Picnic at the winery

Many years ago, a glass of a British Columbia wine would give me a serious headache. Since then the wine scene in the province has evolved. New winemakers came with solid preparation, experience, knowledge, passion, and the willingness to adapt to the climate ad the soil and grow the grape varieties best suited to the land. Numerous great wineries have sprouted in B.C., both on the mainland and Vancouver island. Your winery hopping holiday could easily last for weeks.

I recently visited Averill Creek Vineyard near Duncan, beautifully located on a hill overlooking a valley, and I tried their wines on a gorgeous patio. And the vineyard is open on Tuesdays, which is not trivial on the island (From a local restaurant website: “Open 7 days a week. Closed on Tuesdays.”) You can bring your own food to Averill and do a picnic while enjoying wine tasting, but they also have a nice snack menu. My friend and I brought poke bowls from the new Hawaiian place called “Aloha” in Duncan (highly recommended), but on my next visit I look forward to trying the Averill duck paté. We tasted five wines: a sparkly white, a fruity white, two very different rosés, and a nice and balanced red. It was a lovely fair, and it is worth noting that the winery does not add any sulphites to their wines. Overall, it was a much enjoyable experience.

That evening, I read a little more about this vineyard. Its owner, Andy Johnson, a physician who was one of the founders of Medicentres, purchased the land in 2001 and had his first harvest in 2004, and since then Averill Creek has enjoyed tremendous growth. The owner is particularly proud of his Pinot Noir. I am not sure about the claim that it is the best Pinot in Canada, but it certainly gets my thumbs up.