River Stone is counting on its strong red wines

Photo: River Stone's bare vineyard in September 2024

There is good news and bad news at River Stone Estate Winery in Oliver. The good news is that winemaker and co-owner Ted Kane (pictured below) has a good inventory of red wines from the 2020 and 2022 vintages, arguably two of the best Okanagan vintages this century.

The bad news is that no grapes have been produced from River Stone’s two vineyards in 2024 due to the severe damage suffered during the hard cold in January. Ted will need to replant some of the vineyards and revive production next year from vines that survived. Meanwhile, like many other producers, Ted has secured white varietals from growers in Washington in the 2024 harvest.

Here is an excerpt from a statement Ted has prepared for the winery’s customers.

As valued members of our community, we wanted to share an important update about the current state of our vineyards and the future of River Stone Estate Winery. Most of you will have read our vineyard update published earlier this year regarding the devastating affects of the sudden and severe freeze of January 2024. You will be aware of the practical and optimistic outlook that our River Stone team shares. We remain hopeful and confident in the resilience and creativity of the agricultural community affected by climate extremes in the last several years.

This year was spent in deep observation and scrutiny regarding the best path forward for our small winery. We realistically accepted bud-damage (which is a short-term setback compared to longer, more sustained damaged that can arise with injury to older wood) as the best-case scenario but prepared for the worst. After months of observation and analysis, we now see not only did the freeze impact our entire crop from 2024, but there is large potential for long-term damages across our two vineyard sites. The damage varies by varietal and location, ranging from 40% to 95%, with our Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer vines being the hardest hit. While our Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc fared somewhat better, the overall impact was severe enough to halt all production from our estate this year.

In response, we are taking action to ensure River Stone remains resilient, as we have so often stated before. Depending on the extent of the damage, we are interplanting new vines, replacing entire rows, and even replanting entire vineyard blocks. This careful and strategic process will take time, resources, and meticulous vineyard management in the coming seasons to ensure long-term success.

In the short term, we are sourcing high-quality fruit from reputable growers in Washington State for our white wine portfolio, and we will be relying on our cellared 2020-2022 vintages of red wines to carry us through the next few years. We want to assure you that despite the challenges, we have no intentions to reduce availability and will continue offering competitively priced premium wines. Our goal remains the same: to produce wines that reflect the exceptional quality and style that you have come to expect from River Stone. As we move through the next several months of vineyard recovery, we remain optimistic that we can utilize a combination of government-funded replant programs, along with our crop insurance to support our efforts. These resources, along with our dedicated team, will help us navigate this difficult period. Most importantly, we are confident that River Stone will continue to thrive and grow, despite the setbacks we've faced over the last two years.

During this time, your support means everything to us. Whether it's purchasing wine, visiting the winery, or simply choosing BC wineries from restaurant wine lists or local liquor store shelves. We have worked hard to maintain the integrity of our wines by sourcing from trusted growers who share our commitment to quality. While our wines maybe labelled differently, we promise that our passion for producing excellent wine has not wavered. Thank you for being a part of our journey. We remain optimistic about the future and are excited to share the next chapter with you.

Here are notes on the winery’s recent red wine releases. The quality is superb. Prices do not include taxes.

River Stone Merlot 2020 ($30.90 for 400 cases). The grapes are from the River Rock Vineyard, which surrounds the winery. The fruit was fermented in both stainless steel and small fermentation totes with two or three daily punch downs. The wine was aged 18 months in French oak (33% new). The wine presents intense aromas and flavours: dark cherry, black currant and spice. The tannins are firm but ripe. 91.

River Stone Malbec 2022 ($38.90 for 470 cases). The fruit is both from the estate vineyard and the Red Brick Vineyard in Osoyoos. For fermentation, about 80% of the berries were left whole and, after a cold soak, were fermented in both stainless steel and small totes. The wine was aged 14 months in French oak (33% new). The wine begins with lovely floral aromas mingled with cherry and blackberry. The aromas are echoed on the generous palate where the layers of fruit are supported by ripe tannins. 92.

River Stone Stones Throw 2020 ($36.90 for 500 cases). The blend is 73% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Malbec and 4% Petit Verdot. The Cabernet Sauvignon was co-fermented with a similar volume of Merlot. Most of the fruit was left uncrushed. The wine was aged 14 months in French oak (33% new). This is a wine with bold aromas and flavours of dark cherry, blueberry and spice. 92.

River Stone Corner Stone 2020 ($46.90 for 352 cases). The fruit for the winery’s flagship red is from the River Rock Vineyard. The blend is 36% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot. About 80% of the grapes were left whole when they went into stainless steel and small fermentation totes. The Cabernet Sauvignon was co-fermented with some Merlot while the other varietals were fermented separately. The wine went into French oak (33% new) for 12 months. The superior-tasting barrels were selected for the final blend and aged a further six months. All that work produced a full-bodied and elegant wine with aromas of dark cherry, black currant and spice. On the palate, the wine delivered flavours of black currant, cherry and plum mingled with a hint of chocolate. The finish is long. 95.

Mission Hill releases 2020 Oculus

Photo: John Simes

John Simes, the legendary winemaker at Mission Hill Family Estate, retired in 2015 but his fingerprints are all over the portfolio still, perhaps most notably with Oculus, the winery’s ultra premium red blend. A native of New Zealand, he joined Mission Hill in 1992. The first 500-case vintage of Oculus was blended in 1997, one of the earliest icon wines in the Okanagan. I provided details on every vintage from 1997 to 2015 in my 2017 book, Icon: Flagship Wines from British Columbia’s Best Wineries. Here is an excerpt:

Launched in the 1997 vintage, Oculus was the first icon wine to come out of the Okanagan. The price of Oculus [$125 for the 2013] has nearly quadrupled since its debut, but that can be justified by Mission Hill’s ongoing investment in making a wine of international quality. John Simes, the now-retired winemaker, told me in 2013: “Every year we continue to learn new methods and techniques as we strive to elevate the quality of every vintage.”

Now one of the largest vineyard owners in the Okanagan, Mission Hill had just begun developing its estate vineyards when Oculus was created. The first vintage was made with grapes purchased from a Black Sage Road vineyard that was acquired the following year by Mission Hill. The Osoyoos Lake East Bench vineyards that Mission Hill began planting in 1997 were soon producing the best Bordeaux varietals in most years. Oculus was made entirely with Osoyoos grapes in 1998. Osoyoos grapes have predominated in every vintage since, except for 2005. The first four vintages of Oculus were aged in both French and American oak. The decision in 2001 to use French oak exclusively and age the wines more than 12 months in barrel took the quality of Oculus up a notch.

In 2004, Michel Rolland, the legendary Bordeaux winemaking consultant, was asked for his advice. Mission Hill had already built an underground cellar ideally suited to aging wine in barrels. The consultant recommended major upgrades to the winemaking technology. “Starting in 2005 and 2006, we effectively built a small winery inside the big winery,” John Simes said. “There was significant investment in equipment that allowed us to really elevate what we could do, as winemakers, with those premium red grapes.” The small winery was equipped with sophisticated sorting tables, allowing only the best individual grapes to go into the fermenting tanks. Michel Rolland also recommended using oak fermentation tanks able to handle the fermenting grapes gently. And he recommended using a basket press— which is gentler than a bladder press—to squeeze the liquid from the skins at the end of fermentation. This careful handling avoids extracting harsh tannins. The consultant’s impact was immediately evident in the elegance of the 2005 Oculus. He continues to consult on the blending of Oculus.

Further gains in the quality of Oculus have come from the vineyards. Aside from the five strong vintages between 2005 and 2009, vineyard practices have improved. Drip irrigation, which replaced overhead sprinklers, enables precise delivery of water to the vines. Compost now nourishes the soils. Aerial photography (with aircraft or drones) guides the detailed management of vineyard blocks. The vines, which are now mature, produce deeply flavoured grapes. In the challenging cool vintages of 2010 and 2011, the vineyards still delivered Oculus-quality grapes to the winery.

“I think the future is tremendous,” John Simes said in 2013. “We are just starting, really. Our oldest vines that go into Oculus were planted in 1997 in Osoyoos. That is like 12 or 13 harvests that have come off that vineyard. That is nothing. In terms of what we can do in the vineyard and how we turn it into wine here, there are tremendous opportunities ahead of us. We don’t even know what they are yet.”

Because of winemaker turnover at Mission Hill since John retired, I am not certain who blended Oculus 2020, which I recently tasted at the winery. Taylor Whelan, the current senior winemaker, posted a comment in July on the wine: “The 2020 Oculus is a remarkable wine; balanced, nuanced, and powerful. Showcasing the dense red and dark fruit and velvety tannins that Border Vista vineyard is known for, the 23rd vintage of this wine is among the best we have produced.” The winery benefitted that 2020 was one of the strongest vintages to date in the Okanagan.

Oculus 2020 ($185). This is a blend of 49% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. The wine was fermented with extended maceration in French oak and concrete tanks. It was aged 19 months in French oak. The wine begins with appealing aromas of cassis, spice and dark cherry. The long and silky tannins support flavours of dark fruits with a hint of chocolate. The finish is persistent. A tour de force! 100.

Strategies for BC's 2024 vintage

Photo: The vineyard at Blasted Church Vineyards

It is interesting to read how different wineries in the Okanagan are approaching the 2024 vintage, given the almost total lack of local grapes, due to January’s killer freeze.

In July, the provincial regulators decreed that the land-based wineries could import grapes or juice this fall and make wine that can be sold over the next three years as if VQA wine. In short, the wine would not attract the brutal markup that is levied on wines made with non-BC grapes. That markup exemption applies just for the 2024 vintage. It is there to help wineries get through a year without BC grapes. Had it not been allowed, there would have been extensive layoffs of winemakers and other staff. Wineries would have started to run out of wine next year, costing lost shelf space, closed tasting rooms and a collapse of wine tourism.

The government would also have been foolish to keep imported grapes out of the valley when Washington State has a big surplus of quality wine grapes. The growers there have varietals similar to what had been planted in the Okanagan and the Similkameen. With those grapes, BC wineries should produce a 2024 vintage comparable to what was being made in the past from BC grapes. Some wineries have jumped at the opportunity to use imported grapes; others have decided not to. Let me quote two recent emails, one from Blasted Church Vineyards which is importing Washington grapes; and one from Howling Bluff Winery, which is not. I can understand and respect the reasons behind either approach.

Blasted Church Vineyards Starts 2024 Harvest – outside of BC!

Prosser, WA, USA: (September 3, 2024) British Columbia’s Blasted Church Vineyards is kicking off September with the 2024 grape harvest, accessing quality grapes from Washington State.

In an inaugural collaboration with Prosser’s Andrews Family Vineyards, located in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, Blasted Church will be able to produce the quality wines they have been known for since 2002. Blasted Church winemaker Evan Saunders (pictured) made the 6.5 hour drive to Prosser, Washington to work with the Andrews family regarding picking and harvest decisions. The varieties will include Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Pinot Gris, and then later Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes for the white wines and rosé will be mechanically harvested at night, sorted and pressed, and then the temperature controlled grape juice will be shipped to Okanagan Falls for vinification by the Blasted Church winemaking team. Red wine grapes will be hand harvested and shipped to BC as whole clusters for the team to process in the Blasted Church cellar.

Blasted Church winery, and many neighbouring BC wineries, find themselves in the same situation where they need to purchase Washington fruit due to the deep freeze that damaged the 2024 crop. Saunders has visited Prosser six times in planning, and when making his regular visits to Prosser he has seen several of his industry peers. Saunders notes that it has been excellent working with third generation farmer Jeff Andrews, and he is happy that the grapes are from certified sustainable vineyards. “It is a peculiar feeling to look out the window in Okanagan Falls at this time of year and see no grapes,” he notes. “But it will be magical for me and my team to start from juice,” he says. Saunders has gone through the stress of the paperwork required to bring the juice and grapes in from the US, so it is appreciated to have one easy step.

Lovers of Blasted Church wines can rest assured that delicious, quality wines will continue to be made, and in the meantime the team has ample inventory of current releases to be enjoyed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The opposite approach to the grape shortage this vintage has been taken by Luke Smith (pictured), the founder of Howling Bluff Estate Winery on the Naramata Bench. Here is what he wrote to his wine club.

August 25, 2024 It has been 20 years since we started Howling Bluff. I have learned that I can say with certainty that I can not predict anything at all about farming and the wine industry.

In February we were told that the vineyards in the valley were dead and that our industry would be in recovery for 4-5 years. The caveat on that pronouncement was that if your vineyard was not dead, your harvest would be wiped out. Jen and I sat down this spring and discussed our future and that of Howling Bluff. While I was ready to “do something, anything” to start to fix the results of the winter, Jen suggested I wait a bit and see what the season brings. Here I am now at 6 AM typing this as I look out the window at the Century Block Pinot Noir. What I see is a very healthy canopy of vines. The Three Mile Creek block of Pinot Noir, looks much the same. Our Sauvignon Blanc looks normal and we estimate we may have 1,000 kilograms of fruit there, 1/5th of normal but fruit when none was expected. The Merlot looks the worst; however a majority of plants are doing their best to prepare for next year. The Semillon, in sympathy with the Merlot, is not as good as it has been in the past; however, a majority of the vines are growing.

At this time there is no doubt that our industry has suffered a major loss of vines and the crop will be 10% of normal, at best. However once again the Naramata Bench appears to have suffered the least. What will we do, and what will we not do. We will prepare the vineyard for a harvest next year, and we will not buy grapes or juice from US growers. What this decision means, it means we will have enough wine to be open next year. However, we will close our wine club to new members shortly, so that we can be sure to have enough wine to keep the wine shop open next year. Simply put we will stay a true BC winery and we will survive.

Blue Mountain chooses not to import grapes this fall

Photo: Blue Mountain vineyard near Okanagan Falls

Followers of Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars hardly need a reminder to stock up on the current releases while they are available. Like other Okanagan producers, Blue Mountain suffered major vineyard damage during last January’s freeze. “All of our vineyards were impacted, with some bud damage, but fortunately, they are thriving this season,” writes Christie Mavety, a member of the family that owns Blue Mountain. “We expect to harvest a very small crop and will produce less than 4,500 liters this vintage.”

Unlike many of its peers, Blue Mountain will not bring in grapes from Washington or Oregon. “We have no plans to bring in any additional fruit, so our supply [of wine] will be limited,” Christie adds. “Our focus will be on supporting our local BC market and extending our sales over the next few years to navigate this period. Our priority is to ensure that our loyal supporters are looked after first.”

I am not surprised that the Mavety family is not importing grapes. In the winery’s entire history, its wines have been made with grapes from the Okanagan Falls estate that they have managed since 1972. Blue Mountain has won a strong reputation for top quality wines with unimpeachable authenticity. It would have been unwise to tamper with that.

When Blue Mountain’s production returns to normal in a few years, its loyal customers will still be there – and appreciative of the winery’s uncompromising standards. That is not to dump on the producers who have chosen to import grapes this vintage. They will also produce good wine. But importing fruit was never going to be an option for Blue Mountain. The current releases – three 2023 whites and a 2022 Pinot Noir – are delicious wines and well worth stocking up on.

Blue Mountain Pinot Blanc 2023 ($25.90). This wine was made with fruit from 38-year-old vines. Some 34% was fermented and aged in stainless steel; the remainder was fermented in a variety of older oak foudres and barrels. The oak contributed to texture but was not allowed to suppress the fruit. The wine has aromas and flavours of apple, pear and apricot, with a generous mouthfeel and a clean finish. 91.

Blue Mountain Pinot Gris 2023 ($25.90). The fruit for this wine came from 37-year-old vines. Fermentation with natural yeast was 75% in oak casks and 25% in stainless steel, with six months aging in that cooperage. This is a wine with citrus aromas, delivering flavours of peach and nectarine, once again with a generous mouthfeel and a long finish. 92.

Blue Mountain Sauvignon Blanc 2023 ($25.90). The fruit for this wine is from 16 and 17-year-old vines. The wine was fermented with natural yeast in 40% stainless steel and 60% oak cooperage, with five months of aging in those vessels. The wine begins with aromas of lime, peach and herbs and delivers flavours of grapefruit and stone fruits, with a long finish. The style is Sancerre rather than New Zealand. 92.

Blue Mountain Estate Cuvée Pinot Noir 2022 ($34.90). The fruit for this wine is four clones (114, 115, 667 and 777) from vines that were 15 and 16 years old. The wine was fermented with native yeast in open-top stainless steel and oak tanks, with 14 to 18 days macerating on the skins. The finished wine was aged in French oak barrels. The wine presents with lots of colour and with aromas and flavours of cherry, plum and spice. The finish has classic notes of forest floor. The texture is generous, supporting a long finish. This is one of the Okanagan’s best affordable Pinot Noirs. 93.

Road 13 celebrates John Oliver

Photo: Winemaker Dominic McCosker

The premium tier in the portfolio at Road 13 Vineyards, formerly called Jackpot, is now being called John Oliver, a tribute to one of British Columbia’s more interesting premiers. He led a Liberal government from 1918 until his death in 1927. For many years, there was a red wine in Road 13’s portfolio called Honest John’s, a nickname that Oliver acquired early in his political career. It is no longer on the web site and has perhaps been discontinued in favour of the upscale John Oliver tier. The Honest John wines appeared in the portfolio when Road 13 was operated by the Luckhurst family from 2003 to 2018. Since then, the winery has been owned by Mission Hill’s Anthony von Mandl.

Why celebrate John Oliver? Consider his biography. He was born in Britain in 1856; left school at age 11 to work in a mine; and came to Ontario with his family in 1870. He moved to BC in 1877 to take up farming in Surrey and Delta. After some years in municipal politics, he was elected to the provincial legislature in 1900.

He hardly seemed like a promising politician at first. Historian David Mitchell writes in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography that Oliver was “a plain-spoken, rough-hewn man, [who] was derided as a hayseed by the more urbane and experienced members of the assembly. His unsophisticated clothes, heavy boots, and often crude use of the English language were lampooned by opponents.” However, he worked hard at polishing his talents and earning the respect of his peers. Mitchell writes: “He earned the nickname Honest John for his principled pursuit of a legislative inquiry in 1902–3 into railway land grants that helped to bring down the [Conservative] government of … Edward Gawler Prior, in June 1903.”

After Oliver became premier, “British Columbians seemed comforted by their new, plain-spoken premier, whose personal habits were largely unaffected by the trappings of office,” Mitchell writes. “Oliver continued to wear the same old-fashioned tweed suits and heavy boots that had become his trade marks. … He portrayed himself as a man of the people, distrustful of experts and wholly lacking in pretence.” Oliver was premier when British Columbia emerged from Prohibition and his government opened stores to sell alcoholic beverages. They were known colloquially as John Oliver’s Drug Stores. It is fitting, perhaps, that wines today should carry his name. The town of Oliver was named for him because his administration promoted land settlement and irrigation after World War One that enabled the South Okanagan to grow fruits, vegetables and, ultimately, grapes.

The John Oliver label was launched with wines from the 2020 vintage, still the current releases. The wines, made by winemaker Barclay Robinson from a strong vintage, have scored highly in numerous competitions. When Barclay and Road 13 parted company in March 2024, he was succeeded by Dominic McCosker, who was already the red winemaker at Mission Hill Family Estate. Born in Australia in 1976 with a degree in biology, Dominic was travelling in 2007 when he came to visit friends in the Okanagan and decided to take up winemaking here. He started at Tantalus Vineyards, went back to Australia for winemaking studies and hands-on winemaking with two producers there. He was soon back in the Okanagan as assistant winemaker at CedarCreek Estate winery. In 2014 he became the senior winemaker at La Frenz Winery. During his tenure there, La Frenz was named three times in the National Wine Awards as Canada’s best performing small winery. He moved to Mission Hill in 2022.

“Mission Hill is just Bordeaux reds,” Dominic says of the portfolio there. “There is a small amount of Syrah but it is primarily Bordeaux reds. With Road 13, it will be much more Rhone reds. Syrah will be in a much larger portion.” He says that although Syrah vines in particular were hard hit during the past two winters in the Okanagan. Dominic believes that the expertise in the Mark Anthony group of wineries is on top of the issue. “We are working with experts and consultants,” he says. “In Walla Walla [Washington], they struggle with spring frosts. We have been looking at their techniques -- burying canes and hilling up over the winter to protect the graft. We are confident that we can get those varieties to survive. With that on the table, then Syrah is back. I think it is a great Okanagan variety that we can do fairly well.” He continues: “I am very excited that we could make Syrah a focal point of Road 13. It can be made to showcase different styles of the same variety, all of them in a beautiful way. I may occasionally have a sparkling Shiraz as well.”

Here are notes on Road 13’s current premium releases.

Road 13 Jackpot Chardonnay 2020 ($55). This is an elegant wine, with aromas of peach and apple leading to flavours of peach with just a hint of butter. The finish is fresh and persistent. 91.

Road 13 John Oliver Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ($80). The wine begins with aromas of cassis and blackberry. On the palate, there are flavours of dark cherry, black currant mingled with hints of chocolate. The texture is polished and the finish is long. 91.

Road 13 John Oliver Malbec 2020 ($80). The wine begins dramatically, with the classic and pretty raspberry and floral aromas of the varietal. On the palate, the wine delivers flavours of blackberry and blueberry, with a persistent finish. 94.

Road 13 John Oliver Syrah 2020 ($80). The wine begins with aromas of spice cake, fig and cherry leading to flavours of plum, cherry and white pepper. 92.

Road 13 John Oliver Fifth Element 2020 ($65). This has been Road 13’s flagship wine over the years. The name does not limit the blend to five varietals but is an allusion to the mysterious element that defines an icon wine. This 2020 is a blend of 47% Merlot, 19% Malbec, 14% Cabernet Franc, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Syrah and 3% Petit Verdot. An intense wine, it begins with aromas of dark fruits and spice leading to flavours of dark cherry, black currant, fig and spice. The finish is very long. 95.