Analysis:
Alcohol: 14% | PH: 3.64 | Titratable acidity: 6.1 g/L
Bottling Date: June 4 - 13, 2019
Cellaring: 5+ years
Tasting Notes:
A fresh, medium bodied Merlot nicely combining bright cherry and black plum fruit with complex floral violet and orange zest notes, subtly integrated vanillin oak and some richer Christmas cake and chocolate notes. The palate shows ripe elegant tannins, juicy fresh plum, strawberry and blackberry with complex nutmeg, cedar, clove, paprika, dried black olive and black licorice notes combining on a long finish. Pair this with either garlic and rosemary studded grilled leg of lamb or portobello mushroom rubbed with tapenade or rabbit braised in clove infused red wine. 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 from Burrowing Owl’s Vineyards in Oliver and Osoyoos from October 11th to 16th, 2017. They were sorted by hand, then destemmed and gently crushed before being gravity fed into stainless tanks for cold soak (4 days) and alcoholic fermentation (14 days). Fermentation temperature ranged from 16 to 32 Celsius. Both “free run” and “pressed” wine were then moved into barrels for malolactic fermentation followed by ageing for 14 months in a primarily French oak barrels (57%), but also in American (17%), Hungarian (17%) and Russian (7%) oak. The selection of barrels helped round out the tannins, and contributed to complex notes such as smoky, savoury and spice. After the blending of barrels the wine was bottled unfiltered and left to mature until its release.
