|
|
Wine Recommendation
Township 7 Vineyards and Winery
2004 Merlot Reserve, Blue Terrace Vineyard(Okanagan Valley)
A small partnership led by veteran restaurant owner Mike Raffan purchased Township 7 last summer from founder Corey and Gwen Coleman. When he decided to change careers and get into the wine business, he was drawn to Township 7 by the winery’s Merlot, the variety that, more than any other, established Township 7’s label.
The 250 cases of Reserve Merlot made in 2004 with fruit from a vineyard near Oliver have taken it up a notch. The initial winemaking was by Michael Bartier, with the wine being finished by Township 7’s current winemaker, Bradley Cooper. At one point in their careers, they worked together. It is not surprising that a seamless wine was the result.
This is an elegant Merlot, with a core of spicy, almost sweet plum flavours, enhanced with notes of vanilla and chocolate. The flavours give the wine a sense of richness without heaviness. Aged in a combination of French and American oak for 20 months, the wine is unfiltered – and no doubt is the better for it. This is a superb food wine, not one of those palate-wearying monsters that reserve reds can become.
Reviewed March 12, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Township 7 Vineyards and Winery
The Wine
Winery: Township 7 Vineyards and Winery |
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. |