Nk'Mip Wine Dinner with Justin Hall

I was thrilled to be invited to a winemakers dinner with Nk'Mip Cellars' winemaker Justin Hall, who is a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band.
Nk'Mip Cellars (pronounced "In Ka Meep") is owned by the Osoyoos Indian Band, who also own the Sonora Dunes golf course, Area 27 (a racetrack), Spirit Ridge (a four-star Hyatt resort) and the
newly completed District Wine Village. The Band has truly become self reliant and are thriving with what they have been given. There is virtually no unemployment among the Band's 540 members and they are in fact creating jobs for general community with their businesses.
A 32,000 acre OIB reserve was created in 1877. In 1936, about 4,000 acres was taken from the Band (all the best lands to plant peaches, cherries and apples). Ironically, what the Band was left with was the best plots of desert land to grow grape vines. The Band decided to allocate 260 acres to growing grapes (which at that time represented over 10% of al the grapes planted in B.C.).
They started Inkameep Winery in 1968. They sold the remainder of the grapes they harvested to Andrés Wines (now Peller Estates). Initially more indigenous grapes like Riesling, Ehrenfelser and German varietals were grown on the lands.
Starting in 1988, the Canadian government encouraged growers to uproot the native and hybrid
vines and to replant vineyards with higher quality varieties of European wine grapes. Chief
Louie, who was first elected in 1984 and managed the Band's affair for the next 4 decades was instrumental in negotiating deals with BC wineries who wanted to plant grapes on the Band's lands. By that time, Inniskillin (owned by Vincor) and Bright &Co. (which became Vincor in 1994), who owned Jackson Triggs Estates Winery was purchasing grapes from the Band. But Vincor wanted to lease 900 acres of virgin reserve land to grow wine grapes. In 1996, the Bank signed a 30 year lease with Vincor for these new lands and had Vincor plant the vines. In 2002, Nk’Mip Cellars was formed in a partnership between the Osoyoos Indian Band and Vincor. The Band retained ownership of 51% of the winery. In 2006, Vincor sold its 49%, together with the contract rights to 900 acres of vineyards leased from the Band, to Constellation Brands. In 2016, Constellation sold its entire Canadian wine business, including its interest in Nk’mip and the leased vineyards to the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, who then formed Arterra to manage its wine holdings.
Today there is 1350 acres of vines that supply grapes to Nk'Mip Cellars, which produces 18,000 cases of wine each year. They also have vineyard leases with Burrowing Owl and Mission HIll
In the Okanagan language the word Nk’Mip, pronounced inn-kah-MEEP, means “bottomland,”
as the winery's location is at the southernmost end of what was originally the band’s winter hunting grounds.
The wines featured in the video are:
Nk'Mip 2023 Winemaker's Dreamcatcher
Nk'Mip 2023 Winemaker's Rose
Nk'Mip 2021 Qwam Qwmt Chardonnay
Nk'Mip 2020 Qwam Qwmt Syrah
Nk'Mip 2022 Qwam Qwmt Riesling Ice Wine
For more information about the winery, please visit their website at www.nkmipcella...

[@noahcap]

Great tasting. Very interesting to hear your take on these unique wines and I love your description of them as "something plus". You mentioned that most New World wines use the "Shiraz" label. That may be the case in BC, but I think "Syrah" is more common in the California, particularly the cool extreme Sonoma Coast.

[@TrophyWineHunter]

😀😀

[@Ruirspirul]

I am going to be honest, even though there is almost zero chance of me trying these Canadian wines, I really enjoy your reviews of them😅

[@TrophyWineHunter]

thanks so much. I know...BC wines don't have great distribution around the world but hopefully this will be useful to some local drinkers. Cheers!