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La Dolce Vita: Rolling out the welcome mat

A recent visit to Meyer Family Vineyards in Okanagan Falls left me wondering why there is no award for best winetasting experience...
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The tasting room of the Meyer Family Vineyards

A recent visit to Meyer Family Vineyards (MFV) in Okanagan Falls left me wondering why there is no award for best winetasting experience. Our visit was pure joy, thanks to tasting room manager Sharon Misselbrook. It also left me thinking about some of our most memorable winery visits.

In 1989 we holidayed in California and took a day tour from San Francisco out to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. One particular winery visit in the town of Sonoma set us up for future tastings. In one quick two-minute lesson, our host taught our small group to “see, swirl, sniff, sip, swirl and savour, swallow or spit.” We learned to hold our wine against a white background to view the colour and clarity, to swirl the glass without spilling to release aromas, to sniff first, then sip and swirl the wine around the mouth, drawing in air over the wine while doing so, to think about the tastes with the wine still in our mouths, then to swallow or spit the contents out.

In the 1990s we were still relative newbies to winery visiting. But we got hooked on the Golden Mile, that lovely orchard-lined stretch north of Osoyoos. It wasn’t too far off Highway 3, so we’d make a short detour to check out a winery or on our way back from trips to Vancouver.

We always liked to pick up a few bottles at Gehringer Brothers, so we got to know some of the neighbouring wineries, too. One day we drove up to a small winery owned by an Italian family, our two young sons in tow. Inside the wine shop we were greeted by a woman we have since just thought of as Grandma. She got off to a shaky start, annoying our youngest son by admiring his hair, then adding that such beautiful hair was wasted on a boy.

When Grandma prepared for our tasting, she set four glasses on the counter, looking at Angela and I and asking, “It’s OK?” When we didn’t object she poured the boys tiny, perhaps half-ounce samples. “They have to learn,” she said. We had always done just this at celebratory dinners, believing that the European tradition was a healthy introduction to the responsible consumption of alcohol.

The boys, of course, were thrilled to be treated in this way and the tasting became part of our family lore. I doubt a similar experience happens in wineries today.

More than a decade ago we attended an Okanagan Wine Festival event in Penticton and met Silver Sage Winery’s Anna Manola. We were impressed by both her and the wines she was sampling, so much so that we made a stop at the winery on our way back to Creston a couple days later. Inside, Anna and her sister kept about a dozen of us in laughter with their wit and exuberance. We left thinking they could take their act to comedy clubs. A week later, their world changed when Anna’s husband and their winemaker friend died in a freak carbon dioxide accident. Somehow, Anna carried on and, judging by our most recent visit, their act and their wines are as popular as ever.

Which brings me back to Meyer Family Vineyards. I knew the winery only by reputation until a Food and Wine Trails magazine assignment gave me a reason to visit the lovely Okanagan Falls establishment recently. We arrived on a beautiful Friday morning and entered a tasting room filled with laughter. Misselbrook was in top form, though I suspect top form is her normal personality. Lively and animated are two definitions of vivacious, which was the first word that came to mind when we met her. Misselbrook loves wine, especially the marvelous Pinot Noirs that MFV produces. She’s great with people and also has a very good palate. She has a genuine gift in finding simple snacks to match with the wines she is serving.

During our visit, she brought out Australian blueberry licorice, buttered popcorn (to try with MFV’s unoaked Chardonnay) and other nibblies that left every guest thinking about how to pair wine with food.  Our visit was further enhanced when the very personable owners Jak Meyer and Janice Stevens arrived from different directions to chat with us.

We laughed and learned and made purchases, a perfect combination for a wine tasting experience.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.