2010 Olympics BC Winery Profile: Meyer Family Vineyards

Olympic fever has taken hold of Vancouver as the passion for team Canada erupts throughout the city. Unfortunately, all of the official venues are serving only wines from Vincor or beers from Molson. What happened to supporting all of our local producers? The Olympics for me is a time to celebrate what is great about B.C. and the challenges and accomplishments of B.C.’s own wine growers.

As my profile of Hester Creek demonstrated, there are, unfortunately, not so great wines being made in the province. However, the point of this series was to seek out those wineries that are doing things right in B.C. and to highlight those who have been willing to take the more challenging direction of making complex and palate-challenging wines. I think Meyer Family Vineyards is a winery that, while young, is starting to seek out its own path unique from the crowds.

Jak Meyer started the winery very recently in 2006. The original idea was to buy a vineyard and outsource the production; however, this goal, which began with a successful (albeit small) vintage of Chardonnay, proved to be too small an operation to be a viable business (at only 600 cases). Thus, over the next several years, and by taking advantage of some good deals resulting from the recession, Meyer expanded the winery by adding 19 acres (14 planted) to the original 3 acres of Chardonnay vines.

The focus at Meyer has always been on Burgundy style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with a new Gewurztraminer coming out onto the market soon. However, while Meyer says Burgundy style he does not mean simply emulating Burgundy. The goal here is, most importantly, to produce wines of place – wines that taste like B.C. and the vineyards from which they come.

While right now I think the vineyards are probably too young to show true and complex terroir, I do think that these wines are moving along the right path. I was surprised and impressed by the minerality of the Chardonnay and the earthy tones in the two Pinot Noirs I tasted, the style of each differing considerably from the other. In the future, Meyer plans to bottle more single vineyard Chardonnay offerings in order to expand the fruits of this philosophy.

In the vineyard, the idea is to keep things as “organic” as possible, as winemaker Chris Carson explains:

“In the vineyard we are very hands on. All pruning, canopy management, crop thinning etc. is done by hand. Organic principles are employed, such as making our own compost which is put back into the vineyards. All the stems and pressing are put into the compost along with manure, hay and other organic materials. We do not use herbicides for weed control. Rather, weeds are controlled with a combination of plowing, mulches and the use of weed eaters.”

In the winery, the process is all about trying to show typicity of place rather than uniformity of style. As Chris explains,

“basically the growing season and the wine dictate the outcome, not the winemaker. My job is to maintain the expressiveness and the fruit quality from each individual site through to bottling. No additives are used such as enzymes for clarifying juice or colour, no yeast food or nutrients, no tannins, etc. The only additive that may be used is a small acid addition in warmer seasons.”

I don’t love acidulation, but I think that overall Meyer is making the right sort of choices in the vineyard and the winery and it is nice to see a B.C. winery taking the process as seriously as the final product. Wine should not be made just for the end-point of satisfaction. Doing so belies the importance of the organic process and development of the vines – what makes them what they are and adds the ‘poetry’ to the bottle. That said, specific practices in themselves are not enough – great wine always has that X factor that cannot be explained. But, surely it comes from the confluence of each particular detail of the process coming together to produce an expression that each detail could never do in itself.

Let’s take a look at the wines.

Both of the Pinot Noirs are whole cluster fermented (at least this season – the percentage of whole cluster varies depending on vintage) and left to cold soak. The wines are barrel aged “sur lees” and then fined, but not filtered.

First off we have the Meyer Family “Central Okanagan Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2008, which is made with fruit sourced from friends of Meyer’s who own a vineyard in the Central Okanagan area near Kelowna. The soil at this site is silt loam overlaying gravelly loam. The colour here was very dark red for pinot noir, and the wine had a nose of stem, tobacco leaf, and cherry. Overall I found the wine quite earthy but also with a good dose of fruit that is right now hidden under the tannins somewhat on the palate. Nonetheless, I really like the nose on this. 

Moving on to the sip we find a medium body and an absolute ton of tannin. This is obviously still very young with its grippy texture and overt stem and earth character. Underlying that, though, is cherry and bright red berry fruit. Good but not overly intense acidity. This has great stuffing and can (and should) age. While the tannins are aggressive and maybe just a touch green, I like how this was made and think the wine has some good aging potential.  I cannot recommend this to drink right now without some serious food pairing to mellow the tannins – but don’t let that put you off the wine, this is pinot noir moving in the right direction. While not as good as the Vieux Pin pinot I had, it’s a solid wine with potential.

Personally I found some nice stewed meat mellowed the tannins and helped bring the wine forward into fruitier territory in this extremely youthful stage of its life.

Very Good
$40

 The second Pinot Noir is the Meyer Family “McLean Creek Road Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2008. The terroir here is quite different and the vineyards are on the alluvial and glacial formed terraces near Okanagan Falls. A blend of three blocks on the property, each site has distinctly different sun exposure and thus each site brings a unique characteristic to the blend. The dark red, brownish colour on this belies the feminine and light touch of the wine. The nose is brighter than the Central Okanagan bottling, with additional notes of stone, chocolate and spice. On the palate, this is a lighter style, with brighter fruit and a cleaner palate than the Central Okanagan – with chocolate and spice and subtle under the radar red fruits. These two pinots encapsulate the phrase ”to each their own.”

I enjoyed both, but I think I preferred the very light, almost gamay-like body of the McLean Creek. If you want a denser riper style, this will not be your thing. And, keep in mind these two pinots are fairly expensive for the quality. However, there are good reasons for higher prices for BC wines (See my article), even though this does not mitigate the impact of better quality competition from abroad.

So, while there is definitely room for improvement and these are simpler pinots for the price, I think these are honest wines pushing to achieve something realistically BC. I appreciate that and look forward to the future of pinot at Meyer.

Very Good
$40

 The last wine, the Meyer Family Tribute Series “Steve Yzerman” Old Main Road Vineyard, Naramata Chardonnay 2008, is the piece de la resistance here. Stepping from tradition, I saved this for last because I think it is the star of the three wines I tasted from Meyer’s portfolio. 

The Chardonnay is hand harvested and whole cluster fermented, and left “sur lees” for about 11 to 12 months. During this time natural malo-lactic fermentation occurs, and is either complete or partial depending on the natural process of the yeast.

The colour is medium yellow and the nose is all bright clean citrus, pineapple, banana, pear, and kiwi. This is really good stuff and sports a tart and clean palate with properly presented oak influence. Again, the palate brings pineapple and a little creme brulee. Nonetheless this is quite long and clean. Here we have a very well balanced chardonnay that is made for food, does not kick the oak bucket, and has great texture and alacrity – in other words, this is my kind of chardonnay.

In my final analysis, this is outstanding and so far the best chard I’ve had from BC. I would love to try Meyer’s higher end micro-cuvee chard because this is simply excellent stuff. And, as ironic as this is, my highest praise for a BC wine is that I would buy this without hesitation at its very reasonable price point.

Very Good+ to Excellent
$35

Note: Meyer Family wines are currently being poured by the glass at Salt Tasting Room and Market Restaurant.

*Full disclosure: I received these wines as samples.