URSA MAJOR
PAST WINES
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
