(Commissioned article, September 2009)
From her influential lips to our eager ears. Respected international wine writer Jancis Robinson confirmed after a recent visit to B.C. what local wine drinkers have come to know — that the quality of local wines has improved dramatically over the last five years.
“Overall they were much, much better than those I had previously tasted in 2004,” she said.
This verdict from the refined mouth of the editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine came after a 24-hour visit to the Okanagan in July, when about 100 of the region’s best wines were assembled for her to taste. It was her first visit to the Okanagan — the most famous wine region she had, until July, never visited — but it was not, of course, the first time she had tasted a selection of B.C.’s finest wines.
In 2001, Robinson attended a private tasting of 35 difficult-to-obtain B.C. wines organised by the British Columbia Wine Institute, and in 2004 a follow-up tasting at the Heathman Hotel in Portland, where B.C.-based wine educator Mark Davidson showcased the wines of which B.C. producers were most proud without duplicating any of the wines Robinson had tasted three years earlier.
Although Robinson articulated her appreciation for a number of the wines on these two occasions, the praise seemed somewhat faint. On the 2001 visit, she mentioned the “refreshing streak of acidity” of B.C wines and picked out a small number that had impressed her. These included Burrowing Owl’s Cabernet Franc 1998 and Sumac Ridge’s White Meritage 1999, a wine she would pick out again in the 2004 tasting, this time the 2002 vintage.
In 2004, Robinson tasted 65 wines and 25 of them found some favour. The Osoyoos Larose 2001 attracted praise, as well as a number of wines from Vancouver Island producers Blue Grouse (including its Black Muscat 2000), Salt Spring Vineyards (including its Merlot 2002), Garry Oaks (including its Pinot Noir 2002 and Gewürztraminer 2003) and Venturi Schulze (for its Brut Naturel 1999 and Millecolori 2002); and from the Okanagan, Quail’s Gate (for its Family Reserve Chenin Blanc 2002, Family Reserve Pinot Noir 2001 and Riesling 2003) and Cedar Creek, for its 2001 Chardonnay in particular. Other wines that impressed her at the 2004 tasting were from producers Lotusland, Blasted Church, Jackson-Triggs, Township 7, Hawthorne Mountain and Kettle Valley.
With Robinson’s latest visit, the shift in her appreciation for B.C wines is as dramatic as the changes she sees in the quality of the wine. “There is increasing confidence and sophistication and nice, fresh, bright fruit,” Robinson said from her home in London after her return, where, after a short August holiday at her home in the Languedoc, she was once again hard at work tasting her customary 200 wines a week.
Robinson speaks of the extraordinary directness of that fruit.
“B.C wines almost punch you between the eyes with their frankness,” she found. Particularly impressive for her was the expression pinot blanc has found in B.C., an observation that reinforces the argument by Barb Philip (the Liquor Distribution Board’s European Portfolio manager since May) in her Master of Wine dissertation that B.C should make pinot blanc its signature wine. A focus on pinot blanc could put B.C on the map in the same way that other newer wine regions have done, such as New Zealand with sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. “In general,” said Robinson, “the pinot blancs had particular clarity, personality and confidence — although there were some pretty impressive examples of an unusually wide range of varieties for a single relatively small region. I don’t think the Okanagan is anywhere near working out exactly what is best planted where.”
In this regard Robinson remarks on the fact that almost 60 varieties are grown in the region’s 7,500 acres of vines, a characteristic not uncommon in young wine regions. An understanding of varieties is close to Robinson’s heart and a subject on which she is an expert. She is hard at work on a comprehensive guide to grape varieties incorporating all the new discoveries about how various varieties are related to each other, with publication expected by 2011.
In line with her previous high regard for some of the work done locally with the traditional white Bordeaux varieties of sauvignon blanc and semillon — by Sumac Ridge with its white Meritage, for example — this time she enjoyed the Black Hills blend Alibi.
Did she find anything
surprising in the vineyards?
“I was particularly surprised by how much overhead
irrigation there is when the world is short of water, but I do understand that
it has advantages, such as frost protection.”
Many locals had long been hoping for a visit from Robinson, who is certainly among the top five wine writers in the world. She is one of only 280 people who may place the letters MW behind her name, the gold-standard credential she obtained when she was eight years into her remarkable 33-year career in wine, during which she has been recognised with an honorary degree from Britain’s Open University (she also has a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford) and an OBE. As a member of the Royal Household Wine Committee, Robinson advises on the Queen’s wine cellar. She delights all with her intelligence, knowledge, curiosity, erudition and modesty. Making a point about how well regarded she is, a wine critic once quipped that she must be one of the few people in Britain who would only have to look after two meals a year — on Christmas and Boxing Day, as on every other day there would be a long list of people wanting her to join them at their tables.
Robinson found herself sitting at B.C. tables in July because she had to travel to Oregon and California and her husband, Nick Lander, food critic for the Financial Times, a consultant to British Airways and the founder and former owner of the well-regarded and very hip Soho restaurant Escargot in the 1980s — expressed a desire to see Vancouver.
“So I grafted a brief private visit to the Okanagan on to our short stay in the city,” said Robinson, who dined in Vancouver at home with restaurateur Vikram Vij, an occasion that included Davidson, chefs Thomas Haas and David Hawksworth with their partners, wine educator D J Kearney and a number of fine bottles. “B.C is a very long way from the U.K. and not on the way to anywhere, so perhaps it’s not so surprising that it has taken me so long [to get to the Okanagan]. And the total vineyard area is much smaller than, say, that of New Zealand, with which the U.K. has so many cultural ties — so perhaps it was inevitable that it would take me quite a while.”
Robinson was the master of ceremonies at this year’s International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon on the weekend following her trip to the Okanagan. A Vancouver wine merchant who was there recalls hearing her mention the Okanagan a number of times. “I made them aware of its existence and that it, too, can make fine pinot,” said Robinson. “Blue Mountain’s impressed me the most.”
Robinson was as impressed with the great natural beauty of the region as the improvement in the wines. “Perhaps the most memorable experience was being driven round the back way — via the memorably named See Ya Later from Penticton to the southern end of the valley to avoid the bushfire near Jackson Triggs — and the stunning scenery and interesting sights in Oliver en route; for example, the Desert Arms pub, Best of India restaurant and candy store, Toasted Oak restaurant, and Maple Leaf motel. Perhaps these are very ordinary names to you, but they are notable to me.” This and the dinner with Vikram Vij, she added.
Around the world, Robinson sees in the future of wine more and more organic and bio-dynamic production, lighter packaging and lower alcohol content.
On the question of what B.C should be doing that it currently is not, Robinson returned to an issue she has previously brought up on visits to Ontario: “I feel strongly that wine labelling in Canada needs to be clearer and consumers should be helped to realise that all that wine described as ‘cellared in Canada’ is not in fact Canadian. This is a problem throughout Canada, not just B.C., but I don’t think the world will take Canadian wine seriously while misleading labelling practices continue.” [This practice was changed after Robinson’s visit to B.C., during which she actively took up the issue.]
Were she to find herself in B.C and the owner of an estate, what would she grow? “Talk about hypothetical … I would certainly be tempted to try pinot blanc and riesling. And that desert climate should be well suited to organic viticulture.”
Responding to a question as to which wine regions dominate in her cellar, and why, and whether B.C. wines could find a place there, Robinson said: “My cellar is dominated by wines that need time in bottle to show their best, which means red Bordeaux, red and white Burgundy, red Rhone, German rieslings, a few Californian and Washington reds. I think many B.C. wines are already approachable quite young, so there is not so much incentive to cellar them — even if I could get my hands on them. There are hardly any Canadian wines available in the U.K. but, as it happens, the very first ‘wine of the week’ I chose when I started JancisRobinson.com back in 2000 was Mission Hill Pinot Blanc.”
In 2001, Robinson suggested that B.C. should concentrate on the varieties that have done well in New Zealand, such as pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. Asked if her visit to the Okanagan and Philip’s argument for pinot blanc had changed this perception, she said that since the vast majority of B.C. wine is sold in B.C., “what’s important [is] how the various wine styles are viewed by B.C. consumers. If they don’t respect pinot blanc, however good it is, it could be difficult to change their minds, alas.”
Riesling, the calling card of many in the wine business, is a favourite variety of Robinson’s and, asked whether B.C does a good job with it, she said the results varied. “Tantalus is awfully good, though some of the wines are a bit too high in phenolics [or] astringent.”
If there were only one thing she could tell the next generation of wine drinkers, what would it be?
“Be humble.Wine will always outfox us, surprise us. The wine world will keep growing and evolving. The only time I ever thought I knew it all was when I finished the diploma of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust [an earlier step in obtaining the MW]. Now, I realise just how much I still have to learn. The next generation, though, can benefit from wine’s being such a mainstream interest now. When I started, it was regarded as deeply, hopelessly frivolous.”
Jancis Robinson’s 23 favourite B.C. wines
(out of 100 tasted in
July 2009 in the Okanagan)
Black Hills Alibi 2007
Blue Mountain Pinot Noir 2007
Blue Mountain Reserve Pinot Noir 2006
Cedar Creek Platinum Reserve Merlot 2006
Herder Josephine 2007
Hester Creek Merlot 2005
Jackson-Triggs Sun Rock Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Lake Breeze Pinot Blanc 2008
Mission Hill Quatrain 2006
Mission Hill Oculus 2005
Mission Hill Oculus 2006
Mission Hill Oculus 2007
Nichol Syrah 2005
Nk’Mip Pinot Blanc 2008
Osoyoos Larose 2005
Quail’s Gate Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay 2007
Road 13 5th Element 2006
Road 13 Jackpot Syrah 2007
Sandhill Phantom Creek Syrah 2007
Sumac Ridge Pinnacle Sparkling Rosé 2000
Tantalus Riesling 2008
Thornhaven Gewurztraminer 2008
Wild Goose Mystic River Pinot Blanc 2008
© S Fuller 2009-2010
S Fuller has known Jancis Robinson since 1985, watching the historic F.A. Cup final at her home in London in which Manchester United (her husband’s family came from that city) won while playing a man short; has eaten at the Soho restaurant Escargot, which Robinson owned with her husband, Nick Lander, in the 1980s; visits her when she can when in London and consults her website wwwjancisrobinson.com year-round. She is a certified wine educator, runs the wine seminar series “Wisdom From Wine: In Vino Veritas & The Truths About Wine” ©, writes a series “The Person behind the Palate” ©, established a wine club in 1998 entitled “In Search of the Divine Bottle” © (a.k.a. The Quality Quaffers) and is writing a book of the same title.