Regional breakdown: Cowichan Valley

Contributor Chris Turyk breaks down the terroir of Cowichan Valley, and what makes it so special.

Credit: Averill Creek

The Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island’s South East Coast is the leading edge of high latitude premium viticulture. Bright, delicious and ever-intriguing wines are always found in this dynamic region. Since the first planting of vines in the 1970’s, the trajectory of the Cowichan Valley has hit a steep pitch.

Credit: Blue Grouse

Recent approval of the Cowichan Valley as a VQA Sub-GI, foreign investment from wine industry moguls Barbara Banke of Jackson Family Wines renown, and occupying an ever growing proportion of the Canadian wine conversation, all have the spotlight firmly held on the shores of Vancouver Island.

Focus has sharpened from the proverbial shotgun approach to variety selection from days of old, to a focus on Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and more recently Chardonnay. Currently, with only a few hundred acres of vineyard, expansions are already underway by major players, Unsworth Vineyards, Averill Creek Vineyards, Sea Star Winery and Blue Grouse Winery to more than double the total acreage in the next few years.

The farmscape of the Cowichan Valley ends not at Vineyards. Several small scale organic farms, cheesemakers, Canada’s only tea farm, are nestled around, cideries, distilleries and breweries; all of which continue popping up at a breakneck pace.

Are hybrids the future of the wine industry?

No one would plant a mango tree in the arctic and expect good results.

And when the first frost kills it, only a lunatic would respond "but I like to eat mangos from India so that's what I'll plant no matter where I move!".

Yet, this attitude dominates Canadian wine tourism.

And, it's on both sides of the aisle. Some consumers think "well, the owner/winemaker must know what they're doing", meanwhile when you ask the owner why they planted cabernet sauvignon they say "that's what I like to drink when I'm in Napa". Or, some owners think they are beholden to the mass market consumer demanding "bold reds" because serving a niche crowd and constantly having to run educational campaigns is scary and tiring.

Or, from another angle: imagine touring Chablis or Mosel and being choked that they don't produce heady, leathery purple bruisers, instead of simply giving yourself over to their magical, life-changing chardonnay and riesling.

That brings us back to Canada, and the development of hybrids.

Here, we often call all the weird and wild grapes "hybrids", but a distinction should be made between a hybrid and a more simple cross.

Hybrid: made from crossing European wine grapes (vitis vinifera) with another grape species (typically something native to North America, but often unknown).

Cross: made from two European vinifera grapes.

So the grape Ortega is actually just a cross, not a hybrid. This is my recent discovery. I had always called it a hybrid before.

Actual hybrids are grapes like Marechal Foch and Epicure.

One reason behind creating these hybrids was to have a winter-hardy grape to grow in much harsher, cold climates. But some people believe that they are basically worker-grapes that can never achieve the height of the great European grapes.

It was definitely true that early wines from the hybrids were nothing special, giving reason to most of these varieties being ripped out in Canada around the late 1960's to early 1970's and replaced with vinifera.

But the science and technology of winemaking has skyrocketed since then. And more experienced winemakers are working here, and the vineyards are older, with more records being kept and a better idea of how to handle the changing seasons and the common challenges faced.

Plus, like I said, it's an uphill battle to get even passionate wine consumers to embrace the hybrids.

So, people pulling into a tasting room of a younger region north of the Okanagan, let's say, are going to gravitate toward the winery making merlot and chardonnay over the winery with bubbles and skin-contact whites made from hybrids. But then they would be missing the serious winemakers with an actual eye to building a fine wine future, in favor of business people who feel held hostage by those with contempt for their region.

I've been exploring some hybrids from around Canada these last few months.

And let me tell you, the results are encouraging!

I'll attempt one last example and then shut up about it.

Let's say the haters are right, and hybrids can never be as good as European grapes. Just for the sake of illustration, we'll rate vinifera as being capable of 5 out of 5 (perfect, life changing wine). And hybrid, no matter what anyone does, is only capable of 4 out of 5 at best.

Well, in the limitations of our climate and environment and experience-level and vineyard age, maybe the best we can hope for with the vinifera is a 3/5. It may be capable of more, say, when grown in La Romanée under a 10th generation winemaking family who can afford to sort away anything but the most perfect grapes. But not here.

Whereas, when choosing the right hybrid for our area, under the hand of a talented winegrower who has devoted their life to it, we can more consistently nail a "perfect" hybrid (4/5 in our example, and so higher than the 3/5 vinifera).

I'm just giving you ways to consider this issue with an open mind. And so you don't miss some excellent juice out there in favor of something mediocre simply because you recognize the name.

And, if you're convinced you want to give hybrids a try, a foray into the wines from Beaufort Winery would be a great place to start:

How do you know if a wine is good?

While on my daily walk yesterday, I couldn't help but over hear a conversation of some passers-by:

"What was that really good wine your girlfriend brought last weekend....Apothic?"

You can envision my eye rolling I'm sure.

I do my best not to cast judgment on those who drink Apothic - truthfully. (aside from the fact that it carries the same amount of sugar as a can of Coke, and doesn't resemble anything close to wine - sigh - I digress).

I once remember reading a wine critic's take (I think it was Jamie Goode) on Apothic years ago, describing it as a "bridge" - if we're getting people away from drinking shitty rum and coke - it means we're making progress (allegedly).

I'll tell you why taste matters to me. As in having *good* taste. In the film and writing world, people talk a big game, and make a living at it. But, ask them what movies they watch or books they read, and suddenly the image they worked so hard to curate all but falls apart. Instead of placing themselves at the feet of masters to learn from (like we all must), they were starting their foundation on sand.

There is an objective element with respect to quality, and maybe subjectivity for mediocre examples is simply due to a lack of exposure. There are plenty of incredibly talented artists producing work that likely wouldn't appeal to you - does that mean their work is bad simply because the style isn't to your liking?

Don't confuse my example above with me saying this applies across the board. It simply brings it to mind. It's like when I ask my peers what they consider "the best wines", and I ask why they think a certain grape is best for a specific region, only to go on and cite a bunch of mediocre wines. Even if these people feel like they have to cite specific examples to remain in the good graces of the local industry, then I have to take everything they say with a giant grain of salt, and speaking to them becomes far less interesting.

In other words: if all you do is sample very average, readily available wine, then very occasionally drink some other slightly better than average wine from elsewhere (and probably a few totally mediocre versions from other regions floating around), then all I am really getting is a recommendation on who the best players are who couldn't make the starting team.

Book and lab learning is one thing, but if you aren't sharpening the sword of tasting constantly from the best of the best (that is available), then who cares? It's like taking writing advice from a novelist who thinks that some freshman studying literature is on the same level as Dostoevsky -- insanity.

Now, I discuss avoiding being overly dogmatic and I too have my concerns with obsessive spirit quests for finding "THE BEST". The problem is that it becomes a little too ideological and narrow minded, and fails to approach finding the best without bias.

A lot of the wines we claim to like are because we tasted them a few years ago. Many wineries change ownership and winemakers throughout their lifetime. I like to revisit wineries every few years for this reason, as an exercise of recalibration.

But back to dogma: while I strive to be less dogmatic, there are many (especially in the wine industry) who strive to be MORE dogmatic. How I feel about an open mind is that I will try most things (within reason and time restraints) at least once (often twice if a trustworthy source vouches for it), but that doesn't mean I can't conclude it is shit.

Or as Theodore Dalrymple eloquently puts it, "It is always necessary to keep an open mind; but not a mind that is open in the sense that a dam that has collapsed is open."

About artists that don't appeal: a connoisseur of aesthetics should aim to judge on two levels - personal appeal and overall craft. All creative endeavors are ultimately an exercise in craft, and can be soberly assessed as such. And turnabout is fair play: the assessor's criteria and communication skills can also be assessed. Some trees only produce rotten fruit.

I'll leave you with the wise words of Laurent Fadanni, winemaker and proprietor of Whispering Horse in the Fraser Valley, BC.

"A lot of our taste is manufactured by what we hear, what we see on tv, not by what we actually try. Often the audience doesn't know exactly what they want.

I take a simple approach: what would grow well on this soil, with this climate. Regardless if it was vinifera, hybrid, or what. Because if I planted something fashionable that people are used to from the other regions, I'd have to constantly fight. Fight by spraying, fight to get the grapes ripe. And at the end, the wine simply would not be good.

So we go by what makes sense from a viticulture standpoint. To create an honest wine. I mean, it may sound cliche but when I say terroir, I really mean it.

When you taste our wines you get a feel of the Fraser Valley.

So really, in a way I'm making it EASY on myself.

When you are in a marginal growing region like us, on paper maybe it seems more difficult but on the other hand it's easier because you go with your only real option. Similar to Champagne. On paper, Champagne is not a great place to grow grapes at all. But they were able to turn that disadvantage into an advantage (of course with a little marketing)."

If you're interested in trying Laurent's wine, you can purchase them here.

Does Size Matter?

Credit: Lightfoot and Wolfville

"Quality is subjective. Just because a winery is small does not mean it is environmentally friendly - a large winery could be far more sustainable as a business. There are so many variables, and it is, in my opinion, a narrow mind that thinks like that."

-Belinda Kemp, PhDSenior Staff Scientist in Oenology, Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute

One of the things that surprises me most in my interactions with consumers is the rampant misconception of how wine is made. They seem perplexed when I tell them the majority of bulk products imbibed are made in facilities resembling oil refineries.

The typical wine lover is often plagued by pastoral visions of farmers with straw baskets in tow. Perfectly formed grape clusters the size of small infants are carefully plucked from the vine, as lackadaisical butterflies float by. The grapes are gently lowered into bins, where giggling family members happily foot trod in circles. The juice haphazardly dribbles into perfectly mismatched vintage bottles, where the wine magically then makes itself and emerges as beautiful juice some months later.

While I am always elated to meet eager and curious consumers who want a behind the scenes peek of the wine industry, the story I choose to share is neither straight forward nor simple. While wine is often made in small, family owned facilities, it's also produced in larger contexts too, begging the question - which is better? Is there a quality difference?

Smaller often comes with a vision of hands on, intimate attention to detail, and obviously quality. But wine importer Owen Mitchell, of Plaid Cap Imports, is not sure he agrees. "I believe that it has more to do with integrity, intention, purpose and involvement than size. For example, a chef can make amazing dishes in a cozy eight table restaurant. This same chef is equally capable in a hundred table restaurant. But if he sells the recipe to Swanson's frozen foods, you are likely to see a subtle change in the quality and end result. It is the same with wine."

Mitchell has tasted many small production wines, and in some cases has had to spit them out - not to avoid over consumption - but because they were simply not drinkable. On the flip side, he's tasted many higher production wines like Sassicaia or Chateau Margaux that have presented as just "acceptable".

Larger producers making over a hundred thousand cases, like Periquita - a favourite of Mitchell's from Portugal - consistently deliver a simple and honest wine.

"Bodegas Lustau, who bottle and sell a little over 80000 cases of sherry per year - without any compromise to quality or honesty - are spectacular!" Mitchell feels the real issue is not the volume, but the heart.

"When adding sugar makes more sense than growing quality fruit, when adding liquid oak makes more sense than a barrel program, when food colouring is the "card up your sleeve" - this is when it all goes to hell in a hand bag. There are many corporations that have stepped in and destroyed some perfectly good, and even amazing wineries, and have brought the standard of daily drinkers to an all time low. What I see is not an issue of volume, but of greed. This is what brings quality, accessible, enjoyable and well made wines out of the spotlight and puts over produced, manipulated and highly marketed wines into the general consumers glasses. Accountants and shareholders have no place in a winery."

Chris Turyk, marketing director of Unsworth Vineyards in Mill Bay, BC, feels great wine can be crafted by all sizes of producers given healthy fruit, a clean winery, hard work and a solid foundation in science.

"Poor quality wine can also be made by all, whether that is due to substandard fruit, apathy, lackluster knowledge, or bad luck. Certainly, boring wine can be made by anyone when the product is seen as a commodity and the consumer seen as a bottom line."

Turyk cites Champagne as an example, where some of the largest wineries on the planet maintain consistent prices. While sommeliers favour grower Champagne, Turyk feels it is hard to knock down producers like Krug, Ruinart or Billecart-Salmon based solely on their respective production volumes.

"Nicolas Catena is another large producer that comes to mind who knocks quality out of the park. Their entry level tiers compete dollar for dollar with anything in the category and their White Stones and White Bones Chardonnays consistently punch above their class when compared to respectively farmed and crafted examples of various Montrachet crus."

Turyk feels social media has given a voice to the smallest of producers via the same medium as the commodity brands. He uses Rigour & Whimsy, a micro producer located in Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, as an example of positively impacting the power of the platforms. The clever, small producers can move the needle of an industry without having tankers of product and marketing divisions behind them.

"As Unsworth has grown from 500 cases to 10,000, I feel our wine has vastly improved. 10,000 cases is hard to describe as large production, but it still illustrates the point of allowing economies of scale to drive quality up. Whether it's access to the best vine material, adding labor to take pressure off the winemaker, larger barrel orders, having volume to justify investment in better equipment both in the vineyard and winery, more efficiencies in the winery and access to a broader range of fruit to work with. All of these have been factors that have allowed us to boost quality and growth simultaneously. If we wanted to cap our production at 2000 cases, most of these quality enhancing factors wouldn't have been realized without increasing the price of our wine many times over."

Olivier Humbrecht MW, general manager of Zind-Umbrecht in Alsace, feels that traditional and strong family oriented vineyards do not equate to all wineries being small. He feels there is a critical size to quality that makes it more problematic to achieve excellence.

"Too small can be problematic in terms of cost and scale. Small can be measured in volume, but also in dollars. Too much work done by too few people, because hiring good staff becomes expensive, and often ends up badly done. Many very small operators end up maximizing productivity and time while neglecting quality. Very small, if well made, on the other hand, makes it sometimes easier commercially. The rarity of production helps achieve better pricing and a small producer doesn’t need to worry about travelling the world to sell a lot of volume at a bad price. That’s the case in Alsace, some very small producers, if good obviously, sell their production very well at higher prices, without much staff. That’s not a luxury bigger producers have."

Humbrecht points out that being too big has the opposite problem of being too small. While it may be easier to afford equipment, finding staff can become a real chore. He feels it often ends up in a massive loss in the value of the wines. The larger operators in Alsace have the lowest average price for their wines - controlling quality is problematic as sourcing grapes or vineyards are the biggest issues.

"The largest coop in Alsace (Bestheim) probably buys grapes from hundreds of suppliers, who mostly only think one thing: how can I get more dollars/kg at the end of the year, and therefore, how can I produce more of it? The danger of such a system is that the grape producers try to optimize cost and productivity all the while neglecting quality."

The notion of size also brings the notion of governance. Who decides what can be done or not? For a wine to qualify as Alsatian, it needs to be produced from a specific area and from specific grapes, and with specific rules of production, as designated by law. If you do not comply, you're required to label your wines as Vin de France.

"Usually, the most famous wineries in high quality regions are family operated. In regions not capable of producing higher quality wines, but producing low priced, decent wines, it is usually the opposite."

Shane Munn, winemaker at Martin's Lane in Kelowna, BC, finds himself in a unique situation - he makes wine in one of Canada's most impressive facilities, due to being owned by BC's largest conglomerate - Von Mandl brands - all the while operating as a micro producer of Riesling and Pinot Noir.

"Obviously, with our ownership, resources are available that many small producers don’t have. But then as you see with a few very monied up people coming into the valley, money doesn’t always come with wisdom, class or high aims."

Munn feels smaller does offer more options of producing wines that are distinctive and with personality. Martin's Lane provides him with a luxury of riches. Munn thinks they grow the best fruit in the Okanagan Valley, having the resources they do at their disposal. Martin's Lane handles very small batches with the utmost care - with no compromises allowed - in the same way as any small producer.

"So, while the cognitive dissonance in the industry may seem to indicate that smaller is better – I think it's more that people always like to support the small guys. On local wine lists here that’s what I often find frustrating – the focus on small producers - not all making great or even good wine. Having worked at quite a few small family owned wineries, I always aim to embrace small winery ethos."

Ross Baker, winemaker at Quail's Gate in West Kelowna, BC, feels there are a lot of small producers in the Okanagan that make exceptional wines. Like most, he believes vineyard control - ideally estate owned - is crucial to quality.

"Quails’ Gate is right in the middle of this winery size ideology. For the Okanagan, we are viewed as big to small producers and small to big producers. The true measure of quality to me, and I’m sure many wine industry people, is the vineyard. You can't make great wine from mediocre vineyard sites or practices."

Farming and controlling the outcome helps Baker make better winemaking decisions, where healthier fruit with a balanced crop leads to quality based decisions instead of issue resolving decisions. Luckily for Baker and his team, the owners share a similar philosophy on allowing him to work this way. A smaller winery may simply have more flexibility to answer to themselves on what they do with the fruit.

"By having full control vineyards (production size notwithstanding) and not being at the mercy of contract growers who don’t allow you the same level of vineyard control, we’ve already won half the battle in the quest for superior quality."

Ross Wise MW, winemaker at Black Hills Estate in Oliver, BC, feels big producers help master a regional wine expression, large in part due to their wider sourcing of fruit, which maintains consistency and gives an accurate reflection of place. He feels typicity is a bonus for large producers, and helps consumers to understand specific styles from specific regions.

"Not all fine wine consumers are engaged enough or have the time to know all of a region’s individual producers and their unique styles. I fit this bill for a few wine regions, and rely on wine expert comments around a wine's typicity to help guide my purchases."

Inversely, Wise attests that small domaines have a greater ability to bottle unique, edgy, or geeky wines. Small producers have the luxury to focus on unique aspects like small parcels of fruit, a single ferment, or a single cask or vessel. This provides small wineries the ability to appeal to purists, adventurous consumers and wine geeks. Flexibility is a huge draw, as it lends to change, experimentation and innovation, particularly key in today's market where there is an abundance of adventurous winemakers and drinkers.

"Many high volume fine wine producers put significant effort into giving consumers the impression that they are smaller than they actually are, like Bordeaux or Champagne. This points to a bias towards smaller producers in the mind of consumers. Does winery size really matter for quality? I think that depends on the experience the consumer is looking for. Large wineries have become large for a reason, and if they can achieve typicity and high quality at high volumes that is a great win. Even better if they can offer value at the same time. Typicity is a very valid wine quality parameter. Meanwhile, small wineries bring a greater range and more complexity to consumers. Complexity is equally as valid as typicity when assessing wine quality. "

As a winemaker, Wise is a proponent of the small winery approach, but as a consumer, he remains on the fence. For some regions like Hunter Valley or the Douro he purchases trusted brands and looks for typicity, which is often best delivered by larger wineries. For other regions like California or the Loire, he focuses on smaller producers with different approaches, philosophies and unique wines.

Dobrila Braunstein is a quality assurance manager for Andrew Peller and believes the definition of quality depends on the producer. She feels that most reputable producers at the very basis, believe in responsible farming, using healthy grapes and making wine free of major faults - but this also lends to the to the overlapping of what quality really means.

"The differences in defining quality start when we consider things like style of wine, average consumer profile and expectations of each brand, aromatic and taste profiles. Large producers invest a lot of human and financial resources in quality, but often that means achieving consistency, which requires a certain amount of processing. Wine style and profile is often dictated by the marketing team and market trends, in other words, there is a corporate strategy. There are established operational processes governing quality."

Braunstein feels smaller producers might define quality through the value system of their winemaker and/or owner. She warns though, that this leads to higher variability dictated by vintage, yields and creative direction. There are no hard processes in place, but a system of core values that guides the decision making vintage to vintage.

Ultimately, the notion of quality comprises myriad variables, and the answer is not entirely straight forward. Predilections tend toward better farming practices, clean fruit, and transparency providing the average consumer a good start in assessing quality, irrelevant of winery size.