Photo: Winemaker Brendon Gehringer
One day last September, a truck loaded with 15,000 pounds of California-grown Sauvignon Blanc grapes rolled up the driveway at Gehringer Brothers Winery just as I was interviewing winemaker Brendon Gehringer.
Like almost all wineries in the South Okanagan, the winery had no crop from its own vineyards due to the severe frost damage during the 2024 vintage. “To help keep our cellar doors open and ensure we had wine (for the market), we elected to purchase fruit from the USA for our 2024 vintage,” the winery explains in the technical sheets accompanying the 2024 releases.
“It is all uncharted territory for us,” Brendon told me as we watched the truck pull into the yard. “It is not something I have ever dealt with.”
Photo: Newly arrived Sauvignon Blanc outside the Gehringer winery
Brendon represents the next generation of the Gehringer family. He is the son of Walter, one of the two founding brothers in the business. While his father and his uncle Gordon had both received their winemaker training in Germany, Brendon elected to go to Australia for his schooling. That led to a lengthy stay there before he returned to the family business in the summer of 2023.
He was just in time to endure the winter that wiped out all of Gehringer’s crop and about 15 acres (40%) of the vineyard, all of which has been or will be replanted.
“I was prepared to go to Germany,” he says. “My German is good enough for me to get by. But there were a number of newer winemakers coming to the valley that are of Australian background or Australian-trained. The discussion was that if I went to Germany, I would learn something similar to what we already know. Going to Australia would give us a different perspective.”
Brendon enrolled in Adelaide University’s wine program in 2008. After university, he worked for a year or so at a small sparkling wine producer. “I learned a fair bit there are far as that process goes,” he says. “They were quite a small facility. I was essentially their one employee in the winery. I got to do everything. It was a neat experience.”
Then he did a vintage with a large export-oriented winery in McLaren Vale. “It was not a place where I would have enjoyed working for a long term but it was a neat experience to see how larger wineries operate,” Brendon says.
From there he moved to Kellermeister Wines in the Barossa Valley late in 2014, working with owner Mark Pearse. The winery is smaller than Gehringer Brothers, producing about 8,000 cases a year.
“It was a good job there, working for a smaller producer that was making some really good wine,” Brendon says. “Because it was a small facility, it was between me as the assistant winemaker, and the owner, Mark Pearse, who was senior winemaker. We essentially ran most of the show. It was good experience to see the full process from grapes to bottle and be personally involved in the whole aspect. I had grown up in a small winery where we had that same hands-on approach from grapes to bottle. I fitted in there quite well. Mark appreciated having me there and he treated me quite well.”
However, there always was the pull of the family winery in the Okanagan. Walter Gehringer once told me that if Brendon (who had acquired an Australian wife and a young family) did not return from Australia, the Gehringers might have to sell the winery.
“It had gotten to the point where Claire and I were figuring out what our next plan should be,” Brendon recalls. “I enjoyed my job at Kellermeister but we had this opportunity to move back to Canada and the family business.”
Initially, he got involved with the Okanagan winery remotely. “While I was still at Kellermeister, I told my boss that I would like to try a little bit of stuff with the family business. He was supportive of that. For about a year, I spent one day a week from Australia on the family business. Then I decided I was not quite staying on top of my job at Kellermeister. So I needed make a decision to dive into the family business a bit more. So I spent another year and a bit working from home for Gehringer Brothers, but remotely. Taking care of the website; design aspect things; spending a fair amount of time on the phone with Dad. After working remotely for the business here for a year and a bit, we decided to move. We timed it so my eldest would start kindergarten. We came to the Okanagan in August 2023.”
Brendon has some ideas about new directions that Gehringer Brothers might explore, given his Australian experience. “Right now, it is in a bit of a holding pattern,” he told me last fall. “We are going to keep the status quo and keep things where they are at. Longer term, it would be nice to have a bit more emphasis on red wines. In Australia, the biggest portion of what we made was red wine. I enjoyed learning a lot about that there. It would be nice to have an opportunity here to bring that here.”
He elaborates: “It would be nice to create a few higher tiers, a few premium products. There is an interest in premium products. People have come by and said we really like your wine but it is almost not expensive enough to justify buying this. In certain social spheres, it makes a difference as far as the value of the wine you put on the table. Whether the wine any good or not is almost a side note. It is more, ‘how much did you pay for it.’ It would be nice to provide that but I feel there still needs to be a certain value. The quality has to match if you are charging a lot more for the wine. There has to be a value proposition there as well.”
Here are notes on the current releases in what the winery calls its international series. The prices are wholesale but reflect the Gehringer tradition of very good value.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Dry Riesling 2024 ($13.45). This wine was suffering still from bottling shock that appeared to have supressed the varietal flavours. It is made with Washington grapes that were given a long, cool ferment. It shows aromas and flavours of citrus, with a crisply dry finish. 88.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Riesling 2024 ($13.45). Made with Washington grapes, this is an off-dry wine in the traditional Gehringer style. There was no bottle shock here. The delicious wine is full of aromas and flavours of citrus and nectarine, with a generous texture and a long finish. 92.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Desert Sun 2024 ($9.86). This off-dry white blend is made with grapes from both California and Washington (the winery has not published the varietals). The wine has aromas and flavours of peaches and nectarines. The residual sugar, nicely balanced with acidity, gives the wine a bit of weight on the palate. 90.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Chardonnay Unoaked 2024 ($13.45). This wine is made with California grapes, fermented cool and given extended lees contact. The wine presents in the glass with a lightly golden hue, with aromas of apples and peaches that are echoed on the palate. 90.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($14.25). The fruit is from California. When the grapes arrived at the winery, they were crushed, given 12 hours on the skins and then pressed. This enhanced the aromas and flavours of lime, grapefruit and mango. The finish is crisp and zesty. 90.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Pinot Gris 2024 ($14.25). This wine was made with California grapes. When they arrived at the winery, they were allowed a long, cool ferment. The flavours and aromas are fresh with notes of peaches and pears. The finish is long. 89.
Gehringer Brothers International Series Rosé 2024 ($13.06). This wine is with California Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, pressed gently and allowed a long, cool ferment. The wine delivers a juicy mouthful of cherry, strawberry and raspberry flavours. 89
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