The Creation of the Orofino Long Table

historical photo of the bridge where the beams were first used

For a couple of years now Virginia and I have been wanting to create a dining space next to our wood-fired oven and the winery. That outdoor space is perfect for relaxing with friends and enjoying company until the wee hours of the morning. It has seen a fair number of late night parties. We needed a table though. A proper long table that would mean something to our family and stand for decades to come. A couple of months back we found exactly what we were looking for and chronicled the construction of the table. We hope to share it with all those who want to pass some time here at Orofino.   

6 beams for an 8 foot ceiling

Hauling it to the mill. 18.5feet x16 inches x 8 inches

Doug Crow sawing the beam in half

Murray Fonteyne, owner of the terrific Scout Vineyard that produces some of our best grapes is currently in the midst of tearing down his small house on his property to make space for something more suitable for his family of 4. This old house was made from old  first growth fir beams that were salvaged from the original Chopaka bridge that was constructed in 1907 and destroyed in the flood of 1972. The bridge spanned the Similkameen River. Murray carefully kept the beams intact and picked out a beautiful 18.5 foot board for me to make my table from. 



Sanding is a dirty word

raw boards



Half of the legs
 getting assembled

Its good to know a guy with a big saw when you want to make a table. Doug Crow is that guy. He helped cut the beam into 2 identical boards 4" thick. I then sanded the boards, sanded the boards and then sanded the boards some more. From there, 2 coats of stain and 3 coats of a clearcoat finish to prep the boards for mounting to the legs. Our friend Marc LePage worked with us to design the big beefy legs made from 3" tubular steel. Marc's a pro welder and designed the legs for function and fashion. The boards were then bolted onto the legs and we had our dream long table ready for friends, family and functions.



Finished table

The inaugural soiree

 
 






New Haircut...

Summer is in full swing! Following a little rain in the spring, we have had a hot summer, with temperatures reaching upwards of 40 degrees Celsius! Despite various forecasts for plenty of rain, as usual our little spot on the Cawston bench has remained relatively unscathed, allowing us to control the moisture levels with our drip irrigation. A recent watering will be the last one for a long time, as we begin to stress the vines. This heat means there has been considerable growth in a short period of time, and has kept us busy this month tucking the shoots inside our top wires. Inevitably, there are always some or many shoots that grow outside the top wires or are blown over in the wind and it becomes our task to tuck these shoots back in and clip them in place. This ensures the shoots stand straight and do not snap in the wind. It is a lengthy process and our shoulders might pay the price, but the vineyard cleans up nicely. Next step, hedging. I'm in the thick of it now, so to speak. Call me a geeky farmer, but after all the tucking and hedging is done, it makes me happy to see it all cleaned up, like a brand new haircut.

Orofino's Four Days in Montreal...

The connection to the Montreal food scene started about 4 years ago when a couple of young restaurateurs stopped into our tasting room to try our wines. Derek Dammann and Alex Cruz of the tres chic restaurant DNA (Derek 'n Alex) were on a wine buying trip to BC and so it was all business. What so impressed us was that they were focussing on Canadian product only. Not the norm in the French wine dominated restaurant culture of Quebec. They had even gone so far as to get their own wine import license to sidestep the bureaucracy of the governing body of liquor in Quebec - the SAQ. They liked what they tasted and bought lots of Orofino to share with their customers.

Fast forward 4 years and we find ourselves working with the affable Eric-Gabriel Beauchamp who owns a small wine import agency in Quebec.  He has represented Orofino for a few years now and had invited us to Montreal numerous times to visit clients. He set up an itinerary and we all flew out to promote the wines. Virginia and myself were accompanied by Aaron (assistant winemaker) and his wife Carly (our new wine club manager) for a 4 day tour of food and wine in Montreal.  The idea was to have fun and eat well in perhaps North America's most exciting culinary city at the moment but mix in some Orofino business at the same time. We visited some tasty spots such as the Relais and Chateau Restaurant Europea, Pullman Bar with a killer wine list, and Olive and Gourmando where the pastries were delicious. Eric had set up winemakers dinners at the restaurants of two of our best clients in Montreal.

L'AUBERGE SAINT-GABRIEL


Virginia and John with
Sommelier and Canadian wine "freak"
 Francois



The art of the L'Auberge (yes, 2 moose)

A L'Auberge Plate  

The first night we enjoyed a terrific 5 course meal at the venerable L'Auberge Saint-Gabriel. This is a fine dining establishment in Old Montreal that is currently owned by the same guy who owns Cirque du Soleil. It also happens to be the first registered inn in North America (1788) and also holds the first liquor licence handed out. The place is incredible and we wondered what stories the old stone walls and big wooden beams could tell. Every course was terrific and we had a hard time picking the best of the night. Francois was a great host and he spoke so highly of Orofino and the Canadian wine scene in general. He is a big supporter and loves to show off what we can do.

MAISON PUBLIQUE

Maison Publique

Derek and John

The next night Eric-Gabriel arranged to have another Orofino-focussed dinner at the super cool Maison Publique. This was a very comfortable evening as this was Derek Dammann's latest project in Montreal. He partnered up with Jamie Oliver to produce this amazing little room that focusses on Canadian comfort food. Brilliant. This was a much more casual affair than the night before and it had its own charms. We loved the family style servings and elevated dishes that were simple yet just so perfect. The big plate of braised veal with green peas and the sticky salty caramel pudding (which makes me salivate just thinking about it) were 2 examples of what Derek does. Classic comfort food that makes people smile.
The rest of our time was spent visiting some SAQ stores where I learned the complexities of their government system of liquor distribution. To be honest it really has me shaking my head as it seems the bureaucracy is so entrenched it cripples those trying to bring in something unique or something that they can get excited about. The other disappointing trend is the shrinking shelf space for Canadian wines in SAQ stores. Very few spots are available on the shelves reserved for hundreds of European, especially French wines. We met some of the managers who understand and promote Canadian wines. They are few in number but very passionate.   
   
     

The last bit of pruning...

Its a dreary, rainy spring day today and I am one row away from pruning the entire vineyard. I am anxious to get out there and finish it. Over the last month, when I haven't been bottling, cleaning barrels and tanks, organizing and storing nets, etc, I have been in the vineyard pruning. I find it therapeutic. It's a very satisfying process... cutting off all the excessive growth, in order to give the vines a fresh start. It looks so clean and orderly after. I almost feel like a barber (one of the old-school ones of course, with the candy cane pole outside and the leather sharpened razors), cleaning up my wintery "bearded" vines with a good old-fashioned shave. Its one of the tasks in the vineyard that I really get a "hands on" feel for the condition of the vines after the winter cold and what they will need in the coming months.

Bottling Our Upcoming Spring Releases!

The long awaited, warm winds of spring have finally reached our valley. The grass is turning green, the first flowers are beginning to blossom, and the air is thick with the sweet smell of manure. And with the arrival of spring, so come our spring wine releases! Above are a few pictures of us bottling some of our 2011 whites... Stay tuned on our email list to get dibs on the upcoming spring releases! If you are not on our list, feel free to click the link to our website and join!

A Gold Medal for Orofino at the Canadian Culinary Championships

Last weekend saw Kelowna host the Gold medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships and what a terrific food and wine event it was! The Gold Medal Plates is a fundraising series of regional culinary competitions that results in a national championship. Winning chefs from 9 different regions across the country battled head to head to see who would win the gold, silver and bronze medals for top chef in the country! For all of the event details including some beautiful photos of some extraordinary plates of food visit http://www.goldmedalplates.com/ccc.html#release2012. Proceeds for these events go towards funding of Olympic athletes.

The big news from our point of view was that our 2009 Syrah was judged as best wine of the weekend topping 29 other wines from across the country! It was quite an honour to recieve the gold medal  as it was judged by some of the best palates in the country. A party broke out after the news broke and lasted until the wee hours of the morning! We'd like to congratulate Murray and Maggie Fonteyne of Scout Vineyards for their terrific work in growing these grapes for us! First crop people!!!! It sure bodes well for future vintages! This is our second win at the Gold Medal Plates as our 2009 Riesling won top wine of the night in the Saskatchewan regional competition held last October.

I should note that the Similkameen wineries Association rocked the VIP reception before the big Gala Dinner as the 8 wineries all poured our best wines for over 300 people showcasing all that we can do. It is a pleasure for Virginia and I to be able to work alongside such great people.  
      

Orofino prepares to bottle

racking a world of riesling. Looks
cool, smells amazing!

tartrates (wine diamonds) stuck to the side of the
tank during cold stabilization of
our Gamay 2011 

Over the past couple of weeks we have been busy getting wines ready to bottle. We have booked dates with Artus Bottling, the mobile bottling company we use, so that they will be here February 23rd and 24th. This means that I have a firm date to work towards which has a way of lighting a fire to get things done. Scheduled for bottle is our 2011 Riesling, 2011 Pinot Gris, 2011 Sauvignon Blanc (yes, its back!!), the 2011 Gamay, 2010 Pinot Noir and 2010 Syrah. I have been in the cellar blending the various tanks, finishing cold stabilization, and adding the appropriate amounts of bentonite for protein stabilization. We are pretty stoked on what we have and look forward to releasing the wines in a couple of months! I always hate this time of year in the cellar as I am anxious to finish the wines and have them safe in bottle. To facilitate a quicker and  simpler path to bottle we have hired an Okanagan company to bring their crossflow filter to our winery and do all of the filtering. It seems to be a cost efficient way to filter the whites and gentler on the wines at the same time. "Win win" as they say. We'll post some pics of the process with an evaluation as soon as it happens. Until then a lot of my time is spent with logistics - ordering bottles, capsules, corks, ensuring labels are correct and ready for the bottling date. This sort of work is important as numbers need to be correct or it could result in leftover wine in the tank without somewhere to go! Hasn't happened here yet but it keeps me up at night and I'm sure I take twice as long figuring out these numbers than it would most people. Not my forte so wish us luck!        

Pruning begins here at Orofino

6 vines pruned. 8000 more to go. I guess I really don't need to say anything more about that..... 

Pressing Cabernet in December

red wine stained hands

The latest crush season we have ever experienced is drawing to a close. Finally. I mean, whew, its about time. I have had enough of punchdowns, wrestling with a 3" must pump, and cleaning the press. But today was a good one as we pressed off most of our cabernet and now only have one more full day of pressing to finish everything off. The last couple of weeks we have been on a simple schedule of press reds into tank, let it settle for 24 hours then move it to barrel and innoculate for malolactic fermentation. Repeat. Repeat. You get the idea. We are seeing a whole lot of red wine these days. Fortunately the weather has cooperated and we have had nice temperatures to work in and for the cold mornings we have enough room to set up work inside the building. A luxury that we love!

Just some of our barrels awaiting the 2011 vintage

So what happens now that we are about to have all of our wine pressed off and safely in barrels and tanks? This is when I get to look back and reflect on what we have in the winery and start thinking about blending whites, cold stabilizing them and even looking to get our packaging decisions in order. I have to monitor malolactic fermentations and give the winery a thorough cleaning. Fortunately all of these tasks are pretty civil and much more 9-5 than our lives have been over the past 2 months. Details on upcoming happenings and some interesting decisions that need to be made will be discussed in a future post.       

Movember Ends with a Party!

We would like to thank all of those who participated along with us during this month of Movember. We hosted a sold-out party to celebrate at the cozy and delicious Tavola Restaurant on the 30th. The place was lively and everyone had a great time! $700 was raised as we raffled off a number of magnums. Way to go everyone involved!! That bumped up the money raised by the Orofino team to just under $1000!

serious business this Movember stuff

Mo Sistas - OK, not so serious stuff

Some delicious pasta

Mo Glasses

Movember Day 27

Moustaches...our winter blossoms

GAME DAY!!!

GO RIDERS!!!

Orofino hosts a Movember Party at Tavola November 30th!!

Orofino is hosting a Movember party at Tavola Restaurant at the end of the month! We have teamed up with the good people at Tavola to celebrate the end of this mo-mentous occasion called Movember. This ain't no formal winemaker dinner. Join us for a casual evening of great people, outstanding food, and of course, featured Orofino wines. We will enjoy Tavola's amazing appies and a 3 course family style dinner. There will be opportunities to wine some Orofino goods and for those of you with magnificent moes, perhaps a special prize (think Magnum P.I.)! Proceeds go towards the Movember cause.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

6:30 pm
Tavola Restaurant - 1829 Robson St

$40.00/person not including drinks,tax & gratuity

tavolaresos@gmail.com for reservations

(604) 606-4680

We look forward to seeing you there! This is an affordable midweek opportunity to get out and eat well. Bring your friends! We will definitely be ready to unwind and celebrate the Movember cause and an end to the 2011 crush!

Movember Day 14

Day 14 of Movember...moustaches are blooming alas! And don't forget that $1 of every Orofino bottle purchased in November goes towards the Movember cause!

The Last Grapes Have Been Crushed!!!

We felt like celebrating a couple of days ago as we crushed our last 10 bins of the season. What seemed like a neverending harvest season finally came to an end and we have all of the 69 tons of grapes safely packed away into our buildings. I can take a moment and reflect on the harvest and what expectations we can have for the wines we craft from the 2011 grapes.

What was truly a difficult growing year may have in the end produced some of the greatest grapes we have ever seen on our crush pad. I often talk at length of our terrific partners growing great grapes for us every year and their concientious work has rewarded us with what we think is a pretty terrific line-up of wines year after year. This year proved their skills as we received bin after bin of delicious grapes. I can't remember being quite so taken with the flavours and aromas of the whites we are working with. The fermenting juice is delicious! The reds are deeply coloured, bang-on amounts of acid, and slightly lower sugars and pHs promising ripe, lower alcohol wines. It all comes back to great farming. For more information on our vineyards and the people who run them, visit the Vineyards Page on our website.

Merlot falling into a fermenter

So now we are monitoring the white ferments and are busy punching down the red ferments. The Pinot Noir and Gamay have already been pressed and put into barrels and soon we will do the same to the bordeaux varietals and syrah. Our building is so packed with fermenting bins of grapes that we can barely slip through it.

Punchdowns

Doing a "punchdown"...I think my moustache gives me extra punchdown strength

Every corner of the winery is full of fermenting bins, tanks and barrels. The air is thick of carbon dioxide and "punchdowns" are in full swing. After inoculation, the yeast begins to break down the sugars in the grapes, converting them into ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and carbon dioxide. As the fermenting mass exudes carbon dioxide, grape skins and other solids are pushed to the top and form a thick "cap". This is the particularly "special" time of the year when we get to physically push that cap back down and stir up the mass...three times a day...for each and every of our 30 plus bins. The french term for this procedure is pigeage, but otherwise affectionately known as a punchdown. We do this for a number of reasons, primarily to introduce oxygen (which helps feed the yeast), to stop the cap from drying out, and to encourage the extraction of colour and tannins. This is that really romantic part of wine-making where we would be using our feet, if it weren't for modern day hygiene and common sense. We use a stainless steel paddle now. Although I was standing on a small bin the other day doing a punchdown and my foot went through the improperly secured lid. My jeans were red from the knee down. John laughed. Oh the joys of punchdowns.

Movember, Day 6

Day 6 of Movember... despite our best efforts, our moustaches are still pubescent at best... maybe we're late bloomers?

Days of Red, Nights of Red

Chris Scott in his
Oak Knoll Vineyard

Oak Knoll Merlot destined for
Red Bridge

It's that time of the crush season when we only see red. With the whites safely in tanks and happily fermenting or finished fermenting, all of our attention is focussed on our red varietals. Over the past 10 days, we have put through 16 tons of merlot, cabernet franc, and a bit of cabernet sauvignon. Most of that coming in last weekend when we received the first 2 blocks of the Oak Knoll Merlot. 20 bins of it with another 18 arriving today. Tasty grapes from an amazing vineyard that still has green leaves soaking up the last bits of autumn sun.

yes, thats a Rider T-shirt!

Along with the crush comes the inevitable punchdowns where we manually "punch" the floating skins back down into the juice in order to extract all of their goodness. This is very labour-intensive as we don't employ any mechanical means but use the old-fashioned method of muscle and a hand tool. I'm a big believer in this method as it helps us stay in touch with the ferments. Look, feel, listen, smell. It all counts towards making our wines what they become. The reds are all fermented in half ton or one ton bins which makes for a lot of ferments but also enables us to use a multitude of yeasts each chosen to bring certain elements to the wine. Every year we tweak it a bit and add a new yeast just for experimentation purposes.

punching down

We are looking forward to getting the rest of the cabernet into our cellar and finishing the reds off and into barrel. But in the meantime, there are more punchdowns to do so I have to get back to work.... 

Let the Moustache Races Begin!

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives...today, clean shaven, we abandon adolescence and embark on a journey to manhood. Yes, that's right, we are growing moustaches. Join us, as John and I set out on an epic moustache race for Movember. Stay tuned for more pictures of our upper lip transformation or click on Movember under Pages for details on how you can participate.

New Toy...

John testing out the new SWASH steamer

Call us old fashioned, but we aren't much for shiny farm/winery toys, i.e. a 1956 Massey Ferguson tractor and a press that hails from the same decade...need I say more? Don't get me wrong, our antiquated equipment are built like tanks and have done perfectly well by any standards. But from time to time, you just need that shiny toy. A couple days ago was that time. We got the all new SWASH steamer delivered! Now we can sanitize equipment, tanks and barrels without the need for potent cleaning chemicals. It feels like Christmas.