Synchromesh, 2016 Turtle Rock Farms Cabernet Franc, Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada
Sychromesh Wines is a family winery in the truest sense. Alan and Amy Dickinson purchased their first 5 acre vineyard in 2010 in Okanagan Falls. Since then, Alan's parents have joined the business, and they now are farming around 50 hectares, primarily in Okanagan Falls, with some vineyards located on the Naramata Bench in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The primary focus of the estate is Riesling, but they are working with around 5 acres, so around 2 hectares, of Cabernet Franc planted. And it is a grape that Alan is quite passionate about. In fact, it was Olga Raffault's Les Picasses that was among the first wines that connected on when we first started chatting.
I have done a number of videos on examples of Cabernet Franc from Ontario, but this is the first video featuring a Cabernet Franc from BC, so let me give you an overview of the wine landscape in British Columbia. There are about 4486 ha of vines planted across 9 official regions in southern British Columbia. And as a point of comparison, Ontario has around 6900ha under vine. Just to put that into perspective, the whole Loire Valley alone has around 41,800 hectares under vine, and Chile has just over 40,000ha of just Cabernet Sauvignon planted. So while Canada is a large country, the wine production of the country is really small because the areas that are suitable for viticulture are very limited.
Of these 9 regions in British Columbia, the Okanagan Valley is the largest and most important in terms of volume. There is about 9600 acres, or around 3900ha, of vines planted, and that represents around 86% of the province's plantings. In British Columbia as a whole, Cabernet Franc is an important red variety , with about 720 acres, or 290 ha, planted, making it the 4th most planted red grape overall.
In terms of the viticultural environment of the Okanagan Valley, it is by its very definition extreme. The vineyard areas are dotted primarily around a series of glacial lakes, including Lake Okanagan, winding their way down a stretch of about 250km from north to south, from around the town of Vernon in the north to Osoyoos in the south, which is just a few KM north of the US border in Washington State.
We're at some of the highest latitudes for vinifera varieties in the world here, around 49-50 degrees north latitude. While the climate would be considered cool continental, we do have major extremes in terms of temperature shifts, and the growing season is short and hot. It is not unusual for summer daytime temperatures to reach 40C, but because of altitude and the influence of the mountains, the evening temperatures will typically drop to 10 to 12C, so we have a wide diurnal range which helps to slow down ripening and prolong the growing season. And wintertime temperatures can often dip to as low as -20C.
Another important point about the growing environment is that we are in the rain shadow of the coastal mountain range, which means the region experiences relatively low rainfall, with generally higher amounts of rainfall in the northern part of the region, and very low, almost desert like conditions in the south. This low rainfall, coupled with the high latitude means that the region does experience a lot of sunshine hours annually.
The soils vary considerably across the region, but in general they are glacially derived soils. We find granitic based soils, soils of volcanic origin, sandy-loam alluvial soils, as well as calcareous-based soils throughout the region.
What is really important to note about the growing environment here is that there is a lot of variability in terms of vineyard mesoclimates and soils. It is not uncommon to be somewhere in the Okanagan which you have vineyards that are ideally suited for sparkling wine growing mainly pinot noir and Chardonnay, to vineyards only a few KM that are making full bodied Bordeaux blends and Syrahs. So the region has well over 80 different grape varieties planted, but it does make site selection very critical.
So drilling down to today's wine, the Turtle Rock Farms vineyard is located in the Naramata Bench sub-region, this is one of 4 official sub-GIs of the Okanagan Valley that has been delineated based soil and microclimate characteristics. The Naramata Bench is an area of vineyards on the east side of Lake Okanagan, stretching from the city of Penticton in south about 15km northward, its about 500m to 1500m wide from the edge of the shoreline of the lake depending on the location.
The vineyards typically have west-facing exposures, getting the benefit of the afternoon sunshine. And, of course, the lake play a critical role it the moderating the microclimates of the vineyards. It not only helps to delay budbreak in the springtime and extend the growing season in the fall, giving us high number of frost free days, but it also reflects the sunshine during the daytime to the vineyards, helping to improve photosynthesis and ripening.
The vineyard areas are at moderate elevations between 380 to 490m above sea level, so the region does experience that wide diurnal range in temperatures during the growing season, as much as 30C difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures during the growing season, helping to slow down ripening and preserve acidities. The rainfall in the region is low at around 360mm of rainfall per year.
In terms of soils, about 10 different groups glacially derived soils that have been identified, ranging from silty loam glacial lake sediments on some of the lower lying, gentler slopes closer to the lake, to more gravelly soils on the steeper slopes at higher elevations.
In just a short period of time, this particular block of the Turtle Rock Farms has shown to be a very good site for Cabernet Franc. This is 1 acre block that was planted in 2006 with Cabernet Franc clone 214, the Loire clone. We're almost right smack dab in the middle of the Naramata Bench, on a relatively steep west-facing slope at about 460m above sea level, and we're set back about 470m in from the lake. The soils here are a gravelly, relatively deep clay-loam, over a granite bedrock. Alan explained that the specificities of this block, particularly with the wide diurnal range in the summer through the exchange of airflow between the lake and the foothills, gives them very long hang-time into the fall with moderate sugars allowing for good tannin development and ripening, while preserving Cabernet Franc's varietal characteristics.
From a winemaking perspective, there is a few key things that I want to note here. The fruits is hand-harvested, and fermentation is entirely 100% whole cluster, in small, open top fermenters with indigenous yeast. The average fermentation temperature is around 20-25C, so on the cooler side for reds. The total maceration time is around 25-35 days, and Alan tastes the fermenting must-twice daily, and makes the decision to press when the tannins have softened. The wine spent about 22 months in 225L French oak barrels, 80% new.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Synchromesh Wines
Region: Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada
Sub-Region: Naramata Bench
Vineyards; Turtle Rock Farms
Soils: Glacially-derived, gravelly clay-loam, over granite
Alcohol: 13.0%
