Flashback Podcasts - Part 2

More BTS backstories from BC wine's past.

You wanted more behind the scene’s backstories for these podcasts, so here you go! Click the photos to listen.

The View Winery History Lesson

My first interaction with The View Winery happened while I was working at a VQA wine store. As staff, we were always interested in new wines from new wineries that came to the store. One day, two new cases of wine arrived from one of these new wineries. It was a Gewurztraminer with a painting of a red shoe on the label. The woman on the staff loved the look of the bottle and at least one of them brought home a bottle that day.

Apparently, it didn’t thrill me the same way that it did for them because I didn’t bother to taste it for at least a couple of months when we poured it at the store’s tasting bar. Clearly, I was not the market they were looking for.

Fast forward a year or so and I am writing for a local wine publication. The editor tasks me with writing the article for The View - the winery with the red shoe on the label. Well, ok then, guess I’m going to learn about shoes.

Instead, my world opened up. Not just to wines that I never would have considered before but also to history: of the owner, the property, Kelowna, and ultimately the wine industry in BC at large. In my rush to judgement about the provenance of this ‘shoe wine’, I nearly missed getting this first taste of history. Meeting with and interviewing Jennifer Molgat was a life-changing event because it started me down the path that lead me to writing my first book about the history of the wine industry in BC.

The interview for this podcast was actually recorded later than that first meeting with Jennifer. I had a deadline for the article and that took priority. But we got along great and she was interested in being on the podcast, so I returned a few months later. WE recorded it in the barrel cellar at The View Winery in Kelowna just a few years after they had opened their wine shop.

Jennifer has stayed in touch and was a guest on the Sipster’s Podcast, along with her husband Kent Molgat, last season. Today also happens to be her birthday. Happy birthday Jennifer!

Clos du Soleil 5-year Vertical

Any winery that seeks respect from the traditional wine lover will tout that their wines can age, even though they have only release a couple of vintages and the oldest one is only two years old. There is just no way for any new winery to prove that their wines can age and, even if they could, would they even benefit from aging?