2014 harvest is now over across the valley, minus the ice wine harvest that our colleagues are busy with. While is too soon to be definitive, 2014 is shaping up to be a classic South Okanagan vintage: hot summer days, cold nights, dry conditions and a steady late indian summer ensured perfect ripeness of both sugars and phenolics. No maladies or other un-wanteds to really be concerned about. The finished wines should be what we have become accustomed to love about our region.
We now turn to our last new releases of the year- 2011 Equinoxe Cabernet Franc and 2011 Retouche– before we take a break during the holidays and come back in the new year to continue with the elevage and get ready to bottle whites and roses of 2014 vintage.
While we’ve been busy de-stemmimg and crushing the grapes, aging in barrels, cellaring and bottling the finished product for you, we know you’re also gearing up for the holidays. Don’t fret the season of giving, we got you covered. We have put together an array of gift options with different budgets in mind. Give the always appreciated gift of wine.
$145 – Three bottle limit per person
Equinoxe
Our Aha Moment
Early during harvest in 2006 (our second vintage), a single parcel of 14 year old Cabernet Franc vines in our Golden Mile vineyard we call La Feuille D’or (the golden leaf) yielded something very special. We were excited to witness vines that had produced visibly smaller berries with thicker skins than expected for Cabernet Franc. The fruit had fully lignified seeds, completely ripe fruit flavours and healthy sugar levels but with high acidity – an effect we would later be delighted by. We had identified that this was going to produce something special but sadly we had only a mere half ton of fruit to work with. We put on silk gloves and treated the fruit with exceptional care. The fruit was hand de-stemmed to ensure we kept complete berries and that no jacks (small pieces of broken stems) were left. This resulted in a rather extreme form of hand sorting as each individual berry was examined.
The resulting Equinoxe Cabernet Franc 2006, captured our and much of the wine community’s attention and showed us an intriguing combination of new and old world qualities hence the name: Equinoxe. The wine showed us simultaneously lush, exuberant fruit flavours (thanks to the heat of the day) with great natural acidity and elegant structure (thanks to the cold of the night).
Calling Equinoxe our reserve tier would be correct in a sense – certainly they are our rarest and priciest offerings. They are our special children, the reason we get up early in the morning and continue the back breaking work till the sun sets. Overall we believe that each and every Equinoxe wine we’ve crafted captures the true essence of the South Okanagan valley and is something everyone at the winery is extremely proud of.
REVIEWS
The price indicates that the winery pulled out all the stops to make this wine. The vines were limited to a yield of 1.4 tons an acre, resulting in amazing ripeness for a cool year. The alcohol here is 14.5%. The wine spent 26 months in some of the best new French oak the winery could buy. The intense aromas of this wine explode from the glass. There are notes of cherry, leather, spice and cigar on the nose, leading to intense flavours of black berry, black cherry, leather and tobacco. The individual with whom I tasted spoke of this wine having “sauvage” qualities, referring to its exotic, almost wild character.
John Schreiner | 93-95 points
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More rave reviews are coming out soon, but this wine will be all gone by then. Read some past vintage reviews:
“2006 cabernet franc had room-filling aromatics and the thrilling concentration—a silky texture on the tongue—usually found only in wines from warmer regions. I’d never had a better Canadian wine.”
Bruce Schoenfeld |Wine Spectator, wine editor for Travel and Leisure magazine
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“Le Vieux Pin Équinoxe Cabernet Franc 2007 (Sold out). Only 26 cases were released. The wine is a tour de force with aromas of blackberries and menthol and flavours of lingonberries and red liquorice”
John Schreiner | 95 points
$65 – Wine Club Exclusive
2011 Retouche recalls the illicit practice of
“Hermitaging” the wines of Bordeaux in the 1800s.
As a meagre 62 case production, Retouche 2011 was kept as a wine club exclusive wine. Now that wine society and wine club members as well as return customers have secured their share, we are excited to share with you that we have a tiny inventory of this wine remaining for public release. Time to act is now. Retouche purchase limit is set at a maximum of 3 bottles per person
while inventory lasts.
Order online or send us an email with your order.
REVIEWS
“The wine is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon that, in the former tradition of Bordeaux, has been “touched up” with 20 percent of Syrah. The wine begins with classic minty Cabernet Sauvignon aromas. On the palate, the black currant flavours also show a touch of mint. The addition of Syrah probably accounts for the supple and ripe texture.”
John Schreiner | 91 points
