Vanessa's trio of wines

Photo: Vanessa's John Welson and Suki Sekhon

With the three new releases from Vanessa Vineyard, I have decided to add an excerpt from The Okanagan Wine Tour Guide.

This is the sixth edition of the Tour Guide. This edition is co-written with Luke Whittall, a writer in the Okanagan Valley.

We have had the misfortune that the book was released in late April when wineries were locked down. Plans for launching the book were shelved – for the tine being. So here is a look at one of the 240 profiles, as an introduction to the wines.

The tasting room here is perched just above the highway, with the Similkameen Valley spread out below. The more important view is to the rear, where the rugged, rock-strewn 30-hectare (75-acre) vineyard climbs toward a mountain. This sun-drenched slope grows red varieties almost exclusively.

“Some people said we should plant some whites,” says Suki Sekhon, a partner in Vanessa with retired investment dealer John Welson. “We said we have chosen the best red site in Canada. Why would we plant whites? If we want to do that, we will just go buy another site.” Richard Cleave, their viticulture consultant, had recommended reds for what is one of the hottest sites in the Similkameen. They grow 10 hectares (25 acres) of Merlot, 8 hectares (20 acres) of Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 hectares (15 acres) of Cabernet Franc, 5.3 hectares (13 acres) of Syrah, and 0.4 hectare (1 acre) of Viognier (for blending with Syrah).

Suki, born in 1961, is a Vancouver real-estate developer. In 2005 Suki and John bought this Similkameen property, intending to lease the developed vineyard to a major winery. Then the partners discovered wineries would not commit until the quality of the grapes could be established. When the vineyard began producing, Andrew Peller Ltd., owner of the nearby Rocky Ridge Vineyards, began buying Vanessa’s grapes. Howard Soon, who was then the winemaker at Peller-owned Sandhill Wines, added wines from Vanessa grapes to the Sandhill portfolio. When Howard retired in 2017 after 37 years with Sandhill and its predecessor wineries, he was snapped up by Vanessa. “I was never looking for a job, [but this is] a great property, a great terroir. Our goal is that we are going to make the best wine we can, in Canada or in the world.”

When the Vanessa partners launched their own label before building a winery at the vineyard, the wines were made for them at the Red Rooster Winery, which is also a Peller winery. “We kind of went into this basically to build a vineyard,” John Welson says. “Then, as you get into it, the industry just pulls you along,” John says.

The initial production from the 2012 vintage for Vanessa totalled 600 cases. Production from the 2013 vintage was 1,200 cases; by 2014, it was 3,000 cases. The new wine shop gives Vanessa the capacity to market between 7,500 and 10,000 cases a year. The remainder of Vanessa’s superb grapes are sold to Peller.

The winery is named for one of Suki’s daughters. Initially, the partners had considered calling it Stagecoach Winery because a stagecoach route once ran through the site. “But when I first went to the site, there were a lot of butterflies,” Suki says. Vanessa is the name of a type of butterfly.

Here are notes on the three releases:

Vanessa Vineyard Viognier 2019 ($24.99 for 143 cases). The wine begins with aromas of lime and peach. On the palate, the fruit is bright, with flavours of apricot, grapefruit and lime. 91.

Vanessa Vineyard Rosé 2019 ($24.99 for 175 cases). The blend is 66% Syrah and 34% Merlot. In the glass, the wine is fashionably pale, with aromas of strawberry and raspberry. The aromas are echoed on the palate, along with a touch of grapefruit. The finish is crisp and dry. 91.

Vanessa Vineyard Syrah ($34.99 for 641 cases). There is 8% of Viognier in this wine; it was co-fermented with the Syrah. The wine was aged 20 months in French and American oak and has benefited from a further period of aging in bottle. The wine begins with bold aromas of plum, black cherry and toasted oak. It is rich on the palate with flavours of plum, cassis, fig and black pepper. 93.