|
|
Wine Recommendation
Garry Oaks Winery
2005 Pinot Noir, Estate(Salt Spring Island)
This is the fourth vintage of Pinot Noir to be released by Garry Oaks, one of two wineries on Saltspring Island. Along with Pinot Gris, this is the major variety planted in the winery’s seven-acre vineyard. The vines are meticulously managed by co-owner Marcel Mercier, who generates first-rate grapes for Elaine Kozak, his winemaking partner. His affinity for viticulture comes largely from his background as an environmental scientist who consulted internationally before exiting the fast lane for Saltspring Island.
The 2005 season on the island, notable for its dry, warm summers, was excellent for wine grapes. Learning from her experience in previous vintages, Kozak finessed this one, putting more of the wine in used barrels rather than new oak. It was a good decision that preserved the attractive fruit of Saltspring Pinot Noir.
This wine has a fine dark colour for the variety, with aromas of raspberries and cherries. In the palate, there is a delicious play of fruit flavours, with a spiciness lifting the cherries and raspberries. The texture is silky. This is an elegant and pretty wine with good intensity and with the potential to benefit from cellaring. Kozak compares it with her first Pinot Noir, in 2002, a wine that is still drinking very well. 88 points.
Reviewed April 2, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Garry Oaks Winery
The Wine
Winery: Garry Oaks 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. |