Clos du Soleil releases new flagship vintages

Photo: Clos du Soleil winemaker Michael Clark

This excellent winery in the Similkameen Valley has been inspired from the start by the wines of Bordeaux. The styles of the two current releases continue in that direction.

One of the wines is the red blend called Signature. This was the wine recommended in my 2017 book, Icon, for those building a cellar vertical.

Here is an except from the book to provide some background on the winery:

The winemaking aesthetic at Clos du Soleil is an echo of Bordeaux. “But while we talk about our French philosophy, our wines are never going to taste like Bordeaux, and they shouldn’t,” cautions Michael Clark, the managing partner and winemaker. “They should taste like Upper Bench Keremeos in the Similkameen Valley, and I think they do.”

The founding partners, all lovers of French wines, planted just Bordeaux varieties—five reds, two whites—on a 4-hectare (10-acre) farm purchased in 2006. Formerly a honey-producing farm, the property’s lean soils lie on a moderate south-facing slope against a mountainous rock face. The vines are grown under both organic and biodynamic disciplines.

The Bordeaux-inspired wines were initially crafted by Ann Sperling, a consulting winemaker of national repute and one of the owners of Sperling Vineyards in Kelowna. And before Clos du Soleil built its own winery in 2015, the wines were made at the Sperling winery. Winemaking was taken over in 2013 by Michael Clark, who grew up in a home where the wine cellar included classified growth Bordeaux wines.

Born in Cambridge, Ontario, in 1972, Michael began reading wine books when he was 10. Initially, he pursued careers in science (he has two degrees in theoretical physics) and finance (he has a master’s of business administration). After managing hedge-fund portfolios in Switzerland, he surrendered to his passion for wine, studying viticulture there and making wine in Bordeaux. When he returned to Canada to join Clos du Soleil in 2012, he had also received a winemaking certificate from the University of California. “Anybody will tell you that I am a bit of a detail person,” he says. “I think that plays well in winemaking, because it is the sum of a million little details that add up to the final wine.”

Michael believes that “the star of our vineyard is Cabernet Sauvignon, which is planted right below the rock face. The Similkameen terroir is expressed in the Cabernet Sauvignon, which is so unique. It doesn’t taste like an Okanagan Cabernet or a California Cabernet or a Bordeaux Cabernet. It really tastes of here. It has a spicy, floral, violet component. It has density, lots of complexity, but it isn’t heavy.”

That defines the style of Signature, the winery’s flagship Bordeaux red, and also the limited-production Estate Reserve, first produced in the 2010 vintage.

“To me, delicacy matters,” Michael says. “My philosophy is that our best wines demonstrate their quality in ways other than bigness or heaviness. A great wine, whether you are talking about Clos du Soleil or a classified growth in Bordeaux, is determined by elegance, complexity, layers and ageability, not by huge, chewy fruit or aggressive tannins.”

Here are notes on the wines.

Clos de Soleil Capella 2017 ($24.26 for 471 cases). This wine is 71% Sauvignon Blanc and 26% Sémillon. The aromas immediately take one to Graves: citrus, herbs, minerals. The palate delivers flavours of grapefruit, lime, herbs and spice, leading to a crisp, dry finish. The fruit was fermented 60% in French oak barrels and 40%, with wild yeast, in stainless steel barrels. All lots were aged nine months on the lees, with the best barrels selected for the final blend. 91.

Clos de Soleil Signature 2015 ($39.04 for 20 barrels). This is 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 10% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot. This wine, the flagship at Clos du Soleil, was aged 15 months in French oak barrels. The wine, dark in colour, begins with rich aromas of cassis, black cherry, raspberry, mingled with floral notes. On the palate, there are layers of flavour: cherry, black currant and blueberry mingled with sage. The texture is firm, with long ripe tannins; the finish is very long. 94.