Meet the Mastermind Behind the Okanagan’s Philosophic Wine Brand

From the outside looking in, Geoffrey Moss appears about as serious about wine as humanly possible. A Master of Wine, he is one of just 424 people in the world to have completed the multiyear program so gruelling that it is often compared to doctoral studies. But get to know him a little better, and you’ll find that Moss has a humorous streak, a character trait that he carries over to his passion for wine, and the notoriously stuffy culture that surrounds it.

With Søren, the new virtual winery he founded alongside friend and winemaker Ryan McKibbon, Moss is letting his playful side shine by combining his immense knowledge of wine with his equally impressive education in philosophy. Its name references the Middle English “soren,” which means “soar,” as well as Søren Kierkegaard, the philosopher and theologian from Denmark, the home country of Moss’s grandparents. Philosophy also informs the packaging for Søren’s wines, which are stopped with corks that read “Do it or don’t do it. You will regret both,” a quote from Kierkegaard’s Either/Or: A Fragment of Life.

According to Moss—who also operates Lithica, a boutique wine marketing agency—there is an almost existential humour to starting a new winery. “We wanted to start a small brand, mainly for fun if nothing else, because I think we [he and McKibbon] are both intimately aware of the fact that wineries just hemorrhage cash and so there was no real aspiration to do something crazy,” he says. Because of the financial precarity of traditional winery operations, Søren operates completely virtually, producing its wines under licence at a larger Okanagan estate.

Similarly, all Søren wines are made with fruit purchased from independent vineyards, a choice that not only lets Moss and McKibbon steer clear of the notoriously risky world of farming but also gives them latitude to explore different terroirs in the Okanagan Valley and beyond. The brand’s two most recent (and, sadly, recently sold out) releases were made with fruit sourced from Moss and McKibbon’s home region, the Okanagan Valley, where, according to Moss, Søren has found its wheelhouse sourcing grapes that originate in the Rhone valley region of France.

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“In the south Okanagan, Rhone varieties are, from a quality perspective, the best performing grape varieties,” he says.

 

The Ascension, a 100 per cent syrah sourced from a vineyard in Osoyoos, gets its name from the eponymous Sufjan Stevens album as well as the fact that this was the last wine made from these vines before a devastating cold snap kill them, their soul ascending to whatever realm of the afterlife that Dionysus oversees. It’s the type of wine that proves why savvy Okanagan winemaking minds see the region as being well-suited to syrah. Mixing powerful cooked meat and tobacco notes with high-toned floral qualities and plenty of ripe red fruit, it makes for as heavenly a drinking experience as the name suggests. Similarly transcendental is Results May Vary, Søren’s latest white wine. Sticking with the Rhone valley theme, it is a blend of that region’s three hallmark white grape varieties: roussanne, marsanne, and (just a touch of) viognier. The nose, loaded with notes of apple, pear, and lemon peel, gives way to an unctuous body whose texture buoys honey and ripe stone fruit flavours with the help of a backbone based on well-integrated oak.

Upcoming Søren releases will include a cabernet-dominant red blend sourced from the neighbouring Similkameen Valley as well as pinots and chardonnays from south of the border. And these forays into adjacent regions are just the beginning of the ascendant brand’s globetrotting adventures. Moss says he and McKibbon always planned to explore winemaking regions from around the world, as indicated by the multilayered meaning behind their chosen name. Ironically, Søren literally also means “stern.” Like the wines from this exciting new itinerant brand, it’s a fun name that has serious depth.

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