Blasted Church Vineyards

This Okanagan winery’s name and award-winning labels arise from cleverly exploited local history. In the nearby community of Okanagan Falls, there is a small church that was moved there in 1929 from an abandoned mining community. The movers charged with taking it apart for the move had difficulty extracting the huge nails from the heavy beams. A foreman named Hatfield set off a small dynamite charge, successfully loosening the nails. Naturally, the church soon became known as the Blasted Church.

The winery mines that history in its own name and in the name of several wines, including Hatfield’s Fuse, its most popular white, perhaps because with 12 grams of residual sugar this is the winery’s only off-dry wine. In 2006, 3,400 cases were made – about a quarter of Blasted Church’s total production.

Five aromatic grapes, most of them estate grown, are blended to produce a Conundrum look-alike. It is a wine with layers of aroma and flavour – aromas of peaches and green apples, flavours of apples, mangoes and limes. There is good weight on the mid-palate. The balance is so good that, in spite of the slight sweetness, the finish is almost dry. 88 points.

Reviewed July 15, 2007 by John Schreiner.