The drive by a dozen Okanagan wineries to create an official sub-appellation named Golden Mile Bench is inching closer to reality and now only requires the rubber stamp of the provincial government.
British Columbia’s wine regulator, the B.C. Wine Authority (BCWA), this week recommended that Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick approve the new sub-appellation, which is essentially a small but identifiable wine region.
If Letnick gives his consent, it will mean that the dozen wineries in the area, including operations such as Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, Road 13 Vineyards and Hester Creek Estate Winery Ltd., will be able to put the words “Golden Mile Bench” on the front of their wine bottles to indicate origin.
“I’m absolutely excited,” Tinhorn Creek principal Sandra Oldfield told Business in Vancouver October 17.
“I’m over-the-moon overjoyed.”
If Letnick officially creates the new sub-appellation, new regulations and inspections will be carried out to ensure that 85% of the grapes used to create wines identified as being from the Golden Mile Bench were grown in what is now about 790 acres of vineyard in the area.
Currently, there is no regulation over the use of the words.
“I would be surprised if the government said ‘No,’” BCWA general manager Steve Berney told BIV.
“This is the first sub-appellation application that has come before us. Once this has gone through and the minister approves it, I’m sure there will be others that will come in.”
Winemakers in areas such as the Naramata Bench and the Black Sage Bench have also voiced support for sub-appellations for their small areas within the Okanagan.
B.C. has had five wine appellations since 1990. They are: Okanagan Valley, Similkameen Valley, Vancouver Island, Fraser Valley and Gulf Islands. Each of those areas have regulations covering what wineries need to do in order to put those words on their wine bottle labels.
The point of appellations and sub-appellations is that the areas are supposed to have a distinctive terroir, or mix of weather and soil composition.
Oldfield is not yet sure what exactly the distinctive characteristics of Golden Mile Bench wines are.
“Until you define the sub-appellation and put a line around it and then make wines that are only from the area, that question is yet to be answered,” she said.
“We know that the wines we make from it now are unique but, once you define an area, then you’re able to explore the quality that comes out of just it.”
