Extra Brut it is not — there’s some sweetness in mid-palate reminiscent of a Prosecco. Produced from Chardonnay, Sémillon and Malbec, it’s a well-priced bubbly with sweet pear and citrus flavours.
Clear deep garnet colour. Fairly intense nose of cherry and milk chocolate with some earthy background. Full-bodied, exhibiting good raspberry and cherry fruit with refreshing acidity and palatable tannins. Good value. Drink up.
Clear medium-deep plum red. Medium-intensity aromas of cassis, plums, vanilla and spice. Fruit-forward and grapey in the mouth, with blackcurrant and raspberry flavours, and a bit of dark chocolate on the finish. Tannins are a bit rough; needs another year or 2.
This signature wine from Hester Creek sourced from the estate’s oldest vines (some of the oldest in B.C.) is a wine that needs years of cellaring until it approaches any sort of balance. The nose is rich, dripping in generous notes of blackberries, black cherries, black currants followed by caramel spice, toasted vanilla and eucalyptus. It’s a well-structured wine on the palate with a riot of red and dark fruit backed up by plenty of oak spice, bramble, earth and a minty accent on the finish. It needs some aging to polish it all up.
An intriguing Syrah. Dense purple in colour, it has a smoky, blackberry nose with cedar and oak spice notes. Medium-bodied and dry, firmly structured with a lively thread of acidity, it has that umami flavour that makes for a very tasty wine.
There is an unmistakable meatiness and earthiness to all Quarry Road Pinots and this is no exception. The fruit is aged for 16 months in French oak and the nose shows savoury red cherry, raspberry, loam, spice, nutmeg and mineral notes. It has grippy tannins on the palate and some weight, revealing darker fruits, dried cherries, savoury spice notes and a certain freshness on the finish.
Ripe dark fruits, licorice and a chemical twist (solvent, paint) similar to what is sometimes found in rosés. Warm on the palate, nice fruity taste, slightly rough tannic backbone near the dry finish. Drink now.