Just before Easter, the new owners
of Foxtrot Vineyards are hosting a “retrospective” Vancouver tasting of the
winery’s legendary Pinot Noirs.
This may be a first for a winery
whose limited volumes usually have been on allocation to a lucky number of
collectors and to high-end restaurants.
I can think of at least two reasons
why this event – with invitations apparently limited to the trade – is happening.
Firstly, there are many good British
Columbia Pinot Noirs being made than in 2004, when founder Torsten Allander
launched this project. Noir. Foxtrot now competes with other first-rate
producers, even if the Foxtrot quality easily holds its own.
Secondly, very few consumers and industry
peers know who the new owners are and what their plans are. Both are
impressive.
First, some background on the
winery. Torsten, a retired pulp and paper engineer, came to wine
growing in 2002 when he and his wife, Kicki (who died last year), retired to a
1.4-hectare (3.5-acre) property on Naramata Road planted entirely with Pinot
Noir. Born in Sweden, he had come to Canada in 1973 for a career with NLK Associates
Inc., a top pulp and paper consulting firm based in Vancouver and Montreal.
After selling the grapes for a few years, Torsten enlisted
Lake Breeze Vineyards in 2004 on a three-year winemaking trial with his grapes.
“I wanted to convince myself before I invested a lot of money in a winery that
we can produce a top wine that can compete on a world level,” Torsten once told
me.
The acclaim which the initial vintages received left no doubt
about the quality of the Foxtrot Pinot Noirs. In 2008, Torsten and his
winemaker son, Gustav, built a winery and cellar with the barrel capacity for
2,000 cases of wine. In 2012, Torsten bought an adjoining two hectares (five
acres) of orchard, replacing the trees with Pinot Noir vines propagated from
cuttings of Foxtrot’s clone 115 Pinot Noir.
Torsten sold this Naramata Bench winery last summer to Douglas
Barzelay, a retired New York lawyer, and his partner, Nathan Todd, a former
Calgarian who lives in New York.
Both are passionate fans of Burgundy wines. At a 2011 private
dinner in Vancouver, a Foxtrot Pinot Noir 2006 was served to Barzelay and Todd along
with several top Burgundies. It led them to explore the Okanagan, where after
several visits, they bought an orchard next door to Foxtrot. They asked Gustav Allander, Torsten’s son and
the Foxtrot winemaker, to advise them on planting the vineyard, and then to
make their wines. When they learned that Foxtrot was for sale, they bought the
entire winery in 2018.
Barzelay is one of the world’s leading authorities on the
wines of Burgundy. He is co-author (with journalist Allen D. Meadows) of a
recently published book, Burgundy
Vintages: A History from 1845. And he has tasted and made notes on nearly all
of those vintages.
Barzelay was also an expert witness in 2013 trial of wine
counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan. The case began five years earlier
when Barzelay alerted a leading Burgundy producer to a Kurniawan wine auction
catalogue listing wines that the New Yorker knew to be fake.
One would think his is a difficult palate to impress. Clearly,
the wines from Foxtrot have done so.
The partners have retained Gustav to make the wines. They
dipped into their Burgundy connections to engage an eminent consultant, Véronique
Drouhin, the head winemaker of the renowned Domaine Joseph Drouhin. “I learned
a lot from her,” Gustav said after the 2018 vintage.
The 2.9-acre peach orchard initially purchased by Barzelay and
Todd is being planted this spring. Half of the vines will be on their own roots
and the other half will be grafted to rootstock to test Barzelay’s theory that
own-rooted Pinot Noir might be better. The idea comes from his extensive
experience at tasting Burgundy wines that were made before phylloxera forced vineyards
to use rootstock.
“Doug’s book is the place to understand why he has this obsession
with grafted vines as opposed to vines on their own roots,” Todd says. “Few
people get to taste wines from ungrafted plants today. Doug will claim there is
a definite textural difference. You can detect pre-phylloxera wines.”
The new owners will make it easier for consumers to get Foxtrot
wines. For the first time since Foxtrot started selling its wines in 2007, the
winery will open a tasting room on the Naramata Bench. Tastings will be
appointment only.
Here are notes on current releases.
Foxtrot
2017 Chardonnay ($41). The fruit came from an Oliver vineyard
with 30-year-old vines. This sophisticated wine, fermented in and aged in
French oak barrels (30% new), has well-integrated flavours of citrus and green
apple with very subtle oak. Bright acidity gives the wine a refreshing
crispness. 91
Foxtrot
2016 The Waltz Pinot Noir ($44). A three-vineyard blend, this sensual
wine begins with aromas of strawberry and raspberry leading to spicy notes
mingled with cherry and strawberry. The texture is silky. 92.
Foxtrot
2016 Foxtrot Vineyard Pinot Noir ($54). This wine is made entirely
with fruit from the estate vineyard. This seductively silky wine, which was
aged 20 months in French oak (40% new), begins with intense aromas of cherry,
strawberry and spice which continue on the rich palate with dark fruit flavours
and spice. 95.
No comments:
Post a Comment