Tag: Okanagan Crush Pad

Okanagan Crush Pad seems to be coming up with lots of small production wines, trying different things with different grapes, people, and inspiration.  This article is about two of their latest wines; Haywire Free Form and Samantha Syrah. About Haywire Free Form I was immediately intrigued when I read about this wine as the wine maker’s rolled the dice and…

Okanagan Crush Pad keeps telling us that “Wine is Narrative“.  Every wine tells a story.  Some stories though are more interesting than others.  I think the more specific a place, the more the terroir can speak through the wine.  While there is nothing wrong with wines where the grapes are sourced from widely separated areas, maybe the story is harder…

February 19, 2015 will be the Chinese New Year; the Year of the Sheep.  Haywire Wines from Summerland in the Okanagan have released their second vintage of the Lunar New Year wine.  I was privileged to try their first release for this current year, the Year of the Wooden Horse.  The wine was crafted to complement Asian dishes.  With the…

Haywire Canyonview Chardonnay 2012 is quite different from any other Okanagan Chardonnay that I can remember tasting.  I had to nose it and taste it several times.  What was it that this wine in the glass was telling me?  The aromas straight from the bottle were quite wild and different.  But before I go on to provide you with my…

Haywire wines are made at Okanagan Crush Pad (OCP) in Summerland, BC, and are co-owned by Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie.  I have followed Haywire wines since their inception.  I like them as they try to be as organic and un-interventionist as possible, letting their wines tell their stories.  They make a range of wines; red, white, and bubble for…

A friendly competition never hurt anyone.  Well maybe egos.  Today’s friendly competition is between Okanagan Crush Pad’s Haywire Rose 2011 and Bartier Scholefield (BS) Rose 2011.  Both wines are produced from Gamay Noir grapes grown from the same vineyard in Oliver.  What is different is the style of rose.  The grapes were harvested two weeks apart and vinified differently.  Let…

Do you like a consistent quality wine with classic flavours and aromas?  Should it matter if the Cabernet Sauvignon you drink comes from Napa Valley or Stellenbosch, South Africa? Should the terroir; the soil, microbes, worms, indigenous yeasts, plus the sunshine and rain help to make unique wines to celebrate, or should they be fixed by the wine maker to…

Terry Nicholas Threlfall was announced as the 2012 Sommelier of the Year here in Vancouver, and with that a very interesting perk; to work with Okanagan Crush Pad to produce a limited production wine using whichever grape variety they want.  For Terry it was Chardonnay, with a view back to Burgundy.  The resulting wine, “TNT”, is the third wine release…

What is Yin and Yang? According to About.com “In Chinese culture, Yin and Yang represent the two opposite principles in nature. Yin characterizes the feminine or negative nature of things and yang stands for the masculine or positive side. Yin and yang are in pairs, such as the moon and the sun, female and male, dark and bright, cold and…

This is the second year of the Wine Campus at Okanagan Crush Pad.  The wine campus is a program to foster the education of professionals in the wine industry. Okanagan Crush Pad makes an annual donation of $5,000 to the BC Hospitality Foundation (BCHF) which goes toward a scholarship for students enrolled in a recognized and accredited wine program with…