A Great View

Friday, Oct 09th, 2009

 

Lead up to harvest is a time of frayed nerves and long hours.  In many cases you are playing a game of chicken with the weather, and usually I’m the first one to flinch.  I get so tied up worrying about making the right decision that I rarely stop to enjoy the moment.  That would soon change.

Earlier this week we harvested our first fruit of the year, and as I stood awaiting a load of fruit atop the bins of the receival truck, I was struck by the view.  From this vantage point I was overwhelmed by imagery and memories.  The stress of harvest suddenly melted away and the bigger picture came into focus.  The green rows of vines looked resplendent contrasted against the fall colours adorning the trees.  A harvester slowly chugged its way down a row of Sauvignon Blanc, driven by one of my early childhood heroes – “Big Ernie”.  When I was just old enough to remember, Ernie let me ride with him on the big harvester, a memory I will forever cherish.  I also suddenly recalled the time my Grandfather fell from the exact position I currently stood, landing hard on the road below.  Miraculously he wasn’t seriously hurt.  I made a point be extra careful negotiating the narrow bins for the rest of the day!

Huddled around a thermos of coffee were my father and “ever-ready-with-baked-goods” mother, Rob the Creekside winemaker, John our truck driver, and Henry the tote bin driver.  It really put my stress and worries in perspective to see the interaction of these people who had been through so many vintages together.  They laughed and exchanged stories from the old days of Ventura’s and Concord’s, then debated some of the more heated issues facing our industry today.  Their collective experience both humbled and inspired me.  At the root of our farm and it’s history are people like them…people like me.  Crops come and go, weather is always going to be a problem, wine will be made and sold, but the tradition and land lives on.  From my perch I smiled and wished some moments could last forever.

The Fish of 1000 Casts

Friday, Jul 24th, 2009

 

The weather over the last few weeks has left many farmers cursing their luck and already looking ahead to next year. Cold temperatures, rain and periodic hail have left us wondering if and when summer will finally arrive.

Determined not to let this “dampen” our annual trip to Bobcaygeon, I threw together a few barrel samples and we hit the road with an excited puppy in tow. I always look forward to this brief respite from the farm as it allows me to indulge in one of my true passions: the pursuit of the elusive Muskellunge.

Muskies are large, vicious predators that feast on other fish, small water fowl, and the occasional unlucky swimmer.  One encounter with these toothy monsters is all it took to breed my obsession.  I will caution, however, that muskie fishing can lead to extreme frustration, nightmares and hooks being painfully lodged into various body parts.

Come to think of it, fishing for muskies is a lot like growing and crafting Pinot Noir.  Both are very “results driven” hobbies that require the utmost patience.  I’ve learned that the joy must come in the anticipation and pursuit of that “result” or else you will be disappointed more often then not.  The near misses that one encounters in each of these endeavors can be as character building as they are heartbreaking.  For me, the thrill is knowing that the biggest and best is still lurking out there, just waiting to be caught or crafted.   Alas, despite many hours and thousands of casts, I came up empty on my muskie hunt this year.  There was one mighty strike though, and that is more than enough to satisfy my passion for another year.

I was a little luckier with the wine samples, as they were a big hit at one of our cottage feasts.  We tasted a bottle of our 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and a barrel sample of the 2007 Pinot Noir in an effort to decide on a release date.  Understandably, the 2005 Cab was miles ahead of the 2007 Pinot in terms of being ready to drink, but the Pinot showed some exciting signs of maturity since the last time we tried it.  The tannins are finally starting to soften, allowing the classic Pinot flavours and satiny mouthfeel to shine through.  Aromatically, the 2007 Pinot has always packed a punch, but this particular blend took a while to open up, but once it did…oh my.  It was decided to bottle this wine soon, with hopes of a spring 2010 release. Look for the 2005 Cab in late November.

Longing for the Beauty of Fall

Monday, Jan 12th, 2009

 

With some extremely cold days bearing down on us later this week, I can’t help but find myself nostalgic for a beautiful fall day.  I hearken back to the memorable November day when we wrapped up our 2008 harvest by hand-picking some very ripe Cabernet Sauvignon.  The end of harvest is always kind of bittersweet because it represents a time when, thankfully, the stress is gone, but so is the fast-paced, daily excitement and a bond to something you’ve tended with care all season.

I remember that day on many levels.  The crisp aromas in the fall air, the wonderfully rich colours filling the escarpment, the small dark clusters of Cabernet, lugging picking baskets onto the wagon knowing that I was going to pay for it the next day, worrying that I might not have enough bin space to accommodate both rows of grapes, then forgetting all my worries listening to a Fleet Foxes song on my iPod….ahh to be back just for a moment!  As I rode back to the barn with this last load, I remember thinking that I must be the luckiest guy on earth to be able to do something I love surrounded by nature, family and friends.

The Terroir of St. Davids Bench

Thursday, Dec 18th, 2008

The friendly little town of St. David’s was a great place to grow up.   Family members lived around every corner, and the public school playground was within walking distance.  Grandma Lowrey’s house was always a hub of activity after school, as my cousins and I feasted on cookies and went exploring around the farm until our parents got off work.  Little did we know that the dirt we came home covered in would one day be heralded for  “uniquely expressing regional wine character”.

“Terroir”, the French word for “soil”, means many things to many people, and has evolved into an all-encompassing term.  I like to think of it as the combination of environmental, biochemical and geological factors that influence both the fruit of a growing grapevine and the resultant wine.  It’s the “je ne sais quoi” behind many of the world’s greatest wines.  That part of the wine that is seemingly out of our control and expressed in its unique taste, aroma and texture.  The cool thing is that single varietal wines crafted from the same vineyard terroir tend to produce similar characteristics year after year.

We are located in the VQA Ontario “St. David’s Bench” Appellation.  I’m not sure whether my Great, Great Grandfather was aware of all the potential “vinifera-growing” benefits of this site when settling here, but he did have a keen intuition for which fruit crops to plant back in his day.  I’ll spare you the geology lesson, but the Bench and Niagara Escarpment combine to provide excellent air circulation, drainage, and groundwater supply.  The ancient shores of glacial Lake Iroquois have left our vineyard with soils that range from sandy loam to clay loam and hard clay.   Limestone deposits are also abundant, helping to add to the overall mineral complexity.

Looking back at some newspaper clippings of wines made from our Pinot Noir over the years, I was amazed to see the similarities in flavour descriptors used by the reviewers.  In 1993, the Inniskillin Alliance Pinot Noir was described as having flavours of “candied cherry, raspberry, anise, earth, pepper, vanilla and firm tannin”.   The 1999 Creekside Pinot showed “raspberry, violets and a touch of pepper” and the 2001 Creekside Pinot featured “cherry, beet root and smoky notes”.  Our 2007 Pinot Noir is in its infancy right now, but the preceding characteristics could aptly describe this wine as well.  I take no credit for this…chalk it up to the terroir.

Our First Review! :  Check out the “Last Drop” column of the Jan/Feb edition of Vines Magazine (seen above) for a review of our 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon.

A Name For Our Winery

Friday, Oct 17th, 2008

 

After much thought and deliberation, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve finally decided on a name for our winery.  Our vision started back in the 80s with five rows of Pinot Noir.  From this point on our wine will be known as “Five Rows Craft Wine of Lowrey Vineyards” or simply “Five Rows”.  Essentially, all my wines will be made from a small portion of the Lowrey Vineyard crop (a couple rows of this and a couple rows of that) and that was a genesis of the “Rows” idea.  The more we thought about it, the number Five was very meaningful to us, because of the original Pinot planting and because my father and I are among five generations of Lowrey’s to farm our land.  Our packaging concept will emphasize the scarcity and hand-made feel we are trying to promote with the Five Rows brand.  In the coming weeks we will launch a Five Rows website that will elaborate on the scope of our winery project and give details on the upcoming first vintage release.  My blog will be incorporated into a component of the website, so stay tuned!

Harvest 2008 – Part One

Monday, Oct 06th, 2008

 

Vintage ‘08 is upon us and to this point things have been…well…in a word …WET!!  Enough rain already.  I mean just when I thought we were in the clear we got doused by the remnants of a hurricane, and for the record: I don’t like Ike. Thankfully, the last couple of weeks have more than made up for the rain, with plenty of sunshine and perfect ripening conditions for the early varietals.

As per usual, the “Heartbreak Grape”, Pinot Noir, lived up to its moniker and provided lots of nervous moments and second guessing.  In fact, one day in the vineyard while pondering a harvest timing decision, I found myself singing aloud to the Clash hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go”.  The Pinot were clean but slightly underripe, with threatening weather on the horizon (“If I go there will be trouble / And if I stay it will be double”).  Ultimately, we decided not to pick and wait out what suddenly became Hurricane Ike.  All the water led to some berries actually splitting and roused us into action.  Led by a Pinot-loving mother hell-bent on saving her crop, the three of us spent two mind-numbing days cutting out individually split berries and underripe clusters.  On September 16th and 17th we finally hand-picked our first two tonnes of fruit.  In the end, what came in was ripe, clean (thus receiving the Wilma stamp of approval) and fermented into some really intriguing stuff.  I experimented with a new yeast strain this season called W15, which after pressing today, is the early favourite to put into our 2 new Sirugue barrels.

The whites, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc, are happily fermenting in the cold room of our barn as I write this.  I decided to add a single barrel ferment to the Pinot Gris regime this year, in an attempt to add a bit more complexity and refined mouthfeel to the final blend.  The majority will still be fermented in stainless steel because it worked so well last season.   From “the never do that again” file, we actually bottled our 2007 Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris between the days we picked the 2008 crops of each varietal.  Any winery employee will profess that harvesting and bottling are not meant to intermingle, but sometimes you just have to make room for the new stuff.  The ’07 whites will be a part of our initial release slated for the beginning of November.

The Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are still hanging strong and starting to pick up sugar and enhanced flavours on a daily basis.  I’ll keep you posted as the rest of Vintage ‘08 unfolds.  Better yet, stop by for a chat and taste a few berries yourself!

An undeniable (and at times dangerous) passion

Wednesday, Aug 20th, 2008

 

My vineyard and wine philosophies will become clear over the course of these entries, but I stress that at my core I have a passion for what I do.  This passion is anchored in the same sense of place that I hope to share in my wines.

For those interested in a similar path, I caution that at different times this passion has led to:  tears, vinegar, “tractor ear” or selective hearing, the love of diesel fumes, a strange desire to talk to grapevines, the ability to hum the Weather Network theme, and occasional doubts of sanity.  Most disturbingly, however, growing up on a grape farm has left me scarred for life with a chronic case of separation anxiety.  My first failed attempt to leave the vineyard was four blurry years at the University of Guelph spent grinding out an honours degree in Microbiology.  Over that time I became enamoured with yeast and fermentation dynamics, skills that would later come in handy as I ended up back home (surprise) completing a Masters degree in Viticulture at Brock University.

A second attempt at leaving home brought me to the “sunny” shores of Wolfville, Nova Scotia to run a small winery called Blomidon Estate.  It was an amazing experience that thrust me into the challenging world of marketing and selling wine, while at the same time allowing me to hone my fledgling winemaking skills.  After three rewarding vintages, I knew the time was right to return home to good old St. Davids and get to work on my new wine vision.

I relish the opportunity to finally craft wines from our own fruit.  The goal is to let these wines give you a sense of place by showcasing our unique St. David’s Bench terroir.   Individual varietals will be the focus:  Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc.  That way I can really capture the subtle characters of each variety, and provide those interested with an appellation education in every bottle.

My Legacy

Tuesday, Aug 12th, 2008

 

Over the coming weeks and months I hope to provide you with a raw, uncensored look at the travails and joys associated with opening a small, craft winery.  Am I crazy?  Perhaps. In fact, some have suggested just that. I would argue, however, that it may be the only way to satisfy my burning desire to make small quantities of great wine from our storied family vineyard.

Our farm dates back five generations to the days of David Jackson Lowrey, who planted Niagara’s first commercial vineyard in the late 1800s.   Fast forward four generations to today and you’ll find my two personal heroes still farming this land.  The vines have changed and the “tractors” don’t have legs anymore, but I’m sure my parents Howie and Wilma still worry about their crops the same way David Jackson did back in his day.  Each generation has had to adapt and evolve with the times, and I see this small winery as my opportunity to do the same.

My parents bought the farm, so to speak, from my grandparents back in the 1970s when it was planted mainly with old Labrusca and Hybrid grapevines, which were common in Niagara at the time.  My father and grandfather, the two Howards, worked as a formidable tandem to manage the farm, as my first vivid childhood memories can attest.

A sweeping grapevine pull-out program, prompted by the pending Free Trade agreement of the mid-80s, forced my parents to make many difficult and thankfully “wine-friendly” decisions.  Amid the worries of a future without vineyards, it was Karl Kaiser of Inniskillin Wines who suggested that our site would be perfectly suited for the hard to grow, vinifera grape varieties that were beginning to show promise in the Niagara Region.  So it was with skepticism and crossed fingers that we decided to plant five trial rows of Pinot Noir in 1987.  The rest, as they say, is history.  I can only hope that our new winery ensures that the farm is sustainable for generations to come.