Kim Pullen writes brand new chapter with Rainmaker

A passion project might well be the right moniker for the latest venture of well-known Okanagan wine proprietor Kim Pullen who has gone from the outsized Church & State winery to Second Chapter and now a new chapter, Rainmaker Wines.

As the newest kid on the Black Sage block, Rainmaker officially opened its doors in May and promises yet one more stellar winery on the Black Sage Bench, already brimming with a depth of wine making that’s nothing short of stunning.

Pullen, who took Church & State to incredible heights from 2004 to 2017 at which point he sold it, is never one to idle his time away. Immediately jumping back in he started up Second Chapter Wine Company on the Golden Mile Bench just below Tinhorn Creek and then followed up nearly four years later with Rainmaker

One owner, two wineries on two benches each with its own unique style and at around 5,000 cases each, a world away from the 35,000 case a year Church & State apparatus.

“We had dinner table discussions for years; do we sell, do we keep going?” says Pullen’s daughter Christina. “I think it was just time for him. To put it in its simplest form he had had it for nearly 20 years and he was just ready to start something new,” she says.

It was “all about scale,” Christina says of Church & State. First, they were a small winery then a small-medium and then they were kind of teetering especially with some of the bigger groups out there you have to think about what scale you are competing. You want to make sure you are still producing the same quality wine,” she says.

“It was quite a big scale and I think that was kind of the tipping point for him where you either keep going and make it bigger and bigger, or it is the right time to sell.”

With that tipping point having been reached it was time to simplify and start something small, and crucially something Pullen had total control over.

She says that at both Second Chapter and Rainmaker the focus is “incredibly hands-on and about handcrafting the wines. We take a lot of care to handpick everything and sort and there’s a lot of quality control so that we can make sure it’s the best.”

Being her father’s third venture everything is designed with attention to detail: “It’s all set up exactly how he wants it… everything is where it should be,” she says.

All the production facilities are located onsite including a crush pad, fermentation and filtering facilities, ageing barrels and racks and after harvest this fall Christina Pullen says they won’t be renting warehouses, storing wine all over the valley, “because we’re doing what works and we’re doing it all here.”

Located smack-dab next to Church & State it begs the question as to how exactly Rainmaker came to be. The answer is quite simple really. Selling Church & State, Pullen kept two of his favourite vineyards – the one on Black Sage Road which was to become Rainmaker Vineyard and the other, Rattlesnake Vineyard across the valley which supports Second Chapter.

“These are the ones that are the most special vineyards to Kim and they produce some of our most award-winning wines and so that’s why we were able to build right here on Black Sage Road,” she says.

With a few new vineyard acquisitions, the two wineries now draw from about 10 hectares of vineyards. Some of the vineyards have been kept with their existing vines “because we’re working with some amazing vines that we’ve had for a long time,” but they’re also replanting portions as well.

Looking out the window on the hillside up to Black Sage Road this is much in evidence with new plantings this year of Tempranillo and in other areas, new plantings of Syrah have gone to ground.

Second Chapter is currently working through the 2016 and 2017 vintages while it’s the 2018 and 2019 vintages at Rainmaker (which ages its whites for two years and three years for its reds). Offering a larger portfolio at Rainmaker than Second Chapter, this also includes the addition of some new blends including a Syrah-Viognier, Merlot-Cabernet and Malbec-Syrah.

While naturally featuring an omnipresent Rosé, a glimpse of how Rainmaker does things just a little different can literally be seen with the naked eye. Featuring a vivid pink colour, a result of the 100 per cent Malbec grapes, it’s a true testament to the adage that looks can be deceiving. Where one might expect a sweet wine from such a colourful character, it is in reality dry and crisp, just what the doctor ordered for a hot sunny Okanagan afternoon.

Although only on the skins for 12 to 16 hours – compared to some winemakers who prefer anywhere from 12 to 48 hours depending on the grape variety used – it’s that solid Malbec composition that gives it the electric pink persuasion. This year she says the time on the skins will shrink to somewhere around five hours as the trend is more towards a French style light, pale pink hue.

Aside from this perennial pink crowd-pleaser Pullen says the Syrah-Viognier is proving to be a real fan favourite. “I call it the perfect ‘before dinner wine’ because it’s 25 per cent Viognier and 75 per cent Syrah so it’s quite unique. The Viognier we put into it just kind of elevates it brings a nice light brightness to it and you still get the rich spiciness of the Syrah.”

The Syrah is of course a solid bet at Rainmaker, a holdover if you will, from the Church & State days, but on this particular day, we are tasting there is something else that distracts from all else. Not one, but two Viognier – each hailing from opposite sides of the valley.

“Something very special and unique to the south valley here, we have two Viognier, different sunlight, different types of day, different soil, different clones and they’re dramatically different,” she says.

From the Black Sage side comes a light, crisp wine with ripe stone fruit accents and a subtle but complex finish while the Golden Mile version is a rounder flavour, with honeysuckle accents and caramel butterscotch overtones. Both sheer delight for the tastebuds. I have my solid favourite but I don’t kiss and tell.

What does it take to start up a winery, besides presumably heaps of money, I wonder aloud? “A lot, a lot of work,” she answers. “Kim is very hands-on. He’s out cutting the grass, polishing the windows, fixing the irrigation lines, monitoring the watering; it’s just gruelling hours.”

“Being a winery owner/winemaker is not glamorous, you’re a glorified farmer because it’s completely agriculture – a lot of farming, a lot of hard work and attention to detail,” she says.
And of course, this year has been even more challenging with the fantastical temperatures in the early summer.

“The heat this year, it’s all about mitigating it. You definitely have to change the way you handle the heat. For one thing, our harvest is going to be a lot earlier so it’s looking like it will be finished before the end of September.”

Mitigating involves things like spraying the vines in the wee hours of the morning because you can’t spray over 25°C, otherwise, it will burn the vines, Kim says. And it also means watering more, much more, than usual.

And as if the excitement of a new top-notch winery isn’t enough, Rainmaker has upped the typical tasting experience with a nod to another unique local feature – the Area 27 race track – with a top-of-the-line F1 race car simulator.

Featuring hundreds of different tracks and thousands of different cars to choose from, high octane junkies can drive against the best while their friends tickle their tastebuds at the tasting bar. This is ‘virtually’ the only place where it is acceptable to drink and drive.

“It’s a high-performance toy in this high-performance part of the world alongside high-performance wines, it’s just kind of an awesome thing to add to the experience,” Christina says. When asked whose idea it was she laughs and says, “Kim’s of course!”

She adds: “Wine can seem unapproachable for a lot of people going to tasting bars, it can be intimidating so we want to make it a really fun experience even though our wines are amazing and they speak for themselves but why not add an elevated experience to it and just have fun with it.”