Painted Rock Estate Winery Ltd

About Winery and Wines

Painted Rock was once the centre of the largest apricot orchard in the British Commonwealth. Braeside Farms harvested apricots here from the early 1900s until the orchard was felled in response to the gypsy moth infestation of the late 1980s. The property, known locally as "The Blackhawk" laid fallow while under the ownership of another winery until we acquired and contoured it in 2004 and planted in 2005. Our primary planting strategy was to plant the five classic Bordeaux red varieties and a small estate white, and we chose to plant Chardonnay. Because we are 100% estate, we wanted to provide our winemaker with the greatest breadth of blending options. To that end we planted two clones of every variety, which provides the primary blending opportunity and adds complexity. When we had decided on the best locations, and quantities for our core planting we were left with five prime acres in the middle of the vineyard. After exploring many options I was constantly reminded of a comment John Schreiner made to me when he first learned that I bought the “Blackhawk”, “Are you planting Syrah?” he asked, “I think it may be the grape of the Okanagan”. I don’t think anyone knows the wineries of the Okanagan better than John and my taking him up on his suggestion honours the fact that not only did I trust his opinion, I knew that other wineries would share their successes and enthusiasm with him and he would indeed have an inside track.