BUSINESS
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KELOWNA ROCKETS begin their WHL playoff run against Seattle on Friday without the services of team captain Colton Sissons.
COLUMNIST Maxine DeHart has discovered a new barber in town who has opened a barber shop that is a throwback to back in the day.
GREEN BAY residents went before council to seek financial help with a proposed dredging project to address a sediment build-up problem they feel has been neglected for too long.
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THURSDAY March 21, 2013 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ ELECTION
Feisty premier says she’s ready to beat the odds Alistair Waters ASSISTANT EDITOR
win with an aging merlot from the barrel. In the photo (from left) are winemakers Stephanie Leinemann and Sydney Simpson, technician Chantal Koutsantonis and winemaker Howard Soon.
▼ INTERNATIONAL JUDGING
Local wines winning on the world stage STAFF REPORTER
The Okanagan Valley produces some of the world’s best chardonnay wines. That was proven this week as again, local wineries brought home some of the top medals from the prestigious Chardonnay-du-Monde international wine competition in France. Both Sandhill Wines
the
ONLY IN THE OKANAGAN VALLEY SINCE 1977
of Kelowna and Quails’ Gate Estate Winery of West Kelowna won gold medals in competition with wines from 42 countries which submitted a total of 872 wine samples that were judged by 300 international experts. In all, 58 gold medals were awarded this year and 183 silver medals, with most of the top medals going to French wines. About a dozen medals came to Canada, three
of those to Kelowna’s Sandhill and Calona Vineyards for the 2011 Sandhill Small Lots Single Lot Chardonnay, which won gold, the 2011 Sandhill White Label Chardonnay which won silver along with the 2011 Calona Vineyards Artist Series Unoaked Chardonnay. Two more went to Quails’ Gate, with a gold medal for its 2010 Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay and a silver for its
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2011 Quails’ Gate Chardonnay. It’s not the first time either winery has won a medal at this particular competition, but Sandhill winemaker Howard Soon points out that 2011 was the second coolest grape-growing season in 16 years, which meant it was generally a difficult year in the vineyard. However, he says this proves that the best vineyards can still ripen
JACOBSEN EXCELLENCE
grapes, even in difficult years. Sandhill brought home a gold medal last year for its 2010 Sandhill Chardonnay. However, there’s very little of the Small Lots produced this year with only 630 cases bottled and available at the winery. There were 4,000 cases of the Sandhill
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Judie Steeves
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JUDIE STEEVES/CAPITAL NEWS
WINTER WORK in a winery involves barrel tasting wines, so the jubilant Calona Wines winemaking team toasted their recent chardonnay
McCurdy Rd.
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Premier Christy Clark says she’s going to “defy the odds” and lead her Liberal party to victory in the upcoming provincial election, despite the Liberals low standing in the polls and what she says is the media’s belief she can’t do it. “I’m a fighter,” declared Clark during a stop at a Kelowna electronics manufacturing firm Wednesday. “I know I’m going in as the underdog. I’m OK with that. I’m going to defy the odds.” Clark’s confident proclamation came amid news that her party is trailing the Opposition NDP badly in public opinion polls, in the wake of a damning report about government employees using provincial money to do partisan election work for the Liberals in order to win ethics votes in the upcoming election. Clark has apologized and her party has paid back $70,000 of taxpayer money that was spent. The embattled premier has had to address several controversies in the last few months and now has just eight weeks to turn it around before the election. She came to Kelowna—historically friendly territory for politicians on the right of the political spectrum—Wednesday to announce the benefits of a new small business accord aimed at maintaining B.C. as what she called the most small-business friendly province in Canada. The accord recognizes small business as a key driver of job creation and economic growth and contains six “action” items for the provincial government: • Consider the needs of small business in policy and program decisions to enhance business certainty, access to qualified labour access to capital and technology adoption. • Foster a regulatory environment that small business can access, navigate and influence effectively and efficiently. • Design government program and resources affecting small business so they are well-developed, accessible, properly funded and effectively communicated. • Forster thoughtful collaboration among all levels
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