Tag: Kamloops

The Monte Creek Ranch Winery is located just east of Kamloops in the new GI of the Thompson Valley.  A region with cold winters, requires hardy grapes.  Monte Creek Ranch has a variety of red and white hybrid grapes that can stand these winters.  I talk about these grapes in the tasting notes for the wines.  And they also grow…

From BC’s winemakers, the consensus seems to be that 2017 was a more normal growing season compared to the two previous seasons.  Although there were horrible wildfires, the fires occurred in early summer, not later in the summer when veraison occurs.  Smoke seems to be more problematic for grapes at veraison.  The smoke earlier in the summer filtered the sunshine…

BC’s emerging wine regions is rather large and encompasses different climates and terroir.  From my tour to the region, the places that I visited I think can be divided into two sub-regions: the hot west, and the cooler northeast.  There is still an area to the southeast that I did not visit on this trip, so cannot comment on its…

Everyone knows about the Okanagan Valley as a wine region, and some may also know about the Similkameen which is on the southwestern edge of the Okanagan, but what about BC’s emerging wine regions, covering the Kootenays, Lillooet and Thompson Shuswap?  I had a chance to go on a trip hosted by the Wines of BC to visit Lillooet and…

Monte Creek Ranch Winery, located just east of Kamloops, is one of our emerging regions wineries.  They have put out a few vintages already. The 2016 vintage started with their earliest bud-break yet and a warm spring.  A rainy June and July slowed the growth of the grapes, but still harvest began early. Two weeks early, on August 22.  The…

Harper’s Trail winery in Kamloops has blazed their own trail, trying out red and white grapes to find out what works best in this terroir, and has also added sparkling wine to their repertoire. I received 2 bottles of their latest sparkling wines, 2 bottles of their Rieslings, and a bottle each of their Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.  I…

Introducing Harper’s Trail Harper’s Trail, named for the cattle drive trail of pioneer rancher Thaddeus Harper, is the first estate winery from Kamloops. Tucked into the city outskirts on the bank of the South Thompson River, Ed and Vicki Collett’s vineyard sits among rolling hills of sage and grass, home to bighorn sheep, bears, and myriad birds. The backdrop of limestone, hoodoos,…

The 2015 vintage was the hottest in years in BC, and recorded the earliest grape harvest of all time.  The heat helped fully ripen the grapes, and produce full-bodied, ripe red wines in the Okanagan, and also the Kamloops region, where we find Monte Creek Ranch.  The winery is still relatively new, with their vineyards planted in 2009.  Learning about…

Can you remember back 1 year ago to our Spring and Summer? We had beautiful sunny weather across BC.  Very little rain.  Perfect conditions for our BC grapes to have early bud break and flowering.  From the end of May to mid-September statistics show that 2015 was warmer than any other year on record.  Because of the sun and heat,…

New BC wineries appear quite regularly.  Some I hear about before hand, while others take me by surprise.  Monte Creek Ranch is one of the wineries that falls in the latter category, plus they are in the Kamloops area, which has recently had a few wineries set up their homes; Harper’s Trail, Sagewood, and Privato. Who is Monte Creek Ranch…