At Blasted Church, Hell Froze Over in 2024 but not Horse Heaven Hills

Photo: Blasted Church winemaker Evan Saunders

Evan Saunders, the winemaker at Blasted Church Vineyards, was one of the first – if not the first – Okanagan winemaker to begin lining up Washington State grapes after the January 2024 freeze wiped out the Okanagan’s grape crop for that vintage. I vividly recall a conversation with Evan at the Vancouver International Wine Festival at the end of February, 2024. I asked him how bad the freeze damage was, not realizing that 95% of the crop had been destroyed, and what the wineries were going to do. He replied wineries would need to import grapes – and Washington had a big surplus available.

“I was the first one down there I believe,” Evan recounted to me recently. “I didn't see a way that we would have fruit from the Okanagan to work with, and I wanted to be sure that we had access to everything that we needed for our production.” He would have been out of luck if he had depended on Blasted Church’s own vineyards in 2024. The entire crop totalled 904 kg, enough to make a 60-case blend, which was released under the label, Hell Froze Over. It is sold out.

“As it turns out, there was a lot of great fruit available from all across Washington,” Evan discovered when he went there in search of grapes. “I spoke to a number of growers and visited some other sites, but after my first interaction with the guys at Andrews Family Vineyards, I knew that they were our people.” “Andrews Family had 1300 acres planted when I got down there in February,” Evan continues. “They ripped out about 300 acres, I believe it was old vines Chardonnay, in the spring to be replanted with Chardonnay. They ripped out an additional 300 acres in the fall, so at this point I think they are down to 700 acres with some replanting decisions yet to be made.”

He found the owners “an amazing team who are very dedicated to their site, incredibly talented, and overall are a great group to spend time with!” The vineyard manager even let Evan stay at his home. “It was a relief having such a responsive talented group of people down there overseeing everything. I was able to get down fairly frequently, probably 10 or 12 times over the course of the growing season and through harvest,” Evan says. “Having direct communication with them when I wasn't there was invaluable for my peace of mind. Looking back at it now, it was a great experience. We made a lot of new friends and got to experience working with fruit from the Horse Heaven Hills. Hopefully we won't have to repeat that any time soon, but it is good to know that we have friends nearby that would be able to help us again.”

In the 2025 vintage, the Blasted Church vineyards are looking surprisingly good. “We won't have a huge harvest from our property,” Evan says. “We undertook some replanting and a lot of re-trunking which has lowered yields this year, but will serve us very well moving forward. Our grower vineyards are in great shape and I expect we will have a 60% to 75% production from 2025.” On Wednesday, August 27, Blasted Church began its 2025 harvest from its own vineyard, bringing in Chardonnay for sparkling wine.

The current releases from Blasted Church include a number of Washington wines whose quality will not disappoint Blasted Church customers; in fact, will probably surprise them. Here are my notes.

Blasted Church Swear to God Chardonnay 2023 ($30 for 150 cases). This wine was made with grapes from an estate vineyard planted in 1995. The fruit was whole cluster pressed and the juice was racked into French oak barrels (33% new) for fermentation and spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine stayed in oak for 10 months. The wine begins with appealing aromas of apple and citrus mingled with sweet oak notes. The palate is rich with flavours of lemon, apple and honey and a subtle note of oak. This is a textbook example of how to oak Chardonnay without overwhelming the fruit. 93.

Blasted Church Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($28 for 570 cases). This wine was made with Andrews Family fruit grown in Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills AVA. The grapes were crushed and allowed a three-hour cold soak before the juice was transferred to the Okanagan winery in a temperature-controlled truck. A portion of the juice was fermented in neutral oak barrels while the rest was fermented in stainless steel. The wine begins with aromas of lime and lemon, leading to flavours of grapefruit. 91.

Blasted Church Pinot Gris 2024 ($24 for 2,012 cases). The fruit is from the Andrews Family Vineyards. Blasted Church chose to work with this grower in part because of the similarity of the soils to the Blasted Church vineyards on the Skaha Bench. This wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks. The wine begins with appealing aromas of nectarine and tangerine. The rich palate delivers flavours of apple, pear and citrus, with a long finish. 92.

Blasted Church Hatfield’s Fuse 2024 ($22 for 3,305 cases). Made with fruit from the Andrews Family Vineyard, this wine is a blend of 41% Pinot Gris, 39% Riesling and 20% Viognier. While the blend seems unorthodox, the winemaker had selected the three varietals quite purposely. The wine begins with aromas of lemon and peach, leading to flavours of orange mingled with peach, with a long finish. 91.

Blasted Church Grenache Rosé 2024 ($26 for 414 cases). The fruit is from the Andrews Family Vineyard. The two-hour cold soak imparted a delicate but appealing rose petal hue. The juice, transported to the Okanagan in a temperature truck, was fermented in neutral French oak, aging there for six months, plus one more month in stainless steel. It is a wine with great finesse, with aromas and flavours of strawberry and peach. 92.

Blasted Church Hell Froze Over 2024 ($N/A for 60 cases). This wine represents the entire 2024 harvest – 904 kg of grapes – from the Shaha Bluff vineyard after the January, 2024, freeze eliminated almost all of the crop. This wine is a blend of 47% Viognier, 14% Blaufränkisch, 11% Gewürztraminer, 11% Pinot Gris, 9% Sauvignon Blanc and 8% Riesling. The grapes were whole-cluster pressed and fermented in stainless steel and neutral French oak. The colour is pale gold. The wine was aromas and flavours of orchard fruits, with a long, dry finish. 92.

Blasted Church Viognier 2024 ($28 for 502 cases). There is 15% Marsanne in this blend. Some 64% of Viognier in the wine is from Washington State. The rest of the Viognier and the Marsanne are from the Red Brick Vineyard at Osoyoos. Some of the wine was fermented in stainless steel but the majority was fermented in barrel to give a rich texture to the wine. It begins with aromas of apricots and vanilla. The palate delivers honeyed flavours of apricots and peaches. The finish is persistent. 92.

Blasted Church Big Bang Theory 2024 ($26 for 2,610 cases). This wine is 60% Merlot, 24% Syrah and 16% Malbec, all from the Andrews Family Vineyard. The grapes were transported by temperature-controlled truck to the Blasted Church cellar for a seven-day cold soak. Maceration on skins during fermentation was 18 to 21 days. The wine was aged a total of six months in barrel. The wine is dark in colour, with aromas of plum and dark cherry that are echoed on the palate. The text is rich with soft, chewy tannins. I would recommend giving this wine more bottle age (a year or two) to tame the youthful exuberance. 92.

Blasted Church Cabernet Franc 2022 ($34 for 455 cases). This wine was made with grapes from two Osoyoos vineyards. The grapes were allowed a five-day cold soak before fermentation and 24 days on the skins during fermentation, along with daily pump-overs. The wine went into French oak (15% new), spending a total of 20 months in barrel before bottling. The wine has aromas and flavours of blackberry, dark cherry and spice. The texture is generous and the finish is long. 93.