A toast to spring: 3 B.C. wines to while winter away
“The grape of the Fraser Valley”, a time-honoured Riesling, and a sunny Viognier are on the table; so are wine-tasting experiences
Singletree Winery.
WITH VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL Wine Festival a little ways away yet, now’s as good a time as any to look to the local grape scene for toasting and tasting opportunities. Here’s a glance at a few highlights this spring.
Singletree Siggy Siegerrebe
The upshot: “The grape of the Fraser Valley”: meet Siegerrebe, which is ideally suited to the region’s cool climate. Pronounced “see-gah-REH-buh” and meaning “victory vine” in German, the red-skinned grape is a cross of Gewürztraminer with Madeleine Angevine and is used to make white wine. Its roots go back to 1929, when pioneering viticulturists in Rheinhessen deemed the grape would do well in wet, claylike conditions. Siegerrebe was the first grape that the Etsell family of Mt. Lehman’s 12-acre Singletree Winery ever planted in 2010. Although winemaker-viticulturist Andrew Etsell and the team have gone on to make Merlot, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, and other wines, Siggy is Singletree’s flagship offering. Aromatic, crisp, and easy-drinking, the 2019 vintage ($16) is ripe for spring sipping and ideal with spicy foods.
The experience: Check out Singletree’s Di Vine Domes, one decorated as a cozy Canadian cabin, the other as an enchanted forest. There are three options: a tasting of five wines or a glass of wine; a tasting of five wines or a glass of wine with gourmet charcuterie; or a tasting of five wines or a glass of wine with a three-course gourmet meal by chef Adrian Beaty of Langley’s Salt & Thyme.
Chronos 2020 Riesling
The upshot: Beet salad, beef curry, or halibut with orange-miso sauce: these are some fitting food pairings for this wine, which won gold at 2022 All Canadian Wine Championships. The colour of light straw, the light-bodied, off-dry wine has flavours of jasmine and lime. Winemaker Lynzee Schatz used 100-percent hand-sorted and whole-bunch pressed Riesling grapes that were fermented in two different tanks at different temperatures with different yeast strains. The results? Complexity and minerality.
The experience: The year ahead is a big one for TIME Family of Wines, of which Chronos is a member: the group will soon open the doors to its brand-new OROLO Restaurant + Cocktail Bar (taking its name from “horology”, the study of time) and Chronos Tasting Room right next door, both situated in a restored historic theatre in downtown Penticton, designed with touches of gold and warm woods. Culinary director Kirk Morrison and executive chef Damian Cole are creating fresh menus, putting to use newly imported-from-Germany Dry Agers; game-changing for the Okanagan dining scene, these can be used not only for meat, game, and poultry but also fish, seafood, cheese, and more. Morrison is also overseeing new food and wine pairings at the venture’s satellite location at the District Wine Village in Oliver. (A Canadian first, it’s home to 12 other wineries, a brewery, a distillery, and an eatery.)
The upshot: Veteran winemaker Kathy Malone was an early champion of the Naramata Bench, and Hillside’s Heritage Series showcases the way the sub-appellation’s nuanced flavours express a sense of place. She suggests thinking of this fragrant vintage ($28) with hints of honeysuckle as a “summertime Chardonnay”, but we’re not waiting. Lemon pasta, grilled scallops, apricot chicken, or flatbread with feta and mint would all make good matches.
The experience: Terroir to table cuisine is the focus at The Bistro at Hillside Winery, headed by chef Evan Robertson (formerly of Edmonton’s Hardware Grill and the Aerie Resort on Vancouver Island, among other places), with small plates meant for sharing. It opens for the 2023 season on March 15; so does the tasting room, which offers a guided, intimate, 45-minute seated Portfolio Tasting. Hillside’s timbre-frame building itself is quite a site: inspired by a gristmill design, it has a stunning 72-foot tower that’s connected to the cellar by a door at their base; 85,000 board feet of white pine; four dark Douglas fir beams that survived at least three warehouse fires and that now hold up the bistro’s roof and upper patio; and more than 100 plant species in its expansive gardens and lawns.
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