Jason Parks
When I was growing up the world of rock music was divided between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the so-called Bad Boys of Rock’n’Roll.
Today, I’m reminded of the Stones by Jason Parkes, who has become Canada’s Bad Boy of Wine; an iconoclastic winemaker who smashes norms like a rocker smashing his guitar on stage.
It’s appropriate that Parkes brings a rocker sensibility to his winemaking game, because he is literally a rocker to the core, and just released a new album as lead singer with band Proper Man called Forty Elephants.
Parkes has taken Canada’s Okanagan Valley wine industry by storm, and while he’s served up some truly great traditional wines, he’s also burned up the playbook with some of the wines he’s produced at the quirky Hatch winery in West Kelowna.
One of the wines I tried early on at the Hatch was so smoky I literally gasped; it was almost like the peaty Scotch I love from Islay or Skye, but in a red wine. My first thought was, ‘what the hell is that?’, and my second was that it really was a daring wine that spat in the face of the ‘non-intervention’ style that has become almost de rigueur in the New World wine scene.
And it tasted bloody good going down.
Since then, Parkes’ has won three Lieutenant Governlor’s awards, and his name comes up frequently as someone who is either putting together his own operations through his company Jason Parkes Customs, or is helping other wineries get their start as a consulting executive winemaker; for example, helping Indigenous World get off to a flying start with their exemplary slate of fine wines.
Today the list of JPC-related businesses includes The Hatch, Gobsmacked, the soon-to-open Crown & Thieves, Talking Stories, the Screaming Frenzy label, and the newly opened Black Swift Vineyards. Parkes and crew also bought out the excellent Truck 59 cidery, where Crown & Thieves is being built on the same property.
Fascinated with this wrecking ball approach to what’s in the bottle, I asked Jason five quick questions to get some insight into how he got to this point.
How did you get started in the industry?
I was on tour with my punk rock band 21 years ago, but the band van broke down and I needed a job. Without a vehicle and in need of a solid job, I walked into a winery. Lucky for me the owner was crazy enough to make me a winemaker after two months, and the rest is history.
Where did you go to school for winemaking, and where did you apprentice?
I am proudly a grade 10 graduate from Mt. Elizabeth secondary and am self-taught in winemaking.
Have you worked in any other countries?
Nope, but I toured in a rock band in Japan and rocked ‘em real hard!
What is your favourite grape varietal to work with?
I would have to say Cab Franc for sure. Why? Because when I first started making blends years ago, it was the easiest canvas to build upon. I found it a bit more elegant and not as egotistical as some of the other varietals, so I would use Cab Franc as a baseline for blending.
What’s the best thing about your job?
The best thing is watching people grow and develop in their roles – it’s extremely rewarding. I also like that I can be fully myself. As a guy from a punk rock band, I can be a bit of a brat within the industry and now I am lucky to have people who are silly and brave enough to let me do that.
Is there a vintage or wine are you particularly proud of?
Yeah, but I forget what year it was. I think it was 2014, but a few years ago we were tasked with making a tremendous amount of wine in a very small facility. It’s not my favourite because of the vintage or the wine, though we did make some great things, but it’s my favourite because it was the year we really came together as a team. It was definitely a sh**show; definitely a thing where grown men were crying and it was brutal. We had a lot of struggles that year, but we were able to overcome those and bond over the experience and were all proud when we came out of it.