Blend: 100% Viognier
Analysis:
Alcohol: 13.5% | PH: 3.38 | Titratable acidity: 5.35 g/L
Bottling Date: July 2022
Cellaring: 3+ years
Tasting Notes:
An intense and classically aromatic Viognier showing lots of orchard blossom, honeysuckle, jasmine, white peach and apricot with some pineapple, baked pear and orange sherbet notes. The palate is full and rich, soft textured with crisp acidity, flavours of vanilla, mango, papaya, and ripe peach with some mandarin peel zestiness on the long finish. Pair this with a butternut squash quiche or harissa-marinated BC prawns grilled in their shells.
– Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
After a mild winter, the 2021 growing season got underway with early bud break occurring in March followed by timely fruit set. 2021 will be remembered as a very hot year with record-breaking temperatures in late June. Less frequent cooler nights coupled with the heat led to efforts to retain acidity in the grapes by picking earlier. While yields were somewhat impacted by the exceptional temperatures, phenolic ripeness was more easily achieved in the grapes harvested.
The grapes for our 2021 vintage of Viognier were grown in Osoyoos and harvested in early October. Hand-picked and hand-sorted, the clusters were dropped into a pneumatic press for gentle extraction of the juice. 25% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel tank while the remaining 75% was done in 100% French oak consisting of a combination of 500L puncheons and 225L barriques. 25% Malolactic fermentation was followed by 2 months of regular bâtonnage and
7 months of additional oak ageing. It was then filtered, fined and stabilized before bottling.
