Mission Hill Winery
2003 S.L.C. Merlot(Okanagan Valley)
Merlot is the most widely-planted grape variety in the Okanagan. This wine sets the bar very high for other producers of Merlot.
The 2003 vintage was one of the best red wine vintages in the Okanagan in a decade. The grapes got an early start in a mild spring, went through a hot, dry summer and a long Indian summer. Getting flavour was no challenge, as this swaggering wine shows. It is a big, dark wine, with aromas of spice and berries and cedar. The flavours include ripe plums, figs and chocolate, with a full-bodied texture, due to the long, ripe tannins and the exemplary fruit concentration. The wine has a long, warm, satisfying finish. 90 points.
Reviewed July 9, 2006 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Mission Hill Winery
Mission Hill Winery 2006 Reserve Riesling Fritz Hasselbach Collection (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 10/4/2007 |
Mission Hill Winery 2006 Reserve Pinot Blanc, Lakeshore Vineyard (Okanagan Valley)John Schreiner 10/4/2007 |
The Wine
Winery: Mission Hill Winery |
The ReviewerJohn 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. |