Four years ago, British Columbia Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo launched the Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines, part of a growing number of initiatives at Government House to recognize achievement in culture and in the economy.

Low profile in its first two years, the awards got much more notice last year when the trophies were presented personally at the wineries by the Lieutenant Governor. Presentations take place in early August each year.

The awards, beside recognizing good work, also help Government House choose the best British Columbia wines for its own cellar.

The wines are judged by a panel of six experienced judges, including wine writers and industry professionals. The number of awards is limited to no more than a dozen, maintaining the exclusivity of this award.

In 2006, the judges tasted about 140 wines and gave excellence awards to 11 wines. The Vincor International properties, now owned by Constellation Brands, were honoured with 6 of the 11 awards, as well as another award for Nk’Mip Cellars - North America’s first Aboriginal-owned winery, which is a 50/50 joint venture between the Osoyoos Indian Band and Vincor.

Amongst the Vincor honourees was Inniskillin, Niagara’s original boutique winery, which opened its Okanagan winery in 1994. The winery now gets a quarter of its grapes from a superb site called the Dark Horse Vineyard; but the winery also has access to niche varieties trialed in other vineyards operated nearby by Vincor. These wines – made from varieties such as Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc and Pinotage – are released in small lots as the winery’s Discovery Series. The object is to discover which esoteric varieties thrive in the Okanagan.

Malbec must be one of those. The 2004 Inniskillin Okanagan, ‘Discovery Series’ Malbec ($24.99) is a dark-coloured wine with a dense texture of fruit and fine ripe tannins. The aroma is powerful, suggesting spice and berries. On the palate, there are rich flavours of prunes, coffee, spice and minerals. The finish is long. This wine has good aging potential. (89 points)

If the 2004 is hard to get because of this award, there is good news. A recent tasting of a barrel sample of the 2005 Inniskillin Okanagan, ‘Discovery Series’ Malbec, of which about 500 cases will be released, revealed a wine even more exciting, with toast, mocha and berry aromas and flavours of plums.

Also winning an award for Inniskillin was the 2004 Riesling Icewine from the Darkhorse Vineyard. Icewine is an icon of Canadian winemaking and, since 1984, Inniskillin has been the leading producer of the style, initially making its reputation with wines made with Vidal, grown in the Niagara region. The winery’s 23-acre Dark Horse Vineyard in the south Okanagan, which was planted in 1990, includes a plot of Riesling now reserved exclusively for the finest Icewines that winemaker Sandor Mayer makes.

This wine is inviting in the glass, with a light golden hue and with aromas of peaches, strawberries and honey. On the palate, it delivers a punch of honeyed tropical fruit with a piquant acidity that gives this Icewine excellent balance. The wine has an amazing 222 grams of residual sugar per litre but, with the racy acidity to refresh the palate, it tastes nowhere as sweet as it is. There is a very long, lingering finish. (90 points)

Jackson Triggs, another winery under the Vincor umbrella, has been one of the wineries behind the success of Okanagan Valley Syrah – or Shiraz, as Jackson Triggs like to call it. The success of Syrah in the Okanagan has been something of a surprise, considering that this is a late ripening variety identified with the Rhone or Australia. It succeeds on the Okanagan’s desert because of the heat and of the long summer days with intense sunlight.

In 1999, Jackson Triggs planted a large vineyard near Osoyoos, in the south Okanagan, that was initially called Bear Cub. A few years ago, the upper half, about 110 acres, was designated the SunRock Vineyard (because it backs against a sun-baked cliff) and has now become the source for a series of premium vineyard-designated vines. Winemaker Bruce Nicholson has had a particular string of success with the Shiraz wines from this vineyard.

One of these is the 2003 Jackson Triggs Shiraz, SunRock Vineyard ($29.99). The deep colour signals that this wine is intense, beginning with aromas of spice and plum and leather - classic Shiraz aromas. The flavours deliver layer upon layer of fruit – spice, black cherries, blackberries, plum, mocha and even a note of tar. The structure is bold and ripe and the finish lasts and lasts. (92 points)

Jackson Triggs Grand Reserve wines are just one step below the top tier of single vineyard wines – but obviously, it is a short step. The 2004 Jackson Triggs, Proprietors’ Grand Reserve Shiraz is a gamey wine - not quite as rich as the SunRock Shiraz but still is generous on the palate, with lots of peppery notes and flavours and aromas that recall a good delicatessen counter. (88 points)

Another of the Vincor properties, Sumac Ridge, also took home two awards, including one for the 2002 Pinnacle (Red). The first vintage of Pinnacle, this super-premium red, was 1997. As the first $50 table wine offered by a British Columbia winery, Pinnacle made a statement that top quality Okanagan wines, like top quality wines anywhere, needed to be supported by higher prices than were then common. The point has been made; Sumac Ridge no longer is alone at the leading edge.

This wine begins with vanilla and cherry aromas. On the palate, the fruit flavours are generous, with black currants, plums and chocolate. The mouth-filling texture and the full body lead to a long, satisfying finish. (90 points)

Sumac Ridge also won an award for its 2004 Meritage (White). Meritage is the California-created term for wines blended with Bordeaux grape varieties. Sumac Ridge was the first Canadian winery to adopt the term, in 1995. Now it is used widely by wineries content to leave French appellation terms to France, while creating New World wine terms.

Sumac Ridge’s White Meritage ($19.99) – this vintage is a blend of 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon - is one of the most consistently successful wines it produces. Several earlier vintages also have won excellence awards in the Lieutenant Governor’s competition. This vintage once again repeats all those qualities that appealed in previous years: the rich, buttery texture created by fermenting and aging the wine in barrels and allowing much of it to go through malolactic fermentation. The palate displays rich citrus flavours, like a honeyed, slightly bitter Scotch marmalade. The complexity gives this wine a long finish. (87 points)

Rounding out the awards for the Vincor owned or co-owned wineries is the 2003 Nk’Mip ‘Qwam Qwmt’ Merlot ($24.99). Nk’Mip Cellars is located on a hill overlooking Osoyoos Lake, and gets fruit from its own vineyards as well as from the Band-owned Inkameep Vineyard at Oliver. It is the Band’s point of pride to provide winemaker Randy Picton with superlative grapes. He has repaid the Band’s viticulturists by making award-winning wines. The reserve tier is marketed under the Qwam Qwmt designation, a native term meaning ‘achieving excellence’.

This full-bodied Merlot has aromas of mocha, plums and vanilla. In texture, it has almost a brooding concentration, with layers of blackberry and black currant flavours, finishing with a hint of spice. The long, ripe tannins give this wine a long, supple finish. (91 points)

While the Vincor properties achieved remarkable success in the judging, they were not alone. Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery, won an award for their 2003 Canoe Cove Shiraz ($34.95). In 2005, Eugene Kwan and Andrew Cheng, the new owners of Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery, launched a premium wine range under the Canoe Cove label. For several years the winery, located in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, has been getting some of its grapes from a vineyard it sponsored on the south Okanagan’s Black Sage Bench. That included Shiraz, beginning in the 2001 vintage. The initial vintages from young vines were notable for flavours of spiced cherries and chocolate cake. With the more mature fruit from 2003, a big, ripe, hot Okanagan vintage, Cheng and the winery’s winemakers blended 15% Cabernet Sauvignon with the Shiraz, seeking to produce a big red with more complexity and better structure.

They succeeded. This is a rich and spicy wine. The aroma of mocha prefigures the flavours of chocolate, black cherries and spiced plums. (88 points)

Also winning awards, were two wines from WildGoose Vineyards and a lone award for La Frenz Winery’s 2004 Chardonnay Reserve.

In 2004, after 10 years of making wine at Quails’ Gate Estate Winery in the Okanagan, Jeff Martin returned to his native Australia, intending to start his own winery there. He had grown up in the shadow of the McWilliam winery in Griffith, had been helped through university by McWilliam and rose to be a senior winemaker there before taking the Quails’ Gate job. When he returned to Australia, he was stunned at the over-expansion of Australian wineries and quickly came back to Canada. He reckoned he would be much more likely to make a mark in the emerging Okanagan, where he and his wife, Niva, opened the La Frenz Winery near Penticton. Martin’s calculation was right: his wines are gaining a cult reputation for quality.

His barrel-fermented 2004 Chardonnay Reserve (released this spring and now basically sold out) invites the consumer with aromas of citrus and delicately toasted French oak. On the palate, the wine has rich, buttery flavours and textures, lifted by a hint of cloves on the finish. (88 points)

It should come as little surprise Wild Goose Vineyards were honoured with Awards of Excellence by the Lieutenant Governor. For several years now, family-owned Wild Goose Vineyards has been winning top awards with its white wines at every national and regional competition it has entered. Even so, the winery continues to charge modestly for its wines. Indeed, Adolf Kruger (who runs this family with two sons and their wives) argued last year that British Columbia wine prices were getting too high. Consumers have to love an attitude like that.

This is the second consecutive vintage in which Wild Goose’s Pinot Gris ($15.95) has won an Award of Excellence. The wine, with a fresh fruity aroma, is full on the palate, with flavours of pears, citrus and delicate spice. It is delightfully tied together with a crisp finish. (88 points)

Also winning for the winery, was the 2005 Mystic River Gewürztraminer. Mystic River is one of the three vineyards now operated in the south Okanagan by Wild Goose. The winery grows Gewürztraminer in each vineyard, having won a substantial following for its Alsace-style wines.

The Mystic River Gewürztraminer starts with inviting aromas of rose petals, oranges peels and spice. On the palate, there are intense flavours of orange zest and spice, with good concentration. The finish is crisp and clean. An unmistakable expression of the varietal. (90 points)

~ John Schreiner, British Columbia Regional Correspondent


To comment on John Schreiner’s writings and thoughts, contact him at j.schreiner@appellationamerica.com