THE www.keremeosreview.com PM Agreement #40012521
Take in a Fall Wine Festival Event Vol.15 Number 40
Thursday,October 3, 2013
Serving the communities of Keremeos, Cawston, Okanagan Falls and Kaleden
$1.15 including GST
HIGH TECH ALIGNMENTS AT WEST END TIRE SHOP
Cawston Tire acquires state of the art alignment equipment See page 17
CROSS COUNTRY TEAM HOSTS EVENT
Photo by Steve Arstad
Keremeos team wins cross country meet held at Pine Park See page 9
STUDENT RECRUITS AT FIRE HALL
Keremeos fire department benefits from youthful input See page 15
Virginia and John Weber of Orofino Winery. Like most of the SImilkameen’s wineries, they are excited about this year’s harvest as the fall wine festival gets underway. Similkameen wineries are open and hosting a number of events through this weekend and next week.
Fall wine celebration begins By Steve Arstad news@keremeosreview.com
John and Virginia Weber began the 2013 grape harvest at Orofino Winery 10 days earlier than last year. The Cawston based winemakers produce a number of high quality wines from their own six acre vineyard, in addition to drawing on 20 acres from various other properties in the valley. Orofino produces Riesling, Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Muscat, Syrah, Gamay and several Bordeaux varieties.
“It was the perfect growing season,” said Virginia Weber, “it actually wouldn’t hurt for the season to slow a bit, to allow a little more hang time for the grapes. It is nice, though, not to have to be picking in November.” The Webers are anticipating a great vintage this year. “It’s the earliest season since 2009,” John said, “all varieties have done really well this year.” Paying attention to their marketing opportunities has paid off for the Webers, who sell their products through their winery outlet as well as to private stores.
They also have a number of Vancouver restaurants who stock their offerings. “We have representatives who market our wines on the island, the Lower Mainland and the interior,” added John. Orofino’s first year of production was 2005, when the winery produced 550 cases. “Last year, we crushed enough to fill 5,000 cases,” said Virginia. The winery has built up a strong clientele, many of whom have been continued on page 4