Painted Rock Estate Winery
Our wines at Painted Rock Estate Winery are produced exclusively from fruit grown on our single estate vineyard located on Skaha Bench, the Eastern bench of Skaha Lake in Penticton, British Columbia. The Skinner’s spent three years searching for the right property in the Okanagan Valley that had the potential to create world class wines. When John Skinner came across the property known as “the Blackhawk” at the time, he knew this was what he had been patiently waiting for. Once the largest apricot orchard in the British Commonwealth, the property had lain fallow since the late 1980’s. The unique west sloping bench, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rock, offered long hot summer days in conjunction with ideal air flow and soil structures. The potential was limitless.
The land is covered in a layer of top soil, followed by a layer of glacial silt, clay, sand and volcanic ash deposits which varies throughout the property atop the underlying gravel. In 2013 through soil analysis, and the digging of trenches, we discovered that the roots of our vines had begun to permeate the gravels in certain areas of the vineyard.
Our vineyard at Painted Rock Estate Winery has been sustainably farmed since the end of 2010. No pesticides are used to control for weed or pests. We consider ourselves lucky that the bluffs behind our vineyard are home to predator birds including hawks, owls and turkey vultures which control rodent and small bird populations. To dissuade the bears from visiting, we electrified our perimeter in 2011 after losing 1/3 of our 2010 harvest to a family of black bears. Lastly, power needed on the property is now derived from our solar panels installed on our winery.
