Class of 2012: Kanazawa Wines

Photo: Winemaker Richard Kanazawa

Richard Kanazawa’s ambition to have wines under his own label, which actually resulted in his departure from two previous employers, has finally been realized with the release of four wines this fall.

The wines have been made available in a few Vancouver wine shops and restaurants, including Libations wine store in West Vancouver. Except for the white table wine, production is small.

The wines are certainly worth seeking out, not only for their intrinsic quality but for the refreshing beauty of the package. The elegant labels and capsules were designed by Richard’s wife and partner, Jennifer. The signature design element on each label is what the Japanese call a diamond flower. It has special meaning to Richard because his mother had a diamond flower on her kimono.

Richard was born in Langley. His first job in the wine industry was delivering wines for Domaine de Chaberton winery. He had studied food technology at the British Columbia Institute of Technology but could did not land a job in a winery cellar. So he headed to Australia in 2002 where Charles Sturt University accepted his BCIT credits. He combined his studies with winery jobs, including with the Simon Gilbert Winery.

He returned to Canada in 2004 and was hired by Red Rooster Winery on Naramata Road. He moved to Blasted Church a few years later but not before making a Malbec at Red Rooster that won a Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence.

He did four or five vintages at Blasted Church until moving on in 2011 to take over at Lang Vineyards, which was just emerging from bankruptcy. He cleaned up the cellar, reinstalled winemaking equipment, resuscitated the wines and made the 2011 vintage. Then early in 2012, the owner reneged on a prior understanding and decided he would not tolerate Richard making wines as well for the Kanazawa label.

Richard has since moved to Bench 1775 Winery, where the owners are in full agreement with him making both their wines and his own wines.

One can perhaps understand that a winery owner might feel possessive of his winemaker’s talents. However, winemakers of integrity do not favour their own projects over those of their prime employers but set out to make all the wines competently.

A recent announcement by Mike Lang, who succeeded Richard as general manager at Lang Vineyards, speaks volumes about Richard’s integrity in making the wines at Lang.  Mike Lang, by the way, is the nephew of Lang Vineyards founder Günther Lang; neither was involved in issues around Richard’s employment.

“As many of you know this past weekend marked the start of the Okanagan Wine Festival,” Mike Lang said in a news release recently. “Each year this festival is started with the Okanagan Wine Awards. It is an event where the best wine from the Okanagan is submitted for judging by some of Canada's leading wine experts. The event took place on Thursday September 27th.

“Lang Vineyards had entered a few wines into the judging event which we felt were our top wines and were extremely happy with the feedback we received for them at the Awards Ceremony. Lang Vineyards received a Gold for our

2008 Farm Reserve Riesling and Bronze for the 2011 Maréchal Foch.

“While we thought this news was great we were blown away when we received the announcement that our 2008 Farm Reserve Riesling had also won Best White Wine. It is an incredible honour to receive these awards and we are truly ecstatic!

“To top off that great news from the Okanagan Wine Awards, Lang also received news earlier in the day that we had won a Silver for our 2011 Farm Reserve Riesling and Bronze for our 2011 Bravo White Blend. Both these awards were from the Canadian Wine Access Awards.”

Clearly, Richard did a fine job in the Lang cellar.

And he did a fine job for his own label. Here are notes on the Kanazawa releases.

Kanazawa Nomu 2011 ($19.90 for 530 cases). This is a blend of 70% Viognier and 30% Sémillon. The result is a wine with intense aromas and flavours of apricot, peach, pear and banana and with a richness that is quite satisfying on the palate. 90.

Kanazawa Ronin 2010 ($29.90 for 110 cases). This is a blend of 88% Merlot, filled out with equal amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Dark in colour, the wine begins with an appealing aroma of cassis and vanilla. On the palate, there are bright fruit flavours – black currant and black cherry – with chocolate and blackberry on the finish. 90.

Kanazawa Raku 2010 ($29.90 for 100 cases). This is a blend of 85% Syrah and 15% Viognier. The grapes were fermented together, a fairly common practice. And while Viognier is a white variety, winemakers have discovered that it stabilizes and perhaps darkens the colour of Syrah as well as lifting the aroma. This is certainly a dark red with aromas that jump from the glass – aromas of vanilla, pepper, red fruit and chocolate. The palate is generous, with flavours of plum, black cherry, fig, pepper and dark chocolate. 91.

Kanazawa Diamond Flower 2011 ($20 for 200 ml). This is a late harvest Pinot Blanc with fresh flavours and aromas of new apples. The lively acidity balances the sweetness well in this appealing dessert wine. 89

Lake Breeze releases new Seven Poplars wines

Photo: winemaker Garron Elmes

South Africa has a major wine industry but you would not know it from the number of South African wines listed in the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch: a mere 85.

Perhaps there is another way for British Columbia consumers to get their South African fix from their own wine industry, which now employs three South African winemakers.

As well, three or four producers make red wines with Pinotage, the grape variety developed in South Africa about 1925 by crossing Pinot Noir and Cinsault. The latter is a grape grown in the Hermitage area of France and that probably accounts for the Pinotage name.

The first South African winemaker in the Okanagan was Garron Elmes, who was hired to launch Lake Breeze Vineyards in 1995. He is still there, having survived four ownership changes, because he is a capable winemaker. He also makes Pinotage every vintage because Lake Breeze was the first Okanagan winery to plant that variety. Less than an  acre is planted here and there is no room for more in the vineyard.

Excellent Pinotage wines have been released since by Stoneboat Vineyards, The View Winery, Inniskillin Okanagan and Hillside Winery (although the latter two wineries have discontinued this varietal).

The other South African winemakers are Bertus Albertyn (at Burrowing Owl and Maverick wineries) and Danny Hattingh (at Saxon Winery). Neither have Pinotage to work with but they are doing their homeland proud with the wines they do make.

And that is certainly so for Garron Elmes. Born in 1972 in Capetown, Garron was freshly graduated from Elsenburg College of Agriculture in Capetown when he took the winemaker’s job in the Okanagan. He has since become a Canadian citizen and an award-winning winemaker.

Seven Poplars on the Lake Breeze label was inspired by the stately poplars that used to border the driveway to the winery. The trees were removed a few years ago after some had become diseased and were in danger of becoming windfall.

On the label, Seven Poplars used to signal the winery’s reserve level wines. Garron does not make a big deal of that because he believes most of his wines now achieve the Seven Poplars level.

Here are notes on recent releases.

Lake Breeze Seven Poplars Sauvignon Blanc 2011 ($22). This wine is sold out at the winery but likely still on restaurant wine lists. It begins with aromas of herbs, citrus and fresh grass. On the palate, there are flavours of lime, with a backbone of minerals and with a crisp, tangy finish. 90.

Lake Breeze Seven Poplars Chardonnay 2011 ($25). This barrel-fermented Chardonnay is elegant and delicious, starting with appealing aromas of lemon, orange, along with a whiff of toast from the oak. It follows through with flavours of tangerine, apple and toast. There is a creamy richness on the long finish. 90.

Lake Breeze Seven Poplars Pinot Noir 2010 ($25). Deep in colour, the wine has aromas of raspberry, cherry and spice which are echoed in the flavours. The youthfully firm texture has begun to evolve toward the variety’s classic sensual palate. 90.

Lake Breeze Seven Poplars Pinotage 2009 ($30).  This wine is now sold out because the winery, which never makes much, breezed through the last 50 cases during the recent wine festival. No wonder: this is a terrific red from a very good vintage. The colour is dark. Aromas of black currant and boysenberry jam leap from the glass, leading to rich and jammy berry flavours. There is even a hint of fig on the long finish. 92.

Lake Breeze Seven Poplars Merlot 2009 ($25). Here is a ripe, full-bodied wine that jumps from the glass with aromas of cassis, mulberry and sweet plums. The texture is concentrated, with flavours of cassis, plums and spicy black currants on the long finish. 91.

Class of 2012: 50th Parallel Estate Winery

Photo: Winemaker Adrian Baker

While the showpiece winery is a few years in the future, 50^th Parallel Estate Winery has begun to establish its brand with two white wines and with the planned release (next year) of a Pinot Noir, the wine destined to be the flagship here.

The winery, located north of Carr’s Landing and on the east side of Okanagan Lake, made its first small vintage  (700 cases) last fall from young vines, in circumstances recalling the early years at Black Hills Estate Winery. Perhaps that is an omen for the future success of 50^th Parallel.

“I made those wines in a section of this uninsulated traditional Quonset hut,” says winemaker Adrian Baker. “I came from the company that Terry Peabody founded in New Zealand, Craggy Range Vineyards. I always tell people that in the job I left, we had two wineries.  One of them cost $13 million to build and the other cost $18 million to build. My winery in 2011 cost me $800.”

This fall, with almost 30 acres of vineyard in production, Adrian plans to make about 3,500 cases. He is working in a new building. It is still functional in design because it is the temporary winery and the future tractor shed. But it is large enough for his needs and large enough to accommodate the tasting room that 50^th Parallel will open next spring.

The design for a gravity-flow winery has been completed, with construction expected to start next year for a 2014 completion. Future plans call for a separate hospitality centre on a site with an especially fine view over the lake.

There also are more vineyards to plant. “We’ll end up with just over 50 acres planted,” Adrian says. “My great belief is, when you are developing vineyards, every time you do a block, you learn something about your site. Every year that you phase it, you improve your process and you improve the planting.”

Here are notes on the wines so far.

50^th Parallel Gewürztraminer 2011 ($18.90 for 200 cases). This wine is made entirely with estate-grown grapes. Adrian says his objective was to make a white that “promises sweet but finishes dry.” The wine does have sweet notes of grapefruit in the aroma and on the palate, with a crisp kiss of spice on the finish. 90.

50^th Parallel Pinot Gris 2011 ($24.90 for 400 cases).  This is made with 70% estate-grown grapes and 30% from another north Okanagan vineyard. It has aromas and flavours of pear with a touch of spiciness and with good weight on the palate.  The finish is dry. 88.

 50^th Parallel Pinot Noir 2011 (barrel sample). Made from the estate’s first Pinot Noir harvest, this wine has great promise. It has lovely aromas of cherry and strawberry, with layers of flavour – strawberry, cherry, mocha, spice, and subtle oak. It also has a rich and silky texture that one expects in fine Pinot Noir.  Only 100 cases were made, with a proposed price at release of $30 a bottle. 91.

Here is the 50^th Parallel winery profile from the recent edition of  John Schreiner’s Okanagan Wine Tour Guide.

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Curtis Krouzel’s 10-year search for vineyard property ended here in 2008, four years after he had invested in resort property on the west shore of Okanagan Lake. “As we looked across the lake, we saw this beautiful piece of property that seemed to be sitting predominantly idle,” he remembers.

After some research, he discovered the property’s vineyard history. Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars, a winery then based in Victoria, bought grapes—mostly French hybrids but also Riesling and Bacchus—from this vineyard in the 1970s. Frank Whitehead, then a viticultural manager for the winery, remembers it as “good dirt.” Ste-Michelle closed after being acquired by Brights Winery in 1981 and the vines were pulled out in 1988. Before Curtis bought the property, he set out weather stations for climate data and analyzed the soils, assuring himself that it really was good dirt.

“It was 61 acres [24.7 hectares],” he says. “It was about three times the size of the project I intended but I had always wanted to do something fairly world class. So we set out on this mission to create a winery focussed on Pinot Noir, complemented with a few workhorse wines.”

Born in 1975, Curtis grew up in Edmonton, earned a degree in engineering design technology and soon established his own company, designing plants for the oil and gas industry. With parents from the former Czechoslovakia and grandparents active in the Austrian wine industry, Curtis developed a passion for wine at the family table. When they began courting, one of the first things he told Sheri-Lee Turner, now his wife, was that he was going to own a winery in the Okanagan.

In three seasons, beginning in 2009, he has planted 11.5 hectares (28.5 acres), including seven clones of Pinot Noir along with Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer and Riesling. As the project took shape, he recruited a winemaker from New Zealand who would understand cool climate viticulture and Pinot Noir winemaking. “I did not want to poach from the Okanagan,” he explains. With some help from Quails’ Gate winemaker Grant Stanley, he found Adrian Baker, who has a master’s degree in enology from the University of Adelaide and more than a decade’s experience, primarily with Craggy Range Winery, which also has an Okanagan connection. Australian entrepreneur Terry Peabody, who launched Craggy Range in 1997, turned around struggling Western Star Trucks in Kelowna as chief executive from 1990 to 2000.

The size and potential of the vineyard transformed 50th Parallel from the $5 million project Curtis once had in mind to a $22 million destination winery designed by Zeidler Partners, a Toronto firm with clients all over the world. Investors have joined Curtis to realize a 30,000-case showcase winery, including underground cellars, visitor accommodation, dining services and a spa. “This is being built to make sure people have a complete wine experience when they come here,” Curtis says.

50th Parallel Estate

17010 Terrace View Road

Lake Country, BC V4V 1B7

T 250.766.3408

W www.50thparallel.com

CedarCreek Estate Winery at 25

Photo: Ross and Gordon Fitzpatrick.

Credit Albert Normandin

If one wants to follow the history of modern winemaking in British Columbia, the story of CedarCreek Estate Winery is a good example.

When the CedarCreek label, now 25 years old, appeared, there were so few wineries that you could tour them all in two days. Today, there are more than 150 producers (and rising) in the Okanagan and Similkameen wine regions. CedarCreek has not only survived the competition; it is, by any measure, a top tier winery.

The original winery at the CedarCreek property was called Uniacke Wines. It opened in 1980, named after a distant relative of one of the owners who had been attorney general of Nova Scotia in the 18^th Century. That probably was not the best choice for naming an early estate winery in the Okanagan.

The property is on Lakeshore Road on the east side the Okanagan Lake, southeast of Kelowna. That street, now lined with vineyards and housing developments, was perceived in the 1980s as lightly travelled road, somewhat remote from Kelowna. That sense of isolation is one reason why Uniacke struggled.

Late in 1986 Uniacke was purchased by Ross Fitzpatrick (who subsequently became Senator Fitzpatrick). He had grown up in the Okanagan, the son of a fruit packing plant manager. When he succeeded in business, he began looking for a hobby orchard and he built a splendid house on Lakeshore Road. Uniacke was nearby and had apple trees as well as vines. It was not too long before Fitzpatrick decided wine was more interesting than apples.

The winery was renamed CedarCreek in 1987. The property began to turn the corner in 1990 when 12 acres of Okanagan Riesling, De Chaunac and Chasselas were pulled out, to be replaced over the next several years by Pinot Noir, a far better wine grape.

In 1994, the Senator bought Greata Ranch, south of Peachland and on the west side of the lake. It was then a derelict property but he remembered it from its heyday as a major orchard. He reasoned that, since peaches once thrived here, vines also would do well. He planted 40 acres, primarily with Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer.

Then, beginning in 1998, CedarCreek hired two seasoned California winemakers in succession and completed a major modernization of the winery. That was followed by the development of two vineyards near Osoyoos, in 2001 and 2006, giving the winery properties that ripen big Bordeaux reds and Syrah. Today, with almost 130 acres of vineyard, CedarCreek is almost self-sufficient in grapes.

Winemaker Tom DiBello, the second of the two Californians, put his stamp on the wines over the decade he was there, making elegant Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and complex, long-lived Bordeaux reds.

He left in 2010, to be replaced by Darryl Brooker (right), a one-time Australian sailor who came ashore to get a viticulture degree. He has made wine in Australia, New Zealand and Ontario before coming to the Okanagan. In Ontario, he helped launch Flat Rock Cellars and then spent several vintages at Hillebrand Winery, both major producers.

He has begun to put his own stamp on the CedarCreek wines, both with subtle style changes (he has a lighter hand with oak than his predecessor) and with new wines.

Example: because he has experience making sparkling wine, he is putting together a cuvée for a Pinot Noir-based sparkling wine that will be released in about three years under the Greata Ranch label.

Wholly-owned by CedarCreek, Greata Ranch was established as a separate winery in 2003 to make reserve wines tied to a proposed luxury real estate development there. When that development stalled, the reserve program was shut down; only budget-priced wines have been available there for several years.

That is changing again. “We are trying to re-invent Greata and give it its own identity,” says Gordon Fitzpatrick, the Senator’s son and CedarCreek’s president. Once again, reserve quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be made there in top years, along with the sparkling wine.

CedarCreek’s reserve wines are released under its Platinum label, a term that goes back to when a CedarCreek 1992 Merlot was awarded an unprecedented platinum medal at the Okanagan Wine Festival. The current Platinum wines include Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Viognier, Syrah and Bordeaux reds. In the 2012 vintage Brooker intends to make a Platinum level Pinot Gris as well.

Brooker has been given a winemaking tool not available to his predecessors: two egg-shaped 660-litre concrete fermenters imported from France. He first saw them in France in 2006 and then made Sauvignon Blanc in them in Ontario. In both instances, he was impressed with the quality of the wines that can be produced with them.

The CedarCreek portfolio is still a blend of DiBello wines and, starting with the 2010 vintage, Brooker wines. Here are notes on some of the recent releases.

CedarCreek Pinot Gris 2011 ($17.90 for 6,100 cases). The wine begins with aromas of citrus. On the palate, there are flavours of citrus fruits mingled with peaches and apples. The finish is crisp. 89.

CedarCreek Platinum Viognier 2011 (Sold out). The winery released 479 cases in June. Alas, I never got to taste it until September. It is an outstanding wine, with aromas of orange blossoms and stone fruits. On the palate, there are flavours of spice and apricots, with a rich texture on the palate. 91.

CedarCreek Platinum Chardonnay 2010 Block 5 ($29.90 for 357 cases). This wine is made from grapes coming from a select block in the vineyard at the winery.  The wine was fermented in barrels from five different French coopers, with a quarter of the wine allowed to undergo wild yeast fermentation. Significantly, no malolactic fermentation was allowed. The result is a wine with a brilliantly pure fruit focus. The grapefruit and marmalade flavours are vibrant and the texture is rich. 91.

CedarCreek Platinum Home Block Pinot Noir 2010 ($39.90). This is elegant wine has a good concentration of aromas and flavours of cherry and raspberry. The texture is firm with a promise of the classic silky texture with a little more time in bottle. 91.

CedarCreek Tradition 2007 (Sold out). Tradition is the name for the best wine made here each vintage. The winery released 159 cases in July, 2012. It is a blend of 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 23% Syrah, 15% Malbec, 7% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. All of these have knit superbly over five years which included 21 months in French oak barrels. The aromas and flavours display sweet, ripe fruit – black currants, cherries – along with notes of vanilla. The texture is svelte and polished and the finish won’t quit. 92.

CedarCreek Platinum “M 2007 ($65). This is CedarCreek’s fortified wine. It began when Ann Sperling, the winemaker here in the early 1990s, began aging a barrel or two of wine in the hot Okanagan sun. Kevin Willemborg, the first California winemaker here, wanted to dump it but the assistant winemaker hid it and talked Tom DiBello into adopting the project. This particular vintage is made with Pinot Blanc. It has lovely nutty and salty notes, very much like as good fino sherry. 90.

Herder Winery's new releases mark anniversary

Photo: Sharon and Lawrence Herder

Sometimes it takes me by surprise to find that a winery has hit a significant anniversary, considering how wineries have opened at such a blistering pace that one forgets this is a maturing industry.

Herder Winery, I discover, is 10 years old this year if you count from the year that Lawrence Herder began planting grapes in the Similkameen Valley.

The winery itself opened in 2004 near Cawston and moved four years later to property on Upper Bench Road, not far from Keremeos. The original property was sold and is now occupied by EauVivre Winery.

Lawrence and his Canadian-born wife, Sharon, formerly operated a winery, also called Herder in the Paso Robles region of California. They moved to Burnaby in British Columbia to run a family-owned printing company. That did not engage them very long. Lawrence is a winemaker both by training and by avocation who began making wine at home when he was 16. When he moved to Canada, he actually brought along equipment from his first winery.

They moved to the Similkameen in 2002 to get back into the wine business. While the vineyard was getting established, Lawrence made a couple of vintages at Jackson-Triggs and one vintage at what is now Road 13 Vineyards. He has also consulted with several producers, including Stoneboat Vineyards and Perseus Winery.

He retired from consulting a few years ago to focus just on the 2,500 to 3,000 cases made at his winery, largely from estate-grown grapes. This winery’s ambition, it seems, is not to get bigger, just to be one of the leading boutique producers in British Columbia.

The latest releases are very well made. Here are my notes

Herder Three Sisters 2011 ($20). This is a delicious blend of Pinot Gris, Viognier and Chardonnay. It has aromas and flavours of melons, apples and citrus. The wine has nice weight on the palate but yet finishes crisply. 90.

Herder Meritage 2009 ($20). Excellent value, this wine has all five of the Bordeaux red varietals in the blend. It begins with aromas of vanilla, black cherry and black currant and then presents ripe flavours of black currant and black berry. The tannins are still firm, suggesting that this wine has several years of development ahead of it. 89.

Herder Pinot Noir 2010 ($35 for 90 cases). Dark and full-bodied, this wine is made entirely with Similkameen Valley grapes, all from the Herder vineyard. It begins with aromas of toasty oak (from 16 months aging in large oak vats) and black cherry. On the palate, there are layers of flavour – more toasty notes, with black cherry, strawberry, raspberry and mocha. The spicy finish and the sensual texture add to the appeal. 91.

Herder Josephine 2008 ($50 for 3,180 bottles). This is the flagship red at this winery – a blend in this vintage  of 81% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Cabernet Franc. The wine is bold and ripe, with 14.8% alcohol that meshes seamlessly into the layers of fruit. The aroma begins with black currant, spicy red fruit, and chocolate. On the palate, the sweet red fruit flavours evolve into a finish which shows spice, cedar and chocolate. The wine has long ripe tannins. It shows best with decanting. 92.

On checking the winery’s website, I find that I have reviewed this wine previously. I am relieved, in the interest of consistency, to find I made similar comments. Why review it again? Another bottle seems to have been included in the latest set of samples from the winery. It was one of my lucky days.

Class of 2012: Privato Vineyard and Winery

The second winery in Kamloops, Privato Vineyard and Winery, has released its first wine.

It is an attractive Chardonnay made with Okanagan grapes, since the vineyard at the winery is still not mature. As well, it remains to be determined what varieties will get through the winters here.

One has to admire the owners for pushing the envelop while establishing their label with grapes from a less risky viticultural region. Necessity may make this part of the long-term business plan. As long as the wines are as finely crafted as the initial release, consumers will not care where in British Columbia the grapes have been grown.

The winery has no tasting room or wine shop at this time. The wines are being sold directly from the winery, or will be once the website is live. Meanwhile, the owners are endeavouring to get the Chardonnay onto the lists at select restaurants. A second release, a 2011 Pinot Noir, is still maturing in bottle.

Here are my notes on the debut wine.

Privato Vineyard and Winery Chardonnay 2011 ($28.90 for 147 cases). This crisp, fresh wine showcases the fruit – aromas and flavours of citrus and apples – against a background of subtle oak. The flavours and the texture do a balletic dance on the palate before going on to a long finish. 90.

Here is the winery profile from recent edition of  John Schreiner’s Okanagan Wine Tour Guide.

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John and Debbie Woodward know that their vineyard is marginal, even with its sunbathed slope facing southeast, toward the North Thompson River. The property, a half hour drive north of Kamloops, is one of the more northerly vineyards in British Columbia planted to vinifera (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay).

They are being advised by Torsten and Gustav Allander, the father and son who operate Foxtrot Vineyards on the Naramata Bench, the origin of John’s Pinot Noir cuttings. “If we can bring the grapes to maturity, you could end up with a great wine. Pinot Noir likes it a bit cooler”, John says.  They are not betting the farm on the experiment, however, because they also have relied on Gustav to source Okanagan grapes as well and to help make their wine.

“Debbie has always wanted a vineyard,” says John, who was born in Kamloops in 1954. A professional forester, he and Debbie, a certified general accountant, met when they worked for the same forestry company. Preferring to work independently, they bought their 36-hectare (90-acre) farm in 1987. Here, they established a tree nursery now growing 30,000 Christmas trees and deciduous trees for landscaping needs.

Early in his forestry career, John, encouraged by his employer, began making wine at home from kits. He liked the wine until he moved it to storage that was too hot over summer and the wine fell apart. That ended his winemaking until he and Debbie vacationed among Italian wineries during crush several years ago. Seeing tiny wineries harvesting and processing grapes inspired them. “It was just the fuel we needed to get going,” Debbie says.

They figured there was nothing holding them back: they had land for vines and farm buildings readily convertible to winemaking. And they had finished putting their children through school. “Before, we were running a business with the purpose of supporting the family,” Debbie says. “Now we are doing it because we are passionate to make a really good glass of wine.”

In 2010, they planted 1.2 hectares (three acres) of vines—Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and one row of Maréchal Foch. John is open to changing the varieties if these do not make it through the Kamloops winters. “We’ll end up growing what will actually grow here,” he says. He also reacquainted himself with winemaking by making two barrels of wine with Gustav in 2010. The first commercial vintage, about 600 cases of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc, was done in 2011, with Gustav’s guidance, for release in 2013.

The Woodwards intend to sell their wines through restaurants and directly to consumers without a wine shop, in part because they consider their farm too far “off the beaten path.” Chances are, however, that the customers who have cut their Christmas trees here for years also may choose some of their holiday wines here.

Privato Vineyard & Winery

5505 Westsyde Road

Kamloops, BC V2B 8N5

T 250.579.8695 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250.579.8695      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

W www.privato.ca

Australia’s Bruce Tyrrell is back to revive his B.C. market

Photo: Bruce Tyrrell

There is this notion that the eastern half of Australia was settled by convicts sent there from British.

Well, not every settler had such roots. Australian winemaker Bruce Tyrrell’s ancestor was an Anglican clergyman who sent to Australia in 1848 as the bishop in the Hunter Valley city of Newcastle. Three of his nephews followed and one of them, Edward Tyrrell, began developing a vineyard in 1858 and made his first wine in 1864.

Of course, one can dig back much further in the Tyrrell lineage and, sooner or later, come up with a contentious individual. An ancestor in 1100 fled to Normandy after killing the son of William the Conqueror with an arrow! That detail is actually on the winery’s web site, along with the fact that that ancestor was subsequently pardoned and returned to England.

During the next several centuries, the family became more respectable and more successful (one member was a professor of anatomy and surgery) until young Edward was sent off to be a bishop in the colonies.

That led, ultimately, to Tyrrell’s Wines which celebrated its 150^th anniversary in  20008. That is a remarkable longevity in the turbulent Australian wine industry, which has experienced explosive growth and also contraction in the past two decades.

For its first 100 years, Tyrrell’s sold its wine in bulk and it was bottled by other producers and sold under their name. There is a charming story in one of wine writer James Halliday’s books that a few customers bought wines from the winery in the 1950s. On those occasions, bottles were filled from the tanks and someone typed up a few labels.

The business was taken over in 1959 by Murray Tyrrell, Bruce Tyrrell’s father, and the man who established Tyrrell’s as an independent brand.

Murray Tyrrell, who had been making his living in the cattle business, got a rude welcome to wine growing when hailstorms wiped out the 1959 and 1961 vintages and left him with a 1960 production of 600 gallons. But then he went on to win a gold medal at the Sydney wine show with a 1962 wine. Customers started to show up at the winery. By the early 1970s, Tyrrell’s had an establishing following for its brand.

Murray died in 2000 at the age of 79, having turned the company over to son, Bruce, who was born in 1951, and who had been brought into the business in 1974 after getting a degree in agricultural economics.

Murray began exporting wine to the United States in 1972. Under Bruce, the brand has come to be sold internationally. Tyrrell’s continues as a family-owned and operated winery, now with 500 acres of vineyards. Murray’s son, Chris, who had his first vintage in 2001 when he was 18, is one of the company’s three winemakers. His older brother, John, and his sister, Jane, also are actively involved.

Currently, the winery’s biggest market is China. Tyrrell’s made a conscious decision several years ago to cultivate the rising demand for wine throughout Asia. Now, two-thirds of the winery’s exports – and the winery makes 400,000 cases a year – are sold in Asia.

That has offset the slowdown in some other markets, including the once crucial European market for Australian wine but now a collection to troubled economies. “I reckon Europe is the next Third World,” Bruce says.

Bruce has been at the Vancouver International Wine Festival at least a dozen times over the past 25 years. Given the attention he has paid to this market, I was stunned to find only one Tyrrell wine listed by the Liquor Distribution Branch: Steven’s Vineyard Shiraz at $31.99. However, a half a dozen other Tyrrell wines are about to become available in this market, following the tastings that Bruce has been doing here.

Several private stores also list Tyrrells wines. For example, Everything Wine has Tyrrells Lost Block Shiraz Viognier for $21.

The winery made its reputation initially with wines made from the Semillon grape.  For years, Tyrrell’s and other wineries in the Hunter Valley released this as Vat 1 Hunter Valley Riesling.  It was many years before the industry began applying the correct varietal name.

There is nothing in the world like an old Hunter Valley Semillon, which take on complex toasty and nutty flavours as they age. They can age to well over 10 years. One usually has to go to Australia to taste such marvellous whites.

At one of his Vancouver tastings, Bruce showed off the 2004 vintage of Vat 1 Sémillon (approximately $65), a dry white in which toasted almonds mingle with subdued citrus flavours. 91 points.

The winery has several wines under its “Vat” trademark. The trademark was born simply to identify which vat a wine had been matured in when the winery was small. Today, Vat wines are made only with estate-grown grapes.

Here are notes on other wines that Bruce showed.

Tyrrell’s 2008 Stevens Semillon ($28). At only four years of age, this wine is still quite youthful, with lime and lemon flavours and with a crisp finish. 88.

Tyrrell’s 2006 Vat 47 Chardonnay ($55). This is an elegant and fresh Chardonnay very reminiscent of a white Burgundy. It has citrus aromas and flavours with subtle oak.

There’s a story behind this wine. Murray Tyrrell was a great admirer of white Burgundy but, in the late 1960s, there was very little Chardonnay grown in Australia. As it happened, one of the few vineyards was just down the road and belonged to Penfolds. Murray asked for cuttings so he could nurture his own vines and Penfolds refused, three times.

“So one night, we snuck in there and stole them,” Bruce remembers. A few years later, Tyrrells bought the entire vineyard.

Tyrrell’s Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz 2006 ($30). This wine has aromas and flavours of black cherry and plum, with a touch of spice on the finish. The texture is elegant. 91.

Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz 2010 ($55). The vines that produce this wine date from 1968; some date from 1892. The vine age accounts for the intensity of sweet cherry and plum on the palate. There is a touch of liquorice on the finish. 91

Tyrrell’s 4 Acres Hunter Shiraz 2011 ($78). To taste this wine, made from vines planted in 1879, you might need to join the Vancouver chapter of the Australian Wine Appreciation Society. I am told that AWAS has ordered some for its cellar. This wine is youthfully bright, with layers of berry flavours that dance on the palate. 92.