D'Angelo big reds for spring release

Photo: wine grower Sal D'Angelo

In April, vintner Sal D’Angelo, the owner of D’Angelo Estate Winery on the Naramata Bench, will release four of the best red wines he has made so far in British Columbia.

Unlabelled samples arrived last month because the wines will be launched with redesigned labels. I expect the labels will be interesting but what is inside the bottles is what really counts.

Sal is an interesting man, if only because he operates a winery in Ontario as well. He opened his Okanagan winery in 2007 on a vineyard just north of Penticton and beside the Kettle Valley hiking and cycling trail. The winery also operates a popular bed and breakfast. One reason it is popular is that five or six other wineries are within walking distance.

Here is an excerpt from the winery profile in the current edition of John Schreiner’s Okanagan Wine Tour Guide.

Sal D’Angelo, who runs a winery (also called D’Angelo) near Windsor in Ontario, which opened in 1989, has been attracted to the Naramata Bench since he started vacationing here in the early 1990s. He has a rare condition of the nervous system called Guillan-Barré Syndrome, which is far less trying in the dry Okanagan than in humid southern Ontario. Not that he has ever let the condition hold him back: during one four-hour medical treatment some years ago, he landed a $1,100 wine order from the doctor.

Born in Italy in 1953, Sal grew up in Canada in an immigrant home where his family made wine each fall. “I grew up with the smell of fermenting grapes,” he says. He became a science teacher but began to plant grapes in 1983 in his Windsor-area property, opening a winery six years later. During an early Naramata vacation, he presented one of his Ontario reds to Hillside Cellars founder Vera Klokocka with the cocky assertion that the Okanagan was not suited to growing big reds. She produced a Cabernet Sauvignon (she was the first in the Okanagan to make this varietal). Sal changed his mind and starting considering the Okanagan.

Since 2001, Sal has acquired an entire peninsula on the eastern bluffs above Lake Okanagan, only minutes north of Penticton. He planted about three hectares (7.4 acres) initially, with room to triple his plantings. Not afraid to be original, Sal was the first in the Okanagan to plant Tempranillo, the leading red variety in Spain. He also planted red Bordeaux varieties and some Pinot Noir and intends to add Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc.

If there was any lingering doubt about the Okanagan’s suitability for big reds, these four samples from the winery certainly dispel it. No doubt, it helps that three are from the 2009 vintage and one from 2007, two of the best vintages in the last decade in the Okanagan.

Here are my notes.

D’Angelo Pinot Noir Riserva 2009: This has yet to be priced. Sal has been tasting it against other Pinot Noirs priced anywhere from $25 to $50, trying to settle on a benchmark. I am betting the price will end up around $35, similar to most of the other Naramata Bench Pinot Noirs.

This is a dark Pinot Noir, with savoury aromas of forest floor, black cherry and chocolate. This is reminiscent of those red Burgundies said to have a barnyard note, something that Burgundy enthusiasts consider desirable. The flavours are savoury and herbal with a touch of cherry. The structure is still firm but evolving. I would recommend cellaring this wine another five years so it can blossom to its full potential. 88-90.

D’Angelo Tempranillo Riserva 2009 ($19.90). The aromas and flavours of this big red reminded me of some big Spanish reds I have tasted. It begins with spicy blackberry and vanilla aromas. On the palate, there is blackberry, boysenberry, dark chocolate and vanilla, with a lingering finish of spice and vanilla. The texture is generous. 90.

D’Angelo Merlot Cabernet Riserva 2009 ($22.90). The Merlot in this blend contributes appealing sweet berry flavours to this ripe and generous wine. It shows aromas and flavours of black currant, vanilla, chocolate and coffee. The wine benefits from decanting to liberate all of the aromas and tastes. 89.

D’Angelo Sette Coppa Riserva 2007 Unfiltered ($24.90).  The flagship red blend’s name, Sette Coppa, means “seventh measure.” This comes from the nickname of Sal’s great-grandfather, Donato, who persuaded the local flour mill to take every seventh measure as payment for grinding his grain when others were being assessed every sixth measure. You can see where Sal gets his shrewdness from!

This wine begins with mint, vanilla and black currant aromas. Full-bodied, it tastes of black currants, coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla. The latter reflects the long, but not excessive, barrel aging that Sal gave to all of his big reds. 90.

Tied House rule untied and other good news.

Photo: Carbrea Vineyard's Stephen Bishop

Last week was a good week for Stephen Bishop, the owner of Carbrea Vineyard and Winery on Hornby Island as well as the owner of another island business, Sea Breeze Lodge.

Long overdue changes in B.C. liquor regulations, announced last Friday, mean that Bishop will be able to serve his wine in his lodge, effective March 1, for the first time since Carbrea opened in 2006. The government has finally abolished the so-called tied house rule.

It was also a good week for the craft distillers in British Columbia, who got what they have long sought: the ability to sell directly to consumers (like wineries) without paying the government’s punishing markups on those sales. That should mean a significant improvement to craft distiller, hitherto a marginal business. The little bit of revenue the government gives up will more than be offset the taxes it collects from an industry that is poised for expansion.

And it was a good week as well for breweries which will be allowed to have on-site tasting rooms and lounges.

And it was a good week for wineries trying to ship directly to consumers in other provinces, some of which still maintain barriers in spite of last year’s federal legislation to open the provincial borders. The B.C. government has appointed a “wine envoy” to facilitate the opening of the domestic market. He is Herb LeRoy, the former executive director of the lieutenant governor’s office and a very able and diplomatic administrator.

These changes are part of a general liquor law overhaul that seems to be underway to eliminate rules that made no sense but were still enforced in the spirit of the late Col. McGugan, the longtime liquor czar who once said the legislation was all about control.

The tied house rule, in fact, predates McGugan, who called the shots from the 1920s to 1969. The rule said that a liquor manufacturer could not sell its products in any hotel or restaurant it might own. Apparently, this originated more than a century ago when it was thought necessary to stop brewers from owning hotels and thereby creating monopolies for their own beers.

The ban has been pointless for decades. Almost no liquor manufacturer had the least interest in owning a hotel. I am aware of only three examples during the past 15 years that even triggered the tied house prohibition.

Wineries have been allowed to operate restaurants since 1995, but only when the restaurants were on the same property as the winery. Burrowing Owl, Tinhorn Creek and Hester Creek, for example, all have top-rated winery restaurants but they would not have been allowed to operate restaurants elsewhere in the Okanagan (not that they would want to) and sell their wines there.

When Larry Page opened Saturna Island Family Estate Winery, he also owned a rustic lodge on the other side of Saturna Island, four kilometres from the winery. He was told he could not have his wine on the wine list at the lodge. He pushed back by hiring a high-powered lawyer – and the regulators threatened to pull the winery license. Ultimately, he sold the lodge. He does have a bistro at the winery, however.

In 2003, Michael Marley opened Marley Farm Winery on the Saanich Peninsula. Getting the license was a major challenge because he owned two pubs and a golf course. Marley, who was delayed at least a year by the hassle, had to provide the government with notarized statements from his entire family, his Arizona business partners and even the landlords from whom the pubs are leased, that he would not sell Marley Farm wines in his pubs.

Marley Farm, a charming winery, unfortunately closed a few years ago. You have to wonder whether pub sales might have made a difference.

The tied house rule has been a significant business impediment to Steve Bishop at Carbrea. In 2007, he had extensive meetings and correspondence with the provincial government to get the rule lifted, and actually had the impression that legislation would be forthcoming in 2008.

In one letter in 2007 to the late Stan Hagen, the cabinet minister who was also his Member of the Legislature, Bishop argued: “Creating and sustaining a living on Hornby Island is already difficult, given its short tourism season, ferry prices and the tied house rule is an added economic detriment, not only to Carbrea but local businesses also. My primary objective is to merely market and distribute Carbrea wines in an open and transparent manner, alongside other products at our family operated, 15 cottage resort, Sea Breeze Lodge.” [Emphasis in the original.]

Consider how ridiculous the tied house rule was in the case of the Sea Breeze Lodge. Bishop could have offered his guests products from the other two wineries and the meadery on Hornby Island but, until now, not from his own winery.

Now, more than five years later, Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for liquor, has finally pushed his regulators to be flexible. Bishop, and any other liquor maker with an off-site restaurant, will now be able to sell his wine there, as long as the wine list also includes the products of competitors.

Should that change have taken 15 years?

Wine Access magazine is shut down

Photo: Final issue of Wine Access

For those interested in wine, Friday’s Wine Access announcement was shocking.

RedPoint Media Group of Calgary announced that Wine Access magazine was being shut down immediately. The announcement likely also kills the Canadian Wine Awards and the International Wine Value Awards.

Wine Access magazine was established in Toronto in the 1990s by David Lawrason. Somewhere in its early history, it was taken over by Warwick Publishing of Toronto.

From firsthand experience, I know that Warwick was one of Canada’s most inept publishers because they published my 2001 book, Icewine: The Complete Story. The agent who steered me to Warwick said I would benefit from the synergy of being published by a firm who owned a national wine magazine.

As if. Wine Access never published a single house ad for my book. Now did Warwick do much else to sell the book, finally sending part of the print run to a U.S. distributor where the books actually disappeared.

In 2004 RedPoint bought Wine Access and brought considerably more resources and editorial expertise to the magazine, as well as adding complementary publications and services. That included the Canadian Wine Awards, one of the most credible and ably judged of Canadian wine competitions. If no one picks it up, it will be a major loss to the Canadian wine scene.

In 2006, Wine Access also began publishing The Canadian Wine Annual. David Lawrason, then the editor, wrote that “we were inspired … by a similar publication in New Zealand.” There were about 250 wineries in the 2006 CWA. Last year’s issue included about 550 wineries.

As dynamic as the Canadian wine industry had been, it appears the CWA, which was available on newsstands and in wineries, was not being purchased as briskly as one would have expected. And when a version for the Ipad was also published last year, Wine Access sold only 34 copies.

The 2013 CWA was going to appear as Canadian Wine Traveller. Wine Access thought that by adding travel articles but reducing text on wines, the product would sell better. We will never know (I doubt it) because this has also been scrubbed.

Why did Wine Access fail? RedPoint is no Warwick. It has other successful publications, including Westjet’s inflight magazine. What Wine Access needed, apart from perhaps a sharper editorial focus, was far better distribution, such as a partnership with a national newspaper.

We are left with two national wine magazines. Vines Magazine is part of Sun Media. Tidings was launched about 25 years ago by the Opimian Society, which now has 20,000 members, a healthy readership base. A subscription comes with membership.

There also are regional magazines covering wine and food, such as Savour in Kelowna, Eat Magazine in Victoria, Northwest Palate in Portland and Wine Press Northwest in Washington State.

The challenge that Wine Access was always going to have was to appeal with a national magazine to wine and foodies who eat and drink regionally. I have found that with my books. The two dealing with all the Canadian wineries have flopped while those dealing with just British Columbia have succeeded. Readers in one region could care less about the wines from other regions that they cannot get anyway.

Wine Access’s coverage of the food and wine scene probably was too broad. The final edition now on the newsstand had a cover article on New York chef Daniel Boulud. There are also articles on California vintner Mario Andretti, Canadian wine sales to China and Japan, a profile of an Arizona winemaker, and a big advertising feature for the wines of California, the theme at this month’s Vancouver International Wine Festival.

The focus may have been a bit fuzzy. I have not seen an Andretti wine in this market in a decade (and I follow Formula One racing) and I have never seen an Arizona wine. Why would I want to read about them? Well, I might from professional interest but why would you?

I would love to see the books, however. The magazine has always had a lot of advertising. Unless production and distribution costs were excessive, I have trouble understanding why there was not the revenue to sustain the magazine.

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This news release from the All Canadian Wine Championships has some relevance to the above blog post.

From: Bev Carnahan

All Canadian Wine Championships

February 12, 2013

Windsor, Ontario

Yesterday Red Point Media announced their decision to drop Wine Access magazine and its wine competition,  the Canadian Wine Awards , from their portfolio.  While this is a definite setback for Wine Access and the Canadian Wine Awards and indeed a great disappointment for all Canadian winemakers and wine consumers alike, we are confident this acclaimed publication will find a new publishing partner soon.

Since there has always been confusion  between their competition and the All Canadian Wine Championships, we want assure all Canadian wineries that the two are indeed separate entities and that the All Canadian Wine Championships  is definitely still in operation. Indeed it remains Canada’s oldest and largest competition for Canadian wines and we are are currently ramping up for our 33^rd annual judging in May, 2013.

To all Canadian wineries who have participated in the All Canadian Wine Championships in the past and especially to the growing ranks of fledgling operations eager to compete against Canada’s best wines, we extend our invitation to enter the 2013 All Canadian Wine Championships. Entries have been mailed recently and inquiries may be directed to bcarnahan@mdirect.net or by visiting the website at www.canadianwinetrail.com

With regards,

Bev Carnahan

All Canadian Wine Championships, Director

CedarCreek scores with Earls

CedarCreek's Gordon Fitzpatrick (l) with George Piper, wine buyer for Earls

In something of a breakthrough for Okanagan wine, CedarCreek Estate Winery has been selected to produce two of the “Rascal” wines for Earls Restaurants Ltd.

Based in Vancouver, Earls is a 30-year-old restaurateur, operating more than 50 restaurants across Canada and in several U.S. states.

The Earls wine list, put together by George Piper, the restaurant’s wine buyer, has always focussed on offering a reasonable number of well-chosen selections (but not too many) at reasonable prices.

The best value wines on the list have been its house wines under the Rascal designation. Typically, the restaurant has sourced those wines from producers outside Canada. The current wine list still includes two Rascal wines from France.

CedarCreek, however, has displaced an Australian winery to produce The Rascal Next Door white and red blends. These are now on the Earls menu by the glass or at a very reasonable $28 a bottle.

CedarCreek has a long history with Earls. The Kelowna winery already had more wines on the Earls list (four) than any other Okanagan winery. It was the logical winery for Earls when the restaurant chain needed to change its house wine.

This should prove to be a good piece of business for CedarCreek president Gordon Fitzpatrick. The winery produces between 35,000 and 40,000 cases of wine annually. Earls could easily sell 7,000 cases each year of the two Rascal wines.

The Rascal Next Door White 2011 is a blend of 31% Gewürztraminer, 28% Chardonnay, 23% Pinot Gris, 8% Riesling, 7% Ehrenfelser and 3% Viognier. As one would expect from that blend, this moderately aromatic white is a delicious fruit basket on the palate.

The Rascal Next Door Red 2011 is a blend of 35% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Pinot Noir, 16% Cabernet Franc and 5 Syrah. This is a wine with vibrant berry aromas and flavours. The soft tannins make it an easy and accessible red to drink.

These are solid blends, packaged under screw cap to maintain freshness and to avoid cork taint. The servers at Earls will love to pour them and the clientele will enjoy them.

Donald and Elaine Triggs announce their new winery

Culmina's Elaine and Donald Triggs

Donald Triggs, the former chief executive of Vincor International Ltd., is back in the wine business with the launch of Culmina Family Estate Winery in the Okanagan.

This is his third career in the Canadian wine business and the second time that he and Elaine, his wife, have sunk their life’s savings into the business. This time, they are doing it at an age when most people retire.

“Retirement to me is a nasty word because it implies stopping,” says Don, who was born in 1944. “I don’t think life is about stopping. It is about continuing and doing what you love.”

Vincor was the 14^th largest wine company in the world when Constellation Brands took it over in mid-2006 for $1.6 billion. As a significant shareholder in a publicly-traded company, Don emerged from that transaction well fixed for life. But he and Elaine, who had run a premium Niagara vineyard for Vincor, only took a few months off before looking for land in the Okanagan for a new vineyard and winery.

That decision firmed up when Sara Triggs, the youngest of their three daughters and with a master’s in wine business from the University of Adelaide, agreed to join her parents in a family winery. Culmina, named from the Latin word for peak, is not just another Okanagan winery: it is a legacy project for the Triggs family.                              

Culmina, a no-expenses spared project, has scheduled its grand opening for August 2013.

Photo: Culmina Winery (south side)

The project’s new gravity-flow winery, with a capacity to produce 6,000 to 8,000 cases a year, was built last year, surrounded by vineyards on the Golden Mile, on western flank of the south Okanagan Valley. One of the vineyards, with an elevation touching almost 600 meters, is the highest vineyard in the Okanagan.

Don is well known in the wine industry: he and former partner Alan Jackson gave their surnames to Jackson-Triggs when that became the new name for Brights Wines in 1994.

Both he and Elaine grew up on farms in Manitoba. After getting degrees in agriculture and business administration, Don spent several years in marketing with Colgate-Palmolive before joining the winery arm of John Labatt Ltd. in 1972. Four years later, he was sent to turn around Labatt’s money-losing winery in California.

His performance there caught the eye of headhunters. In 1982, he was recruited to run the Vancouver-based North American operations of Fisons PLC, a British fertilizer company. While Elaine was becoming a chartered accountant, Don was promoted to Fisons head office in Britain, where he ran a division.

 At heart, Don is an entrepreneur who enjoys building companies.  “I’ve always had this yearning to be in my own business,” he says. “And I really had a twinge in my bones for the wine business.”

In 1989, when Labatt decided to sell its the wine business to the managers, Don came back from Britain to lead the team. Even though conventional wisdom at the time held there was no future for Canadian wine, he sunk his savings into the winery buyout.

“I sold my ski chalet and took all the money I had saved up, and re-mortgaged my house,” he recalls.
 But this is what ultimately grew into Vincor which owned, among other assets, six Okanagan wineries.

One of them, Osoyoos Larose, is a joint venture with Groupe Taillan of Bordeaux. 
One of their consultants was Alain Sutre who was sufficiently impressed to take on other Okanagan clients 
since then.  (They include Burrowing Owl, Painted Rock and Poplar Grove.)

When Don and Elaine decided to get back into the wine business in 2006, they also turned to Sutre. “I said to Alain, is it possible to raise the bar again?” Don says. “Osoyoos Larose pushed the bar up and others have embraced that vision, because quality has gone up around the industry.” Sutre said yes, noting that Okanagan terroir was so much better understood than had been the case a decade earlier.

They looked in detail at five Okanagan sites, in some cases taking soil and temperature readings, before buying 44 acres in 2007 from Olivier Combret and his family, then the owners of Antelope Ridge Estate Winery. Only 14 acres were under vine, almost all of which has since been replaced. The decision, Don says, was financially painful but necessary to upgrade the vineyard.

There is a delightful sentimental streak in both Don and Elaine, illustrated by the names of their vineyards.

The former Combret property is called Arise Vineyard. One of Don’s ancestors several generations ago was a purser in the first British garrison in the Barbados who settled on a 10-acre farm that he called Arise. The property stayed in the family even after Don’s grandfather moved to Canada about 1900. Don decided to revive this family name for his new vineyard.

Photo: Vineyard at Culmina

In 2009, while Arise was being planted, Don and Elaine bought another 60 acres on two hillside benches above Arise. Here, two new vineyards have been planted. The lower of these two is called Stan’s Bench, named for Elaine’s father. The upper bench, a cool northeast slope that rises to 595 meters, is called Margaret’s Bench, for Don’s mother.

When the three vineyards are fully planted – the final planting is scheduled for this spring – Culmina will have about 54 acres of vines to supply it.

These are among the highest density plantings in the Okanagan, with 2,044 vines per acre. In most Okanagan vineyards, the density ranges from 900 to 1,500 vines per acre. The theory behind high density is that by forcing the vines to compete with each other, each vine will produce less fruit but better quality.

In addition to these three vineyards, Don and Elaine are also planting about 1,000 bush vines (Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon) on three sun-bathed  and almost inaccessible fingers of soil on the mountainside. They admit that this is a $10,000 experiment.

That, however, is pocket change in this project. Total investment is not disclosed but is substantial. The technology for computer-monitored real time moisture and temperature data alone is a $100,000 investment. Soil analysis is so detailed that the vineyards are broken into 1 ¼-acre blocks, with the choice of clones of rootstocks precisely determined by the soil in each block.

The multiple exposures and soils of the site governed the planting decisions. “We have not planted what I want to drink, and that upset me no end,” says Don, who had hoped to plant Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache and Mouvedre until his consultant advised against them.

The varieties planted in Arise, lowest and warmest of the vineyards, are Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Malbec. Stan’s Bench, which has both heat pockets and cooler exposures, is planted to Chardonnay, Riesling, Viognier, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Margaret’s Bench is planted to Chardonnay, Riesling and 2.3 acres of Grüner Veltliner. This is the first planting of that Austrian white in the Okanagan.

Photo: Steep road in Culmina's vineyards 

Culmina has dynamite winemaking.. Matt Dumayne, after more than a decade of winemaking in New Zealand, moved to the Okanagan in 2010 and joined Don and Elaine in time to make Culmina’s 2011 and 2012 vintages before leaving at the end of January to become associate winemaker at Okanagan Crush Pad Winery..

In mid-January, Pascal Madevon left Osoyoos Larose, where he had been winemaker and vineyard manager since 2001, to join Culmina.

The wines to be offered this summer, likely between $25 and $30 a bottle, are expected to be a Chardonnay called Dilemma (because there is still some debate whether to keep those old vines or plant newer clones) and Hypothesis. The latter is a Bordeaux blend – 50% Merlot, 25% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

The winery explains that Hypothesis can be defined as “a provisional idea whose merit requires evaluation. … To the Triggs, Hypothesis wine represents ‘their best effort’ bringing together all the wisdom of 30 years in the industry.”

The winery is equipped with a tasting room and function rooms to take advantage of the stunning views over the valley from this site. Like everything else here, the owners want to raise the bar on the visitor experience. There will be a casual tasting bar but the intent is to go further.

“We want to tell our story,” Elaine says. “We will do sit-down tastings. But because we have spent so much time and energy on vineyard development, we really want to focus on providing as many people as possible with a vineyard tour; and to educate them on what we are doing.”

Saturna Island releases four whites

Photo: Saturna Island's Hooman Haftbaradan

Once again, owner Larry Page has his Saturna Island Family Estate Winery on the market.

The asking price, $7.9 million, has been reduced from the more aggressive valuations over the past decade. In fact, there is an Okanagan winery selling at the same price, with far less acreage. Bonitas Winery at Summerland, which has a 13.25 acre waterfront property, is listed for $7.1 million.

The Saturna Island winery is on a 78 acre property, with almost 60 acres of vineyard and with a bistro and a spectacular ocean view. So why is it selling for about the same price as Bonitas Winery?

As they say in real estate, it is all about location. The ferry service to Saturna Island is so poor than you can probably drive to Summerland from Vancouver in the same time it would take to reach the island.

However, Saturna Island winery has been dressed up for this occasion with sharp new packaging for its wines, which are now some of the best yet released from this property.

Credit Hooman Haftbaradaran, the British-trained winemaker who joined Saturna Island in 2010 after a few years in the Okanagan with St. Hubertus Estate Winery.

Born in Germany in 1973 of Iranian parents, Hooman came to wine after a degree in hotel management and while working as a sommelier in leading European hotels (Claridge’s in London, for example). While taking a winemaking degree at Brighton University, he did vintages in Greece, Germany and Washington State. While there in 2008, he discovered the Okanagan had a wine region.

At Saturna Island, he took over from a pair of South Africans, Danny Hattingh and  Megan DeVillieres, who are now in the Okanagan. A winemaker and a vineyardist respectively, the pair had spent two years correcting problems at the island property. Danny’s wines showed considerable improvement. Hooman is building on that foundation.

“As for my approach to winemaking,” Hooman told me a few years ago, “I am a diverse person. I lived in different places. That reflects in my winemaking. I see what the vineyard brings to me. I am working with the grapes and with the juice. I am not forcing anything.”

The wines I tasted suggest he has stayed on course.

Saturna Island Family Estate Chardonnay 2011 ($15.99). The label identifies this as BC VQA, implying that not all of the wine in the bottle was grown in Saturna Island, which is in the Gulf Islands VQA. This is a fairly light, fruit-forward Chardonnay, with aromas and flavours of citrus and orange peel. There is a hint of spice, perhaps from a very light use of oak. The finish is a touch short. 87.

Saturna Island Family Estate Riesling 2011 ($16.99). This wine must have transported Hooman back to Germany with its moderate 11.8% alcohol and a touch of residual sugar to lift the flavours of lime and grapefruit. A little note of petrol has already developed in the aroma. 90.

Saturna Island Family Estate Riesling 2011 Wild Ferment ($17.99). Congratulations to Hooman for having the courage to use indigenous yeast with one of his wine. This wine, with an alcohol of 12.9%, is balanced to be crisp and dry. It has aromas of citrus and an appealing twist of lime on the palate. 90.

Saturna Island Family Estate Pinot Gris 2011 ($14.99). This refreshing wine begins with aromas of lime and grass. On the palate, there are flavours of lime and pink grapefruit. Piquant acidity and a skein of minerals give this wine a tangy and dry finish. 89.

Plume 2010: a wine that punches above its weight

In the fall of 2011, Tony Stewart, the president of Quails’ Gate Estate Winery, partnered with Californian Dan Zepponi to create a brand called Plume Napa Valley.

The first release was about 1,150 cases of a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, virtually all for the western Canadian market. To the delight and perhaps to the partners’ surprise as well, that first release is sold out.

The 2010 vintage, about 2,000 cases, is just arriving in wine stores in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. The partners now think they will be hard-pressed to keep the brand in stock until the 2011 vintage – not yet in bottle – is ready.

“It has been so successful in Canada that I have not moved it down here much,” Zepponi says, speaking of the California market.

However, the 2011 Plume Napa Cabernet Sauvignon is 4,300 cases and the 2012 is about 5,000 cases. Zepponi will finally have enough of this fine Napa red to start selling it in his own backyard as well.

The partnership came about several years ago. Zepponi, a member of an old and prestigious wine family in California, spent two years in the Okanagan as president of Mission Hill Family Estate Winery.

At the time, the Stewart family was thinking of investing in the Australian wine industry. Zepponi convinced them it made more sense to invest in California. In addition to launching Plume, the partners last fall bought the Valley of the Moon  Winery in Sonoma, a winery almost as large as Quails’ Gate.

The initial strategy has been to use the Quails’ Gate distribution network in Canada to sell the California wines. Valley of the Moon and its associated brands don’t yet have a foothold in Canada but that will come.

The first two vintages of Plume were made in custom crush facilities in Napa. The partners have now leased a winery for Plume and engaged consultant winemaker Scott McLeod. Before hanging up his consulting shingle, McLeod spent 18 years ad winemaker and vineyard manager for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rubicon Estate. Both he and Zepponi have the right connections to get superb grapes for this wine.

Here is my note on the 2010.

Plume Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 ($29.99). This is a wine that overdelivers. It begins with aromas of cherry, cassis and touch of eucalyptus. On the palate, the texture is opulent, with flavours of cherries and black currants mingled with chocolate. On the finish, there are appealing spicy hints of cloves and liquorice. The ripe, round tannins give the wine an easy accessibility now but I would not hesitate to lay some down for a few years. 91.