Through the summer of 2010, Hillside hosted a number of “terroir tastings” from barrels, illustrating the similarities and differences between four blocks of 2009 Merlot from the Naramata bench and one Oliver block. The difference was obvious—almost a Sesame Street segment of “one of these things is not like the other” –the wine from Oliver…
Continue reading The down & “dirt”y on our single vineyard Merlots?
Winemaker, Winemaker Blend me a Wine… “Start with Merlot, make it taste fine, we want it to win awards when tasted blind, tell me what will Mosaic be?” What goes into blending a wine like Mosaic? “…for Mama add Cab Franc and Malbec, for Papa–Cabernet Sauvignon” Vineyard skill, careful barrel selection and cellar craftsmanship come…
Continue reading All About Mosaic
The holiday season is upon us, and one of our favorite things about this time of year is spending quality time with our family and friends while sharing fabulous wine and delicious food. With the return of Christmas parties and in person events, the holiday hustle can quickly turn stressful if you aren’t prepared! Fear…
Continue reading Hillside Holiday Wine & Food Pairings
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
Part 3 of 3: How the Naramata Bench officially became a Sub-Appellation. So here we are. You have the background on the Naramata Bench and the BC system of sub-Geographic-Indicators, now it’s time to explore how they came together. The Naramata Bench wineries were the first in BC to join and pool their marketing efforts…
Continue reading All about the Naramata Bench Terroir: Part 3 of 3
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?
Oh my goodness, where do I start? Well, let’s start at the end. How do we know when it is time to stop aging a wine? It’s a simple answer: when it is no longer improving or evolving in a positive way—ie it is “over the hill”. The problem is our severe lack of time…
Continue reading Cellaring Wine: A Winemaker’s Perspective
We faced harvest this year with no idea of what we might find. The “heat dome” in mid-June brought record temperatures at a highly unusual time for wine-growing regions. As this period is typically when we see “bloom” – flowering of these self-pollinating vines – I expected to see anomalies in both time of ripening…
Continue reading Hindsight 2021: How was Hillside’s Harvest?
Smoke and heat. Everyone wants to know how/if/how badly/how long they may affect the grapes and wine. The answer? So do we! Heat domes and wildfires in grape growing areas are new enough phenomena that we are learning so much year by year. The good news for us on the Naramata Bench is that we…
Continue reading The Elephants in the Vineyard: Smoke & Heat
The term intervention in winemaking spans a spectrum of practices. In theory, zero intervention would indicate that fruit is left on the vine and no wine is made. Maximum intervention would be…well let’s come back to that. The grapevine’s primary job, in fact its only desire, is to propagate. It wants to create the condition…
Continue reading Intervention in Winemaking – What does it really mean?