We arrive at O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars and are promptly seated at our table outside, with a lovely view of the mountains and vineyards. We haven’t been here in a couple years…in fact on our last visit, this was still called “The Chase”. Apparently C.C. Jentsch didn’t love that name (given that their signature Bordeaux-style blend was named “The Chase”), so they changed it to “O’Rourke’s Peak Cellars”, and are in the process of dropping the “O’Rourke” so it will just be known as “Peak Cellars” going forward.
Speaking of C.C. Jentsch, I was very sad to hear of the untimely passing of founder Chris Jentsch. His widow has decided not to go forward with the wine business, so this brand will be extinct in the near future. Very unfortunate.
Anyway, back to our tasting at Peak. They present us with a gorgeous charcuterie board that we had pre-ordered, and our guide, Tanner, starts to bring us some wine and he notices I am taking notes. When I tell him about my blog, his eyes light up. THIS is the best part about writing a blog; you can almost instantly tell when someone is passionate about wine and their brand. They LOVE it when they find fellow wine geeks, and, usually, the tasting gets bigger. This one got a LOT bigger.
Shoutout to Tanner, who was a fantastic representative for the brand. Now let’s see how the wine stood up!
And they saved the best for last…..
As you can see from the scores, all the wine ranged from good to very good. They still have a bit of work to do to get to a place where everything is reliably excellent year after year, but I believe they will get there.
That’s it for today! Next up, one more entry in the Okanagan report, as we have another seated tasting, this time at Ex Nihilo! Stay tuned!
Confessions of a Huge Wine-R 