Reaching for a bottle on the shelf? Reach a little farther. To compete on the world stage, B.C. winemakers must sip outside the valley.
Wineries around the world stock their cellars with a wide range of materials, from tanks and barrels to cardboard and glass, all piled on pallets. But “cellar palate” is more than just a clever play on words. The well-documented, seriously concerning hazard is a genuine threat to the B.C. wine industry—and it is critical to know what it is and how to fight it.
Essentially, cellar palate is a term that refers to the tendency of wine producers to become too accustomed to the taste of their own wines, omitting beneficial exposure to wines from elsewhere. Afflicted winemakers become locked in proverbial boxes, shutting them off from exploration and perhaps from inspiration to create new, better wines. In other words, it is all too tempting for winemakers to get hooked on their own Kool-Aid.
So, what’s wrong with that? If a winery makes excellent wine, why shouldn’t they drink from a steady fountain of their own elixir?
The answer is that consumers deserve better. Consumers are the folks who buy the bottles, providing the currency that pays the bills for each and every winemaking business. Customers deserve the best efforts of the winemaking team, which looks a lot different than winemakers simply sitting around, guzzling their own hooch. It’s not always easy to find a great selection of wines from outside a winemaker’s home region, but the effort must be made.
Okanagan Falls-based wine writer and podcaster Luke Whittall thinks that cellar palate is currently a problem in the Okanagan Valley.
“The Okanagan is physically far removed from major markets, and that makes opportunities to taste wines from around the world more limited,” he says. “With a strong domestic market, there is little incentive to explore further.”
Whittall stresses that exclusively drinking one’s own wines imposes limits on a winery’s creativity. “I’m not going to buy a vehicle from someone who doesn’t know about cars and thinks that a horse is just as good.”
Here’s the thing: wine isn’t just about good or bad.
Wine is about flavours and textures that capture a unique sense of place — transporting anyone lucky enough to drink it to that distinct place when they delve into each meticulously crafted bottle.
Every wine region has its signature, and that’s a great thing, but each of those regions is playing on a global field of quality, technology, value and style. To thrive, every region must maintain an awareness and appreciation of what’s going on in all parts of the winemaking world.
Left: Wines line the rack in Publican Wine Bar in Beaune, France. Right: Burgundy wine educator Jean-Pierre Renard discovers the delicious wines of Vancouver Island’s Unsworth Vineyards.
Borrowing brilliance
“See what your customers see.” That’s Marketing 101. Would Nike make a sneaker without checking out what Adidas and Saucony were up to? Fast food giant A&W recently took a page from its competitor’s handbook, incorporating Pret A Manger organic coffee into its offerings, a simple recognition of its superior quality.
Members of the wine industry should be no different than these established brands, necessitating that those responsible for making production decisions take a careful look at what their competitors are doing.
As Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia has a unique winegrowing region. In fact, it has several. From a relatively short and humid growing season on the Gulf Islands to long, hot, dry summers in the Okanagan Valley, this spectacular place allows producers to craft a wide range of delicious wines that exemplify each region’s diverse terroir.
The styles of wines made from B.C. grapes are still wide open to interpretation, varying from winemaker to winemaker. Inspiration has played a significant role in the development of the province’s relatively new wine region since its inception, resulting in the diverse array of wines it boasts today.
Artists throughout the ages would agree that it is through inspiration that creation becomes possible. Winemakers can taste something distinctive in a wine from elsewhere and adapt it to their own craft. Whether it is the lively acidity in the red wines of Chianti Classico from Italy that inspires, or the age-worthy tannins in red Bordeaux from France, the stylistic intricacies of each region’s wines don’t begin and end in their own backyard.
Producers have been learning from more experienced makers than themselves for literally thousands of years.
Imagine if local winemakers were unfamiliar with Champagne? There would be no sparkling wines made in B.C. And the most famous of all Canadian wines, Icewine, was first inspired by Germany’s Eiswein. These examples are broad strokes, but our winemakers pull inspiration in microdoses from all regions of the world.
How to balance acidity in wines? Look to Germany and New Zealand for ideas. How to structure wines for food pairings? Check out what Italy is up to.
Some of B.C.’s growing regions produce wines with notably high alcohol levels—Australia offers plenty of ideas on how to bring those into balance.
Luke Whittall judges wines from across the province at the Trends Top BC Wine Awards.
Pouring with confidence
Locking winemakers’ palates into boxes has a domino effect of limiting the tastes available to consumers as well.
For B.C. to truly establish itself as a world-class wine region, consideration must be given to what visitors experience when they arrive.
The food and beverage options in and around B.C.’s wine regions keep getting better, thanks to tireless efforts by food and beverage-loving entrepreneurs. Increasingly, wine-country lists feature not only local wines but also international selections, a trend that reflects the pride taken in local wine-growing regions.
B.C.’s producers are confident in going head-to-head with wines of the world — and quality is the driving force behind this movement.
Lakeboat celebrates the terroirs of Burgandy and B.C.
Recently, Lakeboat Vineyard & Winery in Kaleden, B.C. hosted a tasting seminar that showcased four high-end Burgundy wines alongside four of their own: two Chardonnays and two Pinot Noirs.
Esteemed Burgundian wine educator Jean-Pierre Renard came from France to present the seminar and the wines shone brilliantly, from both regions.
Side by side, 50 years of Kaleden met 2,000 years of French tradition.
It is hard to talk about wine without mentioning France. The French have long led the world’s quality revolution of wine, most notably by putting into place their revered authentication system (dubbed L’Appellation d’origine contrôlée, or AOC), which has been imitated by most other wine-producing regions, both inside and outside of France.
By the time winemaking became an industry in B.C. (where the geographical indicator, or GI system, has since been adopted), the rest of the world had already trialled and refined similar versions. Adoption was remarkably easy for the young industry.
If emerging wine producers hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening in the rest of the world, B.C. would have had to create a new system and tweak it accordingly, over time. Talk about reinventing the wheel.
Winemaker Alison Moyes ‘thieves’ some wine out of barrels at Solvero Wines for sampling with chef Terry Port.
No borders, just bottles
The topic of cellar palate came up in conversation with Alison Moyes, winemaker and general manager at Solvero Wines in Summerland, B.C., who offered some insightful advice.
“Taste as much as you can,” she says. “From far and near, get other wines into your mouth and explore the similarities and differences between those wines and yours.”
A former sommelier, Moyes is no stranger to the vast stylistic differences found throughout the world of wine. This perspective contributes to her ability to consistently craft award-winning wines.
A short drive down the valley leads to Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery in Okanagan Falls, B.C., where Preston Radford, senior director of sales and hospitality, couldn’t agree more.
“Going outside of their own region helps B.C. winemakers better understand what makes them unique.”
He notes that winemakers don’t need deep pockets to sample wines beyond their own region. Conferences allow tasting and interaction with other winemakers, encouraging a valuable exchange of information.
Radford takes his message to the glass, guiding a seminar comparing Bordeaux and B.C. vintages at the BC Wine Information Centre in Penticton in early October.
At the end of the day, if customers can get more dynamic, balanced and high-value wines from other countries, they’ll buy them—and that’s not what the B.C. industry wants.
Local regions are deeply valued, and with good reason. Over the past few decades, B.C. has made remarkable strides, lifting quality through transfers of knowledge in viticulture, enology and technology.
To keep that momentum, winemakers must continue drawing awareness and inspiration from near and far. Only then can they place bottles on shelves that rival the world’s best while capturing the unique sense of place that defines Brand B.C.
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