Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
The nose presents fragrant aromas of raspberries and red currants which lead into delicate herbaceous notes with a lightly floral finish. The palate delivers a savoury earthiness enriched with ripe raspberry, Italian plum, dill and a touch of pepper. Pair this 2021 vintage with a cordon bleu filled with prosciutto and gruyère cheese or a root vegetable torte.
Vineyard Notes
The 2021 growing season in the South Okanagan was one for the history books as the driest on record, due in large part to the “Heat Dome” and its record-breaking high temperatures. It was also one of the warmest years, seeing the most growing degree days GDD (1758) since 2015. Following flowering, we experienced an extremely dry and hot June during fruit set. The heat led to a lighter fruit set and smaller berry size than usual. While there was less fruit per vine and the yield was light in volume, on the upside the smaller berries in the clusters resulted in more concentrated flavours and colours on the red varietals. Similarly, for the white varietals there are intense flavours and vibrant aromatics. With the warm dry season, the grapes reached phenolic ripeness earlier than usual with harvest commencing and finishing early. We began picking the whites on August 27th for our Ti Amo (Prosecco-style sparkling wine). We started picking our first reds in mid-September with our Block 10 Merlot on September 14th at our historic Golden Mile Bench estate vineyard. We finished our last estate reds pick with Cabernet Sauvignon from Block 8 of our Golden Mile Bench vineyard on October 28, 2021. Overall, the 2021 harvest produced wines of outstanding quality and varietal character. We expect to see some intense, fruit driven wines, with excellent depth of flavour.
Winemaker Notes
Crafted with handpicked grapes from Block 3 of our historic Golden Mile Bench vineyard, these rare, half-century old vines have low yields and produce beautifully concentrated fruit. After meticulous hand sorting, the clusters were destemmed and the whole berries were cold soaked for three days to extract the intense flavour characteristics. The tank was then inoculated to undergo a 15-day extended maceration in our Italian Ganimede fermenters. Once the desired colour and tannin was achieved, the wine was gently pressed before undergoing malolactic fermentation. The 2021 vintage was aged for 18 months in French and American oak barrels for seamless oak and flavour integration before being bottled in May of 2023. low yields and produce beautifully concentrated fruit. After meticulous sorting, the destemmed berries were
cold soaked for 4 days. A gentle fermentation in our Italian Ganimede fermenters for 20 days provided an
ideal concentration of colour and flavours. Following malolactic fermentation, the wine was aged for 18
months on fine lees, primarily in French oak barrels. An ageworthy Cabernet Franc, that is a tribute to its
marvelous Golden Mile Bench terroir
Other Notes
91 Points ~ Carl's Wine Club, 92 Points ~ Julian Park, Gold Medal ~ Cascadia International Wine Competition, 90 Points ~ Jennifer Havers
