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JAMES NEVISONJames Nevison is an award-winning wine writer, judge, educator and the co-founder ofHALFAGLASS. He is the wine columnist for The Province, where his column “The Wine Guy”appears every Friday. James is the co-author of ten best-selling books on wine in Canada, his latestbeing Had a Glass: Top 100 Wines for 2015 Under $20. Follow his wine musings @hadaglass.The Naramata Bench has long had a distinctness –daresay an aura – that makes it special.The big news in local wine thesedays is the push to differentiate(and officially designate) variousspecific sub-regions throughout theprovince. It’s a logical progression; a signof maturity for a young industry thatcontinues to see amazing success and isno longer content with the blanket “BCwine” classification. Thus the GoldenMile Bench was recently awarded theOkanagan Valley’s first official subappellation.This BC Governmentapproveddistinction permits winerieswithin the jurisdiction to label theirbottles provenance of “Golden MileBench,” and the industry-fronted BCWine Appellation Task Force is currentlydeveloping a process for creatingadditional sub-appellations.That said, regardless of officialrecognition, there is one OkanaganValley sub-region that has alwaysmaintained an informal uniqueness:The Naramata Bench has long hada distinctness – daresay an aura –that makes it special. A historicalagricultural region, the Naramataarea was established as small orchardpackages of 5 to 20 acres, a suitablesize for “gentleman farmers” to havea hand in growing and running theirown farm. Significantly, this setup alsohelped herald Naramata as a culturalcentre, with people from across theOkanagan arriving to the Bench viaboat or steamer for plays, concerts andthe opera.Fast forward a hundred yearsand, while the majority of orchardshave been ripped up to make wayfor vineyards, the pioneering genteelspirit of the region lives on throughcurrent-day Naramata Bench wineries.Heidi Noble, owner and ExecutiveWinemaker of award-wining JoieFarm Winery, explains: “There arenot many vineyard sites that are largerthan the original small orchard parcels,and as such, they are small reflectionsof very specific sites and terroir.” Thissmall-size mentality continues to infusethe contemporary Naramata Benchsensibility, with multiple winemakersciting the camaraderie amongneighbours as a special additional toolfor crafting wine on the Bench. RedRooster’s Winemaker Karen Gillissimply says: “When you need a handyou can call a friend, they’re there in afew minutes.” She goes on to relate howthis kinship plays out in the day-today:“Sometimes it’s having an extrabin of fruit and needing that one binof truck space or being just shy of someingredients or it’s been a long day andyou could just use a friend.”Of course, it’s tough for the typicalwine tourist to appreciate these behindthe-sceneswinemaking machinations.But perhaps this supportive spirit ismanifested in the overall generosity ofNaramata Bench wines? If a stereotypeis permissible, it is that bottles fromthe Naramata Bench are ripe andfruity but elegant – characteristicsoften attributed to the influence of theBench’s geographic locale fronting theeastern shore of Okanagan Lake. StefanArnason, Winemaker at Poplar Grove,mentions that the “Western aspect ofthe Bench keeps sunlight well intothe evening, helping with ripeness.”Furthermore, “The Bench allows coldair to drain down to the lake, preventingfrost from settling, which is importantto protect young [grape] shoots in earlyspring and leaf canopy in the fall.”However, this moderatinggeography creates a couple of otherNaramata Bench characteristics. Forone, the climatic influences, combinedwith limited land under vine, requiresmany Naramata Bench wineries tosource grapes from other parts ofthe Valley. On the other hand, themoderating geography helps maketouring the wineries of the NaramataBench an easy proposition.Jousting north from Pentiction, justone major route winds its way along a14-kilometre stretch along the easternbank of Okanagan Lake, a road thatpasses 24 recognized wineries beforedead-ending in Naramata village proper.This creates a readymade path for easywine tasting, a tour that is complementedby jaw-dropping lake vistas and a palatepleasingwine diversity.115