Passion for wine inspires career change
After leaving a successful career in IT, Marina Zarrillo is pursuing her passion for growing grapes and making wine.
Zarrillo is the winemaker for Play Estate Winery in Penticton, and with husband Bernie Ens is developing an experimental vineyard at their home in Summerland.
She is also the newest member of Summerland council’s Agricultural Advisory Committee.
“I’m particularly interested in what can be made from various crops and want to help growers do that,” Zarrillo said, explaining why she volunteered.
Value-added products are particularly important to Summerland growers because most of the farming operations are small— between two and 10 acres—which presents challenges to their financial success.
Zarrillo grew up on a hobby farm near Calgary and after earning an undergraduate degree in management at the University of Lethbridge, worked as an IT management consultant for large infrastructure projects.
In 2012, she completed her last project.
Zarrillo’s family began migrating to the Okanagan 30 year ago; first her grandparents to West Kelowna and later her parents.
“I remember helping my grandfather in the garden and making wine,” she said.
She recalled a visit to Mission Hill Winery which helped spark her interest in wine.
A self-confessed city guy, Ens continues to work as an asset management consultant.
“I dragged him into agriculture,” Zarrillo said.
In 2003, the couple bought a summer place in Osoyoos and in 2015 moved to their three acres in Summerland with their dog, Remy.
“Both Bernie and I started pursuing our interest in making good wine with the International Sommelier Guild. Then I decided I wanted to try viticulture,” said Zarrillo, who had always had a green thumb.
After obtaining a viticulture certificate from Okanagan College, she worked in the wine industry in a variety of capacities.
“I had a really good time and then decided to do the winemaking certificate program at the University of California at Davis,” she said.
However, she had to do a makeup year of chemistry to quality for the program.
“I did business in university, not science,” she explained.
She was hired at Play in early 2015 before the winery was even built. Zarrillo is proud of the 2017 vintage, her first as Play’s winemaker.
“It’s fun,” she said summing up the hard work and adventure associated with starting a winery.
There is also plenty of hard work at home in Summerland. “We started with shoulder-high weeds and now have a producing vineyard. Next year that will be in the bottle,” said Ens, pointing to one of their small vineyards.
Once another area of the property is developed, the couple will have two acres under vine.
“We have somewhat different varieties – Barbera, Sangiovese, Dolcetto and Moscato –and may possibly plant Malvasia in the future,” Zarrillo said.
She and Ens are experimenting to see which other grape varieties might be successful in the Okanagan in addition to the fairly large number already being grown.
“We want to see if we can make quality wine on a consistent basis,” she said.
The couple plan to test their wine which they call “house plonk” on friends and neighbours for free.
Zarrillo believes good wine starts in the vineyard so she keeps a keen eye on her vines.
“I want happy, deep-rooted plants. I don’t push them,” she said.
She and Ens have a particularly close relationship with their Sangiovese vines.
“Some friends didn’t want the plants, so we said we’d become their foster parents and give them a home,” Ens explained.
Foster parenting the Sangiovese vines is in keeping with Zarrillo’s belief that wine tells the story of who we are, where we come from, the land we live on and the grapes we love.
Susan McIver is a Penticton writer with a keen interest in agriculture. She can be reached by faxing the Herald at (250) 492-2403.