Chef Chris Van Hooydonk welcomes guests; Chardonnay shines alongside the season’s first halibut.
Gather around wine lovers and you’re sure to hear a lot of “notes”, staccato bursts of “vanilla,” “citrus,” “buttery,” as wine is swirled, sniffed and sipped. As wine settles on the palate, the notes merge into a seamless, luxurious harmony, like a good melody.
Beyond the winemaker, sommelier or wine reviewer, chefs bring their own kind of interpretation to the glass—composing their response on the plate. Chef Chris Van Hooydonk of Backyard Farm Chef’s Table (est. 2014) near Oliver, B.C. crafted one of the most finely-tuned pairings when he teamed up with Lakeboat Vineyard & Winery this spring. Over a four-course dinner, a perfect partner was found to dance with each note of the wines, by land, sea and definitely from the backyard garden.
Chardonnay warmed up to Haida Gwaii halibut wrapped in house-cured bacon and charred backyard asparagus (the first of the season!) presented over a bulgur lentil salad and sweet pea-celery root custard. The topping: sunchoke crisps.
Pinot Noir played with a duo of Yarrow Meadow duck breast and mushroom confit ragout and a fingerling potato presented on a pine nut romesco.
“I would love to introduce you to some wines maybe you haven’t tried before,” says Chris whose calendar is booked full of summer winemaker dinners. “You get to have conversations with people that are very inspiring.
“I think, especially now, it’s really important that we surround ourselves with people that have interesting things to say, come from different walks of life, but also have a passion for what they do.”
Winemaker Mireille Sauvé was excited to kick off the season with Kaleden wines, grown on the western bench above Skaha Lake, B.C., in the South Okanagan.
“At Lakeboat Vineyard we make single varietal wines and we do that because we’re trying to establish a new sub-GI” she says. “The best way to do that is to express the terroir purely without blending.”
Her efforts earned international acclaim earlier this year when the 2021 Lakeboat Chardonnay captured a silver medal at the 2025 Chardonnay du Monde competition in Burgundy, France—one of the world’s most prestigious showcases for Chardonnay.
O&V publisher Yvonne Turgeon pours her passion into crafting wine adventures and sharing spirited stories at sippinpretty.co