Wine has been bringing people together for 8,000 years.
Do your part to continue the tradition this month by inviting family and friends to your house for wine, food and companionship.
It's all part of 'Come Over October', which started in the US in 2024 and was brought to this country this year by Wine Growers Canada.
“Because so much of what we experience today happens online, it’s deeply meaningful to actually come together over a shared wine," said Come Over October co-founder Karen MacNeil, the author of The Wine Bible.
"We believe that in sharing wine, we also share what truly matters – caring, generosity, and meaningful conversation.”
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'Come Over October' isn't meant to stress you out when it comes to entertaining.
Rather it's meant to simply inspire you to have people over that you care about and share some wine.
It can be as easy as cracking open an affordable bottle of wine and putting out a bag of chips.
If you want to get more complicated with your wine and food pairings and themes, the https://www.
Think burgers with sparkling wine, wines made of grapes grown in volcanic soils, scoring wines or a Halloween party.
Arterra Wines immediately became a big supporter of Come Over October with wine recommendations and a $25,000 donation to the Right to Food charity.
Arterra has the Okanagan wineries See Ya Later Ranch, Nk'Mip, Jackson-Triggs, Inniskillin, Black Sage, Culmina, Laughing Stock and Sumac Ridge and the international labels Kim Crawford from New Zealand, Ruffino from Italy and Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi from California.
So, these 'Come Over October' suggested wines are all from the Arterra portfolio:
- See Ya Later Ranch 2024 Luna ($19) white blend, made of Washington state grapes by the Oliver winery
Open with that aforementioned bag of chips.
- Nk'Mip 2024 Pinot Blanc ($19), made of Washington state grapes by the Osoyoos winery
Pair with brie on a cracker.
- Kim Crawford 0% Illuminate Sauvignon Blanc ($21) from New Zealand
For when you have your sober curious friend over.
- Culmina 2020 Dilemma Chardonnay ($35) from Oliver
A premium, elegant Chard when the dinner party menu includes roast chicken or pasta in a creamy sauce.
- Culmina 2018 Hypothesis ($42) from Oliver
High-end Bordeaux-style red blend to pair with high-end prime rib.
- Black Sage 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon from Oliver
Steaks off the barbecue.
- Black Sage 2022 Cabernet Franc ($33) from Oliver
Pork tenderloin in red wine sauce.
- Laughing Stock 2022 Portfolio ($53) from the Naramata Bench
The winery's signature Bordeaux-style red blend can be enjoyed simply with aged Cheddar cheese or a more complicated rack of lamb.
Haywire's 15
The winery that pioneered the use of concrete tanks in the Okanagan is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
The business started as Okanagan Crush Pad in Summerland, a new-concept at the time where small wineries could come with their grapes to get wine made, stored, marketed and distributed.
As the company started to produce more of its own grapes and source more grapes it became Haywire winery along with additional labels Narrative and Free Form and even a separate winery across the highway in Summerland -- Garnet Valley Ranch.
The owners -- husband-and-wife team Steve Lornie and Christine Coletta -- admit they never really had a masterplan, but rather caught the wine bug and just followed the journey.
At a party at the winery last month to mark the anniversary, Lornie remarked that: "What makes it all worthwhile is seeing people enjoy what you create."
And people are certainly enjoying the innovative, delicious wines -- each one with some concrete influence in some way, shape or form.
Winemaker Matt Dumayne now has 40 concrete vessels in his toolbox, some giant egg-shape, others tulip-shaped, cylinders, rectangles and square.
At the beginning the concrete eggs arrive via exclusive access to Sonoma's Cast Stone, then Nico Velo in Italy and now some of the concrete tanks are made by Haywire itself.
"Fermenting and aging in concrete adds richness, complexity, texture and incredible mouthfeel," said Dumanye.
Haywire's signature concrete wine is the Switchback Organic Vineyard Pinot Gris ($31), which is 100% fermented and aged in concrete tanks.
"It's a beautiful lush Pinot Gris," said Dumayne.
Haywire also uses stainless-steel tanks for lifted fruit aromas and flavours and oak barrels for warmth and depth, often blending with concrete wines for the best of all worlds.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
