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AWARD WINNING ORGANICALLY PRODUCED WINES |
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| Red
Grape Varieties, Part 1 |
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Pinot Noir
It should come as no surprise that Pinot
Noir rates 3 pages worth of cramped print
in The Oxford Companion to Wine. This
ancient vinifera (there is evidence of
it as early as the 4th century A.D.),
is best known as the exclusive ingredient
in all red wines from Burgundy, and it
has both inspired and frustrated grape
growers and winemakers all over the world.
It has generated a lot of rhapsodic prose,
too. Toronto Pinotphile Marq de Villiers
penned an award winning book entitled
The Heartbreak Grape after a revelatory
encounter with a California Pinot Noir.
We like his explanation of the name; "
. . . they called it the heartbreak grape
because it was so stubborn, so particular,
so elusive, so damn difficult to get right.
And also because when it was at its best
it made the most sublime wine of all.
The heartbreak grape? You cannot break
a heart without having captured it first."
Even the pragmatic Janis Robinson calls
Pinot Noir wines "sensual."
Pinot Noir can be finicky to grow; it
tends to bud early and can be susceptible
to late frost and disease. It tends naturally
toward lower yields. Different clones
(Robinson estimates that there are at
least 46 of them) produce fruit with widely
varying colour, aroma and concentration.
It doesn't like really hot weather, and
we've noticed in our own Vine Yards that
ripening stalls until the temperature
moderates. More than any other variety,
Pinot Noir is said to evoke its terroir;
the character of the soil is present in
the fruit and in the wine. The heartbreak
doesn't end in the Vine Yard however, and
in the cellar, a winemaker needs to apply
vigilance, technique and skill to achieve
a good result.
We grow about 3 tons of Pinot Noir annually
in our own Vine Yards, and these grapes
(Pinot Droit clone), which tend to be
lighter in colour and body are used in
our Certified Organic Rosé. Our
Rosé is made in the traditional
way. This involves destemming and crushing
the grapes, and letting them sit on the
skins until fermentation starts (about
2 days). Instead of completing fermentation
on the skins (as would be done for a red
wine), the must is pressed off early,
leaving juice with only partial colour
extraction. Fermentation is completed
in a stainless steel tank. We also purchase
Pinot Noir fruit from two growers in the
Okanagan Falls area, and their careful
Vine Yard management and prudent site and
clonal selection are apparent in every
bottle. Elisabeth Harbeck grows the Wädenswil
clone, developed in Switzerland, in her
transitional organic Vine Yard, and Adelheid's
Vine Yard, which we hope will soon be enrolled
in an organic certification program, provides
us with the Burgundian Clone 115.
While we do a separate bottling from
each Vine Yard to preserve the fruit's
unique character, it is common practice
for a winemaker to blend a carefully proportioned
"recipe" of juice from different
clones and Vine Yard sites to achieve the
optimum result. In our cellars, about
90% of the stems are removed, the grapes
are crushed and fermentation begins shortly
after yeast culture is added. Fermentation
temperatures rise to a peak of about 25º
- 27ºC, enhancing colour and flavour
extraction. Fermentation is completed
in about 10 days and in another couple
of days, the wine is gently pressed off
the skins. A portion of the wine is allowed
to stand 3 to 8 months in older French
oak barrels and is then re-blended with
the balance of the wine which has been
stored in stainless steel tanks. All of
our Pinot Noirs undergo complete Malolactic
fermentation; this secondary fermentation
occurs naturally in our cellars, and is
not induced.
Merlot
When we attended the 1991 World Vinifera
Conference in Seattle, we had an opportunity
to spend 3 intensive days tasting nothing
but Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the
feature varieties for the conference.
It was readily apparent why the two are
blended, along with other varieties, in
Bordeaux wines. Cabernet tends to be austere
and lean, and needs the softening, fruity
character of Merlot for balance. On its
own, Merlot has proven to be highly successful
in the New World, particularly in Washington
State, and it is rapidly gaining credibility
in British Columbia Vine Yards. It can
withstand our growing conditions and reach
ripeness much more readily than Cabernet
Sauvignon, and we anticipate that, while
Cabernet will never be widely grown in
the Okanagan, plantings of Merlot will
continue to increase.
Its winter tenderness and susceptibility
to disease can be challenging, and in
our own Vine Yards, our plantings of Merlot
have been battered time and time again
by low winter temperatures. We have realized
that our own vines will never give us
an adequate supply of fruit, and have
looked to the south of the valley where
the plants have a better chance of making
it through the winter with buds and wood
intact. Adelheid's Vine Yard in Okanagan
Falls is now proving to be a good site,
and we're looking forward to increasing
tonnage as this planting comes into full
maturity.
Judging ripeness in Merlot can be tricky.
In hot areas, overripe fruit can lend
a jammy, cooked character to the wine,
but immature fruit can be worse, producing
wines that are vegetal (green peppers
is a common descriptor), harsh and tannic.
We've tasted a few overoaked Merlots,
too, and it's a shame when the lovely
raspberry/black pepper character of the
varietal is dominated by woody, toasty
components.
In the 1995 vintage, 351 tons of Merlot
were processed throughout the province,
representing about 17% of the red grape
crop and 4.4% of the total grape crop.
After Pinot Noir, it ranks second in volume
among red viniferas in British Columbia. |
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