Analysis:
Alcohol: 14.0% | PH: 3.69 | Titratable acidity: 5.8 g/L
Bottling Date: July 2020
Cellaring: 5+ years
Tasting Notes:
An intense nose of ripe blueberry and blackberry, with meaty, gamy notes and pepper, clove, vanilla and dried herbs. The characterful and flavourful palate is full-bodied and shows firm, ripe tannins, crisp acidity, lots of paprika and peppercorn spice, mulberry and loganberry fruit with shortbread, leather and game on the long finish. Pair with a rich shakshuka, grilled Portobello mushrooms or blueberry, feta and thyme flavoured burgers.
Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
2018 was a moderate growing season that started with an earlier budbreak and a warmer than average May. The season cooled during the summer months and rebounded with favourable September and October temperatures. The cooperative weather allowed us to retain acidity and provide quality fruit with increased crop levels. While the sun and heat create intense fruit flavours, the cool evenings preserve the natural acidity in the grapes keeping the wine fresh and lively.
The Malbec grapes were harvested by hand from Burrowing Owl Estate Winery’s vineyards in Osoyoos and Oliver on October 19th. They were destemmed and gently crushed before being gravity fed into stainless tanks to allow for skin maceration and alcoholic fermentation (approximately two weeks). Both “free run” and pressed wine were then
moved into barrels for malolactic fermentation followed by ageing (18 months). The selection of barrels helped round out the tannins and contributed to complex savoury, toasted and spicy notes. After the blending of the barrels, the wine was bottled unfiltered and left to mature in bottle until its release.
