Years ago (17 now) when I came to Hillside, I was told that we are an ABC winery—Anything But Chardonnay. New on the job and eager to please I nodded knowingly. I get it, Chardonnay definitely has some baggage. Historically grown in the burgundy region of France, specifically Chablis, chardonnay is now grown wherever wine…
Continue reading ABC Winery… WTF?
A year and a half ago I stood in our Hidden Valley Vineyard with Marcus Keller, Distinguished Professor in Viticulture, WSU Prosser. “I predict 100% recovery next year—but don’t quote me on that.” Of course I did, every chance I got, quote him, but I didn’t quite believe him. The red varieties in this vineyard—syrah…
Continue reading Don’t Quote Me On This – Post Harvest 2025
What do we do in the cellar during the summer…especially when there has been no harvest? Usually, the spring and summer months are filled with blending, finishing and bottling the white wines from the previous year. July and August are taken up with emptying barrels, blending and finishing the early-to-bottle red wines, Pinot Noir, Gamay,…
Continue reading Hot Time Summer in the Cellar
Nope, not referring to oil discovery, but to biochar… Biochar is the end product of a process used to reduce organic waste. In our case, the waste is the dead vines that we had to pull out this year as a result of a one-in-50-year event in January 2024 which saw temperatures plunge to below…
Continue reading Burn Baby, Burn
Merlot has been a staple in Hillside’s portfolio since 2000 when Hidden Valley Vineyard was planted to include 2 blocks of Merlot comprising over 5 acres of the 15 acres managed by Hillside. This fruit was used along with a substantial amount of contracted Naramata Bench fruit to produce roughly 1500 cases of Hillside Merlot…
Continue reading Duncan’s “Monday to Thursday” Wine
For decades now it has generally been accepted that the Naramata Bench produces premium quality white wines and excellent Pinot Noir. Bigger, Bordeaux and Rhone style reds were thought to do best when grown further south, with some exceptions from the Naramata Bench, which consistently score top marks in international competitions (such as the gold…
Continue reading Seeing Red at Hillside
What’s new at Hillside? I’ll tell you what’s new! Last month we released our first vintage of the newest addition to our Single Vineyard Series, the Occhi Dolci Vineyard Merlot. This merlot was planted and grown on a beautiful vineyard site (come on they’re all beautiful) just below the Penticton sign at the south end of…
Continue reading Sweet Eyes – Occhi Dolci Vineyard Merlot
August is BC Rosé Month, so let’s talk about rosé! We have made our Hillside Rosé since 2005 with sales being slow for the first few years. In 2008 we had a rockstar salesman in our wineshop who was able to double sales by convincing the male contingent that rosé is a very manly wine: …
Continue reading Rosé, Two Ways
“I came to Hillside for the Syrah…” This is one of the first things Chef Evan told me when he came to Hillside in 2021. “I had it at a tasting at Fairmont Hot Springs years ago and couldn’t get it out of my mind. We even served it at a recent family reunion.” This…
Continue reading Chef’s Whites – A Brand New Collaborative Wine
snpinktn a place to stay forever… Hillside winery is located on the Naramata Bench, in Penticton. Our fruit is all grown on the Naramata Bench, vines planted on the traditional lands of the Syilx people, who named this area snpinktn which means “a place to stay forever” or “the place where people live year-round”. This…
Continue reading 2023 Harvest Recap
As we prepare for our favourite time of year—grape harvest, affectionately referred to as “crush” not for what it does to the crew and winemaker, but what we do to the grapes—we plan and strategize our use of fermentation vessels for each block of grapes. Because red and white wines are made very differently, we…
Continue reading Fermentation Vessels
The Naramata Bench wineries were the first in BC to join and pool their marketing efforts through a regional association when the Naramata Bench Wineries Association formed in 2003 as a marketing organization promoting awareness of Naramata Bench wineries throughout BC and Alberta. This vibrant group became well known for “taking it on the road”…
Continue reading Best of the Bench—has sub-GI designation made a difference?