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Wine Recommendation
Inniskillin Okanagan Vineyards Winery
2006 Discovery Series Marsanne Roussanne, Dark Horse Vineyard(Okanagan Valley)
Starting with Zinfandel four years ago, Inniskillin Okanagan Vineyards has offered a range of wines called Discovery Series that showcase varieties new to the Okanagan. The object is to explore thoroughly the potential of far more varieties than now dominate the vineyards.
This wine is the first release of an Okanagan white made with the Rhone varieties, Marsanne and Roussanne. In 2005 the winery grafted four rows of Gewürztraminer (a variety ill-suited for this hot site) to two rows each of Marsanne and Roussanne. Encouraged by the quality of the small crop the following year, Inniskillin has planted more of these two varieties in a nearby vineyard. Winemaker Sandor Mayer has discovered that these varieties, quite unlike Gewürztraminer, retain appropriate acidity on hot sites and are mature before the potential alcohol soars.
For this wine, the grapes were crushed together, given about three hours skin contact and then lightly pressed and cold-fermented. The wines were finished in stainless steel. The result is a wine that begins with an appealing aroma of honeyed fruit. On the palate, there are layers of flavours, ranging from ripe pears and apples to papaya. There is a fine mineral spine and a dry finish. 90 points.
Reviewed January 17, 2008 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Inniskillin Okanagan Vineyards Winery
 2005 Zinfandel , Bear Cub Vineyard (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 2/27/2008 |
The Wine
Winery: Inniskillin Okanagan Vineyards 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. |