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Wine Cave
O'Rourke Cellars has drilled and blasted 330m of wine caves into the bedrock of the granite hillside. Temperatures in the caves at 10-12º C throughout the year are perfect for aging wine.
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Photo by Michael Botner
Constuction at O'Rourkes
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Photo by Gary Symons
Wine making area
The next chapter of the Okanagan Valley’s climb to world class wine prominence is unfolding in Lake Country, the area practically at the northern periphery of the wine region. Not so quietly, but with little fanfare, O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars on Commonage Road is taking shape on the rocky, rugged, steep, south-west facing hillsides of Carrs Landing. Founder, developer and builder of the winery project, Edmonton businessman Dennis O’Rourke, soft pedals his success at “building roads for a living” in Alberta. “I am an expert at digging ditches,” he quips.
Like many Albertans, O’Rourke was drawn to the Okanagan as a home away from home. He still lives in the house built forty years ago on Juniper Cove lakefront land in Carrs Landing. The quest for property as the foundation for what he intends to become Lake Country’s preeminent wine estate began in 2009 with the purchase of the old Goldie Road market garden, a four-acre section of the historic Rainbow Ranche, just up the road from Juniper Cove. Several factors influenced O’Rourke’s decision to buy up these orchard blocks in Carrs Landing, consisting of 13 lots encompassing 130 acres, including a Timber Kings-inspired, five-bedroom, log home and guest house built in 2006. After the 2008-2009 recession, “land prices were in the doldrums and many of the lots were up for sale,” says O’Rourke. “I thought it would be better to invest in hillsides than banks.”
Hired by O’Rourke in 2013, New Zealander Adrian Baker, previously senior winemaker and cool climate specialist at Craggy Range winery in Hawke’s Bay, developed and carried out plans for selecting and planting the grape varieties. Baker knew it was the best possible land for growing cool climate varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. As explained by O’Rourke, “the tougher the land, the better the grapes.”
So far 104 acres have been planted: 100 in Carrs in two blocks, and a four-acre site on Goldie Road. Pinot Noir leads the way at one-third of the total, with the remainder consisting of Chardonnay (30%), Pinot Gris (20%), Riesling (11-12%), followed by plantings of Gewürtztraminer and Grüner Veltliner, as well as small blocks of Gamay Noir and Merlot. Using his expertise and graders, O’Rourke spared no effort to build solid roads on the steep slopes.
In 2012, O’Rourke rolled out ambitious plans to construct a large-scale winery on a rocky bluff just below Commonage Road overlooking Lake Okanagan. Most apparent from below is the skeleton of a massive amphitheatre. Not at all visible is an indoor theatre below. Even more extraordinary are 330m of wine caves drilled and blasted into the bedrock of the granite hillside with access points from several different points of the winery.
Dennis O'Rourke
Founder, developer and builder of the winery project, Dennis O’Rourke.
“Structural support is provided by 12-foot stabilizing rods drilled back into the rock, followed by spraying concrete to seal the surfaces,” says Stephanie Stanley, winemaker at O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars Goldie Rd. winery. “Temperatures in the caves at 10-12C throughout the year are
Stephanie Stanley
Stephanie Stanley, O'Rourke's winemaker.
perfect for aging wine,” she says. O’Rourke moved in crews and equipment from his Alberta operation and purchased a local batch plant to make concrete and cladding. He used rock crushers to transform larger rocks mined above the winery site into smaller material for making aggregate.
Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons, Vineyard Manager.
With O’Rourke Family Vineyards on Commonage Road scheduled to open in 2022, an operating winery was required in short order to make wine from estate grown grapes and serve the public. Chase Wines opened in 2016 on Goldie Road, but was later renamed as O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars over a trade mark infringement complaint. It has been a crowd-pleasing endeavour, with a casual, year-round bistro, a bright, spacious cellar door and a well-equipped wine producing facility overlooking vineyards and Lake Okanagan.
A graduate of Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Program, Okanagan-native Stephanie Stanley stepped in as winemaker in 2017 after meeting Adrian Baker during a six-month stint working in New Zealand.
With fruit from young vines, Stanley makes 12 different wines from all the major varieties grown on the estate. In particular, kudos go to these three wines:
- The 2017 aged Chardonnay is elegant and poised. Barrel-fermented and French oak aged, it shows a green apple, apricot, pineapple, vanilla and hazelnut nose with poised flavours suggesting green apple, squeezed lemon-lime and toast.
- The 2019 Grüner Veltliner takes its name from Austria’s most important grape variety. Made from estate grown grapes, it is brimming with aromas of white flowers. peppercorns and peaches. The almost creamy palate features pineapple, melon and gooseberry, hints of fresh herbs and white pepper, capped off by a hint of flinty minerality.
- The 2018 Pinot Noir highlights the enormous promise of this variety in Lake Country. Intensely rich and ripe, it delivers concentrated black cherry and plum fruit and notes of beet root, cigar box, cocoa and pepper, backed by smoky tannins.
Soon to be released will be O’Rourke’s first sparkling wines under the Peak Cellars label, according to Stanley. Currently cellared in the caves on Commonage Rd., they include a traditional, champagne method bubbly made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and a crémant-style Riesling.
Looking to the launch of the elite Commonage Rd. winery – O’Rourke Family Vineyards - in 2022, the focus will be on producing multiple, higher end tiers and small batches of single block, single clone wines. To that end, O’Rourke hired renowned Pinot Noir and Chardonnay specialist Nikki Callaway in 2019. A graduate of the Université de Bordeaux with a Diplôme National d’Oenologue (comparable to a Masters degree), Callaway has gained viticulture and winemaking experience in various regions of France including several appellations in Bordeaux.
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Photo by Gary Symons
Garden Bistro
The view from the Garden Bistro.
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Photo by Gary Symons
The pizza oven
The pizza oven.
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Photo by Gary Symons
Charcuterie plate
The Garden Bistro charcuterie plate.
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Photo by Gary Symons
Tatsing room
The tasting room.
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Photo by Gary Symons
Tasting bar
Tasting bar.
If all goes according to plan, Lake Country could very be the recipient of a sub-GI (Geographic Indicator) designation in the not-too-distant future. The idea took root after the arrival of Tim Parsons as Vineyard Manager at O’Rourke’s in 2017. A viticulturist in the Central Okanagan for almost 20 years, Parsons realized that “we have something special, unique soils and climate, in Lake Country. The area encompasses the west-facing slope from the top of the ridge to the lake and includes all the growers from a little past 50th Parallel Winery to just south of Gray Monk Winery."
The soil profile features more granite and glacial till at higher elevations and more silty clay lower down with coarser soils in the middle. Parsons describes O’Rourke’s stretch of vineyards as a premier site with south-west-facing slopes and ample degree days, sunlight hours and frost-free days.
Parsons found broad support for the sub-GI proposal through extensive consultation with growers and wineries in Lake Country. It has led to an intriguing twist that may add a vineyard bench over yonder in Oyama, on the eastern slopes of Wood Lake. Roger Wong, the winemaker at, and co-founder of, Intrigue Wines, also on Goldie Road, lives on a farm in Oyama with his family. Roger and wife, Gillian, planted a six-acre vineyard, named Two Wongs make a White, primarily with Riesling, in 2008. With adjoining neighbour’s vineyards, the total is now 20 acres.
“The elevation of our vineyards is higher than those in Lake Country and the soil is well-drained and gravelly,” says Wong. “We have the same sun exposure and lake effect, although Wood Lake does freeze occasionally in winter for a month. The strong downward effect of air means very little disease pressure.” It is also well-suited to Riesling because the soil dries right out. “The ability to control moisture is the key to producing small berries with intense flavours in the skins,” he says.
Intrigue’s 2019 Riesling grown on Two Wongs Make a White vineyard is Riesling at its definitive best. Intensely aromatic and exquisitely balanced, it is bursting with green apple, pear and peach fruit, notes of honey, mineral and grapefruit, and lively acidity.
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