Having grown up watching Cowichan Valley’s homespun wine and food culture evolve, Tim Turyk’s ears perked up when he heard about a small vineyard and winery that was for sale in the fall of 2009. After 40+ years of working in BC’s fishing industry, he was looking for a new challenge. This is how Unsworth Vineyards started.
One look at the spectacular property and early 1900s farmhouse, and Tim knew he’d found something special. Colleen saw the vision too and they bought the farm, so to speak. It was the heritage around Marjorie that inspired the name – Unsworth was her maiden name.
From expanding the operation and restoring the farmhouse, to building a brand around sustainably managed vineyard practices, the Turyk’s and their team have built Unsworth one vine, one bottle, one blend at a time.
The Vineyards
Unsworth Vineyards has approximately 11 acres planted with vines. Half is Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir planted in 2013. The oldest block is one acre of Foch. This was inherited from the previous owner and is used exclusively for the port-style Ovation.
There are roughly 5 acres of interspecific sub-species crosses. They were chosen because they are exciting new varieties that show remarkable resistance to Powdery Mildew and Botrytis, meaning less spraying to control rot.
This is important as we lessen our impact on the environment by using less high energy inputs. These varieties are Sauvignette, Cabernet Libre, Labelle and Amiel. TimBuckToo is a second label with the fruit sourced from the Okanagan. The TimBuckToo wines are very different from what we can produce, e.g a Cabernet-based blend.
We have the privilege of working with some dedicated growers throughout the Cowichan Valley and one on the Saanich Peninsula. Fruit is sourced from roughly 50 acres, including our estate vineyard.
Pinot Noir is our workhorse grape – used for Cuvée de L’ilê (traditional bubble), Charme de L’ilê (tank/Charmat bubble) Rosé. Also for our red Pinot Noir and in exceptional years a red Pinot Noir reserve. Pinot Gris is also utilized for both methods of sparkling and as a still white. We do have lots of growers with smaller acreages and some with a single acre of varieties so our portfolio is surprisingly large for a 10,000 case winery. At last count
By Chris Turyk Sommelier | Assistant GM Unsworth Vineyards, I think we released 15 wines in 2018.
Harvest 2018
It is an interesting one so far in as much as we are seeing more phenolic ripeness across the board. Sugars are slightly down from last year and acids a little brighter and inline with a “typical” year. The seeds and stems are as
lignified as I’ve seen on the island. Hopefully, that means we will be getting more complex flavours as the vines we work with are ageing and starting to come out of awkward adolescence.The latter half of September saw all the fruit for bubble come in, it looked fantastic and right in the wheelhouse in terms of sugars, acids and flavours. This last week has seen some rain so we were harvesting and processing on Thanksgiving. Even with more than some rain, the rot isn’t of significant concern at this point.
We have the blessing of a wonderful sorting table that was purchased a couple years ago so we can slow it right down, get all hands on deck, and let nothing into the press that we wouldn’t want to eat right then and there ourselves. We will see what the later hanging varieties like Cabernet Libre which is often the last grape to come in will look like. At this point, I’m not losing sleep.
By Chris Turyk
The Winemaker
In June of 2012, Dan Wright had the good fortune to spend a month exploring Victoria and its surroundings, including the Cowichan Valley. Dan fell in love with Vancouver Island but he wasn’t sure when he would get the chance to return. Skip forward three years…
In 2015, Dan set out on a road trip across Canada. An opportunity presented itself and he jumped at the chance to move to Vancouver Island. Dan has an Honours BSc in Biochemistry from the
The Unsworth Wines
Charme De L’Ile
Cowichan Valley Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir are blended with a
Straw in colour with bright, green apple and citrus, delicate autolytic character and minerality. Dry with beautiful balance and a fine, persistent mousse.
Pinot Noir 2016
The Pinot Noir was sourced from a nearby vineyard in North Cowichan and includes clones 777, 667 and 828. Opulent red fruit. Violets, baking spice and earthy mushroom with velvety tannins. Beautiful on its own or paired with salmon, duck, pork and mushroom dishes.
For the complete portfolio of Unsworth Vineyards BC Wines please visit the winery website.
Future Plans, etc.
Move to Organic and Biodynamic Wine
As I said, we planted half our vineyard to varieties that nobody had heard of, under the false stigma of the word Hybrid, and even amongst our community were not exactly praised for our choice of varieties. We chose them because of their lack of need for systemic chemical based sprays that ensure you can harvest healthy fruit in our wet climate.
Since then we have made solid wines from them and even the most traditional of thinkers are starting to come around. We use mulch under the vines instead of the industry standard of Roundup. This suppresses weed competition, retains soil heat, and a whole host of other advantages. We actively seed a cover crop to increase beneficial insects, fix atmospheric nitrogen to minimize our need for other sources of nitrogen, increase soil structure and increase the biodiversity of what is essentially a mono-crop vineyard.
By Chris Turyk
Rosé and Bubble
We have received the message that today’s wine drinker wants rosé and bubble. These wine styles were made from day one and we have plans to have even more varied offerings within those styles. We feel we have only scratched the surface in terms of potential quality within our own wines and are constantly refining and questioning what is next. Approaching a decade of being a business and although it will always be full of challenges we feel that we are getting a handle on this crazy industry. We have been well supported by our community and consumers.
I am really proud of the work my family has one and the amazing help we have had along the way. There are a unity and cooperation throughout our company that I truly haven’t seen before. We have been real pioneers of Charmat method bubble, apart from Stone Boat we were the first to invest in the tanks and bottling line necessary for its production. Now you see a lot of large wineries and others investing in the equipment, I hope in small part due to our success with Charme.
Although the communal term Charme de L’ilê is unravelling differently from what we had pictured, it still stands as an honest attempt to bring our region together to create a style of wine that we can take to the international stage. Perhaps one day it will have the same recognition and cache as Tidal Bay.
By Chris Turyk
Despite being progressive in our winemaking and business, we try to keep our wines consistent and delicious. We aren’t interested in fads or trends within the industry. Our clientele expects a certain style and quality when they choose Unsworth and that’s exactly what we strive to deliver. Although certainly stylish for the moment, we aren’t ordering any amphora in the near future.
Source: Unsworth Vineyards provided the Winery and Vineyard information, Photos and BC wine tasting notes.