Cipes Brut wins Double Gold Medal at prestigious US competition
Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Canada’s foremost producer of sparkling wine, has received a Double Gold Medal for its flagship Cipes Brut at the 2016 San Francisco International Wine Competition (SFIWC). Celebrating its 25th vintage this fall, the Cipes Brut is the most consistently-awarded sparkling wine in Canada, having won a gold medal every year since release.
A visit from the late California vintner Jack Davies of Schramsberg Winery in the late 1980s, recognizing the potential of Okanagan grapes for sparkling wine production, inspired Summerhill’s founder, Stephen Cipes, to open Canada’s first ‘Champagne House’. The 1991 vintage of Cipes Brut was among the inaugural offerings for the winery, and it was released to instant critical and public acclaim.
One of the most versatile, food-friendly, and affordable sparkling wines in the market today, Cipes Brut offers trademark flavours of apple, pear, citrus. almond and toast. Recently, it also garnered a 92 point rating from Beppi Crosariol in the Globe & Mail, and 91 points from John Schreiner, the most respected authority on BC wine. Cipes Brut also won a Gold Medal at the 2015 BC Wine Awards, and was crowned Sparkling Wine of the Year at the 2014 All-Canadian Wine Championships, among many other accolades.
The winery received an impressive 10 medals in total at this year’s SFIWC, including another Double Gold Medal for its 2012 Cabernets, a Bordeaux-style blend of 100% organic Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, grown in Osoyoos.
The largest and most influential international wine competition in America, the 36th annual San Francisco International Wine Competition (SFIWC) has been setting the standard for professional wine judging since its debut in 1980.
About Summerhill Pyramid Winery:
Summerhill Pyramid Winery, celebrating 25 vintages in the Lakeshore district in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley, BC, is Canada’s largest certified organic winery, BC’s first Demeter certified biodynamic vineyard, and Canada’s foremost producer of sparkling wine.
Winemaker Eric von Krosigk oversees the portfolio of BC VQA wines that have earned the winery the title of ‘Canadian Wine Producer of the Year’ from the International Wine & Spirits Competition in London, England. The winery, owned by the Cipes family, is also home to the Sunset Organic Bistro, a two-hundred seat restaurant with a panoramic view of Okanagan Lake, serving food grown and raised by local organic producers, including Summerhill’s own on-site permaculture-style vegetable garden.
More background reading on Summerhill Pyramid Winery’s organic and biodynamic farming practices can be found here.
For more information, visit summerhill.bc.ca.
