Lake Breeze Winery

Lake Breeze Vineyards is a delightful stop on your naramata wine tour. I highly recommend dropping by in the afternoon for lunch in the summer. They have a lovely quaint outdoor patio with a beautiful view of the lake and vineyards. Additionally, the food and desserts are quite nice and paired wonderfully with their wines.

Producing only 6000 cases a year, this small winery has a small tasting room to match, but is well designed and appealing.

And on to the wines we tried…

2007 Sauvignon Blanc

• This is a very well balanced dry white wine. Tons of citrus on the nose, and very fruity and tropical in taste. While I haven’t had many Sauvignon Blancs before, I enjoyed this wine. $22/bottle.
• Notes from the winery: “This wine is so great, it joined the Seven Poplars ranks.  Remniscent of a New Zeland Sauvignon Blanc, the 2007 is herbal and grassy with a little tropical fruit and a very intense nose.  Clean, crisp and great with seafood.  Enjoy!”

2007 Seven Poplars Chardonnay

• This wine is everything you expect from an Okanagan Chardonnay: light, dry, and ripe with citrus fruit. I found the oaky nose and flavoring to overpower the wine a bit though. It would be close to the perfect chardonnay if the oak had been toned down a notch. $26/bottle.
• Notes from the winery: “This wonderfully complex wine is fermented and then age in new French oak barrels for seven months.  Look for a lemon/lime palate and subtle hints of vanilla with a buttery texture.”

2006 Seven Poplars Pinot Noir

• This is a well structured complex red with a strong boquet of cherries. The palate was round with cherries and plums and a smooth yet flavourful tannin finish. $27/bottle
• Notes from the winery: “You will find predominant aromas of raspberry, black cherry and anise with an earthy background. The palate is plush with a firm and ripe tannin finish. A well-structured wine designed for food and great with game dishes. I recommend cellaring this wine for 1 year, but it will continue to improve for 5 to 10 years.”

2006 Seven Poplars Merlot

• This wine can be summed up in two words: spicy berries. This comes through both in the boquet and the palate. This merlot has a bit of a dry bite and rich tannins, but has the potential to come to age. I recommend putting it away for about a year. $27/bottle.
• Notes from the winery: “This rich and full bodied Merlot is a great expression of the Naramata Bench terroir created from the fruit of Eventus, Olde Pine and Foxben Vineyards, and our own estate grown grapes.  Enjoy!”

2006 Delice

• This late harvest dessert style wine is wonderfully natural and sweet. While many late harvests come off as “syrupy”, this late harvests light style allows the true flavors of the wine to come through. The finish of this wine is delicate and delicious. $17/bottle.
• Notes from the winery: “This proprietary blend of Schonberger and Morio Muscat has been a favourite at Lake Breeze since 1998. The light style of this dessert wine will appeal to those who find others too sticky and cloying. Enjoy the perfumed nose and unique taste. The grapes for this wine were estate grown.”

Come for the patio, stay for the well made wines.

 

Therapy Vineyards

The second stop on our winery tour was the Therapy Vineyards, located quite close to the Kettle Valley winery.

We can all use a little wine therapy, right? Well this vineyard has met the mark. Although somewhat new to the scene, the winery offers some contemporary wines likely to please all varieties of connoisseurs. The vineyard name, lables, wine names, is all very fun and unique. The wines follow suit and are very likely to please. We tried three vines on our visit there: the 2005 Chardonnay, 2007 Pink Freud, and 2006 Freud’s Ego.

2005 Chardonnay:

• My first impression of this wine is that it was slightly un-typical from a chardonnay in that it didn’t have the strong oaky taste. This wasn’t a bad thing through. Overall, I found it very clean yet somewhat buttery and smooth. $25/bottle.

2007 Pink Freud:

• This is a blended blush colored wine which I found to contain very fruity flavours (strawberries, raspberries, grapefruit) balanced with cream. Although I’m not usually a fan of rose’s or blends, I quite enjoyed this one and purchased a bottle. $18.99/bottle.
• Winery tasting notes: “Bouquet: Raspberries, black currants, vanilla, strawberries and cream. Palate: Rich and fruit driven with soft red berried intensity and a dry finish.“

2006 Freud’s Ego:

• This is another blend wine. The chocolate and currant flavors really jumed out at me. The finish was dry and slightly “burnt” tasting for lack of a better work. Not bad, but not good enough for me to want to try the “Super Ego” which was a paid tasting. $20/bottle.
• Winery tasting notes: “Bouquet: Black currants, chocolate, vanilla. Palate:  Rich and full bodied with ripe berry fruited oak driven complexity.“

This was a really fun winery to visit and I enjoyed the company of the lady doing our tasting, she was very personable and not overly pretentious like you can come across at a lot of these places. I will be back in the future and will be looking to see where this winery goes.

 

Kettle Valley Winery

The Kettle Valley Winery, which is located in the Naramata region of the Okanagan, is one I wanted to visit due to a merlot I tried about a week ago. My mother also wanted to find “a good red from the Okanagan” so i figured that would be a good place to start.

The sales and tasting room of the winery is modest, but do not let that deceive you. The lady who was running the room was very friendly and more than willing to boast the consistency of their wines.

We tried two wines, both reds, the 2006 Pinor Noir and the 2005 King Merlot.

2006 Pinor Noir:

• This was a tasty red. It was smooth and dry. I picked up lots of berries in the taste and it finished almost earlthy. Overall I though it was quite nice for a Pinot Noir. $26/bottle.
• The wine notes from the winery: “This wine is a blend of Pinot Noir grown in the Old Main, Crest, Hayman and Foxtrot vineyards in the Thibault vineyard in Summerland, Trovao, Village and Becker vineyards in Naramata and the Marchland vineyard on the Westbench in Penticton. The grapes were hand picked between October 13 and November 3, 2006 at approximately 24.7 brix. The wine has gone through a full malolactic fermentation and was aged in French oak for 19 months before being bottled.”

2005 King Merlot:

• A very delicious merlot. Flavoring started with berries and finished with chocolate. A bit intense of the start but smooth on the finish. Overall a wonderful red and one that I purchased. $35/bottle.
• The wine notes from the winery: “The grapes for this wine come from our King Drive vineyard in Naramata. This merlot was farmed at approximately 2.5 tons per acre, resulting in very intense fruit flavours. The grapes were handed picked on November 1, 2005 at approximately 24.6 brix.
  The wine has gone through full malolactic fermentation and was aged in French oak for 19 months before bottling. Total production 207 cases.”

If you’re every looking for a good, consistent wine, I recommend the Kettle Valley Winery. It may have been my first tasting of the day (which could skew my thoughts), but I do think it was one of my favorites.