Riesling: with its mouthwatering acidity, a hint of sweetness, and moderate alcohol levels, can be the ultimate example of balance in wine. It is therefore extremely flexible when it comes to pairing with a wide range of foods. The balance between sugar and acid also allows Riesling to support delicious aromas and flavours of citrus and tropical fruit, flowers, and spice. The greatest mouth-watering examples I know originate in Germany, and it was Germans who brought the first Riesling to the Okanagan Valley. We make this wine in a Spätlese style; off-dry enough to keep it mouth-wateringly juicy. It is our goal each vintage to increase the flavour intensity in this case using 40 year-old vines and six months of lees contact in order to create a wine of great complexity that will be long-lived.
At its best, cool-climate Pinot Noir is bright, focused, and elegant by nature. In a hot vintage, this Pinot Noir can also be powerful and incredibly perfumed and complex. While we draw our inspiration from the wines of Burgundy, it is the lesser-known villages of Fixin, Santenay, and Mercurey that are most influential. Our Reserve Pinot Noir is a clonal selection, with the grapes sourced from select vineyard sites on the Naramata Bench and Summerland. These vineyards have been chosen for their qualities belonging to the smaller berried Dijon clones, and we have supplemented their tendencies for finer tannins and floral aroma through meticulous canopy management and low yields. Our approach to this wine is vineyard based and, as such, our winemaking process is relatively simple. We employ a clean, simple ferment followed by a gentle pressing, and the wine is aged for 8 months in select Burgundian barriques. The wine is further aged for twelve months in bottle before release.