The Winemaker at Noble Ridge
It’s time for a great Canadian success story, about how a French Canadian chemist ended up making world-class Champagne-style sparkling wine in Okanagan Falls.
Benoit Gauthier is the Director of Winemaking and Viticulture at Noble Ridge Vineyard and Winery in Okanagan Falls, BC. He originally studied chemistry in Quebec. On a trip to California, he tasted his way through wine country and a flame was lit. His passion for wine was ignited, and he eventually settled on moving to BC to study winemaking in 2007. After gaining experience locally and in Marlborough, Benoit joined the team at Noble Ridge in 2011. I spoke with him to learn about Noble Ridge and his latest sensation - a traditional method sparkling wine called The One Grand Reserve, from the 2017 vintage. Just released this spring, the wine was awarded a perfect 100 points by Katherine McEachnie, a local wine educator, vintner, and certified Master of Champagne.
But first - what is Noble Ridge all about? Benoit talks about being situated in a unique region. The geologic history of the area created so many micro climates and terroirs as the ancient glacier was forced through the narrowest part of the Okanagan valley. The winery’s name comes from the east-west oriented ridge, which provides north and south facing aspects. There is about 500ft difference between the highest and lowest sites at Noble Ridge, giving them ample options for choosing the right grapes for the right vineyards - for example, north facing for whites, south facing for reds. In just 25 acres, they have access to premium Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. This precision of vineyard mapping and terroir optimization is what sets Noble Ridge apart and allows them to create such a diverse portfolio of fantastic, award winning wines. But Benoit takes it even further. Always a scientist at heart, he uses small lot fermentation experiments to query every square meter of vineyards to map out flavour profiles of specific rows and soil variations. The purpose, he says, is all about producing better wines and better blends.
“It’s great to try new things and make some different wines because it keeps me happy, engaged, and it’s fun for people to come and taste something different. They can see the results of the experimentations.”
Benoit takes very seriously his charge of stewardship and has studied and adopted sustainable practices. In fact, in May 2024 Noble Ridge became the first Canadian winery to receive biosphere certification. This is a sustainability commitment program which follows UN development goals. That means not only the vineyards but the entire business is sustainably managed. Benoit sees it as, “doing what’s best for my land and my people. I try to see all aspects of our operation, and see what we can change to make better decisions and have less impact on the environment. [We will] reduce our carbon footprint, our energy consumption, and just do what’s right.”
He explains he didn’t want to be limited by only organic practices, as that can sometimes require more time on the tractor and higher fuel consumption and emissions. With sustainability as the goal, Benoit has more freedom to choose from a number of practices and mitigations to ensure the land and the business will thrive for generations.
Now about that head-turning sparkling wine. How did he achieve it? It starts in the vineyards.
“I like my grapes to be slightly bigger, so I select the most vigorous soil. What I’m looking for is lots of crisp juice inside - I want to have the least amount of phenolics possible. When I pick is at the right brix and acidity, I don’t pick too early. I pick at the right time… I don’t do any dosage on it. That’s how I strike my best balance and I can achieve really nice quality.”
Benoit’s insistence on perfection continues in the winery.
“I do whole cluster pressing, I will not crush my grapes because I don’t want any skin contact, I don’t want to extract phenolics. I extract slowly my juice out - I don’t add too much pressure to extract some of the things I don’t want. So I lose a little bit of volume, but I get really high quality juice.
For this wine, I wanted to see where the complexity would lead us with a little more age in the bottle so we let that one age 66 months in bottle. When we tried it, we were really amazed by the complexity and the finesse of the wine.”
As a library wine, The One Grand Reserve is only available for club members or at the wine shop on site. You can find my review of this wine on my instagram @mtwineconsulting.
An extensive list of Noble Ridge’s awards can be found here. With so many shiny medals in the rear view mirror, is their future just as bright? All signs point to yes. They recently partnered with a grower in Oliver to provide more grapes for the business from an 11-acre vineyard there. This will significantly increase Noble Ridge’s production capability.
Benoit shares some other exciting news as well. “We’re in a bit of a transition right now. Leslie (D’Andrea, co-owner and CEO) is gonna be stepping back a bit from her duties. She’s been building the winery business for the last 20 years. She’s worked really hard and made a really successful business, and she wants to enjoy life a little bit more. Soon I’m going to take on more responsibilities, management of the company, and still have a foot in the viticulture and winemaking.”
Although they plan to grow in production, Benoit says they are happy as a family run business with excellent customer service and high quality wines first and foremost. Besides their commitment to responsible land stewardship, their noble mission is about, “giving the people who visit us a really good experience. The best thing in wine is sharing - making people happy.”
I couldn’t agree more.
This blog post was written by our contributor: Matt Tinney.