URSA MAJOR

2022 hello, my name is silly goose (Rosé)

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

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2022 recalling my past and future lives (Field blend)

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

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2022 song of a sinner (White)

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2022 Runs in the family gamay

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

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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

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