Fort Berens partners with Washington winery

Photo: Fort Berens winery in Lillooet

It is not surprising to learn that the Lillooet viticultural sub-appellation did not escape the damage from the January 2024 freeze that devastated vineyards in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. “Earlier this year, we were anticipating a near 100% loss in our vineyard,” writes Rolf de Bruin, the co-founder of Fort Berens Estate Winery, the major wine producer at Lillooet. “With the arrival of sunshine and warmer weather, [we have found that] most of our vines are alive. As we see it now, the vineyard is doing slightly better than expected in some of our blocks.”

In a letter dated late June, Rolf says that Cabernet Franc and Riesling are doing better than expected. “While we are anticipating a much small than normal harvest in both of these varietals, the harvest is certainly better than we were first expecting. We do expect some Pinot Noir, maybe 10% of a normal crop, which will likely go into our rosé. We also anticipate a small amount of Chardonnay grapes.” He continues: “Conversely, in our Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blocks, it looks like there will be nearly no fruit at all this year. In the blocks that are not doing well, we are working on re-training the vines this year to prepare them for 2025. We will have some vines to replant. Based on what we have seen thus far, we are hoping for an overall harvest amount of between 20%-30% of a normal harvest in 2024. In 2023, our crop was 33% of normal. To ensure our continued availability of wine, while lacking BC grape availability, we have been working on various plans and options for the upcoming vintage.”

For the 2024 vintage, Fort Berens has teamed up with a Washington State winery and plans to produce 4,000 cases of wine, mostly white wine. The winery sent its assistant winemaker, Seth Jex, to Washington for find a winery that, as Rolf writes, “fits well with our winemaking needs and style.” Fort Berens settled on working with what is called a “small craft winery, and one of the high-end red wine producers in the state.” The winery is not named in the Fort Berens letter.

Rolf continues: “This winery will bring Seth in as a visiting winemaker. This means he will make our wines, using all the tools and techniques we would use in Lillooet. … Seth will be in Washington for the duration of harvest and crush. He will be monitoring the entire process of selecting the vineyards, hand picking the grapes, and pressing and fermenting the wines at that winery. Just after fermentation, we will bring the wine back to Fort Berens to be finished, aged and bottled at our winery in Lillooet. With this collaborative process, our team will continue to make wine; they will just work in a different cellar.” The finished wines will be a bottled under a label making it clear that they have been made with Washington fruit.

In Lillooet, Alex Nel (pictured here) will produce a modest volume of wine from whatever the estate vineyards yield this fall. Here are notes on current releases.

Fort Berens Riesling 2023 ($22.99 for 1,186 cases). The fruit for this wine was 57% from a Naramata vineyard and 43% from a Lillooet vineyard. The grapes were given 12 hours of skin contact and the free run juice had a long, cool fermentation in stainless steel. Ferment was stopped with 9.4 grams of residual sugar to balance the bright 7.7 grams of acidity. The wine begins with aromas of grapefruit. The palate shows notes of lemon, grapefruit and green apple. 91.

Fort Berens Chardonnay Reserve White Gold 2022 ($31.99 for 375 cases). The fruit for this wine is from the winery’s Dry Creek Vineyard in Lillooet. Half the grapes were whole cluster pressed while the other half were crushed, destemmed and left on the skins for four hours. The wine was fermented cool with natural yeast and aged nine months in French oak barrels (30% new). This is an elegant wine, with aromas and flavours of orchard fruits including peach and apple. The buttery notes on the palate give the wine richness and a long finish. 92.

Fort Berens Pinot Gris 2023 ($23.49 for 1,194 cases). The fruit for this wine is 74% from Osoyoos and 26% from two Lillooet vineyards. The grapes were crushed and left on the skins for four hours, with dry ice used to reduce oxygen contact. The wine was fermented at 11◦C to preserve the aromatics. It was aged four months on the lees. The wine has aromas and flavours of orchard fruits including peach and apple. The finish is crisp and refreshing. 90.

Fort Berens Blanc de Blanc 2021 ($34.99 for 1,974 bottles). This is the winery’s inaugural Blanc de Blanc Brut, made with Chardonnay from the estate’s Dry Creek vineyard. South African-born Alec Nel, who joined Fort Berens in January, 2021, was eager to make a traditional sparkling wine, believing that the hot days but cold nights at Lillooet would produce bright and fresh acidity. This wine has 7.7 grams of acidity, nicely balanced with seven grams of residual sugar. The wine was aged 20 months on the lees before being disgorged. The wine presents with a display of fine bubbles. The aroma is delicate, with notes of citrus and brioche. There is a touch of green apple on the crisply dry palate. 90.

Fort Berens Merlot Reserve 2021 ($41.99 for 187 cases). The fruit for this wine is from the winery’s two estate vineyards. To extract the aroma, colour and flavour, the crushed grapes spent two days on the skins before fermentation began. During ferment, there were pump-overs every four hours followed by three days of maceration after ferment. The wine was aged 15 months in French oak barrels (primarily second and third-fill). This is a dark wine with intense aromas and flavours of dark cherry, plum and blueberry with a touch of spice on the finish. 92.

Fort Berens Cabernet Franc Reserve 2021 ($44.99 for 266 cases). The fruit for this wine is from the winery’s two Lillooet vineyards. The grapes were given a two-day cold soak, followed by punch-downs and pump-overs every four hours during a warm ferment. The wine macerated on the skins a further eight days and was then aged for 15 months in French oak (55% new). This is a tightly structured wine that benefits from being decanted. There are aromas and flavours of blackberry, black currant and spice. 93.

Township 7 is thankful for its sparkling wine portfolio

Photo: Township 7's Mary McDermott with sparkling wines

After winemaker Mary McDermott joined Township 7 Vineyards & Winery in 2014, she inaugurated a major sparkling wine program that now accounts for six wines in the portfolio’s seven stars label. She started the program because she likes making sparkling wines and she is very good at it. “When I was taking my WSET courses and working as a sommelier, I loved sparkling,” she told me in an interview several years ago. “It is one of my favourites. And then when I started full time in wineries, I worked at Cave Springs Cellars [in Ontario]. They had a small sparkling program there and I got my hands dirty, because I worked fulltime in the cellars then. I moved from Cave Springs to Trius and took over the Trius program, which is much larger. It kept going from there.

“I always really enjoyed sparkling wine. The process is quite different than making other wines. There is a lot more patience required. You have to be aware of all the things that are happening with the ferments … how the grapes are coming in, how they are grown. It takes a little more attention to detail when you are making it. It was challenging for me and I like that. That’s where all that comes from. And I like drinking it.”

She could not have anticipated the damage to vineyards caused by freezes in the last two winters, which reduced the winery’s vintage of table wines in 2023 and have come close to eliminating the 2024 vintage. “Thankfully, the sparkling program will keep us going,” she says. The currently available sparking wines are from vintages for 2016 through 2021, with wines from several vintages still maturing in the bottle. In a tough year, it is almost like money in the bank.

The 2023 vintage of table wines at Township 7, while reduced in volume, was good, Mary says. “The 2023 whites and rosé look very good, even better than expected,” she told me recently. “For the reds we just completed our blending session, and some of the reds were very good. The Cabernet Sauvignon from Blue Terrace Vineyard and the small amount of Syrah that we received from Fool's Gold Vineyard were excellent. Merlot also seemed to have done well. Overall, the quality was good.”

Then comes the bad news. “For the 2024 vintage we are anticipating little to no fruit,” Mary says. “Some vineyards have had good growth on certain varieties, in particular Gewürztraminer in Naramata and Cabernet Sauvignon in Osoyoos. Our Naramata vineyard looks alive. There are a few vines in the Chardonnay block that look to be coming late but, overall, not many are dead.” She continues: “The Blue Terrace vineyard in Oliver is another story though. The Sauvignon Blanc has come through well but the Merlot and the Cabernet Sauvignon have much more damage. I will be assessing replanting shortly.”

Here are notes on recent releases.

Township 7 Provenance Series Sauvignon Blanc 2023 ($24.97 for 383 cases). Most of the juice was fermented cool in stainless steel tanks; while two barrels were fermented in French oak. The wine has aromas and flavours of lime and grapefruit. Bright acidity gives it a tangy finish. 90.

Township 7 Provenance Series Pinot Gris 2023 ($24.97 for 219 cases). The fruit for this wine is from the winery’s Naramata Bench vineyard. Most of the juice was fermented cool in stainless steel at 14◦C to preserve the freshness of the fruit aromas and flavours. A moderate volume was fermented in two barrels to add texture and complexity to this cerebral wine. It has aromas and flavours of pear and stone fruits, with a spine of minerality. 90.

Township 7 Provenance Series Rosé 2023 ($27.97 for 463 cases). The blend is 68% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% each of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wine had a slow, cold ferment in stainless steel. The wine presents with a lovely deep rose petal hue. It has aromas of apple, strawberries and watermelon. The palate is crisp and fresh, with flavours of strawberry, watermelon and pink grapefruit. 90.

seven stars Aurora 2020 ($57.97 for 990 bottles). This is 100% Pinot Noir from an Okanagan Falls vineyard. The wine was produced in the classic Champagne method and was left en tirage for 30 months. On disgorging, the winery added a small amount of its proprietary dosage to add complexity. This is an elegant wine. The active mousse delivers aromas and flavours of citrus and apple with a hint of brioche. 93.

Hester Creek has a good inventory of wine - and a strategy to get through the 2024 vintage

Photo: Hester Creek's Mark Sheridan

Like nearly all Okanagan wineries, Hester Creek Estate Winery will be making wines this fall with Washington State grapes. Hester Creek’s estate vineyards, along with the vineyards of its growers, were devastated by a week-long freeze in January. The winery has to replant 25 acres, a third of the estate vineyards, and is rejuvenating the other vines so they can produce grapes next year. Magnificent wines like those reviewed here will be missing from Hester Creek’s portfolio for a few vintages in the future. This is no different from the position other Okanagan wineries also find themselves in.

What is different, perhaps, is the strategy pursued by Hester Creek president Mark Sheridan to fill the gap in the 2024 vintage. “We knew back in late February that there was significant damage to our vines because of the winter freeze,” Mark told me in a recent interview. “We started looking at options back then.” Washington State was the obvious option because there is a huge grape surplus there after the state’s largest winery cancelled 40% of its grower contracts in 2023. “For the wine we want to make, these grapes stylistically are the closest fit to the grapes we would grow here,” Mark says.

He had a contract in place in March with a grower in the Red Mountain viticultural area in the Columbia Valley. That was risky. It was not until late July that government eased the regulations and allowed land-based wineries to use imported grapes for the 2024 vintage. But Mark wanted to be in control of the grapes he was getting throughout the growing season, not just at harvest. “I wanted to be involved in the growing of the grapes,” Mark says. He is a professional viticulturist who trained and worked in his native Australia before coming to the Okanagan about 20 years ago. The Washington grower allocated a section of vineyard just for Hester Creek and took viticultural directions from Mark during his frequent visitor to Washington State over the summer.

When the grapes are harvested next month, they will be trucked to the Hester Creek winery. The wine will be made there by Hester Creek’s winemakers and with the winery’s unique fermenting tanks. Mark wants the wines to have Hester Creek’s stamp on them. “We will have a series of wines that we make from Washington State grapes,” Mark says. “We will be clearly labelling them as Columbia Valley. We polled a lot of our customers, and our customers have told us they have faith in the Hester Creek brand; and they will support that brand, even if it is from Washington State, because they know the reason why we are doing this. We need to have wine to sell so that we can be economically viable.”

Those wines will not be on the market before next April. In the meanwhile, Hester Creek still has almost 35,000 cases of VQA wines for its customers, including red wines from the 2021 and the (bounteous) 2022 vintages.

Here are notes on some of those wines.

Hester Creek Sauvignon Blanc Sémillon 2023 ($27.99). This classis Bordeaux white is a blend of 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Sémillon. After the grapes were whole-cluster pressed, the juice was co-fermented in four 228-litre vessels, three of which were French oak. The wine was aged five months in barrel. The wine has aromas and flavours of lime mingled with apple and a note of honey on the otherwise dry finish. 91.

Hester Creek Chardonnay 2022 ($24.99). This wine was aged 10 months (60% in French oak, 40% in stainless steel, with weekly stirring of the lees. Because the wine is tightly structure, it benefits from being decanted. The wine begins with buttery and toasty aromas mingled with citrus. On the palate, there are flavours of stone fruit and pear that, with breathing, developed a buttery note on the finish. 90.

Hester Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 ($34.99). This wine is from one of the best Okanagan vintages in years. The crushed fruit macerated for 16 days on the skins, including fermentation. The wine was aged 16 months in French oak barrels (35% new). The wine begins with aromas of cassis and blueberry. On the palate, the texture is full, supporting flavours of dark fruits with a touch of cedar on the finish. 91.

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Hillside is optimist about Naramata vineyards bouncing back

Photo: Hillside winemaker Kathy Malone

The latest releases from Hillside Winery & Bistro also included a positive report on this Naramata Bench winery’s vineyards in light of the hard January freeze in the Okanagan. “Great news,” wrote Kathy Malone, Hillside’s winemaker. “Since our last shipment [in May], we have observed an incredible amount of new growth in our vineyards here at Hillside and, indeed, down most of the Naramata Bench.” She continued: “While bud dissections predicted very little top growth, most varieties are developing somewhat full canopies, and those that are not, are pushing vigorously from the roots. We are hopeful that this growing season will be kind to the vines and that by 2026 the Naramata Bench will be close to full production again. In the meantime, along with our Naramata Bench colleagues, we still have lots of wine to offer.”

The current releases include a creative blend from 2023 and two properly-aged reds from earlier vintages. Note that the Merlot is available only to Hillside’s wine club.

Hillside Chef’s Whites 2023 ($35). This wine is a collaboration between Hillside winemaker Kathy Malone and Hillside chef Evan Robertson who blended 17% Chardonnay and 45% Sauvignon Blanc from a young vineyard on the Naramata Bench. The grapes were pressed and co-fermented, with fermentation in a terracotta vessel and in neutral French oak. The wine spent three months on the lees (to add texture) and was finished by adding 38% Sémillon to the blend. It is a complex white, with aromas of pear and apple leading to flavours of apple and citrus. 91.

Hillside Heritage Pinot Noir 2021 ($36 for 180 cases). This is dark and somewhat brooding wine. The fruit is from a vineyard below Munson Mountain. The grapes were given a nine-day cold soak, leading to a total 16 days on the skins at fermentation. That accounts for the intensity of colour, aroma and flavour. The wine was also aged 10 months in French oak (13% new). There are aromas and flavours of dark cherry with a hint of raspberry and blackberry peaking through. There is a classic note of earthiness and forest floor on the finish. 92.

Hillside Gjoa’s Vineyard Merlot 2019 ($50 for 175 cases). This vineyard, planted in 1999, is named after The Gjoa, the ship in which explorer Roald Amundsen found the Northwest Passage in 1906. This may be the most romantic vineyard name on the Naramata Bench. The vineyard is one of Hillside’s premier sites and this is always one of the winery’s best Merlots. This dark and full-flavoured wine was aged 19 months in French oak (29% new). It begins with aromas of black cherry, blueberry, cassis and vanilla. The flavours are intense, including notes of black currant, blueberry, cherry and plum. The finish is persistent. 94.

BC wineries have green light to use imported grapes in 2024

Photo: SpearHead's Grant Stanley (photo courtesy of SpearHead Winery)

Grant Stanley, the general manager of SpearHead Winery in East Kelowna, was in Oregon last week. He was finalizing the purchase of twenty tons of Pinot Noir from Cherry Hill Winery, a boutique producer in the Willamette Valley. “I am looking forward to making Oregon Pinot Noir once again!” Grant told me, referring to working the 2001 vintage in Oregon before joining Quails’ Gate Estate Winery in 2003. “You know I am a Pinot guy,” Grant once told me “I don’t advertise it but with all the different varieties I make, I still spend about 80 percent of my time thinking about Pinot Noir.” He has been at SpearHead since 2018, making such exquisite award-winning Pinot Noirs that SpearHead won the “Winery of the Year” designation at the recent Wine Align National Wine Awards. In this vintage, he is buying Oregon (and Washington State) grapes for the same reason that most other Okanagan and Similkameen wineries are doing the same: because of last January’s devastating week-long cold snap, the vineyards in the two valleys will produce almost no grapes this fall.

The crisis of almost zero wine production this fall was averted last week then the BC government announced major regulatory changes enabling wineries to buy grapes (or juice) from outside the province. The changes include a temporary exemption of the requirement that land-based wineries source at least 25% of their grapes from owned or leased land for wines sold to or through the Liquor Distribution Branch. The government also has granted a temporary waiver to the requirement that wineries must produce a minimum of 4,500 litres of wine a year to retain their licenses. Most critically, the government has agreed that wine made from imported grapes in 2024 will be exempt from the 89% markup that applies to wines made with bulk wine imports. In short, the 2024 wines vinified from imported grapes will be treated like VQA wines. The regulatory changes – some details still need to be worked out – are in effect for one year, beginning April 1, 2025, when these wines will begin entering the market.

“This is a very good stopgap measure for this vintage, to enable us to remain profitable and viable,” says Mark Sheridan, the president of Hester Creek Estate Winery. “When our vineyards bounce back, our local growers will have wineries that are still afloat and can purchase their grapes. But I want to be clear that we are committed 100% to our local growers and to BC grapes long term.” By a stroke of good fortune for BC wineries, there is a massive grape surplus in Washington State because Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, formerly the state’s largest winery, sharply reduced its grape purchases, beginning in 2023. It is estimated there are 10,000 surplus acres of vineyard in the state – about the same as the total vineyard acreage in British Columbia.

It appears many BC producers, gambling that the regulations would be changed, began exploring Washington and Oregon grape sources as long ago as March when the extensive crop losses were becoming evident north of the border. “I was down there in February and lined up our grower in the Horse Heaven Hills after having meetings with a number of suppliers,” says Evan Saunders, the winemaker at Blasted Church Vineyards. “We had everything in place in the week before the Vancouver International Wine Festival [at the end of February]. I have been down to visit with them five or six times since then and will be down again in a couple of weeks for another vineyard tour. I think we have found exactly what we need variety, quality, and partner-wise.”

Photo: Tony Holler of Poplar Grove

He put Poplar Grove Winery in touch with Washington growers. Poplar Grove president Tony Holler moved quickly to tie down fruit sources. “We started this process of looking at importing grapes in February and signed contracts at the end of March,” he said last week. “We have secured a supply; and we are also working with a lot of small wineries. It is difficult for them, as a small winery, to bring grape juice up in small quantities because it is so expensive and so onerous. We have said to our neighbours and to wineries we know: tell us what you need and let us figure it out. We have a group of us involved in this whole process.” Tony describes the Washington State growers as “a fantastic group of people. They have all of the infrastructure to help us. They are being very helpful. Our winemaker [Stefan Arneson] is going down for about a month. He will go just before harvest and stay until the last grapes are harvested. The growers have said they will do what we tell them to do.”

Hester Creek’s Mark Sheridan, an Australian-trained viticulturist (pictured) has been dealing with a grower in Washington’s prized Red Mountain viticultural area since early spring. “We had a contract in place and they were holding the grapes for us. I have been down their multiple times and have had input into how they grow the grapes. We have our own section of their vineyard that they have allocated to us. I have full input as to how they are growing the grapes on that section. All the viticultural inputs are being directed by myself.” He plans to bring in about 850 tons of grapes, all of which will be processed at Hester Creek by its winemaking team. “The reason we chose Washington State is because, for the wine we want to make from these grapes stylistically, that was the closest fit to the style of grapes we would grow here,” Mark says. “We will have a series of wines that we make from Washington State grapes,” Mark continues. “We will be clearly labelling them as Columbia Valley. We polled a lot of our customers, and our customers have clearly told us they have faith in the Hester Creek brand; and they will support that brand, even if it is from Washington State, because they know the reason why we are doing this. We need to have wine to sell so that we can be economically viable.”

That is the overall purpose of enabling land-based BC wineries to do a vintage with imported grapes when the BC vineyards have negligible production this year. Winegrowing has become a major industry in the province, generating $3.75 billion in annual sales, employing 14,000-fulltime workers and attracting about a million tourists a year. Even a one-vintage failure would have a severe economic impact.

“I have heard directly about the impacts we are facing if we leave this sector unsupported at this point,” Roly Russell, the parliamentary secretary for Rural Development, said at last week’s announcement of the changes. “Wineries are facing significant financial difficulties, which is expected to lead to multiple closures and bankruptcies, and potentially hundreds of layoffs of BC workers. There would be cascading economic impacts in these communities, especially around tourism and hospitality. These losses would have significant and lasting impacts in the BC wine industry and on so many other businesses across the Okanagan and the Similkameen regions.”