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Wine Recommendation
Glenterra Vineyard
2004 Pinot Noir(Vancouver Island)
Glenterra winemaker and co-owner John Kelly sourced fruit for this wine from his own small estate vineyard as well as from a nearby Cowichan Valley and from the Saanich Peninsula. In this way, he has harmonized several of the Vancouver Island terroirs.
Kelly is very particular about the grapes he uses. In his own meticulous vineyard, he uses no pesticides, no systemic herbicides, no fungicides and no synthetic fertilizers. This purist approach involves risk-taking. In the 2003 vintage, October rains – not unusual on Vancouver Island – degraded some of his crop to the point where he released no Pinot Gris.
With no such problems in 2004, Kelly released both an estate Pinot Noir (now sold out) and this three-vineyard blend. The wine was aged 12 months in a mix of French and American oak barrels – mostly used barrels, in order to retain the vibrancy of the island fruit flavours. The aroma has a lovely berry perfume, mingled with spice and white chocolate. On the palate, there is an attractive core of sweet fruit, perhaps a hint of cherry. With a good ruby hue, this light-bodied wine is just beginning to develop the classic silky texture of this variety. 86 points.
Reviewed September 20, 2006 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Glenterra Vineyard
The Wine
Winery: Glenterra Vineyard |
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. |