The valley is narrow and dramatic. Rock faces rise straight up from the valley floor. Wind moves through like it has somewhere to be. The soil is young and mineral-rich, still eroding off the mountainsides year after year, carrying minerals down into the vineyards with every season. Spend time here and you begin to understand why winemakers talk about the Similkameen as a place with its own unmistakable identity.

The geography shapes everything. The mountains absorb heat during the day and release it slowly after dark, extending the ripening window. Constant winds keep the vineyards dry and healthy, reducing the need for intervention. The soils are so young and mineral-dense that the vines have to work hard, sending roots deep to find what they need. That effort shows up in the glass as concentration, acidity, and a minerality you don’t find in many other BC wines.

Ask winemaker Michael Clark what a blind taster would notice about a Similkameen wine and he doesn’t hesitate.

“Similkameen wines exhibit dazzling acidity, ripe fruit character, an unmistakable minerality, and a savoury herbal character. You can smell the wild sagebrush, the crumbling rocks, and the fierce wind in every glass.”

Those are the qualities Michael works to translate from vineyard to bottle.

Originally trained in theoretical physics, Michael spent fourteen years in investment management across Canada, the United States, and Europe. He was good at it. But a lifelong obsession with wine was running alongside all of it, and eventually it won.

While living in Geneva, with his wife’s support, he made the decision to change course entirely. He studied winemaking at the Haute Ecole de Viticulture et Oenologie in Switzerland, worked a harvest in St. Emilion in Bordeaux, and completed a distance program in winemaking at UC Davis. His graduate background in physics meant he already had a foundation in chemistry. What he was building on top of that was something harder to teach: a palate trained over decades of tasting, collecting, and travelling through wine regions around the world.

He came to the Similkameen not because it was the obvious choice but because of what he saw in the valley.

Michael talks about the Similkameen the way someone talks about a place they chose deliberately and have never stopped being grateful for.

The mountains are not incidental. They absorb heat, channel wind, and are the source of the minerals in the soil. The young, eroding soils are part of what makes the valley so distinctive, still breaking down from the rocky mountainsides above, carrying mineral complexity into the vineyards year after year.

“Every wine we produce at Clos du Soleil is intended to tell a story. This Syrah tells a story of a rocky south-west facing vineyard, overlooking some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. It tells a story of vines that have to work hard to send their roots down through the mineral-rich soils. It tells a story of the Similkameen.”

When we asked what he hoped someone experienced when they opened a bottle, his answer was disarmingly simple.

“Happiness. In the end, wine is all about enjoyment. But if somebody tastes this wine, and then closes their eyes, and sees visions of stony mountains and a wild valley, then I will know I have done my job.”

Michael’s approach in the winery is as restrained as the valley is dramatic.

He talks about minimal intervention not as a trend but as a logical conclusion. If the terroir is already in the grapes when they arrive, then the winemaker’s job is to protect it, not add to it. That means avoiding unnecessary movement of the wine, limiting pumping, and listening to what each vintage is telling him rather than imposing a house style.

“Terroir driven means respecting the fruit and protecting the fruit. The terroir is already there, in the grapes. It is not something that can be added. So the winemaker’s job is to just allow what is already there to shine forth. Most of the time this means doing almost nothing. Just listening to the fruit and protecting its beauty.”

He compares it to raising children. Each vintage has its own personality, already formed. His job is to help it reach its potential in its own time.

“Quality winemaking is all about being gentle. We try to avoid even pumping or moving the wine or juice more than we absolutely have to. In a real sense, the land makes the wine. We don’t.”

2568 Upper Bench Road
Keremeos, BC · V0X 1N4

(250) 499-2831
closdusoleil.ca

About 45 minutes west of Penticton and an hour and forty minutes from Kelowna. The Similkameen has a small number of producers, most a short drive from each other. Worth making a full day of it.

Thursday through Monday, 10 am to 5 pm from May onward. Hours expand as the season progresses. Walk-ins welcome when space allows.

A 20-minute guided tasting of 3 wines, $10 per person. Fee is redeemable toward any wine purchase made at the time of your tasting. Wine club members taste free. Cancel at least a week ahead for a refund.

A 50-minute guided tasting of 6 wines including flagship releases, $20 per person, with a possible vineyard tour. Not redeemable toward purchase. Minimum 2 guests, maximum 8. Book at least 72 hours in advance. Wine club members taste free.