Amphora Viognier 2023
Wine Profile
Viognier is a late ripening variety that requires a long growing season to fully ripen. For this reason, this fruit comes from two vineyards in Osoyoos.
Tasting Notes
This expression of Viognier is an interesting contrast to our annual Viognier. The extended lees aging and clay as a fermenting vessel, yielded a wine with aromas of honeydew and apricot up front along with an interesting contrast of white flower with berries & cream. The palate is smooth and silky while maintaining acidity, with flavors of lemon curd and honeyed. The long and weighty finish will pair nicely with lamb tagine with raisins and almonds or with an Indian mango chutney.
Winemaking notes
The grapes for this wine were hand picked and double hand sorted before pressing and fermented using wild yeast in two clay Amphorae. Fermentation lasted a month and malolactic fermentation (90% of the way) occurred. The wine was then left to age sur lie another 4 months which developed a round mouthfeel.
Vintage notes
Okanagan Valley vineyards experienced a season like no other in 2023. The end of the 2022 season was abnormally warm, going from summer weather at the end of October to winter overnight and a deep freeze in December which adversely affected the plants. Early bud dissections revealed extensive damage and the resulting yields were very low, especially in our Syrah, Malbec, and Semillon plantings.
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.
Vineyards
Sourced from Perfect Hedge Vineyard in Osoyoos