Photo: Saturna Island's Hooman Haftbaradan
Once again, owner Larry Page has his
Saturna Island Family Estate Winery on the market.
The asking price, $7.9 million, has been
reduced from the more aggressive valuations over the past decade. In fact,
there is an Okanagan winery selling at the same price, with far less acreage.
Bonitas Winery at Summerland, which has a 13.25 acre waterfront property, is
listed for $7.1 million.
The Saturna Island
winery is on a 78 acre property, with almost 60 acres of vineyard and with a
bistro and a spectacular ocean view. So why is it selling for about the same
price as Bonitas Winery?
As they say in real estate, it is all about
location. The ferry service to Saturna
Island is so poor than you can
probably drive to Summerland from Vancouver
in the same time it would take to reach the island.
However, Saturna Island
winery has been dressed up for this occasion with sharp new packaging for its
wines, which are now some of the best yet released from this property.
Credit Hooman Haftbaradaran, the
British-trained winemaker who joined Saturna
Island in 2010 after a
few years in the Okanagan with St. Hubertus Estate Winery.
Born in Germany
in 1973 of Iranian parents, Hooman came to wine after a degree in hotel management
and while working as a sommelier in leading European hotels (Claridge’s in London , for example).
While taking a winemaking degree at Brighton
University , he did vintages in Greece , Germany
and Washington State . While there in 2008, he
discovered the Okanagan had a wine region.
At Saturna Island ,
he took over from a pair of South Africans, Danny Hattingh and Megan DeVillieres, who are now in the
Okanagan. A winemaker and a vineyardist respectively, the pair had spent two
years correcting problems at the island property. Danny’s wines showed
considerable improvement. Hooman is building on that foundation.
“As for my approach to winemaking,” Hooman told
me a few years ago, “I am a diverse person. I lived in different places. That
reflects in my winemaking. I see what the vineyard brings to me. I am working
with the grapes and with the juice. I am not forcing anything.”
The wines I tasted suggest he has stayed on
course.
2 comments:
Hi John,
It has been a long time but I have been following you and quoting you in my story Escapes and Road Trips - British Columbia's wine region. See dmacneill.com
and click on "more travel stories". We are currently living in the South of France for the winter taking little journeys to Italy, Switzerland and around Provence from our home base on the south side of the Luberon. We return home to our Saturna island home at the end of April. I hope you remember me, Deborah MacNeill Photographer. I left Vancouver for a life and career in Toronto in 1981. It would be fun to catch up. I would love your comments on my blog.
Warm regards, Deborah
Hi John,
It has been a long time but I have been following you and quoting you in my story Escapes and Road Trips - British Columbia's wine region. See dmacneill.com
and click on "more travel stories". We are currently living in the South of France for the winter taking little journeys to Italy, Switzerland and around Provence from our home base on the south side of the Luberon. We return home to our Saturna island home at the end of April. I hope you remember me, Deborah MacNeill Photographer. I left Vancouver for a life and career in Toronto in 1981. It would be fun to catch up. I would love your comments on my blog.
Warm regards, Deborah
Post a Comment