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.....