Friday, Mar. 13, 2009

Winemaking expands north

By Ken Robertson, Wine Press Northwest

Question: I know that British Columbia has been growing many of the classic wine grape varieties for a couple decades now but have never understood how they get the grapes to ripen there. Often I read that Oregon has trouble getting its Pinot Noir ripe, so how do they manage it in B.C.?

When I first came to Washington state in the late 1970s, people were asking the same questions about Washington and Oregon. By then, wine buffs had begun to recognize that yes, Washington could grow good Riesling grapes and make excellent wine from them, but the popular sentiment was that Rhine-style wines would be the future of Washington.

As for Oregon? Well, Pinot Noir was its future.

That popular wisdom was about half right. More than three decades later, Washington still grows great Riesling and Oregon's top Pinot Noir rivals the world's best. Chateau Ste. Michele and Columbia Crest, Washington's twin giants and sister wineries, bottle more Riesling than any other winery in the world.

Over the past three decades, the two states' growers since have learned how to grow and produce excellent grapes suited to climates ranging from Auxerrois to Zinfandel. The A to Z reference is not just a writer's trick.

Auxerrois traditionally has thrived in northern climes such as Alsace, Luxembourg and England. Now, Oregon and British Columbia both make medal-winners from it. And Zinfandel, the signature grape of California's high-heat areas, now flourishes in Washington and Oregon, especially in the Columbia Gorge, where it is building a new northern reputation.

As for British Columbia, its winemaking renaissance started back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when people like Harry McWatters, founder of Sumac Ridge Estate Winery, started pushing to change an established industry over from hybrid grape varieties to the European vinifera and to create a quality standard that would proclaim to the world, "This is good wine."

Like any area new to growing the European varieties, it took time to learn the basics. And B.C. grape growers and winemakers are still learning, no matter their previous experience.

Take, for example, Bill Dyer, the winemaker and consultant who's built a reputation in California for his own Dyer Vineyard winery in the Napa Valley and in B.C. for his work in the Okanagan Valley and in the Victoria area with Burrowing Owl Estate Winery and Church and State Wines.

Dyer started working in the Okanagan with Burrowing Owl in 1997 with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and then Syrah. He soon found that the long summer days in the Okanagan Valley helped make up for the late start of spring.

Although Cabernet Sauvignon grapes develop buds three weeks later than in the Napa Valley, for example, in a typical year they catch up quickly and reach veraison - the time in early August when the grapes turn from green to purple - only one week later than in Napa in a typical year.

But despite several more years with Burrowing Owl and then taking on the winemaking duties at Church and State in 2005, it was 2007 before he felt he'd found just the right spot in the Okanagan for Cabernet Sauvignon.

It's the 2007 version of Church and State's Cabernet, from a vineyard east of Lake Osoyoos.

"I can say for the first time, it's good enough to compare with any other Cab," he said.

What changed? His explanation is that this vineyard is the spot where the sun sets last in the Okanagan on the summer solstice. The extra sunlight makes the difference.

Travel around B.C. vineyards and wineries and you'll see many such innovations. On North Pender Island, which is just east of Vancouver Island, Keith Watt and Barbara Reed will show you vines planted on a steep, south-facing terraced hillside at Morning Bay Estate Vineyard and Winery. The 12,000-foot peaks of the Olympic Peninsula and the 6,000-foot crests of Vancouver Island create a rain shadow and more sunny weather.

In the Okanagan, Syrah vines are tucked up against a rocky bluff where Burrowing Owl grapes are grown.

On Vancouver Island, Cherry Point Vineyards, owned by the Cowichan Tribes, sheathes its grapes in layers of plastic sheeting to hold in the early heat of spring, and rocks are piled around the bases of the vines to hold that heat longer into the chilly evenings.

Dyer said he had to learn that fruit could be left hanging after the first light frosts in the Okanagan took down the outer layers of leaves. The surviving leaves inside the vine canopy still can keep the grapes ripening, he discovered.

Clearly, it remains a voyage of discovery for the Northwest's grape growers and winemakers, especially those in B.C. Luckily, we wine lovers get to travel with them.

Wine Words: Botrytis

This is the common shorthand for Botrytis cinerea, the so-called "noble rot" that winemakers welcome if they're planning to make a sweet wine. It reduces the water content and "rots" the grapes, turning out the delightful Sauternes and Barsac from France and making some of our tastiest late harvest and ice wines in the Northwest. Spores of the fungus cling to the ripening grapes, feed on their moisture, acids and sugar, converting a grape with perhaps 13 or 14 percent alcohol potential (which is 26 to 28 percent sugar content), into something that may offer an alcohol potential of 18 to 26 percent, or 36 to 52 percent sugar. The goal is to turn only a portion of that to alcohol of usually no more than about 10 to 14 percent, leaving a honeyed, baked fruit, nutty and often very sweet wine with heavenly flavors and aromas.

Ken Robertson, a newspaperman for 39 years and a Wine Press Northwest columnist since its founding, has enjoyed sipping and writing about Northwest wines for 32 years. He lives in Kennewick, Wash. Have a question for Ken? E-mail krobertson@winepressnw.com.

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