Fall is a great time to visit
by Mary Bailey
It’s been a few years since I’ve wandered around vineyards on Vancouver Island. Tasting Averill Creek with the winemaker Brent Rowland earlier in the year piqued my curiosity, as did all the activity. People selling! People buying! What is going on over there? Key to the growing interest—the emphasis on sustainability and the exciting wines people are making. The island is the place to be.
Averill Creek Vineyard, Mt. Prevost:
Andy Johnson, owner, Brent Rowland, winemaker
Averill Creek’s winemaker Brent Rowland
Andy Johnson has been called a visionary. He was one of the first to see the potential of Cowichan Valley Pinot. “And put my money on it,” he says. “There were a few people making Pinot then, Richard at Alderlea, Blue Grouse and Venturi-Schultz. Blue Grouse made an amazing Pinot in 1996. The 2006 was even better.
“It was tough to get the Vancouver wine market to believe we can grow grapes on Vancouver Island. Now I can prove it.”
Andy is passionate about a sub-appellation for Mt. Prevost. “The south slopes of Mt. Prevost are some of the best in the valley.”
I asked Andy what’s missing. “A sparkling wine house,” he says. “We can make really good sparkling wines with great flavour. Beautiful ripe flavour at 15 Brix.”
Let’s hope Andy is right. He has a good track record.
“It was tough to get the Vancouver wine market to believe we can grow grapes on Vancouver Island. Now I can prove it.” – Andy Johnson
Brent Rowland is kind of a force of nature. Big ideas emerge in a rapid patter as we talk about grapes, vines and making wine in this unique cool climate. As we walk with Dave (vineyard dog) and Elliot (winery dog) Brent bends down to show the soil layers. “We have sandy loam, which is good for ripening but not concentration and we have clay, which is good for retention. This was a termination point for a glacier so we have different stones and rocks. The mix makes for excellent soil for vineyards.”
He is an experienced winemaker (24 international harvests) who is exactly where he wants to be.
“Phase one. Andy knew he could make great wine here and did his due diligence—went around with a geologist, dug soil pits. Confident for Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris and hedged his bets with Foch and Guwurz. Bold move; rip off a side of a mountain in drunken Duncan. He had to prove you could grow quality grapes on the island,” says Brent.
“Now we’re in phase two. Now it’s a game of inches, the big leaps have already been made. The project is the same—showcase the region.”
Brent is all in on Mt. Prevost Pinot. “I have yet to taste a dead Pinot, even the first Averill vintage, 2004, is still alive. The 2018, my first year, is the best bottle I ever made and it will outlive me.
The secret to great wine here is the hang time. When we don’t have rain in the fall, the grapes hang for a long time, building flavours, not sugar. The Estate Pinot 2020 is a classic example. The electric acidity.
“We’re not trying to emulate another region, we want something original and real. What do the grapes from this site taste like? To show that, I’m as hands off as I can be. No yeast, no enzymes, no nutrients, unfiltered, unfined, sometimes sulphur when necessary. I’m doing it because I think it makes better wine. Pragmatic, not dogmatic. I call it neo-classical because we’re making wines like they did 1000 years ago, but using all the tools and science we have today.
“Cooler climates can’t make big rich opulent wines. I’m leaning into what we do well here—perfume, poise, tension, nuance, elegance—the prettiness.”
He is an unabashed fan of whole-cluster fermentation. “My heroes are whole-bunch people—Dujac, Cristom, By Farr, Escarpment. I’ve done five harvests with Gary Farr and made wine at Dujac. It’s about the fermentation kinetics. If you destem, you have a cap that has to be punched down, or pumped over to make it move. Leave the stems and you have a matrix for heat and gas exchange. The stems are the pathway.”
Along with these spectacular Pinots, Brent has created a new group of wines called Jou. There is no lack of technique in these wines, they are the opposite of wine by recipe. The Jou White, for example, was foot stomped, fermented at a higher temperature and aged in older oak. “No sulphur, nothing but grapes. You can make quality wine naturally, that’s not just for the nerds.” The wines are often blends, the vintage we’re tasting is Gris, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay, and he doesn’t put that on the label. “They don’t really matter,” he says, “it creates an expectation that the wine should taste a certain way. It should taste like Jou.”
The result? Versatile wine with lovely acidity. Tons of flavour, mouth-filling but not heavy.
Averill Creek is available at better wine shops and restaurants in Alberta, averillcreek.ca.
Emandare Vineyard, Duncan: Mike and Robin Nierychlo
While talking with Mike Nierychlo on the phone I am immediately reminded of a large Labrador puppy. His excitement and enthusiasm jumps through the phone. They won’t be there when I am, so I arrange to rent the guest house. I wander the vineyard with Terry Trapmill, their semi-retired vine guy.
“I started making wine with my brother-in-law, also Mike, in 2006,” says Mike. “We would call wineries and ask, ‘would you sell us some grapes?’ People got to know us as Mike and Mike who get in their shorts and start crushing grapes in the back of the van.
Emandare Rose
“In 2013 we stumbled on this 15-year-old vineyard, where we could be a family-run winery, under 10 acres, under 3000 cases. Perfect location.
“We had to restore the vineyards and erect the winery; lots of friends and family helped us. We are fully organic, no till, dry farm, lots of wildflowers. I am jacked up about biodiversity—microbes and mycelium. If the dirt’s alive, the wine is alive.
“Eight years and two babies later, I have to say this, we’re succeeding. It’s given us the living we have and our wine sells out.”
Find Emandare at Vancouver and Van Isle restaurants, emandarevineyard.com.
Alderlea Vineyards, Duncan: Julie Powell and Zachary Brown
Julie, Zachary and Vino in front of old Bacchus vines at Alderlea
Roger and Nancy Dosman opened Alderlea in 1998. They were sustainable from the get-go and Julie and Zachary have continued in that vein.
“We’re aligned in our philosophy in many ways,” says Julie. “No tilling, we use a lot of compost and seeded clover. We took Roger’s foundation of sustainability and are taking it to the next level. We get a lot of rain here, if you are no till you can get a tractor in early.”
The Dosmans had planted 35 varieties including Bacchus, Foch and Pinot Noir, now 28 years old. Merlot too. “We wouldn’t have planted that, but in a good year when it ripens, it’s amazing.”
“We had corporate careers for 20 years and a winemaking hobby.” – Julie Powell
They are one of only three Van Isle growers of Sauvignon Blanc, but they consider themselves more focused on reds. “My thing is red blends,” says Zach. “They require confidence and knowing your fruit and your vineyards. Gotta commit and be brave.”
“We had corporate careers for 20 years and a winemaking hobby. We looked at Blue Grouse, we looked at property in the Okanagan, we thought about France, but we kept coming back to an island vineyard,” says Julie.
There are plans to grow to 3000 cases and build a new winery building. Making wine and maintaining a vineyard is not an easy way to make a living. The vibe is one of steely determination and they are making it work.
Find the wines at alderlea.ca.
Rathjen Cellars, Saanich Peninsula: Mike Rathjen
Down island, the other half of Mike and Mike ended up starting Rathjen Cellars, a small vineyard and winery in Central Saanich. Brent spoke highly of them, but alas a visit didn’t work out. Visit if you can, rathjencellars.com.
Kutatás Wines, Salt Spring Island: Mira Tusz and Daniel Dragert
Mira Tusz and Daniel Dragert, Kutatás Wines
Fans of country roads love Salt Spring, as they wind and dip between farms and paddocks. It’s seems right that one of the most exciting west coast wine projects is happening on this verdant island.
Daniel’s interest in wine began when he took an elective in wine science at UBC. He went on to Lincoln (the NZ wine school). Mira (who grew up in Edmonton) took viticulture at Washington State and has a degree in microbiology.
Daniel had been the winemaker at Averill Creek from 2008-2017. Mira’s first vintage there was in 2013. “We really enjoyed working at Averill Creek, phenomenal fruit,” says Mira.
When they decided to go out on their own; “we wanted coastal for the phenomenal Pinot Noir potential we had seen in the Cowichan Valley,” says Mira. “It’s the cooler climate styles of Pinot we are passionate about. We were looking in Cowichan, North Saanich and the Gulf Islands. We wanted something that was versatile for sparkling too.”
The place they did buy had been for sale for five years. “Our licence required that we buy a vineyard property with a winery in order to keep the Kutatás label. Topographically, it’s a good place to be due to the high mountains beside us. There are lots of meso climates on Salt Spring.”
They also farm vineyards in North Saanich overlooking Pat Bay, where they grow primarily Pinot Noir.
Their philosophy is simple—grow fruit that doesn’t need a lot of work in the winery. Doesn’t need acidification or sugar or enzymes. They are looking for pure expressions, especially when it comes to Pinot Noir. “After many years of trial and error in viticulture, we now realize what’s most important to produce the high-quality fruit we are looking for.”
“There were a lot of varietals we hadn’t expected to work with, like Madeleine Angevine, Zweigelt, Reichensteiner; we had to do a lot of work in the vineyards.”
They continue to modify the vineyards. “The Ortega, Angevine and Sylvaner won’t have long life with us. We are more passionate about the Noir, Gris and Chard potential for the island. We expected the Chard to be for sparkling, but we have been ripening to 23, 24 Brix.” They are grafting over, ripping some vines out, bringing in young plants and layering (angling a cane into the soil) where the mother plant provides everything the new vine needs.
In the meantime, they make an easy-drinking, just-off- dry blend from Angevine and Reichensteiner called Viz. Although they use spontaneous fermentation everywhere else, they use selected wine yeast for this wine. “Comforting to know we have one fermenter that is guaranteed,” says Mira.
Like other Vancouver Island wineries they have Blattner (Valentin Blattner is a Swiss viticulturalist specializing in hybrids) varieties Petite Milo and Sauvignette. “They require less hand work but they aren’t for us—the sugars accumulate too quickly while acids decrease. They don’t really fit with our philosophy to grow fruit that allows us to be more hands off in the winery.”
In the meantime, enter orange wine. “We start with a carbonic maceration to help the acid metabolize, then ferment on the stems for three weeks, which adds potassium and provides balance on the palate.” They are fun wines, super drinkable, not aggressive, nice textures and balance. Unfined, unfiltered and not meant for cellaring.
As fun as these are, they are convinced the future is in Pinot Noir. “We make Pinot only in vintages when the grapes are almost raisins which increases the ratio of skin to juice.”
We taste the Pinots in tank. They are spectacular.
Kutatás wines are not available in Alberta yet. Visit them on Saturdays at the winery or look for them in west coast restaurants and wine shops. kutataswines.com.
Fall is a great time to visit wineries on Vancouver and Salt Spring islands. Check the web sites for tasting room hours and appointments.
Mary Bailey, DipWSET visited the islands in May.