Four Shadows: a rising star on Upper Bench Road

Photo: Winery proprietors Joka and Wilbert Borren

With four wineries close to each other, Upper Bench Road on the eastern side of Penticton makes for a comfortable day of wine touring, with time to take in several other nearby wineries. Think of this as an easy introduction to Naramata Bench, with enough wineries to fill the rest of the week. Let me recommend starting with the low-key Four Shadows Vineyard & Winery at the south end of Upper Bench Road. Here is an excerpt on the winery from the 2020 Okanagan Wine Tour Guide:

Wilbert and Joka Borren, both immigrants from the Netherlands, are nothing if not industrious. Wilbert was a 20-year-old graduate of an agriculture college when he arrived to work on an Alberta dairy farm. He met Joka in 1990, shortly after she arrived in Canada. In 1993, after the couple married, Wilbert concluded that the rising cost of milk quotas prevented him from realizing a dream of his own dairy. So he bought a hog farm near Lacombe, Alberta. “It took some persuading,” Joka admits.

When they tired of hogs and hard winters, they moved to the Okanagan in 2011, now with four sons, to become grape growers. They bought the bankrupt Mistral Estate Winery and its 4.9 hectares (12 acres) of neglected vineyard on the eastern edge of Penticton. Wilbert made up for his lack of experience by engaging viticultural consultant Graham O’Rourke, co-owner of nearby Tightrope Winery. “I am a farmer,” Wilbert says. “Stepping into the wine business is a new game.” Within a few years, Graham suggested that Wilbert did not need help anymore. Four Shadows Vineyard—a name inspired by the four Borren sons—was selling quality fruit to such top-flight wineries as Foxtrot Vineyards and Synchromesh Wines. “It was never our intention to start a winery,” Wilbert says. “But then we were selling grapes [to wineries] that were all making good wines. People started to ask why we were not making our own wine.” Once again, they overcame winemaking inexperience by turning to consultants. Tightrope’s Lyndsay O’Rourke made the Four Shadows wines in 2017, and Pascal Madevon, formerly the Osoyoos Larose winemaker, took over in 2018.

The former Mistral tasting room, empty nearly a decade, was professionally renovated: one of their sons is a carpenter, while another, a welder, fashioned the winery’s unique steel signage.

Here are notes on the current releases.

Four Shadows Riesling Dry 2021 ($23.99). This wine begins with citrus aromas. On the palate, there are flavours of lime and apple. The finish is crisp with bright acidity. 90.

Four Shadows Riesling Classic 2022 ($23.99). This off-dry Riesling is packed with fruit: aromas of peach, lemon and apple leading to flavours of stone fruits and grapefruit. The residual sugar is well-balanced and the finish lingers. 92.

Four Shadows Pinot Blanc 2022 ($N/A). This is a crisp and lean white with aromas and flavours of green apples mingled with lime. The finish is quite dry. 89.

Four Shadows Rosé 2022 ($24.99). This is a Pinot Noir/Merlot blend with an attractive rose hue. A delicious and refreshing rosé, the wine is packed with flavours of strawberry, raspberry and grapefruit. A hint of residual sweetness lifts the texture. 90.

Four Shadows Pinot Noir 2019 ($30.99). This barrel-aged wine begins with aromas of cherry that lead to flavours of cherry and blackberry. There is a classic note of forest floor on the finish. The texture is firm. 90.

Four Shadows Zweigelt 2021 ($25.99). The light-bodied wine begins with aromas of cherry and pomegranate. The palate delivers flavours of raspberry, cherry and pomegranate. 90.

Four Shadows Merlot 2019 ($28.99). This full-bodied red begins with aromas of black currant and black cherry. On the palate, there are flavours of black currant mingled with plum, black cherry, chocolate and spice. 90.