Component winemaking at French Door

Photo: Winemaker Bree Tour

Bree Toor, the associate winemaker at French Door Estate Winery near Oliver, describes herself as a “component winemaker.” “It is like cooking,” she says. “You have a full spice rack with options.”

Her approach is usually laid out in the technical descriptions of how she puts wines together. Typical is her note on the vinification of a blended white wine called Lys, made with 71% Viognier, 21% Riesling and 8% Sémillon. “When creating this blend,” the note reads, “each varietal was handled with care. The Viognier was split into three separate ferments to build complexity. The grapes were placed into two stainless steel tanks and four neutral French oak barrels. The Viognier was then fermented at 19◦ Celsius to develop pear notes and to ensure a longer ferment. The barrels were stirred twice a week during fermentation. Simultaneously, the Sémillon was pressed directly into neutral French oak barrels with no stirring, while the Riesling was put into stainless steel tanks at 18◦ Celsius to maintain all of the grape’s phenolics. Once each wine was fermented separately, they were blended … in stainless steel tanks, and the wine was aged on lees until bottling.” That seems like a lot of work for a product the winery sells for $26 a bottle. But since all of French Door’s wines involve comparable detailed winemaking, Bree Toor seems to have been given a mandate from winery owner Jason Shull to make the best wines she can and let him worry about the economics.

While some of French Door’s wines are aggressively priced, they always deliver good quality. The winery opened in 2020 with Pascal Madevon, the legendary winemaking consultant in the Okanagan, making the initial wines before Bree was recruited to be the hands-on winemaker. Initially, winemaking was not her chosen career. Raised on an Alberta ranch, she went to Europe after high school to travel, financing her travels by working in bars and in vineyards in Italy. Returning to Canada, she earned a political science degree from the University of Victoria. She worked in finance for a while before decided she really wanted a career in wine, initially as a sommelier. She has taken the Wine & Spirits Education Trust courses, chemistry courses and then the on-line enology courses from the University of California at Davis. She also did a harvest in Australia’s McLaren Vale with Peter Fraser at Yangarra Estate Vineyard.

On returning to Canada, she spent several years at Blue Grouse Vineyards, mentoring in the vineyard and the winery with Blue Grouse winemaker Bailey Williamson before moving to take on the winemaking challenge at French Door. “It is tough coming in as the winemaker when the portfolio is set up,” she says. “It was tough for me to make a wine [Merlot] to sell for over $70. I had to make sure I was doing what I could in order to deliver a product close to that market value.” I would suggest she is delivering. Here are notes on the wines.

French Door Sauvignon Blanc 2022 ($34). This is another example of component winemaking. The grapes for this wine were picked twice: an early pick to lock in bright acidity and a later pick to lock in rich flavours. The juice was pressed into both neutral French oak barrels and stainless-steel barrels. Two barrels were fermented with natural yeast while the rest were inoculated with cultured yeast. Malolactic fermentation was allowed in the oak barrels but not in the steel barrels. The wine aged five or six months before being bottled. The result is a complex wine with herbs, lime and tropical fruits in the aromas and on the palate. 91.

French Door Chardonnay 2021 ($40). This is an elegant wine, with butter and vanilla aromas mingled with flavours of nectarine, melon, and apple. The oak – the wine was aged both in oak and on the lees in stainless steel – is well integrated. 92.

French Door Rosé 2022 ($32). The blend is 56% Grenache, 35% Mourvèdre and 9% Cinsault. Each varietal was fermented separately and kept on the lees three weeks before being blended. The wine presents with a delicate salmon pink hue and aromas of raspberry and watermelon. The palate delivers a medley of fruit flavours including pomegranate and watermelon. The finish is crisp. 92.

French Door Fleur 2022 ($34). The blend is 74% Gamay, 16% Pinot Noir and 10% saignée juice from Gamay. Think of this as a Beaujolais Nouveau with added complexity gained from Bree’s component winemaking. She has two lots of Gamay – one from a vineyard in East Kelowna and one from a vineyard in Osoyoos. The process involves some whole whole-cluster fermentation with six days of full carbonic maceration before yeast inoculation. This a light-bodied red with aromas of cranberry and cherry. On the palate, there is a medley of flavours: cherry and raspberry with an earthy note on the finish. 91.

French Door Malbec 2021 ($62 for 140 cases). Bree builds components into this wine with several picks, to lock in acidity and flavours. Fermentation temperatures were allowed to reach 30◦C to build both the tannin stricture and the colour. Free-run wine was racked into spicy Siruge toast oak barrels while the press wine was aged in neutral oak. Total barrel aging was 14 months. This is a dark, concentrated with the perfumed spicy aromas of the varietal. There are dark fruit flavours, including cherry and blueberry. 91.

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