Tag: Summerland

Making a white Pinot Noir wine in BC has become popular over the last three years.  I had a chance to try Okanagan Crush Pad’s free form Vin Gris 2017.  The Pinot Noir grapes come from a certified organic vineyard in Summerland.  Matt Dumayne made this wine.  The grapes were whole-cluster pressed to small concrete eggs, where they fermented using…

Giant Head Winery, located in Summerland along the Bottleneck Drive, purchased their land in 2004 and have been producing wine since 2008.  Owners John Glavina and Jinny Lee run the operation, making small batches of wine.  They produce Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, Merlot, a Rosé made from Merlot, and a Blanc de Noir sparkling made from Pinot Noir.  Their grapes are all…

Lunessence Winery in Summerland, BC is one of our newer wineries.  2016 was their third vintage.  Their philosophy is to create fine wines that showcase the unique terroir of their vineyards.  They use sustainable, environmentally sensitive viticulture, treating the vineyard as a living and varied ecosystem.  All their wines were partially or fully fermented with native yeasts.  Of particular interest…

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…

Here is my last wine review for 2015.  It has been an amazing year of trying wines from around the world, and meeting with wine makers from around the world.  BC’s winery list continues to grow, and winery regions as well.  I look forward to what surprises 2016 will offer us.  Happy New Year with much prosperity to all my…

Sometimes you get some free time and can take a quick trip to the Okanagan.  That recently happened to me.  I wanted to visit at least 2 new wineries to me on this trip. I stayed in Kelowna, and checking the latest winery map, I saw that I have been to all in the area before, so I fixed my…

For the Etsell family, farming is in their blood, with their roots firmly entrenched in the Fraser Valley; first with turkeys, and now into viticulture and wine making. Their farming roots extend to the label, where they are called “Singletree Winery”. What is a singletree?  It is a wood and iron harness yoke with three iron rings circling a wood…

Wine grapes from two different vineyards plus native yeasts from each vineyard, produces two unique wines.  The winery in question is Haywire and the wines were made at Okanagan Crush Pad, in Summerland, BC.  The two wines I tasted from Haywire were: Haywire Switchback Vineyard Pinot Gris 2012 Haywire Canyonview Vineyard Chardonnay 2013 The Switchback Vineyard was the first vineyard…

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…