When I first tasted the St. Katharina Vineyard sparkling wine at Burdock & Co. in Vancouver, I immediately needed to know more.
A terrific Summerland Sparkling wine.
A friend had ordered the bottle, and after one sip, I was hooked. Not only because it was terrific, but because it came from British Columbia and I had somehow never heard of it.
A few weeks later, I found myself walking through the 2.5-acre vineyard in Summerland with winemaker Jordan Kubek, trying to understand how a neglected patch of old Pinot Noir had become one of the Okanagan’s more compelling sparkling wines.
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A clear vision.
Once upon a time, the path to luxury wine was paved with pedigreed appellations, critic scores, and mailing lists so exclusive they made Château Marmont feel like a Motel 6. Bordeaux First Growths, Grand Cru Burgundies, and $300 Napa Cabernets set the standard for what “luxury” in wine looked like, tasted, and cost.
But a shift has been happening. What started as a quiet movement has grown into something impossible to ignore. Today, a new class of wines is redefining luxury that is less about château clout and more about originality. And the names generating the most buzz aren’t necessarily the ones with the longest histories, they’re the ones making the most compelling wines.
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Pénélope Roche.
The Okanagan wine industry has never lacked ambitious people, but few arrive with résumés quite like those of Pénélope and Dylan Roche. Before establishing Roche Wines on the Naramata Bench, Pénélope had studied viticulture and enology in Bordeaux, worked at Château d’Yquem and managed her family’s historic estate, Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion.
Dylan’s route was less traditional but equally impressive. A Vancouver native who discovered wine living in Burgundy, he studied winemaking in Beaune before working in New Zealand and several of Bordeaux’s most respected wineries.
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Joan Sangenis Juncosa.
In a region celebrated for its modern renaissance, this 245-year-old family estate reflects what Priorat has always been.
The cobblestones beneath our feet are worn smooth by centuries of harvest traffic. On our left stands a stone building more than 300 years old; on our right, its younger sibling from 1850, built because the family needed more space.
This is Celler Cal Pla in Porrera, and within minutes of meeting Joan Sangenis Juncosa, we came to understand that ‘more space’ has been a recurring theme here since 1780.
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A sneak peek at 2025.
There’s a particular energy that comes with being handed a glimpse of the future, especially in a wine region that has spent the last few years navigating anything but predictable conditions. At the Wines of BC 2025 Vintage Reveal, that sense of anticipation was palpable, but so too was something else: relief.
Held at Vancouver’s Terminal City Club, the exclusive gathering brought together a small circle of media and wine professionals for an early look at what’s already being described as a pivotal vintage for British Columbia.
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