On a scorching hot day in July, I toured Phantom Creek Estates with its two superstar winemakers, director Mark Beringer and consultant Olivier Humbrecht. Our conversation kept coming back to stories touched by strange twists of fate or fortune, which offered intriguing insight into the property's enigmatic owner. But in hindsight, was almost eerily foreboding.
The British Columbia Interior wine industry has since suffered a devastating run of bad luck - wildfires and smoke later that summer, then a catastrophic deep freeze in January that destroyed 99 per cent of this year's crop. But that afternoon, amidst a hive of activity as the winery prepared to welcome hundreds of guests for its annual Soirée en Rouge, the mood was buoyant.
Located on the South Okanagan's Black Sage Bench, Phantom Creek is housed in a terraced limestone building that rises out of the scrubby desert like a hidden oasis. The estate is owned by Richter Bai, the Chinese-Canadian mining magnate, who spent $100 million - a record investment for BC - to produce ultra-premium world-class wines and establish a family legacy.
Our tour of the treasure-filled winery took us past grand art installations, including two angelic sculptures by Taiwan's Wu Ching Ju guarding the entranceway, through production facilities equipped with state-of-art optical sorters, and down into a showroom barrel cellar crowned with a golden Dale Chihuly sunburst chandelier. The property's on-site restaurant showcases hyper-local ingredients in its dishes, embracing the terroir to complement the estate's wines.
But first, an introduction to Phantom Creek's most prized possessions - four storied vineyards, all certified organic and farmed with meticulous care under the guidance of Humbrecht, one of the world's leading authorities on biodynamic wine growing.
“What are the odds?” marvelled Humbrecht, as we stepped onto the terrace next to Becker Vineyard. When studying for his Master of Wine in the late eighties, Humbrecht (the first Frenchman to achieve the honour) was deeply influenced by a German viticulturist named Helmut Becker.
“And then I came here and they have a vineyard called Becker,” Humbrecht explained, still wide-eyed with wonder six years after that first visit. “It was the same guy!”
Humbrecht isn't just a biodynamic authority, although he did almost single-handedly give the formerly fringe holistic farming practice mainstream credibility. Widely considered one of the best winemakers in the world, he is the owner of Alsace's esteemed Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, which makes richly textured, intensely flavoured white wines with clear expressions of terroir that are eagerly sought after by collectors.
Becker, likewise, isn't just any old vineyard. It's one of great historical importance. This is where 33 types of European vitis vinifera were planted, in 1977, for the Becker Project, which demonstrated that the region was capable of produce quality wines. Up until then, it was thought that the cold climate would only support hardy, inferior hybrid plants.
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the original version in the Spring/Summer 2024 edition of driver magazine.
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