Wine Profile

The 2023 vintage produced a full-bodied red wine with deep color, firm tannins, and bold flavors of blackberry, plum, and black pepper, layered with smoked meat, olive tapenade, and earthy spice. The palate is rich and savory, with notes of dark fruit, leather, and graphite, finishing with a powerful, gamey intensity. This structured expression of Syrah will cellar well, drink from 2026 through 2035.

INSIDER TIP - 100% of this wine was fermented as whole berry, which slows down the release of tannins imparting a silkiness to the tannins and a lush roundness to the Syrah.

Winemaking Notes

The Syrah was co-fermented with Viognier in stainless steel. All the fermentation happened as whole berries. After pressing, the wine was barrel aged for 20 months in 40% new oak barrels, and the remainder in older French Oak barrels.

Vintage Notes

Although the Okanagan Valley had a slight delay to the growing season with cooler than average weather through April and May, the weather very quickly changed to a long, extended period of hot, dry days through the balance of the summer. We saw bud break at our Naramata vineyard at the beginning of May and kicked off our harvest by picking the first fruit on August 23rd for our traditional method sparkling wine. This was a full month earlier than vintage 2022, which was a very late and more moderate summer. Most of our varieties ripened a week or two earlier than normal due to the warm weather and lower yields. The low yields also brought good concentration to the flavours and ripe tannins for our Bordeaux-styled reds.

Vineyard

Sourced from Bullpine, Bearcub, Driver and the Perfect Hedge Vineyard in Osoyoos.