To celebrate Earth Day last week, I went to Edible Canada to taste wines from the New Okanagan. And everything went haywire!
Wine consultant David Scholefield and Haywire owner Christine Coletta showcased the distinctive Haywire wines from the Okanagan Crush Pad at Summerland.
The name Haywire refers to the wire for bailing hay that often gets tangled. It also refers to the chaotic way that Scholefield, Coletta, and her husband Steve Lornie went from city life, to buying vineyards, to opening a winery and the Okanagan Crush Pad to helping other fledgling winemakers make wines on their premises, and finally to going 100 per cent organic.
Scholefield talked about their philosophy. “Our mantra at Okanagan Crush is place, not grape. It is a beautiful expression of the freshness of the Okanagan that comes from the terroir, that comes from the three and a a half hours extra light we get compared to the Napa and the energy that transmits to the wine.”
Haywire has two sparkling wines. The Narrative XC Method Charmat ($24.90) is made from 60 per cent Pinot Noir and 40 per cent Chardonnay. Charmat refers to the process that produces Proseccos. The grapes are grown at two different sites in the Okanagan — Oliver and Summerland. As a result, you have different conditions that favour the two grape varieties and this results in better quality and greater complexity
The Charmat has a fresh personality, reminiscent of Okanagan apples. XC are the Roman Numerals for 90, which is the number of days the wine rests on its lees of yeast, developing a toasty bouquet and a creamy texture, a trademark of premium bubblies.
The second sparkler is the 2013 Narrative Ancient Method ($39.90) It is produced from 100 per cent Chardonnay in an ancestral wine style called pétillant naturel meaning “mildly, naturally sparkling” in French.
The wine is bottled before the primary fermentation is completed, No extra measures are taken, such as filtering, fining or stabilizing. The Ancient Methods has an appealing apple character with a very dry finish, a slightly lower alcohol content than other table wines and less fizz in your face than most sparkling wines, giving it a unique, quirky gentleness.
Scholefield boasted, “The wine we’re most proud of is Switchback (Haywire Switchback Organic Vineyard Pinot Gris 2014 ($24.90) because it is the first wine from Haywire that’s certified organic.”
It’s fermented using native yeasts and aged in concrete tanks for 10 months on the yeast lees. The result is an apple and herbal dry wine with minerality and structure that one normally enjoys in White Burgundies.
Another Pinot Gris that shows the innovative spirit of Haywire is their 2014 Wild Ferment ($29.90). It uses native yeasts where the skins are steeped in the juice in large amphoras for eight months to extract a salmon colour. No sulfites or other additives are added. I enjoyed the gorgeous hue, the grapefruit character, and the very dry mouth feel.
A final wine that I’m fond of is the Haywire Waters and Banks 2014 Sauvignon Blanc ($24.90), aged in concrete and seven months on the lees. I like its fruit salad personality as well as the distinct Okanagan herbal aromatics. Juicy, fresh, and fun!
Eric Hanson is a retired Richmond teacher and local wine expert
