Gruner Veltliner Finds New Friends in BC

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Its origins are murky, but the humble Grüner Veltliner grape (GV) is no slouch, as two of the South Okanagan’s premiere wineries – Culmina and Bordertown - have ably demonstrated.

The GV grape’s emergence as a darling of top restaurateurs, critics and connoisseurs from around the world came after Austria’s infamous diethylene glycol scandal in the 1980s. A harmless but illegal additive, it was used to bolster body and make sweet wine taste sweeter.

To rebuild its image, Austria introduced tough laws and regulations aimed at cutting yields and ensuring quality. For their part, a new generation of winemakers focused on re-shaping the style and quality of the country’s wines. In a series of blind taste-offs in the first decade of the 21st century, Austria took on the world’s elite Chardonnays with its mighty GV, often edging out its rivals from Burgundy, California and Australia.

Not bad for Austria’s popular, food-friendly GV, the ultimate quaffing wine typically served crisp, crackling and slightly spicy, straight out of the barrel, with hearty Austrian food in family-run taverns known as heuriger. Genetic research into the variety’s origins confirms that GV was a natural crossing of Traminer and an obscure, unnamed grapevine traced to a village in eastern Austria.

Culmina Family Estate

Enter Don and Elaine Triggs, co-owners of Culmina Family Estate, a cutting edge, mountainside winery with southeast facing vineyards on Golden Mile Bench. They included GV along with Chardonnay and Riesling as one of three icon quality, cool climate, food friendly white wine grapes suitable for growing on Margaret’s Bench.

At 595 metres, it is the highest and the coolest of Culmina’s three benches, comparable to Dijon in Burgundy being rated at 1280 Degree Days.

“We had no growing experience on which to base our decision but we had good evidence that it would survive our winter,” says Donald Triggs. “I knew that Karl Kaiser, the Austrian-born co-founder of Inniskillin, planted the vines in Ontario and made some good examples in the 1980s until the winery removed the vines to build a parking lot. Our consultant, Bordeaux’s Alain Sutre, has referred to GV as a wild card. We thought it would do well in the Okanagan, so we took a chance.”

On mountain soil composed of a layer of crumbly schist over loamy sand and sandy gravel, the Triggs’ team planted 2.6 acres of GV post-to-post at the top of Margaret’s Bench in 2012-13. Soft, permeable and decomposing, the soil is highly suitable for GV vines sourced from Sunridge Nurseries in California. “The roots grow between the cracks,” Triggs says.

To force roots deeper into sub-soil for water and nutrients, the vines were planted using a high density regime of 2,044 vines per acre, with vines planted every 1.1 metres, in rows 1.8 metres apart.

“Vertical Shoot Positioning is the trellising system used in part because it leaves a kicker cane just to give a little insurance,” Triggs explains. “But we haven’t seen any evidence of bud damage. Based on the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre’s latest report on bud survivability at under -20C in Oliver for tender varieties, we’re not worried.”

In the vineyard, “we are trying to farm organically but we are not quite there yet,” he says. “Use of pesticide and herbicide, including Roundup and Ignite for cover crop weed control, has stopped but we are still using elemental copper and sulphur. Because Margaret’s Bench vineyard is on virgin land, the soil has a lot of oomph and does not require manure or any other fertilizer. At this point our goal is to protect the land and get the best expression of the terroir in our wine.”

“Limiting GV yields to 3 to 3.3 tons per acre is essential for getting the intensity of flavor, we are looking for”, Triggs adds. “But it is challenging because the vines are too vigourous and average alcohols rise quickly ahead of phenolics. To slow top growth and reduce energy to the vine, we’re doing hedging; trimming the top of the vines. Starting with Malbec, we are looking at palissage as a more permanent alternative to slow the vines’ vigour.”

Trials at Cornell University indicate that the palissage technique – wrapping shoots along the top trellis wire or tucking the shoots down into the interior of the trellis – shows promise for reducing lateral number and length.

A fairly late ripening grape variety, GV has thicker skin, a plus until it is time for pressing. Extremely hard to press, they are like “little rubber bullets,” Triggs says. In 2017, the GV harvest took place at four different times starting on October 5. It is quite a chore checking bunches for taste and for the optimum golden hue of berries before hand-picking.

For pressing GV, “the winery has recently replaced its basket press with a tiny bladder press” Triggs says.

Fermentation at 15C to 18C takes place in a trio of vessel types to enhance complexity and character of the wine. While stainless steel develops GV’s crisp, grapefruit character, the concrete egg shape pulls out the middle texture, its body and the concrete amphora tends to amplify the wine’s aromatic presence. Curious about the impact of wild yeast on flavour, “we’ve produced 100 cases of wild ferment GV which has not yet been released,” Triggs says. “We are considering the use of neutral oak for aging GV in the future.”

Culmina’s 2016 Unicas Grüner Veltliner is a white wine that needs to breathe an hour or two to reveal its dual aspects of finesse and intensity. A slightly spicy, buttery texture embraces focused aromas/flavours of rose petal, crisp grapefruit, lemon, mineral and white pepper. A fantastic food wine, GV has a special affinity for West Coast fusion cuisine. Not sold in wine stores, it is available at the winery, Fellowship wine club members, and at fine restaurants.

Bordertown Vineyards and Estate Winery

For travellers heading south on Highway 97, Bordertown Vineyards & Estate Winery’s spacious cellar door located alongside the highway just north of the Highway 3 intersection is the gateway to Osoyoos. Born in India, owner Mohan Gill first came to the Okanagan with his parents in 1993. After attending Oliver Secondary School, he bought his first orchard in 1996. In 2005, Gill planted 2 acres of vines, steadily increasing plantings to 20 acres in 2007. Currently, the total is 38 acres of grapes on two vineyards in Osoyoos, as well as a 30 acre site in Peachland.

From the start, Gill has been selling grapes to several producers large and small and continues to do so. In 2013, Gill engaged Jason Parkes as winemaker to produce his first vintage of 3,000 cases. Bordertown opened its doors in 2015 and, by 2016, production surpassed 15,000 cases. Only one acre of GV was planted on well-drained, gravelly soil on a gently sloping, south east and west facing block behind the winery between Highway 97 and Lake Osoyoos. “I was looking for something different and Frank Whitehead of Okanagan Viticulture Services suggested GV vines sourced from Ontario,” Gill says. Planted in 3’ x 7’ rows at a density of 2,100 vines per acre on a site with plenty of heat, winter hardy GV is a heavy producer as well. “To maintain yields at 5-6 tons per acre, we limit irrigation and keep bunches to 3 to 4 per branch by doing lots of thinning,” he says. “In 2017, picking started on September 5 when the brix reached 21 and there were no green bunches.” The two vintages of GV available at the winery show the disparity of the years with 2015 a hotter year than 2016. It is the reverse of the usual trend indicating more heat and earlier harvests over the last 10 years.  

Bordertown’s 2015 Grüner Veltliner provides texture and easy drinking with notes of delicate white flowers, subtle citrus/lemon, blanched almond and mineral, clean, crisp, refreshing acidity, and a white pepper finish. Bordertown’s 2016 Grüner Veltliner is more subtle, delicate with a crisp, refreshing palate suggesting hints of tropical fruit, lime and melon along with nuances of flint, almond and white pepper.