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Anthony Gismondi on Wine
Thursday, October 20 2022

Top 10: BC Pinot Noir

By: Anthony Gismondi
The rush to fill the Burgundy gap is real.

British Columbia pinot noir continues to amaze us with the speed with which it is maturing and turning into a serious sector of the B.C.

wine market. The latest statistics place pinot noir as the second most planted red grape by acres in the province,e with 1,331.94 acres in the ground, having grown 68% between 2008 and 2019. The growth is far more than any other widely planted red. And the expansion looks unabated, especially as more and more cooler sites come into play with climate warming.

As mentioned before, the exorbitant price of Burgundy has all but eliminated it from the diet of most wine lovers other than the super-rich leaving the field wide open to all the newcomers that brings no more than three of four decades of experience to the game and, in some cases, much less.

This month we share another updated Top 10 list of B.C. pinot noir with ties, recently tasted. Many are selling fast, so what is unavailable at the winery could still be in private wine shops or restaurants. Good hunting.   

In the photo above: Dan Wright, winemaker for Unsworth Vineyards in the Cowichan Valley, is with Frédéric Desbiens and Ingrid Lehwald, owners of Saison Vineyards.  
Written By: ag
Anthony Gismondi
Anthony Gismondi

Anthony Gismondi is a Canadian wine journalist and one of North America's most influential voices in wine. For over 30 years, he has been the wine columnist for The Vancouver Sun. The twice-weekly column is distributed across Canada through the Postmedia Network to millions of readers. In addition, Anthony hosts the BC Food & Wine Radio Show, broadcast in 25 markets across B.C. and available as a podcast on major platforms. He launched Gismondionwine.com in 1997, attracting one million monthly users from 114 countries. It continues to be a valuable resource full of tasting notes, intelligent wine stories and videos for the trade and consumers. Conversations with wine personalities are available on his  YouTube Channel.