GOODS: Blue Mountain Vineyards & Cellars Throws Open The Doors To Its Tasting Room

Blue Mountain | 2385 Allendale Rd. | Okanagan Falls, BC | 250-497-8244 | bluemountainwinery.com

The GOODS from Blue Mountain

Okanagan Falls, BC | Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars is pleased to announce that effective immediately, its tasting room will be open Monday to Saturday from 11:00am to 5:00pm, May through early October. The Okanagan winery changed from appointment-only hours to this more expansive schedule to accommodate the increasing number of visitors wishing to sample its wines on-site.

The extended tasting room hours at the winery will allow more visitors, both domestic and international, to experience tasting Blue Mountain wines at their source, within view of the Okanagan Valley estate’s vineyards and winemaking facilities.  “Blue Mountain is blessed with a truly spectacular setting,” says Christie Mavety, Owner and Sales & Marketing Manager.  “The new tasting room hours will make it more convenient for wine lovers to visit and taste Blue Mountain’s wines, right where they’re made.” Learn more about Blue Mountain after the jump… Read more

GOODS: Little Naramata Winery “Nichol Vineyard” Makes Impression At Big Night

Nichol Vineyard is located on Smethurst Road in beautiful Naramata, BC | 250.496.5962 | nicholvineyard.com

The GOODS from Nichol Vineyard

Vancouver, BC | Nichol Vineyards of Naramata BC made a big impression on more than 500 Vancouverites on Friday, as they were featured as the “unsung hero” at Vancouver magazine’s Big Night. At the annual foodie event, Vancouver magazine pairs Best-in-Category wines from their Wine Awards with winning restaurants from their Restaurant Awards for a delectable evening of food and wine hosted at the prestigious Vancouver Club. The event is always a hot ticket in the city, as it features the who’s who of Vancouver’s vibrant culinary scene.

Vancouver magazine’s Sommelier of the Year, Kurtis Kolt, revealed and sampled his favourite “unsung hero” from this year’s competition, Nichol Vineyard’s 9 MILE RED. Read all about it after the jump… Read more

Celebrating The Tenth Vintage Of Mission Hill’s “Oculus” Wine

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

News from Scout supporter Mission Hill Family Estate

Vancouver, BC | With the first day of fall upon us, we’re delighted to announce a series of celebratory events to commemorate Mission Hill’s tenth vintage of our premium Bordeaux-inspired wine, Oculus, this autumn. Next month during the 30th Okanagan Fall Wine Festival we’re holding a selection of intimate activities in our Oculus Salon: from vintage library, component and barrel tastings by our Sommeliers to “Message on a Bottle” personalized Oculus signings by Chief Winemaker John Simes and Proprietor Anthony von Mandl. Also on Thanksgiving weekend, we’re honoured to have  top restaurants in British Columbia and Alberta offer “Buy the Glass” pours of rare Oculus magnums. More details on our website. Read more

Mission Hill To Pair With Fleuri Kitchen At Sutton Place Hotel

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

News from Scout supporter Mission Hill Family Estate

Vancouver, BC | Join Mission Hill’s Director of Wine Education Ingo Grady and Fleuri Executive Chef Michael Deutsch as they showcase the classically inspired Okanagan Valley wines of Mission Hill Family Estate and the progressive Northwest cuisine of Fleuri Restaurant at Vancouver’s Sutton Place Hotel. Date: Tuesday September 28th 2010. Time: 6:30pm. Cost: $120 per person. Reserve after the jump… Read more

Elephant Island Orchard Wines Joins The Scout Community

Elephant Island Orchard Wines is now a proud member supporter of Scout. We will be publishing their news and press releases on our front page and hosting a page for them in our list of member wineries and breweries here. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support of our little website. Click ahead to read on or jump directly to their Scout page. Read more

On The World’s Bulk Wine Ascendancy

Something interesting has happened in the last few years in the wine world – something both good and worrying. Wine regions that were once written off as ‘bulk’ wine areas have shown that a changing attitude to grape growing and wine making can achieve recognition and respect, catapulting new varietal names and regions onto the world scene. Read more

Laughing Stock Links Wine Price To TSX

David and Cynthia Enns like to say that they wake up every morning with the goal of not living up to their winery’s name “Laughing Stock”. Things must have been running too smoothly for too long because they have decided to put their reputations on the line once again.

Their latest brave/foolish adventure is linking the price of their soon to be released Portfolio 2007 to the much-maligned TSX. If you purchase Portfolio futures at $35 per bottle (the early bird special price versus the usual $39 on release) you enter the TSX lottery.

For every 500 points the TSX drops by the time the wine is released in September 2009, Laughing Stock will give you back $1 per bottle or donate it to charity (not the banking sector) – their own little vine-ancial stimulus package.

I happened to be at the winery a couple of days ago and tasted some barrel samples of the 2007 and it is showing the usual high quality that Portfolio has come to represent. The futures go on sale Feb 17th and with this deal, there is little to lose. If the markets do continue to decline, you may well need a drink.

Ed. note: That’s Rhys and Cynthia in the photo at the 2008 Naramata Unfiltered Sommelier Bootcamp. I think they might be trying to yell at the vines or something. I remember that being a particularly inebriating day…

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Rhys Pender is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. Visit his company Wine Plus+ online at www.wineplus.ca.

’09 Vancouver Wine Festival Gears Into Action

It is now less than a couple of months away from what is definitely the BC wine event of the year – the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. I have just gone through the barrage of media releases and I have to say that the lineup of events is pretty impressive. As always, many of these events will sell out quickly (last year 10 events sold out on the first day) so heed this warning to plan your week and get in early to buy tickets. Tickets for the public events went on sale Jan 27th and Trade event tickets were made available on Feb 3rd.

At first, I must admit, I thought that it was a bit pointless having BC as the ‘theme region’ for 2009 when the wines are so readily available for tasting, but on further thought I am liking the idea more and more. The seminars the wine fest team have come up with provide some very interesting insights into what is happening in our little industry. This is a chance to both study BC wine in more depth and to conduct serious analyses of BC versus The World. Both will help BC wine evolve.

Some of the BC focused seminars that have caught my attention include: A Vertical Tasting of Oculus (after having just conducted two 10 Year Old BC wine tastings, this will be an interesting look at the ageability across a decade of wine); Osoyoos Larose Component and Vertical Tasting (ditto); Nota Bene Vertical Tasting (ditto again); Pinot-Rama! (a look at Pinot Varieties from BC and the rest of the world), BC Reds Reach for the Top (Trade Only) and Icons of BC (those hard to get wines). A full list of event descriptions is available here.

Here are some of the impressive festival numbers – 183 wineries, 1700+ wines, 15 countries represented and 61 events. The dates are March 23rd to the 29th, and after many years of practice I can guarantee you that you need to attend for at least a few days to get a real taste of the action. It certainly is not advised to attempt to taste the 700 wines in the tasting room in one evening. I’ve seen people try and its messy. You either need a very focused plan of attack, which is completely dull and boring, or you need to invest in a few nights of tasting. It will be worth it. For $89 a night, you can taste hundreds of dollars worth of wine and brush shoulders with the wine cognoscenti. For those who work in the Trade, there are some great multi-day packages available.

For tickets you can phone 604-873-3311 or visit www.playhousewinefest.com for more details. If for nothing else, the wine fest is a great networking opportunity and you are bound to learn a lot just by hanging around. After all, half of the wine world will be there.

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Rhys Pender is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. Visit his company Wine Plus+ online at www.wineplus.ca.

Elephant Island Orchard Wines

Details

2730 Aikins Loop, Naramata BC | V0H 1N0 | RR1 S5 C18
Follow Naramata Rd 9 km North to Aikins Loop
(if you get to Naramata you’ve gone to far)
Phone: 250.496.5522 | Fax: 250.496.5521
Email: info@elephantislandwine.com
Web: www.elephantislandwine.com

Gallery

The People Who Make it Happen

Owners: Miranda & Del Halladay
Winemaker: Del Halladay
Consulting Winemaker: Christine Leroux

About Elephant Island

Elephant Island – Not your typical wine moniker…not your typical wine.

Fusing classic wine making processes with an unconventional line-up of fruits – Stella cherries, organic Bartlett pears, Goldrich apricots, Heritage raspberries, and Black Currants. Tradition with a twist, wine with a spine…this is what we aspire to create at Elephant Island. Over the last 6 years, and many bottles (ok we’ll be frank – cases) of ‘experimenting’ we have expanded the Elephant Island repertoire to include bone dry wines, lip-smacking dessert style wines, fortified wines, a port style wine, and even methode champeniose sparkling wines. All told in the 2008 vintage over 260,000 lbs of fruit were processed to produce 6,000 cases of wine.

Recognizing that our 20’s were spent consuming large quantities of beer (and being only shortly into our 30’s) we brought professional winemaker Christine Leroux in to the fold. Thank goodness Christine was up for a challenge – sure the science of winemaking is the same but in the world of Elephant Island you’re dealing not with 1 fruit with 30 different varietal expressions, you deal with 13 fruits and the exponential permutations that follow. Together we have learned what works and what doesn’t…and we’ve drunk a lot of wine. Bottom line: exceptional fruit – nothing else, stainless steel aging, and defining a style that suits the fruit.

Wines

From bone dry wines, to lip-smacking dessert style wines. Check out the line-up and reviews at www.elephantislandwine.com.

Pet Projects

The Cocktail Program – In the company of good friends and a bottle of Grey Goose, the cocktail project was born. Mixing a little Apricot Dessert Wine 2004 with a little more Grey Goose was dangerously delicious…imagine what the professionals could come up with. Enter Chris Stearns, mixologist extraordinaire, and the results are more elegant, more refined and double the drinking pleasure for our dessert wine customers. Artisnal, handcrafted and locally grown the dessert wines offer the new generation of mixologists a beautiful addition to their well.

The Little King – A sparkling wine made in the traditional method (Methode Champenoise) crafted in the memory of our infant son Rex who died in 2002. Rex died as a result of suffocation in his mother’s hospital bed when he was 3 hours old. The Little King is dedicated to his memory and to tell his story. Committed to preventing through sharing, Miranda and Del donate all proceeds from the sale of the wine to the Rex Halladay Memorial Fund at BC Children’s Hospital which was formed to support the education of regional and rural hospitals in best codes of practice for peri- and post-natal care.

Mission Hill

1730 West Bank Road | West Kelowna, BC V4T 2E4
Telephone: 250-768-7611
Email: info@missionhillwinery.com
Web: www.missionhillwinery.com

Hours

The Winery is open from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm with tours and educational seminars offered.
The Terrace is open from May to September for lunch from 11:30 to 3:00pm and Tapas from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. For restaurant or seminar reservations, visit our website, or call 250-768-6467

Gallery

The Team

Proprietor: Anthony von Mandl
Chief Winemaker: John Simes
Winery Chef: Matthew Batey
Terrace Chef: Riley Bennett
Wine Education: Ingo Grady
Sommelier: Jesse Harnden

About Mission Hill

“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.

The Terrace is a proud member of OceanWise.

Accolades

Mission Hill Family Estate has been honoured with numerous awards including:

* The Terrace, Top Five Winery Restaurants in the World by Travel and Leisure Magazine, 2008
* The Terrace, Best Okanagan Restaurant, Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards 2009
* Best Icewine in the World, 2008 International World Challenge
* 2007 & 2001 Winery of the Year as rated by Wine Access Magazine