Make Sauvignon Blanc Interesting Again

A first tasting of what BC winemakers did with Crafted in BC wines from Washington State grapes.

The results of BC’s climate-induced grape growing predicament has only really been theoretical to this point. How will wineries fare with making wine using grapes from another place? Will they taste like wines made in BC? How different will the style of these wines even be? Or is that even the point? There’s no way to agree or disagree about the weather - shit happens. But it is certainly valid to have points of contention over how the industry handled it in the aftermath. Whatever you believe was the right thing to do (“BC wineries should use only BC grapes” vs. “BC wineries should be able to do what they can to stay in business”), I am of the opinion that what’s in the glass is ultimately the most important thing.

That said, this might be the biggest and most sudden challenge to a market’s collective palate that a wine industry anywhere has ever faced.

For me, the “what’s in the glass” element was challenged recently when I got to taste through 30-ish wines at a gathering at Carl and Mira Boucher’s during their recent live-streamed tasting event. This tasting featured as many of the newly (or not yet) released “Crafted in BC” wines made by BC wineries using grapes grown elsewhere.

I have included a selection of tasting notes at the end of this article. I’m not a fan of tasting notes or scores (spoiler alert - I don’t score wines) but because the circumstances of this tasting are unusual, I thought it might be helpful. Keep reading to the end to learn about the Iconic wine of the tasting.

Expectations

If you are expecting these wines to taste like the BC wines that you have come to love in the past couple of decades, you will be disappointed. These are not going to be like that. However, there are going to be fantastic wines. There were many at this tasting and surely more to come.

Expectations play a huge roll in how we as consumers perceive foods. Marketers, whoever invented Crystal Pepsi, and anyone who has worked in a wine shop will all tell you that expectations matter. If I buy a Snickers bar and it tastes like a Crunchy, I’m not going to be happy about it because my expectations for the product that I paid for won’t be met.

This could be where wineries that hide the origin of the grapes on the label (or obscured it by burying it deep in the back label text) are not setting themselves up for success in my opinion. It shows that they are embarrassed by the grape origins, or worse, that they have something to hide. What else are they not saying? Even if logistic problems from unclear regulations and deadlines for getting labels printed on time before bottling made it difficult, being forthright about the grapes’ origins is important for setting up the customer’s expectations for the wine.

Wines labels that clearly state that this is a wine made from Washington (or wherever) grapes on the front have a much better chance. They have established the expectations clearly and decisively. And they have nothing to hide. Customers know what they are getting and won’t expect them to taste exactly like a BC wine. They will be ready and much more open to accepting something different.

The Big Orange Elephant in the Room

Might as well get this out of the way now. I understand why not having an overt reference to anything American on the label is appealing given the current political climate. If politics are going to influence your decision as a customer to not purchase these wines, I totally understand. The current political times are an unfortunate storm that nobody expected and Brand America is no longer the valuable commodity that it once was, which I’ve written about previously.

But here’s the thing; If you think that by NOT purchasing these wines out of political protest, you will be making a statement that absolutely nobody will hear. You will also be directly harming Canadian wineries, some of which are very small, independent family-run businesses. These grapes were contracted, bought, and paid for well before any of this recent political crap happened. Your punishment will only harm Canadians, many of whom I can introduce to you personally if you really want to know how much harm you will be causing.

Just in case you were wondering where I stood on that...

In/Consistencies

As I said before, I believe the quality of the wine in the bottle matters the most. Based on the tasting at Carl and Mira’s, BC wine lovers will be in for a treat. Knowing what to expect is a big part of it. If you are expecting your favourite wine to taste exactly the same, or even just similar, you could be in for a surprise.

As a category, I think Pinot Gris is the clearest example of what failed expectations can do. BC has a clearly defined style for this grape variety, and indeed all white wines, can do. Yes, Pinot Gris is arguably all over the map stylistically; Will it be a light and crisp Grigio or will it be a richer, spicier Gris? To me, the pointy end of BC Pinot Gris has always been a spicy / herbal edge that jumps out at you when you first taste it. My benchmark classics for this style are certainly Hester Creek’s and Lake Breeze’s Pinot Gris. This edge was lacking in all of these wines. Even the hallmark aromas of Tinhorn’s Pinot Gris (which I’ve always called “Beer-no Gris”) wasn’t quite as beer-like as it usually is.

One exciting development that I noticed from the tasting is that Sauvignon Blanc is suddenly interesting again. I’ve never been enamoured with this variety in BC. It’s always been boring to me. Nothing special about it. This is why I went a little goo-goo over Sauvignon Blanc in Ontario when I wrote the two Ontario volumes of Sipster’s pocket guides. Those wines were interesting - complex, nuanced, and fun to taste. My experience with BC Sauvignon Blanc has never been like that.

I know that I’m not alone. Steven Spurrier bemoaned this variety quite publicly when he was speaking at Okanagan College in late 2019. Awkwardly sitting on the stage were more than a few winery owners, some of whom had invested a lot into Sauvignon Blanc over the years. I don’t recall his exact words but it was something like, “why bother?” and he is right. With exceptions that I can count on one hand and still have fingers left over, I can recall no more than a few BC wines made from Sauvignon Blanc that show anything near as interesting as wines produced in other parts of the world. It’s not that winemakers here don’t know what to do with it (they do), it’s just that these grapes don’t do anything special here. Sauvignon Blanc will never be a great wine in BC because the raw materials aren’t there.

The treat now is that there were some fabulous Sauvignon Blancs here. If anything comes from this importation of foreign grapes for use in BC, I hope it is that we get to learn and appreciate what works best in our own growing regions. Sauvignon Blanc is nothing special in BC so we should enjoy these great wines while they are here. Standouts include Clos du Soleil’s Washington Series Sauvignon Blanc 2024 and River Stone’s Good Neighbours Series Sauvignon Blanc 20024.¹

Conclusion - What to expect

Here are a few things that I noticed from doing this tasting.

Good winemaking is good winemaking. If a winery has a track record for good winemaking, and you like a particular winery’s style, it will still show in the wines no matter where the grapes came from.

However, Washington grapes are different from BC grapes. Yes, the soils might be similar but the latitude isn’t and that makes a difference for things like acidity. BC winemakers are not scared by a little acidity. In the past, I think they didn’t know what to do with the sometimes-pronounced acidity from BC grapes nor did wine enthusiasts. The wine critics of the day often wrote off BC wines because of it and used veiled derogatory terms like “bright” or “food-friendly” (the ultimate dig) to describe wines of any colour that tasted more sour than what they were used to with their benchmark wines.

That can go the other way too. No doubt that working in this industry as I have for 20 years, my palate might be used to certain endemic characteristics of wine in BC. I know that I’ve always had trouble finding white wines from Washington State that I enjoy, finding them too flabby and lacking acidity. Looking back, I think this set up my own expectations for what these wines were going to taste like. I fully acknowledge that I may have approached these Crafted in BC wines with more suspicion because of that.

Surely, I won’t be the only one but I’m certain that I will be in the minority. I really don’t think that the average wine consumer will really care all that much about where the grapes come from, if they are even aware that wineries had to bring in grapes from elsewhere.

Bottom line - Sipters and wine enthusiasts are in a for a treat for a couple of years as these wines are released. The white wines I tasted were all solid because the BC industry knows what to do with white grapes. We’ll see how the reds stack up when they start to be released over the next year. For the moment, I’m expecting good things.

Selected Tasting Notes

Red Rooster Outbound Series Pinot Gris 2024

• Light aromas, ripe stone fruits, a bit grassy, simple palate

• Easy to drink but not super-inspiring

Tinhorn Creek Pinot Gris 2024

• Light aromas, more grapefruit and a little herbal aromas, simple, more texture than the Red Rooster

• Not like their BC Gris’s at all

Moraine Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium stone fruit, pink berries, floral, and herbal aromas.

• Beautiful pinky colour

• Palate has same flavours as aromas but a slight bitterness

Tightrope Slackline Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium stone fruit, ripe pears, soft acid, round texture, med. finish

• Best feeling wine so far

Fort Berens Here and There Pinot Gris 2024

• Light on the nose, super-elegant and clean, complex aromas - stone, light pears, a bit of spice - feels like a Pinot Blanc

• Very refreshing - acidity more obvious than other wines so far but perfectly balanced.

Mayhem Columbia River Plateau Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium aromas - spice, stonefruit, and flowers - lovely

• Medium acid, complex palate and beautiful silky texture

Noble Ridge Vilicus Pinot Gris 2024

• Spicy nose, red apples, and flowers - lovely

• Palate is a bit of a shock - very steely, mineral, and slightly medicinal

Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2024

• Light flowers, stone fruit, acid feels solidly medium+

• Most stylistically similar to their previous versions

Iconic Wine of the Tasting

Code Wines Grower Series Chardonnay 2024

There was a tank sample and a bottled sample of this wine available at the tasting. Both were excellent and showed the potential of what this wine is and will become over the next few years. This wine had a depth and richness to it that will likely evolve over time. There is oak but it is floating above all of the fruit flavours at the moment (especially in the barrel sample) and may require a few years to integrate properly, but it will. It’s a stunner.

1. Blasted Church’s Sauvignon Blanc also got a lot of positive chatter at the table as well. However, I recused myself from the conversation or taking notes on it because I currently work there. I keep my writing separate from my day job so that you can trust what I write and so that I don’t get fired from my job for writing should someone potentially interpret what I write incorrectly. This isn’t about journalistic integrity or anything like that (I’m not a journalist) but I’ve seen so many pay-to-play reviews and advertorial crap over the years and Sipster’s Icons is not that kind of trash. I will only use this platform for my own observations. If it still matters to you after reading this far, it was a lovely Sauvignon Blanc.