Painted Rock's excellent wines

Photo: Painted Rock's John Skinner

In previous reviews of wines from Painted Rock Estate winery, I have recounted that I had advised the winery to plant a block of Syrah, which happens to be my favourite red varietal. I don’t recall being so presumptuous as to give planting advice to John Skinner, the winery owner, but I have always liked Painted Rock’s Syrah. The winery managed to plant the rest of its Skaha Lake Bench vineyard without any advice from me, as if I was needed. The winery had hired Alain Sutre, a famous Bordeaux consultant who advised a number of the best wineries in the Okanagan. He also participated in blending the wines, most notably the flagship wine, Red Icon. I profiled the wine in my 2017 book, Icon: Flagship Wines from British Columbia’s Best Wineries. Here is an excerpt from that chapter.

“I will tell you how Alain found me,” says John. “Alain heard about me from the nursery in Bordeaux. I had contacted the nursery directly because I wanted to get very specific clones. A year later, Alain showed up at the vineyard one day when we had just planted. He introduced himself and said, ‘I love what you have planted here, but no one in the Okanagan knows how to blend these clones.’ That was the beginning of the journey.”

John needed such expertise to fully realize his wine-growing ambitions. Born in 1958, he had been a successful Vancouver investment adviser. His growing passion for wine triggered a decision to retire from the investment business at 50 and take up wine-growing. In 2004, after a careful study of potential vineyard sites, he bought a 24-hectare (60-acre) former apricot orchard near the Skaha climbing bluffs. The site was shaped to produce an ideal southwestern vineyard exposure that he began planting in 2005.

He had a clear vision for his wines. “This journey is not about making a Bordeaux blend,” he told Alain. “This is about making an Okanagan wine with clones I sourced from Bordeaux.” Alain, he discovered, was on the same page. The consultant has had a hand in making Okanagan wines at other distinguished producers including Osoyoos Larose and, latterly, Culmina Family Estate Winery.

To date, Alain has blended every vintage of Red Icon. The blending decisions reflect the strengths of the Painted Rock vineyard in any given vintage. “Our 2012 Red Icon is kind of an inverted Bordeaux blend because it leads with 31% Malbec,” John says. “It’s Okanagan.” The blends vary from year to year and are somewhat unorthodox, with higher percentages of both Malbec and Petit Verdot. In most Okanagan red Meritages, Petit Verdot is a minor portion of the blend, bringing a touch of spice. Not so at Painted Rock. “I have never tasted a Petit Verdot like this,” Alain once said, advocating that the variety play a significant role in the blend.

The varietals all have roles to play. The Cabernets provide structure; Merlot fleshes out the mid-palate; Malbec brings bright flavour notes. “Petit Verdot,” John says, “is the attack and the finish.” While the components move around from vintage to vintage, Red Icon is united in style year after year by its harmony, as John discovered when tasting a vertical of the first five vintages. “Those five wines, all different blends, were all quite similar because they were complete wines,” he explains.

Here are notes on recent releases, including a very fine 2023 Red Icon.

Painted Rock Chardonnay 2025 ($44.99). This is a complex blend from four micro-harvests picked over two weeks. Some 83% of the wine was aged for six months in French oak (33% new) while 17% was aged in stainless steel. In the glass, the wine delivers aromas of peach and apricot. The palate is rich with flavours of pear, apple, tangerine and vanilla. The finish is long. 92.

Painted Rock Malbec 2023 ($59.99 for 190 cases). The winery grows just 1.15 acres of Malbec and most of the fruit is dedicated to the Red Icon blend. For some vintages, however, the winery releases a small lot Malbec. This wine was aged 18 months in oak (30% new). The wine has aromas and intense flavours of dark fruits mingled with spice. 93.

Painted Rock Cabernet Franc 2023 ($54.99). The winery has a 2.15-acre block of Cabernet Franc. The fruit was broken into small batches; each was given four days of the skins and 21 days of fermentation on the skins, with twice-daily punch-overs. The batches were all aged 18 months in oak (30% new) before being blended. The wine begins with aromas of dark cherry and blackberry mingled with spice. The well-textured and full palate delivers flavours of blackberry and plum mingled with hints of chocolate and tobacco. 93.

Painted Rock Red Icon 2023 ($79.99). This is a blend of 55% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Malbec. The lots were all broken into small batches for skin contact (four days), fermentation (21 days on the skins with twice daily pump-overs) and aged 18 months in French oak (30% new). The best barrels were chosen for this elegantly polished blend. It begins with aromas of dark cherry, chocolate, coffee and spice, all echoed on the palate. The long, ripe tannins support flavours that are exceptionally well-balanced and persistent. 95.

Terravista releases Canada’s first Mencía

Photo" Terravists's Dallas and Eric Thor

Terravista Vineyards, a winery on the Naramata Bench, has released an exceptional red wine made with the Spanish varietal, Mencía. This is Canada’s first Mencía.

Terravista has a history with Spanish varietals The winery’s original owners, Bob and Senka Tennant, who opened the winery in 2011, planted two whites, Albariño and Verdejo. When they decided to retire, they sold the winery to Dallas and Eric Thor, an ambitious young couple who quickly invested in additional vineyards after purchasing Terravista in 2019.

Dallas explains that “in the pursuit of growing and farming the majority, if not all, of our own grapes, Eric met and established a long-term lease with the owners of Naramata Outlook Vineyard below Naramata Road. When assessing what we wanted to plant there, of course we chose our core unique varieties, Albariño and Verdejo, in addition to a little block of Marsanne.” She continues: “Eric and I felt strongly that we should add a Spanish red to the portfolio. In 2020 we had some fun tasting through Spanish red varieties, and we became very excited about the extensive range and fresh profile of Mencía, and the potential of growing it at this site and in cool climate conditions. We rolled the dice and planted four acres in clay/silt loam soils.”

“This Mencía block,” Dallas says, “has endured climatic extremes since 2021. It was planted during the heat dome and then survived the 2022 and the 2024 freeze conditions. There was no fruit in 2024, and some damage to the vines in the first few years of growth. Despite the growing challenges, we saw incredible quality and ripening conditions during the 2025 vintage.” The vineyard itself has been a challenge. Dallas writes: “The site itself is very compact and has presented some growing challenges. Eric and the vineyard team have been diligently deep ripping the vineyard, doing post-harvest supplemental irrigation, planting root vegetables to break up the soil, as well as doing some foliar nutrition to help with canopy.” As a result, this pioneering Canadian planting of Mencía is a good bet to inspire other growers to consider Spanish varietals.

The just-released 2025 wine, Dallas writes in an email, “is just the ‘beginning of an answer’ of how Mencía is expressing itself on this clay bluff at Naramata Outlook Vineyard. We are not asking, is this Spanish enough? but what is the Naramata expression of this unique Spanish red grape, highlighting bright red fruits and signature acidity. This block is also certified organic and we farm it with our small team.”

Jancis Robinson and colleagues, in their authoritative 2012 book, Wine Grapes, describe Mencía as an “increasingly appreciated aromatic variety found in both Spain and Portugal.” They speculate that “it is plausible that Mencía was brought to Dão [in Portugal] by pilgrims on their way back from Santago de Compostela.” The Robinson book says there were 22,375 acres (9,055 hectares) of Mencía in Spain in 2008. There is a third that acreage in Portugal. It is a versatile varietal producing table wines range from rosé to dense, full-bodied reds.

Terravista winemaker Nadine Kinvig has made a similar range of wine from the Terravista planting. “We have produced three wines from this site,” the winery writes. “A rosé in the spring from an early 2025 pick; the 2023 which is wine club only with only 45 cases in a savoury and structured style; and now our 2025 Mencía made intentionally to highlight the more floral, herbal and red fruits side of the variety.” The winery’s tasting notes also add that this is a chillable red. I concur with that but I would be careful not to overchill the wine. Here are notes on the wines.

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Vasanti's new winemaker plans to change the style

Photo: The Sidhu family at a Vasanti vineyard

In Punjabi, Vasanti means spring or new beginnings. The name of this South Okanagan winery was inspired by the history of Harb Sidhu, the head of the family, who left India in 1980 to farm orchard fruit and then to grow grapes in the Okanagan. He and his three sons sold grapes to other wineries for years before beginning to bottle wines under the Vasanti label in 2021. Gordie Sidhu, the oldest son and a financial planner, is the vineyard manager, having equipped himself with a certificate in viticulture from Okanagan College. Vik Sidhu, the youngest son, who has a biology degree, works with the winemaker.

The director of operations is Davinder Sidhu, an optometrist who also has a biochemistry degree from UBC Okanagan and who has published papers on his wine research. The winery’s initial vintages were made with the assistance of Jason Parkes, one of the Okanagan’s leading consulting winemakers. In the spring of 2005, Petar Djuric, who had been at French Door Winery, joined Vasanti as winemaker. A master sommelier, he had a long career in restaurants before coming to the Okanagan in 2021. He has a certificate in viticulture from Okanagan College and honed his experience with a season making wine in Chile.

The arrival of a new winemaker also has led to a decision to change cooperage. “Vasani was built on new American oak and French oak,” the winery writes. “It is an assertive cooperage [which can] dominate the exact site character we are trying to show. We are moving to French and other European oak and cutting the proportion of new barrels. The reasoning: if the goal is a wine true to a vintage and its fruit, the barrel should be a frame rather than a flavour. … The vineyard [should] be the loudest thing in the glass.” The first wines to reflect the new direction in winemaking and cellaring are being made in the 2026 vintage. It would be interesting to lay in a few wines that are currently being released – and they are well made wines – and compare them with the 2026 wines when those are released. My only comment: if it is oot broken, do not hurry to fix it.

Here are notes on the wines.

Vasanti Paradise Bubbles 2025< ($26.99 for 322 cases). This is made with Pinot Gris. The wine was fermented cool to retain the aromatics. Forced carbonization gave the wine its sparkle. The wine is crisp with notes of citrus on the palate. 88.

Vasanti Sauvignon Blanc 2025 ($24.99 for 185 cases). The fruit for this wine is from Vasanti’s Paradise Vineyard near Osoyoos. It was fermented cool and matured in stainless steel. The wine begins with aromas of lime and lemon leading to flavours of lime and gooseberry. The wine is crisp and dry, reminiscent of Sancerre. 90.

Vasanti Pinot Gris 2025 ($24.99 for 339 cases). The fruit for this wine is also from the Paradise Vineyard. It was fermented cool, left on the lees for two weeks, with regular battonage and was matured in stainless steel. The wine has aromas and flavours of apple, pear and citrus. It is crisp and dry on the finish. 89.

Vasanti Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé 2025 ($24.99 for 535 cases). The fruit is from the winery’s Granite Lake vineyard near Osoyoos. There is eight per cent Cabernet Franc in the blend. The fruit was pressed with minimal skin contact which produced an appealing salmon pink hue. The wine has aromas and flavours of strawberry and watermelon, with cherry notes as well. The finish is crisp and fresh. 91.

Vasanti Meritage 2023 ($29.00 for 924 cases). The blend is 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Cabernet Franc and 18% Merlot, all from Osoyoos vineyards. The wine was aged in a mixture of French, American and Hungarian oak barrels. It begins with aromas of spice, cassis and dark cherry, leading to flavours of black currant mingled with chocolate. The wine benefits from being decanted. 93.

Vasanti Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 ($44.99 for 408 cases). This fruit for this wine is from two Osoyoos vineyards, in a hot season that produced a big and bold red. The wine was aged 28 months in a mixture of French, American and Hungarian oak barrels. The wine, which benefits from decanting, has aromas and flavours of dark fruits mingled with spice. The finish is long. 93.

Blue Mountain sparkling wine in time for the holidays

Photo: Blue Mountain winemaker Matt Mavety

One report on the 2026 vintage in Champagne notes that this is the fourth difficult vintage in a row, with a below average yield. That almost applies to the Okanagan, where frost reduced or eliminated grape crops in the 2023 and 2024 vintages. Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars, for example, lost no vines in 2024 but, due to bud damage, produced almost no wine. Many vineyards bounced back in 2025. Some wineries may be dealing with smoke-affected grapes this year.

“However,” as one commentator on Champagne writes, “if history has taught the region anything, it’s that a bad growing year doesn’t automatically produce a bad bottle.” That would apply in the Okanagan as well. The Blue Mountain team under winemaker Matt Mavety is exceptionally skilled at confronting difficult vintages and, in great years, making great wines. What brings that to mind is the release of four superb sparkling wines from Blue Mountain that rival the quality of Champagne but are much more affordable. The vintage-dated and recently disgorged wines, to be released October 20, are from very good Okanagan vintages (2017 and 2022). The fourth wine is the non-vintage Gold Label Brut but is also from 2022 fruit. It is “the sparkling wine that started it all,” the winery says.

Before Blue Mountain winery was launched in 1991, Ian Mavety, then a grower, participated in a sparkling wine trial begun in the Okanagan by Schramsberg Cellars from California. When Schramsberg pulled out, Ian went ahead on his own. He found a French winemaker in California, Rafael Brisbois, who was a trained sparkling wine maker. He mentored Blue Mountain in making bubbly, beginning in 1991.. The result: Blue Mountain became arguably the best sparkling wine producer in the valley. Arguably only because Blue Mountain does not enter its wines in competitions.

Blue Mountain began releasing its R.D. (recently disgorged) sparkling wines about 10 years after building a stock of wine that had spent sufficient time aging on the lees. The wines may spend as long as eight years on the lees in bottles before being disgorged. As with Champagne, prolonged lees aging allows the wines to develop complex flavours, aromas recalling brioche, and creamy textures that are the hallmark of top bubblies. The R.D. wines necessarily are more expensive, reflecting the additional years these wines are aged. The reward for tying up capital for five years to eight years is remarkably sophisticated wine. Having said that, Blue Mountain’s prices are quite reasonable compared with competing sparkling wines. Here are notes on the wines.

Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut 2022 ($28). This is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay. In second fermentation, the wine was aged on the lees for 24 to 36 months before being disgorged. The wine has notes of brioche and green apple in the aroma and on the palate. The finish is crisp and fresh. 90.

Blue Mountain Blanc de Blancs 2017 R.D. ($44). This is 100% Chardonnay aged on the lees for 7 ½ years. This is a lively, bright wine with a fine mousse and notes of toast and lemon. 93.

Blue Mountain Reserve Brut 2017 R.D. ($44). The winery notes that the “2017 vintage produced exceptional fruit quality.” This is 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir, aged on the lees for 7 ½ years. The Pinot Noir has filled out this wine which is rich and satisfying. There is brioche and red apple in the aroma and on the palate, along with a persistent mousse. The finish is long. 95.

Blue Mountain Rosé 2022 R.D. ($35). This is 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, aged 36 months the lees. The colour is very fashionably pale but the wine is satisfyingly fruity in the glass, with a good mousse and aromas and flavours of wild strawberry and raspberry. 92.

Lariana Cellars: a jewel in Osoyoos

Photo: Carol and Dan Scott in Lariana Cellars

Dan and Carol Scott, who operate Lariana Cellars in Osoyoos, were close to bottling their first Meritage blend when I dropped in once for a visit. They had not yet ordered the labels and told me they were thinking of naming it for the vintage, which I believe was 2012. That would mean naming each subsequent bottling with the vintage – 2013, 2014 and so on.

I had seen that branding fail at another Okanagan winery. I decided to offer some free advice. Name the wine The Franklin to honor Larry Franklin, Carol’s father and a shareholder in one of the Black Sage Bench vineyards before the pullout. That branding has worked for Hester Creek where the flagship red is Garland, named after the late Curt Garland who owned and developed the winery. Well, Dan and Carol seem also to have heard the adage that free advice is worth what you pay for it. They went ahead with branding the wine on each release with that year’s vintage. The current release is Twenty-Three. The branding has succeeded because of the underlying reputation of Lariana Cellars. This boutique winery, tucked right against the Canada-U.S. border, makes exceptional wines and its customers know it. And I am not put out that my advice was ignored, even if I still think it was a good idea.

Lariana’s vineyard is right beside Osoyoos Lake and it benefitted from the lake effect during the 2024 freeze which devastated much of the Okanagan grape crop. The lake is usually frozen over by January. That was not so in 2024 because there had been a long, warm fall. The open water moderated the freeze on Osoyoos area vineyards. “Fortunately, we did not lose any vines in 2024,” Don and Carol write. “We did not have any fruit on the Cabernet Sauvignon plants and only seven barrels of Carménère were produced. Sadly, there will not be a Twenty Four red blend.”

They continue: “We thought we had lost the 2023 plantings but continued to water the area. In July, we noticed new greenery amongst the weeds. To our surprise, the new plants had survived and thrived, especially the Carménère. We completed planting more Carménère in 2025 and these are growing very well.” And that brings Lariana’s total vineyard acreage to 7.1 planted acres.

Carménère is an old Bordeaux varietal that was largely abandoned in France during the phylloxera crisis of the 1870s. The varietal’s current “power base” – as the Jancis Robinson book puts it – is Chile, which is phylloxera free. The varietal was planted there in the mid-nineteenth century and for many years, was thought to be Merlot. It was only identified correctly in Chile in 1994. The first Okanagan winery to planted Carménère was Black Hills when winemaker Senka Tennant was one of the owners. She almost certainly influenced the Scotts to plant it because she has long been an advisor to Lariana.

Here are notes on the current releases.

Lariana Viognier 2025 ($33 for 565 cases). The fruit was sourced from vineyards on the east and west sides of Osoyoos Lake. The juice was fermented in the winery’s two concrete tanks and one stainless steel tank. The wine is kept on the fine lees and stirred periodically over five months before blending and bottling. The wine begins with exotic tropical fruits aromas leading to flavours of quince and pear. A spine of minerality give the wine a crisp finish. 92.

Lariana Carménère 2023 ($60 for 308 cases). This wine, made from a varietal rarely seen in the Okanagan, was aged 15 months in 75% French oak (25% new) and 25% in American oak. This is a dark and rich wine, with notes of pepper in the aroma. Pepper also mingles with dark fruits on the well-structured palate. 93.

Lariana Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 ($60 for 249 cases). This is a bold, ripe wine from a hot vintage. It was aged 15 months in 75% French oak (25% new) and 25% American oak. It begins with aromas of cassis and dark cherry. The palate delivers black currant and black plum. 93.

Lariana Twenty Three 2023 ($55 for 250 cases). This is a blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Syrah and 18% Carménère, aged 15 months in 75% French oak (25% new) and 25% American oak. This wine benefits from being decanted. It has a medley of dark fruit aromas and flavours – cherry, plum, black currant and spice – with notes of chocolate and tobacco as the wine opens up. 94.