Echo Bay
Echo Bay
AboutEcho Bay
Echo Bay Vineyard grew from Rufiange family land on Skaha Lake, purchased in 1967 and later planted near Okanagan Falls. Kelsey Rufiange leads the vineyard and cellar within the family project. The southwest-facing vineyard is farmed without synthetic inputs, and the wines ferment with native yeasts. Bordeaux varieties, including Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carménère, are central to its wines.
Echo Bay 2017 Synoptic
Canadian Red
$49.99
Merlot makes up thirty-nine percent of the blend, with twenty-two percent Cabernet Franc, fourteen percent Cabernet Sauvignon, eleven percent Malbec, seven percent Carménère and seven percent Petit Verdot. The grapes are destemmed, gently crushed and fermented separately, then spend four to five weeks on skins. Barrel ageing lasts eighteen months, with twenty percent new oak. The vineyard is farmed organically, with additional biodynamic preparations. Production totalled 360 cases, and alcohol is 13.8 percent.
Echo Bay 2016 Cabernet Franc–Malbec
Canadian Red
$49.99
Cabernet Franc makes up sixty percent of the blend, joined by forty percent Malbec. The varieties were destemmed, crushed and fermented separately, then matured for eighteen months in barrel, with twenty percent new wood. After blending, the wine rested briefly before bottling and further bottle ageing. The finished red records thirteen percent alcohol, a pH of 3.77 and total acidity of 7.2.
Echo Bay 2017 Cabernet Franc
Canadian Red
$54.99
The fruit was destemmed and crushed before fermentation in an open-top tank. The wine then spent eighteen months in barrel, half of it new, and was bottled with thirty parts per million of sulphur. Production totalled 120 cases, and alcohol is 13.5 percent. Cabernet Franc comes from a southwest-facing vineyard above Skaha Lake, just north of Okanagan Falls.
Echo Bay 2022 Synoptic Red Blend
Canadian Red
$58.99
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Carménère and Petit Verdot make up the red blend. The grapes are organically grown and ferment with wild yeast. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered after sixteen months in French oak, fifteen percent new. Its fruit comes from Okanagan Falls in British Columbia, and the finished wine contains fourteen percent alcohol.
Echo Bay 2022 Petit Verdot Carménère
Canadian Red
$64.99
Petit Verdot and Carménère each account for half of the blend. Wild-yeast fermentation is used, maturation lasts eighteen months in neutral French oak, and the wine is bottled without fining or filtration. The fruit comes from a five-acre southwest-facing slope in Okanagan Falls. The property has served as a gathering place for the family and its friends for more than five generations.