2022 Pinot Noir

While the south Okanagan is known for Syrah or Bordeaux varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon), some insiders think the area is a bit too warm for Pinot Noir. Nonsense, we say! We love our Pinot Noir, and we love to have fun with it. Pinot Noir forms the base of our sparkling Ella, our White Pinot Noir, and this red Pinot Noir. Keeping in line with our ‘minimalist’ winemaking, we don’t add yeast, keep handling to a minimum, and let the fruit shine through. How do we spin it? We source a portion from a friend further north in Kaleden, BC, to add a bit of freshness and brightness. Stunning.

SILVER medal 90 points 2023 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada

TASTING NOTES:
Very pretty ruby red colour. Bright and light, showing the youthful vibrancy of this wine. Powerful nose of cherry juice, black cherries, and a touch of dried herbs, tarragon, sage. Has that lovely forest floor note, mixed with fresh wild mushroom. On the palate it’s a bit of a contrasting wine. It has a lightness and a freshness to the fruit, but there is a chewy seriousness giving it great texture. A medium bodied wine with pretty red fruit up front before moving into bergamot infused tea flavour in the finish. The wine will age well in the short term or pair now with pizza or a charcuterie board.

WINEMAKING NOTES:
The fruit from this wine is a mixture of estate fruit and we’ve added some organic Pinot Noir grapes from Kaleden, BC, further north of our winery. This addition adds freshness and brightness to the wine as the cooler conditions further north allow for a more balanced and prolonged hang time (harvested a month later than Oliver). The wine is made from fully destemmed grapes with the berries left unbroken and then it is gently punched down during its 5 weeks on skins. Fermentation is slow and relatively cool to retain the pretty red fruit character. Once pressed the wine is gently transferred to neutral oak barriques for aging. After 6 months of aging the wine is gently filtered and bottled. Only a small amount of SO2 is added.

WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS:
Winter was long, spring even longer. Cold and wet all the way into July. Luckily for us, August showed up with aplomb. We had the warmest August on record in the South Okanagan, and it began a run of weather that “saved the vintage”. There was a 6 week stretch of near-perfect weather, and week by week we started to see the vines catch up and reach near-perfect maturity. Slowly but steadily each variety started to come into form and ripeness. Harvest lasted well into November. The wines are fantastic!

NOTES:
Production – 656 cases produced
Alcohol – 12.5%
Varietals – 100% Pinot Noir
Vinification – hand-picked, destemmed and naturally fermented (no commercial yeast or additives) for 5 weeks on the skins. Transferred to neutral oak barriques for 6 months of ageing before bottling
Cellaring – cellar up to 5-7 years