Photo by Bill Christensen of Take 2 Digital.
Jennifer Turton-Molgat and her father Chris Turton.
Jennifer Turton-Molgat and her father Chris Turton.
Many people in the Okanagan Valley know The View winery for its award-winning wines, its innovative wine in a can called Bling and its iconic red shoe branding. But did you know that the View also produces Wards Cider, one of the region’s top premier brands of cider?
President Jennifer Turton-Molgat and her father Chris Turton named Wards Cider after Turton’s grandfather George Ward, who settled their family orchard in the early 1900’s, and later built the vintage apple packing house that is now home to The View Winery and Wards Cider.
The View and Wards Cider tasting room and cellar are located on Ward Road in South East Kelowna. The road itself is named for the Wards, who were among the largest landowners and apple producers in the area. We had the pleasure to tour the property with Jennifer just before harvest and she took us into their old growth orchard to show us her favourite, century-old apple tree. As we stroll through the orchard rows, she shares with us fond memories of growing up on the farm. “It was a great childhood growing up here. My siblings and cousins and I had good old-fashioned wholesome fun riding our horses and bikes all around the orchard roads. Right up here is my favourite tree; it’s probably one of the first trees planted, and it’s truly magical.”
The Hollow Tree
The tree itself is, indeed, a bit of a magic act. The trunk is completely hollowed out so you can see right through it, with only the exterior of the trunk on two sides holding it up, and yet the tree is bearing a massive load of apples. Despite being almost completely eroded, it thrives and prospers, as does the family that has tended this land for over a century.
Although the farm started as a tree fruit orchard, the family has had to innovate with the times in order to make their land viable. Fortunately, each generation of the family from George to his grandson Chris Turton and his great granddaughter Jennifer have had that spark of innovation.
In fact, the family farm, incorporated as Canada West Tree Fruits in the early 1970s, was among the early adopters in BC’s revitalized wine industry. “Howard Soon (a renowned winemaker, lately of Sandhill Estate Winery and Vanessa Vineyard) worked with my dad on planting cool climate white varieties for Calona wines in the 1990’s,” Turton-Molgat recalls. “They planted Ehrenfelser, Gewurtztraminer and Optima. At the same time my dad planted Pinotage which was unique in our valley but has turned out to be really suitable for our terroir. We also grow Baco Noir, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir.”
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Photo by Gary Symons
The View
The View that inspired the winery name can be seen from the vineyards.
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Photo by Gary Symons
Tasting Room
The view of the vintage packinghouse turned tasting room on Ward Road.
Today the vines and apples grow side by side and the wine and cider brands are closely aligned, with both being crafted and marketed by the same team. Towering over the vintage apple packinghouse are massive tanks that hold premium apple cider from the company’s bulk cider division which provides product to other breweries and cideries throughout BC and Alberta.
“I have so much gratitude for my father, Chris Turton, who was the visionary behind producing apple cider and growing grapes on our property,” says Turton-Molgat.
His foresight, and enterprising, entrepreneurial spirit paved the way for us to become a successful land-based winery and the largest cider producer in Western Canada.”
Jennifer recalls when they were starting The View, “One of the challenges was to find a winemaker who was passionate about both wine and cider,” she says. “Some of the winemakers were a bit snobby about it, to be honest. Cider wasn’t popular in the early 2000’s and there weren’t many quality cideries around.” Today, cider has grown in popularity and there are several quality ciders being produced.
The winery and cidery, driven by hard work, Jennifer’s reluctance to take ‘No’ for an answer, and some well-timed innovation, has been tremendously successful.
“We have done very well with distribution,” Turton-Molgat says. “We sell some of our products through the BCLDB (BC Liquor Distribution Branch) stores, but most sells through private stores, restaurants, and grocery stores.”
“Getting onto grocery store shelves has been a huge help for us,” she adds. “We first developed a relationship with Overwaitea Food Group and they have been hugely supportive of our products. I was told by a few people in the industry that we were too small for Loblaw’s Inc. But I found out who the head buyer was and reached out to him directly with our product portfolio and our family’s story. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t hear back, but I actually heard from him right away. It turns out the head buyer is also from a multi-generational farming family and my story resonated with him. He was genuinely interested in what we had to offer and now we are on the shelves of all Loblaws stores throughout BC,” Jennifer says with a big smile.
“Leaders of big companies are people too, and they like a good product and a good story just like anyone else.”
In a rapidly growing and fiercely competitive wine market, Turton-Molgat felt the need to innovate and offer something different from her competitors. After a great deal of trial and error, the team at the View was able to develop a new process for making and packaging wines in cans. which now sell widely in BC under the brand name ‘Bling’.
Cidermaker Kristy French
Cidermaker Kristy French with her favourite fruit.
“That was not easy!” Turton-Molgat says. “As it turns out, packaging wines in cans is quite challenging. Issues related to shelf life were quite difficult and required us to develop our own unique process.” In the end, it has worked out very well and, between Wards Cider production runs, Pink Bling and White Bling continue to roll off their in-house canning line in stylish, 355ml leopard skin print cans.
Three of their ciders are also marketed in 355ml cans while the rest of the portfolio are packaged in 650ml bomber bottles, perfect for sharing. All Wards ciders are produced from estate grown, hand-picked, traditional cider apples such as Belle de Boskoop, Bulmers Norman and Bramley. Turton-Molgat’s love of shaking things up is seen in a few notable products. They include the World Cider Championship winner, Picker’s Hut Winter Spice, which tastes like apple pie and can be enjoyed crisp and cold, or warmed up for a cold winter’s night.
The Mimosa Cider is even more unique and is made by co-fermenting cider apples with Gewurztraminer grapes. Similarly, the Sangria Cider is a blend of cider specific apples, Pinot Noir and Pinotage grapes. All of their ciders are made with premium champagne yeast which allows for a slow, cool ferment. Wine lovers will love these well balanced, unique hybrids. For beer lovers, Dry Hopped Cider is a refreshing, gluten free alternative to beer. It is made from a blend of traditional cider apples and Citra Hops, for a cider that is fruity but quite hoppy as well, with a malted spice finish.
Turton-Molgat says she is very excited about the growth of BC’s cider industry over the past decade, which she likens to the growth of the wine industry.
“Just like the wine industry we are more like a community than competitors,” Turton-Molgat says. “In the wine industry we have worked together to create a world-renowned wine destination here in BC, and that has added to everyone’s success.
“Now we’re seeing the same thing in the cider business; it’s really important for us to band together, to educate the consumer, and to create a sense of place and history.”
Turton-Molgat points to the great events held every spring during BC Cider Week and their own Wards Ciders and Sliders event they host every August, this past year featuring nine local cideries pouring for hundreds of happy cider consumers.
“We all work hard to produce a great product, and yeah, you could say we’re competitors, Turton-Molgat says. “But, I like to think that in a bigger way we are collaborators, and we are all working together to build a great new industry."