Years in the making, Volcanic Hills Estate Winery is launching small-batch, single-vineyard, premium wines as a new Gidda Family Estate line, to be released to their wine club in September/October.
The family’s roots in the Okanagan run deep. Bobby Gidda’s grandfather Mehtab, a mango and vegetable farmer, moved from India to West Kelowna in 1958 and became an orchardist and grape grower. With his sons, he opened Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery in 2001. Flash forward to the third generation: Mehtab’s son Sarwan left Mt. Boucherie along with his own son Bobby, so Bobby and his siblings Amit and Christina could actualize the family vision to open Volcanic Hills in 2010.
Premium Tier One Block Series
Each homestead of Volcanic Hills’ four owners has been carefully cultivated, including varietals Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, Gamay and Chardonnay. The small-lot wines, as exclusive as 60 cases depending on the vineyard block, debut as 2020 vintage. (Chardonnay is held for 18 months as a Blanc de Blanc release.)
Each property’s viticulture is finely dialed in to elicit the most refined attributes of the varietals. For example, the Pinot Noir was cropped at 2.3 tonnes per acre for superior fruit.
Daniel Bontorin, Volcanic Hills’ winery consultant and chief fermentation officer, ensures the optimum winemaking strategy to finesse the fruits’ true nature. All are partially barrel-fermented. The Rosé, for example, is 100 per cent single-vineyard Gamay.
“It tastes like bumbleberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side,” says Kathryn Fedoruk, the winery’s marketing manager. She calls it “Pooh Bear” Rosé because a family of bears developed such a fondness for the Gamay that Volcanic Hills had to pull the fruit a bit earlier to outsmart the bears nose for sweetness.
Fortified Cherry Wine as Homage
The Giddas’ Okanagan journey began as tree fruit farmers, and all of the homestead’s remaining Lapins cherry trees are being processed into Lapilli, a fortified cherry wine, as homage.