Applied learning got an ancient twist at the Niagara College Teaching Winery, in the making of a natural Orange wine that marks the debut of a new Underground Series.
The newly released 2017 Underground Series Sauvignon Blanc is the College’s first venture into Orange wine – a term that refers to wine made from white grapes fermented in their skins, as is typically done with reds. It uses an ancient practice, which dates back thousands of years, of burying the grapes underground for natural temperature control, with very little intervention.
The result is a natural wine free of sugar, preservatives or additives, boasting flavours unexpected in a Sauvignon Blanc. With complex aromas of ripe apple and jackfruit, dried chamomile, turned earth, honey and juniper, the Underground Series Sauvignon Blanc is dry on the palate with fine tannins, a fresh acidity, and a flavour profile that can stand up to heftier food pairings.
College winemaker and instructor Gavin Robertson noted that the unique, natural wine would appeal to enthusiasts of the local food movement and naturally fermented foods, as well as oenophiles seeking the atypical. However, its beauty is more than grape-skin-deep at the Teaching Winery; it’s about expanding student exposure to unconventional wines and winemaking methods.
“Creating this natural, experimental wine was an opportunity to open our students up educationally to ancient, low-tech winemaking methods,” said Robertson, who graduated from the College’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program in 2011. “It’s a very labour intensive process and our students were at the heart of it all – from burying the wine underground and digging it up, to bottling it.”
Made from 1.5 tons of 2017 Sauvignon Blanc grapes, the wine was de-stemmed, and bucketed by hand into underground tanks, then sealed and buried ahead six feet underground in the campus vineyards in September 2017. It was underground for seven months through the winter to ferment spontaneously with the wild yeast in the vineyard, monitored by temperature probes installed at various depths, with help of from NC’s Research and Innovation Division. In May 2018, the wine and skins were dug out by hand and drained through a traditional vertical basket press. The highest quality free run wine was racked twice to clarify, then hand bottled, unfiltered, with no preservatives or additives.
It was a memorable learning experience for second-year Winery and Viticulture Technician student Robbie Day, who experienced the challenges of working with wine in an underground vessel and helped to hoist the wine from the underground tanks using a bucket on a string. “I have strong respect for how difficult winemaking was before the introduction of modern equipment,” said Day. “By the end of the day, I was covered in Orange wine, rain and mud but it was totally rewarding.”
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- Wine made from 2017 Sauvignon Blanc grapes was buried six feet underground in the campus vineyards in September 2017. After seven months underground, the wine and skins were dug out by hand to create the Teaching Winery’s first Orange wine.
The Underground Series is an example what sets the NC Teaching Winery apart, according to Learning Enterprises general manager Steve Gill. “There’s no other Teaching Winery in the world where students are exposed to such a variety of winemaking experiences,” said Gill. “Our students have an opportunity to pick their own grapes for Icewine, to create Sparkling, table reds and table whites, to experiment with the ancient practices of Orange wine, and more, without leaving our campus grounds.”
Local winemaker Ann Sperling, director of winemaking and viticulture at Southbrook Vineyards (Niagara-on-the-Lake), who has also ventured into Orange wine, believes that it is a viable way to make natural wines, and that the style that could fit in Ontario both technically and for consumers. She feels it is important for students to be exposed to this revived style that has a history of thousands of years.
“Most wine schools, even today, do not dig into the use of skin fermentation or stem inclusion in white winemaking. It’s useful for students to see how these important components of wine grapes interact in the fermentation process to provide complexity and structure to white wines,” said Sperling. “It’s exciting to see that the leadership at NC encourage exploration in various wine styles including growing grape varieties such as Rkatsiteli to fully explore the tradition of Orange wine.”
The 2017 Underground Series Sauvignon Blanc is available for purchase at the Wine Visitor + Education Centre (135 Taylor Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake), for $21. Proceeds from sales support student learning.
Niagara College’s Teaching Winery is the first and only commercial teaching winery in Canada. It is located at the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus, along with the NC Teaching Brewery and – the latest addition in September 2018 – the NC Teaching Distillery which were also the first of their kind in Canada.
Niagara College offers more than 130 diploma, bachelor degree and advanced level programs; as well as more than 600 credit, vocational and general interest Part-Time Studies courses. Areas of specialization include food and wine sciences, advanced technology, media, applied health and community safety, supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, horticulture and esthetics. For more information visit niagaracollege.ca
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