Corks are popping to celebrate the first major award in the history of Prince George winemaking.
Prince George is not grape territory, so it was overlooked during the development of the robust British Columbia vintner industry. Pat Bell, his wife Brenda and their son Doug knew that wine was made of more than grapes and this week the fruits of their labours earned a significant accolade.
The family-operated Northern Lights Estate Winery won the Best Fruit/Honey/Dessert Style Wine in that hotly contested category in the 2017 British Columbia Best of Varietal Wine Competition.
The winning bottle was the NLES blend of rhubarb and strawberry entitled Seduction.
"We've won some niche awards, but this is the first major competition we have entered," said Pat Bell. "We were up against some of the best wines in B.C., and the part that was most exciting for me was how it's judged. There are 15 highly experienced judges, and they do it blind. None of them know what the winery is when they make their scores."
There are 30 categories in this competition, attracting more than 600 wine entries. It is operated by the Okanagan Wine Festivals Society.
"The British Columbia Best of Varietal Wine Awards are open to all licensed British Columbia wineries that use 100 per cent fruit grown in the province," said board member Luke Whittall, chair of judging for the Varietals competition. "An exceptional aspect of the judging is that judges are chosen from the trade including renowned sommeliers, restaurateurs and recognized wine media from across western Canada and features a unique judging process that allows each panel of judges to evaluate all of the wines in any given category enabling a direct comparison for selecting the best wines."
The overall winner was Wild Goose Vineyards & Winery with their 2016 Mystic River Gewrztraminer label. Some of the other big winners, with multiple trophies, included Nk'Mip Cellars Winery, Arrowleaf Cellars and Thornhaven Estates Winery.
"This award belongs to our wine making consultant Christine Leroux, our farm manager Noemie Touchette and our sales and service manager Wendy Gianisis," said Doug Bell. "Noemie watches all of our crops closely in order to harvest at the optimal time maximizing sugar and flavour for the perfect wine fruit. Wendy brings her years of experience at Quails Gate in West Kelowna to our winery and helps to create the perfect blend."
Seduction was already a winner at the winery gate. It is NLES's best selling wine.
"We find it difficult to keep Seduction on our shelves," Doug said. "We started with 500 rhubarb plants in 2014 and expanded to 1,000 in 2016. It very quickly became clear that we had to step up our production and in the next few weeks will be planting an additional 6,000 rhubarb plants."
