Analysis:
Alcohol: 13.5 % | PH: 3.77 | Titratable acidity: 5.9 g/L
Bottling Date: August 2019
Cellaring: 3+ years
Tasting Notes:
An almost blueish tinge to the deep purple colour and an intense nose of bright, vibrant and fresh blueberry, blackberry and red currant fruit with complex layers of paprika, basil, vanilla and liqueur chocolate cherry. The palate is rustic and characterful, full bodied with ripe medium tannins and crisp, juicy acidity with more of the bright blueberry, mulberry and blackberry fruit with some pomegranate, orange zest and a graphite minerality on the long finish. Pair this with Moroccan lamb tagine or mushroom and lentil stew.
Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
The 2017 growing season got off to a cool, slow start but the vines quickly caught up for lost time in the summer months. The warm temperatures through August and September combined with the cool nights of late summer and early fall produced bold fruit flavors and retained acidity. Nice warm days in October helped to push the fruit to full ripeness prior to harvest.
The grapes were harvested by hand at the end of October with the majority coming from our Burrowing Owl Eva’s Vineyard in Osoyoos and the remainder from our Burrowing Owl Vineyard in Oliver. They were de-stemmed and gently crushed before being fed by gravity flow into stainless tanks where they were allowed to cold soak for 4 days prior to fermentation for extraction of colour. Following fermentation, the wine was given time to settle on its skins for further extraction. It was then moved into barrels for malolactic fermentation and aged for 18 months in a combination of barrels consisting of French, American, and Hungarian oak. The use of new, one-year-old, two-year-old, and neutral oak barrels lent complex savoury and spicy notes to the finished wine. Racked regularly during ageing, it was then bottled unfiltered.
Ageing: 68% French, 16% American, and 16% Hungarian with 32% new, 8% one-year-old, 24% two-year-old, and 36% neutral oak.
