It was a busy harvest season for the team at Eau Vivre Winery this year. After a challenging fall season of cool and wet conditions during September, vineyards across the valley were in less than perfect condition. The wine making team lead by Anthony Buchanan rose to the challenge. ‘We are making wine like crazy and scrambling to find tank space for all the new wine’ says co-proprietor Dale Wright.
For the 2013 vintage, the winery is planning to increase production, particularly of their award-winning Pinot Noir. ‘Although you cannot hope to identically replicate one vintage to the next, we are trying to make this vintage our best’ says Dale. ‘We won’t see this Pinot Noir vintage until 2015, perhaps as early as Christmas next year’ he adds.
Eau Vivre fans can also expect a larger batch of Cinq Blanc from this year’s vintage. ‘We made 50 cases this year and they flew right out the tasting room door, so we are trying to keep up with the demands for it this upcoming season’ says Dale. Winemaker Anthony Buchanan is hard at work ‘making the new vintage and trying to find the space for all the new grapes that are coming in’ says Dale.
Lucky for Anthony, Eau Vivre is planning an expansion of the winery sometime in the near future. ‘We’re filling in the gaps, doing what we have to do and thankful for the opportunity to grow.’
During the winter season the wine shop will be open for their 3rd Annual Christmas Open House, Dec 6-8. Eau Vivre’s Open House is part of the Similkameen Wineries Association Christmas winery open house tour during the Annual Keremeos Light-up Weekend. They are also open by appointment all winter long.
~ Natasha Chudyk