Flagship is a metaphor for the highest quality, most important, most prominent and-or most expensive product a company produces.
Signature is similar, embodying the identity and mission of the business with a key element, defining feature and-or standout product that showcases the brand at its best.
Quails' Gate Winery in West Kelowna has such hyperbolic and ornate language in mind when it refers to its 2022 Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay ($49) and 2022 Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir ($59) as 'signature' and 'flagship' wines.
The two wines were just released, so Quails' Gate winemaker Kailee Frasch recently met with wine writers to extol their virtues.
"The Chard has some peach and citrus (aromas and flavours) with butterscotch richness and nice acidity," she said.
"The Pinot Noir is the boldest of our Pinots with a dense core of fruit."
Frasch describes 2022 as a "beautiful vintage", but one that started off sketchy.
"It was an interesting year that started off cool in the spring, delaying everything," she remembered.
"Then there was a typical warm summer, but in August we were still far behind. And then, September and October were warm and we ended up with a long, drawn-out season that let flavours (in the grapes) develop without the alcohol or acidity taking over. The wines are fresh and balanced with nice acidity."
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Frasch is giving Quails' Gate loyalists what they want and need with the 2022 Chard and Pinot akin to previous, popular and delicious wines in the past.
But, innovation is also built in with some experimentation with turbidity, yeast strains and grape clones to give the wines a "perfume lift."
"It's similar to past vintages, but slightly refined," said the winemaker.
"And the oak frames the fruit rather than dominates it."
Quails' Gate is reasserting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as its signature flagships by replanting half of the estate vineyards in West Kelowna in the two varietals as well as making the two grapes a big part of the overall replanting of 300 acres over the next five years.
The wines are available online at https://www.quailsgate.com/, at the Quails' Gate shop and tasting room and select liquor stores and restaurants.
Field & Flight
Switching gears, Quails' Gate has also released three 2024 vintage wines under its Field & Flight label for 'replacement grape' bottles.
Everyone by now knows the polar vortex of January 2024 destroyed buds on grape vines resulting in no harvest in the fall of 2024.
Quails' Gate sourced grapes and wine from Washington state, Oregon, California and Ontario to make the Field & Flight wines at the West Kelowna facility.
From California grapes, the 2024 Field & Flight Rose ($20) is classic pink with a strawberries-and-cream profile.
From Ontario grapes, the 2024 Riesling ($20) is a lush, off-dry, balanced beauty with aromas and flavours of peach, grapefruit and lime.
From Washington state and California grapes, the 2024 Pinot Gris ($20) is a little bit tropical (think pineapple) and a little bit Pacific Northwest orchard (think apricot).
The Field & Flight wines are available to taste and buy at The Market at Quails' Gate and it also has a wine club you can subscribe to to receive six bottles every other month at https://www.quailsgate.com/field-and-flight-subscription/.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
