Try and Try Again

The Quails’ Gate pinot noir story starts back in 1975, when B.C. was just a fledgling wine industry and winery owner Ben Stewart was already surrendering to the charms of pinot noir.

Pinot Noir Clones

Stewart was spending a lot of time poking his nose around the up-and-coming pinot noir vineyards of Oregon, and had decided to plant the first numbered clones from UC Davis, way before it was fashionable to do so, on his Quails' Gate property in West Kelowna.

Experimentation with different clones continued as Stewart sought to match the right grapes with the unique terroir of the Quails’ Gate vineyard. The 1980s saw plantings of the first German clones, which, now at 28 years of age, are still producing some of the best wines for Quails’ Gate. The next decade saw an influx of the celebrated Dijon clones from Burgundy and, today, more new clones continue to arrive (the latest plantings were Dijon clone 828 in 2008).

As of 2009, Quails’ Gate had 24 acres of pinot noir made up of nine different clones, all grown on the estate.

Grant Stanley Winemaking

While the age of Quails’ Gates vineyards can be credited with some of the wines’ success, a good deal of credit for the increasing quality belongs to Grant Stanley who took on the role of Quails’ Gate winemaker in 2003. Since then, he has been continually making a number of tweaks in vineyard management in order to work with nature and get the best out of the vine.

Under Stanley, Quails’ Gate is focusing on smaller canopies, with extensive canopy management to keep berries small and provide more intense flavours. Yields are restricted by thinning excess bunches early to leave just one cluster of grapes per shoot. Grapes are picked earlier in the season, as the exposed canopy ripens the tannins earlier without building up the excessive levels of alcohol that can be a problem in the Okanagan.

“We treat all vines as potentially producing Reserve wines, giving them all the same treatment,” Stanley says, which partially explains why even the lower-tiered pinot noir from Quails’ Gate is of such consistently high quality.

The fine-tuning continues in the cellar, with winemaking techniques gradually changing as Stanley better understands the unique fruit he is working with.

Identifying Yeast Strains

Fruit is hand harvested in the cool of the morning, making them easier to de-stem without damaging the berries. Grapes are then cold-soaked for close to a week before the must is warmed up and the native yeasts go to work. Quails’ Gate brought a microbiology student in to study the DNA of the native yeasts in the winery and found that multiple strains are at work in their cellar and are unique to the winery.

Stanley believes these unique yeast strains are important to the quality of the wines. “There is a war going on with the yeasts and the most powerful will eventually win, but it’s a slow process and, in the meantime, a lot of interesting flavours are being produced.”

Stanley says the native yeasts also create more glycerol, providing texture and the silky mouth-feel so sought after in pinot noir. True to his word, the major improvements in recent vintages have been a silkier texture, with less hardness and edginess to the tannins.

“We also hand plunge all the vats, which is hard with 10,000 cases, but it’s the most gentle and you get to smell and see what is going on,” says Stanley. This artisanal approach continues by avoiding any unnatural additives, such as enzymes. “We try to avoid fining if we can and, the last few vintages, we haven’t had to.”

Using French Oak

A cornerstone of any good wine program is oak and, through trial and error, Stanley has found his favourites. All the oak used is French and usually around 40 percent of it is new. Stanley says that a lighter toast on the oak works best in maintaining the aromatics achieved in the vineyard.

Wines spend about 10 months in oak on the lees, further adding to the texture, before they are racked. After blending, the wines then go back to oak for another three months to marry the flavours prior to bottling — all Quails’ Gate pinots are now bottled under screwcap.

Future Trials in Winemaking

As has been the strategy for the last 30 odd years, the trials continue. Stanley is currently working on trials with natural malolactic fermentation (rather than the more common inoculation), co-fermenting different clones together to add different flavour characteristics and very low sulphur additions.

With the investment and commitment to pursuing excellence evident both in the cellar and in winery management, gains in quality are likely to continue apace. Stanley feels his role in that process is not to re-invent the program, but to keep it advancing and developing. “My focus is not on what is new, but on tweaking the model to continue steady growth in quality.”

Quails’ Gate pinot noir has always been good and it is edging closer to becoming a serious player in the world pinot noir scene.

Quails’ Gate Pinot Tasting Notes

Quails' Gate's pinot noirs are consistently excellent year-to-year. While many older vintages are hard to find, it is worth picking up the new releases as soon as they are available.

91  Quails’ Gate 2006 Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir

Medium ruby-garnet colour, with pronounced floral, spice, damson plum, oak and intriguing aromas of cocoa, sage, graphite and cherry. Dry, with a medium body and medium-high acidity. The palate is silky and very intense, with raspberry, rhubarb, charred meat and roasted herb flavours and good concentration. Intense, complex and long, with the ability to age for 8 to 10 years.

90  Quails’ Gate 2007 Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir

Medium ruby colour and medium-plus intensity, with sweet vegetal, black cherry, clove, anise and roasted meat aromas. Dry, with a medium-plus body, medium-high acid and intense orange zest, clove, tobacco and roasted herbs. Long and structured, and will develop for 8 to 10 years.

90  Quails’ Gate 2001 Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir

Deep garnet colour and medium plus intensity. Complex aromas of spice, orange zest, earth, some barnyard, floral, cedar and cigar, with a hint of canned asparagus. The palate is dry, medium-plus in body, with balanced acid, spice, roasted chestnut, earth, charred meat and sage. Still holding together well, with medium-plus tannin and good length. This could age another 3 to 5 years.

89  Quails’ Gate 2007 Pinot Noir

Medium ruby colour, with pronounced floral notes, oak, cherry, candied strawberry, spice and chocolate. The palate is dry, with ripe red fruits, some vegetal notes, medium-high acid, orange zest and burlap. Grippy tannins, but good intensity and medium-long finish.

89  Quails’ Gate 2005 Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir

Deep ruby colour and a pronounced nose, with sweet vegetal, damson plum, obvious ripeness and floral and herbal notes. Palate is dry, with medium-plus body, balanced acidity and a silky texture. Flavours of mixed berries, spice, teak and sage flow seamlessly on the palate. Alcohol is a touch warm.