Pinpointing pinot on the Okanagan map

If you’re going to drink Canadian reds, you need to take pinot noir out for a spin.

Quick facts: The wine costs more than you’d expect, although the gap is dropping (it traded for years on “being hard to cultivate”). It is lighter, with lower viscosity than New World Syrah and cabernets. You can usually recognize a glass of the stuff from across the room due to the clarity of the wine. Where cabernet is opaque, pinot noir is semitransparent. The tannins are present, but as longer protein chains even in young wines, so they are less obvious. The French drink this wine with Hollandaise sauce, so take it from there.

In Saskatchewan, we mostly get Okanagan pinot noir (PN). This makes the consumer’s job more difficult if you’re just getting acquainted with the grape. The Okanagan has a thousand microclimates that depend on the exposure to the sun at varying times of the day and the latitude of the vineyard: Osoyoos is a couple hundred metres from the 49th parallel. Vernon is a degree and a half further north.

The result is some Okanagan PN can be surprisingly thick, and some can be as delicate as the finest Burgundies from the Beaune. Also, the grape and wine will vary with the vintage and the knowledge of the vintner. A “bad” year in the Okanagan can produce some great PN in places you don’t expect.

Ontario PN tends to be more static, although it too suffers from climactic swings. We don’t see much of the stuff here. I picked up a bottle of Malivoire, a wine I know zero about, at the Co-op just because it comes from Ontario. It also happened to be a 2010.

Although Burgundians maintain their wine is at the very finest from about 15 years of age on, most of us drink and prefer (i.e. can afford) the younger, fruitier versions. Malivoire at five years old already shows some signs of browning. And the wine is more distant and less brash than younger wines here. The wine is dark, almost as dark as Quails’ Gate despite the browning. The wine is balanced and very nice. If you want to know what to expect from some age, here’s a good place to start.

Mission Hill 5 Vineyards is a label that offers well-made and easy-to-enjoy wine. Their PN continues this tradition. It is a light wine both in colour and taste, with a classic leathery, earthy bouquet of PN and some fruit. The strawberry aroma and palate is immediately obvious, but is balanced by some nice cedar characteristics and a good finish.

Quails’ Gate is another Okanagan label I admire. Their PN is significantly more expensive than 5 Vineyards. The extra bucks buy a more intense and extracted glass. It should age for at least another decade. The bouquet is deep and concentrated with the trademark PN aromas. The palate is tart, remarkably full of life with a very long finish. If you balk at the price of Burgundy, you need to try this one.

See Ya Later (AKA SYL) is a winery proud of its middlebrow, approachable wines — no surprise given the insouciance of the name. Its wine was the easiest drinking of the lot (earning the coveted third flagon award from Sairey) with a light, bright palate and bouquet and a quick clean finish.