|
|
Wine Recommendation
Burrowing Owl Vineyards
2006 Pinot Noir(Okanagan Valley)
Conventional wisdom says that Pinot Noir should not be grown here because Burrowing Owl’s sandy, sun-drenched vineyard in the south Okanagan is too hot. Nevertheless, winery founder Jim Wyse put in a block of Dijon 115 clone Pinot Noir and, beginning with the 1999 vintage, the winery has released one successful Pinot Noir after another.
The wine shares the house style of all Burrowing Owl reds: “big, warm and toasty,” as a tasting note said of the winery’s 2001 Pinot Noir. This reliable consistency have created a cult following for Burrowing Owl.
The wine is sensuous, silky and full-bodied. Ruby in hue, it begins with aromas of cherries and spice, with the barrel aging coming through as toast and vanilla, but subtly. The oak does not dominate the fruit. In the palate, there are attractive sweet cherry and strawberry flavours. While the tannins are soft and approachable, there is structure to allow the wine to develop in the bottle for another four or five years. 89 points.
Reviewed March 26, 2008 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Burrowing Owl Vineyards
.jpg)
The Wine
Winery: Burrowing Owl 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. |