By Julianna Hayes
Grape Expectations
When the mighty Jancis Robinson wrote about her first visit to the Okanagan in 2009, she praised the southern portion of the valley for its natural beauty and slagged its largest city all in the same breath.
If it's sweeping views you seek, look no further than Kelowna. Photo courtesy of Tourism Kelowna
Robinson was apparently able to see through the smoke-choked haze of area forest fires raging at the time and recognize the south’s countryside for what it is – “stunning.” Her line – “A ribbon of lakes with sandy beaches threaded between slopes of ponderosa pines, granite cliffs and vine-covered benchland” – could have been plucked from any tourism brochure.
But a few graphs into her article, she bashedKelowna- characterizing it as a strip-mall town. “My colleague Hugh Johnson apparently warned a B.C. wine PR person, ‘don’t take people there.’”
Ouch.
First of all, it’s not entirely clear if Robinson was even inKelowna. Her trip was an impromptu 24-hour tour she was convinced to take while in the Northwest on private holiday. She spent the bulk of her time being wined and dined in Naramata and Oliver and flew in and out of Penticton. If she came any further north, it was a drive through, at best.
In Robinson’s defence, the Highway 97 corridor that cuts through Kelowna like a stake through the heart is not the city’s best feature. Unfortunately, it’s what most visitors see first, and if they don’t venture off the beaten path, it will leave a lasting and unsavoury impression.
But Kelowna has it has a lot more going for it than big box stores, gas stations and fast food joints – namely wine, which Robinson was apparently too pressed for time to check out.
There are 20-plus wineries within a 10-30 minute drive of downtown, many located in the very settings that endeared Robinson to the south – with nary a strip mall in sight. Along Lakeshore Road, for example, there are four wineries with sweeping water views, long rolling stretches of vineyard and some of the longest hours of daily sunshine anywhere in the Valley.
Yet, the proprietors of these and other K-town establishments weren’t branded as a destination wine route like other Okanagan wine hotspots. The Naramata Bench and Golden Mile of Oliver are practically household names when it comes to wine tours, thanks to clever and careful marketing goals over the past decade aimed at drawing visitors to their doors. More recently, Summerland wineries began packaging themselves as members of the “Bottle Neck Drive,” while those in Okanagan Falls jumped on the bandwagon a couple years ago with a branding strategy known as the “Corkscrew Drive.”
City area wineries are finally following suit. Together with Tourism Kelowna, they’ve come up with a marketing plan that starts first with a sharp, glossy brochure complete with maps pinpointing the 20 participating wineries in Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country.
Actually, it’s more than a brochure – at 18 pages, it’s a pocket guide, really. There’s a photo and a short write-up on each winery that provides some background, but it’s meant only to be a taste. It encourages people to visit by enticing them with a snippet of information unique to each winery, ending with the question, “What’s the story?”
For example, the teaser for Ex Nihilo in Lake Country, reads as follows: “Ex Nihilo Rocks. In 2008, Jeff and Decoa (Harder) landed a partnership with rock royalty the Rolling Stones. What’s the story?” This alludes to the fact that the winery has a wine called Sympathy for the Devil that is actually endorsed by one of the world’s top rock bands – the story you might ask, is how that came to be?
My choice feature of the guide is the “Favourite Sips” section included in each winery profile which identifies the personal wine picks of the proprietors. For example, Vibrant Vines proprietor Tony Lewis’ selection is the winery’s Riesling, which he recommends you sip while listening to 70s crooner Cat Stevens. That’s a hint to his love of music and each wine released comes with a recommended music pairing.
Each of these tidbits puts a more human and user-friendly face on wine, that is often surrounded by an elitist mystic. It reaches out to consumers more effectively than a tedious description of pastoral splendour ever could. It certainly helps the latecomers to the branding game stand out from the rest.
The Kelowna plan doesn’t end with the brochure. There’s an app in the works that speaks to the new era of marketing. And the media relations and marketing departments of Tourism Kelowna have compiled story ideas to pitch to wine writers that identify five “wine trail” daytrip options for visiting enthusiasts.
“It will be so exciting to see people discover the area’s wineries in this organized way this year,” says Catherine Frechette, Tourism Kelowna’s media relations manager. “The Kelowna area has always been historically significant to the B.C. wine industry, and to the Okanagan in general, as its wineries were among the first to be established and it’s widely recognized as the birthplace of B.C. Wine.”
Indeed, Oblate missionary Father Charles Pandosy planted the first vineyard for religious and personal use at the Oblate Mission in Kelowna back in 1859. And the city is home to B.C.’s oldest commercial winery – Calona Vineyards, established in 1932.
The brochure will be available at wineries and tourism visitor information centres in time for the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival, which starts April 29. Contact Tourism Kelowna at 250-861-1515 or via email at info@tourismkelowna.com, or visit the website at http://www.tourismkelowna.com/.
