5 minute read
Barbara Philip Talks Pinot
Photo courtesy of Barbara Philip
Interview by Gary Hewitt, DipWSET, CWE, FWS, Sommelier
Winnipeg native Barbara Philip has built a remarkable career in the world of wine. In 2007, she became the first person in Western Canada to obtain their Master of Wine (MW). She has since become the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) Category Manager (chief buyer and responsible for inventory management) for all European, sparkling, and fortified wines. In addition, she and her husband Iain Philip run Barbariain Wine Consulting, which specializes in presenting, teaching, and training in all aspects of the wine business. Gary Hewitt caught up with Barbara via Zoom to ask her about the current state of Pinots.
Gary Hewitt (GH) In your role as Category Manager for European Selections, Sparkling, and Fortified Wines, you have a hand in shaping the wine experience in BC. What past and future trends do you see for the Pinot family of wine grapes? Barbara Philip (BP) Well, great question! I think, like the Pinots themselves, their trends are very hard to predict. Look at the highest-selling Pinot Noir in our market— and it’s probably the same in the Manitoba market—it is a Pinot Noir that doesn’t taste very much like Pinot Noir at all. So, you have consumers that are being introduced to Pinots that way. (Ed. note: Barbara is referring to higher-alcohol, full-bodied, New World Pinot Noirs that are uncharacteristic of the grape’s typical style.)
But if you look at the fine Pinot Noirs of the world, the Burgundies of the world, demand has never been stronger. In my statistics, I see that it’s growing. Consultants, staff, and managers are calling me from the stores and saying, “You know what? Our shelves are empty.”
For Pinot Noir, I think the future is very strong, and Pinot Gris does not really seem to be slowing down. People are
very comfortable with the different ways it manifests itself, from some beautiful Northern Italian selections to Alsace selections that are rich and deep and brassy-hued. And then, of course, we’ve got the classic neutral wines made in the Pinot Grigio style.
Pinot Blanc will always be dear to my heart. It’s very difficult for me to say no when someone offers a beautiful one from Austria or Germany, or even from Italy. When I wrote my Master of Wine dissertation in 2006, the way people thought about Pinot Blanc was it was just a little bit boring; no one was really thrilled by it. And I think that this has carried on. I think it will always play a small role.
GH Your Master of Wine thesis looked at the potential of Pinot Blanc in the Okanagan Valley. What inspired this line of study, and what was the outcome?
BP A lot has changed since then! What was that? 15 years ago? Pinot Blanc always seemed to deliver these good, solid wines that to me tasted like the Okanagan. They tasted like orchard fruit and white flowers, maybe with a little bit of a sagey, herbal tone to them. So, I thought: this is such a great representation of the Okanagan.
Because it looked at the business of wine, I also wanted to look at something that we could do in some kind of volume. The grapes can yield fairly well and still make a high-quality wine. It grew well in the north, and it grew well in the south (Okanagan Valley), which you can’t say about every other grape variety or any other great variety.
On paper, it looked like if we were going to take something to the world as a signature grape variety, a calling card, it might have good potential. It also had the benefit, in my mind, of not being anybody else’s flagship, so we could claim it as our own. Pinot Blanc grows easily, and it could make decent wine on a consistent basis in many different parts of the Okanagan.
We also found through tastings that the wine scored well. American tasters score the wines much higher than the Canadian tasters, and when I go to international awards shows around the world and BC wines are in them, foreign judges rate them higher than the self-deprecating Canadians do. Harry McWatters and I always bonded about this because he had a real affection for Pinot Blanc. When it came to gathering producers and journalists that were willing to get behind it, marketers and large companies willing to support it, nobody was interested. People weren’t finding it sexy enough or exciting enough. Part of that was a real Canadian thing as well. I thought it would do well in the world because nobody else was doing it—but because no one else was doing it, we were too shy to say, “This is a great, worthy grapevine.”
A lot of producers, especially the smaller ones, didn’t think it was really necessary for us to have a flagship to the world. Either they were happy to not sell to export markets, or if it was important to be on a wine list in New York, or a small, independent wine store in London, then they did that on the strength of their own brand.
GH What do you see as the hidden gems or the surprises in the Pinot world?
BP Some Pinot Noir that’s very interesting is from the Auvergne.* You have a lot of the Burgundian-sort of investments in it, but it’s lighter, it’s crispier, it satisfies. Obviously, it’s at a more accessible price. So, I’m very excited about that.
And, I’m really excited about Pinot Blanc still.
Over the last year, when we’re not travelling, you stick your nose in the glass, and you’re like, “Ah, I feel like I’m in Tuscany.” And thank goodness for this because it’s kept us travelling in our minds and our hearts all this year. I had a funny case in Vienna. I was by myself. It was kind of a lonely trip. So, there I am, having dinner by myself, with my schnitzel and glass of Pinot Blanc. But you know what, when I smelled the characteristics of the Pinot Blanc—an Austrian wine—it brought me home.
*Cote d’Auvergne is a wine region in Central France in the extreme upper reaches of the Loire River watershed.
