The GOODS from Okanagan Crush Pad

Summerland, BC | While many wineries in Canada hope for exports to China, few have made concentrated efforts to reach the local Asian community. Summerland based winery, Okanagan Crush Pad, owned by Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie, and home to their Haywire wine, is known and awarded for its innovation. Proving this again, for the first time, a BC winery will introduce a guide to pairing BC wines with Asian cuisines, and offer a specially labeled Haywire wine crafted to celebrate 2014 as the Year of the Horse. Learn about this special bottling and food pairing after the jump…

A Special BC Wine

A limited release of only 688 bottles of the 2012 Haywire Pinot Noir ($24.90) has been labeled depicting the symbol of the horse and good fortune in celebration of the Lunar New Year and to welcome the Year of the Horse.

The wine was gently aged in old French oak barrels and bottled in its purest state and has lovely cherry aromas and fruit-forward flavours, with soft texture and light tannins. It pairs well with pepper and onion sauce pork rib as well as seared sablefish with sweet soy sauce and baby bok choy.

At the time of this release, the wine is available at the following locations, with more to come:

Lower Mainland

St. Regis Fine Wines & Spirits: 678 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver
Crosstown Liquor Store: 568 Abbott Street, Vancouver
Garrison Wine & Liquor Merchants: #5 – 45555 Market Way, Chilliwack

Vancouver Island

Hotel Grand Pacific: 463 Belleville Street, Victoria
Vintage Spirits: 653 Pandora Avenue, Victoria
Village Liquor Store: #4 – 575 North Rd, Gabriola
Lucky’s Liquor Store: 3296 Island Hwy North, Nanaimo

To order the wine or learn where else to find it, contact Whitney Law at the winery at 604-800-0601 | [email protected]

A Delicious Initiative:

Coupled with this wine release, Haywire has also developed a food and wine pairing initiative for the Asian market. The team worked with well-known food author and broadcaster Stephanie Yuen and journalist and food stylist Nathan Fong, to develop a program and guide of how to pair flavours from various parts of Asia with the flavour profiles that emerge from BC wines.

The results are truly delicious and are aimed to get people to think of pairing wine with Asian cuisine both at home and while dining out.

Try this at home:

As an example of the program, consider Hot and Sour Soup, paired with Haywire Gewürztraminer, or Seafood and Tofu soup with Chinese chives paired with Haywire Pinot Gris. The winery has made it easy: click here for recipes by Nathan Fong, photographed by John Sherlock.

Tips for At Home and Dining Out: Pairing Do’s and Don’ts for Asian Cuisines:

The team at Haywire has developed some basic food and wine pairing do’s and don’ts to consider when picking the best wine to go with Asian cuisine for the Year of the Horse.

* Do bear the overall flavour of the dish in mind when seeking a wine to go with Asian food, instead of paying attention to the base ingredients.

* The acidity in sparkling wines and bubbles pairs very well with a wide selection of food. When in doubt, grab the bubbles.

* Aromatic, sweeter wines pair well with hotter, spicier dishes.

* Crispier, drier whites enhance lighter dishes without overpowering the flavour and texture.

* Reds with light or moderate oak go well with soy or oyster based dishes.

* Juicy, fruit-forward reds with depth and complexity match nicely with intense-flavoured dishes, deep-fried or braised.

* Acidity and sugar are good counter-balances to spices so look for those in a wine that will stand up to fiery dishes.

* Pork, mushrooms, bean paste or hoisin sauce can conflict with red wines with dry tannins; look for red wines with little or no oak that deliver delicate, fruity and little residual sugar notes.

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

The People

Christine Coletta, Owner
Steve Lornie, Owner
Michael Bartier, Chief Winemaker
Matt Dumayne, Associate Winemaker
Julian Scholefield, Operations Manager
David Scholefield, Wine advisor
Alberto Antonini, Consulting viticulturist & winemaker
Leeann Froese, Marketing and Communications
Alison Scholefield, Brand Manager
Whitney Law, order desk and THE Club @ Crush Pad

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.”