Priest Creek Family Estate Winery’s desire is to provide a collection of premium wines that can be shared today or cellared for the future. Founded through Darren and Jane, their wish was to raise their children on a vineyard, bringing them back to their farming roots. We are located on the Southeast Kelowna Wine Trail in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, boasting beautiful mountain vistas from each direction.
2021 Decota
WINEMAKING
The grapes were hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed on a gentle two-hour press. The skin contact was two hours, creating a rose gold hue. Fermentation lasted 31 days in stainless steel and then the wine was cold stabilized. CO2 is injected at bottling. This process presented us with a crisp, aromatic bubbly with complex flavours.
TASTING NOTES
Decota is a bubbly celebration of our family’s hard work, lovingly named after our four children! Decota is a unique blend that even our winemaker won’t reveal.
Rose gold in color, with aromas of apple and apricot. The palate opens with soft bubbles in a creamy mouthfeel, exploding with layers of fruit notes from green apple and apricot to raspberry and citrus.
PAIRINGS
This crisp fruit-forward bubbly makes the perfect palate cleanser to pair with light appetizers such as fresh salads or light canapes.
The Story:
Priest Creek Family Estate Winery was founded through Jane and Darren’s desire to raise their four kids on a farm, bringing them back to their farming roots. Originally from Saskatchewan, the family bought a 12.5-acre farm on the rolling hills of Southeast Kelowna. The property was predominately tables grapes, with a small block of old-vine Gewurztraminer. After their first harvest farming the table grapes, they quickly realized that the wine grapes were far more profitable. There was no money in table grapes and in order to keep the property they had to change it up. They shifted their business plan and dove headfirst into learning about the wine industry. With the mentorship of esteemed winemaker Jason Parkes, they hand-planted seven and a half acres with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Blanc vines with the help of their four
children. Over the following three years, waiting for the vines to mature, Darren worked under the team at Jason Parkes Customs in West Kelowna learning the ins and outs of winemaking.
While Jane put her design background to work with the tasting room and branding the business. After three years of putting everything together, the family was ready to open the doors and the final inspection came through in March 2020, the same day the pandemic was declared.
The grand opening took place in May 2020 with 1200 cases. After numerous hurdles over the past several years, the winery production has grown to 3600 cases this year with over 550 wine club members. Darren now takes the lead for all the winemaking, while consulting with Jason Parkes Customs where it’s needed.
The Name:
Priest Creek runs behind the Estate and flows into Mission creek where it is said Father Pandosy planted the first wine grapes in the valley. When Jane & Darren bought the property, it was already called Priest Creek Ranch and the original sign is still at the end of their driveway. In creating the business and the brand, they considered several names before deciding to look into the meaning behind Priest Creek. They spent an afternoon with a librarian in the archives, learning the history of the land and where the name originated. In the mid-1800s this land was farmed by the Priests and the Monks. They were responsible for feeding the gold rush, and for all their hard work they got the creek named after them. They chose to keep the name for the winery to pay tribute to those that farmed the land before them.
The Label:
In putting the brand together, Jane and Darren wanted to take a more traditional approach to
wine, bringing it back to the “Old World” and European origins. This is demonstrated through
the wine shop design and the traditional look of the wine labels. The label features the Estate
home similar to the traditional French labels with the Estate Chateau. While the vintage date is
always located on a faux wax stamp. Finally, the gold indicates the history of the land tying back
to the mid-1800s and the gold rush.
