Red Rooster refreshes portfolio

Photo: Red Rooster winemaker Elaine Vickers

Earlier this year, Red Rooster Winery on Naramata Road launched a refresh of its portfolio with new labels and better-defined tiers of wine. While there are solid marketing reasons, the new releases also underline the stamp that winemaker Elaine Vickers has begun to put on the wines since taking over from Karen Gillis. Andrew Peller Ltd., the owner of Red Rooster since 2005, promoted Karen last year to manager of Peller vineyards in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys as well as manager of grower relations. Elaine explains that one object of re-labelling was to define more clearly which wines fall into what formerly was the classic tier; and which fall into the reserve tier. Varietals in one tier, like Pinot Gris, no longer are offered in the other tier, if only to eliminate confusion in the minds of consumers. “A lot of the consumers bought the classic tier in the lower mainland,” Elaine says. “Then they would visit us and taste the reserve and not realize that it was different. We are basically streamlining.”

The classic tier now is called the Recruit tier. These affordable wines are crafted to “recruit” consumers. The wines in this tier include Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Merlot, and the Cabernet Merlot blend. “We are dialling in the vineyards to make the Recruit series of wines even better,” Elaine says. The new labels also have replaced the fierce roosters on former labels for white labels that reference viticulture and winemaking. For example, the Pinot Gris is fermented cool in a dimpled stainless steel tank, a slice of which is pictured on the label.

The reserve wines now sit in what is called the Signature Series. The whites include Gewürztraminer, Viognier, Chardonnay and a concrete fermented and matured white called Pinot Three, made with Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir. The reds include a carbonic-fermented Merlot Malbec blend, Syrah, Petit Verdot. There is also a sparkling brut, a traditional method wine with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Elaine continues to make several Icon wines, including The Golden Egg, Red Rooster’s premium blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. However, The Golden Egg has been renamed GSM to make the varietal composition more obvious to consumers.

Elaine is also striving to elevate the Malbec from the reserve tier to the Icon tier. Red Rooster has a two-acre block of Malbec beside the winery that gets special attention throughout the season from Elaine and her two cellar assistants. “We are playing up the Malbec here at Red Rooster because that is what we have on site,” Elaine says. Fruit from the winery block goes into red table wine. Malbec from contract growers is used to produce a sparkling Malbec. There is also a Malbec rosé, often made by the saignée method.

Elaine joined Red Rooster just before the 2019 harvest, bringing substantial technical experience to the post. She has a master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Victoria and worked in cancer research in Vancouver after graduation. Her interest in wine, however, began with a part-time job in a U-Brew store. “I learned the basics,” she told me in an interview a few years ago. “I picked up how you have to be clean to make wine.” “I always enjoyed the science,” Elaine continued. “And I was lucky that I was always allowed to see projects through. But I had a bit of a creative side. I was always the one who introduced any talk I gave with a poem. I thought the move to winemaking would still have quite a bit of the science background but would be more creative.” In 2009 she went to the University of Adelaide in Australia for a graduate diploma in enology. Returning to Canada in 2010, she worked a harvest at Jackson-Triggs Winery and then joined Blasted Church Winery. She started as cellarhand, mentoring with consulting winemaker Mark Wendenburg and then became head winemaker.

After leaving Blasted Church in 2017, she spent a year and a half as the winemaker at Black Hills Estate Winery, which had just been acquired by Peller. When Ross Wise became the Black Hills winemaker and Peller’s senior winemaker in the south Okanagan, she took over at Red Rooster. The current portfolio refresh involves not just new labels but, as Elaine puts it, “to go back to our roots of bold fun winemaking.” Here are notes on two of the most popular of Red Rooster’s current releases.

Red Rooster Pinot Gris 2020 ($18.99 for 2,800 cases). The grapes got a long, cool ferment to, as the winery explains, “to preserve the character and the freshness of the fruit.” That objective was achieved. The wine is bursting with aromas and flavours of peach, apple and citrus. The finish is crisp and refreshing. 90.

Red Rooster Cabernet Merlot 2019 ($18.99 for 6,330 cases). The blend is 51.6% Merlot, 35.1% Cabernet Franc and 13.3% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was aged 50% in stainless steel and 50% in oak barrels (half French, half American). It begins with aromas of black cherry ands spice. On the palate, flavours of black cherry mingle with black currant, blueberry and mocha. With long soft tannins, the wine is drinking well even in its youth. 90.