tan•ta•lus
[tan – tl – uh s]
- Tantalus: Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. He was invited to eat at the table of the gods in Olympus where he stole ambrosia and nectar. Tantalus took these items back to earth, and intended to feed them to his people in order to make them immortal. After his death, Tantalus was condemned to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree; the fruit tree would withdraw at each attempt to eat from it and the water would recede at each attempt to drink it.
- tantalus (not capitalized): “a locked cellarette with contents visible but not obtainable without a key.”[1]
- tantalus: the oldest, continuously producing vineyard in British Columbia.
Pioneer Vineyard
In 1927, a renowned horticulturalist by the name of JW Hughes planted table grapes at a property on what is now Dehart Road in Kelowna; he called it Pioneer Vineyard.
In 1934, a man named Martin Dulik, who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, came to work for Hughes at Pioneer Vineyard; in 1944 Hughes sold the property to Dulik.
Martin Dulik and his wife had three children: two daughters and a son. All three children spent their childhood growing-up around the vineyard but it was their son, Daniel, who took a keen interest in learning grape growing from his Father. Daniel started working at Pioneer Vineyard in the 1960’s.
In the late 1970’s Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars, an Ontario based winery, was looking to invest in quality grapes for their wines. They offered incentives to growers in the Okanagan to plant Riesling. The vines they wanted to plant were clone 21B, which was developed in Mosel by Herman Weis in the 1940’s. Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars “financed growers in BC over three years and placed a price guarantee on the crop for the new plantings in the first few years of production.”[2]
In 1978, Daniel convinced his Father to take the offer from Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars and they ended-up planting 5 acres of clone 21B Riesling. These grapes would be used to produce some of the Okanagan’s first age-worthy wines. In fact, Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars won gold for their 1981 reserve Riesling at the first industry-wide competition in 1982.
Daniel’s daughter, Susan Dulik, would eventually go to work for Jordan & Ste-Michelle Cellars. She began as a tour guide, but then worked her way into sales and administration. When the winery closed in 1990, Susan went to work for Cedar Creek and then Summerhill, where she cultivated the desire to open her own winery. In 1997 Susan and her Father opened Pinot Reach Cellars; Roger Wong was their winemaker.[3]
Pinot Reach Cellars
At Pinot Reach Cellars, they set out to focus on wines made from grape varietals in the Pinot family, but it was their Riesling, made from the vines planted in 1978, which earned exuberant acclaim. Their 2000 Old Vines Riesling won a gold medal at the Riesling du Monde competition and garnered praise from a well-known British wine writer named Jancis Robinson. Unfortunately several years later Daniel Dulik was diagnosed with cancer, and the Dulik family decided to put the winery and vineyard up for sale.
Tantalus Vineyards
It was at this time that a man named Eric Savics entered the picture. Eric was born in Latvia in 1943, but he grew up in Vancouver. Eric earned an economics degree and moved to Toronto where he eventually became a stock broker. At one point in his career, Eric helped a chef to finance a new restaurant and it was at this point that Eric’s passion for wine was sparked.
By 2002 Eric was living in Vancouver, where one of his colleagues, John Skinner[4], revealed to him his exit strategy from the investment business: he was going to start a winery. To put it mildly, Eric thought his colleague was “barking mad.”[5]
Despite Eric’s strong reaction to the idea of starting a winery, it seems that a seed was planted. A friend of Eric’s, named Lyndsay Thomas,[6] told him that Pinot Reach Cellars was for sale and she convinced him to take a look at the property and try the wines. He must have been very impressed because he took ownership of the property in the spring of 2004 and he renamed the winery Tantalus.
Tantalus focuses on small lot, terroir driven wines made from Riesling, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. When Eric took over the property it already had Riesling, which was planted in 1978, and Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which were planted in 1985. In 2005 Tantalus began removing other vines from the property and planting more of their flagship varietals. In March 2010 Tantalus completed construction of their new facility – BC’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified winery. Tantalus practices sustainable farming, without the use of herbicides or pesticides. They have 10 acres of forest at the center of their vineyard, 52 beehives and nesting boxes to encourage native bird species.
The winemaker and General Manager at Tantalus is David Paterson. David is a New Zealander who was born in Vancouver. He has a winemaking degree from Lincoln University in New Zealand and he has worked seven successful vintages in New Zealand, Australia, France and Oregon. In 2008 David found himself working for a wine retailer in Vancouver where he tried a Tantalus Riesling for the first time. It impressed him enough that he got a job at Tantalus working the 2008 harvest. Matt Holmes[7] was the winemaker at the time and David had worked with him in New Zealand. As luck would have it, Matt was moving on, so in 2009 David became the new winemaker at Tantalus. David has a non-interventionist style of winemaking.
2017 Tantalus Riesling $21.74
13.1% ABV // TA 9.5 g/l // RS 16.5 g/l // pH 2.94
Grapes were handpicked from different blocks of Riesling, some dating back as far as 1978. Clusters of grapes were whole bunch pressed and inoculated with an array of aromatic yeasts. Fermentation took place in stainless steel.
The 2017 Tantalus Riesling offers aromas of stony minerality with hints of green apple, lemon and mandarin peel. This medium bodied wine is sweet and creamy like lemon curd, but then the high acidity takes over bringing with it juicy lemons and green apples. The fresh green apples turn into green apple Jolly Ranchers mixed with salty brine. The medium finish delivers notes of apple and lemon pith. Drink now and stash several bottles in the cellar to enjoy as they evolve over the next ten years.
2015 Tantalus Old Vines Riesling $30.34
13.2% ABV // TA 9.3 g/l // RS 8.8 g/l // pH 2.81
Grapes were picked at optimal ripeness from vines that were planted in 1978. After a short settling period and racking, the juice was inoculated with yeast and fermented until it was almost dry, leaving only 8.8 g/l of residual sugar; nearly half the residual sugar found in the 2017 Tantalus Riesling.
The nose has aromas of petroleum, salt-rimmed lime margaritas and a hint of mandarin peel. The palate is tangy at first (like pineapple) then there is a brief moment of sweetness (think sugar-coated, lemon jujubes), followed by racy acidity and intense flavours of fresh lemon. As this subsides I found flavours of green apple, lime and mint, with fresh peach and red apples on the long, lingering finish.
Although one normally does not think to decant a white wine, 24 hours in a decanter in the fridge softened the palate allowing individual flavours to further shine and a savouriness to emerge in the wine.
This wine can age comfortably for 10 years and, in my humble opinion, it will have many years of life beyond this.
Tantalus Vineyards
1670 Dehart Road
Kelowna, British Columbia
V1W 4N6
www.tantalus.ca
Footnotes
[1] Merrian-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tantalus
[2] Schreiner, J. (March 1, 2018). Quails’ Gate Riesling Pays Tribute to History. Retrieved from http://johnschreiner.blogspot.ca/2018/03/quails-gate-riesling-pays-tribute-to.html
[3] Roger Wong is currently the proprietor and winemaker at Intrigue Wines in Lake Country.
[4] John Skinner is now the proprietor at Painted Rock in Okanagan Falls.
[5] Schreiner, J. (May 6, 2013). The Second Coming of BC Wineries. Retrieved from https://www.bcbusiness.ca/the-second-coming-of-bc-wineries
[6] Lyndsay Thomas is now Lyndsay O’Rourke, the proprietor and winemaker at Tightrope winery in Naramata.
[7] Matt Holmes is now the winemaker at Bannockburn Vineyards in Australia
Sources
Greek Mythology. Retrieved from https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Tantalus/tantalus.html
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tantalus
Pender, R. (January 20, 2014). Tantalus Vineyards: Riesling Reigns. Retrieved from http://montecristomagazine.com/magazine/winter-2013/tantalus-vineyards
Schreiner, J. (May 6, 2013). The Second Coming of BC Wineries. Retrieved from https://www.bcbusiness.ca/the-second-coming-of-bc-wineries
Schreiner, J. (November 20, 2016). Remembering Grape Grower Den Dulik. Retrieved from https://johnschreiner.blogspot.com/2016/11/remembering-grapegrower-den-dulik.html
Schreiner, J. (October 31, 2017). Tantalus Vineyards Reviews: Better Late Than Never. Retrieved from https://johnschreiner.blogspot.com/2017/10/tantalus-vineyard-reviews-better-late.html
Schreiner, J. (March 1, 2018). Quails’ Gate Riesling Pays Tribute to History. Retrieved from http://johnschreiner.blogspot.ca/2018/03/quails-gate-riesling-pays-tribute-to.html
Scout Vancouver. Tantalus Vineyards. Retrieved from http://scoutmagazine.ca/venue/tantalus-vineyards/
Tantalus Vineyards https://tantalus.ca