When Bill Eggert began planting Fairview Cellars in 1993, he decided to plant only red varietals stating, “I have some of the best land for supporting reds and I honestly didn’t want to waste any of my land on whites.”[1] As his land holdings grew from 6 acres in 1993, to the current ten acres, Eggert has made room for a small amount of Grüner Veltliner and Sauvignon Blanc.
Bill Eggert was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1957. His father was a mining engineer, but he had an uncle who owned a vineyard near Beamsville, Ontario. It only took a few summers at his uncle’s vineyard to set Eggert on his oenological course, eventually completing an agriculture degree at Guelph University. Eggert worked at his uncle’s winery until it was clear that he would fail to convince him to replace his hybrid vines with vinifera grapes.
Eggert moved to the Okanagan in 1983 and worked at Covert Farms; a commercial vineyard. Aside from a short stint at a winery in Ontario in 1984, he continued to work at wineries and construction jobs in BC. In 1989 Eggert purchased a property overlooking the first tee at the Fairview Golf Club, which is located in BC’s first sub-appellation, the Golden Mile Bench. Fairview Cellars opened in 2000, starting with only 300 cases.
More recently, Eggert purchased land in “Pinot territory”, located just north of Oliver; this property was planted with Pinot Noir and a small amount of Grüner Veltliner. While Eggert was waiting for his Pinot Noir to mature, he purchased Pinot Noir grapes from a grower named Ron Fournier. 2008 was the first vintage of Crooked Post Pinot Noir made from Fournier’s grapes. As Eggert’s Pinot Noir vines matured, Crooked Post became a blend of these two vineyards.
2018 Crooked Post Pinot Noir $23.40
After three hours in the decanter this Pinot Noir offers aromas of cherry pie filling, smoked raspberries and minerality. This wine is medium- in body with moderate acidity and tannins. The palate provides soft flavours of red fruit: cherries, strawberries, cranberries and raspberries, along with smoked sea salt, leading to a savoury and herbaceous lingering finish.
This wine pairs well with salmon, but I also think it would make an elegant addition to turkey dinner at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Footnotes
[1] John Schreiner, The Wineries of British Columbia (North Vancouver: Whitecap Books Ltd, 2004) 113.
References
Schreiner, John. The Wineries of British Columbia. Whitecap Books Ltd, 2004.