TINY TERRAVISTA’S WINES ESSENCE OF OKANAGAN FUTURE
It’s hard to believe there are still some hidden treasures in the B.C. wine business.
While I wouldn’t suggest Terravista Vineyards flies under the radar, it is fair to say the tiny Penticton winery is off the beaten path when you compare it to more famous wine thoroughfares like Highway 29 (Napa Valley, California), Highway 222 (Tuscany, Italy), the B19 (Barossa Valley, South Australia) and Medoc’s famed D2 in France. But if you turn off Naramata Road about eight km north of Penticton at Sutherland Road, you will discover a magical place.
There is nothing big about Terravista — in fact it is so small, they didn’t even qualify as a small winery at the WineAlign National Wine Awards, where you needed to enter a least five wines to compete for the annual title of Best Performing Small Winery. Terravista submitted four wines, and grabbed three gold medals. An impressive performance.
It’s a shame the estate wines do not boast a Naramata sub-appellation — the single best way to declare to the wine world where you come from.
Terravista Vineyards began in 2008 as a joint project of Bob and Senka Tennant. Both had been active in the Okanagan since 2000, when Senka made the wines at Black Hills Estate, and Bob worked the vineyard and ran the business. Black Hills was famous for its Nota Bene red blend, but it was Senka’s Black Hills Alibi (a Sauvignon Blanc-Sémillon blend) that always impressed me.
Senka clearly has a talent for white wines. The 2003 Alibi blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon was, at the time, one of the best white wines I had tasted in B.C. After Black Hills changed ownership, the Tennants began a search for a special piece of dirt to establish a new vineyard and winery. Bravely, they wanted to concentrate on a couple of white grape varieties from Spain that had been attracting their interest.
The search took them north to Naramata, and then west above the main road on to the spare rocky hillsides. They settled on a southwestern facing slope known as Lone Hand Ranch, with very rocky, sandy soils. Well above the heavier sandy soils of the lower Naramata Bench, it seemed the perfect site to grow Albarino and Verdejo.
The Tennants now produce five labels, including a varietal Albarino; a Viognier; a Syrah; Fandango, a blend of Albarino and Verdejo; and Figaro, a blend of Roussanne and Viognier. (See our weekend picks.)
It’s difficult to explain how important these wines are to the Okanagan milieu — let’s just say they point to many different directions and attitudes, and that they get to the essence of what the Okanagan might be in the near future. They are thoughtful, delicious, terroir-based wines that sell at sensible prices.
It’s a shame the estate wines do not boast a Naramata subappellation — the single best way to declare to the wine world where you come from — but perhaps it means the folks on the Naramata Bench are busy trying to divide Naramata into two sub-apps, one above the main road and one below. One can dream I suppose.
You can visit Terravista daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and taste the wines. The wine club offers sixand 12-bottle packs sent out twice a year and several perks, such as a 10 per cent discount on all wine purchases, first access to new release wines, limited-availability wines and library wines, supercool wine pairing recipe cards, and free tickets to the annual new vintage release party.