Hey Fellow Wino’s
It's Ryan here and last week I was in beautiful British Columbia in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. I was out there visiting my parents who moved there just over a year ago and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop by a winery or two.
Instead of doing several wineries, tasting after tasting, I really wanted to focus on one winery and dive into the deep end learning as much as I can. I reached out to Tantalus and explained how I am currently a Sommelier student with CAPS doing some research for my final paper. I’m comparing and contrasting two new world wine regions, Okanagan Valley here in B.C. with Clare Valley in South Australia. Luckily, Tantalus had some time for little old me.
I was greeted by Maya Boyd, a truly fabulous sales manager who arranged for me to speak with Kyle Temple, the assistant winemaker at Tantalus. Kyle took me downstairs where we had a chance to discuss the more nerdy side of winemaking. We discussed canopy management, soil composition, climate, irrigation techniques, vinification and philosophy of creating the tantalus house style. Walking through the vineyards I had a chance to see how much they care for the Terroir in the Okanagan Valley.
While not certified organic or biodynamic, they practice a holistic approach to their vineyard. They have an abundance of wildflowers throughout the property, government protected forests and even bees to help keep the flowers in good health. Take a peek below, beehives on government-protected land which will always remain a forest!
While not certified organic or biodynamic, they practice a holistic approach to their vineyard. They have an abundance of wildflowers throughout the property, government protected forests and even bees to help keep the flowers in good health. Take a peek below, beehives on government-protected land which will always remain a forest!
Here you can see they installed drip irrigation which is something like 90% more effective than traditional overhead spraying. Water runs through the black lines and drips slowly right onto the trunk/roots if required. Kyle told me how focused they are on using as little water as possible, if at all.
It was fun looking at the vines from the original plantings as the steep step-downs reminded me of what the Rhone Valley in France looks like or perhaps parts of the Mosel or Reihngow in Germany. Okanagan? Europe? Could have fooled me.
The winery is located on the east side of the valley, facing west and sloping at an angle towards the lake. Since the winery faces west on a slope towards the water it has a long growing day with sun into 8 and 9pm with direct sunlight, talk about a long day at the office for these grapes! This unit of measurement is GDD or Growing Degree Days, I know, nerdy wine stuff.
The fun thing about the Okanagan Valley is it can get quite hot during the day 35C-40C but also cool down at night to 15-20C and this change is called diurnal shift. The greater the diurnal shift, the greater the preservation of acidity. If it was just hot all of the time the grapes would ripen too quickly and you would be left with high sugar (which turns into high alcohol) and low acid grapes which would make a boozy flabby wine. Alternately, too cold and you just get a high acid, low alcohol tart sour tasting wine. The trick is to get it just right, with the right grapes in the right terroir!
The fun thing about the Okanagan Valley is it can get quite hot during the day 35C-40C but also cool down at night to 15-20C and this change is called diurnal shift. The greater the diurnal shift, the greater the preservation of acidity. If it was just hot all of the time the grapes would ripen too quickly and you would be left with high sugar (which turns into high alcohol) and low acid grapes which would make a boozy flabby wine. Alternately, too cold and you just get a high acid, low alcohol tart sour tasting wine. The trick is to get it just right, with the right grapes in the right terroir!
It was interesting to see their old vines Riesling which were planted in the 1970’s. The vines are bigger, older, more gnarly looking and produce visibly less fruit than say a younger vine. The benefit, believe it or not, is that while each of the older vines produces less fruit the concentration of flavours in the grapes is astronomical. I think when it comes to most farming usually the more product you grow, the more money you make, wherein wine usually the inverse is possible. The old vines may make less juice (wine) but the quality of that wine is so much higher that wineries can usually charge a premium and trust me, it’s a win-win for everyone. I’ll gladly pay for quality over quantity!
Fun Fact - Did you know that a common vineyard practice for most wineries is to prune some grape clusters off of the vine in hope of concentrating nutrients and in turn flavour into the remaining grapes? It's true, less really is more!
Fun Fact - Did you know that a common vineyard practice for most wineries is to prune some grape clusters off of the vine in hope of concentrating nutrients and in turn flavour into the remaining grapes? It's true, less really is more!
The terroir that makes up Tantalus and most of the mid and northern section of the Okanagan Valley is old glacial deposits from thousands of years ago during the last ice age. Fun fact, the whole valley was carved from receding glaciers. Check out this glacial deposit stone I found right in the vineyard!
Sometimes it can get so hot inside the vine's canopy (40C) that you need to roll a window down or put some AC on. Since that's not possible, they manually make small tears in the leaf canopy to help cool it off.
So we know it's a warm climate with a good diurnal shift, full of old glacial deposits from the ice age and it slopes west for long sunny days. So what does that mean for the wine?
Well, let's taste!
2015 Old Vines Riesling Brut. We know that when you have older vines you get less yield (juice per vine per hectare) but in turn, you also get more concentrated flavours. Well, this was downright delicious. "Harmonious aromas of grapefruit, marmalade, wet stone and a hint of brioche " quotes Tantalus, for which I'll add a white mushroom light earthy note, very food friendly sparkling.
2015 Pinot Noir and 2015 Reserve Pinot Noir. I liked the bright fruit on the first Pinot Noir with its ripe red cherry and raspberry but what really stole the spotlight was their reserve Pinot Noir. Was I tasing Burgundy? Was I tasting Willamette Valley? No, I was tasting Okanagan Valley! Wine = #MindBlown. The harmony and roundness Tantalus was able to achieve in their reserve Pinot Noir was truly remarkable and more than able to stand on its own two feet with other great Pinot regions of the globe. The more subtle red fruit matched the earthy side of the wine with the delicate nose of florals, balanced acidity, dam! Again, one more for sipping and one more for a fabulous meal and honestly, some ageing.
I also had a chance to try their 2016 Chardonnay, 2017 Rose, 2015 Old Vines Riesling Ice Wine and yes, even their awesome 2017 Syrah Ice Wine. Everyone knows Tantalus for their Riesling, but what surprised me was their ability to capture their terroir into their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
If you are ever in the Okanagan Valley pop in and say hello, taste some fabulous wine and be surprised at just what our homegrown terroir focused talent can do! If you can't make it out don't sweat it, they will ship wine right to your door. I'm about to place an order and split it with a few fellow Somm students who are anxiously waiting!
I spent my Canada Day in 35C weather, on a sailboat at the Toronto island beaches sipping the one and only, Tantalus Old Vines Riesling Brut!
Dam Canada, I just love you!
Happy Sipping
Ryan
P.S. If you want to learn more about the Okanagan Valley check out my post Okanagan Life
