We wanted to do something different for our 30th anniversary cover, so we looked around for somewhere with ties to the beginnings of the wine industry in BC.
This led us to Brook & Barn, a historical wedding and event venue that hosts both ceremonies and receptions. It was established in 2018 by Nadene and Rob Casorso and their daughter Amanda Tian Seng.
You may recognize the last name, because the Casorso family is one of the founding wine-making families in the Okanagan. Nadene and Rob’s great-grandparents, Rosa and Giovanni Casorzo (John Casorso), immigrated from Northern Italy to the Okanagan Valley in the 1880s. The family has been farming here under the same name ever since.
They are the fourth generation to live and farm on this location. It’s also where we decided to shoot our cover, in the second Casorso home, known as The Bunkhouse.
One of the wines we have on the front cover is Sandhill’s Sovereign Opal. This is a hybrid grape that is a cross-pollination of Golden Muscat and Maréchal Foch. The Casorso family has been exclusively growing these grapes since the early 1980s and has 12.5 acres planted on their farm in southeast Kelowna.
Other cover wines are Red Rooster’s Rosé, Tinhorn Creek’s Cabernet Franc, and Gray Monk’s Odyssey White Brut. All four wineries are owned by Andrew Peller Limited. All are delicious for special occasions and everyday enjoyment.