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Wine Recommendation
Blue Grouse Vineyards
2003 Pinot Noir, Estate(Vancouver Island)
Winery owners Hans Kiltz and his son, Richard, a German-trained winemaker, celebrate their unique terroir on the winery website by saying the vines, which are neither irrigated nor fertilized, need “just a drop of passion, a splash of dedication and hard work, and a pinch of passion.” This gentle south-facing slope was planted originally by the late John Harper, a legend for developing several trial vineyards on coastal British Columbia.
The Kiltz family bought the property about 1988. A German veterinarian with a long career in the tropics, the elder Kitz came to British Columbia to work in fish farming just when that business slumped. So he turned to wine growing, opening Blue Grouse in 1993. He is among the small band of Vancouver Island vintners who produce estate-grown wines only.
Kiltz largely replanted the vineyard, which had been a hodge podge of trial plantings. Pinot Noir, at close to four acres, is one of the major varieties grown here. The production is a very disciplined yield of one and a half to two tons an acre. The result is a dark ruby wine with considerable charm. It has aromas and flavours of spice, cherries and strawberries and it has the classic velvet texture that makes Pinot Noir so appealing. The finish is fruity and dry. 86 points.
Reviewed December 14, 2006 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Blue Grouse Vineyards
The Wine
Winery: Blue Grouse 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. |