Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
{ SOMMjournal.com } 89 Crush Pad consultants Alberto Antonini (an internationally respected Italian enologist) and influential Vancouver wine personality David Scholefield, along with winemaker Matt Dumayne, our sommeliers were struck by the focus on uncompro - mising purity in wines bottled under the winery's two house brands, Haywire and Narrative. Scholefield started things out by stating: "We are Canadians, hopelessly self-deprecating and insecure, so early on we felt we had to ape California wine with techniques like spinning cones and reverse osmosis. What we came to realize is that if we focus on making wines more authentic to our grapes, we can discover the quality in our own wine regions." Antonini was adamant about saying, "Use of barrels can be devastating to authenticity of wines." While understanding that, say, concrete- rather than barrel-aged Chardonnay or Pinot Noir may be less appealing to many consumers, Antonini contends: "You can make wine for the mar - ket or let the market find your wines, but when you make wine for the market you can lose your authenticity. We want to start with good grapes and do less with them, but as Pedro Parra (Okanagan Crush Pad's Chile-based viticultural consultant) always reminds us, the goal is to make better wine, not more natural wine." Says Scott, "I like their approach of doing less to express 'place not grape,' which I could definitely taste in their wines . . . you could feel this different kind of energy throughout their winery, visible in all their tools (concrete tanks, eggs, amphora, etc)." Mertz's impressions: "Meeting Alberto Antonini and learning his philosophy about taking risks, especially that 'to do nothing you need to know a lot'—by mixing inno - vation with past experiences, and doing less to grapes to get more expression of terroir in the glass—was very refreshing. It's not always that you hear about winemak - ers who are humble enough to say, 'It is not about me,' allowing wines and vineyards to speak for themselves. Of course, since in vino veritas, Kristiansen proffers this summary of the Okanagan Crush Pad wines tasted: "The orange wines [Haywire 2014 Free Form White made from Sauvignon Blanc, and Haywire 2013 Free Form White from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc] and méthode ancestrale sparkling wine [Narrative 2013 Ancient Method] were intriguing but geeky, their Sauvignon Blanc [Haywire 2014 Waters & Banks] and Pinot Gris [concrete tank samples of Haywire Switchback] were all transparent, fresh and delicious, showcasing the vineyard first and leaving winery input to a minimum." After a walk through Okanagan Crush Pad's most recently planted site—their calcareous Garnet Valley Ranch which, at 2,000-plus feet, qualifies as British Columbia's highest-elevation vineyard— we boarded our minicoach to head out to Similkameen Valley—a VQA separate from Okanagan Valley, located just west of Osoyoos. "Similkameen," Kristiansen says, "is truly majestic—a sweeping green valley surrounded by high, snow-covered moun - tain peaks." It is also startlingly diverse; there we experienced some of British Columbia's finest and most precisely balanced Rieslings, growing right alongside the most amazing Gamays and definitive Syrahs. We discovered why that is during a walk through the Passion Pit Vineyard, a hillside planting located next to a longtime gravel pit. Little Farm Winery owner/winemaker Rhys Pender, MW, explained: "The gravelly loam of this site is loaded with calcium car - bonate, better known as limestone, which contributes to the minerality and balancing acidity in wines. Similkameen Valley itself is crazy windy—a tad colder as well as hotter than Okanagan Valley, with summer diurnal swings as much as 50 degrees." In a tasting at Orofino Vineyards with owner/winemakers John and Virginia Weber, we tasted three Orofino Similkameen Valley Rieslings marked by live-wire lemony tartness, mineral sensations, and fragrances ranging from citrus to marmalade and fusel. Pender showed two razor-sharp single- vineyard bottlings of Little Farm Rieslings with lemon, Mandarin orange and mineral/ sagebrush fragrances. The citrusy and stony/ oyster shell textured Little Farm 2014 Mulberry Tree Vineyard Chardonnay seemed like the closest thing to Chablis The Haywire line of natural wines from Oakanagan Crush Pad. At Orofino Vineyards in Simalkameen Valley: Jesus Evangelista, Diego Garcia, Rob Renteria and Britt Hastings.