Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island Emandare Pinot Noir 2014 Wine Review

Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island Emandare Pinot Noir 2014

Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, Canada

Community Score:92/100

Community Reviews: 1

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Drink: 2018-2023

Bottle size: 750 ml

Alcohol: 12%

Sweetness: Dry

Wine Type: Red Wine

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Reviews and Ratings

Brent Gushowaty rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

The wine has a pale to medium depth with a bright cherry rim. The nose holds engaging scents of chocolate, dark fruit, barnyard,cherry and just a drift of barrel begotten vanilla. The palate is rounded with soft tannins and follows through fairly completely from the nose with flavours of chocolate, earth, blackberry both ripe and less so. The intensity here is medium minus and the body medium. There are ripe raspberries on the medium plus finish with excellent balance and a very distinct flavour profile. A remarkably individual pinot noir.

The wine was fermented and aged in neutral oak. Overall the 2014 vintage on Vancouver Island has proved to be one of the best in recent history.

Emandare Winery is linked by way of its estate vineyard with another Vancouver Island winery called Starling Lane. This Saanich winery operated from 2004 to 2013 when its three sets of partners all retired. Starling Lane's pinot noir was a standout. When a winery closes it is hard not to speculate if the excellent fruit from that estate is now the basis of a pinot noir at another winery (which one?) and to hope the vines are not languishing somewhere unkempt. It turned out that most of the pinot noir grapes in the Starling Lane pinot noir had been sourced from this vineyard in the Cowichan Valley. The owner and grower had sold grapes to a number of wineries until 2011 when he abandoned the vineyard for personal reasons.

The new owners Mike and Robin Nierychlo took over the neglected vineyard in the Fall of 2013, restored it and this 2014 is their inaugural vintage. Guided by a belief in natural wine making, their plan was to ferment naturally using ambient yeasts in the Old World style. Their faith in this path was sorely tested when they waited twelve days before the fermentation successfully started.

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Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island Emandare Pinot Noir 2014 Wine Review