|
|
Wine Recommendation
Hillside Estate Winery
2005 Reserve Syrah, Hidden Valley(Okanagan Valley)
This wine is from 4,000 Syrah vines that winery owner Bill Carpenter planted in 2001 in Hillside’s Hidden Valley vineyard. It gets that name because the vineyard is tucked away from view in a valley within the hills, a mere five minute drive above the winery. Carpenter and his wife, Kathy, have taken advantage of the setting’s privacy to build their home there, with a view over the vines.
The Naramata Bench is at the Okanagan’s northern limit for Syrah. The Hidden Valley vineyard has the advantage of being a very warm microclimate. As well, the nearby Okanagan Lake gives Naramata Bench one of the Okanagan’s longest frost-free seasons. Hillside picked the Syrah for this wine during the first week of November in 2005. The vines produced fruit for 350 cases in 2005 and reached full production with 1,000 cases in 2006.
Hillside’s 2005 Syrah is an impressive Rhone-style red, dark in colour, with gamey aromas of spicy delicatessen meats, pepper and black cherries. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied with flavours of blackberries and spice. While it is ready to drink now, the firm but ripe tannins promise the ability to cellar gracefully for a few more years. 90 points.
Reviewed November 20, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Hillside Estate Winery
The Wine
Winery: Hillside Estate 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. |