Martin’s Lane benchmark Pinot Noirs

Martin's Lane Winemaker Shane Munn

Shane Munn, the winemaker at Martin’s Lane Winery in East Kelowna, makes no apology for the $100 or more that the winery asks for its Pinot Noir wines. Nor should he. These wines rank in quality with top Pinot Noirs from Burgundy or Oregon, many of which sell for considerably more. “We do a lot of benchmarking against Burgundy and against New World wines,” Shane says. “Sometimes, they make our wines look like they are great value. We think our wines are worth it, with the efforts we put into growing the grapes.” Consumers who have discovered the Martin’s Lane wines clearly agree. The four wines reviewed here are close to sold out.

The winery, which opened in 2017 after three years of construction, is owned by Anthony von Mandl, who also owns Mission Hill Family Winery. The winery is named after Anthony’s late father, Martin. The winery is said to be one of the most radical designs for a Pinot Noir winery, with the intent of producing of premium wines. “The wines are made very respectfully,” Shane says. “They are not overly manipulated. They are not overly handled. When the fruit and the juice is in the winery, it is always moved by gravity. I think that helps keep the elegance there. That is the luxury of having a beautiful winery like this.” The grapes are fermented with indigenous yeast. “To this day, we have never used any commercial yeasts in the building, ever,” Shane says. “That is something we strive for … not just because it makes better wine. It makes more individual and complex wines as well.”

The cooperage in the winery is from Austrian cooper Fassbinderei Stockinger GmbH, which Jancis Robinson once called “the winemaker’s Strad.” “Stockinger is well known in Austria,” Shane says. “I think the species of oak they use is pretty much the same species as in Burgundy. It is exciting. You don’t see a lot of that cooperage used around here but it does give the wines a unique personality. We use their standard 228-litre barriques. They are the same shape as a Burgundy barrel. Once wines go into those barrels, they stay there for their lifetime. They are not racked in and out.” Sebastian Farms, Anthony von Mandl’s viticulture company, operates vineyards throughout the Okanagan, all of which have now transitioned to organic status. Shane suggests that is also important to quality and to the individuality of the Martin’s Lane Pinot Noirs, all of which are single vineyard or even single vineyard block wines. ‘They are all completely different,” Shane says of the wines. “They all have a different perfume, a different weight, a different texture, and different tannins as well. The Pinots are all unfined and unfiltered. They always have been, they always will be. It is part of letting the natural texture show its personality.”

The 2017 Pinot Noirs, the most recent release, represent four different vineyards. Martin’s Lane also produces Riesling wines from these same vineyards. These are not to subject of this essay. Fritzi’s Vineyard in West Kelowna is on the slope below Mission Hill. Named for Anthony’s mother, it was planted in 1997. There is just one clone here but it is the reliable clone 115, the backbone of so many Okanagan Pinot Noirs. “Fritzi’s is still a warm site,” Shane says. “It is on the west side. It gets more early morning sun. The concentration and the elegance are what you get from the older vines at Fritzi’s. It is always a wine that has a wild perfume with a bit more structure.”

The Dehart and Simes Vineyards are both on the east side of Okanagan Lake, southeast of Kelowna. Both were planted in 2008, primarily with Pinot Noir. The Simes vineyard originally was called the Lakeshore Vineyard but was subsequently renamed to honour John Simes, the long-time, now retired, Mission Hill winemaker. Both are cooler sites, ideal for Pinot Noir. Dehart is planted to clone 667 and 777, which are co-fermented. Simes, where there is also a small block of Riesling, is planted with seven clones of Pinot Noir. The fourth vineyard producing Pinot Noir for the 2017s is the Naramata Ranch Vineyard, a dramatically scenic site fronting on Okanagan Lake at the north end of the Naramata Bench. “It is a slightly more southern vineyard,” Shane says. “Most of the Naramata Ranch blocks capture the afternoon sun and the afternoon heat a lot more than the Simes and Dehart Vineyards which are much farther north.” Four clones of Pinot Noir were planted here in 2008 and a subsequent block has been developed there since.

Simes and Naramata produced about 400 cases of Pinot Noir each in 2017 while Fritzi’s and Dehart produced about 170 cases each. That also explains why the wines are hard to find. There will be more Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir in the future. Three additional vineyards have been planted for the winery: the estate vineyard just north of the winery; another one in East Kelowna; and one in Lake Country. There is also at least one new block at the Naramata Ranch that is coming into production. Here are notes on the wines.

Martin’s Lane Dehart Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 ($100). This is the most feminine in style of these four wines, a delicate and pretty wine with aromas and flavours of cherry, cranberry and raspberry. 92.

Martin’s Lane Simes Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 ($100). This is a complex wine, beginning with aromas of cherry and plum. On the palate, there are concentrated sweet flavours of black cherry and plum with spice on the finish. A backbone of minerality enhances the structure. 94.

Martin’s Lane Naramata Ranch Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 ($100). This is a bold and voluptuous wine. It begins with aromas of spice, cherry and chocolate. On the rich palate, there are flavours of dark fruit mingled with classic notes of forest floor. The texture is silky. 97.

Martin’s Lane Fritzi’s Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017 ($150). This is an intense wine, with dark fruit aromas recalling candied cherries mingled with chocolate and spice. On the palate, the luscious ripe fruit flavours are full of dark cherry notes. There is enough grip here to suggest this is the wine to lay down for another five to 10 years. 97.