Forgotten Hill Wine Co.
3960 Cottonwood Lane
Naramata, BC
Tel:
1-250-496-5600
At 2,100 feet above sea level, Forgotten Hill proprietors
Maya and Benoit Gauthier have the highest-elevation winery vineyard in the
Okanagan.
This Naramata Bench winery, which has just opened its
by-appointment tasting room, grows primarily Pinot Gris, with a few rows of
Pinot Noir, in a four-acre vineyard. The vines are above the Kettle Valley
Railroad right of way, now a popular hiking and biking trail.
The tasting room is adjacent to an elegant bed and breakfast
destination, also called Forgotten Hill, which opened five years ago. The view
from the B&B is nothing short of breathtaking, encompassing vineyards and
wineries along Okanagan Lake from Naramata to Penticton.
It was that view that led Maya’s parents, Denys and Cherry
Bouton, to buy this property in 2004.
“There was no name to this hill,” Maya says. “That is why we
call it Forgotten Hill. When we first moved here, there was nothing – no power,
no water. Nobody knew that this land was available. Everybody thought it was
just crown land up in the woods. No, it was land that had been owned by a
logging company for 90 years.”
Maya continues the story: “My parents wanted to have family
land. Both sides of the family had vineyards and land but over time, everything
was lost. My dad is French, from Paris, and my mom is from India. My Mom’s
family lost everything in Partition and Dad’s family lost stuff during the war.
They both had this dream of having a piece of land for the family. Once we
started coming here, we all fell in love with it.”
Maya grew up in North Vancouver and went to Simon Fraser
University to earn a degree in English literature and communications. She thought
about continuing on to a master’s degree. However, when the decision was made
to plant a vineyard in 2008, she enrolled in the viticulture and winemaking
program at Okanagan College.
“I spent a year doing viticulture,” she says. “Driving a
tractor was too much fun.”
She met Benoit at Okanagan College, where he was also
studying winemaking and viticulture after catching the wine bug in California. He
was born in 1980 in Rouyn Noranda in Québec. He took a degree in chemistry in a
co-operative program at the University of Sherbrooke.
“Every second semester, I had a work placement in industry,”
he says. That included experience at a pharmaceutical company and a paint
company. One assignment with the federal government in Ottawa had him
determining the age of legal documents by analyzing solvents in the ink.
“At the end of my bachelor, I did not see myself going into
chemistry, either for a master’s or for a living,” Benoit says. “It was just
too specialized and too narrow. I love nature and I love to work with my hands;
and I love science. And I love wine, beer and good food. So I just decided to
take a pause and go travelling a little bit.”
He spent a month with a friend in San Francisco. “I visited
Napa and Sonoma, drank some really good wines and visited some vineyards,” he
remembers. “I thought that maybe winemaking would be suitable for me.”
Returning to Canada, he considered Brock University but
settled on the practical training at Okanagan College.
“All the teachers are winemakers and viticulturists,” Benoit
says. “I thought it was a good way to learn the hands-on experience right away.
With my bachelor of chemistry, I also looked at a master in winemaking. Sitting
at a desk, you learn good things, but winemaking is really hands on.”
He then spent two years at Wild Goose Vineyards, mentoring
with Hagen Kruger, the winemaker and co-proprietor there. Maya, meanwhile,
spent two years at Township 7 Vineyards, working with winemaker Brad Cooper.
When Benoit and Maya married in 2009, they spent their
honeymoon at a large winery in New Zealand’s Marlborough region, working a
vintage. Returning to Canada, he spent a
year at Pentâge Winery and then took a year off to help build the Forgotten
Hill bed and breakfast house. Maya worked in winery tasting rooms until the
demands of raising two young daughters and managing the B&B took all her
time.
When the house building project was concluded, Benoit
resumed his winemaking career, joining Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery in
2011. Since 2014, he has been fulltime winemaker there.
Photo: The view from Forgotten Hill
He and Maya acknowledge that it was controversial to plant
their high-elevation vineyard. “Nine years ago, when we were looking to plant
our vineyard, there was no information,” Maya says. “You can get charts for the
whole valley – temperature, soil, all the information you could want for
planting. Everything stopped right at the KVR and there was nothing beyond it.
We started calling this ‘forgotten hill’ at that point.”
So they established their own weather station to gather the
necessary data. “When we took our own measurements over a few years, we were
confident the growing conditions would not be that much different from the
vineyards just below us,” Maya says. “We have a big rock face just behind the
vineyard that reflects the heat.”
“And the slope is perfect, too,” Benoit says. “It is a
gentle slope facing south/southwest.
There is really good air drainage.” In winter, an insulating layer of
snow usually remains on the vineyard while vineyards lower on the hillside are
often bare.
While the vineyard is planted almost entirely to Pinot Gris,
a small block of Pinot Noir was planted as an “experiment,” Benoit says. It
proved to be a suitable choice and, with as much as 10 more plantable acres,
more Pinot Noir vines will be planted next year. He also purchases varieties
such as Merlot and Syrah which would not flourish at this elevation.
Maya and Benoit sold grapes in 2013 but, to assess quality of
the fruit, made wine for person consumption in 2012 and 2014. The results led
to the production of commercial quantities in 2015 under another winery’s
license while getting Forgotten Hill licensed last year.
“In 2016, I think we produced 560 cases,” Benoit says. “This
coming vintage, we need to produce about 660 cases. And probably step it up to
750 or 800 cases the year after. We will take it slow and easy to establish
ourselves. We are pretty busy.”
Indeed. He is also working the vineyard and making wine at
Noble Ridge. Jim and Leslie D’Andrea, owners of Noble Ridge, are rare among
winery owners who allow their winemakers to pursue sideline projects.
“This is kind of my weekend project,” Benoit laughs. “Noble
Ridge is my fulltime gig. This allows me to experiment with different
winemaking methods, different styles. I am doing Syrah here, so it kind of
extends my winemaking skills. Who knows, maybe in 10 years? For the time being,
I am happy to make small lots and serve them to our guests.”
Here are notes on current releases which, except for the
Pinot Noir, can be found in VQA
marketing channels.
Forgotten Hill Pinot
Gris 2015 ($19.04 for 185 cases). This wine reflects a warm vintage. It is
rich in texture with flavours of ripe pear and almond and with a hint of spice
and minerality on the finish. 90.
Forgotten Hill Pinot
Gris 2016 ($19.04 for 108 cases). Benoit split the juice into three lots,
using a different yeast with each one to achieve complexity. The wine begins
with floral and citrus aromas. On the palate, there are flavours of citrus,
apples and pears. The bright acidity gives a refreshing lift to both the aromas
and the flavours. 91.
Forgotten Hill Rosé
($19.04 for 135 cases). The blend is 81% Merlot, 19% Pinot Noir. The wine has
strawberry aromas and flavours with a dry, savoury and herbal finish. 89.
Forgotten Hill Pinot Noir
2015 ($30.35 for 25 cases). The wine begins with aromas of cherry and
strawberry. Intense flavours of cherry and vanilla explode on the palate. The
wine has a silky and juicy texture with a long lingering finish. The varietal
definition shows that this high-elevation vineyard is excellent Pinot Noir
terroir. 92.
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