Bella Wines

Unique Méthode Ancestrale Sparkling Wines

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Almost by definition, Naramata Bench wineries are a little off the beaten path. More so than most, Bella Wines has carved a niche on a small, four-acre homestead off Gulch Road on the outskirts of Naramata village. Established in 2011, it is the inspiration of Kamloops-born wine educator extraordinaire Jay Drysdale and his partner, northern California native Wendy Rose.

As the story goes, true connection came when Wendy’s life-long appreciation for imported Champagne and fine cuisine linked up with Jay’s obsessive determination to establish a boutique winery and make his own sparkling wine from BC-grown grapes. Through it all from the very beginning, their first date truffle-hunting just outside Portland, Oregon, has been Jay’s loveable pet, a bulldog named Bella.

Instead of going for a typical, tried and true, popular sparkling wine style, the Bella team decided to throw out the rule book and do things differently. Instead of Pinot Noir, Drysdale tapped Gamay as the unlikely mainstay variety for his bubbly creations, saying, “A grape I did not know what to expect won my heart.” Unlikely because “you couldn’t give it away when we started,” he says, referring to Gamay’s lowly underdog status.

According to Drysdale, the worst thing that ever happened to Gamay was carbonic maceration, the process that transforms a small amount of sugar in uncrushed grapes into ethanol. It is typically used in Beaujolais to produce low tannin, light bodied, brightly coloured, fresh and fruity red wines for early consumption. Not exactly what he had in mind.

As an accredited sommelier with experience as a chef and restauranteur, he has always had a soft spot for “principled” Gamay. Made using traditional winemaking practices, “It is super-expressionable, has an affinity for food and is a favourite of wine professionals to drink at home,” he says.

In the vineyard, the grape affords several benefits particularly for start-up wineries with an eye on costs. Gangly and robust in the Okanagan, it is easier to grow and hardier than Pinot Noir, according to Drysdale.  “Like Syrah, it loves to throw tonnage, up to 6-7 tons per acre, although ours comes in at 4-6 tons,” he says.

But the key for Drysdale is Gamay’s polarizing temperament. “It has lots of chutzpah,” he says. “That’s what I want, every one of my wines to have its own, unique personality.”

Drysdale has bet all his chips on crafting a dizzying array of rosé and white, bottle-fermented sparkling wine styles, each from a single variety - primarily Gamay, also some Chardonnay for contrast – each of which is sourced from a different vineyard. To secure these grapes, Bella taps different areas throughout the Okanagan and beyond.

Late in 2019, the winemaker team of Drysdale and his assistant Kathleen Sinclair prepared to taste the unfinished 2019 vintage for the first time. “The wines are all in bottle on the lees until February or March when we start dégorgement, the step where the sediment is removed during the méthode champenoise process for making fine sparkling wine,” explains Drysdale. It only takes a little skin contact to change a wine’s personality: “I want the wine to be about the pure expression of fruit, not the autolytic character that develops the longer it stays in contact with the lees. If, on the other hand, I do see something that stands out, I may stash it away for years as a reserve wine,” he adds.

Assessing the developing wines and making necessary adjustments is an essential step for winemakers. “When I first made bubbles, I picked up on sugars as everybody did because acids are easy and cheap to adjust,” he says. “But as I got my footing, I focused in on acids because, if a wine has a good backbone of acidity, rarely will the sugars be out of whack.”

The tasting of bubblies include seven selections briefly discussed below. The first three are 2019 single-vineyard, sparkling rosés made in the traditional method, in which the first fermentation is feral or wild without the addition of nutrients or enzymes and takes place in a tank on Bella’s property.

Sourced from fruit grown in volcanic soil at the foot of Mount Boucherie in Westbank, it is still undergoing fermentation. The fruit is vibrant with pronounced flavours of candied raspberry and crushed berries.

Bella uses Gamay grapes from Cavada, a Naramata hillside vineyard noted for its elevation above Bella Estate Winery and Naramata Road. The soil consists of bedrock and rocky glacial till with the presence of granite. Still fermenting, it shows extra colour, a delicate floral nose and attractive strawberry fruit.

The wine is a rarity in that Drysdale scored the fruit from Deep Roots Winery before the replacement of the vines. Silty, lake bed soil yields darker-hued raspberry, cherry and blackberry fruit.

Bella is the first winery in Western Canada to make méthode ancestrale sparkling wines, sometimes referred to as pét-nat, short for pétillant naturel. It is a back to nature process that features a single fermentation of the juice, unlike méthode champenoise, with no intervention and no filtering. Expect a degree of natural cloudiness in these intensely-flavoured sparkling wines.

From Mariani Vineyard come two Gamay clones from their three-acre Naramata site.

Clone 787, a rare varietal in BC, is so pale, “it could be a blanc de noirs,” says Drysdale. It suggests delicate apple, pear and stone fruit flavours.

Clone 509 is more widely planted in BC. Light ruby in colour, it delivers exuberant notes of raspberry, apple and stone fruit flavours.

From the Similkameen Valley:

For those who find it difficult to imagine a winemaker with a sense of humour, consider this méthode ancestrale bubbly from grapes provided by Robin Ridge, a Keremeos-based winey. “I am looking for a dry red sparkling wine in the style of a Lambrusco from Italy. Bold flavours suggest blueberry, blackberry, smoked bacon, charcoal and leather.”

The final flight included a Piquette under the label 2019 Something Different. Piquette refers to a low alcohol wine with a touch of fizz, an easy drink for pickers on lunch break. This example is made up of 60% Gamay and 40% Muscat, and has no pretensions to fame and glory. “It is a poor man’s wine,” Drysdale says. Take the second pressing of grape pomace. Add water, then ferment the skins in water.

Inventive, restless, enthusiastic, Drysdale’s experiments with Okanagan grapes and wine are surely never ending. The one thing that has not yet panned out: “I still want Gamay from Kamloops, where it grows on limestone.”