Have you ever dreamed of travelling to Italy, touring the rustic countryside, drinking wine, eating pizza, and practising your newly acquired Italian language skills? No need to call your travel agent, just set a course for West Kelowna and the Westside Wine Trail (https://www.thewestsidewinetrail.com/wineries) where Ciao Bella invites you to discover ‘La Dolce Vita’.
Ciao Bella is run by the Fiume family: Roberto, Sharon, Antonio, and Olivia. To see how they honour their family roots, just ask for the stories behind their wine labels. Their roots go back to Napoli in southern Italy. Sixty-three years ago, Nonno (Grandpa) and Nonna (Grandma) Melina arrived in Canada and spent thirty years in Yellowknife before moving to West Kelowna. Now three generations are working on the farm and winery with Nonna Melina often visiting her grandchildren, Antonio and Olivia. The ever-cheerful daughter-in-law, Sharon, runs the wine shop, while Roberto and Antonio take care of the winemaking, and everyone pitches in when needed in the vineyard.
With over 22 years of producing high-quality grapes (initially for other wineries), Roberto now takes great pride in working with his family to produce their own ‘Italian style’ wines – dry, crisp, refreshing and very food friendly.
Ciao Bella keeps it simple, offering just four wines: Pinot Grigio (Pinot Gris), a Pinot Rosato (Rosé), Pinozannte (sparkling), and Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir). The grapes are grown on a unique site that is home to volcanic bombs, melon-sized rocks that add an iron content to the site and impart a unique mineral quality to the wines.
Wine, pizza, sausage, cheese, and gelato to boot. What more could you want? Espresso? Sure. Soft drinks for the kids? Of course.
Whether you are shopping in the cantina, sampling wine at the outdoor tasting bar, or enjoying a bottle with friends at a picnic table, you can enjoy the genuine, unpretentious love this family exudes.
Don’t feel surprised if you feel like you’ve made new lifelong friends after your first visit.
This is not a place of pretense. There’s nothing fancy or fussy about Ciao Bella. You won’t find any ‘airs’ here, just real, ‘salt-of-the-earth’ people that love what they do and more so, sharing it with others – La Dolce Vita indeed!
Ciao Bella is a part of the Westside Farm Loop (westsidefarmloop.com)
(All photos – Sam Hauck)
