Photo: Blasted Church's Mark Wendenburg promotes his assistant
Two more female winemakers have been named by Okanagan
wineries – one by a promotion and one by recruitment.
Township 7 Vineyards and Winery of Penticton has lured
winemaker Mary McDermott from Andrew Peller Ltd.’s Trius Winery in the Niagara Peninsula . She takes over from Brad
Cooper who has moved further up Naramata
Road to Serendipity Winery.
In a news release, Blasted Church
co-owner Evelyn Campbell said this of Elaine Vickers (below):
“A well versed winemaker, Elaine's career began in the
vineyards of Vincor's Jackson Triggs project. Elaine joined Blasted Church
in 2010, and shortly thereafter started her diligent apprenticeship training
with Mark. Together, they helped recruit, train and build an accomplished
winery team.
“Elaine is a Masters of Science graduate from theUniversity of Victoria .
She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Oenology from the University of Adelaide . While
some might poke fun at Elaine's methodical, calibrated, and always nerdy
scientific mannerisms, everyone tips their hats to her crafty, strategic,
take-no-survivors kind of hyper-competitiveness. Elaine's the type of
competitor who'll break a bone in a game of Ultimate Frisbee. We kid not.”
“Elaine is a Masters of Science graduate from the
Township 7 general manager Mike Raffan calls Mary McDermott (below) “a
rising star with impeccable credentials and extensive expertise in premium
wines.”
She is a graduate of Ryerson University
who acquired an interest in wine during several years of exploring world wine
regions with her husband, a chef. That led her to work as a sommelier in Monk
McQueen’s Fresh Seafood and Oyster Bar in Vancouver .
Returning to Ontario , she worked as a
sommelier at the at Cave Spring Cellars restaurant at Jordan while finishing her Bachelor of Science
in Oenology and Viticulture at Brock
University .
She started her winemaking career at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s
Stratus Vineyards as cellarhand and then became assistant cellarmaster at Cave
Spring Cellars. In 2010, Mary joined the Andrew Peller premium winery group in Niagara - Trius Winery at Hillebrand, and Thirty Bench. Her Chardonnay wines in recent vintages have
won major national and international awards.
She says that her real labour of love turned out to be the
sparkling wine. Trius has a major sparkling wine program. She will use those
skills in a significant expansion of the sparkling wine program at Township 7.
Township 7 was acquired earlier this year by a major silent
investor. The winery’s news release about Mary’s appointment suggests that the
new owner intends to plough new capital into the winery.
The release says: “At Township 7, Mary’s vision for the
winery entails boosting the sparkling wine production and expanding the small
lot, fine wine program with additional single vineyard designate offerings,
where she will be working closely with the viticulture team on the estate
vineyards and with their long time growers on the Black Sage Bench, in Okanagan
Falls, and in the Similkameen Valley. In the cellar she will augment the
premium oak barrel program with upgrades to large oak barrique fermenters for
the 2014 harvest, with more improvements planned in the vineyard and winery on
the horizon.”
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