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Wine Recommendation
Orofino Vineyards
2006 Sagebrush Series Pinot Noir(Similkameen Valley)
Orofino’s new Sagebrush Series wines are made from vineyards other than the estate vineyard. The Pinot Noir for this wine comes from an unnamed vineyard in nearby Keremeos, from vines now eight years old.
Pinot Noir seems a paradoxical variety for the Similkameen Valley, a narrow trench with high mountains that retain the heat during typically blistering summers. Conventional wisdom would say that the Similkameen is too hot for Pinot Noir. That is challenged by Orofino and two other Similkameen wineries (Herder, Seven Stones), which make good Pinot Noir consistently, relying on meticulous viticulture to prevent the hot sun from baking the flavours from Pinot Noir.
This is a cheery, accessible Pinot Noir, light on colour but with good silky texture and soft tannins on the palate. Aged 10 months in French and American oak, the wine has some vanilla as well as cherry aromas. On the palate, there are flavours of raspberry and other red berries. The wine is closed with a screw cap to preserve its freshness. 87 points.
Reviewed November 15, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Orofino Vineyards
The Wine
Winery: Orofino Vineyards |
The Reviewer
John Schreiner
John Schreiner has been covering the wines of British Columbia for the past 30 years and has written 10 books on the wines of Canada and BC. He has judged at major competitions and is currently a panel member for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Both as a judge and as a wine critic, he approaches each wine not to find fault, but to find excellence. That he now finds the latter more often than the former testifies to the dramatic improvement shown by BC winemaking in the past decade. |