John Schreiner's Okanagan Wine Tour Guide. 2nd ed.

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Of writers specializing in the wines of British Columbia, John Schreiner is indisputably the doyen. This is the second edition of his tenth book on the subject. Only a year separates the two editions, but in that short space of time 16 new wineries arrived on the scene, warranting review, and just as many entered the development stage.

The content and organization of wine tour guides vary according to the style, interest, and technical competence of the writer. Schreiner’s approach is that of the journalist who prizes the human interest aspects of the subject. Accordingly, readers become acquainted with the background and interests of owners and winemakers, the natural environments they have selected, the built environments they have created, and the services they provide to market their wines. He tastes the wines and picks the winners in every case. But his flippant dismissal of technical issues (interesting only to lab nerds) is both mean spirited and small minded. Arguably, one of the very best guides to Ontario’s wineries (and vineyards) is Konrad Ejbich’s Pocket Guide to Ontario Wines, Wineries, Vineyards and Vines. It is no less interesting in human interest terms for the attention he pays the technicalities. On the other hand, Schreiner’s appreciations often reveal what owners and winemakers value and emphasize in wine production, and this enables wine tourists to select wineries whose products match their predilections, or promise to push their sensory envelopes. A good companion volume, in larger format with many photographs, is Schreiner and Miller’s British Columbia Wine Country.