Wine Specs
Varietal
Blend - See Tech Sheet
Appellation
Golden Mile Bench
Harvest Date
September 27, 29 and 30, 2023
Bottling Date
June 19, 2024
2023 Character Red
New Vintage!
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
Lifted aromas of white pepper greet the nose before drifting into warm notes of cedar, dark chocolate and
blackberry. The fruit-forward entry on the palate takes the form of ripe blackberry and dark cherry with a hint of black pepper on the midpalate. Smooth notes of vanilla round out the finish of this vintage to make it an ideal pairing to BBQ-roasted chorizo.
Vineyard Notes
The winter of 2022 set up less-than-ideal projections for 2023; however, the 2023 growing season at Hester Creek was everything that one could hope for in producing outstanding grapes for our wines. Growing Degree Days (GDD) reached 1835, making it the highest accumulation of GDDs for the months of April through August. Harvest began earlier than usual on August 25th with Pinot Noir and ended on October 1st with Cabernet Sauvignon. This compacted season became a story of quality over quantity and allowed our winemaking team to create new wines for our portfolio, craft variations of existing wines and use techniques like whole cluster pressing on 90% of our white wines and allowing for extended maceration periods on our red wines. Overall, the Hester Creek wine coming out of the 2023 season is an example of excellence rooted in the South Okanagan terroir.
Winemaker Notes
The Character Red is a robust blend of Petit Verdot, Malbec, Syrah and a unique Italian Merlot Clone. Each
varietal of the 2023 vintage was hand harvested and sorted before being gently destemmed and fermented in separate lots. The resulting wine was gently pressed off the skins and the lots were blended. To add nuance, balance, and complexity, we aged the Character Red in a combination of French and American oak for eight months before bottling it in June of 2024.
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