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Wine Recommendation
Tinhorn Creek Vineyards
2006 Gewurztraminer(Okanagan Valley)
In 2006, Tinhorn Creek produced almost 5,600 cases of what has become perhaps its most popular varietal. The irony is that Gewürztraminer was not in the original planting scheme in 1994, when the winery’s owners proposed planting Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. Winemaker Sandra Oldfield nixed Pinot Blanc as not being sufficiently distinct, suggesting Gewürztraminer instead.
Most of the fruit comes from the mountainside estate vineyard, from vines that are in their 10th year and are delivering the aroma and flavour punch of mature vines. The winery sets out to capture these qualities by harvesting at night and fermenting slowly at low temperatures. These grapes were picked on September 22 and 26 and fermentation was not completed until six weeks later.
The wine begins with spice and rose petal aromas. On the palate, the tropical core of fruit flavours, mainly sweet grapefruit, is powerfully focussed with spicy zest of orange on the finish. The finish is crisp and refreshing. 87 points.
Reviewed July 15, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Tinhorn Creek Vineyards
The Wine
Winery: Tinhorn Creek 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. |