield) will host a weekly one-hour Twitter chat (#tinchat) about the Okanagan’s fall wine harvest. Every Wednesday evening, wine + social media lovers everywhere can have a conversation with Sandra, ask questions and pick her brains about grapes, vines and all things wine. Watch for guest hosts and Tinhorn experts to delve more deeply into several topics. Get the details after the jump…

Assistant Winemaker Korol Kuklo (@korolkuklo – re: cellar activities), Viticulturist/Vineyard Manager Andrew Moon (@Andrew_Tinhorn – re: vineyard decisions), and Marketing Coordinator Lindsey White (@linzyw – re: social media).

#tinchat will take place every Wednesday evening from 8:00pm – 9:00pm PST for the next 6-8 weeks throughout the Okanagan’s fall harvest.

To join #tinchat, here are the details:

- Follow #tinchat using Twitter Search to see the Twitter Chat conversation
- Be sure to tag your tweets with #tinchat so that everyone can see them
- Follow @SandraOldfield, @korolkuklo, @Andrew_Tinhorn, and @linzyw for all the latest related to the chat.

Details

32830 Tinhorn Creek Road Box 2010 Oliver, BC V0H 1T0
Telephone: 250-498-3743 | Toll Free: 1-888-484-6467 | Fax: 250-498-3228
Email: winery@tinhorn.com | Web: www.tinhorn.com | Twitter | Facebook

GALLERY

The People Who Make It Happen

Sandra Oldfield – Winemaker & Owner
Kenn Oldfield – Chairman & Owner
Andrew Moon – Viticulturist/Vineyard Manager
Korol Kuklo – Assistant Winemaker
Shaun Everest – General Manager

About Tinhorn Creek

On a hillside overlooking vineyards, sagebrush, and the old gold mining creek that is its namesake, Tinhorn Creek Vineyards has been owned and operated by the Shaunessy and Oldfield families since1993. The winery is located south of Oliver, BC, at the junction of Highway 97 and Road 7 in the famed Golden Mile wine-growing district. This area, named for its rich history of farming that dates back to the early 1900s, is home to several quality wine producers. Tinhorn Creek sources fruit exclusively from its own vineyards: 150 acres of prime land on two very distinct benches. This land lends to the creation of terroir-driven wines that are classic illustrations of the place they are grown. The 100-acre Diamondback Vineyard on the Black Sage Bench is planted with a mix of red and white varieties, primarily Pinot Gris, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The 50-acre Tinhorn Creek Vineyard on the Golden Mile Bench is also planted with a mix of red and white grapes, but primarily features Gewürztraminer.

Farming their own vineyards using sustainable practices allows Tinhorn Creek full control over the quality of fruit delivered to the crush pad for each vintage. The winery produces wines in two tiers under one dynamic and compelling label. The single-varietal series includes a Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Merlot. Only worthy wines are selected each year for the winery’s top tier, winemaker Sandra Oldfield’s signature wines, named the Oldfield Series. This tier provides Oldfield with a playground for experimentation and is a creative showcase for the best wines from each vintage. All Tinhorn Creek wines evoke the unique terroir of the region: the sage-covered desert terrain.

Tinhorn Creek was the first winery in Canada to bottle its entire portfolio with Stelvin screw-cap closures ensuring consistent aging and a guarantee that the wine will be enjoyed as it was intended.

Mission Hill is located at 1730 West Bank Rd in West Kelowna, BC | 250-768-7611 | www.missionhillwinery.com

The GOODS from Mission Hill

Kelowna, BC | Make Mission Hill your harvest haven during the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival, September 30 – October 9. The winery with a view to thrill will unveil the highly anticipated 2008 vintage of its signature wine, Oculus, and present two special dinners during the festival — the 9th Annual Epicurean Dinner with culinary guests Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants, and the Favourites of the Terrace Dinner. In addition, guests to the winery will be privy to a beautiful large-scale sculpture exhibit, courtesy of Parisian artist Nathalie Decoster. The Mission Hill exhibition marks the first public installation in Canada by Ms. Decoster. The sculptures, made from bronze, stainless steel and concrete, will be on display until mid-October. Details after the jump…

For more information regarding events at Mission Hill during the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival, and to make reservations, please visit: missionhillwinery.com/guest_experience/wine_festival or call 250.768.6483.

Fall Epicurean Dinner with Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants
Mission Hill Family Estate’s 9th Annual Epicurean Dinner, welcomes one of Canada’s leading fine dining groups, Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants, for an evening in the winery’s exclusive Chagall Room. The culinary brigade of Toronto’s top concept restaurants, including critically acclaimed hot spot Canoe, will join Executive Winery Chef Matt Batey for an inspired collaboration of metropolitan and wine country cuisine. The evening will feature signature dishes from some of Canada’s most celebrated kitchens, expertly paired with award-winning wines from the Mission Hill Family Estate portfolio.

Fall Epicurean Dinner with Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants
Estate Chagall Room
Saturday, October 1
6:30 pm
$165 plus taxes (Reception + Six Courses)

Favourites from the Terrace Dinner
The Terrace is known for its seasonal menus, which take advantage of the best and freshest ingredients throughout the year. The Favourites from the Terrace Dinner will focus on just that — stand-out dishes served at the Terrace during the fall. Held in the Chagall Room, the dinner will be hosted by Executive Winery Chef Matthew Batey, who will lead guests through a tasting menu featuring seasonal fare. Each course will be paired with one of the Mission Hill’s internationally acclaimed wines. Wine country casual attire is kindly suggested.

Estate Chagall Room
Saturday, October 8
6:30 pm
$135 plus taxes (Reception + Five Courses)

Oculus Day
On Saturday, October 8, Mission Hill will release the 2008 vintage of its signature Bordeaux-inspired wine, Oculus. Be among the first to obtain the coveted vintage prior to its spring 2012 release. Visit the Oculus Salon and enjoy a unique and rare opportunity to experience a Five Vintage Oculus Vertical Tasting with a Sommelier ($15 per person). Renowned winemaker John Simes will also be available in the Wine Shop to personalize bottles of Oculus.

Wine Shop & Oculus Salon
Saturday, October 8
12:00-4:00 pm

About Mission Hill Family Estate

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“The centerpiece of the Canadian wine tourism industry…understated wines which rank among the country’s best and the Terrace Restaurant on the estate’s front lawn is one of the most glorious dining experiences around.” Travel & Leisure Magazine, February 2008

Located in the heart of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, Mission Hill Family Estate is a family-owned winery that crafts boutique wines. Majestic mountains, scenic lakes, and lush orchards encase the winery’s dramatic architecture and culminate in a setting that celebrates wine, food and the arts. Our Chief Winemaker John Simes, uses a ‘pruning to bottle’ program for the viticulture to winemaking process that ensures all our wines reflect the origin and unique character of the Valley. Visit us at the winery’s Education Centre for workshops and seminars on tastings, viticulture, wine and food pairings and more or enjoy our elegant tasting salons which provide a luxurious setting for an exclusive sampling of Mission Hill Family Estate wines.

We invite you to join us for patio dining at The Terrace and enjoy lunch or tapas overlooking our lush vineyards. Our Winery Chef’s innovative culinary style of Cuisine de Terroir, a seasonal and regional approach to gastronomy, is globally influenced, but locally crafted. Our Chef selects only the freshest local ingredients and seasonal fare is handcrafted to compliment our wines. Year round private dining is also available with the pinnacle Chef’s Table dining experience, an intimate evening with our renowned Winery Chef.

by Andrew Morrison | The thing about pieces of junk old English cars is that you can’t keep them garaged. You need to drive them fast over long distances from time to time or they get offended. If they get angry, which isn’t out of the ordinary, they can demand $4000 to pass on to a wily mechanic named Felix who finds it no end of amusing that you don’t know the first thing about automobiles (like stubborn horses, they just won’t go unless you feed them). It was with that in mind that I politely declined to join a gaggle of journalists with my wife on a flight up to the South Okanagan. I’d much prefer to drive the 792km round trip, and nevermind that it was going to be so hot that reptiles would burn and Pirelli rubber would turn to Bovril. Some carefully considered music and an unreliable sunroof would help me ignore such things, and in case the brittle engine decided to suddenly get cruelly interesting, there was a bottle of 2009 Blended Coolant from Chateau Canadian Tire in the trunk.

I’d done the drive many times before. On account of construction, congestion and boredom it always seems a stupid thing to do until I turn onto the Crowsnest connector (aka the Hope-Princeton). It’s largely free of the traffic suck and marked by an absence of anything save for a few campgrounds here and there and 133km of wickedly snaking asphalt cutting through the bewilderingly beautiful lands of the Upper Similkameen band and the Sto:Lo Nation. It then slices through Manning Provincial Park with its 200+ and 60+ bird and mammal species, among them the spotted owl, the type of deer that love to watch cars go by and the fabulously tempestuous Wolverine which, I’m told, can stand its own and even emerge victorious against a fully grown cougar. There’s plenty to do and see in the park (tilting against cougars not included), but I only ever think to stop at its headquarters, where I feel comfortable enough to smoke without fear of burning everything around me to the ground.

As for its ancillary attractions, I once pulled over along the Skagit River to eat a cold sausage with a colder beer and ended up watching a wet-suited biology prof snorkeling side by side with a curvaceous red-head wearing a butt-hugging neoprene bodysuit. They were horizontally propelling themselves up the rounded stones of a shallow, brookish tributary, their fingers presumably probing for rough-skinned newts and long-toed salamanders (both native to these parts). It was a remarkable sight, and like some backwoods voyeur, I lost an hour of travel time waiting for them to go at it. That would have made for a fine story to tell. Alas, no.

Princeton is a nice enough town if you like Subway sandwiches, so it’s long been my habit to give it a miss. The scenery between it and the picturesque old mining hamlet of Hedley is lovely to be sure, but it’s now some three hours into the drive and I’m keen for a short swim in a big bath.

Led Zeppelin’s Battle Of Evermore is key here. Its mandolin is like Gatorade passed by a youthful, bouncing encourager to a last place marathon runner fresh out of endorphins and self-confidence with five miles left to go. Once you’ve located the extra strength, you come to the charming town of Keremeos and then the fruit village of Cawston, after which it’s best to drive with all the windows down to vacuum in the perceptible change in scenery from a sort of scrubby, Mad Max wasteland to a sweet and productive desert on topographical drugs.

When the road dips south with the Similkameen to lick the American border, the natural environment pays you back kilometer after kilometer. It’s at this point that I remembered why I didn’t want to fly and how it was a good thing that the antiquated machine carrying me came equipped with two gas tanks. By the time the climb north begins through a series of gorgeous valley expanses, the driver’s seat no longer feels like an uneven pile of dead sloths, and everything appears to be just right in the world, except for the slaughter of bugs accumulating on the windshield.

When you finally come to the near-isthmus town of Osoyoos with its Tim Hortons and parade of Albertans cruising the main drag, it’s a bit of a shock. You might even think, “I risked my life overtaking 17 motorhomes for this?” But then comes the lake and the many things that are upon it. The town’s apt name comes from the ancient local vernacular suius, meaning “a narrowing of the waters”. Its surrounds have been inhabited by First Nations for thousands of years and by those of European descent for 200. The official population hovers at roughly 5,000, but like other waterfront getaways in BC, that number inflates ridiculously in summer, with the bulk of those who’ve recently landed concentrating on the water.

The lakeside in front of where we were sequestered – the massive Watermark Beach Resort – is ground zero for the town. Its soft, hot sands play host to retirees in varying states of shocking undress, teenagers doing the full peacock and parents trying to insure that their children will survive through to the next hour. In the adjacent carpark, a GMC Safari van is surrounded by twenty-somethings from Quebec soaked in patchouli and juggling hackysacks between tokes of bad weed. A few cars down, three muscled-up Kelowna testoterophiles are listening to Beyoncé and swilling Red Bull. Everywhere there are people, and they all share the same desire regardless of age, gender or place of origin. They want fun and relaxation, and here are both in spades. I parked the car in the hotel garage, choosing to ignore the malevolent hissing of the engine after I shut it off and quickly walking away from what sounded like hot bacon fat dripping from the undercarriage to the concrete with a worrying “pish-pish-pish”. Out in the sunshine, the sound of flip-flops flipping and flopping filled the warm air and the lake breeze refreshed. It may be a little jarring in its Disneyian twang after such a long, naturally stunning drive, but a lake is a lake is a lake.

There were five other writers on the trip, most of whom I knew, and after re-introductions in Watermark’s lobby we headed north as a glad-to-be-here group to Painted Rock, a 60 acre winery on a squat bench overlooking the eastern shore of Skaha Lake. Owner John Skinner, a former stockbroker from Vancouver with a yen for local archaeology, fine wines and talking at length, gave us the nickel tour of the vines before leading us into the winery building where we sat down for several courses paired with his best stuff. The food – prepared in a trailer around back by chef/caterer Roger Planiden- was top drawer. The highlight was his introductory dish: a tasting trio of delicate Dungeness crab lit with cucumber and apple, a shot of smooth cauliflower veloute and a wedge of halibut glistening with lemon butter (paired with Painted Rock’s ’09 Chard).

Skinner kept us well in our cups with bottles of Red Icon and Merlot through the lamb and venison courses, and the night’s good humour – led by him – went longer than I think our itinerary allowed for. Not only was it a splendid, filling lark to end what had been a long day of little food and too much water, it was also the beginning of the Perseid Meteor Shower. As we ambled out into the dark and up the hill to our waiting vehicles we were treated to the first of many shooting stars of the night.

The following day, as the press group travelled to the Farmer’s Market in Penticton, dined at Bognar’s and took in Poplar Grove and Red Rooster wineries up in Naramata, my wife and I exhaled on the beach with our heads full of awful. I’d got a call early in the morning from the farm in Ontario, saying that my father had passed away suddenly in his sleep. He was only 61. I’ve penned a few words about that in another post, so suffice it here to say that I wasn’t all that keen on participating in the day’s events. My kind minders from Tourism Penticton (good folks all) understood that retreat for us was the only thing to do.

Grief, I’m told, has no timetable. I’m new to it, but think that if you’re convinced that you’re going to be sad for a while – and I absolutely was – then there’s nothing for it but to ride its whirlwind and eke out whatever blips of entertainment it might allow. The deus ex machina was the solace of good friends, namely Cameron Smith and Dana Ewart of Joy Road Catering (and God’s Mountain fame) and BC’s newest Master of Wine, Rhys Pender, who helped me get Scout started with several wine-related stories when we launched it nearly three years ago. Joy Road, may it please fate, was part of the press plan that evening; they were cooking an al fresco supper above Cawston at Orofino to showcase the local bounty. I’d be damned if I was going to miss that, their company and the opportunity to get back on the road.

The drive west from Osoyoos to Cawston is a sight more fantastic than it is east. Its curves and course are heart-stoppingly dramatic with a high desolation quotient, which is what I felt I needed, and there was no better musical accompaniment for it than Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The album came out in March of 1973, the month after I was born. I call it “womb music” because it was on absurdly heavy rotation in the house when I was a child (as it is for my children now). Back then it was like Shakespeare – even though I wasn’t fluent, I understood the general gist. I certainly felt the weight of its gravity at age 2, and that feeling has greatly increased ever since.

Anyway, the road and the moment were both designed for Us & Them (“Get out of the way, it’s a busy day and I’ve got things on my mind”). The engine seemed happy and there was no traffic at all. When I finally parked the car and checked under the engine bay, I saw that the sizzle drippings had ceased. Silver linings and all.

Orofino is owned by John and Virginia Weber. The attractive pair don’t fit the profile (John is an ex-school teacher and Virginia is a former nurse), and there’s a few nodules on my palate that really appreciate that. They make very good wine and do it in an eco-friendly way with a winery built of strawbales (the only one of its kind in Canada). Set on the high road above the winding Crowsnest and Cawston, it feels recessed enough to be granted middle-of-nowhere status. Backing up to the vines as it does under a sunset-lit, rocky massif, the beauty of its environs can freeze first-timers in their tracks. Add in several long tables dressed in silver and stemware, plus plenty of genuinely friendly locals, and you get the picture of what was about to go down. The cooking we knew was going to be amazing, the setting was all kinds of pretty, and we came with appetites for both.

Cam and Dana put out a marvellous spread of squash blossoms filled with confit zucchini and rosemary; smoked pork with cippolinis and apricots; salad of haricot vert and cider vinaigrette-drenched beets with sauce gribiche; wood-oven chicken with shaved fennel and peaches; loin of lamb rubbed with marjoram; grape leaves stuffed with lamb shoulder; lamb leg massaged with espelette pepper and roasted garlic; and a few other fabulous things besides (not to mention a plum wine zabaglione to finish us off). Nearly all of the ingredients had been sourced within 1.6 miles of Orofino, and the wines…well, the wines came from where we were sitting; happily outside in the stillness of a perfect BC summer night.

It was great to take some of the heavy load off, and better still to be among friends who knew how to enjoy themselves. On the drive back with bellies full and TV On The Radio turned up, I nearly hit a coyote slinking guiltily across the two lane highway in the gathering dark. I was glad to have missed it, and quite satisfied that the brakes worked.

In the morning, we took breakfast (lovely eggs benny and coffee) on the hotel’s restaurant patio before heading north to Covert Farms to tour its orchards and its Dunham & Froese vines. Founded in 1959, the farm sits at the foot of McIntyre Bluff, right where an ice dam is thought to have burst at the end of the last glaciation some 10,000 years ago.  It’s a heady place with a magnetic, mythic feel. We piled into the back of owner Gene Covert’s old truck and paid visits to ripe peaches, unearthed onions, gorgeous tomatoes and leaf-shaded strawberries.

We munched as we went, bumping over the rough ground, our cameras and ourselves occasionally blanketed with dust. The organic fields were open to pickers, and there were quite a few out despite the heat. A trip out to Stoneboat Vineyards with its ebullient owner Tim Martiniuk immediately followed (but not before a hearty lunch was taken under a shady tree with nearby hammocks for digestive repose). We sipped in the cool of the barrel room with Tim, who has the endearing habit of turning what could be a one minute answer to any question into a half hour lecture on the universe and the role his grapes play in it. I’m a big fan of his and especially of his twin sons, who argue as if they’re characters in a cartoon. I’m also a lover of the wines they make. They do an excellent, botrytis-affected sweet wine (the “Verglas”) and their predilection for experimenting with Pinot and Pinotage takes wonderful turns in the glass.

You’d think we’d all be full at this stage, but upon arrival back in Osoyoos we stopped in at Annina and Jorg Hoffmeister’s charming Dolci Artisan Fare on the main strip for what I assumed would only be a quick coffee refuel. Instead, we were led out back to a table set with a full spread of charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, wine and some outstanding bacon sandwiches. It was a proper gorge, and it’s in such moments that a professional must rely on his training.

And then came dinner, which was no small affair back at the hotel patio.  If there was any room left in our tanks, farmer-friendly chef Natasha Schooten (ex-Mission Hill during the reign of Michael Allemeier) made short work of us with local sweet pea arancini; tuna tagarashi with candied seaweed; petit ribeye steak and nougat of braised chuck with potato salad; and – gasp – little donuts made with blue cheese from Little Qualicum Cheese Works. All the paired wines were from down the road at La Stella, and walking us through them was their maker, the candidly frank James Cambridge.

I was up at dawn the next morning to stare at the lake before the hordes descended upon it. Very still. Very quiet. Very beautiful. After breakfast, we put our hats on and ventured into the 67 acre Osoyoos Desert Centre to watch out for snakes, badgers and the dung of coyote and deer. I’d been through last April when it was cooler, and found it just as enthralling in high summer.

A visit/tasting/tour at the new Hester Creek followed with winemaker Rob Summers, together with a quick lunch at their recently unleashed restaurant, Terrafina, where I was introduced to a bowl of spaghetti loaded with squid…

That was it for us. Back at Watermark (after a quick stop to replenish our cellar’s La Stella supplies), we packed up, charged our phones and generally got ready to roll. Our room was a self-contained unit on the 2nd floor overlooking the pool and the lake, and it was not a little sad to see it slipping through our fingers. Because of the heat, we’d kept the doors out to our deck closed all weekend long with the blinds down to indulge in air-conditioning, but I opened them for a final heave of fresh Okanagan air. I’d be back up a few more times in the coming weeks, but for now it was time to go. And so, cue The Doors, the open road and the worry that somewhere along it we would break down in a hurricane of blue smoke to be devoured by bears.

Planning a trip up? Here are a few things to do in Penticton and the South Okanagan during the month of September…

The Saturday morning Farmers Market in Penticton is one of the best that we’ve been to. Anywhere. Wander through the market to check out farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, honey and eggs. Have a Joy Road peach or apple gallette for breakfast (and throw a few bags of their granola in your luggage while you’re at it – best granola evah). Stock up on preserves, pickled bits and then finish off with a terrific bratwurst.
Saturday mornings until October 29 | 100 Block of Main Street, Penticton

K-OS plays Tinhorn Creek September 10!
September 10 | Tinhorn Creek Winery | concert 7pm (gates open at 6:30pm) |  $60 | Details

Joy Road Catering hooks up with Road 13 to offer a few Autumnal four-course dinners (paired with some of Road 13 rarest reds). During dinner, Road 13 proprietors, Mick and Pam Luckhurst entertain guests with stories of “life among the vines” The evening ends with a tour of Road 13′s Wine Vault (Read: access to impossible to find vintages) Under $100 is a steal for what you’ll experience but each dinner is limited to 40 people, so don’t stall on booking a seat.
September 13  and October 13 | Road 13 | $ 99 | Details

The Festival of the Grape goes down in Oliver in early October. The one day event includes a parade, wine tasting, face-painting, live entertainment, food vendors, games and a Grape Stomp.
October 2 | Oliver Community Centre | Details

Just throwing this one in for fun. Also on October 2nd :  Wine Country Drag Racing. Make your way to the Osoyoos Airport Runway. Important details gleaned from the Wine Country Racing Association website: Spectators, bring a lawn chair so you can relax & enjoy the action. roper footwear encouraged as area is natural habitat to cactus. Alcohol prohibited 10am – Time Trials. 1pm – Drag Races.  When in Rome…
October 2 | 10am |  Osoyoos Airport | Details

The Annual Fall Okanagan Wine Festival throws down with165 events this year. The air is just starting to cool off, colours are changing and the fall harvest is going down. From seminars and tastings to dinners and parties, it’s a bloody good time.
September 30 – October 9 | Various locations times and dates – for a full listing – click here.

MORE FIELD TRIPS

by Andrew Morrison | I’ve spent the better part of the last few weeks zipping up and down from the Okanagan Valley camping, resort-hopping, eating, sippng and generally taking it easy. In that time I’ve visited dozens of wineries, old and new.

Though I’ve long loved their products, the architecture and design has often left plenty to be desired. The lack of representative style has always irked. More often than not – perhaps out of fear that they won’t be taken seriously – owners tend to produce on a stunted aesthetic that replicates what they see and over-respect in their French, Spanish, Italian and Californian counterparts.

It’s aspirational thinking, and as a consequence we have not a few absurd-looking Italian villa-flavoured Burgundian chateau buildings with Spanish tiled roofs and Napa-inspired tasting rooms painted in seven shades of Tuscan regret. It may be a sad testament to a tremendous lack of self confidence on our part (not to mention taste), but I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to do something different.

We saw a similar crisis in Vancouver’s restaurant scene throughout the 80′s and 90′s, back when a restaurant was only impressive if it precisely mirrored what was being done elsewhere. “Local? What’s that?” Hall of Fame restaurateur John Bishop once told me of the general attitude in those times. It was as true of design as it was of food. Thankfully, a lot has changed since then. In the past decade, we have come to accept who and what we are, and what a glorious restaurant scene we have on account of that still accelerating progression. It should be the turn of our wineries next. When I heard that some graffiti artist friends of mine had been invited up to Summerland last week to paint the soon to open Okanagan Crush Pad, I didn’t even unpack from my return the night before and jumped back on a plane to join them.

The OCP caused quite a stir when it was announced last March, not least because it’s the first operation of its kind to open in BC. Overlooking a 10-acre vineyard (Switchback) and Lake Okanagan, it aims to offer a broad range of services to wine-making clients that aren’t equipped to do everything themselves. Shepherding grapes from vine to glass, it is the full meal deal, aiding in branding and bringing the final product to market. It was sorely needed, and stands to be a big help as the industry continues to grow. Labels like Haywire, Bartier-Scholefield and Bartier Bros. are the first through their pipe, and we should expect to see many more in the years to come (they can produce up to 25,000 cases each year).

Precisely because the business is so unorthodox, its design demanded difference. When I first saw the schematics, they reminded me of a concrete gun emplacement on Hitler’s Atlantic Wall; the kind meant to beat back Eisenhower’s boys from Calais to Cherbourg in 1944. Not at all sexy, save for in a martial, Gunther-take-your-black-turtleneck-off sort of way. Twas all angular and concrete; as far removed from the soft same-same dotting the nearby shores and hillsides as one could imagine. For certain, it didn’t scream “modern and self-assured BC” as plainly (predictably) as Naramata’s new Poplar Grove building did when it recently opened, but mirrored rather the very punk nature of its core concept.

The Okanagan Crush Pad was designed to be a meeting place for the wine industry rather than a pitstop for the public to picnic, sip and buy souvenir aprons for their aunts back in Canmore. It functions as a den for mad alchemists and comes complete with obligatory workshop and laboratory. In a press release from a months ago, architect Brad Tone said it would have “a distinct, modern, and engaging personality of its own.” Naked concrete, glass and steel, however, are seldom “engaging” on their own. Another element was required.

Enter the artists…

L to R: architect Brad Tone on site with Scott Sueme, Robert Squire, Mark Brand, Alex Usow and Dan Climan

When OCP principal Christine Coletta called Robert Squire at Gastown’s Catalog Gallery about spray-painting an Okanagan winery with street art, his first instinct was to decline. “Um…” he paused into the phone, “you really don’t want that.” He thought she was half-cocked. Coletta was nevertheless persuasive, so Squire enlisted the help of artists Dan Climan (who did all the signage for Save On Meats) and Scott Sueme to join him on the trip up, together with Catalog’s owners, Alex Usow (interview) and Mark Brand (see also Sea Monstr Sushi, Boneta, The Diamond, Save On Meats).

When I arrived up the driveway, past the big concrete “O”, it was clear that they’d already been at it for a couple of days. Though sequestered at a little motel in Summerland, they’d nevertheless turned the empty shell of the winery into a home of their own, not unlike French kids let loose in an abandoned section of the Maginot. The evidence of their habitation was everywhere in detritus, from dozens of spray cans and a requisite ghettoblaster to spent cigarette packs and day-old boxes of pizza.

They’d been hard at work, of course. The front of the winery was already dressed darkly in what looked to me to be a swathe of naval Dazzle camouflage from the First World War.

I said as much to Climan and was told not to say the word “camouflage” to the architect, because Tone apparently hated the notion and was very sensitive to any mention of it. It looked pretty awesome regardless, and nowhere near as awfully Dreadnoughtish as it might sound. The dark, geometric zigzag traversed the frontage in three panels, each one subtly introducing a colour from left to right to blend in with the natural surroundings.

To the left, yellowish green morphed into the Switchback vineyard; in the middle came blue to match the sky; and to the right was reddish brown to pair with the earth. The piece was cut with windows, panels, and a massive garage door, making the entirety of the building look like a functioning mechanism of the surrounding terroir.

It was fun watching them work as a team. Street art is not something I would normally associate with schedules, meetings and paychecks, but rather furtive looks over the shoulder and well-laced shoes ready for a run. I’ll leave the full reveal for when the official word comes this week, but they did a superb job. Articulating a vision as unique as Tone and Coletta’s in their vernacular style might have put the zap on their brains a little, but I think the bigger impact on the crew was the Okanagan itself.

Very few of them had been to wine country before, and they were pretty well floored by it (nearly all of them were Nova Scotian imports). Truly, you’d think nothing could make Mark “Fuck You Pay Me” Brand’s jaw silently drop, but damned if it wasn’t on the dock when we retired after the job was done for drinks at Coletta’s house on the lake. A massive storm brewed up out of nowhere, producing double rainbows stretching the breadth of the lake, intense lightning strikes and resounding thunderclaps that echoed up and down the Valley. It was one of the most dramatic sunset sequences I’ve ever seen, and definitely the highest number of times I’d heard the words “holy fuck!” uttered in astounded reverence. The look on all of their faces, beers in hands, was priceless.

Though it was only a 24 hour Field Trip, it was one of the more memorable ones, as some of these photos may attest…

(ed. note: I know the View From Your Window postings are reserved for Scout readers, but I’d love to contribute just once! I took this one last night during a dinner on a beachfront property in Summerland. It was one of the craziest storms I’d ever seen and was lucky enough to catch a bolt)

“A.M.” | Summerland, BC | 9:12pm | SHARE YOUR VIEW

We love posting the photographs that reveal the views from our reader’s windows. Whether it’s a back alley in the fall or a sandy beach in high summer, we’re always stoked to see what you see from home, work or while on the road. Some of our all-time favourite reader submissions below…