• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Food & Wine Trails Magazine

BC's most thorough wine touring guide

  • Columns
    • Grape Expectations
    • Editor’s Note
    • Naramata Blend
    • Confessions from the Vineyard
  • Features
  • Events
    • Submit an Event
  • Winery Regions
    • Creston
    • Kaleden
    • Kamloops
    • Kelowna
    • Lake Country
    • Lower Mainland
    • Naramata
    • Okanagan Falls
    • Okanagan North
    • Oliver
    • Osoyoos
    • Penticton
    • Similkameen
    • Summerland
    • Vancouver Island
    • West Kelowna
  • Maps
    • Thompson Okanagan/Similkameen
  • Recipes
  • Editions
  • Media Kit
  • Advertise
  • About Us
    • Subscribe
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Ricco Bambino: Charmingly Avant-Gard

Lesley Buxton · September 7, 2018 ·

The ambience at Ricco Bambino is Italian elegance meets new nostalgia; understated and fun, inviting and relaxed. It’s feminine with a sexy, masculine edge – think Sean Connery as Bond in Thunderball in his open pink shirt and white shorts. The upholstery is crushed velvet; the colour scheme is light pink and pale gold, accented with large potted palms, green spaces and two state-of-the-art concrete and stainless-steel tanks. This space is every iconic image you’ve ever known: Sophia Loren’s ’70s-style mink coat, Michelle Pfeiffer’s long white halter dress in Scarface, Madonna strutting the stage in her iconic Gaultier bustier. Everything here screams Rome, yet somehow feels like Kelowna. This urban winery blurs the lines between winery, wine shop and bar.

Typically, wineries start as estates growing grapes, and slowly evolve into becoming wineries. Ricco Bambino, on the other hand, started by making wines to suit its vision and then found a space. Though this winery’s evolution was avant-garde, be assured the operators know what they’re doing. Unusual as their approach might be, it has allowed them certain freedoms. In particular, the ability — from vintage to vintage — to select the very best organic grapes from a variety of estates in the South Okanagan, thus guaranteeing top quality fruit to create enticing, unforgettable, minimal-interference wines that showcase the region’s unique microclimate.

Introducing Crooked Crown

Ricco Bambino recently purchased Crooked Crown, a gorgeous 10-acre estate in Oliver, a region celebrated for the quality of its terroir. The winery is planning for the future. Eventually, they want a land-based winery housed on the estate; a site where they can continue creating their special brand of less-is-more wines.

Come Enjoy a Personal Wine Experience

Another significant distinction is their wine-tasting philosophy. Here, the emphasis is on crafting a personal wine experience centred around the needs of the guest. The sommelier will visit the guest’s table. Learn from them as little or as much as you like; if you’re curious, go deep. If not, relax and enjoy the wines. Tastings feature three or six wines, all extraordinary. Our advice: try all six.

Start with the Kicked Out of the Country Club Brut, a Metodo Italiano Sparkling Brut that, like Ricco Bambino’s ambience, is delightfully light and classic. This wine goes down far too easily. It’s crisp and fresh with subtle lemon notes, peaches and blossoms. Invite your significant other to indulge and share a bottle.

Very Troubled Child Rosé Brut is a Metodo Italiano Sparkling Rosé Brut the same colour of pink as the winery’s walls. It is elegant, yet approachable, filled with endless fine bubbles. Imagine hints of sumptuous cherry blossom cream, ripe strawberries and bright red cherries.

Unrefined, unfiltered, unapologetic, the Syrah is tremendously drinkable. Brave and bursting with bold red fruits, it emulates classic white pepper with a complementry yet subtle bouquet of lavender, sage and aloe. It’s a brilliant example of what nature can produce under a masterful but gentle hand.

The Rosé is a charming enigma, made of 100% Cabernet Franc. It’s field strawberries with a hit of savoury aromatics and a kick of dry spice. Perfect for drinking après shoe-shopping with friends. Be warned: it’s mouth-watering, and with only 350 cases, it certainly won’t last.

The Vino Bianco is a charismatic blend of Riesling and Viognier. Crisp, bright and refreshing, it’s also far too drinkable — it’s nearly impossible to drink only one glass. This persuasive wine presents notes of pineapple, pear, bright lemon and white flower, with a subtle mineral finish.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Viognier. Light and dry, it presents plush aromatics with a sumptuous mouthfeel of apricot, pineapple and ripe lemon pulp. Textured floral notes and lemon drops linger for a long finish. It is a wine designed for hot, lingering Sunday afternoons on the patio.

Get Your Limited Edition Wines

Not only are Ricco Bambino’s wines scrumptious but they’re packaged beautifully. The bottles, which are made in France by Verallia and Saver glass, look like antique decanters. The glass stops look like crystal doorknobs and can be reused. All Ricco Bambino’s wines are limited editions. They’re available online, at The Curious Café and La Bussola Restaurant, and at Ricco Bambino’s in Kelowna, where the motto is: “Come for a taste, stay for a glass, leave with a bottle.”

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Kelowna

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Celebrate every day of the week at Black Hills Estate Winery
  • Recipe: White Bean Sumac Spread
  • Recipe: Sunflower Seed Romesco
  • On the Cover
  • From the Editor

Categories

  • About
  • Armstrong
  • Armstrong Salmon Arm
  • BC
  • Blog
  • Columns
  • Confessions from the Vineyard
  • Creston
  • e-Edition
  • Eat, Drink, Tweet
  • Editor's Note
  • Events
  • Features
  • Gulf Islands
  • Kaleden
  • Kamloops
  • Kelowna
  • Lake Country
  • Lower Mainland
  • Maps
  • Naramata
  • Naramata Blend
  • News
  • Okanagan Falls
  • Okanagan North
  • Oliver
  • On The Cover
  • Osoyoos
  • Peachland
  • Penticton
  • Recipes
  • Salmon Arm
  • Shuswap
  • Similkameen
  • Summerland
  • Tappen
  • Tappen
  • Uncategorized
  • Vancouver
  • Vancouver Island
  • Vernon
  • West Kelowna
  • Wine Regions

B.C. Food & Wine Trails Magazine

B.C.'s most comprehensive winery guide. Meet the people behind the labels as well as the great chefs in the Okanagan and keep up to date with their seasonal news. Event listings and photos will allow you to celebrate with us in wine country style!


BC Food & Wine Trails Magazine
2495 Enterprise Way
Kelowna, BC V1X 7K2
ph: 250.492.3636
email: ads@winetrails.ca

Footer

Winery Regions

  • Creston
  • Kaleden
  • Kelowna
  • Naramata
  • Okanagan Falls
  • Okanagan North

 

  • Oliver
  • Penticton
  • Similkameen
  • Summerland
  • Vancouver Island
  • West Kelowna

Advertise with Us

Food & Wine Trails Magazine is BC’s most thorough wine touring guide, winery source and portal into life inside BC wine country. Food & Wine Trails introduces YOU and YOUR business to a huge range of readers - from destination tourists, wine lovers and buyers to a local reader base interested in keeping up with the latest and greatest seasonal news from wine country. Our purpose and focus is to direct customers TO your door. Let us tell your story. Learn more...

Copyright © 2023 · Daily Dish Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in