Category: bc

Who We Are C.C. Jentsch Cellars was established in 2102 but The Jentsch family has been farming the Okanagan since 1929. Chris and Betty Jentsch are the winery proprietors and winegrowers. Like many people you may assume that C. C. are Chris’ initials. Actually, they stand for his middle name, Carl, and his wife`s middle name, Coelho, which means rabbit in…

From my first article posing the question, “what unique aromas and flavours may be characterized by BC’s Pinot Noir based on soil type“, I’ve led you through my process of tasting the wines, adding the tasting notes to a computerized GIS map, overlaid the tasting notes vineyard locations to a soil map of BC, and finally aggregating the flavours and…

What is OKANAGAN CRUSH PAD? Okanagan Crush Pad is a winery located in Summerland BC, which is home to our flagship wines Haywire and Narrative, plus wines made for custom crush clients. The licensed winery has been designed to facilitate production of multiple small lots of wine from many different sources, and the management of Okanagan Crush Pad welcomes clients seeking to use…

The first modern winery on Vancouver Island is Vigneti Zanatta which is located 10 minutes by car southwest of downtown Duncan.  I think what sets them apart from the other wineries on Vancouver Island is their specialization on making sparkling wines. The winery was named Vigneti Zanatta after the Italian family who owned the farm since the 1950s, and still do through…

Since 2011, Okanagan Crush Pad  (OCP) winery in Summerland offered the Okanagan Wine Campus, where the BC Sommelier of the Year has the opportunity to create their own wine label at the OCP facility.  They are part of the whole wine making process, starting with grape selecting, wine making, blending, labeling, marketing and bottling their wines.  $5000 of the “small lot”…

The 2017 BC Hospitality Foundation Sommelier Scholarships are sponsored by Okanagan Crush Pad (OCP) and Authentic Wine and Spirits Merchants. These scholarships are a mentorship program designed to further individual study in wine education. Up to four $1000.00 scholarships are awarded every year. To apply, you will need: A 500 word essay on why you need and deserve a $1000 scholarship from the…

BC’s Pinot Noirs do show unique aromas and flavours according to soil type, as I have found through my GIS analysis of soil type.  But we know that our climate, although considered cool, does show variation from the warmer regions of the South Okanagan as we move northward to Lake Country for example.  A second question I posed besides the…

With the Fall harvest safely in and the rains now freely flowing, it is time to celebrate the bounty of wines that are coming out this Fall.  Burrowing Owl has released their latest flight of wines to the public, covering mainly red wines from the 2013 vintage and one white wine, a Chardonnay, from the 2014 vintage.  I received a…

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness This spring, I took my first step in my journey with the thought that maybe the different soil types in BC affect the aromas and flavours of Pinot Noir grapes.  How to…

BC bubble is growing.  Before we only talked about Blue Mountain, Sumac Ridge and Summerhill, but now there are Bella, Stoneboat, Encore Vineyards, and many more.  I recently received a white and a rose sparkling wine to taste from Encore Vineyards and their winery Evolve Cellars. The bottle labels are lightly coloured and appear to be bubbles in wine.  Nothing too formal,…