Wining online: Okanagan Crush Pad launches new video guides to go with virtual tasting packs
Digital sessions with expert DJ Kearney are one way to have a pro wine tasting at home
With everything else moving online in the era of COVID-19, Okanagan Crush Pad is bolstering its virtual tasting experiences with new video guides. Photo by Ashley Drody Photography
THE PANDEMIC DOESN’T mean an end to B.C. wine tours and tastings; it just means they’ve shifted online, like everything else.
As part of its COVID-19 pivot, Okanagan Crush Pad is relaunching its popular virtual tasting packs and has introduced video guides hosted by Vancouver-based wine educator DJ Kearney.
Here’s how it works: you order any of the Summerland winery’s four tasting packs—Big Reds for the Holidays, Holiday Cheers, Premium White Package, and Organic Wine Collection. Each comes with four bottles of premium wines. After the pack is delivered to your door, you decide when you want to sit down with Kearney, virtually, to sniff, swirl, and sip, the videos being accessible anytime via the winery’s website.
DJ Kearney. Photo by David Strongman
Kearney is a highly knowledgeable and personable wine expert and classically trained chef with a background in geology who spent a decade training sommeliers around the world with the International Sommelier Guild. In her casual, concise, informative video tastings, she shares the back story of the making of each wine along with tasting notes, food pairing ideas, and serving suggestions.
Another option is to book a live virtual tasting with one of the winery’s team members for an additional $75.
Okanagan Crush Pad opened in 2011 as a base for Christine and Steve Coletta’s original wine label, Haywire. It has since added Narrative, Free Form, and Bizou + Yukon labels while also doing custom projects for private retailers. The state-of-the-art facility features long banks of concrete tanks, clay amphorae, and large format neutral oak casks.
The winemaking philosophy is fairly straightforward: “to make wines using organic-certified or -grown grapes and to interfere as little as possible as grapes journey to finished wine”, Christine Coletta tells Stir.
Big Reds for Winter includes Free Form Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Narrative Malbec 2017, Narrative Syrah 2016, and Narrative Non-Fiction 2017. (Wine packages get a $20 discount, with this one going for $135 rather than $155.)
Holiday Cheers ($124) has Haywire Sparkling - Pink Bub 2018, Haywire Vintage Bub 2013, Narrative Viognier 2018, and Haywire Gamay 2018.
Making up the Organic Wine Collection ($117) are Free Form Vin Gris 2018, Haywire Switchback Pinot Gris 2017, Haywire Garnet Valley Ranch Pinot Noir 2016, and Narrative Cabernet Franc 2017.
And in the Pure Whites Package ($98) are Narrative Pinot Blanc 2017, Haywire Secrest Mountain Chardonnay 2018, Free Form Sauvignon Blanc 2018, and Narrative Riesling 2017.
The winery is also planning Winter Wine Experiences in person at the winery and cellar, bedecked with lights and seasonal décor, on November 27 and 28 and December 4, 5, 11, and 12. Groups of up to six can pick from a selection of flight boards, each featuring six wines and three appetizer samples by chef Paul Cecconi from Penticton’s Brodo Kitchen.
Wine educator DJ Kearney guides people through tastings via Okanagan Crush Pad’s videos.
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