Black Swift Wines
West Kelowna’s Hatch winery was built for ideas to incubate and eventually fly the nest. The Black Swift and Screaming Frenzy brands are the first to take flight and have landed at Black Swift Vineyards at 2345 Boucherie Rd.
The new location, which sports a giant bird nest as guests enter the parking area, is surrounded by nine acres of recently-planted grapes offers a wine shop, tasting room and picnic area overlooking the vineyards and Okanagan Lake.
The black swift is a bird native to B.C., said Grayson Riordon, who has moved over to Black Swift from the Hatch.
The high-flying black swift is one of the only birds in flight that lays only a single egg every year.
Black Swift and Screaming Frenzy focus on single-vineyard releases from different areas of the Okanagan.
“For the last series of years, we’ve operated under the mantra that Black Swift would be the Hatch in a tuxedo T-shirt,” said Riordon. “Markedly nicer, more polished but not overwhelmingly so. The spirit and the bones are the same.”
While Black Swift is the premium brand whose wines are more focussed structurally and built for cellaring, Screaming Frenzy, the term for a flock of black swifts, offers single vineyard wines on a larger scale, is more approachable in style and price point and speaks to the irreverent spirit that runs through everything they do.
“The wines are really serious, but we’re not,” said Riordon.
Black Swift Vineyards, like the Hatch and Truck 59 Ciderhouse are under the umbrella of Jason Parkes Customs, which controls around 50 acres on Boucherie Road and are hoping to increase that amount.
“I have a really good team of rag-tag renegade dudes,” said Parkes.
The Hatch originally had a $5 million budget to build a Quails’ Gate-type winery.
“We’re not going to be better than Quails’ Gate, so we spent $500,000 and built the Hatch,” said Parkes.
“The idea was to build really interesting cool brands that are a little bit different and once they get a little bit of push then we go and find the land and then we put the winery up.”
Crown and Thieves Winery, complete with a speak-easy and live music, is set to open in two months behind Truck 59 Ciderhouse on Brown Road and the Hatching Post saloon-style microbrewery is going up on Boucherie Road.
Parkes said they have exciting ideas for a couple of other properties they have control over, but they have to get their current projects up first.
It’s an aggressive expansion, especially during a pandemic.
Parkes said he is concerned, but has had these plans for 30 years and good people helping.
“If we look back, we won’t get anywhere,” he said. “We are jumping off the bridge a little bit into the cold running water, but we’re being smart about it.”
Parkes said they plan to use economy of scale for multiple locations.
Black Swift Vineyards is located at 2345 Boucherie Rd. in West Kelowna and is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.