Quails' Gate Estate Winery

The Stewart family, who own Quails’ Gate, have been growing Pinot Noir in the north Okanagan since 1975 and now have at least seven clones in their estate vineyards. As a result, this variety is the flagship at Quails’ Gate. The winery’s total production is 55,000 cases a year and a quarter of that is Pinot Noir. The very best barrels are reserved for the top tier, called Family Reserve, with production seldom above 1,000 cases a year.

Winemaker Grant Stanley, now making his third vintage at Quails’ Gate, is a Canadian who trained in New Zealand. There, he was involved with seven vintages at the Ata Rangi winery of Martinborough, one of New Zealand’s leading Pinot Noir producer. He is setting out to elevate Quails’ Gate to the top ranks of Canadian Pinot Noir producers.

Stanley makes Quails’ Gate Pinot Noir in two styles. Its more popularly available range, called Limited Release, is designed to appeal immediately, while the Family Reserve range is structured to show a Burgundian complexity with several years of cellaring. Stanley uses all the tricks available to make complex, layered wines, from fermenting with wild yeast, and blending clones and barrels. “There is so much more that Pinot Noir has to offer than just its confectionary character,” he says.

This wine has a fine dark ruby hue, with fruit and oak mingling in the aroma. The flavours include spice, plum, strawberry and vanilla. The texture is still firm, with some years of evolution here to bring out all of the complexity. 87 points, with potential to move beyond 90 in a few years.

Reviewed September 27, 2006 by John Schreiner.