Canada's Delectable 'Wine Islands'
 Discover a West Coast food-and-wine culture that's second to none.
Condensed from original Article by Renee Blackstone - The Vancouver Province
Photo: Ric Ernst / CanWest News Service
Loretta Zanatta, owner and winemaker at Vigneti Zanatta, contemplates vines planted by her father in the late '60s in the Cowichan Valley. Who needs Provence -- or even Napa -- when right here in Canada we have Cowichan. And Saanich. And Saltspring. That's the conclusion of travellers who've been exploring the verdant backroads of British Columbia's "wine islands," lured by spectacular products like Venturi-Schulze's balsamic vinegar, David Woods' Saltspring cheeses and award-winning wines by wineries such as Glenterra, Blue Grouse, Alderlea, Starling Lane and Averill Creek.
Cowichan, once a part of Vancouver Island's booming resource industry, went into a slump along with forestry. But the urban foodies soon came calling and in the '90s, one wag used the phrase "the Provence of Canada" to describe what was happening there. But that was then.
Today, an army of talented and dedicated foodies -- Slow Food champions like Fairburn Farm's Mara Jernigan, chefs like Bill Jones and food writers and celebrities like Christina Burridge and James Barber -- have helped create a food-and-wine culture that doesn't need to stand in anyone else's shadow.
Following the lead of Sinclair Philip, proprietor of Sooke Harbour House and the undisputed godfather of authentic B.C. cuisine since opening his world-class inn in the late '70s, the new wave of farmers and vintners have brought with them the same passionate embrace of local bounty.
The island's food and wine scene has reached critical mass, boasting nearly two dozen boutique wineries -- with half a dozen more under development -- several traditional cideries, a number of excellent cooking schools, organic farms, cheesemakers, bakeries and restaurants.
With its long growing season, protected valleys and flinty soils, Vancouver Island is turning out to be a terrific venue for the cool-weather grapes that have set the benchmark for quality winemaking in Europe for centuries, among them Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.
Today's island wine industry includes one of only two First Nations-owned wineries in the province, Cherry Point, which was purchased by the Cowichan band in 2004.
And among the many small boutique wineries are those, like Blue Grouse and Zanatta, that are now established enough to see the second generation begin to take over. Blue Grouse's winemaker, Richard Kiltz, is the son of the founders and has trained in Germany where winemaking education is intensely focused on exactly the cool-weather grapes that do so well here.
When asked his opinion of the wines being produced on the island, Philip, whose restaurant wine list and huge wine cellar are regularly included among the world's best by Wine Spectator magazine, says: "The wines ... have improved a lot and we serve them by the glass more and more."
It was the late 1980s when Giordano Venturi and Marilyn Schulze-Venturi retired from teaching on the mainland and headed for the Cowichan Valley to make wine. Today, theirs is one of Vancouver Island's most celebrated wineries. Their meticulously groomed vineyards regularly yield still and sparkling wines that draw superlatives: "Their Brut Naturel is often one of the very best sparkling wines in the province," says Philip.
Great wines demand great food and the island isn't lacking in those who produce and prepare it.
Mara Jernigan, one of the island's most energetic food champions, oversees the lovely Fairburn Farm in Duncan, a guesthouse and "culinary retreat" that has the feel of another era. Sit on the huge front porch overlooking the gardens and fields below and the world will slow right down. Jernigan is a graduate of Slow Food's Master of Italian Cooking program in Italy and offers weekends at Fairburn that include farm market tours and cooking classes using what the markets and wineries have to offer.
Meanwhile, Bill Jones, a French-trained chef and award-winning cookbook author, chose the Cowichan Valley to create his Deerholme Farm cooking school. Each month, he and his neighbour and cook-school sidekick, James Barber of Urban Peasant fame, throw open the doors of Deerholme's large teaching kitchen and set about creating toothsome menus that focus on the foods and wines of the area. In July, for example, they'll prepare a menu highlighting Cowichan Bay Farm pasture-raised chicken, once described by Philip as being even more flavourful than the famed Bresse chicken of France.
If cheese is what you crave, Hilary Abbott of Hilary's Cheese Co. makes and sells both the product and the experience. His Cowichan Bay cheese shop carries his entire line of hand-crafted goat and cow's milk cheeses while an inaugural cheesemaking weekend will be held in July at his Cheese Pointe Farm (hilary@hilaryscheese.com for details), where he and his "affineur" (finisher), Denis Huet, coax luscious morsels from plain old milk. Would-be cheesemakers will also be taken on food and wine tours while their cheeses do their thing by Kathy Mc-Aree of TravelwithTaste.com.
Although it isn't as well developed yet, the Saanich peninsula, just a stone's throw from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, is fast becoming a wine lover's draw, too, with wineries such as Chalet, Winchester, Marley Farm and Starling Lane offering award-winning wines that are startlingly good given how new they are.
Even seemingly fusty old tourism standards like Butchart Gardens, also in Saanich, are jumping on the culinary bandwagon. To pump up the volume of local foods and wines, they've hired Bob Parrotta as director of food services -- he comes to them from the highly-rated Araxi-CinCin restaurant group.
And if Cowichan has the rustic feel of the south of France, Saanich seems destined to go more upscale, with spectacular accommodation like the Brentwood Bay Lodge, Sidney Pier Hotel and Miraloma at the Cove.
Sinclair Philip had the vision nearly 30 years ago. Now we're all catching the fever.
If You Go...
Book
British Columbia Wine Country
(revised and updated by John Schreiner, Whitecap Books) offers interesting background on existing wineries, plus info on wineries still on the drawing board. |
Websites
- Check here for John Schreiner's reviews of B.C. wines: wine.appellationamerica.com
- Has thumbnail sketches of each winery in Canada, including our three main wine regions: www.winesofcanada.com
- Information on Deerholme Farm: www.magnorth.bc.ca
- Info on the B&B and cooking classes: www.fairburnfarm.bc.ca |
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Join us Sunday nights at Bill Mattick's for an entertaining evening of music, wine and fine food. Let our freshly created dinner features tempt your tastebuds while you are relaxing to live, soft jazz. Bill's also features complimentary wine tasting, a different local island or B.C. winery is featured each week throughout the summer. Music and wine-tasting are available from 5pm until 8pm. 
