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We are delighted to announce the launch of our Lumière Collection, a fresh addition to the Clos du Soleil lineup, featuring lower-alcohol wines that deliver all the flavour, delicacy, and complexity of our more traditional portfolio of wines.

This collection is carefully crafted at our Similkameen winery in BC, using Washington state grapes from the 2024 vintage. In the future, when BC grapes become available, these wines will be produced within our BC VQA portfolio, as we continue our tradition of excellence in winemaking with a focus on vintage, place, and passion.

Presenting the Lumière Collection

This exciting release includes two wines, both of which stand out with just 9% alcohol and around 80 calories per serving, offering a lighter, fresher option for wine lovers:

• Sauvignon Blanc 2024
• Rosé 2024 (100% Sangiovese)

Sauvignon Blanc and Sangiovese grapes were selected specifically for their bold, pronounced flavours which shine through even in a lower alcohol offering, ensuring that even with a lighter profile these wines are rich in taste and complexity. Designed to taste just like traditional full-alcohol wines, but with less alcohol and fewer calories, both are dry, with bright acidity, and incredibly food-friendly, making them perfect for pairing with your favorite meals.

Whether you’re looking for a refreshing glass to accompany dinner or want to enjoy a glass or two of wine without feeling sluggish afterward, these wines are the ideal choice.

Inspired by Tradition; Crafted for the Modern Palate

Clos du Soleil’s winemaking philosophy has always been rooted in authenticity, elegance, and a deep respect for place. The Lumière Collection was born from a desire to bring those same values to a wine category where they are often absent. More than this, it is a natural extension of our mission: to tell the story of our land through wine. The Lumière Collection lets us share that story in a new way—one that speaks to both tradition and innovation.

Small-Lot, Limited Release

With our first vintage of the Lumière Collection being an extremely limited release, if you’re curious to try these unique wines, we recommend snapping them up while you can!

We look forward to sharing these wines with you, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out at [email protected].

Read the Press Release

As you know, 2023 and 2024 were tough years for the BC wine industry, particularly so in the Similkameen Valley. Mother Nature and her deep freezes took their toll on our vineyards and, consequently, our ability to produce wines during those vintage years. We are a tough crowd to keep down, though, and as we relayed to you late last year, we partnered with two Washington growers to ensure that we could continue to bring you the exceptional Clos du Soleil wines you’ve become accustomed to. The results of our adaptability are now here, and we are excited to release our Washington Series wines in the coming days.

First, though, here is the story of the why and how of the production process, and what these wines mean to us – and you, as part of the greater BC wine community.

Exceptional Winemaking in Extraordinary Times

Winemaking is farming, and farming is impacted by the unpredictability of weather. With the increasing effects of climate change, evident in the deep freezes of December 2022 and January 2024, we’ve had to adapt to maintain our high standards. Sourcing grapes from Washington was one such adaptation to these extreme weather conditions we’ve embraced, allowing us to continue to maintain our high standards and ability to craft wines of exceptional quality.

Made in Canada in the Similkameen Valley, Inspired by Nature

Although the grapes are sourced from Washington, where our own team oversaw the growing and harvest of fruit grown specifically for Clos du Soleil, these wines are truly crafted in the heart of BC, staying true to Clos du Soleil’s signature style. Every step of the winemaking process – from fermentation, to aging and bottling – is done in BC by our Clos du Soleil winemaking team, ensuring that the wines integrate seamlessly into our existing lineup of BC VQA wines.

Quality First, Always

At Clos du Soleil, we are unwavering in our commitment to quality. The premium vineyards in Washington share a similar terroir with BC, meaning the character and excellence of our Washington Series wines remain true to our high standards. The Washington vineyards we chose to work with, like those of the Similkameen Valley, benefit from similar landscapes, soils, and climates, which allow us to maintain consistency and excellence in every bottle. This shared terroir – with grapes “made under the same sky” as we like to think of it – means we can stay true to both our portfolio and values, in a time when there is no set roadmap to winemaking in BC.

At the same time, we see our job at Clos du Soleil as translating terroir – the unique geography and growing conditions of the grapes we work with – directly into every bottle of wine we produce. We took this same approach with our Washington grapes, ultimately producing wines which accurately tell the story of both our winemaking philosophy and the landscape just to the south of us with its subtle differences.

It is also worth noting that these grapes travelled less distance from Washington to their final home here in the Similkameen than many BC grapes travel within the province for BC VQA wines. This is in keeping with our commitment to sustainability and quality.

Sustaining BC & Canadian Wine Culture

While we pride ourselves on the beauty and uniqueness of the wines that originate from our Similkameen vineyards, bringing in grapes from Washington was a necessary interim step to ensure the continued success of both our own winery and British Columbia’s wine industry during challenging times. By purchasing these wines, please know that you are directly supporting a BC winery, its employees, and the broader Canadian wine community.

Clos du Soleil’s Washington Series Wines!

Now, all that remains is for us to introduce the actual wines to you! We have three new wines which will be released soon (and a couple of other exciting wines later on – watch this space) – with our wine club members getting first access, followed by general release a little later.

Our Washington Series includes the following wines:

• Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ~ NOW AVAILABLE
• Chardonnay 2024 ~ NOW AVAILABLE
• Rosé 2024 ~ NOW AVAILABLE

We are delighted to be able to bring these exciting new wines to you in the coming days and are confident that they will find a place in your collection, alongside our beloved BC VQA wines.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected].

It is no secret that the last two winters have been tough on BC wineries. We at Clos du Soleil have been hard at work revitalizing our vineyards in the Similkameen which have, fortunately, proven to be very resilient! In the interim, and while they continue to recover beautifully, like many of our friends in the industry we are using this as an opportunity to “pivot, pivot, pivot”! With this in mind, we are excited to announce the following…

This year, we are releasing three exciting wines with grapes hailing from Washington State: a Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay, and a Rosé. To produce these wines, which will still be proudly “Made in Canada”, we began our search for the perfect vineyards early last Spring, before the growing season really started. After travelling to WA a handful of times to find the the ideal vineyard blocks for our plans, we partnered with two exceptional growers in premium regions – one in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA and another in Yakima Valley AVA. (AVA being an American Viticultural Area, indicating a designated wine grape-growing region with distinct climate and soil characteristics.)

How will this mesh with our existing lineup and winemaking philosophies?

At Clos du Soleil we specialize in terroir-driven wines that reflect the unique origins of our grapes. As such, these new wines will represent the unique terroir conditions of their origins in Washington State. At the same time, they have been made right here in our Canadian winery in the Similkameen, BC, in the Clos du Soleil style: using minimal interventionist-winemaking techniques, and the very highest-quality viticulture, to produce crisp dry wines with bright acidity and liveliness. With this approach in mind, we have chosen vineyard sites with cooler conditions and rocky soils reminiscent of the Similkameen Valley. What’s more, our winemaking team has been intimately involved in every step of the growing, harvesting, and shipping processes of the grapes grown specifically for us in our chosen vineyard blocks.

We are incredibly excited to show you what our team can do with grapes from a new region. We know these wines will resonate with you and are excited to share them with our wine club members first, followed by a wider release as supplies last. We will release more information in the coming weeks, and if you have any questions in the interim, please do email us at [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information, high resolution images, and questions, please email [email protected].