Quiet Revolution in British Columbia story and photos by Randy Caparoso Quietly, effectively, British Columbia is entering the collective consciousness of the international wine market for all the right reasons: Its leading growers and producers are focusing more and more on qualities that make their wines distinctively different from, rather than just comparable to, wines from elsewhere in the Old World, the New World or any other world. In the U.S. we have yet to see much of British Columbia s finest in our markets; but they are coming. During my second visit to the region in January I found even more of what I discovered during my first visit in 2015: sophisticated viticulture, state-of-the-art wineries and keenly aware producers taking full advantage of what might just as well have been a disadvantage the fact that the British Columbia really did not get started until after the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1988. These may be new kids on the block, but they are taking full advantage of the most recent innovations and ideas proffered by the rest of the wine world in recent years. Prior to 1988, British Columbia was primarily planted to Vitis labrusca, hybrid grapes and German crossings invented for volume rather than quality production. Getting down to business, the handful of modern day pioneering producers existing at the time just 17 of them helped to establish the Vintner s Quality Alliance (VQA) standard in 1990, mandating the type of quality guarantees found in other appellation systems. Step 2 was the establishment of the BC VQA (British Columbia Vintners Quality Alliance) appellations, called Geographical Indications (GIs); in conjunction with rapid expansion of classic Vitis vinifera plantings, such as Merlot, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon (the five most widely planted grapes in British Columbia today). Today there are over 10,200 acres (4,130 hectares) of wine grapes planted in six GIs, produced by over 250 wineries. But as the old saying goes, the middle of the road is where you re bound to get run over. Many of British Columbia s leaders, however, have wisely chosen not to stick to the straight and narrow the safe, popular grapes or the conventional wine types. Instead, many British Columbia vintners are brazenly championing less fashionable varieties like Gamay Noir, Syrah and Riesling. Why? Because it s right for the terroir, if not necessarily the market. They are also making a specialty out of méthode ancestrale sparklers or skin-contact whites; or investing heavily in puncheons, demi-muids, foudres, amphorae, concrete uprights or eggs to an average extent going beyond what we are seeing in, say, California, Washington or Oregon. They are doing the things that only make sense when blessed with natural conditions unlike those anywhere else in the world: Cooler climate terroirs producing wines predisposed towards higher natural acidity and sensations of minerality, as opposed to universal renditions of varietal fruit. Densities of phenolic presence on the palate possible in wine grapes grown above the 50 N latitudinal line (comparable to the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) a direct result of extended
photosynthesis during growing season days that are a good two hours longer than in traditional Mediterranean regions (i.e. Southern France, Spain, Italy or California s North Coast). The favorable potential to pick grapes of optimal maturity at lower sugars hence, the possibility of sleeker, contemporary-style wines of moderated alcoholic weight. Turning the Tables Here are snapshots of four of B.C. producers who are turning convention on its head as we speak and sip. Ancestrale Offerings: Bella Wines Bella is tiny (less than 1,500 cases produced each year). Bella is new so new that there still are no signs off the main road running along Okanagan Valley s Naramata Bench, where you turn up a bumpy, winding, unpaved path through a wooded gully and around a hill to the door of a rustic winery, barely qualifying as a shed. And Bella is owned and operated by an ex-sommelier from British Columbia s tiny Oliver named Jay Drysdale, who, in his former career, harbored such an abiding love for British Columbia (his award-winning wine lists were notorious for being 100% B.C. ) that he decided to specialize in a type of wine that he believes crystallizes all the qualities that make British Columbia special: ancestrale style sparkling wines, primarily au naturel. Popping off the crown cap stopping his 2014 Bella Méthode Ancestrale Rosé, we listened to Mr. Drysdale to wax philosophical on his craft while pouring his gently effervescent pink sparkler: I use crown caps rather than traditional cork because it encourages user friendliness, he starts off saying. Why would I want the opposite? I don t mind using the word natural because I don t do anything to this wine beyond guiding it through its finish. It is 100% Gamay from an organic single vineyard in Westbank [near West Kelowna in the cooler, upper end of Okanagan Valley]. I like Gamay, rather than Pinot Noir, for this area the grapes give a beautiful, bright strawberry perfume, which is only enhanced by the natural yeastiness from the primary fermentation. A wild yeast fermentation is started in a neutral barrel, then transferred into bottles by gravity flow to finish fermenting, then riddled and disgorged, no filtration. The taste is pure and sharp, with additional flavors of the lees and particulates from the original pressing as close to the fresh taste of the Gamay grape as you can get. Drysdale followed up with a taste of his fresh-off-the-lees 2015 Bella Méthode Ancestrale Rosé, which exuded stunningly fresh strawberry and tingly, just-squeezed pink grapefruit sensations. There s a real red wine-ness to this vintage, Drysdale notes, sharing his impressions, a distinct earthiness... round, super-light, lively... true Gamay. But there are dangers, Drysdale confesses, to walking the wild side. I did eight barrels of wildfermented Gamay, and the rest with conventional yeast. Only two of the eight barrels actually
worked, but I much prefer the results. For me, this is an ultimate expression of British Columbia fruit and vineyards so worth the risk! Crazy Passion: Culmina Family Estate Winery Culmina Family Estate is, by contrast, a grandly conceived, no-stone-unturned culmination of Don Triggs s 35 years in the North American wine industry, highlighted by Triggs s fabled association with Alan Jackson at Vincor International (which evolved from Canada s acclaimed Jackson-Triggs Winery), now owned by Constellation Brands. Culmina s 56 acres of planted grapes are located in Okanagan Valley s new official subappellation, called Golden Mile Bench (estblished 2015): west-facing, largely alluvial upper slopes topping off at 2,000 feet (close to 600 meters) near the town of Oliver. Golden Mile Bench soaks up generous amounts of morning to mid-afternoon sunlight, while experiencing steep enough diurnal swings to remain (at average 1,500 degree days) well within the Winkler Scale for Region I. Elaine [Triggs s wife] and I could have easily retired after relinquishing Jackson-Triggs, says Triggs, but our roots have always been anchored in dirt. So we started planting, on virgin land, in 2007, finishing the last of our 44 micro-blocks just last year. We asked Alain Sutre [a Bordeaux-based viticulture and winemaking consultant, also associated with a handful of other prestige British Columbia estates] to advise on everything. Alain suggested clone and rootstock selections for Merlot in cooler sites, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec in fuller sun, Cabernet Franc in sections of calcium carbonate, a tiny bit of Syrah and Grüner Veltliner, and Riesling and Chardonnay at the highest peak [595 meters], which we call Margaret s Bench. In the winery, stainless steel tanks of multiple sizes are customized for the micro-farming and multiple passes through the 44 separate blocks. The results are profound, highlighted by a silken fine, grapefruit and lemon drop slaking 2014 Culmina Unicus Grüner Veltliner; a transparently pink, whispering rose petal-ish 2014 Culmina Saignée (Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon); and a deep, compact, raspberry purée-ish 2011 Culmina Hypothesis (40% Cabernet Franc with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon). I was 62 years old when we started this project, says Triggs, with his Buddha-like smile. But the passion never goes away walking the vineyard each morning, seeing each and every vine go through its changes. Our youngest daughter Sara is now involved. She has inherited that passion, which, as you know in this business, has to border on crazy. Unvarnished Truths: Okanagan Crush Pad Winery Not far from the getaway hotels and beaches of Summerland, along the western shores of Okanagan Lake, Okanagan Crush Pad is leading the way towards an unabashedly proclaimed new Okanagan style of wines. They are backing it up with their certified organic viticulture, statement winemaking and the wines bottled under their Haywire and Narrative labels, not to mention that of their seven (currently) custom-crush winery/clients.
Tucked among their ten-acre Switchback Organic Vineyard, Okanagan Crush Pad Winery is dominated by concrete tanks of seemingly every size and shape, from 2,000-liter black eggs to rows of 5,000-liter gray uprights, looming like Easter Island mo`ia. Says Tasting Lounge Manager Mike West, who eloquently speaks for owners Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie: We ve gone to the extreme, moving towards concrete, more and more away from wood or even steel. By producing wines untouched by intrusive winemaking methods or containers, we hope to capture what makes our vineyards and grapes distinctive. It s about letting our microclimate and terroir have a say. The aptly named 2013 Haywire Canyonview Vineyard Raised in Concrete Pinot Noir contributes to that story an angular, bony style of the grape, sharply etched with acidity, while billowing with strawberry fragrance and dried-leafy notes swinging from scrubby pyrazine to sprigs of sweet, wild pennyroyal. Like the Canyonview Pinot Noir, the 2014 Haywire Raised In Concrete Gamay Noir was actually started in an open-top fermenter and aged briefly in neutral French oak before moved to concrete; achieving a perfumed purity of strawberry/cherry fruit, underlined by mildly earthy, mineral/granitic notes; tart, light and silky in the mouth. Out of the other contemporary-style wines bottled by Okanagan Crush Pad under their labels, the 2014 Free Form stood out as a Natural & Unfiltered Sauvignon Blanc, tank-fermented and left on skins for eight months, producing more of a burnished gold than orange -tinged wine plush and round with meaty rather than tannin-teemed melon flavors, brightened by zesty, natural tasting acidity. In a positively lighter fashion, the 2013 Narrative Ancient Method is a lazily beaded méthode ancestrale sparkler, vinified from Chardonnay, pungent and prickly with green apple skin qualities, bobbing atop a feathery light (10.4% alcohol) body. Wines like Free Form and Narrative are meant to tell our story, explained Mr. West. If you can taste the edginess typifying our cool climate grapes, or the floral qualities we get from the arid, high desert landscape where we grow our vines, then I would say we are achieving what we want. Terroir Obsession: Checkmate Artisanal Winery Checkmate Artisanal Winery is the latest, maybe even the greatest, project of Anthony von Mandl, who also owns Okanagan Valley s spectacularly groundbreaking Mission Hill Family Estate. Like Mission Hill, Checkmate is hell-bent on achieving uncompromising quality, except for the fact that it focuses on one varietal and one varietal only: Chardonnay. But not just any kind of Chardonnay; rather, the kinds of Chardonnay von Mandl firmly believes will put Okanagan Valley on a map no less lofty than, say, the finest crus of, say, the Côte de Beaune. Not by imitating the taste of white Beaunes, or Chardonnays from anywhere else in the world, but by crafting Chardonnays that elevate a sensory sense of place far above optimal varietal character. Chardonnays that celebrate Okanagan Valley s distinctive terroirs. Checkmate s inaugural release (November 2015) consists of a package of five 2013 Chardonnays. Three of them are single-vineyard bottlings; all fermented and aged in the same barrel or more thickly staved foudre (equivalent to eight barrels), half spontaneously and half inoculated. The other two consist of a blend of all three sites, plus a single vineyard cuvée done completely in foudre.
The home estate is perched on the middle slopes of Okanagan Valley s Golden Mile Bench, acquired primarily because of the 40-year-old own-rooted vines going into the 2013 Checkmate Queen Taken Chardonnay. Says General Manager/Winemaker Phil McGahan, The Dekleva Heritage Vineyard is our coolest site, giving us more malic acid, which corresponds to increased body and texture. The wine is round and viscous, emanating glorious white peach and citrus perfumes, enhanced by baking spices of sparingly infused oak. From Checkmate s warmest yet lowest vigor estate-owned site in the sandy soils of nearby East Osoyoos Lake Bench, near the Canadian/U.S. border the 2013 Checkmate Capture Chardonnay is startlingly minerally, almost briny, with a float of lemon flower perfumes. In contrast, the 2013 Checkmate Little Pawn Chardonnay from another deep pile of sand known as Black Sage Bench, on the valley s lower slopes looking up at Golden Mile Bench is fleshy and opulent in its collision of mandarin/lemon citrus and rising brioche dough-like richness. Beautiful, dramatic vineyard contrasts. In terms of the lithe, pinpoint balance, mineral feel and intensity of high citrus notes exemplifying Okanagan Valley Chardonnay typicité, the finest of the lot may be the blend of all three estate vineyards, the 2013 Checkmate Fool s Mate Chardonnay. Although 2013 Checkmate Attack Chardonnay is an amazing study of the layering and texturing possible with 100% foudre fermentation and aging, which only amplifies the tropical/citrus qualities of Checkmate s Barn Vineyard, sitting below the winery on Black Sage Bench. There is, quite frankly, no other North American winery that has taken this obsession with terroir-delineated Chardonnay to nearly an extreme as Checkmate Artisanal Winery. Yet, in variant or related ways, this epitomizes the story of the leading British Columbia producers of today: winegrowers acutely cognizant of the natural conditions that make their corner of the wine world special and who also believe it is only a matter of time until the rest of the world s wine cognoscenti catch up on the revolution they are fomenting.