Three memorable reds from Black Widow

Photo: Shannon, Dick (centre) and James Lancaster

Dick Lancaster, one of the owners of Black Widow Winery on the Naramata Bench, and I were once members of the same winemaking club. While I eventually stopped making wine to concentrate on writing about it, Dick went on to excel as a winegrower. That can be seen from the scores I gave to three recent releases from Black Widow. Here is an excerpt from my 2020 Okanagan Wine Tour Guide, to provide some background.

It began in the summer of 2000 when the Lancasters, while looking for just a getaway cottage, bought this 2.8-hectare (7-acre) property, part of which had grapevines. “Classic upselling,” Dick says of the realtor. “And as soon as we got a vineyard, the goal was to set up a winery.” Dick was born in Toronto in 1953 but grew up in Montreal and acquired an interest in wine from his father, Graham, an Air Canada food services manager. Dick began making wine from wild grapes while still in high school. A three-month tour of European wine regions in 1976 sealed that interest. In Vancouver, where he and wife Shona lived from 1970 until moving to the Okanagan a few years ago, Dick was a home winemaker for more than 25 years.

You could call Dick a polymath, given all the skills he has acquired. Starting in biology, he earned a master’s degree. Disillusioned by the lack of well-paying jobs, he took a real-estate course, and then sold cars and became district manager for a leasing company. Then he got a master’s degree in business administration and finally qualified as an accountant. From 1992 until 2008, he was a vice-president with Imasco, western Canada’s largest stucco manufacturer. Naturally, Black Widow’s gravity-flow winery, which he designed, is finished in tawny-hued stucco. “How can I not use stucco?” he says, laughing. The vineyard already had Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Schönburger when the Lancasters bought it. In 2001, they added Merlot and a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon, selling grapes until launching Black Widow in 2006. “We like wines that have some real flavour and character to them, and that comes from really ripe grapes,” Dick says.

I should add that the Lancasters have succeeded in involving family in the business. Daughter Shannon is both a winemaker and a viticulturist while son James handles a lot of the marketing duties. Here are notes on the three wines.

Black Widow Hourglass Reserve 2020 ($53.90 for 200 cases). The winery’s signature red, this is a blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 21 months in French barrels (50% new). It begins with aromas of dark fruit that lead to flavours of black currant, dark cherry and chocolate. There is a touch of vanilla on the finish. The wine has long, ripe tannins; it benefits from decanting. 94.

Black Widow Merlot Reserve 2020 ($42.50 for 125 cases; sold out). This is a textbook Merlot – rich, generous in texture and flavour. The wine was aged 21 months in French oak barrels. It has aromas and flavours of black cherry, plum and blueberry, with a touch of spice on the lingering finish. 94.

Black Widow Pinot Noir 2021 ($36.50 for 250 cases). This wine was barrel-aged for nine months. It begins with aromas of cherry and spice, leading to flavours of cherry and raspberry. The texture is firm but, with breathing, becomes silky – a case for decanting the wine. A touch of forest floor on the finish recalls good Burgundy wines. 92.