Cellar Savvy

Q: I would like to start collecting wines but don’t have a cellar nor can I afford to build one or buy one of those fancy self-contained climate controlled units that I’ve read so much about. I was hoping you might have some suggestions on how to best store my wines for future drinking without investing in an expensive system. I would rather put my wine budget into the wines themselves.
- Paul

A: This is a dilemma encountered by many whose interest in wines have extended beyond the buying and drinking stage and want to take it to the next level – purchasing bottles they can allow to age to their full potential for future enjoyment. Indeed, buying wines when they are first released is the most economical option when it comes to those that are intended for aging. If you wait to purchase them when they are at their prime, their price will invariably have risen, sometimes two, three, even 10 times their original cost depending on how long they’ve been kept by the winery, the critical reviews they’ve received and medals they’ve – assuming that they’ll even be available by then. The top wines often sell out quickly and they are impossible to find beyond their initial release date.

The good news is you don’t have to spend thousands on a state-of-the-art system. While a climate-controlled space would be ideal, those of us with tight budgets prefer to invest our funds in wine rather than having a fancy, mostly empty cellar – and I am included in that statement. I have amassed a decent collection which I keep tucked away in the crawl space of our home. A series of Costco racks line an outside wall – which remains cool even in the height of summer, but there is no risk of freezing come winter. The area doesn’t get a lot of light and there’s little vibration, both issues which can affect wine over the long run.

I have had reasonable success with this set-up. Only a couple of wines over the years have failed the test of time and I’m not entirely sure that they weren’t flawed to begin with. I have kept some wines under similar conditions for close to 10 years and have been delighted with the results. Truly, there are very few wines that should be cellared as long as that. The idea that all wines improve with age is a myth. The majority of wines are made to consume young and I rarely keep any beyond three to five years. Whites, in particular, should be enjoyed when they are fresh and youthful.

To set up your cellar, find a place that doesn’t see a lot of traffic and where the temperature is consistent year round. A basement corner is a popular choice, but closets located on an outside hall work well as they rarely have heating vents and are surprisingly cool when the doors are closed.

Q: My wife and I were fortunate enough to purchase a couple of bottles of the Mission Hill 2006 Riesling Icewine (which recently captured the International Wine Challenge (IWC) Trophy for the World’s Top Icewine). We currently have them laying on their sides in the display tubes. Will the quality improve over time if we keep them this way? If we were to sell them for a profit (because they are hard to come by), do you think it would be best to list them now or several years down the road.
- Richard

A. Congratulations, you have indeed acquired a lovely wine. In the past eight years only three Icewines have been successful in achieving this award. And you are right, it is rather hard to come by. In fact, it is currently sold out at the winery. That being said, selling wines for profit is a tricky business. Sure the wine is rare and it won a prestigious medal, but how many people would want to buy it and how much they are willing to pay for it is virtually impossible to determine. You could certainly throw it on Ebay and command a crazy price and you might get lucky or you could risk it and list it with an auction house and end up getting less than you paid for it. It’s a crap shoot. In fact, according to Ritchie's Auctioneers, which consistently holds rare wine auctions in Toronto, only a tiny number of wines appreciate in value as they age.

Which brings me to your other question – will this wine’s quality improve over time? Not necessarily. Icewines are revered for their luscious sweetness, but a truly great one is also well balanced with a lot of acidity. An Icewine without adequate acidity will be cloying – you might as well be sipping a glass of maple syrup. Unfortunately, acidity tends to drop off with age and thus, for my tastes at least, I prefer Icewines to be fairly young. If you cellar this wine, some of the characteristics that made it the great Icewine that it is will invariably be lost over time.

But its age-ability is the least of your worries if you want to keep this wine as a long-term investment. Unless you can guarantee that the wine was stored under perfect conditions, nobody will be willing to pay top dollar for it. Unlike the first writer, who is planning to age wines for his own enjoyment, cellaring for profit requires an impeccable system or the wines will most certainly not increase in value. Even perfect conditions won’t assure that the wine will still be drinkable at the end of the day, but it lessens the risk for buyers.

In Focus - Mourvèdre
This grape may be among the most challenging of the varieties now being experimented with in the Okanagan Valley. It's extremely late-ripening - about two weeks behind Syrah (already considered a considerable challenge for the region). Plus, even under ideal conditions, its production is known to be irregular. One year it may produce a good yield, followed by a poor one, for no apparent reason. But the effort is apparently worth it, as the grapes produce wines of serious power, colour and flavour. Spain grows the lion's share of this grape. In the Okanagan, small plantings are being attempted in the Black Sage Bench region by Road 13 Vineyards. The plants are currently two years old and thriving.

BC Vintners Have Grape Expectations

By Julianna Hayes

Beneath a brilliant September sun, Michael Bartier, the winemaker at Road 13 Vineyards in Oliver, gestures toward a row of vines and describes them as a “crap shoot.”

They are of the Mourvèdre variety, common to Spain but virtually unheard of among the Okanagan landscape. Indeed, they are the type of grape no one would ever imagine being rooted in the soils of the Great White North. They thrive on an extended growing period of mild, frost-free days in order to fully ripen.

The two-year-old plants look healthy enough, which is promising. But everyone knows that the weather above the 49th parallel can be unpredictable and the winters especially harsh and unforgiving – even in the Okanagan, which has come to be recognized for its unique microclimates that nurture grape growing.

Still, Bartier is hopeful for the Mourvèdre and the other challenging varieties he’s attempting, which include Grenache, Roussanne and Tempranillo. After all, merely 10 years ago, few would expect a grape like Syrah – among the world’s most sought after and responsible for the Australia’s famous Shiraz wines – would survive, much less thrive here. But it took the pioneering spirit of local growers and vintners to ignore the naysayers – as they have with Merlot, Chardonnay and just about every noble variety – and plant it anyway. Today, the grape is considered one of the area’s best performers.

“Mark my words,” said Bartier, during the tour of his “experimental” vineyard. “Syrah will become the Okanagan’s signature wine.”

Statements such of these are bold. But they are a testament to the boundaries that those in the local wine industry are willing to push. And thankfully so. If they acquiesced to the critics, regional cellars would be still filled with such atrocities as Fuddle Duck and Hot Goose, the vineyards with such native grape curiosities as Okanagan Riesling, or have died out altogether.

Local growers, of course, owe a lot to the world’s changing climate. While it's spelling potential disaster overall, it has ironically been a boon for more northerly wine regions. There have been countless reports and papers about how areas previously considered unsuitable for wine grape growing are now being cultivated for vineyards.

But that’s not to say it’s making things easy in the Okanagan. Each year presents its own unique challenges and this one is no different. With the fall harvest rapidly approaching, all vintners – especially ones like Bartier, who have tackled extra challenges – are in nail-biting mode. They are doomed if they get complacent.

So how is the harvest shaping up? Despite all talk of global warming, the summer of 2008 can hardly be called a splendid one. The spring was wet and cool and growers were worried they might have to drastically thin the crop of some of the more challenging varieties by as much as half to encourage ripening.

But by the end of June, the sun and heat arrived with a vengeance and was steady for several weeks. By late July, many vintners indicated they were pretty much caught in the vineyard.

By mid August, however, summer sort of petered out and they found themselves slipping behind again. Kenn Oldfield, owner and general manager of Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, said the grapes on his winery’s Oliver site are about one-to-two weeks behind where the winemaking team would like them to be.

Indeed, most growers would agree they need to milk September for all its worth. It’s a crucial time in the vineyard when the sugars and flavours fully develop in the grapes. The good news is the sun has been shining pretty steadily since the beginning of the month, with daily daytime highs climbing well into the 20s.

“A week of above normal in September can make up for two to three weeks of poor weather in May,” said Mission Hill winemaker John Simes several months ago. “That’s when the weather really counts.”

Still, many vintners have been proactive and opted to thin the grape crop just the same. With less of a load, the plant can focus all its energy on ripening the remaining fruit.

What this means, however, is less quantity and ultimately less wine, when supply is already a problem in the valley.

Bartier doesn’t need to worry about his experimental varieties at the moment. That’s because the plants have already been vested of their fruit. At just two years of age, they are too young to be relied upon for producing good quality berries, thus they are pruned before any bunches form in order for the vines to put all their energy in growing healthy and strong.

It will be at least a couple years yet before anyone gets a taste of the first Okanagan Mourvèdre – if Bartier’s science project proves a success.

Here’s a look at some of the challenging grape varieties being attempted by Bartier and others in the Okanagan:

Tempranillo
This black grape native to Spain is the main variety used in Rioja. Its name is the diminutive of the Spanish temprano, which means early, a reference to the fact that it ripens several weeks earlier than most Spanish red grapes, but still later most varieties common to the Okanagan. The wines tend to be dry, deeply coloured and scented with relatively low alcohol. They also are know to be low in acid, which has been a drawback, but the Okanagan's cooler climate may well drive those acid levels up.

Mourvèdre
This grape may be the most challenging of all Bartier's experiments. It's extremely late-ripening - about two weeks behind Syrah in hotter climes, and its production is known to be irregular. One year it may produce a good yield, followed by a poor one, for no apparent reason. But the effort is apparently worth it, as the grapes produce wines of serious power, colour and flavour. Spain grows the lion's share of this grape.

Grenache
This is considered a workhorse of a grape which is used a lot for blending. The wines it produces are fruity, spicy quaffable reds and pinks. In fact, Bartier is considering the variety for a rose. Grown in Spain, California and other warm-weather regions, it is late ripening and favours arid, hot climates.

Roussanne
This white Rhône grapes is often blended with Marsanne and such a blend has already been made in the Okanagan from valley fruit by Inniskillin, as part of its discovery series. Late-ripening for a white, it features a rather distinctive herbal, floral tea character and relatively high acid. In the southern Rhône, it is only one of four grape varieties permitted in white Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Marsanne
In the Rhône, Marsanne is the most widely planted white wine grape in the Hermitage AOC where it is a component of the white Hermitage wines in a blend with Roussanne. On its own it can produce deeply-colored, full-bodied white wines with distinctive floral and nutty aromas.

Carmenere
This is a recently revitalized European variety that was one of the original six grapes of Bordeaux. Now with of its plantings in Chile, it has found its way into the Okanagan by way of Black Hills winery. It produces wines that are intensely crimson in colour - in fact, that is where it gets its name - with characteristics of red berries and spices.

Zinfandel
Despite its association with the sweet, sickly, low acid white Zins of the 80s and early 90s, Zinfandel is a red grape capable of producing wines of impressive power. It's a very late-ripening variety, yet several Okanagan wineries have been growing and producing stunning versions for several years.

The Allure of Sexy Labels

Q. Hi… I was wondering if you could give your insight on the sexiest wine labels in B.C. I see there's quite the difference in marketing in Canada compared to the U.S. and was wondering what sells your spirits there...
- Stacy

A. People taste with their eyes almost as much as they do with their palate. Certainly if you haven’t had the opportunity to try a particular wine, what is it about it that will inevitably compel you to part with your money? The label, of course.

Sexy packaging has become as big here in B.C., as it has everywhere else…perhaps even more so. That’s because local wines not only have to compete amongst themselves, but with everything else on the marketplace – namely wines from the Australia, California, France, Italy, New Zealand and so forth. While, B.C. consumers do embrace local product, there is an underlying cynicism toward anything domestic – particularly when it comes to wine. Thus the label must grab them, otherwise B.C. bottles will get lost in the sea of choices.

A pretty label goes a long way toward attracting the buyer’s attention, but so does the name. If you need confirmed examples of this, look no further than the struggling local wineries that have gone on to success following a simple name change. With monikers like Prpich and Scherzinger, the proprietors of these two wineries couldn’t give their products away.

But once their names changed to Blasted Church and Dirty Laundry respectively, the bottles just flew off the shelf. Add to that the fact that they introduced some rather imaginative packaging and a great story – Dirty Laundry with a past association with a brothel and Blasted Church and its whimsical Tim Burton-esque labels – and there was instant success.

Wineries I consider to have sexy marketing are:

Laughing Stock – Proprietors David and Cynthia Enns hail from the financial world and used their background for a clever play on words. The packaging features a ticker tape etching wrapping around the bottle.

Howling Bluff – The label features a simple, but charming caricature of a wolf baying.

Road 13 – The new name of the winery formerly know as Golden Mile Cellars, it is named for the road on which it sits and the label is a simple, but eye-catching graphic featuring a black silhouette of a tractor and dog and the name written boldly in red.

See Ya Later Ranch – Formerly Hawthorne, the marketing features anecdotes of the former ranch property owner who was passionate about his dogs. The wines are named for the late pets and many feature angelic depictions of them.
Sandhill – Wines from the Small Lots program are bottled in dark vessels with simple, but elegant etching on them.

Therapy Vineyards – Let’s just say they do Freud proud.

Shipping Wines: No More Mr. Nice Guy

By Julianna Hayes

Several weeks ago I received a question about with shipping wines across provincial borders. The reader who wrote wanted to know how relatives from Saskatchewan to the Okanagan Valley in B.C. could bring back or ship wines home.

I said that although cross-border shipping is supposed to be prohibited, many people do it without consequence. In fact, a large portion of B.C. wineries offer the service, as evidenced by this comment from a reader of my blog:

“Last year I had 19 cases of wine shipped by various B.C. wineries to my residence in Manitoba…Every bottle arrived in perfect condition. We visited dozens of wineries and not once was it suggested this was not possible or was illegal, in fact shipping was a regular service offered. – LW”

Call it incredible timing but suddenly liquor boards, including the one in B.C., are cautioning wineries of a crackdown on this practice. It started with Red Rooster winery on the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan, which received a stern warning by the Manitoba Liquor Commission for shipping wines directly to consumers in that province. Andrew Peller Limited, which owns the winery, as well as Sandhill and Calona, responded by ordering all its B.C. operations to cease filling out-of-province orders.

Now, many wineries are getting cold feet about what consequences they'll face.

At issue is liquor sales tax collection. All boards add a mark-up to booze entering the province and thus wineries shipping directly to buyers are viewed as tax evaders.

The ones who suffer, of course, are the out-of-province consumers. There has been a push for sometime to lift this archaic law, at least for homegrown wine producers. Indeed, if wineries from B.C. can’t ship directly to customers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Quebec, for example, it’s likely residents there will have to opt for mostly imports since their liquor boards don’t carry much domestic product.

Don’t expect the situation to change anytime soon. Governments are greedy when it comes to liquor and taxes, and the wheels of progress turn very slowly in this country.

Wine Q&A: Headache in a Bottle

When wine causes physical grief for rather than the obvious, it can impede its appreciation. Indeed, the so-called “red wine headache” appears to plague a disproportionate amount of people. But what causes it? It might not be what you think.

Q: Just about every time I drink red wine, I wake up with a splitting headache and its not because I’ve over indulged. In fact, sometimes the headache starts after just half a glass. It starts in my sinus and spreads behind my eyes. I love red wine, but I suspect I am allergic to sulfites. Can you recommend any organic reds?
- Alison

A: There are two misconceptions here. First of all, if the headaches are a result of drinking red wine only, sulfites are not likely to be the culprit. Second, organic wines are not necessarily sulfite-free. Sulfites occur naturally in virtually all wines as a by-product of fermentation, so there is little chance of getting around them. Sulfites are also added to varying degrees by many winemakers, including those producing organic wines, to prevent bacterial growth and oxidation. White wines, particularly sweeter one, usually have a higher percentage of sulfite than reds. I’d also like to add that according to the American Food and Drug Administration, only about one per cent of the population suffers from sulfite allergies, the majority being asthmatics. And breathing problems, not headaches, are the more typical reaction to sulfites.

Tannins are also often to blame for red wine headaches and that is indeed a possibility. Lab studies have shown they provoke blood platelets into releasing serotonin, and high serotonin levels can cause headaches.

Another possible cause are histamines, which are naturally found on grape skins. Since the skins are required to steep in the fruit juice to extract the colour we all love in red wines, they will contain about 20-200 times more histamines than white. The deeper the colour, the higher the histamine level is likely to be. Even if you don’t suffer from allergies as a rule, they may cause you some grief. I attended a tasting of big Australian reds some years ago and virtually everyone on the panel was stuffed up afterwards – we all suspected histamines to be to blame.

Try drinking some lighter-coloured reds that are unoaked, such as Beaujolais Nouveau (released every year on the third Thursday in November). If you still are suffering, you may have to switch to white.

I have a friend who takes a mild, non-drowsy anti-histamine before she drinks red wine. But before you mix any drug with alcohol, consult your doctor.