Epic ‘22 celebrates what was truly an exceptional growing season. These wines featured here are standout wines from the 2022 vintage: Old Vine Cabernet Garland and The Judge.
We would like to highlight this remarkable 2022 vintage. It will go down in history as one of the most challenging yet productive years on record. The extended growing season that year led to a longer harvest, with every grape carefully handpicked. Thanks to the addition of new vineyards, the overall yield was nearly 30% larger than had originally been anticipated. This larger fruit yield remained on the vine longer than usual, and just as the end of this process approached, an unexpected three feet of snow fell on November 2nd. As a result of this heavy snowfall the grape skins began to raisin slightly and concentrate, enhancing the flavour intensity, structure and colour of the wines.
These wines reflect the personality and uniqueness of this particularly outstanding vintage.
The winery is excited to showcase the 2022 Garland. “This vintage of Garland is the finest we have ever crafted. It has amazing concentration of fruit while remaining elegant. We are eager to gather reviews and scores that will complement this exceptional wine” – Mark Hopley, Winemaker
2022 THE JUDGE
WINE PROFILE
Tasting Notes
Lifted aromas of star anise, dark cherry, cocoa, purple basil and cedar precede a palate with initial notes of cocoa, roasted fennel, ripe Lapin cherry, a hint of caramel with light tobacco notes on the lengthy full finish. This wine would pair extremely well with slow smoked ribs or a barbecued ribeye.
Vineyard Notes
The 2022 season at Hester Creek will be remembered as one of the most challenging, yet productive years on record. With the addition of new vineyards, the 2022 harvest yielded a larger crop than average. Due to cooler than-expected spring temperatures and more rain than is typical of the South Okanagan, the season was off to a late start. By summer, temperatures rose and lasted into the autumn, extending the season with the warmest September and October on record. Growing degree days reached 1676 on average. This longer growing season led to longer hang times for the fruit as they developed phenolic ripeness. Harvest began on September 9th with our Ti Amo and finished on December 1st with our Old Vine Cabernet Franc. For the white varietals, longer hang times resulted in delicate aromatics. The red varietals hung on the vine throughout November allowing the grapes to concentrate their colours and flavours. The 2022 vintage will be remembered as a milestone year for producing exceptional, fruit-forward and age-worthy wines.
Winemaker Notes
The long growing season of 2022 made for an extensive harvest with all the grapes being hand picked. The Petit Verdot and Malbec were the first to be harvested on October 12, and were followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon on October 27, Merlot on October 28, and finally the Cabernet Franc on December 1. Each bunch of grapes was hand sorted and destemmed into our Ganimede fermentation tanks where they were cold soaked for two days prior to fermentation. The Petit Verdot and Malbec were co-fermented with the rest of the lots being fermented separately. After the primary and malolactic fermentations, the lots were blended and barrelled down into a combination of new and neutral French oak for a subtle oak integration. They were aged in their respective barrels for 24 months, then racked, cross blended and bottled on May 7, 2025.
$49.99 available online and at the winery
2022 Old Vine Cabernet Garland
WINE PROFILE
Tasting Notes
Rich aromas of cocoa, raspberry, blackberry and clove lead into a palate of dark chocolate with plum, vanilla bean, fresh thyme and a hint of cinnamon. The 2021 Garland has a lengthy, full-bodied finish, making it the ideal wine to pair with slow braised meats such as short ribs or osso buco.
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
As a premium red wine, the Garland was crafted using the finest red grapes from the 2021 vintage. Each varietal was hand harvested late in the season in order to allow the grapes to achieve an optimal fusion of ripeness and intensity. The bunches were then hand sorted and destemmed with the whole berries going into our Italian Ganimede fermenters to be cold soaked for two days prior to inoculation. The Cabernet Sauvignon and Italian Merlot were fermented separately with the Petit Verdot and Malbec going through a co-fermentation. The lots were then cross blended and barrelled down into exclusively French oak barrels where they aged for 24 months before being bottled in May of 2024.
$64.99 available online and at the winery
Vineyard Eleven – a premium terroir for creating premium wines.
Located just south of Hester Creek on the east side of Osoyoos Lake is our Vineyard Eleven. It is an extremely warm vineyard site with south-west facing slopes allowing for a higher number of Growing Degree Days (GDD) with long afternoons, warm evenings and the additional reflection off the lake. We have given this vineyard the name, Vineyard Eleven, as it is an 11 out of 10 for quality vineyard locations in BC. Along with Grenache and Mourvèdre that go into the GSM, we also grow Sangiovese on this site for our 2022 Super Tuscan “Undici” to be released in 2026.
VINTAGE 2025 UPDATE
After some challenging growing seasons in the Okanagan, the 2025 season has started wonderfully. Vines that were damaged due to the extreme cold conditions in January of 2024 have recovered extremely well, which has resulted in a higher than anticipated crop forecast for
the 2025 vintage. Temperatures in the Southern Okanagan for April, May and the start of June have been well above average (the 5th warmest in the last 20 years) which could result in an early start to the 2025 vintage. Overall, all indications to date point to the 2025 vintage being one of high quality for the Okanagan Valley.
Wine notes, images and winery information courtesy of the winery. Images: MyVanCity. I received complimentsary wine to facilitate this feature.
