Blend: 58% Cabernet Sauvignon 42% Syrah
Analysis:
Alcohol 14% | PH: 3.81 | Titratable acidity: 6.67 g/L
Bottling Date: August 2017
Cellaring: 5+ years
Tasting Notes:
Ripe and fruit driven with blackberry, blueberry, shortbread pie crust, dark chocolate, baking spice, coconut, vanilla and some complex pipe tobacco. The palate is dry and full-bodied with intense ripe black and blue fruit, black plum, cassis, blackberry and blueberry with paprika, a hint of leather and dried sage adding extra flavour layers. The crisp acidity and ripe medium tannins give structure through the long finish. Try this with braised short ribs or steak frites.
Wine Making:
The 2015 growing season was a grape grower’s dream come true. The long growing season started in April followed by intense heat in June producing vines with small, concentrated berries. The summer months allowed for even ripening followed by one of the South Okanagan’s “legendary” dry autumns. Warm days promoted the ripening process while cool nights balanced the ripeness with acidity.
The Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were harvested by hand from Burrowing Owl’s block A8 on Black Sage Bench on November 9th. They were de-stemmed and gently crushed before being gravity fed into the same tank. This co-fermentation process helped to marry the flavours and created a unique harmony to the blend according to Aristotle’s principle that “the whole is greater than the sum of its part”. After completion, the wine was transferred into barrels for the malolactic fermentation. It was aged for 18 months in barrels that were carefully selected for their ability to integrate components, and round out the tannins while contributing complex, savoury notes. The wine was bottled unfiltered and left to mature in bottle until its release.
Oak: 71% French, 23% American and 6% Hungarian with 17% new
