Mt. Boucherie Family Estate Winery is named for West Kelowna’s stunning landmark, a mountain that overlooks the winery’s vineyard from the west. Mount Boucherie, the mountain, is the remnant of a former volcano, which was created more than 60 million years ago. While today it rises over 400 meters above Okanagan Lake, Mount Boucherie is estimated to once have towered at 2,000 meters or more. Over the past 50 million years, five different glacial periods eroded the volcano and shaped today’s Mount Boucherie. The mountain at present day is named for an early rancher and pioneer to the region, Isadore Boucherie, who settled the area in the late 1880s. The land behind the mountain is still known as Boucherie Ranch. For stunning valley views, various trails around and to the summit of Mount Boucherie can be accessed from Eain Lamont Community Park.
Now to the winery! Each year Mt. Boucherie Family Estate Winery produces around 25,000 cases of wine, all of it estate-grown. Kal and Nirmal Gidda, who own the winery with their families, have about 300 acres of vineyard in three regions: West Kelowna, Okanagan Falls and the Similkameen Valley. This gives Jim Faulkner, the winemaker and his team many options for making varietals and blends. I believe they may also produce wine for one or two other wineries as well as selling some grapes. The wine-making team gets to work with as broad a selection of varietals as any in BC and delivers a total of 21 reds, whites and icewines.
The un-oaked Chardonnay is my favourite Mt Boucherie wine. Soft and mellow nose showing fresh apricots and butterscotch. A very rich and creamy mouthful. Both the 2011 and 2012 vintages of the Family Reserve Chardonnay were silver medal winners at the prestigious 21st Chardonnay du Monde (Burgundy, France) contest. The wine is an outstanding deal when you buy the 3-litre box at $38.50 which works out to about $9.60 a bottle. That package does not qualify for the VQA designation but these are VQA quality wines at a very good price. For other award-winning BC Chardonnays you can check out the BC Wine Industry Statistics page.
For a later article on the vintages released in the fall of 2016 please visit this post.
Make sure you drop in for a wine tasting the next time you are in West Kelowna.