Solvera Winery makes inaugural release

Photo: Winemaker Alison Moyes/ photo by Jon Adrian

The inaugural release of four wines from Solvero Winery is impressive. The winery is somewhat off the beaten path, at the top of the Garnet Valley north of Summerland. It is a pretty drive, worth the trip when wine touring is allowed again in the Okanagan.

The winery is operated by Matt Sartor; the winemaker is Alison Moyes, one of the best in the Okanagan. Matt has a music degree from Dalhousie University. But after deciding a career as a concert pianist was not for him, he took a job at a Calgary wine store where his interest in wine was kindled. “Wine spoke to me in a way that made me think this is it,” he says about a career choice. In 2010, he moved to the Okanagan to take the viticulture course at Okanagan College and search for a site to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. He settled on the Garnet Valley, not far from the vineyard that Okanagan Crush Pad Winery has developed. After clearing forest from some of the property, he began planting Pinot Noir in 2016 followed by Chardonnay in 2017.

The Garnet Valley, which stretches north from Summerland, is the newest addition to British Columbia wine country. Okanagan Crush Pad began planting in 2013 on its 312-acre Garnet Valley Ranch (less than a third is now under vine). “We are about a kilometer closer to town that Okanagan Crush Pad,” Matt says. “It may be 10 minutes to town but it feels like a world away when you are out here. This small valley is its own small microclimate.” Solvero describes its vineyard as being in a “warm, steep southwest-facing bowl in the narrow Garnet Valley.”

Solvero is a family-0wned winery, with Matt’s parents, Bob and Andrea, as his backers. Bob is the former president of Big Rock Brewery in Calgary and was the president and chief executive of the Calgary Airport Authority until retiring last year. The Sartors also have a home near Summerland with a five-acre vineyard in Happy Valley that is planted to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Riesling.

Solvero winemaker Alison Moyes formerly worked at Stoneboat Vineyards and Liquidity Wines. Born in Ontario, she studied microbiology at Dalhousie. “While I was doing that, I was working at a restaurant,” she recounts. “The owner was opening up a new high end wine bar. He was doing sommelier training and offered a course for the staff. I was a part of that and I just fell in love with it. He saw I had potential and he helped me through my sommelier certification in Halifax. Upon finishing, I would be the new sommelier at his wine bar.”

After doing that for two years, her science background “called” to her and she enrolled in the winemaking program at Brock University. She did her first vintage in the Okanagan in 2008, as part of her university program. “I had to go back to Ontario to write my thesis,” she says. “As soon as I finished that, I came back out again. I had fallen in love with the area. It is an amazing grape growing region.” She joined Stoneboat in 2010, moved to Liquidity in 2015 and then joined Solvero, all of them wineries dedicated to Pinot Noir. “One of the things that drew me to this project is how impressed I was with the work that Matt did in establishing this place,” Alison says.

“Matt and I met about 10 years ago, when I was at Stoneboat,” she continues. “I had been following the progression of what was here and the work that Matt was doing. In the transition from Liquidity, I had come out here the year prior and got a sense of the potential of the project. The vision that Matt and his family have for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is right up my alley.” Solvero’s Garnet Valley vineyard has almost 10 acres of Pinot Noir, along with 2 ½ acres of Chardonnay and a planned two more acres each of Chardonnay and Gamay Noir. There are seven clones of Pinot Noir: 115, 667, 777, 828 and 43, along with the Pommard clone and the Swann clone.

“Part of that was seeing what worked best for us,” Matt (left) says of his decision to plant multiple clones. “Part of it was clonal diversity. Part of it was attracting a winemaker like Alison. Having that kind of diversity to play with in the cellar is catnip to someone who is interested in making Pinot Noir.” The winery’s name, Solvero, is a loose translation from Latin, meaning truth in soil. “A friend of a friend is a Latin professor,” Matt says. “We bugged him for a name that would represent what we want, and this is where we arrived.”

Here are notes on three of the four releases. Only 50 cases of Chardonnay were made and it is available just at the winery. On the strength of the other wines, I can recommend it without tasting it.

Solvero Pinot Gris 2022 ($25 for 250 cases). Made with fruit from a 2001 planting, this wine fermented slowly at cool temperatures and was aged four months in stainless steel (50%) and neutral oak (50%). This is a sophisticated wine with aromas of pear and citrus and flavours of pear, peach and nectarine. 91.

Solvero Rosé 2022 ($25 for 150 cases). Made with clone 115 Pinot Noir, the juice was left on the skins just three hours, resulting in a delicate pink hue. It has aromas and flavours of strawberry with a surprising full texture. 91.

Solvero Pinot Noir 2020 ($35 for 450 cases). There are seven clones of Pinot Noir in this elegant wine; each clone was treated and aged separately. The object was to build layers of flavour. As well, the winery did whole berry fermentations and aged the wine 12 months in French oak barrels (33% new). The wine is a seductive charmer, beginning with floral aromas and leading to flavours of cherry mingled with forest floor. 93.