Second Creston Valley opens its doors
With a nod to history and an eye to the future, Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa have dived headlong into the challenging waters of BC’s wine industry. The location in the Erickson district of the Creston Valley makes Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery the province’s closest winery to Alberta. It’s a fitting geographical fact—Bob and Petra built their careers, he as a reservoir engineer and she in information technology, and raised their two sons, in Calgary.
The Baillie-Grohman name was chosen to honour a Kootenay pioneer, an Austrian aristocrat who first arrived in the Creston Valley in the company of his goat-hunting partner, Teddy Roosevelt.
With Bob still working in Calgary and Petra learning the ropes as Vineyard Manager, Dan Barker, one-time ‘Young Winemaker of the Year’ in New Zealand, was hired to make the wine—Pinot Noir (including a luscious Blanc de Noirs Rosé), Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris—and share the knowledge he has gained as owner of Moana Park Winery in Hawke’s Bay. With three Baillie-Grohman vintages under his belt and a maturing vineyard, Barker gets more and more excited about the quality and complexity of wine that starts in the vineyards and ends in the glass.
The south and west sloping vineyards are enriched by minerals from boulders left behind by a receding glacier. William Baillie-Grohman was an adventurer whose plan to create a dyking system transformed the Creston Valley Flats into verdant farmlands. With Bob and Petra’s foray into the emerging Creston wine industry, the adventure, as their motto says, continues.
April 2012 – Food and Wine Trails
The Baillie-Grohman name was chosen to honour a Kootenay pioneer, an Austrian aristocrat who first arrived in the Creston Valley in the company of his goat-hunting partner, Teddy Roosevelt.
With Bob still working in Calgary and Petra learning the ropes as Vineyard Manager, Dan Barker, one-time ‘Young Winemaker of the Year’ in New Zealand, was hired to make the wine—Pinot Noir (including a luscious Blanc de Noirs Rosé), Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris—and share the knowledge he has gained as owner of Moana Park Winery in Hawke’s Bay. With three Baillie-Grohman vintages under his belt and a maturing vineyard, Barker gets more and more excited about the quality and complexity of wine that starts in the vineyards and ends in the glass.
The south and west sloping vineyards are enriched by minerals from boulders left behind by a receding glacier. William Baillie-Grohman was an adventurer whose plan to create a dyking system transformed the Creston Valley Flats into verdant farmlands. With Bob and Petra’s foray into the emerging Creston wine industry, the adventure, as their motto says, continues.
April 2012 – Food and Wine Trails
Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery builds on local historical lore with name of pioneer
Bob Johnson
A newly expanded tasting room. More new plantings in the vineyard. Winery and vineyard tours. A large patio with gorgeous cedar pergola and tables. Oh, and really, really good wine. Return visitors to Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery in Creston (or, to be more precise, Erickson) are going to notice that a lot of changes have taken place since the winery opened last summer.
“We kind of like to do everything twice,” owner Bob Johnson laughed as he showed a visitor the expanded and revamped tasting room, about double its original size.
The addition of the patio and pergola will allow guests to purchase a glass of wine and/or some deli food, creating an on-site picnic to soak up the sun’s rays (assuming they ever arrive) and enjoy the wonderful views from the gently sloping vineyard. With the addition of an event tent on the adjacent lawn, the patio will turn into a perfect site for a wedding or special event. A small building on the patio opens up to become a service bar. Johnson expects the picnic liquor licence to be in place within a week.
A number of different licences are required to allow customers to enjoy the full winery experience and one has been obtained to allow the owners (Johnson and his wife, Petra Flaa) to offer walking tours of the vineyard and winery. From a personal perspective, it was tours and tastings with winery owners that hooked us on the joys of wineries many years ago, so I have no doubt visitors and locals alike will be happy to get a personalized lesson about what it takes to turn grapes into wine.
Johnson and Flaa knew what they wanted when they sold a cherry orchard they had purchased earlier in the decade and bought the Erickson property that is now covered with tidy rows of grapevines. Quality wine was the goal, and they were fortunate to find winemaker Dan Barker. The owner of Moana Park Winery in New Zealand has turned out to be the perfect match for Baillie-Grohman. He continues to win accolades for the wines he makes back home and brings a level of expertise, passion and commitment to the Creston Valley, where he truly believes great wines can be made.
Baillie-Grohman wines have been featured in wine magazines, websites, newspapers and radio stations across the country, not least because of another canny decision the owners made. Johnson and Flaa hired Coletta and Associates to come up with a name and branding plan. Christine Coletta, who now owns her own Okanagan winery (Haywire) with her husband, brought plenty of experience with other wineries with her when she paid several visits to the Creston Valley. She and her colleagues came up with the name and label from the legend that has William Baillie-Grohman “discovering” the Creston Valley while hunting mountain goats with U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt. The very classy label stands out beautifully on store shelves and the name itself provokes interest in Kootenay history.
Visitors to the winery will arrive through a set of iron gates and see vines planted right to the front (west) of the property. Those rows of Kerner vines have been planted for a specific reason—to take advantage of winter cold snaps to make ice wine. The rest of the property is planted mostly to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer.
Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery is located in Erickson, a short distance from downtown Creston. Turn south from Erickson Street onto 25th Avenue, then east on Connel Road, which leads to the winery. The tasting room is open Thursdays through Sundays through Labour Day, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Next week: A tasting tour through the Baillie-Grohman wine selection.
June 2011 - La Dolce Vita
“We kind of like to do everything twice,” owner Bob Johnson laughed as he showed a visitor the expanded and revamped tasting room, about double its original size.
The addition of the patio and pergola will allow guests to purchase a glass of wine and/or some deli food, creating an on-site picnic to soak up the sun’s rays (assuming they ever arrive) and enjoy the wonderful views from the gently sloping vineyard. With the addition of an event tent on the adjacent lawn, the patio will turn into a perfect site for a wedding or special event. A small building on the patio opens up to become a service bar. Johnson expects the picnic liquor licence to be in place within a week.
A number of different licences are required to allow customers to enjoy the full winery experience and one has been obtained to allow the owners (Johnson and his wife, Petra Flaa) to offer walking tours of the vineyard and winery. From a personal perspective, it was tours and tastings with winery owners that hooked us on the joys of wineries many years ago, so I have no doubt visitors and locals alike will be happy to get a personalized lesson about what it takes to turn grapes into wine.
Johnson and Flaa knew what they wanted when they sold a cherry orchard they had purchased earlier in the decade and bought the Erickson property that is now covered with tidy rows of grapevines. Quality wine was the goal, and they were fortunate to find winemaker Dan Barker. The owner of Moana Park Winery in New Zealand has turned out to be the perfect match for Baillie-Grohman. He continues to win accolades for the wines he makes back home and brings a level of expertise, passion and commitment to the Creston Valley, where he truly believes great wines can be made.
Baillie-Grohman wines have been featured in wine magazines, websites, newspapers and radio stations across the country, not least because of another canny decision the owners made. Johnson and Flaa hired Coletta and Associates to come up with a name and branding plan. Christine Coletta, who now owns her own Okanagan winery (Haywire) with her husband, brought plenty of experience with other wineries with her when she paid several visits to the Creston Valley. She and her colleagues came up with the name and label from the legend that has William Baillie-Grohman “discovering” the Creston Valley while hunting mountain goats with U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt. The very classy label stands out beautifully on store shelves and the name itself provokes interest in Kootenay history.
Visitors to the winery will arrive through a set of iron gates and see vines planted right to the front (west) of the property. Those rows of Kerner vines have been planted for a specific reason—to take advantage of winter cold snaps to make ice wine. The rest of the property is planted mostly to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer.
Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery is located in Erickson, a short distance from downtown Creston. Turn south from Erickson Street onto 25th Avenue, then east on Connel Road, which leads to the winery. The tasting room is open Thursdays through Sundays through Labour Day, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Next week: A tasting tour through the Baillie-Grohman wine selection.
June 2011 - La Dolce Vita
Baillie-Grohman winemaker Dan Barker brings Kiwi skills and knowledge
Who: Dan Barker.
What: Wine.
Where: Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery in Erickson and Moana Park in New Zealand.
When: Since he finished his degree in oenology.
Why: “I just love it!”
Dan Barker brings an impressive resume to his work as winemaker for Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery. The New Zealander has extensive experience in the hospitality industry, a degree in oenology and runs his own successful winery in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand.
Barker is the Creston Valley’s second winemaker, and second Kiwi, following in the footsteps of fellow countryman Mark Rattray, who made most of Skimmerhorn Winery’s wines until this fall.
Born in Takapuna on the north shore of Auckland, Barker grew up on farms, including a vineyard that his dad owned.
“I wasn’t really involved with the wine business, but grew up around wine as a kid. We always had a little glass of wine with dinner when I was a child.”
But he didn’t go straight into the wine business. His first post-secondary education was in computer science.
“I have a leaning toward the sciences, but the work was awful—sitting at a desk, working 9 to 5,” he says, sitting in the living room of his autumn quarters, which are attached to the Baillie-Grohman winery building.
“Then, it was on a Boxing Day, I think, that I had a chardonnay that just blew mind,” he recalls. “I think everyone has a moment where they think, ‘Oh my God, this stuff is magical!’”
Eventually, his job as an information technology specialist for a company that owned “ a couple of really good restaurants”, would see him overseeing the till systems of about 100 restaurants in New Zealand.
“But I was always in the wine cellar!” he laughs. “I ended up running some of the top restaurants in Auckland.”
“Then I decided, at 27, that I had to do something that I really wanted to do. So I moved to Hawkes Bay and did my degree in oenology (wine science). I’ve never looked back, really.”
While he was working on his degree he also worked for wineries during every vintage (autumn in New Zealand, but spring in Canada).
“I thought about show judging or something else wine-related, but didn’t really expect to finish my degree,” he said. “The amazing thing about making wine is the sense of achievement. You can grow your own grapes, then it’s up to you what you want to do with them and what style you want to make. I just love it”
Barker credits his experience in managing restaurants with giving him an advantage when he got into the winery business.
“I knew the retail end and the consumer end really well. That’s something that’s made Moana Park (the winery he owns now) a little different--we’re not confused about what our business is and a I think a lot of wineries are confused about what their business is. For a lot of wineries it’s a second or retirement business and the husband wants to be the winemaker and the wife is forced into sales and marketing, or doing something that she’s not perhaps good at. So they make this wine and it sits in the cellar.
“Anyone can make wine. Selling wines is what the business is.”
Before making the jump into winery ownership, Barker worked at small and large wineries in New Zealand. While still in university, he worked with Crossroads.
“I was so green. I had my first CO2 experience (breathing straight carbon dioxide, a by-product of the fermentation process that can render a person unconscious and kill them within minutes—it’s happened here in BC) there. There was this lees racking tank that was conical so the lees (a sediment comprised of dead yeast cells, grape seeds and other solids) would settle into the bottom. I stuck my head in, of course. I flinched and hit my head on the back of the tank. I nearly knocked myself out. I split open the back of my head but I pulled myself out. It’s a great lesson to learn. I scared the—out of myself!”
After several more winery jobs, Barker would eventually land at Sacred Hill, “which I think is one of the most progressive wineries in New Zealand.”
It provided his link to Moana Park.
“When I was at Sacred, the head winemaker, Tony Bish, won Winemaker of the Year and I won Young Winemaker of the Year at the same event. And that night there came a job offer to become winemaker at Moana Park. I’d had a couple wines and I accepted. The next day I went to Moana Park, grabbed a carton (12-bottle case) of wine and took it home. Then I had a wee cry to myself. The wines were terrible. It was shocking. Unsellable, in my mind. Faulty—there was no market for them. The brand needed modification. It was a winery owned by a grower who made good fruit, but the wine was awful.
“In the 2005 vintage we scaled back from 15,000 cartons to 2,500 cartons. We had a complete change in focus. We dropped all our supermarket sales, catered only to restaurants, and started to build back up again.
“It was all very fine until of course the recession hit. Then we bought the business.”
With each successive year, Barker and his wife, Kaylea, have added another block of vines to their holdings, which now total 100 acres in seven blocks. They lease other blocks.
“We’re not huge. This year we’ll produce about 30,000 cartons. We’re almost sold out now—we’ll have no wine for about six months. We’ve developed a new brand, we’re back in the supermarkets.”
While 30,000 cases of wine, or 360,000 bottles, a year would make Moana Park a big producer in BC, it’s a small to average operation in the export-focused New Zealand market, where about 700 wineries produce far more wine than the country’s population can consume.
Barker became familiar with Canada when he and Kaylea, whose brother lives in Ontario, came for a wedding in 2006. Kaylea had worked for three years in Ontario, so Dan took advantage of the trip half way around the world to get some work experience. He consulted for Hidden Bench, an artisanal winery in the Niagara region.
In 2009, he was back in BC, looking for new marketing opportunities for his export wines. Shortly after, he was offered the winemaking job at Baillie-Grohman.
“Creston is quite an interesting opportunity in that it’s an unproven area. I like the idea that it has altitude—it has so much going for it. I think we can make the best pinot noir in Canada. I think we can make some of the best pinot noirs in the world from this site.
“We’re getting better every year. We just need some vine maturity. The new wine is looking spanking.
“We’re starting to see more capacity, which makes it slightly more economic. The first year we were seeing less than a ton to the acre. You’re not going to be eating steak dinners off that. So it’s quite nice to see.”
Barker has enjoyed the challenge of working with a different climate, higher altitude and different soil. And he’s helped bring dozens of medals from prestigious wine competitions to Baillie-Grohman for owners Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa.
Among the most notable differences in his experience in Creston is the way the grapes mature in a rush in early fall. Grapes’ sweetness can increase by 15 per cent a week in that period, something Barker never sees in New Zealand. And the different varieties of grapes—chardonnay, gewürztraminer, pinot gris, pinot noir, kerner—tend to finish ripening at about the same time.
“That makes things easier because we don’t have to make too many choices. We harvested everything in six or seven days here,” he says. “At home it takes about seven weeks.”
And he sees no end of potential here, where disease and birds aren’t much of a factor, the microclimate of the Erickson bench is favourable and soil imparts a distinct and appealing “dusty mineral“ flavour and aroma to the wines.
“I think the sky’s the limit here,” he says.
October 2012 - Meet Your Maker
What: Wine.
Where: Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery in Erickson and Moana Park in New Zealand.
When: Since he finished his degree in oenology.
Why: “I just love it!”
Dan Barker brings an impressive resume to his work as winemaker for Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery. The New Zealander has extensive experience in the hospitality industry, a degree in oenology and runs his own successful winery in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand.
Barker is the Creston Valley’s second winemaker, and second Kiwi, following in the footsteps of fellow countryman Mark Rattray, who made most of Skimmerhorn Winery’s wines until this fall.
Born in Takapuna on the north shore of Auckland, Barker grew up on farms, including a vineyard that his dad owned.
“I wasn’t really involved with the wine business, but grew up around wine as a kid. We always had a little glass of wine with dinner when I was a child.”
But he didn’t go straight into the wine business. His first post-secondary education was in computer science.
“I have a leaning toward the sciences, but the work was awful—sitting at a desk, working 9 to 5,” he says, sitting in the living room of his autumn quarters, which are attached to the Baillie-Grohman winery building.
“Then, it was on a Boxing Day, I think, that I had a chardonnay that just blew mind,” he recalls. “I think everyone has a moment where they think, ‘Oh my God, this stuff is magical!’”
Eventually, his job as an information technology specialist for a company that owned “ a couple of really good restaurants”, would see him overseeing the till systems of about 100 restaurants in New Zealand.
“But I was always in the wine cellar!” he laughs. “I ended up running some of the top restaurants in Auckland.”
“Then I decided, at 27, that I had to do something that I really wanted to do. So I moved to Hawkes Bay and did my degree in oenology (wine science). I’ve never looked back, really.”
While he was working on his degree he also worked for wineries during every vintage (autumn in New Zealand, but spring in Canada).
“I thought about show judging or something else wine-related, but didn’t really expect to finish my degree,” he said. “The amazing thing about making wine is the sense of achievement. You can grow your own grapes, then it’s up to you what you want to do with them and what style you want to make. I just love it”
Barker credits his experience in managing restaurants with giving him an advantage when he got into the winery business.
“I knew the retail end and the consumer end really well. That’s something that’s made Moana Park (the winery he owns now) a little different--we’re not confused about what our business is and a I think a lot of wineries are confused about what their business is. For a lot of wineries it’s a second or retirement business and the husband wants to be the winemaker and the wife is forced into sales and marketing, or doing something that she’s not perhaps good at. So they make this wine and it sits in the cellar.
“Anyone can make wine. Selling wines is what the business is.”
Before making the jump into winery ownership, Barker worked at small and large wineries in New Zealand. While still in university, he worked with Crossroads.
“I was so green. I had my first CO2 experience (breathing straight carbon dioxide, a by-product of the fermentation process that can render a person unconscious and kill them within minutes—it’s happened here in BC) there. There was this lees racking tank that was conical so the lees (a sediment comprised of dead yeast cells, grape seeds and other solids) would settle into the bottom. I stuck my head in, of course. I flinched and hit my head on the back of the tank. I nearly knocked myself out. I split open the back of my head but I pulled myself out. It’s a great lesson to learn. I scared the—out of myself!”
After several more winery jobs, Barker would eventually land at Sacred Hill, “which I think is one of the most progressive wineries in New Zealand.”
It provided his link to Moana Park.
“When I was at Sacred, the head winemaker, Tony Bish, won Winemaker of the Year and I won Young Winemaker of the Year at the same event. And that night there came a job offer to become winemaker at Moana Park. I’d had a couple wines and I accepted. The next day I went to Moana Park, grabbed a carton (12-bottle case) of wine and took it home. Then I had a wee cry to myself. The wines were terrible. It was shocking. Unsellable, in my mind. Faulty—there was no market for them. The brand needed modification. It was a winery owned by a grower who made good fruit, but the wine was awful.
“In the 2005 vintage we scaled back from 15,000 cartons to 2,500 cartons. We had a complete change in focus. We dropped all our supermarket sales, catered only to restaurants, and started to build back up again.
“It was all very fine until of course the recession hit. Then we bought the business.”
With each successive year, Barker and his wife, Kaylea, have added another block of vines to their holdings, which now total 100 acres in seven blocks. They lease other blocks.
“We’re not huge. This year we’ll produce about 30,000 cartons. We’re almost sold out now—we’ll have no wine for about six months. We’ve developed a new brand, we’re back in the supermarkets.”
While 30,000 cases of wine, or 360,000 bottles, a year would make Moana Park a big producer in BC, it’s a small to average operation in the export-focused New Zealand market, where about 700 wineries produce far more wine than the country’s population can consume.
Barker became familiar with Canada when he and Kaylea, whose brother lives in Ontario, came for a wedding in 2006. Kaylea had worked for three years in Ontario, so Dan took advantage of the trip half way around the world to get some work experience. He consulted for Hidden Bench, an artisanal winery in the Niagara region.
In 2009, he was back in BC, looking for new marketing opportunities for his export wines. Shortly after, he was offered the winemaking job at Baillie-Grohman.
“Creston is quite an interesting opportunity in that it’s an unproven area. I like the idea that it has altitude—it has so much going for it. I think we can make the best pinot noir in Canada. I think we can make some of the best pinot noirs in the world from this site.
“We’re getting better every year. We just need some vine maturity. The new wine is looking spanking.
“We’re starting to see more capacity, which makes it slightly more economic. The first year we were seeing less than a ton to the acre. You’re not going to be eating steak dinners off that. So it’s quite nice to see.”
Barker has enjoyed the challenge of working with a different climate, higher altitude and different soil. And he’s helped bring dozens of medals from prestigious wine competitions to Baillie-Grohman for owners Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa.
Among the most notable differences in his experience in Creston is the way the grapes mature in a rush in early fall. Grapes’ sweetness can increase by 15 per cent a week in that period, something Barker never sees in New Zealand. And the different varieties of grapes—chardonnay, gewürztraminer, pinot gris, pinot noir, kerner—tend to finish ripening at about the same time.
“That makes things easier because we don’t have to make too many choices. We harvested everything in six or seven days here,” he says. “At home it takes about seven weeks.”
And he sees no end of potential here, where disease and birds aren’t much of a factor, the microclimate of the Erickson bench is favourable and soil imparts a distinct and appealing “dusty mineral“ flavour and aroma to the wines.
“I think the sky’s the limit here,” he says.
October 2012 - Meet Your Maker
Creston wineries celebrate a harvest of wine awards
In the greater scheme of things, Creston’s wine industry is still in its fledgling stages. But both Skimmerhorn Winery and Vineyard and Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery have taken giant steps in gaining credibility in the marketplace and the industry.
Skimmerhorn kicked off what has been a very successful season of sales—and an equally good one at its bistro, once summer finally arrived—with a terrific showing in New York State’s Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. Four silver medals (2011 Pinot Gris, 2011 Kootenay Crush White, 2010 Pinot Rose and 2011 Ortega) and a bronze for the 2009 Pinot Noir arrived early this summer in a very welcome couriered package. We don’t see much in the way of the region’s wines out in the West, but New York and surrounding states have a very nice wine industry of their own.
Also exciting was news in recent weeks that Bailie-Grohman garnered 2012 Canadian Wine Awards medals for each of the six wines it entered. Silver medals now hang around the necks of the 2010 Chardonnay, 2010 Pinot Noir Estate and 2011 Blanc de Noires Rose while bronze medals adorn the 2011 Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris and 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve.
Baillie-Grohman also brought home four BC wine awards last month, winning silver medals for the 2010 Chardonnay and 2011 Pinot Gris and Blanc de Noires Rose. A bronze for the 2010 Pinot Noir Estate capped off a very nice month at the winery.
Give credit to the Kiwi wine-making pair of Mark Rattray and Dan Barker for moving the wineries along at such a brisk pace. Sadly, Rattray is not returning to the Creston Valley this fall, though for happy reasons. He got married last winter and, understandably, wants to remain close to his wife. He will, however, remain as a long-distance consultant to Skimmerhorn owner Al Hoag, who has been working at Rattray’s side for the past five years.
Last week, we visited Baillie-Grohman to attend a welcome back party for Barker. It was interesting to learn about the weather challenges New Zealand vineyards have faced this past year. After a banner year of increasing international awareness and sales for his Moana Park Winery in Hawkes Bay, Barker had to cut back on his marketing efforts when the 2012 harvest brought in about half the grapes a good year provides. Of course, low yield often equals high quality, so it’s not all negative news from Down Under.
Baillie-Grohman owner and marketing whiz Bob Johnson reports that 2012 sales have been outstanding, with three of the winery’s six wines sold out and the others in limited supply. He actually stopped working to expand markets in August, wanting to ensure that regular restaurant and wine store customers would have an adequate supply of Baillie-Grohman wines until the new releases are available.
There are no awards yet for the tiny production of Creston Valley’s newest winery, Wynnwood Estate, but co-owner Dave Basaraba has been very pleased with the response from people who have stopped in at the new tasting room north of Wynndel since it opened in the late summer. Look for only good things in the future from wine made from the fabulous vineyard overlooking Duck Lake.
October 2011 - La Dolce VIta
Skimmerhorn kicked off what has been a very successful season of sales—and an equally good one at its bistro, once summer finally arrived—with a terrific showing in New York State’s Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. Four silver medals (2011 Pinot Gris, 2011 Kootenay Crush White, 2010 Pinot Rose and 2011 Ortega) and a bronze for the 2009 Pinot Noir arrived early this summer in a very welcome couriered package. We don’t see much in the way of the region’s wines out in the West, but New York and surrounding states have a very nice wine industry of their own.
Also exciting was news in recent weeks that Bailie-Grohman garnered 2012 Canadian Wine Awards medals for each of the six wines it entered. Silver medals now hang around the necks of the 2010 Chardonnay, 2010 Pinot Noir Estate and 2011 Blanc de Noires Rose while bronze medals adorn the 2011 Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris and 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve.
Baillie-Grohman also brought home four BC wine awards last month, winning silver medals for the 2010 Chardonnay and 2011 Pinot Gris and Blanc de Noires Rose. A bronze for the 2010 Pinot Noir Estate capped off a very nice month at the winery.
Give credit to the Kiwi wine-making pair of Mark Rattray and Dan Barker for moving the wineries along at such a brisk pace. Sadly, Rattray is not returning to the Creston Valley this fall, though for happy reasons. He got married last winter and, understandably, wants to remain close to his wife. He will, however, remain as a long-distance consultant to Skimmerhorn owner Al Hoag, who has been working at Rattray’s side for the past five years.
Last week, we visited Baillie-Grohman to attend a welcome back party for Barker. It was interesting to learn about the weather challenges New Zealand vineyards have faced this past year. After a banner year of increasing international awareness and sales for his Moana Park Winery in Hawkes Bay, Barker had to cut back on his marketing efforts when the 2012 harvest brought in about half the grapes a good year provides. Of course, low yield often equals high quality, so it’s not all negative news from Down Under.
Baillie-Grohman owner and marketing whiz Bob Johnson reports that 2012 sales have been outstanding, with three of the winery’s six wines sold out and the others in limited supply. He actually stopped working to expand markets in August, wanting to ensure that regular restaurant and wine store customers would have an adequate supply of Baillie-Grohman wines until the new releases are available.
There are no awards yet for the tiny production of Creston Valley’s newest winery, Wynnwood Estate, but co-owner Dave Basaraba has been very pleased with the response from people who have stopped in at the new tasting room north of Wynndel since it opened in the late summer. Look for only good things in the future from wine made from the fabulous vineyard overlooking Duck Lake.
October 2011 - La Dolce VIta
Namesake’s great-great-grandson visits
Creston’s Baillie-Grohman winery
Petra Flaa, Dan Johnson, Guy Bailie-Grohman, Wes Johnson and Bob Johnson.
When Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa chose the slogan “The adventure continues” for their Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery, they couldn’t have foreseen how meaningful that statement would become.
Last week, the couple’s adventure continued, with the appearance on their doorstep of Guy Baillie-Grohman, great-great-grandson of the winery’s namesake.
Guy, 23, a resident of Somerset, England, knew of his great-great-grandfather’s connection to the Creston Valley. He didn’t know until last year that the historical name had been chosen for a new winery.
Although William Baillie-Grohman was a European aristocrat, he was at ease in the North American wilderness. In the summer of 1882, he entered the Creston Valley at the side of Teddy Roosevelt, a friend and future U.S. president, on a mountain goat hunting expedition.
William returned in the following years to attempt a reclamation scheme that would create a system of dikes to divert water and allow for farming on what is now the Creston flats. Those early attempts failed, but laid the foundation for future, successful efforts.
“Folklore has it that Baillie-Grohman encouraged British farmers to locate to the area in 1884 to assist with building a general store, sawmill and the dike system,” according to the winery’s website. “But these hard-working people also cleared and planted orchards on the slopes in the town of Creston and are credited as the first to see the area’s potential for tree fruits.”
Johnson and Flaa adopted the Baillie-Grohman name on the advice of consultants, Colletta and Associates, who thought the adventurer’s passion for the Kootenays and the goat-hunting legend combined to create a fascinating and marketable story.
Johnson said he first connected with descendants of William last summer, when he learned, much to his surprise, that there once was a Baillie-Grohman Vineyard in England. It was planted by William’s son, Guy’s grandfather.
With that small piece of knowledge, Johnson had some email exchanges with Guy’s father, Roddy, one of the family’s historians.
“The vineyard and winery wasn’t much of a success and grandfather eventually retired to Somerset in the 60s or 70s,” Baillie-Grohman said. “What was once the vineyard is just gardens now.”
Johnson said he has enjoyed the commonalities between the winery and Baillie-Grohman’s family.
William spent summers as a youth in the Austrian Tyrol region, where the family owned a schloss, or castle (“It’s actually more of a mansion,” Baillie-Grohman said). On the winery’s tasting room wall, a photo hangs of William inside the schloss. The same photo, probably the original, hangs in Guy’s family home in Somerset.
“We have all of my great-great-grandfather’s books,” Baillie-Grohman said. “My dad and aunt are very interested in Baillie-Grohman history. I’ve browsed through them all.”
Baillie-Grohman has visited North America only once previously, on a school field trip to Minnesota. After graduating with a degree in history this spring, he decided to do some travelling before looking for work in London. He flew to Washington, D.C., where he has friends, then moved on to Detroit, where he also met up with acquaintances.
“I hitchhiked from Detroit to Calgary,” said the 23-year-old. “It was a great way to meet people who want to talk.”
He then took the bus to Creston.
“I thought I might as well come and see where my great-great grandfather spent so much time, and the winery that bears his name. When I saw my name on the side of the winery it seemed really bizarre,” he laughed.
Baillie-Grohman enjoyed relating the story of his own visit to the former family schloss in the Tyrol to Johnson.
Pointing to the photograph of William that hangs in the winery’s tasting room, he said that little has changed in the mansion’s interior, despite the fact that it is no longer owned by the Baillie-Grohman family.
Coincidentally, Baillie-Grohman worked in a wineshop for a bit when he was attending university.
“And we have a few bottles of Baillie-Grohman wine in our wine rack at home,” he said. “They were brought over for a family wedding. The bottles are just for show, though. They are empty, though I think my parents think they might be able to fill them up again!”
Baillie-Grohman spent several days staying at the home of Johnson and Flaa, and their sons Wes and Dan, before heading west to continue his own North American adventure. He planned to visit Vancouver, Victoria and Los Angeles before heading home to find work, he hopes, in the film industry.
“The adventure continues?” Johnson smiled. “Well, doesn’t it? We named this winery without any knowledge that there was some Baillie-Grohman history to winemaking. And we certainly never expected to meet one of William’s descendants. It’s a great story.”
October 2011 – Creston Valley Advance
Last week, the couple’s adventure continued, with the appearance on their doorstep of Guy Baillie-Grohman, great-great-grandson of the winery’s namesake.
Guy, 23, a resident of Somerset, England, knew of his great-great-grandfather’s connection to the Creston Valley. He didn’t know until last year that the historical name had been chosen for a new winery.
Although William Baillie-Grohman was a European aristocrat, he was at ease in the North American wilderness. In the summer of 1882, he entered the Creston Valley at the side of Teddy Roosevelt, a friend and future U.S. president, on a mountain goat hunting expedition.
William returned in the following years to attempt a reclamation scheme that would create a system of dikes to divert water and allow for farming on what is now the Creston flats. Those early attempts failed, but laid the foundation for future, successful efforts.
“Folklore has it that Baillie-Grohman encouraged British farmers to locate to the area in 1884 to assist with building a general store, sawmill and the dike system,” according to the winery’s website. “But these hard-working people also cleared and planted orchards on the slopes in the town of Creston and are credited as the first to see the area’s potential for tree fruits.”
Johnson and Flaa adopted the Baillie-Grohman name on the advice of consultants, Colletta and Associates, who thought the adventurer’s passion for the Kootenays and the goat-hunting legend combined to create a fascinating and marketable story.
Johnson said he first connected with descendants of William last summer, when he learned, much to his surprise, that there once was a Baillie-Grohman Vineyard in England. It was planted by William’s son, Guy’s grandfather.
With that small piece of knowledge, Johnson had some email exchanges with Guy’s father, Roddy, one of the family’s historians.
“The vineyard and winery wasn’t much of a success and grandfather eventually retired to Somerset in the 60s or 70s,” Baillie-Grohman said. “What was once the vineyard is just gardens now.”
Johnson said he has enjoyed the commonalities between the winery and Baillie-Grohman’s family.
William spent summers as a youth in the Austrian Tyrol region, where the family owned a schloss, or castle (“It’s actually more of a mansion,” Baillie-Grohman said). On the winery’s tasting room wall, a photo hangs of William inside the schloss. The same photo, probably the original, hangs in Guy’s family home in Somerset.
“We have all of my great-great-grandfather’s books,” Baillie-Grohman said. “My dad and aunt are very interested in Baillie-Grohman history. I’ve browsed through them all.”
Baillie-Grohman has visited North America only once previously, on a school field trip to Minnesota. After graduating with a degree in history this spring, he decided to do some travelling before looking for work in London. He flew to Washington, D.C., where he has friends, then moved on to Detroit, where he also met up with acquaintances.
“I hitchhiked from Detroit to Calgary,” said the 23-year-old. “It was a great way to meet people who want to talk.”
He then took the bus to Creston.
“I thought I might as well come and see where my great-great grandfather spent so much time, and the winery that bears his name. When I saw my name on the side of the winery it seemed really bizarre,” he laughed.
Baillie-Grohman enjoyed relating the story of his own visit to the former family schloss in the Tyrol to Johnson.
Pointing to the photograph of William that hangs in the winery’s tasting room, he said that little has changed in the mansion’s interior, despite the fact that it is no longer owned by the Baillie-Grohman family.
Coincidentally, Baillie-Grohman worked in a wineshop for a bit when he was attending university.
“And we have a few bottles of Baillie-Grohman wine in our wine rack at home,” he said. “They were brought over for a family wedding. The bottles are just for show, though. They are empty, though I think my parents think they might be able to fill them up again!”
Baillie-Grohman spent several days staying at the home of Johnson and Flaa, and their sons Wes and Dan, before heading west to continue his own North American adventure. He planned to visit Vancouver, Victoria and Los Angeles before heading home to find work, he hopes, in the film industry.
“The adventure continues?” Johnson smiled. “Well, doesn’t it? We named this winery without any knowledge that there was some Baillie-Grohman history to winemaking. And we certainly never expected to meet one of William’s descendants. It’s a great story.”
October 2011 – Creston Valley Advance
