What better way to celebrate a 15-year anniversary of making delectable wines than by taking home, not one, but 11 award winning medals.
Hazel and Jack Manser entered 11 of their 17 wines into the Northwest Wine Summit in Oregon in early May.
“All 11 came back with a medal,” Hazel says proudly. The Siegerrebe, a very aromatic and fruity flavoured wine, was the highest placing wine, taking home gold.
Hazel and Jack had no previous experience in wine making before purchasing Larch Hills winery seven years ago.
“It was a definite learning curve,” says Hazel.
The previous owners were able to teach them many tricks of the trade but the rest they picked up on their own.
Over the last seven years, the winery has expanded their product line from seven types of wine to 17, and increased productivity substantially.
Larch Hills winery now has more than 15,000 plants on the property, all of which they tend to themselves.
“People think that you just plant them and then wait until harvest, but there are many steps in between.”
What is the secret behind their prize-winning wines?
“It is because we grow our own grapes,” says Hazel. “They are grown without irrigation. This makes them grow naturally more concentrated.”
Larch Hills has recently released three new wines, but the types are being kept secret for now. They are testing how well they do, and will officially launch the new products next year, depending on how they are received by their customers.
Their products are available at local cold beer and wine stores or at the winery itself, which is open to the public for tours and tastings.