Clos du Soleil dips into its red inventory

Photo: Clos du Soleil's Michael Clark

In a wine release last fall, Clos du Soleil winemaker Michael Clark updated us on the damage his vineyards had suffered from the recent devastating freezes in the Similkameen Valley. But he also added the assurance that the winery, one of the Similkameen’s top producers, had a good inventory to carry the winery over until vines have recovered. (This winter has been a more normal one.) That has been illustrated by the current releases of three red wines from the 2021 and 2022 vintages. The volumes should give some comfort to Clos du Soleil fans. First, here is a recap of what Michael wrote last fall:

“The two freezes (December 2022, and January 2024) were both particularly hard on vineyards in the Similkameen, in part because our region doesn't have the moderating influence of the large bodies of water that are in the Okanagan. The two freezes have been a blow to us, and to all of our grower and winemaking neighbours in the valley as well, and we have effectively lost two entire crops as a result of this. We have had some vines die, but the good news is that a lot of the vines have survived (more than we initially expected) and we are busy allowing them to recover so that they will be healthy and productive for many years to come.

“We believe strongly in the future of our valley, and its special contribution to the world of wine, and that hasn't changed at all. That being said, we are certainly learning from the events of the last two years, and modifying our viticultural practices to make us as resilient as possible in an environment of extreme weather and climate change. There are a whole range of actions we are taking, and, combined, we think they will ensure a strong future for Clos du Soleil. “Just a few examples include modifying our varietal mix at the margin (we will continue to be specialists in Bordeaux varieties, but we will be reducing our exposure to the most cold-sensitive varieties, and leaning more heavily into cold-hardy varieties), exploring opportunities to use own-rooted (non-grafted) vines which will allow for quicker recoveries after freeze events, and looking at various methods for providing added insulation to our vines during the winter, to better protect them from sudden freezes.”

Here are notes on the three current releases.

Clos du Soleil Syrah 2022 Winemaker’s Series ($39.90 for 1,045 cases). In the classic Rhône tradition, Viognier (two per cent) grapes were co-fermented with the Syrah. Fermentation lasted three weeks. The wine was aged in French oak barrels (25% second use, 75% neutral). The wine begins with aromas of dark fruits and spice. The palate delivers flavours of cherry, blueberry and plum with a hint of pepper on the finish. 91.

Clos du Soleil Célestiale 2022 ($29.90 for 2,236 cases). This is a blend of 44% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Malbec and 4% Petit Verdot. The berries were fermented in concrete and aged 15 months in French oak barrels (13% new). The best barrels were selected for this blend, a soft and fruit-forward wine that is immensely quaffable. It begins with aromas of raspberry and blackberry. The palate delivers flavours of blueberry, blackberry and cherry. Long ripe tannins give the wine a long finish. 90.

Clos du Soleil Signature 2021 ($55.90 for 637 cases). This is the winery’s flagship red wine. It is a blend of 34% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc, 9% Malbec and 7% Petit Verdot. The grapes were fermented in concrete with wild yeast. The wine was then aged 16 months in French oak barrels. The final blend was a selection of the best barrels. The wine begins with aromas of cassis, dark cherry and blackberry. The wine is full-bodied with flavours of black currant, and dark cherry with hints of spice on the finish. This is a wine with a sophisticated character (the winery says hedonistic!). It is drinking well now but has the structure to age through the rest of this decade. 93.

Chaberton's Fraser Valley vineyard backstops wine production

Photo: Eugene Kwan

Chaberton Estate Winery’s 50-acre vineyard in Langley Township is the largest and oldest vineyard in the Fraser Valley. In previous vintages, Chaberton has also purchased significant tonnages of grapes from the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, enabling the winery to produce as much as 50,000 cases a year. In the 2024 vintage, severe winter damage reduced the crop from the interior practically to zero. “To help out our growers, we bought what little fruit they had, but it was minimal,” says Eugene Kwan, the winery’s co-owner. “We brought in approximately 150,000 liters of white juice from Washington State. We haven’t made a final decision on how that is going to be used.”

The Fort Langley vineyard came through with full crop of high-quality grapes. “In the Fraser Valley, we were fortunate to avoid the severe winter freeze that the vineyards in the Okanagan and Similkameen suffered,” Eugene says. It is a tribute to the late Claude Violet, who founded the winery and produced the first vintage of 3,000 cases in 1991. When Claude and Inge, his wife, decided to move from Europe in the 1980s, he did extensive research on possible vineyard locations before deciding on Langley Township and its moderate climate. The white varietals he planted are still be cultivated: Bacchus, Siegerrebe, Madeline Sylvaner, Madeline Angevine, Ortega and Reichensteiner, along with a more recent addition, Gamay Noir. The winery began buying red varietals from interior growers in Claude’s day. Langley Township lacks the heat units to mature the big reds – but also does not get the vine-killing winters that have hit the Okanagan in recent years.

Chaberton was acquired in 2004 by Eugene Kwan, a Vancouver lawyer, and his friend, Anthony Cheng, a Hong Kong businessman and wine connoisseur. They have grown what was already a successful winery, making it the major attraction for Fraser Valley wine touring. It also is noteworthy the wines are among the most reasonably-priced in the B.C. wine industry. Chaberton wines deliver great value for money. Here are notes on some current releases.

Chaberton Chaberton White 2023 ($15.95). This is astonishing value – a delicious and fruity wine. It is a blend of Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Madeleine Angevine, Siegerrebe, Sovereign Opal, Madeleine Sylvaner, Riesling, Reichensteiner, Sauvignon Blanc, Ortega, Pinot Auxerrois, Viognier, Schönburger and Kerner. It is hard to pin down the aromas and the flavours but the wine is easy to drink. 89.

Chaberton Siegerrebe 2023 ($19.95 for 1,111 cases). This is an intensely aromatic wine turbo-charged with the addition of 15% Schönburger. A long, cool fermentation in stainless steel preserved the medley of orchard fruits that greet the nose and the palate. The grapes are from the estate vineyard in Langley. 90.

Chaberton Bacchus 2023 ($19.95). The grapes for this wine are from the estate vineyard in Langley. The wine begins with floral aromas and goes on to deliver exotic fruit flavours – lime, gooseberry and pineapple mingled with ripe peach. 90.

Chaberton Unoaked Chardonnay 2022 ($19.95). This wine was aged in stainless steel for about 18 months, including 5 ½ months on the lees. The wine is crisp and fresh with aromas and flavours of apple, pineapple and peach. 88.

Chaberton Gewürztraminer 2023 ($19.95 for 700 cases). This wine was made with Okanagan grapes. The winemaker gave the fruit a short skin contact to lock in aromas and intense flavours. The wine begins with the varietal’s classic notes of spice and lychee on the nose. The palate delivers these characters along with hints of orange peel. The wine is balanced to finish dry. 90.

Chaberton Chaberton Pink 2023 ($19.95 for 1,023 cases). This is a blend of 42% Zweigelt, 25%Gewürztraminer, 16%Pinot Blanc, 11%Pinot Noir and 6%Pinot Gris. This is a crisp and refreshing rosé with aromas and flavours of cherry and strawberry. 89.

Chaberton La Fleur de Chaberton 2023 ($24.95 for 580 cases). This premium rosé is a blend of 80% Cabernet Franc, 10% Gewürztraminer, 8% Petit Verdot and 2% Pinot Blanc. The grapes were pressed directly without prolonged skin contact. Seventeen percent of the juice was fermented and aged in new French oak for 2 months before being added to the rest of the wine in stainless steel tanks. The wine begins with aromas of grapefruit, and cantaloupe leading to flavours of pomegranate, red currant and strawberry. 88.

Chaberton Chaberton Red 2022 ($15.95). This is an easy-drinking red blend. Aromas of cherry and blueberry are echoed on the palate. 88.

Chaberton Merlot 2019 ($27.95 for 1,007 cases). This is a wine with good concentration, giving it a bold and brooding personality. The wine was aged 24 months in oak (33% new). The wine begins with aromas of dark fruits. On the palate, there are flavours of dark cherry, blueberry and fig, with spice on the long finish. 91.

Chaberton Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ($27.95 for 675 cases). This is big, firm wine that should be decanted. It was aged 30 months in oak, mostly French and 80% new. The aromas of dark fruits, chocolate and even licorice are echoed on the palate. 91.

Chaberton Syrah 2021 ($33 for 267 cases). The wine was aged 25 months in a combination of French, Hungarian and American oak barrels. This is a big, rich wine which benefits from being decanted. It opens with aromas of cherry, plum and a touch of white pepper. The aromas are echoed on the palate. 91.

Chaberton Meritage 2019 ($29.95 for 686 cases). This is a blend of 50% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot/Malbec. The wine delivers aromas and flavours of dark cherry, black currant, chocolate and spice. The long, ripe tannins give the wine a long and satisfying finish. 92

Maréchal Foch comes through for Quails' Gate

Photo: Label of the first Old Vines Foch wine

A year or two ago, I suggested to Quails’ Gate Estate Winery president Tony Stewart that he should consider replacing the Maréchal Foch in the winery’s Osoyoos vineyard with a vinifera red (like Cabernet Franc) which arguably produces better wine. In view of the damage suffered by Okanagan vineyards in the 2023 and 2024 winters, I am glad he did not take my advice. The winery farms about 400 acres of vineyard and usually harvests between 1,100 and 1,200 tons of grapes. In the 2024 vintage, those Okanagan vineyards produced just 75 tons of grapes. Maréchal Foch comprised 60 tons of that. That winter-hardy French hybrid varietal produced an almost normal crop while most of the vinifera were devastated by a succession of three increasingly colder winters.

Maréchal Foch was developed in France more than 100 years ago to thrive in cold climates. The vine was brought to Ontario and New York vineyards in the 1940s and made its way to the Okanagan (along with other hybrids) in the 1950s. The wine reviewed here is from a vineyard planted in 1978. Before the great vine pull-out after the 1988, hybrid varietals like Maréchal Foch, De Chaunac, Rougeon and Chancellor were the backbone of red wines from the Okanagan. Most of those varietals were replaced, beginning in the mid-1990s, with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Consumers judged that the vinifera wines tasted better. While that may be generally true, the comparison was not fair. The hybrids suffered because they were just not cultivated to the same high standards as the vinifera were. Overcropping was routine with the hybrids; and overcropping is the enemy of good wine.

During the 1988 pull-out, the Stewart family, owners of Quails’ Gate, retained two blocks of Maréchal Foch. In 1994, they hired an Australian winemaker, Jeff Martin. He talked the winery into reducing the crop load in the estate vineyard’s Foch block, which was then 25 years old. The result was a concentrated red with tons of aroma and flavour. The wine was called Old Vines Foch and it has been a cult wine ever since. I have often wondered what a similar approach would have done with De Chaunac or the other red hybrids. I don’t think the resulting wines would have been iconic – but there could have been a vintage of quaffable BC reds from the 2024 vintage.

Quails’ Gate has begun replanting about half of its 400 acres. Varieties that did not survive the hard winters, like Gewürztraminer, are not being replanted. Others are being replanted in better locations, with emphasis of newer clones of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, flagship varietals at Quails’ Gate. A trial block of assorted hybrid varietals is being planted in Southeast Kelowna. Among other objectives, chief winemaker Jeff Del Nin is looking for a white varietal to stand in for Chasselas, one of three varietals in the winery’s hugely successful white blend, once a 22,000-case brand. Three hard winters in a row reduced production, with none being made in 2024.

Like many Okanagan wineries, Quails’ Gate imported grapes from California, Oregon and Washington. Jeff says he spent 51 days last year in American vineyards last year, coordinating harvests in order to keep his winemaking team busy and ensure there is 2024 wine in the market from Quails’ Gate. “We are currently bottling out 2024 Pinot Gris, from California,” he says. “As soon as we are done, we will switch to doing the rosé, also from California. We did a Chenin Blanc from Washington; Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from Oregon; and some really nice Pinot Noirs from Oregon. We are trying to keep our customers supplied.”

The longer-term strategy involves winter-proofing the vineyards. The measures include protecting some vines with geo-textile fabrics. The winery is also doing a trial with a European technology with strings of lights that shed enough heat to keep the buds from freezing. It works against spring frosts in French vineyards but it remains to be determined whether it will work in a colder Okanagan winter. And given how resilient Maréchal Foch has shown itself, winter-hardy hybrids are getting a second look. “If they had been growing the hybrids with as much care and attention to quality as we currently give to vinifera, we probably would still have a lot more hybrids around,” Jeff says. “The problem was that the vines were overcropped. Growers did not know as much about growing grapes as we do now.” The latest releases from Quails’ Gate, all from the spectacular 2022 vintage, include an excellent Old Vines Foch.

Quails’ Gate Estate Chardonnay 2022 ($26.99). The fruit was whole-cluster pressed and the juice was fermented in stainless steel and neutral oak barrels. The wine was aged on the lees for nine months. It begins with aromas of apple, orange peel and apricot, leading to flavours of pear, apple and citrus. 91.

Quails’ Gate Estate Pinot Noir 2022 ($34.99). The wine was fermented on the skins for 10 to 14 days and then aged 10 months in French oak barrels (both new and used). The wine begins with aromas of cherry and strawberry. These are echoed on the palate minged with a hint of chocolate. The texture is silky and the finish is long. 91.

Quails’ Gate Estate Merlot 2022 ($34.99). The grapes, which were from the winery’s West Kelowna vineyard, were fermented on the skins for 14 days. The wine was aged for 18 months in French oak. The wine has aromas of black cherry, blueberry and blackberry, echoed on the full-bodied palate. 91.

Quails’ Gate Estate Foch 2022 ($28.99). The fruit for this wine is from the winery’s Osoyoos vineyard where Maréchal Foch grapes have been growing since 1978. The wine was fermented on the skins for 10 days and then was aged in French oak (20% new). The wine begins with earthy aromas of plum and fig. The palate is full, with flavours of dark fruits and wild game meats. 90.