Photo: Raphaël Merlaut
Osoyoos Larose Winery had a clever strategy at the Vancouver
International Wine Festival: it offered a four-vintage vertical of its flagship
Le Grand Vin.
Perhaps that emerged as a way of getting selected for the
festival, given that Osoyoos Larose has just two wines. The festival’s
selection committee expects participating wineries to offer four or five wines..
Osoyoos Larose got around that by dipping into its library, supplementing its
current release with older vintages.
This may also inspire consumers not already doing so to buy
and cellar some Le Grand Vin each year. This is one of the top Okanagan reds
and it is ideal for building a tasting vertical.
Think of the fine Bordeaux reds that have been collected since
Thomas Jefferson’s day and which appear regularly for vertical tastings. The
Osoyoos Larose wine is on of the the Okanagan’s most collectible wines. The reason: the Bordeaux-inspired viticulture
and winemaking has informed Osoyoos Larose from its very first vintage in 2001.
Originally, the winery was a joint venture between Vincor
International, the Canada’s largest wine group, and Groupe Taillan of Bordeaux.
Vincor’s intention was to tap the knowledge of the Bordelaise for the benefit
of the Okanagan.
“We had been doing wines in prestigious Bordeaux wineries
before we were introduced to the possibility of a joint venture,” I was told
last summer by Raphaël Merlaut, the
grandson of the founder of Groupe Taillan. “We had a legitimacy in
winemaking expertise. Vincor chose our group because they needed a signature.”
The 80-acre Osoyoos Larose vineyard on a spectacular site
overlooking Osoyoos Lake and the south end of the Okanagan was planted entirely
with Bordeaux red varietals: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec
and Petit Verdot.
The winery itself was set up in the back corner of Vincor’s
sprawling Jackson-Triggs winery north of Oliver. The only shortcoming of that
was that Osoyoos Larose never had a tasting room.
Vincor was taken over in 2006 by Constellation Brands, a big
American wine company with little interest in Canadian wineries and even less
in joint ventures with the French. Constellation closed Le Clos Jordanne, an
Ontario joint venture with a Burgundy group that made fine Pinot Noir and
Chardonnay. (Arterra Wines Canada, which bought the former Vincor’s Canadian
wineries, is re-opening Le Clos.)
Constellation did not
get the chance to close Osoyoos Larose because Groupe Taillan bought total
control in 2013.
After that transaction, Osoyoos Larose was given notice to
move out of the Jackson-Triggs winery within five years. The search for a
suitable location has taken longer. The 2019 vintage was done in a leased
building at the Bordertown winery just outside Osoyoos; and the 2020 Osoyoos
Larose wines will be made there as well.
This happened because Groupe Taillan hesitated at the cost of
putting a winery on the vineyard, even though space had been set aside for that
under the original joint venture. There was a long search for sites closer to
Highway 97 with easier access to water, electricity and other services winery
needs. The Agricultural Land Commission shot down at least one site.
Groupe Taillan finally gave in: the permanent Osoyoos Larose
winery is to be built on the vineyard over the next two years. It will include
a tasting room.
What is remarkable is that Groupe Taillan has not walked
away from this project and all the headaches.
“A family can have a long-term view, a long-term plan,” Raphäel
said “If we were to do something that makes no sense, I guess the long-term future
of the company would be at stake. So we cannot do something that does not match
with Osoyoos Larose winery, in the sense of quality. It should also reflect the
level of quality that we aspire to. And it should also make sense about the
future of the winery. We cannot take a risk that would be putting the future of
Osoyoos Larose at stake.”
Speaking of the absence of a tasting
room, Raphaël drew an amusing parallel between Osoyoos Larose and the dancer in
Georges
Bizet’s opera, L'Arlésienne, whose face is not revealed.
“It will not last forever that you cannot see this beautiful
dancer,” he told me last summer. “We just need to be sure we are making things
right. We cannot rush into something. We are trying to build for the long term
and we are trying to be faithful to the idea of Osoyoos Larose, which is to be
a luxury wine without showing off too much.”
Osoyoos Larose makes just two wines, for a total of 15,000
cases a year. The premium label is called Le Grand Vin and the second label is
called Pétales d’Osoyoos. Given that the winemakers have all been from France,
there is a strong Bordeaux influence to the style.
Since the release of the first vintages, Le Grand Vin and
Pétales d’Osoyoos have been distributed widely in private and government wine
stores. One wonders how many more fans this winery would have if there had been
a tasting room.
At least there was one
for three days at the Vancouver wine festival. Here are notes on these
impressive reds.
Osoyoos Larose Pétales d’Osoyoos 2016
($28.99). The blend is 81% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc
and 1% each of Petit Verdot and Malbec. It is a juicy, fruit-forward with
aromas and flavours of cherry, black currant and blueberry. The subtle,
well-managed tannins bring a polished texture to this wine. 91.
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