Modest Wines has fun with wine

Photo: Winemaker Jeff Hundertmark

Jeff Hundertmark, the winemaker at Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery, has just made the third release of the winery’s fun portfolio under the Modest label. It is not that the Modest wines lack seriousness. The wines are very solid but there is a lot of tongue in cheeks in how the labels present the wines.

That is best illustrated by the name given to the Chenin Blanc: steen down do long. “Steen is what this noble grape is referred to in South Africa where it finds some of its most inspiring incarnations,” the winery explains. “Down So Long is how we have felt for the last two years.”

The Alsace-inspired white blend is called the elder vicar in homage to Father Pandossy, the missionary credited with planting the first grapes in the Okanagan. For years, he was even called the father of British Columbia wine even though there is no evidence that the Pandossy Mission ever sold a single bottle of wine. The bearded visage used here to break up the text may or may not be Father Pandossy.

Another wine is called la graves robber. The winery explains: “Graves is a region in the Left Bank of Bordeaux … which produces the best Sauvignon/Sémillon blends in the world. We ‘robbed’ this style and made it our own here in BC.”

The red made from Carménère (a rarely grown grape in the Okanagan) is called the crimson crusader. The reason: in fall, the vine leaves turn crimson. “Crusader,” the winery adds, “is a reference to the fact that this noble grape was on the verge of extinction before it left France and found a new home … in Chile.” There is a little more to the story than that. European varietals were planted in Chile roughly 175 years ago, before phylloxera decimated European vineyards. Isolated behind the Andes, the vineyards of Chile were never infested with phylloxera. Carménère and all the other European varieties flourished there. Because it is a late-ripening varietal, it was not replanted in Bordeaux after the French had figured out how to deal with phylloxera. For a long time, Chilean grape growers did not single out Carménère. It usually was underplanted with Merlot and was only identified as a distinctive varietal in the 1990s. The first Carménère in the Okanagan was planted by Black Hills Estate Winery in 2001, with the first release of a varietal wine in 2005. Only a handful of other producers now make this distinctive red. “Modest Wines is pleased to offer 7.2% of all the Carménère grown in Canada,” the winery reports.

Modest’s Sangiovese wine is called by jove because, according to the winery, the name of the grape comes from Sanguis Jovis, meaning blood of Jove. It is not just that the wines have fanciful names. Each label has a number of panels, each with an interesting back story. Whether the consumers will get these stories is another matter: One really needs the spec sheet for each wine. By the time you have figured out all the meanings, the bottle will be empty. My advice: buy more than one bottle.

Here are notes on the wines.

Modest the elder vicar 2021 ($24.99). This is a co-fermented blend of Muscat, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer. Fermentation was with wild yeast; and ferment was stopped to leave the wine slightly off-dry. A drier finish would have benefitted the wine. This is a fleshy wine with aromas and flavours of stone fruit, ripe pear, guava and spice. 88.

Modest la graves robber 2021 ($27.99). The blend is 57% Sauvignon Blanc and 43% Sémillon. The wine, which was fermented cool, was bottled early to preserve the zesty aromas and flavours. There is lots of lychee and lime here, with an herbal note on the crisp finish. 91.

Modest steen down so long 2021 ($27.99). This wine is made with Chenin Blanc, sourced from a vineyard in East Kelowna. The wine has aromas of citrus and apple. Brisk acidity lifts the flavours of green apple and quince. There is a hint of wet stone on the finish. 91.

Modest the eye of the partridge 2021 ($27.99). This is a Pinot Noir rosé, so named because the pale pink hue is said to resemble a partridge’s eye. The wine has aromas and flavours of watermelon and strawberry. Finishing dry, this is a refreshing wine. 90.

Modest by jove 2020 ($29.99). The blend is 95% Sangiovese, with Merlot and Cabernet Franc filling in the rest. This medium-bodied wine begins with aromas of spice and cherries. On the palate, there are red fruit flavours, with an earthy and herbal note on the finish. 88.

Modest the crimson crusader 2020 ($29.99). The grape here is Carménère, a varietal planted in just a handful of Okanagan vineyards. Dark cherry and pepper jump from the glass. On the palate, pepper frames flavours of plum and dark cherry. The wine, which was aged 12 months in French oak, has a lingering, savoury finish. 91.