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Pyramids and
award-winning wines... organic vineyards and vegetable gardens... a
state-of-the-art winery and a fine-dining bistro... a landscaped Peace
Park encouraging international understanding and world peace...
What in the world can all these things have in common?
They are all part of Canada's most-visited Summerhill Pyramid Winery in
British Columbia's Okanagan Valley!
"Nature speaks for herself" at Summerhill, where all things natural
are honored and celebrated; viticulture and vegetable gardening
are certified organic; vineyards take in sweeping, unspoiled views. Lake
Okanagan and its mountainous backdrop provide an extraordinary setting for the
winery grounds, a stage for the celebration of all that is real and
natural. Summerhill captures all this with a casual elegance that
attracts visitors from around the world. The expansive deck of the
winery's Sunset
Organic Bistro is a perfect place to drink in the surrounding beauty, and
maybe a glass of wine or two, while enjoying a gourmet lunch or dinner.
The history of the land and its people
also is honored here at Summerhill; a log cabin turned museum on the estate collects
and presents the facts and stories of this place, and it is open to all
visitors. The history of a far more distant land is conspicuously honored
in
The Summerhill
Pyramid, an 8%-scale replica of Egypt's Great Pyramid.
When in 1987, Stephen Cipes (founder,
owner and driving force behind this awe-inspiring destination winery) left a
successful career in New York to come to the land of the Okanagan Valley; he
had concluded
the area was one of the world's best wine-growing
regions... a perfect place to plant imported clones of
Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot
Noir, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Meunier - important to his goal of
producing world-class, traditional sparkling wines. It would be a perfect
setting to test his
theory of pyramid aging in the production of world-class wines.
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two)
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The mysterious and time-honored
theory that energy is generated inside pyramids
raised a burning question for Cipes... how would that energy influence
fine-wine aging?
Scenic, sloped land on the east side of
Lake Okanagan was purchased;
grape clones were ordered from the finest vineyards of Champagne
and Bordeaux, France, and the Rheingau and Mösel; 45 vineyard
acres were planted, and a 900-square-foot
pyramid was constructed and made ready to explore the question of
pyramidal energy and its influence on wines.
Before Summerhill opened
its winery in the early '90s, extensive lab tests and blind tastings were performed to investigate Cipes' theory that
wines are improved when aged in a pyramid. Identical wines were stored
inside and outside Summerhill's first small pyramid structure. Once
aged, these wines were subjected
to blind tastings which showed a solid favoring of the pyramid-aged wines!
Three
years of taste-comparison testing produced conclusive results, and Cipes invested in
the construction of a much larger pyramid with increased capacity. Today, a four-story, 3,249-square-foot pyramid dominates the
Summerhill Winery skyline to its east, and all Summerhill wines now
spend time aging
within it.
It
is difficult to know which feature of Summerhill Pyramid Winery
contributes most to its unforgettable nature. Is it Summerhill's awe-inspiring
hill-top location? ... its expansive view to the west of organic vineyards
and
Lake Okanagan with its mountainous backdrop? Is it the
large selection of award-winning wines from winemaker Eric von Krosigk? Or is it
the awe-inspiring pyramid and its distinct
influence on Summerhill wines? A personal experience
is the only reliable gauge of what will be most memorable for you. Come visit and decide
for yourself.
"Let us take your breath away."
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