Mirabel Vineyards: a Burgundian find in Kelowna

Photo: Mirabel's Dawn and Doug Reimer (courtesy of Mirabel Vineyards)

Think of Mirabel Vineyards as a slice of Burgundy, but in Kelowna. The steeply sloping vineyard has six acres of Pinot Noir, planted in 2006, and 1 ½ acres of Chardonnay planted in 2018.

For more background on the winery, here is an excerpt from the 2019 edition of The Okanagan Wine Tour Guide. Note that the winery closes its tasting room at the end of August, since most wines will be sold out.

In 2005, Dawn and Doug Reimer moved to Kelowna in search of a site for their dream home. The property they bought overlooks a golf course and the city. But the apple trees on the slope spoiled the view for Doug until he planted Pinot Noir (and Chardonnay later). He decided to launch Mirabel Vineyards after several leading Okanagan wineries produced stunning wines from his grapes. “We were waiting to see what this terroir would really produce,” Doug says. “If it produced something we were excited about, then we want to take ownership and put our name on it.”

The Reimers are Winnipeg natives. Doug, who was born in 1955, is a member of a renowned trucking family. His father, Donald, started Reimer Express Lines in 1952 with one truck. A successor company, Reimer World Corporation, now employs 3,000 in Canada. “We have always loved wine, but that is not how I got interested in growing it,” Doug says. “When we bought the property, we had such a beautiful piece of property, but we thought we could do more than grow apples and pears. They don’t pay very much, and they don’t look that good.”

To make the wines, with 2015 the first vintage, the Reimers hired consulting winemaker Matt Dumayne and used the custom crush facilities at Okanagan Crush Pad Winery at Summerland. In 2018, when Mirabel licensed a production facility on its vineyard, David Paterson from nearby Tantalus Vineyards was engaged to make the Mirabel wines and direct work in the vineyard. [Kyle Temple, the current winemaker and viticulturist, formerly was the assistant winemaker at Tantalus.]

Doug has a singular focus. “We are trying to establish what will be a superior Pinot Noir in all of Canada, and knock down some doors in Oregon as well,” Doug says. “I love Oregon Pinot Noir. I have done extensive travelling in the Pinot Noir areas in Oregon. Maybe that is where our love started. We love the Burgundians as well. I did not want it to taste like Okanagan. I wanted it to taste like ‘world level,’ although people talk of sense of place.”

Here are notes on the wines.

Mirabel Chardonnay 2019 ($32 for 155 cases). Two Dijon clones (76 and 95) are in this estate-grown wine. The grapes were pressed whole cluster and fermented slowly with wild yeast. The wine then spent nine months in French oak puncheons (25% new), with bi-weekly stirring of the lees. This elegant wine has restrained aromas of citrus, butter and vanilla. On the palate, there are flavours of citrus and apple mingled with vanilla. The wine is drinking well now but another year or two of bottle age will unlock even more complexity. 91.

Mirabel Rosé of Pinot Noir 2020 ($25 for 135 cases). The aromas and flavour of this beautifully-packaged rosé match its eye appeal in both bottle and glass. The colour is neither too dark nor too light. The grapes were a 14-hour skin soak; two-thirds of the grapes were pressed gently. Fermentation was started with wild yeast, followed by inoculation with an aromatic yeast specific for rosé. The wine begins with aromas of strawberry and cranberry, leading to flavours of watermelon and cherry. There is good weight on the palate, with a lingering finish. 93.

Mirabel Reserve Pinot Noir 2018 ($49 for 200 cases). This wine is a field blend of clones 115, 667 and 777. The grapes, after a 24-hour cooling period and three-day cold soak, were fermented entirely with natural yeast. During the three-week fermentation, there were two daily gentle punchdowns. The wine was pressed and aged 16 months in French oak (25% new). Richly dark in colour for a Pinot Noir, the wine begins with flavours of cherry and spice. The tannins are long and silky, giving the wine mouth-filling weight on the palate. There is a hint of forest floor on the long finish. 94.