Joie Wines

Now releasing its third vintage, Joie is a winery established by sommeliers Heidi Noble and Michael Dinn to make the kind of wines they liked to drink when they worked in the Vancouver restaurant scene. A young couple with limited resources, they made their first three vintages in space leased at other wineries, using purchased grapes. Reflecting the success of their wines (800 cases in 2004 to 5,000 cases in 2006), they are planting a vineyard and building a winery of their own this year.

A Noble Blend was inspired not so much by Heidi’s surname as by the Edelzwicker (literally noble blend) wines of Alsace which are made by blending aromatic Germanic varietals. The couple went to great lengths in making this wine, using a sorting table to ensure that only clean, healthy grapes were crushed. After destemming and crushing, the Kerner, Pinot Blanc and Riesling were cold-soaked for 24 hours, picking up additional flavour. The other two varieties, which have bitter phenolics in the skins, were allowed no skin contact after crushing. Each variety received a long, cool ferment separately. When the blend was put together, a dash of sweet reserve was added to achieve eight grams per litre of residual sugar – so well balanced that the sweetness is barely perceptible.

The wine shows a ravishing tropical aroma. On the palate, there is layer upon layer of fruit flavour – ripe pineapple, apricots, pears, strawberries, lychee; flavours that one savours and that have a long, lingering finish. The texture is full without any heaviness and the moderate alcohol of 12% makes it an easy wine to keep drinking. The winery released 1,590 cases and 750 magnums. 90 points.

Reviewed May 29, 2007 by John Schreiner.