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Wine Recommendation
Golden Mile Cellars
2005 Black Arts Fifth Element Red(Okanagan Valley)
This would be a Meritage except that winemaker Michael Bartier added what he called a “fifth element” – a dash of Syrah. And that is how this brand came to be named.
This wine results from an extremely complex regimen of fermenting and blending. Bartier started with 27 lots of wine, all fermented separately with a variety of yeasts, temperatures and macerations. The lots completed malolactic fermentation in new and used French oak. In the summer of 2006, Bartier spent two months on blending trials before settling on the final blend. This was then returned to the barrels for almost another year of aging before bottling (without fining). Production is 700 cases.
The result is a wine with both power and elegance, with vanilla aromas and bold flavours of plum, black currant, licorice and coffee. The tannins are fine and ripe, suggesting aging potential. But it is such a satisfying drink now that few bottles are likely to sit very long in anyone’s cellar. 90 points.
Reviewed December 7, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Golden Mile Cellars
 2006 VQA Chardonnay, Luckhurst Family Vineyards (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 11/8/2007 |
 2006 Old Vines Chenin Blanc, Home Vineyard (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 7/25/2007 |
 2004 Cabernet Franc, Luckhurst Family Vineyards (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 11/16/2006 |
The Wine
Winery: Golden Mile Cellars |
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. |