Recline Ridge Winery in Tappen, B.C. has recently been sold and is running under new ownership.
“I like wine,” said Bob Wang, the new owner of the winery. Wang does not speak English and had an interpreter with him for the interview. “I have never owned a winery before, but I did work in China at a large winery.”
Recline Ridge Winery is about 19 km outside of Salmon Arm, B.C. The winery has multiple different types of wines.
“[We have] red, white, and rosé,” said Wang. “And we have some canned, too.”
“The most widely planted wines in the Shuswap would be Ortega, Maréchal Foch and Gewürztraminer,” said Laura Kittmer, communications director at Wine Growers British Columbia. “And a couple other ones that are popular in the Shuswap and not as popular elsewhere in British Columbia [would be] the Kerner and Zweigelt.”
The Shuswap region offers a unique environment for growing wine. There are currently eight licensed wineries in the region, including the Recline Ridge Winery.
“North of the Okanagan Valley is actually one of the most northerly grape growing regions in North America and one of the coolest of B.C.s interior wine regions,” said Kittmer. “It’s become known for its cooler climate grape varietals. People are looking for more cooler climate, lower alcohol [and that] fresh, crisp, acidity that you find in cooler wine regions.”
“The temperature is good to grow the grapes,” said Wang. “And also, there’s no flooding and less natural disasters which makes the grapes pure.”
The Recline Ridge Winery is unique in how they grow and produce their wine compared to other wineries in the region.
“Our grapes are all grown without an irrigation system,” said Wang. “Watering a lot, you make more quantity but the grape is not that good but right now we’re just growing naturally and the grapes are better.”
In the future, Wang hopes to expand the winery further and produce more varieties of wine. He also hopes to be able to ship to and sell the wine in China.
