Community Review

Poplar Grove Winery Pinot Noir 2023

Okanagan Valley, British Columbia BC V.Q.A., Canada

Community Score: 4.6/5
Community Reviews: 3

Price: $35.00

Sweetness: Extra Dry
Alcohol: 13.5%

Drink: 2025-2027

Bottle size: 750 ml
Winery: Poplar Grove Winery

Craig Haynes rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

This Pinot Noir checks so many boxes on the must-experience-this-wine chart. For me, this wine from British Columbia, Canada radiates elegance and dialed down magnetism. I like the expressions of ripe red berries and red licorice teamed up with low-key stitches of slate and lightly smoked herbs like fennel and its siblings. All this shows up in the scent and in the taste. And the taste, it is in no rush to head for the exit. This is a good thing.

The mouthfeel is lovely. It has liveliness, warmth, a down-right dryness, and it is velvety with a slight edginess. So nice.
Medium bodied but leans toward the lightness end of that spectrum, in my opinion. That wasn’t what I had anticipated because the label displays 14.3%ABV. However, there is no cause for alarm. This weight is a bonus, adding to the overall experience.

How did this deliciousness happen? Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: it started with a blend of six Pinot Noir clones all grown on Poplar Grove’s own vineyards. Then, the winery’s wizardry came into play after the grapes had been harvested, drawing on the magic of hand sorting, whole berry fermentation, and 14 months of aging on French oak barrels (25% new) followed by six more months of aging in the bottle before the cases of this red were placed on the shelf to be purchased.

If appellation awareness turns you on, this creation is classified as British Columbia VQA Okanagan Valley (sub-appellation, Naramata Bench). It is located on the picturesque eastern shore of Lake Okanagan just north of the City of Penticton.

Tasted June 2025

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