Canadian Giant and French Partner Bring Bordeaux to British Columbia

The Okanagan Valley's Osoyoos Larose winery, a joint venture of Vincor International and Groupe Taillan, releases its first vintage.

Nick Fauchald
Posted: May 26, 2004

A intercontinental partnership between two major wine companies -- one in a well-established region of France, the other with holdings in North America -- has produced its first wine: a Bordeaux-style red from a burgeoning area of British Columbia.

Vincor International, Canada's largest wine company, and Groupe Taillan, a major player in Bordeaux, recently unveiled the first bottling from Osoyoos Larose, a winery in the Okanagan Valley.

In a Wine Spectator blind tasting of British Columbia reds, the Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin Okanagan Valley 2001 earned 87 points, showing tasty blackberry and black currant flavors, depth and concentration. The wine is now available in the United States and Canada for about $35; around 2,200 cases were made.

The 2001 bottling is a blend of 66 percent Merlot, 25 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 9 percent Cabernet Franc from 3-year-old vines. Beginning with the 2002 vintage, Malbec and Petit Verdot will also be added to the blend. The winery's production will eventually increase to around 10,000 cases, of which 7,500 will be the grand vin.

Although Osoyoos Larose is using traditional Bordeaux varieties, winemaker Pascal Madevon said, "We are not trying to make a Bordeaux wine in Canada. Osoyoos Larose is a Canadian wine from Canadian grapes … we would like to reveal the quality of this terroir."

Osoyoos refers to the location of the vineyards, near Lake Osoyoos at southern tip of the Okanagan Valley, not far from the U.S./Canada border. Larose is for Château Gruaud-Larose, a Bordeaux second-growth that is part of the Groupe Taillan portfolio. The company owns five other Bordeaux estates, including two other classified-growths: Haut-Bages-Libéral of Pauillac and Château Ferrière of Margaux.

Vincor International's brands include Jackson-Triggs, Inniskillin and Sumac Ridge in Canada; Hogue Cellars, R.H. Phillips and Toasted Head in the United States; Kim Crawford in New Zealand; and Goundrey in Australia.

The joint venture started in 1998 when Vincor CEO Donald Triggs teamed up with Antoine Merlaut, managing director of Groupe Taillan. "The Okanagan Valley had already demonstrated excellent results with traditional Bordeaux varieties," Triggs said. "Groupe Taillan, with their six important Bordeaux châteaus, was the natural choice as our partner." The companies enlisted the help of two Bordeaux veterans -- wine consultants Alain Sutre and Michel Rolland -- to help prepare the vineyard.

"I was really interested in the idea of creating, from nothing, a vineyard and winery that would make a high quality wine," said Sutre, who has overseen Groupe Taillan's wineries since 1998.

After meticulously researching the land and climate of the Okanagan Valley, Sutre decided to take a different approach to planning the vineyard than is typically used in Bordeaux or Canada. To keep yields low, he planted the vines more closely together than in a typical Canadian vineyard. He also trellised the vines in a way that maximized their sun exposure during the short growing season, and put in an irrigation system to supplement the region's low rainfall.

However, the actual winemaking process is similar to that used in Bordeaux. The wine is fermented in stainless-steel tanks, then aged in new and 1-year-old French oak barrels for about 16 months.

The Osoyoos team had asked Madevon, who was working at two Bordeaux estates, to oversee winemaking for the first vintage. But after tasting the grapes on his first trip to North America, Madevon decided to stay on past 2001. "After two days, I saw the quality of the grapes and the must in the tank," he said. "I knew it would be exceptional to work on this joint venture … to produce high quality wine."

For Triggs, Osoyoos Larose is one of two projects applying the tradition and expertise of France to the Canadian landscape. Vincor is also partnering with Boisset, a large Burgundy producer that controls well-known firms such as Bouchard Aîné & Fils, Mommessin and Domaine de la Vougeraie, to make Burgundy-style wines in Ontario. That winery, named Le Clos Jordan, is being designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. Triggs expects the first Le Clos Jordan wines to be bottled in the next year or two.

"I believe these two projects mark the beginning of a new chapter in the Canadian wine industry, in that they record the first investments by highly credible international wine producers [in Canada]," Triggs said. "It is our hope that they will raise the bar and the entire industry will benefit in the process."

Read our previous articles about Osoyoos Larose and British Columbia wines: