URSA MAJOR
PAST WINES
2022 HELLO, MY NAME IS SILLY GOOSE
This rosé is essentially an amalgamation of a bunch of micro-cuvées Rajen was working on, expertly blended by his wife Bree, the winemaker at French Door. The lion’s share of the blend is Cabernet Franc (48%) from Sagebrush Vineyard on the sandy Black Sage Bench near Oliver. The grapes underwent carbonic maceration for two weeks before being pressed into stainless steel. Gamay Noir (27%) from Three Boys Vineyard fermented whole cluster for seven days. Syrah (19%) from Sagebrush Vineyard was direct pressed into neutral barrel for fermentation and élevage. Empress Plums (6%) from Twisted Hill in the Similkameen comprise the remainder. They were direct pressed into neutral barrel. The wine is lightly filtered and bottled with 30 ppm of SO2. 12% ABV, 6.6g/L TA, 3.7 pH
2022 RECALLING MY PAST AND FUTURE LIVES
The Terrace Vineyard faces south in Kaleden on Skaha Lake. The vines are trained to Geneva Double Curtain, a dual canopy system designed for Canada’s shorter growing season. The thicker canopy shades the fruit resulting in fresher flavours. Soils here are predominantly sandy loam, but the upper section of the vineyards also features gravel and larger stones. Rajen has wanted to co-fermented the two varieties grown here for years, but the picking window never aligned until the cooler 2022 growing season. Merlot (60%) and Gewurztraminer (40%) were destemmed into tank where they macerated for two weeks. The wine is then pressed off into neutral barrel for a six-month élevage on lees. It is bottled, unfined and unfiltered. 12% ABV, 6.7g/L TA, 3.5 pH
2022 RUNS IN THE FAMILY
This plot of Gamay Noir was planted in 1994 on the sandy Black Sage Bench near Oliver. Rajen has been gently converting the farming practices here to organic over the last five years by implementing a compost regime and cover crops. Whole clusters were foot-tread twice a day for a week before the wine was pressed off to finish fermentation in neutral barrel. After malolactic conversion, 30 ppm of SO2 was added. The wine was racked before being bottled, unfined and unfiltered. 11.8% ABV
2021 YO, I THINK THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT YOU
This wine is made from a blend of Syrah (85%) and Viognier (15%). The thirty-year-old organically farmed vines are deeply rooted in the Black Sage Bench’s sandy loam soils. After their earliest pick on record, the Viognier was direct pressed over destemmed Syrah berries. After a six-day co-ferment, the wine is gently basket pressed into barriques to finish primary fermentation. The wine spent nine months on lees before being racked and bottled without fining or filtration, and only 25ppm of SO2.
2021 THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE
This wine is made from Riesling grown in Mariposa Vineyard in the Similkameen. This valley experiences larger diurnal shifts compared to the Okanagan since it does not have a lake, but a large rock formation behind the vineyard stores heat through the day and releases it at night mitigating this factor. Soils here are mostly glacial deposits of silt and stones. Whole-clusters of botrytis (noble rot) affected fruit were crushed into neutral barriques and stainless-steel barrels. Alcoholic fermentation and malolactic conversion were super slow, but after ten months on lees the wine was finally gently filtered and bottled with 30ppm of SO2.
2021 MIRROR MIRROR IN MY HEAD
This wine is made from Gamay Noir grown on the Black Sage Bench near Oliver in the southern Okanagan. Rajen employs a regime of cover crops and compost to help rebuild humus, and no synthetic treatments are used. To mitigate sunburn and delay ripening, leaf plucking was minimized to offer the clusters dappled light. Both destemmed and whole clusters underwent a short cold maceration - one day for the former, three for the latter. The free run juice was then fermented and aged in a combination of barrel and 1000L foudre. The wine sees a small SO2 addition after malolactic conversion and before bottling (20ppm total). 12.5% ABV, 7.1g/l TA, 3.5 pH
2021 ET IN OLIVER EGO
This wine is made from Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat grown in Mirror Lake Vineyard in the Golden Mile Bench. The site’s eastern exposure means the vines are almost entirely shaded in the late afternoon, which helps preserve freshness and delay ripening despite this region’s extreme heat. Soils here are typical sand and alluvial silt. The lion’s share of the grapes was whole-cluster pressed while a small amount was foot crushed and macerated for a day before being pressed off. After a quick settling, the wine is racked to stainless steel for fermentation. The wine then ages on full lees in neutral and year-old puncheon for six months before bottling unfined and unfiltered. 11.8% ABV, 8.2g/l TA, 3.2 pH
2021 DAM MAST QALANDAR
This wine is made from Cabernet Franc grown in Sagebrush Vineyard. The teenage vines sit in deep sand and gravel. The organic transition began in 2018 with a focus on creating more organic matter in the soil. The grapes were direct pressed into stainless steel for fermentation. After two months, the wine was moved to barrel for élevage on full lees. After malolactic conversion and sulphuring, the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered. 12.3% ABV, 6.7g/l TA, 3.4 pH
2022 CRUEL AND INDIFFERENT RIESLING
This Riesling comes from a vineyard in Kelowna planted near Tantalus. The cool growing season pushed ripening back so far that these grapes were harvested in the snow at only 16°bx. To balance the acidity (16g/L, 2.6pH), Rajen knew he’d have to arrest the fermentation midway, leaving residual sugar to counteract tartness. As the fermentation ticked away, he tasted relentlessly, literally returning to the cellar right before bed to put his mind at ease. When he felt they were getting close, he added a judicious dose of SO2 and put the wine outside to cool down, inhibiting the yeast. A surprise cold snap (-30°) froze the tank solid, causing the wine to expand and burst from the tank like a giant icicle. They brought it back inside to thaw, but with a rare vacation looming the following day, he and his wife sanitized shovels and started chipping away until they could fit the mass back into the tank. This freezing process caused some of the tartaric acid to precipitate in crystals, further balancing the acidity and resulting in a precisely and precariously balanced wine. 8% ABV, 36g/L R/S, 2.8pH, 12g/L TA
