Marichel Winery

Reviews

• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  Well, this is confusing. It’s Marichel, not Marechal. I don’t know where the name derives from, but it’s not related to the varietal. Marichel doesn’t even harvest Marechal Foch; their specialty is Syrah. It makes me wonder where the name came from. If the winemaker is named Marichel, it would be simultaneously both an amazing coincidence and an irony. I actually know a chef with the last name “Kitchen”. It happens. My girlfriend and I were on vacation through Okanagan wine country. Over six days, we visited sixty wineries. That’s sixty wineries, not an exaggeration. We ended the trip with 120 bottles acquired. And apparently one does not visit Naramata without patronizing Marichel. As friends discovered our journey, no winery was recommended more. I totally understand why. Don’t be led astray by claims of an epic décor, like some monument to viticulture—this is one of the more lackluster looking wineries in the region. The tasting room features a single picnic table. A picnic table. We almost missed the location twice. No, the reason to visit Marichel is their commitment in doing one thing really, really well. That says something about competing wineries. Many of them, even the estates, go for the “shotgun” approach, offering a chaotic scattershot of different wines, whites and reds, to cover all their potential customer palettes. I noticed after my trip those smaller wineries with larger selections seldom had a single bottle that spoke to me (not literally, as that would be a condition), but when specializing in one or two varietals, generally they do well with those bottles. For Marichel, harkening back to the aforementioned irony, it’s Syrah. Marichel presents itself as the wine equivalent to Scientific American (the magazine; I know that’s closely becoming an oxymoron). There’s no pandering to the viticulturally-challenged. Marichel drops some mean knowledge beats on their websites and makes no attempts to explain them to proletariats. They grow only two grapes, Rhone varietals. When describing their Syrah, they claim it’s made up of “scions and rootstocks, with Clone 7 on 3309 predominating.” Yeah, I didn’t understand any of that either. Marichel doesn’t make Côte-Rôtie Syrah, Barossa Shiraz, or Viognier from Condrieu…because…that’s apparently important. “And while we adore Cold Heaven Viognier from California, Tarawara Shiraz from Yarra Valley, and Hermitage Syrah from the Rhone… they’ve all been done.” I’m a massive geek, and even I wanted to scream “NEEERRRRD!”. They obvious love wine and want to share that passion with everyone. It’s no wonder their Syrahs are so well renown. Okay. I’ll buy two. The other aspect of Marichel I appreciate is that often, the individual poring the wine is the winemaker himself. A delightful fellow and obviously one that knows his craft. This makes the claims on the website even more authenticated. They also bottle a viognier, but in the end, it was their Syrah that spoke to us, that speaks to a lot of people. If you enjoy that varietal at all, you owe it to visit this place and snag a few bottles.
  By Chris Dias, December 28, 2016
• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  nice location and good wine
  By John Bright, December 03, 2016

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About Marichel Winery in Naramata