Hester Creek wines have illustrious honourees

Photo: Hester Creek's vineyard

The current releases from Hester Creek Estate Winery pay tribute to two of the most important men in the winery’s history. A red called Joe’s Block honours Joe Busnardo, who planted the original vineyard on the Hester Creek site and later opened the first winery, which he called Divino.

Joe was raised on a farm north of Venice where his father, Luigi, grew a little bit of everything, including silkworms. The young Busnardo, who studied at the agricultural school in Conegliano, noted for its viticulture training, ‘one said that he never liked any plant but grapes. (That school was Italy’s first school for enology and viticulture, founded in 1876.) He came to Canada in 1954 as a twenty-year-old bachelor and drifted west through a variety of jobs until he ended up as a construction worker in Vancouver. In 1967, he purchased a seventy-acre peach orchard on a slope south of Oliver and began converting it to vineyard the next year. Famously, he insisted on planting vinifera when almost everyone else was planting hybrids and labrusca crosses in the Okanagan. He got a surprise when he canvassed wineries for contracts for his grapes. They said he should have planted Bath, a red labrusca grape, in half the vineyard and French hybrids in the other half. And they certainly were not going to pay him a premium for his vinifera grapes. He had refused to take their advice. In 1977, needing to make a living, he went to work as a heavy-duty mechanic in Penticton. “I shut the farm down,” he told me in an interview some years later. “I didn’t even prune the grapes.”

The 1978-79 winter was very hard in the Okanagan, causing substantial damage to most French hybrid vines in the vineyards between Oliver and Osoyoos. However, many of Joe’s vinifera had survived the winter. Encouraged by that, he resumed working his vines and he applied for a winery license. By 1983, Divino was licensed as a cottage winery. Joe sold the winery in 1996 and relocated Divino to a new vineyard south of Duncan on Vancouver Island. He had planted a large number of varietals in the Okanagan, testing what would succeed. The Italian Merlot is one of the successful varietals. The current owners of Hester Creek have never done the detailed ampelography to determine whether this is really Merlot or an Italian red that resembles Merlot. But the vines still produce good wine – and Joe deserves to be honoured.

Curt Garland, the current owner of Hester Creek, is the honouree for whom the winery named its premium red, Garland, beginning in the 2015 vintage. A native of Prince George, he bought the winery in 2004 in a court-ordered bankruptcy auction. It was then a run-down winery with the great vineyard that Joe Busnardo had identified. Curt has invested substantially to give Hester Creek a state-of-the-art winery, a renovated and expanded vineyard, and a professional staff. Hester Creek today ranks as one of the finest wineries in the Okanagan.

Here are notes on the current releases.

Hester Creek Old Vine Pinot Blanc 2020 ($15.99). This wine is from fruit grown on vines planted in 1968 and 1998. The maturity shows on the full texture on the wine, which begins with aromas of apple and nectarine. On the palate, there are flavours of apple, stone fruit and lemon, with a fine backbone of minerality. 91.

Hester Creek Chardonnay 2020 ($21.99). This wine is made with fruit from a mature, low-yielding block of Chardonnay in the estate vineyard. Forty-five percent of the wine was fermented and aged 10 months in French oak barrels (35% new), with the remainder fermented in stainless steel. It begins with aromas of butter, citrus and vanilla. While oak flavours are evident on the palate, the oak is very well integrated with the fruit – flavours of mandarin mingled with apple and vanilla. The finish lingers. 91.

Hester Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 ($34.99). Dark in hue, this wine begins with aromas of black cherry mingled with cassis, chocolate and smoked charcuterie. All of that is echoed on the palate, along with flavours of dark chocolate and black currant. There is a firm texture, suggesting a wine that will age well. 92.

Hester Creek Joe’s Block 2019 ($34.99). The fruit in this wine is the famous “Italian Merlot” block that was planted about 1968. It is a rustic wine with an untamed personality: spicy aromas lead to flavours of cherry, raspberry, cranberry and chocolate. The wine has been aged 18 months in French oak. 91.

Hester Creek Syrah 2019 ($29.99). Some 15% Viognier was co-fermented with the Syrah; the wine aged 14 months in oak (60% American, 40% French). The wine has the classic note of black pepper in the aroma and on the palate, along with aromas and flavours of black cherry, fig, coffee. The finish is long and satisfying. 91.

Hester Creek Garland 2018 ($59.99). The blend in this luxurious red is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec and 4% Cabernet Franc. The wine was aged 24 months in French oak, which gave a refined polish to the texture. It begins with aromas of cassis, black cherry and mocha. On the rich palate, the wine delivers dark fruit mingled with mocha. Long, ripe tannins give the wine a long and elegant finish. 95.