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.

Quails' Gate extends the Plume label

Photo: Jeff Del Nin, Quails' Gate senior winemaker

Quails’ Gate Estate Winery created the Plume label in 2009 for two wines, a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon, that it was making in Napa and subsequently in Sonoma, exclusively for sale in Canada. Quails’ Gate has always reserved the Quails’ Gate label just for wines made only with Okanagan grapes. In 2021 and again in 2022, when Quails’ Gate was able to buy Cabernet Sauvignon from the storied Blind Creek Vineyard in the Similkameen Valley, the resulting wines were released under the Plume label.

The severe cold events in December 2022 and January 2024 devastated production from the Quails’ Gate vineyards, forcing the winery (and many of its peers) to turn to vineyards in Washington and Oregon for grapes. The handy Plume label has been pressed into service for the resulting wines.

“We knew that the 2024 vintage had to be different from any harvest we’ve experienced before,” writes Jeff Del Nin, the senior winemaker at Quails’ Gate. “In March 2024, I reached out to some of my oldest and closest friends in the wine business who work in Washington, Oregon and California. I got in my truck and drove thousands of kilometers to visit vineyard after vineyard.” He continues: “We were searching for standout vineyards that produce exceptional wines. … Unless I could taste wines made from each vineyard, we wouldn’t agree to purchase the grapes. We had to be certain that the wines were going to be premium expressions of their Pacific Northwest terroir.”

Once he had chosen the vineyards, Jeff spent 51 days in Oregon and Washington during harvest. “I needed to see the grapes through to the finish line. I made all the picking decisions on the ground before the fruit could be sent to our cellar. It was exciting and nerve-wracking. Now, having tasted the wines we made, it was all worth it.” The object was to make wines up to the standard of the excellent Distinction Series under the Quails’ Gate brand. After tasting both those wines and the recently released Plume wine, I would say that Jeff and his team succeeded brilliantly.

“This year, a lot of fruit is coming back [in the Okanagan vineyards], a little more than we expected,” Jeff said recently. “But we are going to have to have some American fruit again this year.” The normal production from the Quails’ Gate vineyards has been around 1,200 tons of grapes. Last year’s production was a mere 75 tons, which is why the winery had to look to American vineyards. The rebounding 2025 harvest from Quails’ Gate’s Okanagan sources is projected to yield about 425 tons. While that is an improvement, it is not enough to handle the demand for Quails’ Gate wines.

“Hopefully, this will be the last year when we have to source anything from the United States,” Jeff says. The recent Plume releases, available at the winery and to the Quails’ Gate wine club, are white, rosé and Pinot Noir, along with a 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Blind Creek Vineyard. I anticipate more big reds since Jeff also obtained Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in Washinton State. “If we had not gone to the United States and had no wine to sell, our company would go down,” Jeff says. Here are notes on the Plume wines.

Plume Pinot Gris 2024 ($32). This Pinot Gris was sourced from the Westmount Vineyard near Monmouth, Oregon. The growing conditions here are cool and the resulting wine shows bright acidity alone with aromas and flavours of pear and citrus. The finish is crisp. 90.

Plume Chenin Blanc 2024 ($35). This Chenin Blanc was sourced from vineyards of south-central Washington, from 40-year-old vines planted in 1980 and 1981 in the Horse Heaven Hills, situated in the heart of the Columbia Valley. The wine has aromas and flavours of pineapple and cantaloupe; the texture is generous and the finish lingers. 91.

Plume Rosé of Pinot Noir 2024 ($29.99). This Rosé of Pinot Noir is made with fruit from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The wine presents with a delicate pink hue. It has aromas and flavours of strawberry and raspberry. 90.

Plume Pinot Noir 2023 ($48). This Pinot Noir is in co-operation with Oregon’s Archery Summit Winery, a leading producer in the Willamette Valley. This is a very pretty wine, with aromas of cherry and raspberry that are echoed on the silky palate. 92.

Plume Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 ($52). This Cabernet Sauvignon, from an outstanding vintage, was grown in the renowned Blind Creek vineyard in the Similkameen Valley. Dark in the glass and full-bodied, it has aromas of cassis and dark cherry. The palate delivers flavours of black currant mingled with dark cherry and hint of mint. 94.

Hester Creek releases reds from the Epic 22 vintage

Photo: Hester Creek winemaker Mark Hopley (courtesy of Hester Creek)

Hester Creek has nicknamed the Okanagan’s 2022 vintage as Epic 22, underlining the splendid quality of one of the best growing seasons ever in the valley. Most wineries and most commentators agree with that ranking.

2022 “will go down in history as one of the most challenging yet productive years on record,” writes Cassidy Keens, the winery’s public relations and events coordinator. “The extended growing season that year led to a longer harvest, with each grape carefully handpicked. Thanks to the addition of new vineyards, our overall yield was nearly 30% larger than we had originally anticipated. This larger fruit yield remained on the vine longer than usual. Just as we approached the end of [harvest], an unexpected three feet of snow fell on November 2. As a result of this heavy snowfall, the grape skins began to raisin slightly and concentrate, enhancing the flavour intensity, structure and colour of the wines. These wines reflect the personality and uniqueness of this particularly outstanding vintage.”

She continues by quoting Mark Hopley, Hester Creek’s winemaker, on his assessment of the winery’s flagship red wine, called Garland in tribute to winery owner Curt Garland. “This vintage of Garland is the finest we have ever crafted,” Mark says. “It has amazing concentration of fruit while remaining elegant.”

The downside of the late harvest of 2022 is that many vines were not yet fully dormant when a sharp frost swept over the valley. The resulting damage to fruiting buds and vines significantly reduced the 2023 harvest. Then, to make matters worse, a really hard freeze in January 2024 eliminated about 95% of that year’s crop. Mark Sheridan, Hester Creek’s president, was among the first of the Okanagan vintners to travel to the Columbia Valley in Washington State in March, 2024, nailing down grapes for Hester Creek’s 2024 vintage. “We met with from seven sub-AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), learned their stories, analyzed their growing practices and built a partnership to import the best grapes possible,” the winery writes. Hester Creek often had first choice. “Each block was chosen with absolute discretion for the varietal, location, growing practices and quality of the fruit.”

The winery has been releasing wines from what it calls its Columbia Collection. There are seven or eight wines, two of which are reviewed here. I reviewed four of them earlier this year; I repeat those scores to indicate the consistent quality of the wines. Hester Creek has not yet reported on how its Okanagan vineyards are doing this year, but I would infer from what other wineries are saying that the vines have rebounded with generous crops. Hester Creek has every intention of returning to making VQA wines when the B.C. vineyards support that. Here are notes on recent releases, including some Epic 22 wines.

Hester Creek Riesling 2024 ($24.99). The grapes for this wine are from the Ancient Lakes AVA. Harvested by hand, the fruit was delivered by temperature-controlled trucks to Hester Creek’s crush pad the same day. The wine was fermented cool for 20 days and aged in stainless steel for five months before being bottled. It is a juicy wine, with aromas and flavours of peach, grapefruit and green apple. 90.

Hester Creek Rosé Noir 2024 ($27.99). The fruit, clone 777 Pinot Noir, was sourced in the Ancient Lakes AVA. The grapes came to Hester Creek in refrigerated trucks and, on being crushed, had three hours of skin contact to extract the delicate hue that presents in the glass. The wine was fermented cool for 20 days and aged four months in stainless steel before bottling. The wine begins with aromas of wild strawberries, leading to delicate flavours of strawberry and raspberry. 90.

Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2024 ($19.99). 90.

Hester Creek Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($19.99). 90.

Hester Creek Viognier 2024 ($23.99). 91.

Hester Creek Rosé Cabernet Franc 2024 ($22.99). 88.

Hester Creek Old Vine Cabernet Franc 2022 ($29.99). This wine was aged 18 months in barrels (75% French, 25% American). The wine begins with aromas of blackberry and raspberry which are echoed on the palate, along with notes of chocolate. The intense flavours lead to a persistent finish. 93.

Hester Creek Syrah 2022 ($29.99). The grapes in this wine were co-fermented with Viognier. The wine was aged 14 months in oak (60% American, 40% French). The wine begins with aromas of blackberry, dark cherry and black pepper. The wine is rich in texture, with flavours of plum and cherry mingled with deli meats. 91.

Hester Creek The Judge 2022 ($49.99). This is a blend of 47% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% each of Petit Verdot and Malbec. The wine was aged 14 months in French oak. The wine begins with aromas of dark cherry and cocoa, leading to flavours of dark cherry and black currant with hints of tobacco on the lingering finish. 92.

Hester Creek Garland 2022 ($64.99). The blend is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec. The wine was aged 24 months in French oak. A hint of oak comes through on the bold palate as cedar, mingled with cloves and dark fruit. The palate delivers rich flavours of plum, dark cherry and cassis. The long, ripe tannins mark this as a wine with good aging potential. 95.

Pentâge Winery reaches into a deep inventory

Photo: Paul Gardner and Julie Rennie

At Penticton’s Pentâge Winery, Paul Gardner and Julie Rennie grow 19 varietals in the 15 acres of their two vineyards on a bench overlooking Skaha Lake. It enables them to offer quite interesting blends alongside distinctive single varietal wines.

Over the years, the winery, which opened in 2003, has built up an inventory of well-cellared wines, as the vintages reviewed here suggest. Not many producers still are able to offer wines from the 2018 vintage unless it is a library release. The deep inventory appears to be pulling the winery through the production losses in the 2024 vintage due to the January 2024 freeze. Fortunately, the Pentâge vineyards are likely to produce a reasonable harvest this fall.

“Out in the vineyard, things are developing beautifully,” Julie wrote in a recent online post. “The vineyard is looking healthy this season, with a heavy crop load developing across most blocks. To ensure optimal ripening and preserve quality, our vineyard crew is currently fruit thinning — a vital step that balances yield to promote phenolic development and flavor concentration in the fruit. This week, we’ve started to see veraison in the Gewürztraminer and Gamay — an exciting milestone where the grapes begin to ripen, bringing us one step closer to harvest. It’s shaping up to be a promising vintage, and we look forward to seeing how it unfolds as the season progresses.” So are this winery’s many followers. Here are my notes on four recent releases.

Pentâge Roussanne Marsanne Viognier 2019 ($30.43). This is 50% Roussanne, 30% Marsanne and 20% Viognier. The wine was aged 11 months in French oak puncheons and barriques that were three or four years old. It is a terrific wine, beginning with honeyed aromas of guava and citrus. The rich palate delivers flavours of ripe peach and apricot, with a persistent finish. 92.

Pentâge Cabernet Franc 2022 ($30.43). Grown in a top vintage, this wine was aged 15 months in French oak (25% new). Dark in hue and full-bodied, the wine begins with aromas of blackberry, dark cherry and spice. On the palate, flavours of plum and dark cherry are mingled with notes of chocolate and oak. 92.

Pentâge Pinot Noir 2020 ($30.43). This wine was matured 18 months in French oak barrels and puncheons (30% new). This is a masculine style of Pinot Noir, dark in colour, firm in structure. There are aromas and flavours of dark cherry mingled with spice and oak. 88.

Pentâge GSM 2018 ($34.78). The blend is 47% Grenache, 43% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah. Each varietal was aged in oak barrels (20% new) for 15 months. The wine won a gold medal last year in a national competition, deservedly so. Aromas of dark fruits and pepper just bound out of the glass. On the palate, flavours of cherry and raspberry mingle with subtle notes of pepper and oak. 94.