Cherry Point Estate Wines

About

A warm welcome awaits you at the award-winning Cherry Point Estate Winery, Vancouver Island. Join us for a tour of the Cherry Point vineyards and winery and enjoy an afternoon wine tasting with our expert vintner. A selection of our finest award winning red and white wines and famous desert wines will be available for your tasting pleasure. The tastings allow guests to sample our award winning wines, which include reds, whites, and our famous dessert wines. In the tasting session you will experience the full characteristics of each available wine, along with an explanation from one of our staff members and suggested pairings. Following the wine tasting session, our guests have the opportunity to purchase wines from our winery store to take home with them.

Location Description

Located close to Highway 19 and a short drive from Victoria and Nanaimo and part of the Vancouver Island Wine Route.

Features

  • Producing a wide variety of wine.

Additional Information

  • Meeting / Conference Facilities:
  • Caves:
  • Wedding Facilities:
  • Picnic Facilities:
  • Dog Friendly:
  • Winery Tours:
  • Wine Tasting:
  • Art or Architecture:
  • Organic / Biodynamic:
  • Awards:
  • Wine Club:
  • Lodging / Bed & Breakfast:

History

The vineyard at Cherry Point was established in 1990 when the founders purchased 34 acres on a former mink ranch a few miles south of Cowichan Bay. Since wine-growing was still new on Vancouver Island they planted the vineyard with several grape varieties, for nobody really knew which grapes suited the island’s soil and climate. After the grape trials, Cherry Point Estate Wines became one of the first licensed wineries on Vancouver Island in 1994.

Practices & Techniques

The healthy lush vines are fastidiously weeded, clipped and pruned, allowing more sunlight to filter through to the grapes and decreasing the yield to increase the quality of the fruit. When they reach their optimum, usually by the beginning of October, the grapes are hand picked, the flesh gently crushed, and the pressed juice made lovingly into wine.

The award-winning wines are made simply, using state of the art equipment, allowing the grapes to make the wines, without interfering with nature as much as possible – honouring the spiritual connection between the earth, rain and sun that nourish the vineyard. The whites are crisp, and clean, brimming with varietal fruit.

Estate Vineyards / AVA

On the south east side of Vancouver Island is a pastoral setting of rolling green fertile hills surrounded by rugged mountains and majestic softwood rainforests. The Cowichan’s long, Mediterranean like growing season and mild maritime winters make it the most important agricultural area on Vancouver Island, producing a wide range of cultivated crops including hay, fruits, vegetables and more recently… wine grapes. This is British Columbia’s newest wine-growing region.

The vineyard is planted on a glacial moraine, a gravel and stony hill rich in minerals on top of the surrounding clay countryside. White round stones that lay exposed under the vines retain and reflect the sun’s heat and help to ripen the fruit long after the sun sets. The grapevines thrive in the gravel and sandy soil, an open soil they can get their roots down deep into, searching for water and nutrients. A large pond nearby catches the winter rain as it runs down the vineyard’s sloping hill and the mineral enriched water is judiciously irrigated back onto the vines when they need it in the summer.

Today the 24-acre vineyard is the second largest on Vancouver Island and consists of grapevines that flourish in Cherry Point’s microclimate. Ten main varieties and eight limited varieties are planted including Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Pinot Noir, Agria, Ortega, Seigerrebe and Castel. Blackberry bushes surround the vineyard and the pests are few, for the leaf-hoppers favour blackberries over grapes.

Awards

SOLERA, Silver Medal, North West Summit
COASTAL WHITE, Bronze Medal, North West Summit
ORTEGA, Bronze Medal, North West Summit

2012

ORTEGA: Double Gold Medal, All Canadian Wine Competition Toronto
ORTEGA: Silver Medal: North West Summit
COASTAL RED: Silver Medal, North West Summit
PINOT BLANC: Bronze Medal, North West Summit
GEWURZTRAMINER, Bronze Medal, North West Summit

Just a few of the vines that produced the 2011 Cherry Point Ortega, winner of a Double Gold Medal at the 2012 All Canadian Wine Championship. These vines are now hard at work on this year’s vintage.

2013

GEWURZTRAMINER 2012 : Wild Card, Osoyoos Oyster and Wine Competition
COWICHAN BLACKBERRY DESSERT WINE : Gold Medal at the Northwest Summit
Competition
FORTE: Silver Medal at the Northwest Summit Competition
SPARKLING PINOT GRIS-COASTAL WHITE : Bronze Medal at the Northwest
Summit Competition.

Be the first to review this item!

Hours

We will be open for lunch Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm And will be serving dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.

Address

840 Cherry Point Rd
Cowichan Valley, British Columbia V0R 1L3
Canada

Get Directions

Advertisement
Newsletter