Marichel Vineyard is a small winery producing limited quantities of fine wine. All our wines are made from grapes grown exclusively on the Naramata Bench.

The Naramata Bench in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley is a unique grape-growing area, unlike any other on wine region
on earth. Rich, ripe, full-bodied red and white wines grown at 50 degrees latitude? It happens nowhere else on the planet.

The Okanagan Valley contains Canada’s only desert, with hot summers and long, long daylight hours. And as if Nature intended to make a good thing even better, Okanagan Lake provides a vast thermal sink to moderate the excessively hot and cold temperatures common to arid regions. It’s a “Goldilocks” appellation: not too hot, and not
too cold.

From both a geographic and winemaking perspective, the heart of the Okanagan Valley is the Naramata Bench. Ideally situated to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, and nurtured by the moderating influence of Okanagan Lake, “The Bench” epitomizes the often claimed- but rarely realized- perfect terroir.

The Bench areas closest to the lake, where Marichel Vineyard is located, are comprised of glacial soils laid down over millennia. Our vineyard is planted in sandy and silty loams of low natural vigour. This moderates vegetative growth in the vines while encouraging the vines to bring the fruit to the peak of flavour and aroma.