Winery wins 2 medals in France

Kelowna’s Summerhill Pyramid is the only Okanagan winery to win two medals at France’s world’s best Chardonnay contest.

Summerhill’s 2014 Chardonnay icewine won a gold medal and also topped the list of the 10 highest scoring wines at the 24th annual Chardonnay du Monde competition earlier this month at Chateau de Ravatys in Burgundy.

Summerhill’s Cipes Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, made with Chardonnay grapes, won silver.

France’s Burgundy region may be the birthplace of Chardonnay, but the grape and the resulting wine has found success worldwide as an oaked or unoaked white table wine, sparkling wine and icewine.

As such, the contest may be held in France every year, but the competitors are from all over the globe.

This year, 706 wines from 38 countries were judged. Fifty-five of them earned gold and 180 earned silver. No bronze was awarded.

“We show up really well in international competition because the Okanagan Valley grows some of the best wines in world,” said Summerhill winemaker and viticulturist Eric von Krosigk.

All of the grapes used to make Summerhill wines are organic.

“This is a win for the Okanagan and this is a win for organic growing,” said proprietor Stephen Cipes.

“These grapes are in harmony with the environment and it shows up in the quality of the wine. Get what nature intended.”

West Kelowna’s Quails’ Gate Winery won a silver for its Stewart Family Reserve 2015 Chardonnay.