Joie Wines

Influenced by their taste for European wines, Joie owners Heidi Noble and Michael Dinn chose as their model the “un-oaked Burgundian Chardonnays of Chablis and the lesser known wines of Macon-Clessé.” This wine is drier than Joie’s previous Chardonnays, less fruit-driven perhaps and expressing more minerality and complexity.

The winery secured most of its fruit from vineyards near Okanagan Falls “because there is a mineral character to the white wines that exists nowhere else in British Columbia that we have tasted. From what we are able to surmise, this characteristic is due to the gravel and large glacial stones that make up the soil structure here …” Forty percent of the Chardonnay was the Chardonnay Musqué clone, noted for its aromatic personality. They disclose that there was a touch of botrytis on the Pinot Blanc and they welcomed that because it added a honeyed texture.

This is pleasantly evident in the fullness of the wine. The wine begins with delicate citrus, honey and apple aromas, delivering flavours of ripe apples, pears and muskmelons. The dry finish is enhanced by that Macon-like minerality that gives the wine its complexity. 669 cases were made. 88 points.

Reviewed July 6, 2007 by John Schreiner.