Winery Spotlight: Painted Rock Estate Winery

Painted Rock Estate Winery is the brainchild of former stock broker John Skinner and his family who purchased the century old "Blackhawk" apricot orchard site on Skaha Bench, just outside of Penticton, in 2004 which had been left fallow for 17 years prior to their investment. Working with a hand selected winemaking and viticulture team that includes world renowned consultant Alain Sutre, the site was transformed into a truly world class vineyard site planted to Bordeaux varietals, Syrah and Chardonnay.

Since their first vintage from 2007, the winery has received a mountain of medals for every wine they've produced. Including making it to the top of our wine awards list in 2012 for their 2011 Chardonnay. With distribution growing worldwide and as a must have for BC's top restaurants' wine lists, it will be harder and harder to find their coveted wines in the future now that the estate vineyard's production has reached its maximum and optimum output of 5000 cases per year.

Gorgeous Vistas
The Painted Rock estate vineyard has been expertly tapered with a gentle slope that leans toward Skaha Lake to maximize its natural aspect to the sun for the south-west facing mountainside location. This gives visitors an infinite pool-like view of the vineyard pouring into the lake below. It's a lovely sight that the winery would like to capitalize on more in the future with a visiting center under construction and future accommodations. For now, we're limited to making the drive up the mountain and visiting the makeshift tasting room set-up in the winery's warehouse-like cellar building. Be sure to leave time to stroll-up the road to the vineyard to soak up the view and appreciate the finely sculpted rows of vines.

Key wines to try:
Red Icon 2010, 2009
Chardonnay 2011, 2010, 2009
Syrah 2009, 2008, 2007

 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2013 IconWines.ca