Nk'Mip Cellars

Nk'Mip (pronounced "inkameep") Cellars officially opened for business on September 14, 2002 and is North America's first aboriginal owned and operated winery.

The winery is a joint venture project between the Osoyoos Indian Band, or Nk'Mip as it is known in the native Okanagan language, and Canadian wine giant Vincor International.

Everything is right about this Robert Mackenzie designed winery, including its half-buried footprint that allows it to blend effortlessly into the Osoyoos Bench at the extreme southern edge of the Okanagan Valley.

The winery is the second phase of a $25 million Nk'Mip project that will see the development of the winery, an all season RV park, an executive nine hole golf course, and an accommodations and conference hall on a 1,200 acre parcel of the Band's land that adjoins the town of Osoyoos and fronts onto Osoyoos Lake. The lakeside property is as beautiful as any in the Okanagan and enjoys long, hot summers and relatively short, mild winters with minimum rainfall. Those who grew up spending summers in Osoyoos will likely remember the original campsite location, which has now been transformed.

Chief Clarence Louie is the driving force behind this most industrious of aboriginal peoples and they should be proud of this their latest achievement. Chief Clarence feels that leadership requires courage, vision, balance and drive and that to be an effective leader these qualities must be present and able to be drawn upon when the "going gets tough". He understands that "in order for you to attract and develop business opportunities, you must first develop a climate that's organized and secure" and has worked relentlessly to this end.

If you haven't guessed the winery theme is native British Columbia and let me be the first to say it's a welcome relief from the schlock labels and nouveau-European names so many new World wineries cling to as they search for instant credibility.

The symbol on the Nk'Mip wines is a turtle on an arrowhead. It relates to a legend about how a "Turtle set the Animal People free". Eagle raced all the Animal People, who all lost because Eagle was so fast. Once the Animal People lost they became slaves to Eagle. One day Turtle decided to race Eagle. Turtle won the race by outwitting Eagle and freed all the Animal People. In many ways the Nk'Mip logo reflects the ingenuity and vision of the Turtle whose pictograph as shown on the arrowhead (spear).

A few hundred meters from the winery the Band has also opened an interpretive and heritage desert centre to protect the remaining Nk'Mip Desert and its threatened species. A program to restore habitat and reintroduce species at risk on the land is underway. Visitors can follow trails that wander the sage desert habitat to a forest grove where a traditional tule mat teepee, an underground pit house and a sweat hut have been recreated.

Along sections of the trail system are interpretive signs that point out plant life and describe the terrain and the history of these lands that are home to Okanagan people and more than 23 species of plants and animals currently at risk, such as the rattlesnake, the Burrowing Owl, Arrow-leaf, Balsam-root and Antelope Brush.

At present the 18,000 square foot Nk'Mip Cellars (pronounced inkameep) winery will have the capacity to produce 15,000 cases or 135,000 litres. In 2000, 3,300 cases were produced and an additional 7,300 cases were produced in 2001.

The current releases were made under the supervision of talented winemaker Bruce Nicholson. As British Columbia's most awarded winemaker, Bruce has been honoured with the "Best Canadian Winery" trophy for two consecutive years from the International Wine & Spirits Competition in England. He will work with newly appointed Nk'Mip winemaker Randy Picton through a transitional period for the coming vintage.

Picton comes to Nk'Mip after spending six years as associate winemaker at Cedar Creek Estate Winery, a 30,000 case estate in East Kelowna. At CedarCreek, Randy benefited from work time under both Tom DiBello and Kevin Willenborg.