This week's column starts out with an apology. It's one that I've offered personally but it's a mea culpa so grand, it deserves a spot in the public arena. The recipients are Miranda and Del Halladay, a lovely, hardworking couple who are the owners of Elephant Island Orchard Winery on the Okanagan Valley's Naramata Bench.
You see, for many years I'd railed against 'fruit wines', any table or dessert wine not made from grapes. My issues with fruit wines were the same that many people harbour, basically boiling down to the fact that the vast majority of them are cloyingly sweet and taste like artificially-flavoured bubble gum versions of whatever fruit is listed on the label, if they tasted like said fruit at all.
Over the years I'd had many opportunities to sample Del and Miranda's fruit wines and always shunned them before they got their proverbial foot in the door. Then Heidi Noble and Michael Dinn, the proprietors of Naramata's cult-favourite Joie Farm Winery (and the Halladays' neighbours), came to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»with their new releases and insisted that along with the latest Joie fare, their clients sampled these fruit wines, promising they were incredibly different than the styles historically shunned. Well, Mike and Heidi were well past the foot-in-the-door stage, so I'd reluctantly obliged and held out my glass.
Insert egg on face.
Elephant Island Orchard Wines, first off, taste exactly like the fruit they're made from. They are elegant and delicately nuanced. Their apricot wine is fresh, bright and lively just like that first bite of the summer. Their crabapple and pear wines mirror the flavour components of the estate fruit that go into the bottle, including (and this is key) lively acidity, crispness and particularly with the pear a very dry finish. Yes, "dry".
They'd done many of their initial trials with legendary winemaker Christine Leroux, who boasts places like Bordeaux's Chateaus Petrus and Margaux on her resume. They worked with each individual fruit, deciding what type of wine-style suited each best, resulting in some being dry table wines (cherry, pear), others made into sparkling (Granny Smith apple) and others made into a dessert-style wine (framboise, apricot.)
Their wines are, yes, stunning. I heartily recommend you try them particularly if you, like me, thought all fruit wines were crap. You just may find you'll owe them an apology as well, but as I'd mentioned at the top, you'll have to get behind me, I'll be first in line.
It tastes like pears! Bartletts, to be more specific and it's a dry 'dinner wine' meant to be poured with savoury dishes, anything where a pear or pear chutney might be appropriate. From salty, cured meats like prosciutto to poultry and curries, this bottle will definitely add some cheer to your table.
Made in the Spanish-style solera method, there is a system of "mother barrels" where the wine is stored and only half of the contents are drawn and bottled each year, being replenished with the current vintage. Rich, dark cherry fruit with mocha notes and a good lashing of heat. Enjoy with blue cheese, chocolate desserts or simply by moonlight.
For more recommendations of Elephant Island wines, recipes to pair with them, plus notes on the latest Joie Farm releases, pop over to my website at KurtisKolt.com for supplements to this column!
