If you're a regular or even a semi-regular traveler of Eastside Road, the sinewy thoroughfare connecting Okanagan Falls with Penticton on the eastern shore of Skaha Lake, you probably know the property.
Fourteen acres (5.66-hectares for you metric-heads) rising up off the east side of the road, just south of the spot where the road itself rises up from the lake.
It's been worked for decades under the name Matheson Creek Farm. A small farmhouse out front, sometimes covered in vines, offered fruit and veggies to passing motorists and cyclists between the months of August and October every year.
But a few months back, Matheson's owners sold their land to a guy from Coquitlam who at one point in his life was a globetrotting opera singer before he began running retirement homes.
His name is Bert Evertt and he's also a big wine buff. And a big fan of the Okanagan too, where he'd often vacation with his family -- and look longingly at potential grape-growing properties.
In 2020 he finally entered the wine industry with the purchase of three South Okanagan vineyards.
But he wasn't done. He soon purchased more vineyards in the valley and then last year opened a wine shop/tasting room at District Wine Village near Oliver. He called it "Uppercase Winery" to reflect his desire to create bold, expressive products.
And that wouldn’t be his only new winery of 2022. Later in the year he'd also purchase the highly regarded C.C. Jentsch winery and vineyard, a few kilometers south of Oliver on Highway 97. Evertt renamed it "Gadzook Vinery."
Then with the more recent acquisition of Matheson Creek Farm on Eastside Road, he expanded his newfound wine empire a wee bit further.
But the property would require a ton of work. The land was rather uneven and would need to be moved around and smoothed out and re-shaped entirely to maximize its grape-growing potential. The alterations would take months and the combined efforts of a lot of heavy-duty equipment.
And then it would need to be planted.
And because Evertt wanted the property to become the new, permanent home of Uppercase, the little farmhouse out front needed to be converted into a wine shop/tasting room.
Needless to say, it was a busy winter and spring. But now it's just about done. And the wine shop opened officially last Friday, just in time for PentictonNow to drop by and check it out.
As expected, it's just as pretty and just as cute inside as it looks like it would be.
Inside, you'll find clean white walls, real wood trim and a wood plank ceiling. It's a good look.
There's a tasting bar, a pair of elongated tables and a dozen or so chairs. Anything more and the place would begin to feel cramped.
But as it is, with all that vertical space above your head courtesy of the structure's elevated ceiling, and all those windows allowing all that sunlight to pour in, the shop feels bright and airy.
There's a pair of entry doors leading to the great outdoors, one of them opening to the spacious parking lot and another to a wonderful lakeview patio that's stocked with comfy furniture.
It seems like a great place for a picnic. And in fact, that's the general idea.
Although it doesn't have a kitchen and will likely never serve meals or substantial food items (though snacks are a future possibility), the Uppercase Winery wine shop does encourage patrons to bring along their own food, select a bottle of their favourite elixir, and grab a seat on that patio for a full-blown lakeview picnic.
Enjoying their day at Uppercase even though Saturday was marred by rain and wind were wife and hubby Maureen Palmer and Wayne Mitchell. The pair still live in the lower mainland but are prepping to move here once their new house in OK Falls is complete.
"We love this place," said Mitchell. "It's a really nice addition to this area, and it's great to have a winery right off the road that people can come and enjoy, with a beautiful view of the lake.
Mitchell watched the wholesale land excavation over the past few months and called it "amazing."
"It was an amazing reconstruction of the land," he said. "It was really something, and it took forever for them to get it into place. They must have had ten to 12 excavators going at a time."
Levi Gogolinski, director of marketing for Bert Evertt's overarching Montalvino Wineries Inc., said they're thrilled to launch the new wine shop -- which will open at 11 am and close at 5:30 pm seven days a week until at least Thanksgiving -- but added that the focus is now "on the wine and the growing of the grapes."
"We're putting in the posts and the irrigation right now," she said. "As soon as it’s all in, then we'll be planting. We'll be planting live plants. Grapes will be growing this summer."
Gogolinski then explained that it'll be at least three years 'til Uppercase will produce wine using grapes grown on the new property.
"When you plant new grape plants," she said, "it takes a couple of years before you get anything off them. Usually when they're about three years old you can get something, but it's usually five when you’re getting reliable crops.
"We're playing the long game here."
As for the grape type, Gogolinski named Italian varietals like Vermentino and Sangiovese and the Spanish Albarino.
"Those amongst others will be grown on the property," she said, "and some of them will be used in our Uppercase wines, but some will also be used at our Naramata winery, which is more focused on Italian varietals."
And that segued nicely into our last bit of news -- that Evertt is indeed opening yet another winery, this time near Naramata. It'll happen before the month is out and it'll be called "High Note Estate Winery" (a nod to Evertt's operatic background).
You'll find it at 1435 Naramata Road. Astute readers will know that as the same address where "Ledlin Family Vineyards" operated in the mid-2010s before the property was purchased in 2018 by Abbotsford-based "Singletree Winery," which operated it through 2021 before closing.
Will this time be the charm for the undoubtedly attractive cedar-finished lakeview wine shop and attached three-acre grape-growing parcel? We likely won’t know for sure for awhile, but we do know its wine shop and tasting room will open before June is out.
"Our owner always had this vision of three different wineries, three different styles across the South Okanagan," said Gogolinski. "High Note will be the premium Italian-style on the beautiful Naramata Bench, Uppercase is more French varietals, a picnic-y relaxed easy-going feeling, and Gadzook is fun, approachable, nothing too serious."
But what is serious is that Evertt's Montalvino Wineries now has nine different vineyard sites, spanning from Osoyoos though to Naramata, and approximately 90 acres planted. That's big-time stuff.
For more info on Uppercase Winery, turn here. To learn more about High Note Estate Winery, turn here in a few days.
