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Tastings: May 2024
06 May 2024
87PTS
Kanonkop Kadette Cape Blend 2020
Stellenbosch, Coastal Region, South AfricaFrom Stellenbosch's decomposed granite and hutton soils, and younger vines (up to 30 years), this blend of pinotage, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and cabernet franc was fermented in concrete before resting 1 year in French barrels. Tart black fruit leads before a plumper, softer plum and blackberry palate, framed with pasty tannins to a warming smoked plum and cinnamon finish. One to drink now, with grilled sausages.Prices:| BC | $26.99 | 750ml |
| AB | $23.95 | 750ml |
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91PTS
Tormaresca Trentangeli Castel del Monte 2018
Puglia, ItalyTrentangeli is a 65/25/10 mix of aglianico / cabernet sauvignon / syrah and it is all Apulia. The nose is a fragrant mix of violets and intensely savoury dark fruit with a dusting of smoke and spice. It is a beautiful mix of power and freshness, pitching black raspberry, licorice, and balsamic that finish with persistence and surprising suppleness. Think big dinner dishes: lamb osso buco, rice with Bolognese sauce, or mature cheeses. It is also certified organic and one of the biggest red wine bargains in the province.Prices:| BC | $19.99 | 750ml |
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86PTS
Tesouro Da Vinha Vinho Tinto NV
Alentejo, Central and Southern Portugal, PortugalThis simple Alentejo red blends alicante bouchet, aragonez, and castelão into a juicy, smokey, tart, medium bodied red. Cherries and perfumed red florals lead, with a snappy red currant on the warming finish, all wrapped with sticky / blocky tannins. One for rustic stews.Prices:| BC | $12.00 | 750ml |
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03 May 2024
92PTS
Kelvin Feku Grenache Noir 2022
Wellington, Paarl, Coastal Region, South AfricaKelvin Feku is Alex Milner's (of Natte Valleij) assistant winemaker, and this is the first release under his own label. Kelvin arrived to South Africa from Zimbabwe as a refugee, and quickly became captivated and inspired by winemaking. This dryland Grenache comes from Wellington's malmesbury shale and glenrosa soils. The grapes were basket pressed and left undisturbed in foudre for 9 months. Pouring a diaphanous crimson hue, this lighter red charms with perfumed wild raspberry, crunchy cherry, smoked plum, tobacco, sapid branchiness, and fragrant roiboos tea which lingers long on the saline finish. The core is pure, acidity buoyant, and tannins whisper delicate, all welcoming drinking now, liberally (try with a slight chill). A winemaker to watch.Prices:| BC | $48.00 | 750ml |
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92PTS
Vinyes Domènech Empelts Garnatxa Peluda 2020
Montsant, Catalunya (Catalonia Cataluña), SpainThis biodynamic, massale selection Garnacha Pelluda (aka Hairy Garnacha) is rooted on a 400m terrace facing north, protected by easterly-wind forests that give it a unique expression. Calciferous-clay and loess soils gives it a unique finesse, resulting in an airy, delicate, and subtle Garnacha. After a native ferment, it aged for 1 year in French barrels. Fragrant wild raspberry, perfumed cherry is infiltrated with ample scrubby mountainous herbs, gentle white pepper, and kissed with wildflowers. Tannins are long, fine, and well absorbed into the fruit, allowing this to run long on the gently warming finish. A lovely mountain garnacha, very pure, drinking smartly now and with time ahead.Prices:| ON | $53.00 | 750ml |
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89PTS
Izadi Larrosa Negra Garnacha Rioja 2021
Rioja, SpainLarrosa Negra is constructed to showcase the juicy, fruity characters of garnacha. It is grown at 700 metres, the highest altitude in Rioja, over poor, stony soils. It is fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged for only six months in second and third year French and American oak barrels. The resulting wine is fresh with a medium body. The palate is a red fruited, cherry, blueberry affair with a fair bit of spice that’s ready to drink. It is a wine for chicken, lamb chops, or vegetable lasagna. Thirty-five years in, Bodegas Izadi is a relative newcomer to Rioja Alavesa, owned by Gonzalo Antón. Antón made his money in hotels and restaurants and set out to produce wine that works for hospitality wine lists. Suffice it to say the brand has expanded, and you can sip this one at home.Prices:| BC | $28.99 | 750ml |
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91PTS
Las Moradas de San Martin Initio 2018
Vinos de Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, SpainLas Moradas de San Martin sits at a height of 870m above sea level, on the fringes of the Sierra de Gredos, in the unique landscape of San Martín de Valdeiglesias to the south-east of Madrid. 21 hectares of vineyards surround the winery. From old vine (some over 100 years), high altitude garnacha located at 900m in the windy Madrilenian slope, these organically dry farmed bush vines are rooted in the estate's granitic sandy soils. Winemaker Isabel Galindo is very hands-off in the winery, respecting the vines and farming. After a week of cooler maceration, this was native fermented over three weeks prior to heading to French barrels for an average of 14 months prior to the final blend. This was then bottled without fining or filtration. Ripe cherry, raspberry leather, fragrant tayberry, cracked mustard seed work through the muscular, yet finessed palate, aided by the mountainous altitude and cooling breezes. Tannins are somewhat wild and grippy / sticky, reminding us of the heritage of this wine and place. Drinking now (ideally with mushrooms / lamb).Prices:| BC | $45.00 | 750ml |
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89PTS
Bodegas Luis Marin Gabarda Excelsis Old Vine Garnacha 2020
Aragon, SpainThe Ignacio Marin family have deep roots in the Cariñena region, with a winemaking heritage stretching back centuries. This cuvée sources old garnacha vines from 600m, and aged at least 3 months in French oak. Plumped blackberry, plum, black raspberry roll along the medium bodied palate, lit with a stony acidity, and framed with cushy tannins. At 13.5%, this is charming and drinkable now, ideally with roast lamb / pork dishes.Prices:| BC | $20.99 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Bodegas Luis Marin Essentia Reserva 2018
Aragon, SpainThe Ignacio Marin family have deep roots in the Cariñena region, with a winemaking heritage stretching back centuries. This old vine garnacha grows at 650m, and was hand selected from 80+ year old vines. It rested at least 16 months in older wood before release. Sultry and textural, with ripe strawberries, fragrant raspberries, and plum leather working through the palate, licked with red liquorice, deftly brightened with a lofted stony acidity, and framed with well integrated, toothsome tannins. This well harnesses old vine garnacha's heft and power, and turns it back into a friendly, interesting, and drinkable red. Quite smart.Prices:| BC | $29.99 | 750ml |
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02 May 2024
90PTS
Blue Mountain Estate Cuvée Pinot Noir 2017
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaPale with a garnet rim, this has a quiet opening that shows an array of drifting, seasoned aromas, including autumn leaves, mushroom, strawberry, wet cedar, aged leather and dry tobacco. Very savoury strawberry, leather, cedar, pomegranate molasses, and preserved cherries follow. The finish is clear, elegant and delicately textured, revealing a refined, balanced wine now in its twilight years. The Estate Cuvée is a mix of young vines and a blend of French clones 114, 115, 667, and 777.Prices:| BC | $35.00 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Liquidity Pinot Noir 2020
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThis opens with light intensity, sharing marionberry, cherry, lilac, and baking spice. The palate shows a ripe, rounded raspberry, blackberry, and pomegranate mid, with a light sifting of tannins giving interest and balance to the fruit. Overall, it's lighter in body and intensity, but the flavours are lengthy. There is great harmony in the finish, with marionberry and mulberry finishing. It should improve further with more bottle age as the last of the tannins dwindle. This is estate fruit from Liquidity's 1994 planting of own rooted clone 115 plus clones 667, 828, 777, and 114, all aged in French oak for 11 months.Prices:| BC | $29.00 | 750ml |
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93PTS
Meyer Family Vineyards Pinot Noir McLean Creek Road Vineyard 2022
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaA beautiful perfume of cinnamon, nutmeg, mulberry, loganberry, pomegranate, and sweeter spiced wood leads. The flavours are a gracefully balanced fuse of raspberry, strawberry, mulberry, and savoury potpourri, while the texture is very airy and delicate, showing a long, reiterating, complex finish. From the McLean Creek Road Vineyard, planted in 1994 in OK Falls, to 5 clones (91, 114, 115, 667, 777). It was destemmed, cold soaked, and native fermented over 2 weeks before moving into French oak (25% new) for 11 months before bottling, unfined, and unfiltered.Prices:| BC | $37.48 | 750ml |
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91PTS
Storm Haven Pinot Noir 2020
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThis wine initially shows a distinctive and engaging range of florals and darker aromas, including black raspberry, blackcurrant, violets, black olive, and lilac. This follows similarly in the flavours, with blackcurrant, black olive, black tea, and a seam of minerality entering the frame. It's herb tinged, relatively tight and lean, with good fruit intensity from front to back, leading to a long finish involving florals, darker fruits, and coal dust. There's a sense of slumbering power here and a submerged set of flavours that will surface with more bottle time. 2020 comes off two home vineyard blocks: Amelia Block's, with clay and granite; and Block 4's decomposing granite and sandy gravels. The mix of clones here is 114, 115, 667, 777, and 828.Prices:| BC | $50.00 | 750ml |
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89PTS
Meyer Pinot Noir 2022
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaPale with a ruby rim, there's some light sour cherry compote, plum, a touch of barnyard, and rounded, smooth cherry and baking spice, with very approachable tannins. The finish is long, focused, and well balanced. This was hand picked from 4 distinct vineyard sites: Fat Coyote, Anarchist Mountain, Lakehill Road, and McLean Creek Road, between Oct 9 and Nov 2. The wine is aged in neutral French oak barrels and puncheons before bottling in April 2023.Prices:| BC | $26.99 | 750ml |
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93PTS
Meyer Family Vineyards Pinot Noir Old Block McLean Creek Vineyard 2022
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThis opens with elevated notes of wild strawberry, fresh cherry, lilac, and baking spices, and follows through with a rolling wave of loganberry, cherry, and strawberry. Silky and seamless, the floral tinged fruit has an appealing, supple intensity that pulls you to it. The fruit echoes into a prolonged finish. This Old Block Pinot from Meyer is always special and distinct. The fruit comes from a one acre plot that was established before the previous property was purchased by the Meyers, so the clone is unknown. The fruit was gently destemmed via gravity into small open top fermenters and allowed to cold soak. After cold soaking, an indigenous fermentation began, with temperature peaking at 30 degrees Celsius. Gentle hand plunging of the must was done throughout. After a post maceration period the wine was transferred to French oak barrels (40% new) where it remained for 11 months. A natural malolactic fermentation occurred in late spring. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.Prices:| BC | $44.44 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Code Wines Estate Blend Pinot Noir 2020
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaLook for bright cherry and preserved plums shaded with mulberry and baking spice/barrel notes. In the glass, transparent, layered flavours of cherry, mulberry and pomegranate throughout, leading to an extended, graceful ending. The modest alcohol and harmonic acidity lets the fruit subtleties shine through. An impressive wine coming from young vines, this winery is one to follow. It mixes three clones: Dijon 115; Ancestor 01 (unknown clone); and Pommard 91; each individually picked for ripeness, processed separately, fermented and aged in 2nd fill and neutral French oak for one year and bottled unfined and unfiltered.Prices:| BC | $34.00 | 750ml |
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94PTS
Meyer Family Vineyards Pinot Noir Micro Cuvée McLean Creek Vineyards 2022
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThis starts with deeply rounded black cherry, loganberry, early blackberry, blueberry, and baking spices. There's a serious, but elegant concentration in the fruit, which seem to float upwards onto your palate. Focused, supple notes are animated here by a subtle, almost magical acidity. Black cherry and marionberry contribute to a structure that's like a long, breaking wave. Overall it shows elevated intensity without sacrificing elegance and nuance. It all rests on very restrained 13.5%, leaving a a remarkable, next level pinot noir from the hand of winemaker Chris Carson. This mix of Pommard 91, and 4 Dijon clones was fermented in stainless and French oak (50% new) for 11 months prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered.Prices:| BC | $58.35 | 750ml |
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91PTS
Meyer Family Vineyards Pinot Noir - B Field Blend McLean Creek Road Vineyard 2022
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaAlmost a rosé in colour, on the nose this has a lovely balance of fresh wild strawberry, barnyard, rose petals, cinnamon and dried orange peel. The flavours are a balanced, delicate mix of strawberry, autumn leaves, and mushroom, with a drift of pu-eh tea. Rosehip, autumn leaf, and wild strawberry persist along with a floating acidity into a lingering finish. Very different and interesting. The pinot plantings at McLean Creek Road Vineyard are a mix of different Burgundian clones. When winemaker Chris Carson planted the B Field in 2017, the new block received three Dijon clones (115, 667, 777) and cuttings from an unknown clone from the designated Old Block site. The goal was to be able to harvest a Field Blend each year. All other clones harvested from this vineyard are picked and fermented separately, but for the B, the four clones are picked on the same day and cofermented in a more traditional field blend way.Prices:| BC | $31.39 | 750ml |
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89PTS
Wild Goose Pinot Noir 2020
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaPale in the glass with a ruby rim, this wine begins with light, rounded, floral, and airy cherry, strawberry, a touch of baking spices, and some forest floor. The flavours are straightforward but with good clarity. The light berries whisper off nicely into the lengthy finish. The grapes are sourced from the Naramata Bench.Prices:| BC | $29.99 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Tightrope Winery Pinot Noir Rubis 2022
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaOne of two single vineyard pinot noirs from 2022, this comes off Naramata Bench's Rubis Family Vineyard. After destemming, this was native fermented in stainless over 21 days on skins prior to resting in French oak (30% new) for 10 months. Lifted raspberry, fragrant cherry is threaded with black tea, and kissed with cracked pink peppercorn. Tannins are slight, long, and lithe, guiding this to a bitter cherry twist. A smart, pretty pinot for enjoying now with salmon dishes.Prices:| BC | $36.00 | 750ml |
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91PTS
Tightrope Winery Pinot Noir Fleet Road Vineyard 2022
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaOne of two single vineyard pinot noirs from 2022, this is off Naramata's sustainably farmed Fleet Road Vineyard. Destemmed grapes were native fermented in stainless over 3 weeks on skins before pressing and resting in French oak (30% new) for 10 months. Fragrant black cherry, juicy black plum is scented with scrubby herbs, and wrapped with long, finely sticky tannins, finishing with an alluring medicinal raspberry and salinity. Lovely balance in this medium bodied pinot, one well suited to duck.Prices:| BC | $38.00 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Meyer Family Vineyards Pinot Noir Micro Cuvée McLean Creek Vineyards 2022
Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaMicro Cuvée bottlings are barrel selections, in this case, from the family's estate McLean Creek Vineyard, in OK Falls. This pinot comes from a mix of Pommard 91, and 4 Dijon clones (114, 115, 667), planted across three distinct blocks, and on a range of sloping gravel and sandy loams. This began fermentation in stainless before moving into French oak (50% new) where it remained for 11 months prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered. Autumnal forest, dried florals, and cherry leather rule the medium palate, seasoned with smoked stones and black tea. Tannins are soft and supple, with their silkiness turning into a bitter cherry nip on the finish. Tastes older than 2022 at present, and while the Diam10 cork will preserve this for many years in your cellar, I think it's drinking smartly now.Prices:| BC | $58.35 | 750ml |
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87PTS
Lakeboat Pinot Noir 2021
Kaleden, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThe 2021 iis much lighter in colour and style than the 2020, but still has a ripe, sweet, cherry, mulberry profile with an earthy, brown spice, barnyard finish. Approachable, ready to drink with mostly silky textures. Lakeboat is owned by Tara Mathison, who originally purchased an older house in Kaleden surrounded by the vineyard of Topshelf Winery, which was also for sale. Lakeboat Winery opened in 2022, and 2021 is the second vintage to be released. The consulting winemaker is Mireille Sauvé.Prices:| BC | $29.95 | 750ml |
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01 May 2024
89PTS
Hillside Heritage Series Viognier 2022
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaA cool growing season has leaned out this viognier, which is wildly floral on the nose and exceptionally lean on the palate. The grapes were destemmed and given 18 hours of skin contact, with 25% fermented in new and older oak. A small portion was transferred to new jarre, a sandstone vessel shaped to promote constant motion for agitating the lees. After five months of lees contact, it is all blended. The palate is light, with delicate fruit and a wash of rosewater. Ready to drink and might be the ticket for spot prawn season.Prices:| BC | $28.00 | 750ml |
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88PTS
Pentâge Winery Viognier 2018
Skaha Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaPentâge wines are never rushed to market, as exemplified by this 2018 Viognier. The nose is a tropical affair, pitching baked apples, pineapple and orange rind that spill onto the palate, where peaches and oranges lead, and bitter citrus rind finishes. There is a touch of butter and vanilla here from 75% of the wine aging in 2nd fill French oak barriques.Prices:| BC | $26.09 | 750ml |
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88PTS
Paul Mas Viognier 2022
Vin de Pays d'Oc, Languedoc, Sud de France, FranceConsistently fun to drink and never over processed, the Paul Mas Viognier is a wine that will appeal to the masses. Fragrant, floral aromas spill onto the palate along with citrus, ginger, and pineapple. Fresh and lively, it is a go-to white for chicken or pork, and an all season wine. The Mas recipe mixes viognier from cool and warm sites using young and old vines and relatively low yields at 52 hl/ha. Back up the truck again.Prices:| BC | $16.99 | 750ml |
| AB | $18.75 | 750ml |
| MB | $12.25 | 750ml |
| ON | $14.95 | 750ml |
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90PTS
Tightrope Winery Viognier Fleet Road Vineyard 2023
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaFrom their estate Fleet Road vineyard, this viognier was fermented in a mix of French and acacia barrels, with 3 months' rest on lees. The wood use amps up viognier's inherent spice, imbuing the ripe pear, apricot, nectarine, greengage, and jasmine with gingersnap and white pepper. There's a lovely lime line that keeps this fresh and bright through the snappy, dry finish. Highly drinkable.Prices:| BC | $27.00 | 750ml |
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89PTS
Van Westen Vineyards Viognier 2022
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, CanadaThis viognier offers a restrained expression of the variety, featuring delicate orange blossom and jasmine. The palate reveals tangerine, slightly underripe white peach, and apricot, accompanied by a touch of tropical fruit, including lychee and pineapple. Noteworthy is its elevated crisp acidity, quite high for viognier, offering a tight structure and avoiding the overripeness often associated with this grape. The finish leaves a subtle bitterness which may benefit from further development and integration.Prices:| BC | $27.50 | 750ml |
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