Archive for the ‘Grapes’ Category
Spotlight on Spain: Alonso del Yerro 2005
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Excellent, Malvasia, Spain, Spanish Wine, Spotlights on March 9th, 2010
Whereas last post’s Alejandro Fernandez is by now an old hat in Ribera del Duero, Alonso del Yerro is a baby in the region. It also represents some of the new international influences entering the region, with Bordeaux based consultant Stephane Derenencourt making the wines (the other one being the famous Pingus, started by a Dane). This international influence can be experienced in the wine itself, which is made in a more modern and international style than the Condado, but without sacrificing its Spanish roots.
This influx of development in Ribera del Duero has also led to an influx of vine cuttings brought in from elsewhere: many of the new plantings are not of the native Tempranillo, but of clones from other regions. This, of course, has an impact on quality, and many critics believe that plantings made with these clones are less than ideal. The now impressive reputation of Ribera del Duero has also led to an influx of cult wines and wineries that try to establish their reputation within a vintage. We’ve seen before how big scores from the likes of Robert Parker can make an unknown winery into an international sensation, with massive price increases to boot.
The trick with Ribera del Duero is knowing which producers are gouging, and which are staying more honest in their pricing. For me, the Pesquera wines have always been very fairly priced. This wine, while still of exceptional quality, is definitely creeping up a bit high in price for my liking (although nothing compared to Pingus or Aalto).
The wine pours a pure dark red, and offers a modern-styled nose of dark plum, cassis, cedar and spice box. The palate again is modern with a lot of fruit – blackberry, cassis, really ripe tomato and some spice and wood. Good hefty tannins round out the texture and mouthfeel, which is powerful and clean. This is an excellent example of how a wine can be modern and fruity but also balanced and rounded out with secondary flavours to compliment the fruit, and how a modern wine can retain typicity. For me, typicity and regionality are the only way that modern wines work, and this is a great example.
Excellent
$50 at Everything Wine
Spotlight on Spain: Alejandro Fernandez Condado de Haza 2005
Posted by Shea in $30-$40, Spain, Spanish Wine, Tempranillo, Very Good on March 7th, 2010
My next spotlight looks at a land with many histories, many traditions, many personalities and a flare for the confluence of modernity and tradition. It is also a land I will be visiting in about a month: Spain. I hope that this spotlight will serve to explore both the famous and not-so-famous regions of Spain, hopefully highlighting some of its lesser known D.O.’s and culminating in an in-the-flesh experience when I head there in person.
For me, Spain offers so much for the wine lover that one could spend a lifetime exploring the grapes and styles of Spain’s amazingly diverse wines. Spain also offers some of the best values in the wine world today. Forget Argentina and Chile – Spain is where you can get wines with flare, personality, depth, profundity, and litheness all for an excellent price.
The grapes for today’s wine were grown in Spain’s Ribera del Duero – the river valley that becomes the Douro in Portugal (the famous land of port). Ribera del Duero never used to be known for quality wine. Amazingly, in the last 20 years the region has completely reinvented itself, led by the venerable Vega Sicilia (see my profile of this famous estate), who set out to prove the region could make wines comparable to the best in France. While Vega Sicilia’s initial plan was to plant the French variety Cabernet Sauvignon, they discovered that it was in fact the indigenous variety Tempranillo that produced the greatest quality wines. Aging the wines for a long time in oak led to Vega Sicilia’s very distinct style.
However, other than Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero did not get much of any recognition until the producer of today’s wine sprung onto the scene: Alejandro Fernandez. Fernandez’s Tinto Pesquera was the first winery to make high quality Ribera del Duero wines that were not aged for a long time before release and which were a fraction of the cost of Vega Sicilia’s masterpieces. I think it is fair to say that Fernandez revolutionized the image of Ribera del Duero by focusing on quality. Even as the reputation of the region rose and fell (of course corresponding with grape prices), Fernandez never compromised on quality. This is a lesson for all B.C. wine makers who try to make wine for a certain palate at a certain price – throughout all the fluctuations and fortunes of Ribera del Duero, it was Fernandez’s focus on quality both in the vineyard and in wine making practices that allowed him to survive for so long. And now? Well Fernandez is one of the most respected names in Spain.
Today’s wine is from Fernandez’ “second” project Condado de Haza – with the quotation marks indicating that this winery is not producing wines of lesser quality than Pesquera – instead just a different style.
But before the wine, a little bit about the region. Ribera del Duero is actually a high elevation region, and as such, producers can have difficulty ripening grapes. This is somewhat contrary to Spain’s image as a warm climate region with easy ripening, and it might be hard to believe given the intense fruit of most Ribera del Duero wines. This intensity arises from two things. First, the climate is such that while days can reach temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, it also has very cool nights that shut down the grapes’ metabolism. This 
allows the grapes to gain in fruit during the day, but also ensures that the vines and leaves don’t suck up all the nutrients at night, meaning all the soil’s minerals go directly into the grapes. Second, the high altitude deprives the vines of oxygen and increases the thickness of the grape skins, with a concomitant increase in tannin and intensity.
Moving to the wine, this had a bold nose, lots of rich cherry, strawberry and blackberry. There is a charred meat component along with smoke and earth. I thought this was extremely expressive and also very interesting. For a wine of this price, the aromatics are outstanding. The palate showed a lot of youth, and I would like to see this wine with more bottle age. That said, I got tons of fruit, but also huge tannins – earth, char, dust and oak round out this extremely complex wine. Personality? Check. Approachability and ageability? Yes. Affordable? Absolutely. One of the best basic Crianzas in Spain. This is exactly why Spain is such a formidable presence in the world of wine. If only more North Americans would embrace the wines and increase the selection available – it is but a fraction of what is being produced today.
Very Good+ to Excellent
$35 at BCLDB or Kitsilano Wine Cellars
2010 Olympics BC Winery Profile: Meyer Family Vineyards
Posted by Shea in $30-$40, $40-$60, BC Wine, Canadian Wine, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Vancouver 2010 Olympics - BC Wines, Very Good on February 19th, 2010
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.
Champagne Day: Larmandier-Brunier “Terre de Vertus” Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru NV
Posted by Shea in $60+, Champagne, Excellent, French Wine on February 15th, 2010
I’ve decided that Champagne is both overlooked and too darn tasty not to drink more often. So, I’ve decided that once a month, on a random day, I will open a bottle of Champagne and write about it. This is the first of such ventures, and a good hold-over until my next BC winery profile.
Vertus, where this wine is grown and made, is located in the southern reaches of the Cote Des Blancs in Champagne – a region known for Blanc de Blancs (or Champagne made with 100% Chardonnay grapes). Champagne’s tradition is one of ‘houses’, with the great names buying grapes from unknown growers (at least to most consumers) and blending them together to make a range of wines, usually culminating in a prestige Cuvee (such as Roederer’s Cristal). However, most of the big houses also sell plenty of boring and overpriced blends for the average drinker, banking on their names. On the other side are what have become known as grower Champagnes, which are Champagnes made by the same farmers that grow the grapes. These have been gaining critical and wine geek traction as such producers attempt to make a vin de terroir.
However, all this said, a recent article by Jancis Robinson has put an important reflective caveat on valorizing all grower champagne by pointing out that there are also very good Champagnes from traditional houses. Personally, I’m still far more excted about the growers!
Pierre Larmandier, owner of Larmandier-Brunier, is clearly in favour of the grower Champagnes, being one himself. He spent a while studying in Alsace and Burgundy and noted that the best growers there got the same respect as the best producers. This, of course, is not traditionally the case in Champagne. Larmandier figures that as big houses “suffocating the vineyard”. “We have superb terroir” he says, “but we only make good wines from it”. Andrew Jefford in “The New France” calls Champagne traditionally “a wine of general appeal rather than particular excellence.” This pattern, however, is being challenged by the new breed of Grower-Producers who want the soil to express itself in Champagne in as profound a manner as Burgundy. As Jefford puts well, “We are prepared to pay that much for champagne not because it is worth it, but because there is no functional alternative and that is what the experience of drinking it costs.” This truism is unfortunate, and in my once monthly Champagne indulgance I will seek out the growers and producers putting this maxim to the chopping block.
Larmandier-Brunier’s “Terre de Vertus” is an attempt to express the terroir of their Vertus based vineyards as cleanly and articulately as possible. Extremely rare in Champagne, this wine has zero dosage, which means that no sugar is added to the wine after fermentation. This technique is traditionally used in order to up the residual sugar and balance the often highly acidic result of many sparkling wines.
Larmandier-Brunier is also a biodynamic domaine, and, accordingly, do not use additives or artificial fertalizers. Emphasis is put on viticulture and the resulting product is nothing short of outstanding. On their website Larmandier-Brunier explain the basics of their viticultural appraoch:
“The recipe for good-quality grapes is simple but demanding: old vines, working the soil, moderate yields; vines which thrive without having fertilisers forced into them, and mature grapes picked by hand.
But the terroir is not enough; it is to wine what the score is to music. What’s the point if the grape variety, the vineplant (the instrument) and the winegrower (the performer) are not up to standard?
Consequently, our vines are cultivated with respect for the terroir (ploughing, which favours deep-reaching roots and preserves the life of the soil) and respect for the balances of the plant throughout the growing period. In this way, the yields are naturally moderate and the wine shows its appreciation, through both its structure and its maturity.”
This was the most elegant Champagne I’ve tasted in my limited experience – very focused, delicate and intricate. The flavour – crisp apple and lithe stony mineral – is far less important to this Champagne than its texture and its structure. Oh so very clean while in the mouth, this evolves like a Wordsworthian poem, in ebbs and flows of pleasure and contemplation. But despite the subtlety of its flavour profile, this Champagne is also deeply mineral driven and presents a stony complexity that very few Champagnes I have had do. A fundamental match for salmon mousse or paté, this calls for foods with light delicate textures and focused primal flavours – I’m sure the classic oyster pairing would work fantastically here.
So, it’s time to forget about waiting for an excuse and start opening up a bottle of Champagne for no reason at all other than the moment itself. It’s well worth it: Champagne is quickly becoming the source of some of my all time favourite wine experiences.
Excellent
$110 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars
2010 Olympics BC Winery Profile: Hester Creek
Posted by Shea in BC Wine, Cabernet Franc, Canadian Wine, Merlot, Pinot Gris/Grigio, Semillon, Spotlights, Vancouver 2010 Olympics - BC Wines on February 12th, 2010
Writing about BC wines is a challenge for me. It’s a challenge because one of my biggest problems with the BC wine scene (other than our ludicrous liquor bureaucracy) is the lack of any proper critical appraisal of BC wines. Media outlets simply do not pan bad BC wine – instead either singing the praises of wines that simply can’t compare to international competition, or just not writing about wines that aren’t very good.
This is a huge shame to me because it doesn’t allow the BC wineries that are putting all their efforts into making quality wines that speak of place to shine through. These are the wineries we should be highlighting and juxtaposing to those wineries that haven’t got it quite right, particularly in the spirit of the 2010 Olympics where we are trying to highlight the BEST of Canada.
In the end, after many tastings, I think BC has the potential to become a wine region that produces consistently excellent quality wines. So, when I taste wines from BC I’m looking for wines that are courageous and that are taking the risks necessary to show unique ‘BC’ qualities. Given that we are such a new wine region, it takes a lot of courage and risk to try to put oneself out there and make wine in a BC style that does not mimic the likes of California and Australia.
From the perspective of new wineries, it is understandable that they wish to put a product out there that will sell, and so it is easy to emulate styles that are already proven successful in this market (i.e. US and Australian wines). The perfect analogy arises when we think back to high school days: when someone is insecure they try to copy something that is popular – but the best things about people arise when they are showing their own unique qualities and what is naturally good about who they are. BC is in just this dilemma. We are the “tweens” of the wine-world and we haven’t quite found our sense of self yet. When the likes of giant wine corporations like Vincor are dominating Olympic venues, it is time to start getting the word out on the best small producers in the province and not ’underwriting’ poorly made wines with ambiguous or meaningless reviews - it is the wineries taking risks and achieving results that deserve the praise and the pay-off. It is a wine writer’s duty to seek out and find these types of wineries and give them exposure and help them tell their story.
I’m going to be harsh in these reviews, but only because I want to highlight the quest for a sense of ’BCness’ in our wines and to promote what BC has to offer that is unique from every other region. Given some of the wines I tasted at Taste BC this year, I know that some of the wineries I will be profiling are going to pull through and show that they are taking the first steps towards adulthood.
The first winery I’m writing about is Hester Creek. I found writing this article very difficult because, to be honest, I did not enjoy the wines. But, I do appreciate how hard it is to get things right in the Okanagan and how wineries feel they need to cater to what they perceive to be mass-palate appeal. Hester Creek winery is situated in the Golden Mile area of the Okanagan. Here we go…
Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2008
With a nose of pear, nectarine, and peach, this was big and rich and finished off with hints of citrus, vanilla and honey. The palate brought more nectarine and peach – this is quite a big and full wine, but it is also overly rich and alcoholic. This is essentially a mimic of a basic Alsatian off-dry style. It’s actually not bad – I was honestly expecting less of the wine. However, it is hard to get a lot of the subtler fruit characteristics and aromatic complexity one comes to expect from well made Pinot Gris. The finish is also off-balance and somewhat sticky and hot. This wine would work better if it took more chances, reduced the residual sugar, and went for a fully dry and refreshing style. Also, as the wine warms up to serving temperature from fridge temperature it essentially loses its tightness and becomes a bit of a mess with flavours splashing all over the place.
In the end, this is somewhat of an innocuous wine that is ultimately inoffensive but also pretty boring. At this price point you can definitely get some decent whites, but this wine will certainly be better than most other Pinot Gris at this price point, except for carefully selected wines. But keep in mind that if selected carefully, you can get a far superior white to this for the same price. 13.8% ABV.
Fair
$17
Hester Creek Semillon Chardonnay (unoaked) 2008
The nose doesn’t give up a lot – maybe some sweet citrus (lemon and orange), licorice and a hint of minerality. The palate brings some mineral and is a bit tighter and firmer than the Pinot Gris, which is nice. There is actually a mineral component here behind the subtle citrus notes. I like that the wine is subtler and less punchy than the Pinot Gris since this gives it the ability to compliment food much more readily. I also enjoy the herbal and spice kick that the Semillon adds to the blend and I do think this wine is doing more than a lot of whites at this price point.
That said, the wine has unbalanced alcohol and, again, it isn’t as clean and crisp as it should be. It also does not quite have a sense of place nor is it a QPR mega-find. While many people would find this to be fine, to me it is exactly what I tend to associate with BC white wines that hope to achieve mass appeal: no sense of place, off balance alcohol, and not as crisp as it should be. However, you have to be fair here and you have to compare this wine to others in the same price category. 13.8% ABV.
Good
$16
Hester Creek Reserve Merlot 2005
This is very green on the nose, and is almost rubbery, with butterscotch and oak trying to hide the green bell pepper aromas that are a sign of ineffectively ripened fruit. The butterscotch and oak (mostly American) dominates the fruit on the palate, which also brings out plenty of vanilla and dill. There’s really no actual fruit showing through in this wine. I feel harsh here, but I can’t go anywhere good with this wine, especially at this price. I even tried to drink this with a burger (the easiest meat to pair with a big rich red) and they didn’t even go together because the oak flavours were so over the top.
No Good
$26
Hester Creek Cabernet Franc 2005
The nose on this is grapey, plumy and has cocoa dust, but ultimately is not giving up a lot right now. The palate is brighter and cleaner than the merlot, and while there is still way too much oak here, it is more retrained. This allows some of the herbaceous quality of the Cab Franc grape to come through, which is a good thing. My big concern with this wine, though, is its price. It is not delivering what it should at this price point at all. There are so many examples both of international wine and local BC wine that knock this out of the water. Many of the wineries I will be profiling in the next couple of weeks are perfect examples of how BC can over deliver for these price points. This wine is not one of them.
Fair to Good
$26
Overall this was an extremely disappointing look at BC wine, and it is unfortunate that this is how the series began. However, I see this as a good point of juxtaposition for the wineries to come. BC does make excellent wine – but it is wines like the ones I just reviewed that give many the impression that we don’t really know what we’re doing here. While we do have plenty to learn, steps are being taken to push the envelope and challenge the quality threshold, and, as I discovered at the recent Taste BC tasting, there are BC wineries that are absolutely going down the right track (see, for example, my recent article on Le Vieux Pin’s “Belle” Pinot Noir). I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you.
*Full disclosure, I received these wines as samples.
Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir: Le Vieux Pin “Belle” 2006
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, BC Wine, Canadian Wine, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Very Good on February 6th, 2010
In the last post of my Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir I move, finally, to my home, British Columbia. I decided to approach this region last in order to reflect back on my experiences with the various New World regions as I searched for a BC Pinot Noir that could stand up in quality to these other regions. This is undoubtedly a tough task right now since the region is so young (at about 30 years) and the growing conditions for Pinot Noir not ideal.
In fact, British Columbia is one of the world’s most northerly wine growing regions, with an extremely short growing season and early frosts. However, on the other side of the spectrum, since it is the northernmost tip of the Sonora Desert, the inner Okanagan Valley also sees heat spikes up to 40 degrees centigrade in the summer. This sort of heat can shut the metabolic processes of wine grapes down completely, making for uneven ripening and unbalanced sugar levels. The large Lake Okanagan does produce a lake effect and so offers a cooling influence that can temper the impact of the severe temperatures (whether hot or cold), but there are still many challenges for growers in British Columbia.
Many believe that BC, and the Okanagan in particular, is best suited for high acid, fragrant white wines such as Riesling. I do not disagree; in fact, most of the best wines I’ve tried from BC are white. However, at the recent Taste BC tasting, I discovered that some producers are also having a very serious go at making high quality Pinot Noir; and, while not many producers are succeeding, some are pushing the boundaries of what I thought was possible in British Columbia. One such winery is Le Vieux Pin.
Le Vieux Pin started as a project to produce “terroir” based wines in the Okanagan, mimicking the style of French wines from cooler climates, such as Burgundy and Alsace. The winery is located on the East Bench of Oliver, in the South Okanagan Valley and produced its first vintage in 2005.
In order to achieve its goal, Le Vieux Pin crops at a very low yield level, dry farms (which must be a challenge in the low-precipitation Okanagan), and uses minimal fertilizer. They also claim to have distinct soil compositions in each of their vineyards, with soils ranging from sandy to high gravel, and heavy claim and loam. These distinct soil conditions are the basis for the variation in their wines rather than particular wine making techniques. Le Vieux Pin produces three single vineyard Pinot Noirs, each of which receives the same treatment in the cellar. While I only have had the opportunity to taste one of the wines from this range, I was impressed with its structure and personality, and I did feel it was expressing a particular place.
In fact, I could not place this wine anywhere in the spectrum of New World Pinot Noirs I had tasted so far. The nose was reminiscent of an Oregon Pinot Noir, but the body clearly derived from far less ripe fruit, even while it had greater tannin density than many of the Oregon Pinots I’ve had. In fact, the palate was distinctly earthy and driven by more herbal flavours than you would expect after smelling its nose of cherry cola, baking spice, and cassis. Le Vieux Pin calls this a Pinot Noir for Syrah lovers, and I can actually see what they are getting at. While less ripe than all of the other Pinot Noirs (save perhaps the Rippon from New Zealand), it was still fresh and fruity enough not to taste sour or underripe. My suspicion is that they may have had a difficult time ripening the tannins (skins) in the grapes for this wine as the grapes sugar levels are clearly sufficient. It’s not a perfect Pinot Noir, but it is a wine with personality, and I appreciate that achievement.
Given this uniqueness I would love the opportunity to do both a vertical tasting and a horizontal tasting across the various vineyards.
Very Good+
$45 at Viti, Sutton Wine Merchants, and other private stores
*Full disclosure: I received this bottle of wine as a sample.
To wrap up my Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir series, in my opinion there are distinct styles being made across the New World and Pinot Noir seems to have a far greater diversity of personality than Cabernet Sauvignon does in these regions. In particular, the flavour and style variations I experienced in Oregonian Pinot were exciting, and I think that while this region is young now and learning the ropes, it has the potential to evolve into a mature region producing singular wines with personality. It has a ways to go, but I’m excited at its potential.
New Zealand also continues to be a region for me to watch, although I think it has a considerable challenge with respect to its pricing. The quality is just not there to justify prices mostly above $60 for the higher quality wines. There are just too many Pinot Noirs from elsewhere that have a better quality to price ratio.
Despite my amazing experience with Sojourn Cellars, California continues not to excite me that much. Clearly there is potential here, as Sojourn proves, but too many of the wines are good but not great, and have a more fundamental sameness than the Pinot Noirs from further north. Chile, for me, is also not quite up to par overall with Oregon, even as I did enjoy the Matetic considerably. Again, Chile is a region with potential, but a long way to go. I would put Australia in this category as well. The great producers, such as Grosset, can make good Pinot Noir in the right regions. But, overall, Pinot Noir from Australia generally disappoints, and Grosset is making wines far above the norm.
Lastly, British Columbia is the youngest region in the spotlight, and it shows. That said, good producers are pushing the boundaries and I think it will be possible to produce some good Pinot Noir in the province. However, doing so will be expensive and will rely on the appropriate sites. Most of British Columbia still remains suited to aromatic whites. But, I appreciate that there are wineries out there to make wine with personality and ‘terroir’ rather than simply producing wine to achieve great commercial reviews and maximum extract and fruit.
In the end, this has been a fascinating journey and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it.
Up next is a special series for the Olympics that will focus on some of our best BC wineries – with particular emphasis on the small guys, who, in my opinion, are not getting fair or proper exposure in the Olympics (that’s the topic for another rant). I hope people will spread word of these profiles around a bit so that some visitors might happen upon some of the articles and wines and truly taste what BC has to offer.
Spotlight on New World Pinot Noir: Grosset Pinot Noir 2005
Posted by Shea in $60+, Australian Wine, Excellent, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights on February 4th, 2010
Australia is not a land known for Pinot Noir. Notwithstanding its current market woes, with people turning away from its innocuous ‘critter’ wines in ever increasing droves, Australia just never built a reputation for this storied grape. Not that it didn’t try to. It’s just that Australian Pinot Noir never really produces wines so easy to consume as its jammy shirazes. There have been growers bucking this trend though, especially in the regions surrounding Melbourne, such as the Yarra Valley, which tends to be a lot cooler than the rest of Southern Australia. Also, Australia has quite strict quarantine provisions that, unlike New Zealand and Oregon, have prevented the newest Dijon clones from being planted. If Australia opens its borders, the potential for Pinot Noir will likely dramatically increase.
The Grosset Pinot Noir is actually from a region lesser known for its Pinot Noirs and more for its Sauvignon Blancs, the Adelaide Hills. Located in South Australia, just north of the McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills is a very sparsely planted region compared to Australia’s major regions. It is also right on the edge of the city of Adelaide, and so the region is being encroached upon by expanding suburbs. The region’s very high elevation and relative proximity to the ocean ensure a consistently cool and misty environment, which is fairly ideal for Pinot Noir, and also provides a stark contrast to nearby McLaren Vale, which is very dry and hot. The high altitude (400m above sea level) and very cool nights tends to produce wines with sharp acidity; but, I would add that in the right hands red wines from this region retain a freshness that eludes so many Australian wines, particularly those that we tend to find on our continent.
While Grosset is famous for its Clare Valley Rieslings, which are surely some of the best in Australia, this Pinot Noir is not made from estate fruit, but from fruit purchased from vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. That doesn’t seem to impact the quality of this wine negatively in any way however, and the master hand of Jeff Grosset is very evident here. Distinct in Australia, Jeff Grosset has always believed in making wines with a sense of place. While the rest of the industry was busy blending grapes from across the country to produce their innocuous shiraz and cabernet blends, Grosset remained true to his passion for producing ‘terroir’ driven wines that still spoke of Australia, but did so with more character than normal. I think it is thanks to people like Jeff Grosset that Australia has the stuffing to weather its current export crisis and reemerge as a region with distinct terroirs, passions, and diversity. When I attended a tasting of Victoria wines last year to help support victims of the bush fires, I experienced a plethora of cooler climate wines that were all doing different things and beating a completely different drum than what most people have come to associate with Australia. And, as I have discovered over the years, there are wines like this from all over Australia, if we are only lucky enough to find them, and have an importer choose to bring them on to this continent for us. We are on the cusp of a huge transformation in the Australian wine industry, and I think it will be for the better.
I wish I could have found some information on the site and soil conditions for this Pinot Noir, but alas could not. I would very much appreciate if anyone can leave some of this information in the comments as I (and I’m sure many readers) would love to know. The nose on this was spicy, earthy and leafy but with good richness and concentration to the cherry and strawberry fruit notes. In other words, the nose was classic richly styled Pinot Noir – but with grace. The palate had good fruit, but far less up front and concentrated than I was expecting. This allowed the other flavours to come through – earth, spice, and a tart crispness that kept this very fresh. I would actually never have guessed this was from Australia and personally found the wine to be absolutely outstanding – by far the best I’ve had from Aussie-land. I think the little bit of age on this bottle helped it to integrate and present itself perfectly when I opened it.
This wine starkly contrasts with my other favourite wine of this series – the Sojourn Pinot from Sonoma – instead focusing on fruit freshness, a clean palate, and bright robust spicyness. This is a true cool-climate New World Pinot Noir and is worth seeking out if you have the chance. I would not hesitate spending this much on the wine again.
Excellent
$70 at Marquis
Winery Profile: Le Clos Jordanne
Posted by Shea in $30-$40, $40-$60, $60+, Canadian Wine, Chardonnay, Excellent, Pinot Noir, Tastings, Very Good on January 28th, 2010
My relationship to Canadian wine is both similar and dissimilar to most Canadians. It is similar because I have great pride for my country, as many Canadians do. It is dissimilar because for me pride translates into expectations. I would like my country to be famous for more than just ice hockey and doughnuts, and I demand excellence from Canada because I know we can live up to that standard. When we don’t, I feel disappointed but I never give up my search for the exceptional. While sitting at a table surrounded by other Vancouver bloggers and social media types and five glasses of wine I discovered excellence in Canadian wine, for the first time. Le Clos Jordanne has, for me, broken the threshold of quality that I have been searching for in Canadian wine for years. And, I am proud that we finally managed to do it. That Le Clos Jordanne is from Ontario does not bug me as a recently minted BC resident. I think our regionalism detracts from our nation, and I think that we should all be proud of what Canadians are doing no matter where they are from.
Le Clos Jordanne is a joint venture between Vincor and Domaine Boisset from Burgundy. The idea was to start a winery completely from scratch to capture the ‘terroir’ of a particular area of the Niagara Pininsula in Ontario around the village of Jordan. The Niagara Escarpment, on which the Niagara wine region of Ontario is located, has a limestone base deposited by the Glacier that carved out the Escarpment so many years ago. The Escarpment, combined with the cooling influence of Lake Ontario, provides the region with enough warm air to allow wine grapes to ripen properly, even given the extreme climate and, accordingly, frost and short growing season concerns.
Viticulture Manager Thomas Bachelder explained that the aim to produce wines with a sense of place was a decision to take the lessons of Burgundy seriously and to treat the terroir with respect rather than simply copying certain methods. Whereas California became giddy with malo-lactic fermentation and heavy French oak treatment despite the fact that their terroir was nothing like Mersault, Le Clos Jordanne aims to produce wines whose oak and fermentation process compliment the climate, soil, and growing conditions of the grapes. I think they have learned these lessons well (likely because Thomas spent time learning to make wine in Burgundy), and I am hugely impressed with the various wines’ ability to remain distinct from each other, despite very similar treatment in the cellar.
Recently in Montreal a group of wine experts set up a remake of the famous judgment of Paris tasting of 1976 that saw California wines beat French wines in a blind tasting. The idea was to pit France vs. America again, although this time with different wines. However, unbenknownst to the experts, a Le Clos Jordanne Claystone Chardonnay was snuck into the lineup and, amazingly, won top honours in the Chardonnay category. And, just so you have a sense which producers the wine was competing against, consider the likes of Jean-Claude Boisset, Joseph Drouhin, Mer Soleil, Sonoma-Cutrer, and Chateau Montelena, amongst others. These are serious competitors who are well respected and garner high scores from all sorts of media. As much as such tastings must be taken with a grain of salt, I think that this achievement is significant.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the wines. In a non-traditional move we were encouraged to begin with the Pinot Noirs before moving on to the Chardonnays. The first wine was the basic ‘village wine’ Village Reserve Pinot Noir 2006, which retails here in BC for $30. This was very forward and fruity, with a nose of spice, and medium bodied cherry. While simple, the palate is also really enjoyable with its dense but grippy medium body, hint of caramel and spice, and fantastic density and delineation. Very Good+.
I next moved on to one of the single vineyard offerings, the Claystone Pinot Noir 2006, retailing at $45. This was a big step up in terms of structure from the basic village wine. It had a softer, stonier nose, with a decidedly twiggy element. The palate was again soft, but also fruit driven and very elegant. Its grippy dry texture is austere but also draws into a lengthy and wonderful mineral finish. Very Good+ to Excellent.
The last red, the Grand Clos Pinot Noir 2006, was a selection of the best parts of the vineyards, and is a big very complex wine that is still very young. The nose had fantastic layering even as it was difficult to derive all the aromas just yet. Its red berry fruit was, as Thomas said, distinct from many New World Pinot Noirs, which often tend towards darker, richer fruits. The palate had a touch of grapefruit, some eucalyptus, and a spicy mid-palate. The great mid-palate structure will allow this to sit a while and develop more significant separation of all the complex layers. This is very likeable, but also reserved. Excelent. $70.
And, now on to the whites, beginning with the Claystone Chardonnay 2006 (the winner of the Montreal tasting). These chardonnays are unlike anything else being done with the grape in Canada that I’ve tasted so far, and are certainly vastly superior to most every BC chardonnay I’ve tasted. In fact, these are almost dead ringers for very tasty Burgundy wines, even while still having a sense of place. Is it distinctly Ontarian? Well, that will probably take some time to tell, but this is a great start. The nose is rich and has pineapple, banana and licorice. But this is not a flabby or buttery chardonnay. No, this has great acidity, is very clean and highlights its citrus flavours while offering hints of opulence with its banana and caramel. The long, minerally finish brings the palate back down to earth and keeps the opulence in check. A very good chard. Very Good+.
The last wine, a Grand Clos Chardonnay 2006, was my wine of the tasting. It is still reserved and I can understand why some would prefer the Claystone right now, but for me this kind of chardonnay is what you would see in a young Premier or Grand Cru chablis – tightness, almost reticence, but with the promise of greatness. The palate doesn’t give a lot up yet, but is dense and very complex. The texture is rich and wonderful – very rounded and even more opulent than the Claystone – but the structure is outstanding. This is real chardonnay, built for food, and could one day rival an excellent wine from Burgundy. Excellent.
In conclusion, these are the first wines from Canada that I’ve given an excellent rating to, and they well deserved it. For me, they broke the quality threshold that I’ve been longing for all these years. My only hope is that as many of you as possible can get the chance to taste these. Right now they are in very limited supply (I believe some are at 39th and Cambie), but if you want to taste great Canadian wine, these are absolutely worth seeking out. Colour me extremely impressed.
Spotlight On New World Pinot Noir: Matetic EQ Pinot Noir 2005
Posted by Shea in $40-$60, Chilean Wine, New World Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Very Good on January 26th, 2010
So my idea to have weekly spotlights seems to have been thrown for a loop. I still love the idea of spotlights, though, so I’m just going to continue a given spotlight for however long it takes me to complete, interspersed with other posts. The current spotlight on New World Pinot Noir has been fascinating for me, and while I originally did not plan to try a Chilean Pinot Noir, a reader convinced me otherwise. After tossing a few ideas around I settled on this, the 2005 Matetic Pinot Noir from the San Antonio Valley. Matetic is one of the most important producers in the region and is widely considered to make one of the best Pinot Noirs in Chile.
Chile has always been a particularly distinct region, being so isolated that it is one of the last remaining places on earth where the original vitis vinifera vines can be planted without grafting them onto Phylloxera resistant rootstock. While water is scarce, necessitating irregation in most regions, it is still extremely cheap to grow vines in Chile given the consistently even climate, almost total lack of rot, and cheap land. And, don’t forget that non-grafted vines are much cheaper to plant. Of course, with developing popularity comes increasing land prices and more and more foreign interest. In fact, many wineries in Chile have been started by jet-setting foreigners, one of the most important of which is the Spanish producer Torres who helped bring recognition to Chile in the first place.
While the Central Valley is by far the most famous and most important region in Chile, with its sub-regions such as Maipo and Colchagua, the San Antonio Valley (a subregion of Aconcagua) is one of Chile’s hot new regions. It is particularly interesting for white varieties and for Pinot Noir since it has one of the coolest climates in Chile, being so close to the coast. Casa Marin, for instance, makes my favourite Sauvignon Blanc in Chile with grapes grown in this region. This new region, first planted in 1997 and officially recognized in 2002, has infertile soils of of clay and granite that help add depth and complexity to the wines grown here.
Matetic is run by a Croatian family that immigrated to Chile over 100 years ago, made a fortune in ironworking, and bought the Matetic estate about 20 years ago. A massive 16 000 hectare property, the Matetic family started planting vines here in the 90’s and made their first wines in 1999. Matetic is unique in Chile not because it is organic, which is becoming increasingly popular, but because it has been a pioneer in taking up Biodynamics in the country – a form of vineyard management and winemaking that is becoming increasingly important as much as it is also controversial. The Matetic estate is only 20km from the sea, making it particularly exposed to the very cool Pacific breezes. Of course, this also makes the 120 hectares of planted property particularly well suited for growing cool climate grapes such as Pinot Noir. The diurnal temperature fluctuations make this property particularly good at maintaining natural acidity in their wines while also producing wines with big fruit flavours. If you are curious to view a bit of the estate, take a gander at this video shot by wineanorak writer Jamie Goode.
Now, to the wine! The nose is very Chilean with its distinctive funk, somewhat like an earthy and twiggy cassis bramble. Otherwise, underling the intense power of the funk on the nose are hints of cherry and earth. With air, the nose mellows and adds chocolate and more earth. The palate is both classic and unique: cherry twigs, and generally massive fruit. There is good depth to the mid-palate here with earth, twigs and a punch of spice. This is really flavourful, but also starts out with a hot chocolatey finish (it is 14.5% ABV). I found after a couple hours of air, however, the heat dissipated and the alcohol integrated well into the wine.
In the final analysis, this is unique wine, but it also doesn’t really taste like typical Pinot Noir. There is such a distinctive “Chilean funk” quality to it (similar to what you get w/ the cabs and the carmeneres down there), and I have to admit I am not a fan of that funk. I almost feel like it is a flaw, but I suppose it is something unique about Chilean terroir. That said, I do think this is elegant and tremendously structured and a very good value at $50. Also, many people actually like that distinct Chilean funk, and if you do you will probably love this wine. Most U.S. Pinots at the $50 price in Canada would not have this level of structure. I think this is a peculiar wine with aging potential and I think it’s an enticing hint at the possibilities of Chilean Pinot Noir. It doesn’t bowl me over, but it makes me think.
Very Good+
$50 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars
Spotlight On New World Pinot Noir: Rippon Pinot Noir 2006
Posted by Shea in $60+, New World Pinot Noir, New Zealand Wines, Pinot Noir, Spotlights, Very Good on January 18th, 2010
Today’s Pinot Noir spotlight jumps several thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean to the world’s most southerly wine growing region: New Zealand. New Zealand is a relative newcomer in international wine markets, despite having grown grapes since the middle of the 19th century. In the late 20th century, vine plantings grew over 5400% from a mere 100 acres in the 1960’s to over 50 000 acres today. This phenomenal increase in plantings has been accompanied by a concurrent growth in wineries, which now number over 500.
Of course, New Zealand first became famous internationally for its distinctive style of Sauvignon Blanc, with its big pungent and forward fruit flavours. These days, however, New Zealand is also growing a reputation for other grapes, notably Chardonnay and the subject of today’s post, Pinot Noir. New Zealand is also a predominantly maritime climate that sees abundant rainfall and quite warm temperatures, with the daily average across the year being 10 degrees Celsius (50 F). In fact, New Zealand has quite rich soil conditions, which has in the past made growing wine challenging because of the vines’ prevalence towards overabundance. This made it difficult for New Zealand wine makers to keep the yields low enough and have the vines struggle enough to produce complex wines. Recent developments in canopy management, which corresponded in time to the increased interest in quality New Zealand wines in the 80’s and 90’s, have allowed grape growers to mitigate these effects significantly.
The country itself is so incredibly long that one can find significant climactic variations from north to south. Marlborough in the north, for example, has cool and clear nights in the summer and a relatively long growing season. The longer growing season allows denser and richer wines than in the south, and the 2005 Dog Point Pinot Noir I had recently was a testament to that with deep, rich, dark, and brooding flavours.
Central Otago, where this wine is from, is distinct in New Zealand. Not only is it extremely southerly, but it also has New Zealand’s only continental climate. This climate sees greater spikes in temperature than the rest of the country (since continental climates are diurnal), and wine makers have to deal with such problems as frost damage to the vines. Even with these challenges, Central Otago has emerged as New Zealand’s premier Pinot Noir region, with over 75% of the plantings being of that variety. The prominence of Pinot Noir might have to do with the great benefit that Central Otago has over the rest of New Zealnad: very dry summers and autumns, which prevent the very sensitive Pinot Noir grape from rotting. Additionally, unlike the rest of New Zealand, most of the vineyards here are planted on hillsides rather than on flat land, allowing for greater sun exposure – thereby reducing the risk of frost damage.
Rippon Vineyard is located next to Lake Wanaka, which was the first sub-region within Central Otago to be developed. A big trend in New Zealand these days is a movement to continue to develop sustainable viticulture. Rippon is a completely biodynamic vineyard, using almost no additives in its winemaking and grape growing practices. The Rippon vineyards are planted on schist soils (an important soil type that sees greater water drainage than usual). There are also deposits of “glacial meal” left in the soil from the time when a glacier carved out the valley in which the vineyard is located.
Rippon has a pretty interesting mission for a New World winery: to create a “vin de terroir” – much like Randal Graham I suppose. However, unlike Bonny Doon, I think that Rippon has a very distinct site within which to pursue this goal. The soil types are unique, as is the 
climate, and the winery’s adherence to biodynamic principles is promising. That said, I do not think they have quite met their goal yet, but I do believe there is great potential here.
The wine itself was actually quite like a Beaujolais Cru in many ways, with a stark stony personality and lots of pebbles. The fruit was bright, and classic, cherry, which drove the wine forward over the bed of earth and herbs. My biggest complaint with this wine was that it was lacking body. Now, I’m not requesting a higher ABV (this was 13%), but rather a little more depth to the texture. I would have liked to also see more mid-palate structure and a longer finish. Right now, the quality of the wine does not justify its price point. However, this is unique from all the other Pinot Noirs I’ve tasted so far in a manner that I have not yet seen. That is, I feel this wine could very well become a vin de terroir if the winery keeps improving its practices, and, one day, the right vintage hits. There is the potential for profundity here, even if the wine is not quite the cup of ambrosia it is trying to become. I look forward to the future of the Central Otago with great anticipation if wines from the likes of Rippon are any indication. Right now, though, this is not quite what it should be.
Very Good+
$80 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar
