Blend: 5+ years
Analysis:
Alcohol: 14.0% | PH: 3.78 | Titratable acidity: 5.25 g/L
Bottling Date: July 2021
Tasting Notes:
Deeply coloured with an intense nose of damson plum, blueberry, violet, blackberry and black pepper with some charred meat and iron. The palate is full bodied with ripe medium tannins, crisp acidity and showing powerful amounts of dark mixed berry fruit, mulberry, black pepper and paprika with vanilla, clove and dried rosemary with a long, spicy finish. Pair this with a mildly spiced lamb curry, slow roasted onions, or pepper crusted flank steak.
– Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
Spring arrived early in 2019, allowing for early and even bud break, flowering and fruit set. This was followed by a warm, yet more moderate summer. The summer heat was enough to produce nicely concentrated levels of ripeness in the grapes and the cool autumn provided conditions for acidity to be retained in the fruit as well, providing the wine with a lively freshness to balance the ripe fruit notes.
The grapes were hand-harvested from our Eva’s Vineyard in Osoyoos and Burrowing Owl Vineyard in Oliver on October 20th. They were destemmed and gently crushed before being gravity-fed into stainless tanks to allow for cold maceration (3 days) followed by alcoholic fermentation (14 days). Both “free run” and pressed wine were then
moved into barrels for the malolactic fermentation followed by ageing (13 months). The selection of barrels helped round out the tannins and contribute 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.
