Canada

Apricot, lavender and nectarine skin shape this skin-contact orange wine. Sauvignette is also known as Epicure, and the wine comes from Salt Spring Island. The estate vineyard slopes gently south over mixed coarse soils and a deep sand deposit. At the winery, most wines ferment spontaneously and are bottled unfined with minimal sulphite additions. Alcohol is 12.5 percent.

Floral character comes with lychee, ginger, lemon and subtle spice. Gewürztraminer from the certified-organic estate was harvested in three separate pickings during October. Wild fermentation took place in neutral oak and stainless steel. The wine then aged on its lees for eight months, received minimal sulphites, and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. The finished white contains fourteen percent alcohol by volume.

Bright straw in colour, the wine shows toast, spice, apple, peach and lemon with a thread of minerality. It is medium-bodied and dry, with integrated oak and good length. Chardonnay comes from Limestone Vineyard in the Twenty Mile Bench. The wine carries thirteen percent alcohol, one gram per litre of residual sugar and was produced in a one-hundred-case lot.

Dark pink in colour, the wine is dense and concentrated, with watermelon and candied-strawberry character. Pinot Gris comes from Johan Vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the fruit is certified biodynamic and regeneratively farmed. The grapes are pressed directly, fermented naturally and raised in a neutral oak puncheon. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered with twenty-five parts per million of sulfur.

Smoked lemon and grapefruit appear with spice, red apple and a hint of cherry. The palate is fresh and delicate, with pristine lemon fruit. Chardonnay from an organic vineyard in Cawston was fermented with a pied-de-cuve starter, divided between older barrel and tank, and matured on gross lees for ten months. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulphur added at bottling.

Gewürztraminer forms this natural white wine from British Columbia. Alex Thornley built the project around low-intervention winemaking and organically grown fruit sourced from sites across the province. The wines are made in small batches rather than from an estate vineyard. Each release follows the available fruit and the conditions of its vintage, and the labels are bold, graphic and unconventional.

Gewürztraminer comes from an exposed, sloping area near the top of the estate vineyard. The site combines alluvial Royston-Qualicum soil with sandy loam and is dry-farmed using permacultural and regenerative practices. The vineyard lies on the mid-slope of Mount Prevost in the Cowichan Valley. Its elevation ranges from 118 to 240 metres within Vancouver Island’s dry-summer climate.