This is a very exciting year for Red Rooster Winery! Not only is it the winery’s 20 year anniversary, it is also the Year of the Rooster. Even more reason to celebrate.
Roosters were very important in ancient China and are still a mascot today. Roosters are thought to have five virtues: politeness, military bravery, courage, benevolence and reliability and are a symbol for all of these. While in ancient times, people didn’t have watches or clocks so they used the 12 Earthly Branches to divide a day into 12 2-hour periods. Each period was named after a different Earthly Branch. For convenience sake, people replaced them with the 12 zodiac signs, according to their sequence, creating sayings to relate each period to each animal or symbol’s behaviour. Rooster hours were from 5pm to 7pm, when the roosters would go back to their coops. Lucky for the lovely team at Red Rooster Winery, we have seen some advancements in time tracking. Imagine trying to schedule your day on making dinner at rooster hours? I’ll stick to my smart phone!
2017 is a Fire Rooster Year, which, in Chinese astrology, each zodiac year is not only associated with an animal sign but also one of five elements; Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. This is, perhaps what inspired Red Rooster to re-brand with beautiful varied artwork on each of it’s wines. If you have not already seen the new labels, I would suggest a trip to your local wine shop or liquor store to pick up a bottle or two (or case!) of Red Rooster wines.
The winemaker at Red Rooster, Karen Gillis, takes her craft very seriously and puts passion into all the wines she creates. Karen is extremely approachable and while she dreamed of being a chef as a child, she found her calling in winemaking. She isn’t afraid to be completely hands on and her goal is to become the benchmark for wine quality in the Okanagan.
Besides all of the delicious wines available to taste, the winery visits provide an entertaining learning experience. The people at Red Rooster Winery share their knowledge with passion and enthusiasm to all the guests that walk through their tasting room door. With regularly scheduled tasting workshops and one hour private tastings available that are both fun and educational, their team will make sure you continue on your wine tour with the tools and information to become a pro taster! The tasting room is open from 10am to 6pm everyday until October 8th. From October 9th forward the hours will be 11am to 5pm.
by Andrea Dawn Thomas
2016 Rare Bird Series Rosé
A delicious blend of mostly Pinot Blanc and Malbec. This wine is a limited production of only 505 cases so pick it up while you can! The Rare Bird Series Rosé has notes of strawberry, watermelon, Bartlett pears and Rainier cherries that follow onto the palate with refreshing acidity that linger on this off-dry wine. This wine would pair beautifully with tapas, gourmet pizzas, feta cheese, Greek salad, crab cakes, poached salmon, spiced shrimp, pork tenderloin with rhubarb sauce, Tourtiere, charcuterie, tangy chili sauce and many others. This wine makes for a very versatile pairing with a wide variety of cuisine.
2015 Red Rooster Merlot.
Karen uses 100% Merlot grapes from both the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valley. This allows her to blend complementing characters of each region and vineyard. The wine was aged in 90% old American oak and 10% French oak for 14 months before bottling. The variety of oak gives the wine beautiful structure. With a nose of rich, blue plums, black cherry, warm Chai spice and soft oak that carry onto the palate, this dry, medium to full-bodied Merlot has silky tannins and fruit flavours of black cherry and dark plum with just a touch of chocolate. This Merlot is excellent when served with grilled steak and sautéed mushrooms, lamb chops, duck breast in a red wine reduction, pheasant, beef tenderloin, prime rib, beef wraps, bean stews, and old cheddar. A cozy, rich, delicious wine for those crisp fall nights.