Don Urquhart
Times-Chronicle
For the second time this spring the B.C. wine community mourns the loss of another beloved wine personality – Chris Jentsch, proprietor of C.C. Jentsch Cellars on the Golden Mile Bench above Oliver.
The 58-year-old, Okanagan-born Jentsch passed away suddenly at Penticton Regional Hospital over the Easter weekend leaving behind his loving wife Betty, daughters, grandsons and a vast number of friends across the wine community and more.
Jentsch came from a family of fruit farmers starting with this grandfather who moved to Penticton in 1929. In a video interview shared by Oliver Osoyoos Wine Country on Facebook, Jentsch paid tribute to his father, “who was one of the best horticulturalists I’ll ever know. I learned half of what he knew and I’m grateful I had that opportunity,” he says in the video.
While his father was an apple specialist, Jentsch followed the furrows to his own farming career, but chose cherries over apples, becoming one of the first in the B.C. industry to begin exporting cherries to Asia.
It was only in the early 2000s that the Jentsch clan began converting their land base – all on the Golden Mile Bench at that time – to grapes, as cherries were becoming over-planted. “At one time our family had more than 100 acres on the Golden Bench and I kinda wish I had them now,” he says with a hearty chuckle.
Beekeeping was counted among Chris Jentsch’s pursuits. This despite the fact he was allergic to bee stings according to C.C. Jentsch Cellars winemaker Paula Cooper. Photo courtesy of Paula Cooper.
Pressure on independent grape growers saw the family make the decision to value-add, converting the old fruit packing building into a winery. It is a building Jentsch has dubbed the ‘Millennium Falcon of wineries’, because “it’s not pretty, it’s a fruit packing shed and yet it’s real and it has everything you need to make a bottle of wine well.”
From the early days, Jentsch was focused on one thing – making quality wine. “We really focused on making a good product, because every single bottle of wine that someone opens, it’s their end of the day, their special moment and a bottle of wine should be invisible, it should enhance that moment.
“If it’s not special, it can ruin a nice moment. And so that’s deep on our conscious all the time to provide a good product at good value and that’s the number one driver we focus on.”
That focus has clearly paid off with wide accord and a number of awards for the family winery. In fact, the winery’s Syrah varietal which was planted as much as an experiment as anything else went on to be one of their most noteworthy wines. Blending the Syrah grapes from the Black Sage vineyards with those grown on the Golden Mile Bench created a “magical combination,” he says in the video.
Magical indeed, and even though they had only just begun, it was a wine that went on to win the Syrah category in Steven Spurrier’s Judgement of B.C. in 2013 – a blind tasting of the province’s best-known wine varietals against international benchmark wines.
That international attention gave C.C. Jentsch Cellars the lift a starting winery needs, he says laughing that people were asking, “who’s that Jentsch guy, I can’t even pronounce his name, who is he?”
For C.C. Jentsch Cellars winemaker Paula Cooper, who has been working with Jentsch for a few years, says he had an abiding passion for farming in all its facets and varieties. He was innovative and always learning, she says, adding he was constantly looking to improve both vineyard practices and winemaking knowledge and skills.
“Over the better part of four years that I have worked at C.C. Jentsch Cellars, I quickly came to the realization that Chris was prepared for anything. There wasn’t a piece of equipment or gadget that he didn’t have. I can honestly say that there was never a question he didn’t have an answer for or a problem he couldn’t solve.”
She goes on: “Chris was my boss (affectionately coined The Big Boss), but that is not all he was, for me he was a mentor, a teacher, a coach, a friend, and more like a big brother. He always had this way of lifting you up, he truly inspired greatness.”
And like so many people who have commented on social media, Cooper says: “Chris was very generous, quick to give to others but stubborn when on the receiving end. He showed his appreciation daily, whether a well-directed thank you, a fist bump, a thoughtful text message or phone call, and let’s not forget the donuts. We had many discussions over and about donuts!”
And she adds, there was never a job or a task that he wouldn’t happily help tackle. “I will very much miss the upcoming project talks sitting across from him in the comfy chair in front of his desk. Some of those talks would end in me thinking, ‘you want to do what and by when?’ We would have a chuckle, mine more nervous laughter…. sort of like, ‘you can’t be serious?’. One thing about Chris he was always serious about a project.”
Cooper adds he was, “a wonderful father (grandfather), a devoted husband, a loyal friend to many and a fabulous boss to those of us lucky enough to work with him. We will all share a toast to you upon the future release of our recently bottled bubbly. Cheers to you Big Guy!”
A small family burial service will be held on Saturday, April 10 at 1 pm. Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, the family is inviting anyone who would like to attend virtually to do so from the following link:
https://m.facebook.com/Christopher-Jentsch-Virtual-Ceremony-102690915272933/
