Nestled in the sunny Black Sage Bench of BC’s Okanagan Valley, world-class winery Phantom Creek Estates blends art, craftsmanship, and sustainable winemaking into a celebration of place, which was inspired by founder Richter Bai’s visits to over 300 wineries worldwide.
Every inch of the striking glass-wrapped centre – a 45,000 square foot feat of design which holds the state-of-the-art production facilities as well as the gorgeous restaurant and tasting room – drips with art, like Taiwanese artist Wu Ching Ru’s “Pro Terra et Natura” installation at the entrance, and Vancouver artist’s Omer Arbel’s Bocci 84 installation of hand-blown glass spheres that ascend along the interior staircase. And it’s not the only moment for beautiful glass. Later in the Founder’s Cellar, visitors can enjoy the iconic work of Dale Chihuly in his chandelier, Imperial Topaz, which infuses the space with creative brilliance.
Attention to detail even extends to the estate’s pristine water source, recognized in 2024 by the BC Water & Waste Association with the award for “Best Tap Water Taste in BC,” underscoring Phantom Creek’s exceptional standards.
As for the wines, Phantom Creek has proudly upheld 100% organic certification and carefully practised biodynamic farming since its founding. By eschewing synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, the winery preserves vital ecology and it allows them to better express the vineyards’ many diverse terroirs. In the cellar, the talented winemaking team, including storied vignerons from Napa Valley and Alsace, keep intervention minimal, relying on wild fermentation without the use of artificial additives, allowing the grapes to shine.
Phantom Creek’s dedication and commitment to expressive wines that combine tradition with innovation earned their Phantom Creek 2020 Vineyard Cuvée a coveted Gold medal (95 points) at the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards – the only red from the Okanagan Valley to ever achieve recognition.
Phantom Creek Estates isn’t simply a winery; it’s an inspired destination where quality, heritage, innovation, and craftsmanship converge.
– Lindsey King
Napa Way North
Wounded Canadians searching for premium homegrown reds that measure up to premium California reds need to zoom into a vineyard patch on B.C.’s South Okanagan’s Black Sage Bench. In particular two adjacent sites – Phantom Creek Vineyard (planted 1996) and the Becker Vineyard (1993) – both now owned by Phantom Creek Estates. They were the first in Canada earmarked for their potential to ripen sun-seeking cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc, so far north. In the belief that the desert heat, amplified by a southwest aspect basking in long evening sun at 49 degrees north, could indeed render Napa-worthy reds.
That ideal was certainly on the mind of Richter Bai of Vancouver when he purchased these sites in 2016 and created Phantom Creek Estates. The first winemakers were Napa-based star consultants Anne and Cameron Vawter, with whom I tasted the first barrel samples of rather glorious, rich and silky reds. In 2020 direct descendant Mark Beringer left his winemaking post at iconic Beringer Vineyards in Napa and took over the red winemaking at Phantom Creek. Superlative whites are also made here, by world-renowned Alsace winemaker Olivier Humbrecht, a consultant who has transformed the vineyards into organic and biodynamic production.
The battery of rich, big reds at Phantom Creek is head-spinning, with several single varietal labels and blends from the Becker and Phantom Creek sites plus some syrah-based reds from the Kobau Vineyard across the valley on the cooler Golden Mile Bench. When visiting it’s so intriguing to compare samples in the tasting room, then open a special bottle for dinner, look out over the vineyard expanse – and realize, pinch me, that you are still in Canada.
– David Lawrason
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