2020 Merlot

Ah, Merlot… while Miles in Sideways may not have appreciated Merlot, our hot but northerly climate makes some excellent Merlots – Okanagan Merlot can be graceful, balanced, juicy and even powerful. Our Maverick 2020 Merlot is an excellent example of how the Okanagan gets Merlot right!

“This 100% Merlot is gently crushed and placed in open-top fermenters to gradually extract the deep ruby colour while fermenting using the indigenous yeasts present on the berries at harvest. 18 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels and no filtration yields spiced cherries and dark red fruit balanced with crisp apple acidity and a balanced tannic finish.”

91 points – Carl Boucher, Carl’s Wine Club

TASTING NOTES:
Our Merlot fruit from the 2020 vintage is classic. The wine has a lovely ruby colour, with aromas of strawberries, cherries with hints of oak and sweet spice. This Merlot has flavours of sweet fruit including plum and cherry cola with a nice balance of tannins to give it a nice lingering finish.

WINEMAKING:
The Merlot grapes were hand harvested and promptly delivered to the winery, destemed and slightly crushed into open top fermenters. The tanks were pumped over twice a day to wet the cap and homogenize the wine as it ferments to dryness. This also helps to extract as much of the red colour from the skins giving the wine its lovely ruby hue. After fermentation is completed we rack the wine into selected French and Hungarian Oak barrels. The wine undergoes Malolactic fermentation in the barrel and is then left to age for 18 months. The wine is removed from the barrel and bottled, unfiltered within a couple of weeks.

WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS:
Our first vintage at the helm of Maverick was full of typical excitement, chaos and completely unpredictable Okanagan weather. Initially, the growing season was steady, a cold wet spring carried into the early summer only to have a heat wave (40℃) in early August that got the vineyards caught up. We started picking the first week of September and by mid October were picking the reds when we had a freak snowstorm that blanketed the valley with heavy snow. A few days later we had a hard frost which brought the growing season to a close. We toiled through deep snow before it warmed up again melting all the snow in time for us to bring in the rest of the harvest by early November. The short growing season led to wines with lower alcohol, beautiful fresh flavours and bright tasty wines.

NOTES:
Production – only 181 cases produced
Alcohol – 12.5%
Varietals – 100% Merlot
Vinification – open top fermented, aged for 18 months in new and neutral French and Hungarian oak barriques, bottled unfiltered
Cellaring – can be cellared for up to 10-15 years