4 BC Wineries to Discover at the Vancouver International Wine Festival

4 BC WINERIES TO DISCOVER The wine world convenes February 11-19 for the Vancouver International Wine Festival.

In 2017, the wine world celebrates Canada in its 150th year of Confederation. Meet BC wine pioneers and stars that continue to shape the industry and taste their amazing wines.

DOWNLOAD a PDF: Four BC Wineries to Discover at VIWF

3 Story Starters

1. Industry disruptors, who carve a path for BC wine, then and now Christine Coletta | Stephen Cipes | Harry McWatters

2. Trends in BC Wine Sparkling Wine | Organic | On site experiences | City Winery

3. Organic Okanagan Stephen Cipes' 2020 vision - great plans for the health of the Okanagan Valley

Meet the wineries...

1) Haywire 

Discover The ‘New’ Okanagan okanagancrushpad.com | @Haywirewine | @OKCrushPad

Industry icon Christine Coletta & husband Steve Lornie built Canada’s first custom-crush facility on Switchback Organic Vineyard. With the input of lauded international consultants Alberto Antonini and Pedro Parra, winemaker Matt Dumayne is turning heads and garnering acclaim for his natural wines made using state-of-the-art concrete tanks, native yeast and minimal additives. With the help of Pedro, the team is working hard to shape a new direction by understanding terroir.

• Natural wines that celebrate the land
• Made at Canada’s first custom-crush facility
• Award-winning leaders in innovation for BC wine
• Rock star team with international consultants who bring global perspective to Okanagan terroir.

Talk to: Christine Coletta – co-owner, one of Canada’s most astute wine marketers Matt Dumayne – winemaker Pedro Parra – internationally–lauded terroir expert

2) Summerhill Pyramid Winery

Leading the Organic Movement summerhill.bc.ca | @SummerhillWine

Summerhill Pyramid Winery has led the BC organic movement since the Cipes family purchased the vineyard in 1986. The winery was certified organic in 2007, with biodynamic certification for its Kelowna vineyard following in 2012. Winning national and international awards for its pyramid-aged wines, Summerhill is Canada’s foremost producer of sparkling wine and is BC’s most visited winery. A tireless change maker, founder Stephen Cipes is at the helm of the Okanagan 2020 initiative to transition the entire valley to 100% organic by the year 2020.

• Committed to organic and biodynamic winemaking since 1986
• Aims to transition to Organic Okanagan by 2020
• Pyramid cellar-aged wines
• Known globally for award winning sparkling wines

Talk to: Stephen Cipes - founder Ezra Cipes - CEO and a BC wine leader Eric von Krosigk - winemaker

3) Evolve Cellars

Welcoming Wine Country with Celebrational Approachability evolvecellars.com | @EvolveCellars

Evolve Cellars is a celebration of BC’s next generation, Christa-Lee McWatters Bond, daughter of industry pioneer, and chair of the BC Wine Institute, leads Evolve Cellars in embracing the traditions of BC wine industry to create today’s winery experience. Whether it’s a picnic on the sun-drenched patios with lakefront view or an onsite meal at E Restaurant, Evolve Cellars will leave you with an experiential journey to Okanagan Wine Country. Start yours with a glass of its approachable and affordable wines.

• Bright, delicious, approachable and affordable BC wines that celebrate BC terroir.
• An experiential journey to Okanagan Wine Country.
• Breathtaking lakefront view and onsite E Restaurant.

Talk to: Christa-Lee McWatters-Bond – oversees the winery; chair of the BC Wine Institute Nadine Allander – winemaker Tristan MacLaggan – hospitality director

4) TIME Winery

Complete Winery Experience in Downtown Penticton timewinery.com | @TimeWinery

Led by president and CEO Harry McWatters, a 50-year veteran of the British Columbia wine industry. Harry has done many firsts in his career: founding the BC Wine Institute, introducing VQA to BC, and bringing Meritage to Canada, for a few. Throughout his career, he has celebrated that winemaking is about time and place. Now the TIME is to innovate and do another “first”: a heritage theatre is being revitalized into a fully-functional winery and experience centre in downtown Penticton.

• Winery home of Harry McWatters, pioneer of BC wine industry since 1967 — this year marks his 50th vintage!
• Fully operational winery in the heart of downtown Penticton, in the former Penmar theatre.
• Makers of Meritage wines.

Talk to: Harry McWatters – president, grandfather of the industry Lawrence Buhler – winemaker

These are only a few ideas; let us help you with stories.

To arrange interviews with the winery principals, for images and more information, please email Genevieve Dufresne or Amy Chen or call the Town Hall Brands office at 604-321-3295

Summerland Winery Okanagan Crush Pad Heads to Europe for Prowein

We've got some big news for one of our BC wine clients! Summerland's Okanagan Crush Pad will be making its first foray into the European market, debuting at ProWein Dusseldorf March 13 to 15.

Established in 2011, Okanagan Crush Pad's reputation has grown quickly in regard to their efforts in organic growing and natural wine making. Owner Christine Coletta credits international consultants Italian winemaker Alberto Antonini and Chilean soil expert Pedro Parra for the winery's vision. While Antonini has been working with the winery since 2010, Parra joined the winery team in 2012 in order to choose and design a new vineyard site, Garnet Valley Ranch. Its first harvest will be this year.

“We are all on the same page with respect to the direction we are traveling. The real heavy lifting falls to our viticulture and winemaking teams who have followed the road map drawn by Antonini and Parra perfectly,” notes Coletta.

The winery is capable of 35,000 cases annually and initially developed as the first purpose-built custom crush winery in Canada. While Okanagan Crush Pad crafts their portfolio wines Haywire and Narrative exclusively in concrete tanks, they also choose to focus on small lots of premium wines.

The winery team aims to craft wines that showcase the natural beauty of the Okanagan Valley and so additives such as yeast and nutrients are not used, except in their bubbles.  “We want the wine community to discover what excites us about our growing region, and we feel Prowein is an excellent place to start,” said Coletta.

 

Representing the winery at Prowein will be owner Christine Coletta, her daughter Alison Scholefield, winery business partner David Scholefield, and brand ambassador Michael West. The natural wines from Haywire will be showcased, made from grapes grown on Switchback Organic Vineyard, as well as their Ancient Method sparkling wine from the Narrative roster.

NOTE to those headed to Prowein: go see Haywire with all the Canadian wineries, who will be located in Hall 9/D48.

Take a photo of yourself with the winery principals or the wines and send it to us on social media @townhallbrands. Tag it #gohaywire #prowein - we can't wait for you to meet our amazing clients!

 

Meet Pedro Parra #withTownHall

By Leeann Froese Well  its FriYAY - and a new week to bring you an amazing person #withTownHall!

If you are new to reading this blog or new to our company – we want you to know that we are proud that we have a big network, and we are continually meeting new and interesting personalities.

This week #withTownHall, we are rolling in on #featurefriday to introduce you to an international terroir specialist, Pedro Parra.

Pedro is a soil and terroir consultant from Chile.  To keep it simple, he assesses vineyard soil and determines which grape varietals will grow best based on soil type and composition. This includes digging pits and truly understanding the soil since different soil types yield different results in finished wine.

Pedro's clients are mainly located in Chile, Argentina, and Italy, but he also works in Sonoma, British Columbia, Armenia, Uruguay, and Burgundy.

In BC, Pedro works with three of Town Hall's PR clients. Beginning in 2012, he joined the Okanagan Crush Pad team as their terroir consultant and been apart of their journey ever  since helping them continue to move forward in crafting pure Okanagan wines. In 2014, Pedro assessed the soil of Coolshanagh Vineyard and noted the vineyard's soil was in the top 15% in the world. Along with the vineyards in the Okanagan, Pedro consults with the Blue Grouse Estate Winery team in Cowichan Valley on their winemaking.

In this position, he has dug over 20,000 pits around the world to help winemakers create the best wine possible, because it's not about the soil-it's all about the wine. When Pedro chooses his wine he considers soil type & region over varietal.

With all that being said will you help us say hello to Pedro?

Leave a comment below – or go give this post a like or share on Facebook or Twitter

Meet Skip and Judy Stothert #withTownHall

By Leeann Froese It’s a new week to introduce you to one of the fabulous personalities in the world #withTownHall!

This does not mean they work as part of our team, or are our client (although sometimes they are).

We just interact with so many amazing people that we want to expand networks and introduce them to you, and you to them. This week #withTownHall, we introduce you to Skip and Judy Stothert.

Skip and Judy Stothert have been partners in life and love since they met on a blind date in high school and have been together ever since. Skip ran a successful highway paving business (Green Roads Recycling) while Judy taught Interior Design at BCIT while handling a select stable of clients. In 2003 Skip and Judy relocated from Deep Cove in North Vancouver to a 52-acre-site seven kilometers north of Naramata, directly above the water.

Skip and Judy named their new home Coolshanagh which means "a meeting place of friends" because it was part of Judy's family tradition.

It was on this site that Skip and Judy first cleared and planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the best suited varietals for the land after much research. Renowned global terroir specialist Pedro Parra called their site among the top 15% of key sites in the world, with some of best exposure and soil structures for grape growing he had seen in the Okanagan.

After selling their grapes for a few years, Skip and Judy decided to make their own wine in 2012 at Okanagan Crush Pad, under the Coolshanagh label, beginning with Chardonnay. Subsequent vintages have been released and the production of Coolshanagh Pinot Noir is underway.

Our team is very proud to have done the packaging and to promote this tiny producer.

With all of this shared about Skip and Judy, will you please help us give them a big hello?

Leave a comment below – or go give this post a like or share on Facebook or Twitter, Skip can be found on Instagram at Coolshanagh.