GOODS: Similkameen Valley’s Orofino Vineyards Launches New “Collector’s Club”

Orofino is located at 2152 Barcelo Road in beautiful Cawston, BC V0X 1C2 | (250) 499-0068 | www.orofinovineyards.com

The GOODS from Orofino Strawbale Winery

Cawston, BC | In 2005 we opened our winery with a tiny amount of wine for sale. We have grown quite a bit over the past decade but the commitment to our portfolio of wines remains the same. We focus on making vineyard specific wines. Wines of place. Wines that could not be made anywhere else in the world. Wines worth collecting.

This journey continues and has led us to the creation of our Collector’s Club. Our hope is to offer membership to something that simplifies the acquisition of our wines, but also adds to the experience of all things Orofino. We want to share our knowledge and insights on the workings of the vineyards, the winery and all aspects of the wine experience. Of course, the best way to share things with other like-minded people is to throw a party and we plan to offer some exclusive club events so we can show off what we do here in the magical Similkameen Valley! Read more

WELCOME: Cawston’s “Eau Vivre Winery” Has Joined The Growing Scout Community

We’ve invited Cawston’s award-winning Eau Vivre Winery to join our GOODS section as an excellent maker of local wine. They are now proud members of Scout, and as such we will be posting their news in addition to hosting a page for them on our awesome, curated list of independent goodnesses. We’d like to take this chance to thank them for their support, and for making BC a more delicious province.

ALL THE LOCAL “GOODS”

Eau Vivre Winery

Details

716 Lowe Dr. | Cawston, BC | V0X 1C2
Telephone: 250.499.2655 | Email: postmaster@EauVivreWinery.ca
Web: www.EauVivreWinery.ca | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

GALLERY

The People

Co-Proprietors: Dale Wright and Jeraldine (Jeri) Estin
Winemaker: Anthony Buchanan
Family Representative in Vancouver: Lucas McCann

About Eau Vivre Winery

Our family-run boutique winery is located in Cawston, in the Heart of the Similkameen Valley. Our French-style small batch wines are lovingly hand-crafted to help you savour every sip and celebrate every moment. Our wines are clean, pure and elegant. We offer a selection of award-winning whites ranging from our smooth Chardonnay to our bright, floral Gewürztraminer. Our reds range from our earthy, complex Pinot Noir made with 100% organic grapes to our full-bodied rich Cabernet Franc, Malbec and our newest release, Buddhafull — a big, Bordeaux style blend.

Our Philosophy: We are committed to harmony and balance and use biodynamic and sustainable farming practices on our land. We are innovative and we are constantly improving our grape-growing and harvesting processes. We embraced the clay-based soils of our home vineyard by planting hearty Gewürztraminer and Riesling grapes that have been developed in Europe for these soil conditions. We were among the first in our Valley to grow Gewürztraminer and today it is one of our award-winning wines. We are passionate about bringing joy and happiness to those that enjoy our wines and take great delight in seeing people that love our wines as much as we do.

Our Greatest Honour: We opened Eau Vivre Winery in 2008 and since then, we have won a variety of BC and Canadian Wine Awards, however we are most proud of our 2009 Pinot Noir receiving a 2012 Lieutenant Governors Award for Excellence in British Columbia Wines.

Dale Wright commented, “We are absolutely thrilled and honoured to win this award. As a relative newcomer in the winemaking world, this honour shows us that we are on the right path.”

Not only was this our first Lieutenant Governor’s Award, it’s the first time in the 10-year history of the award that a winery from the Similkameen Valley has won a Lieutenant Governor’s Award. On top of that, this year’s competition was the largest ever with 347 wines submitted.

Press

Wine Trails | “Eau Vivre Winery Wins Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence”

Yelp | I love this winery – it’s one of my favorites in BC (and I’ve been around the bend, trust me). It is definitely my favorite of the Similkameen.

Wines Of Canada | Eau Vivre Winery, the Lieutenant Governor’s Award.

House Wine | Holy Smokes – what a find!

John Schreiner | The 2012 Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence

GOODS: Nevermind The NHL, Play Holiday Ball Hockey On The Crush Pad At “Orofino”

Orofino is located at 2152 Barcelo Road in beautiful Cawston, BC V0X 1C2 | (250) 499-0068 | www.orofinovineyards.com

The GOODS from Orofino Strawbale Winery

Cawston, BC | Orofino is inviting anyone to stop by their winery December 7th–9th from 10am-5pm for a special holiday open house. No cinnamon-scented candles. No icky sweet eggnog. No Justin Bieber Christmas carols. Instead they are inviting everyone to grab a hockey stick and join in on the Orofino Winter Classic Hockey Weekend. It sounds much more official than it actually is. The Orofino team wants you to join them for some extremely non-competitive pick-up ball hockey on the crush pad. Spend 10 minutes or a whole afternoon enjoying Canada’s game in the Similkameen Valley.

The wine shop will be open for tastings and for that last minute Christmas present. There will also be a draw made for a very special basket full of Orofino treats. To top it all off, they will be releasing their flagship red blend Beleza 2010! Kick back with some friends and a glass of wine on the patio. This event is part of the Similkameen Wineries Association Christmas Open House Weekend. All 8 wineries will be celebrating the holiday season with special events held daily from the 7th-9th. Lockout be damned! Grab your sticks and head to Orofino in Cawston for some fun hockey action. Read more

GOODS: Similkameen Winery “Orofino” Completes Ambitious Solar Power Project

Orofino is located at 2152 Barcelo Road in beautiful Cawston, BC V0X 1C2 | (250) 499-0068 | www.orofinovineyards.com

The GOODS from Orofino Strawbale Winery

Cawston, BC | Co-owners John and Virginia Weber of Orofino Winery in Cawston, BC are proud to announce the completion of a significant solar project that will convert all power consumption of its public tasting building from traditional power sources to solar power. The project uses a unique hybrid system of solar photovoltaic panels and a solar thermal water heating system. The system was designed and constructed by Swiss Solar Tech from Summerland, BC who are leaders in solar technology implementation in the province. Learn more after the jump… Read more

GOODS: Similkameen’s “Orofino Strawbale Winery” Launches New 2011 Harvest Blog

Orofino is located at 2152 Barcelo Road in beautiful Cawston, BC V0X 1C2 | (250) 499-0068 | www.orofinovineyards.com

The GOODS from Orofino Strawbale Winery

Cawston, BC | Orofino in the Similkameen Valley has just created a new blog – The Orofino Press – that will follow the 2011 grape harvest from the vineyards to the barrels. Its not the glossy stuff created by the dozens of PR people they have hired but the everyday dirt on decisions that have to be made, the progression of the harvest and insights on making wine in the beautiful Similkameen Valley. Owners John and Virginia Weber along with their cellarhand Aaron Godard will post regular updates and pictures. What they are drinking, music they are listening to and maybe even the odd rant about the Saskatchewan Roughriders are all fair game. Its all things Orofino… Read more

GOODS: Orofino Winery Teams With Joy Road For True “Farm To Plate” Experience

Orofino Winery is located at 2152 Barcelo Road in Cawston, BC | 250-499-0068 | www.orofinovineyards.com

The GOODS from Orofino

Cawston, BC | This unique event celebrates the beauty of the Similkameen Valley in all her forms. The evening will consist of a five course meal involving only the best foods provided by artisan producers from within a 1.6 mile radius of Orofino Winery.  Each course will be expertly crafted by chefs Cameron Smith and Dana Ewart, owners of the highly regarded Joy Road Catering company. Delectable surprises, unique produce and world-class flavours will be paired with Orofino’s best wines. Please join us in our beautiful winery courtyard for an enchanted evening of fine dining, remarkable wine, and good company! Get all the details after the jump… Read more

Rhys Pender: Orofino Vineyards & The Similkameen 1.6 Mile Diet…

Forget the 100 Mile diet. Orofino Vineyards and Bogner’s restaurant of Penticton have redefined the redefining of local. Last month the team put together two dinners that really celebrated local cuisine, sourcing everything from within a radius of just 1.6 miles (2.57 km) of the Orofino winery.

With the trend towards eating and celebrating local food gaining momentum all the time, it was fantastic to see what could be unearthed and discovered from within such a tiny area. John Weber, owner of Orofino, and Darin Paterson, owner and chef of Bogner’s, toured the local farms and hungrily eyed the unsuspecting local livestock in order to come up with a menu to showcase the Cawston region.

Cooking only ingredients grown this close to home is never easy, particularly having to forego some of the staples of the kitchen – oil, most spices, butter, salt. In spite of these, Paterson was very creative – making his own cheese and butter from local milk, cooking chicken confit style and marinating lamb in some delicious Orofino wine. The precious butter was used to luxuriously poach chicken breast and then to give gloss and flavours to the sauces. The team did make an exception for salt justifying it’s history of being traded as currency. Read more

Introducing The Similkameen Valley: 7% And Growing Strong

The Similkameen Valley (wiki) is not a new wine region in BC, but it seems like it has only recently been remembered, or maybe, more appropriately, rediscovered. Located in the very south of BC, just west of Osoyoos, it is surprising that the Similkameen has taken so long to get serious attention. Read more

The Okanagan Coffee Route

Now that I regularly drive the 1.5 hour journey from the Similkameen to Kelowna to teach my wine classes I have had to create a coffee route to keep me fueled along the way. One of the most important things for me in any place is to find out where to get the best latte. It’s easier said than done up here, but over the years in the Okanagan (and now Similkameen) a number of decent coffee houses have popped up in the towns along my new path.

The first stop as I head north is Penticton. There are now two very solid stops to be found. If you are heading up the hill towards the Naramata Bench, a visit to the Bench Market is essential for good coffee and panini (and you can pick up some Vij’s curry for dinner). The second stop in Penticton is a new entry, the Bellevue Cafe. This little spot on Main Street makes for a perfect break as you browse your way through the farmer’s market in the summer months, and with free wireless it is also a good stop en route from which you can send a few emails.

After jumping back in the car and heading north, you are probably just finishing one coffee as you roll into Summerland. The Beanery at the end of Main Street makes a pretty decent latte and I am visiting this place a lot more as the roadwork between Summerland and Peachland causes many unplanned delays.

By Peachland, you can drop into Bliss Bakery for a coffee or sandwich and kill some time by staring out over the lake, but it is the next stop that is probably the most exciting for me.

Now, in one of the many large strip malls that have popped up in Westbank, you can find the Okanagan’s first Caffe Artigiano. This is the now the best coffee in the Okanagan and a forced stop on any journey through the big-box storeland of Westbank. I was there on opening day a couple of weeks ago and was pleased to see the new staff just making latte after latte until they’d reached the expected perfection. It is nice to see such commitment to product quality.

The only challengers to the Artigiano crown are the two Bean Scene cafes in Kelowna (Bernard Ave and Ellis Street). The coffee they call the “Traditional Cappuccino” is actually a small, strong powerhouse with perfectly textured steamed milk and intense flavour. The Bean Scene food is very ordinary, but for coffee they were the first ones here who were really committed to training staff to make it properly.

I have yet to explore in-depth the caffeine scene of Okanagan Falls, Oliver and Osoyoos, or the north Okanagan around Vernon, but at least, for a good length of the Okanagan and Similkameen, we can be sure of finding a great cup of coffee now, another sign of the improving food scene in the Okanagan.

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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.

Good Food In The Similkameen?

It was with more than a little trepidation that Alishan and I made the move out of the Okanagan into the relative unknown of the beautiful but isolated Similkameen Valley. Drawn by the chance to purchase five acres of land that well-suited to a vineyard and the stunning beauty of the area, we made the move anyway. Thinking we were destined for home cooking and nothing more exotic than frozen Vij’s meals picked up from the Codfather’s Seafood Market during our weekly trips to Kelowna, our stomachs were ready for a barren run. When we signed the dotted line to purchase our house, I didn’t think there was an espresso machine in the valley. But things have been much better than we’d hoped.

The first discovery was the Riverbed Bistro. After a long day of shuttling our stuff between Peachland and Cawston, we were finally ready for pizza and a bottle of red wine amidst the rubble of boxes. We headed into town (Keremeos being our new “big smoke”) and discovered this newly opened restaurant, something that wasn’t there a couple of months ago when we were finalising our house purchase. The Mexican pizza turned out to be very good (we are now addicted) and on numerous other visits, their skill with the deep fryer has impressed us to no end. There is something great about a restaurant that only does simple food but does it very well. And they make a decent latté. Things were looking up.

The next major victory for our pioneering stomachs came during a fruit stand stop in Keremeos. The family that runs Sanderson Farms also makes authentic pakoras, samosas and a range of curries. My in-laws, who lived in India, proclaimed the pakoras the best they’ve tried since they left. So now we have our little bistro and some good Indian food sorted. Dare I say it, choice.

We also have the recently opened Benja Thai. I was used to some pretty good Thai food in Australia but so often our Canadian Thai experience has been second to many. Our hopes weren’t high but we kept hearing the local gossip about the new Thai restaurant and made our first foray in a couple of weeks ago. Wow. Some of the best Thai food I have ever had. Spoiled for choice.

The Similkameen has always been considered a bit of a backwater with little to excite the senses. But now with nine wineries (and a few more to open soon), this is developing into its own little wine region. And while it might not have the fine dining we often associate with wine, there is both excellent wine and good, inexpensive food to enjoy. There is the feeling that this is the beginning of something exciting. I will keep you updated as things unfold.

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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.