This B.C. micro-vineyard carries a collection close to their heart, each bottle a key moment of their life

By: Apurba Roy

When we think of wine, our minds often wander to the silky texture and bittersweetness from its ripened fruits. But can a bottle of wine tell a story beyond what touches the tip of the tongue?

This idea motivates Aasha Wines, a winery in British Columbia, to not only make a delicious variety of wine but also share key moments of their lives with customers through each bottle.

Their journey started seven years ago, when owner Gaurav Puri was a silent partner in a project to purchase a small parcel of land in the Okanagan Valley, and as he describes, “with no experience in winemaking — just sort of an interest, a curiosity and a passion for wine.”

In the subsequent year or two, several partners had left for a variety of reasons, and Puri soon found himself to be the sole owner of the property.

“We sort of had to start from scratch,” Puri said.

He recalls having to learn how to get a liquor license, how to source barrels and bottles, as well as all the hard work it took to bring Aasha Wines to the scale it is at today: with a vineyard of over two acres that has rows of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier, an incredibly dedicated team, returning customers and a true promise of sustainability and storytelling through their wine.

The stories that come with Aasha Wines’ products truly never go unnoticed. The tale behind each bottle is as indulging as the wine itself. For example, their velvety 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon called Curious Glance tells the story of when Puri and his partner Tracy Rook first saw each other in a different light outside of friendship. The flavour is described to CanCulture as aptly spicy with notes of vanilla, lingering long after the last sip.

Aasha Wines’ 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon *Curious Glance*, featuring the story of love and partnership between its owners. (Erin Leydon/Leydon Photography)

“When you have this type of product… the thing that sometimes brings people in is the stories about [the winemakers],” Puri said.

These stories are not only for people who know them personally, but also strangers — either because they can relate to having a similar moment or they are drawn in by their curiosity.

“We hope to share moments in our lives with openness, and hopefully people find it interesting,” Puri said.

Not only does every bottle have a story to tell, but so does the name of the winery. Puri shares that Aasha is his grandmother’s name, which means “hope” in Hindi.

“That’s what you sort of have with wine,” Puri adds. “From the moment your season starts, you're filled with hope that it’s a good year and your grapes grow well. When you put them into barrels, you hope that it develops nicely. And finally, when in its bottle and someone has the opportunity to taste or enjoy it, you hope that it enhances whatever experience they are having.”

In the age of climate change and great environmental concerns, it is important for companies that depend a lot on nature for their success, such as Aasha Wines, to also treat it right and ensure that they don’t cause any harm for current and future generations.

“From a sustainability perspective, we try to be as minimal as possible,” Puri said. “As winemakers, we are so reliant on the environment being kind to us and being kind to our growing season, so it’s a delicate balance. We want to do things in a way that we can feel comfortable with, that’s not causing more damage — or as little damage as possible — to fulfill what we are trying to do.”

Aasha Wines’ lush and cultivated vineyard in the Okanagan, B.C. (Rae Drake/Aasha Wines)

Aasha Wines’ 2.81-acre vineyard is environmentally friendly, and they practice sustainable farming through their waste management. The company’s two delicious Rosé wines are made with the help of the after press of their 2016 Syrah, which would have otherwise gone to waste.

Aasha Wines is more than just about the taste of the wine. What they’re after instead is a hope that customers have a magical experience, enjoy that instant of savour, feel inspired by the stories and take that moment to unplug from whatever they're doing. In the words of Puri and Rook as shared on their website, “our wines carry our stories, but we hope they can now play a part in the moments and stories shared around your dinner table.”

By Mark McKelvie

The dark orange gold look of the pilsner fills most of the pint when it’s served on tap, finished off by a fluffy white head. First, a clean scent of malt, then it hits the taste buds, a soft but noticeable bitterness accompanies the cold relief the beer brings.

The average beer drinker may not make any of these observations when they drink, but for cicerones, beer aficionados trained in the storage, serving and tasting of beer, the devil is in the details.

“Everything from the storage of the beer to how the beer is served impacts how good the beer will be,” said Gavin Harper, master beer cicerone. “Any part of the process that is done wrong can mess up the beer as a whole.”

A master beer cicerone is the highest level a beer expert can reach. It takes at least six to eight years and thousands of dollars to obtain the certification, and according to the Cicerone Certification Program, there are only 16 people in the world who have.

“I always say finding the best beer really is a matter of personal preference,” he said. “There is no specific ‘best beer’, it all depends on how you’re feeling that day and what you’re eating the beer with.”

In Toronto, dozens of craft beer breweries have popped up since the 2000s, looking for economic prosperity in return for tantalizing the taste buds of beer fans. There are over 30 of them, like Halo, which brew honey beer.

Steamwhistle’s brewery is located in downtown Toronto, right next to the CN Tower. They brew their beer in a converted roundhouse, their brewing equipment built into the old façade of the building. To keep their brew as pure as possible, they only use four ingredients: water, yeast, barley and hops. The shelf life of their beer is only about four months, but they say the lack of longevity is made up for by its unique taste.

“We’re really proud of the fact that we only use four ingredients in our brew,” said Steamwhistle Brewery retail store co-ordinator Shane Dovey. “No matter how big we get, we’re still going to consider ourselves as a company that’s geared to what Canadians want to drink.”

But with companies boasting their non-artificial brewing recipes and locally sourced ingredients, the question remains of whether or not this approach is economically viable. The number of breweries in Ontario increased by 20 per cent in 2016, but companies like Molson and Labatt dominate the domestic beer market, leaving little room for new brewery start-ups. Beer consumption in Ontario has been decreasing since 2012.

“The marketing for a craft brewery is very broad. Everything from the name of the brewery to the design of the bottle matters,” said David Hardisty, consumer trend and marketing expert from the University of British Columbia. “People like going down to the local independent brewer in their neighbourhood and these independent brewers can succeed on a smaller scale, but like any small business, there’s a very high chance that they will fail within the first five years.”

Billy Woolford is a second-year politics student at Ryerson University who enjoys heading to Lou Dawg’s on the corner of Gerrard and Church streets to have drinks after class. His drink of choice is usually a bottle of Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc, a fresh and fruity white beer, brewed in France.

“I like it because it tastes fruity and sweet, a beer that doesn’t taste like beer,” Woolford says. “I know is that it’s cheaper than some higher end beers and it tastes good to me.”

Kronenbourg is owned by the massive beer conglomerate Carlsburg, which employs over 41,000 people around the world. Some beer critics have found fault with shoddy labour practices and the lack of attention to detail that a microbrewery would give to their brew.

Although it is cheap, some beer connoisseurs will only stick to local brews.

“Within the beer culture, sometimes there’s a negative connotation with mass produced beer and large beer companies,” Harper said. “Regardless of the price or the type of beer, the evaluation techniques are always going to be the same, and I always tell people to find something they enjoy over something more expensive.”