Poplar Grove Winery is celebrating its third season in their stunning new winery building on the Naramata Bench. Focused on producing top quality wines from 100% Estate fruit, owner Tony Holler takes the business of wine making seriously and knows that the vast majority of the work takes place in the vineyards. Holler noted that “In 2010 the season was challenging, but we avoided a poor vintage by taking the yields down from 250 tons to 80 tons to ensure ripeness.”
The winery is known for its Cabernet Franc grown in a vineyard up against the United States border. The vineyard sees warm summers and in 2009 the fall was long with some cooler night temperatures resulting in good acidity in this bottle full of flavours of plum, cassis, sage, chocolate and dark cherry. The wine just received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the 2009 vintage and the 2010 Cabernet Franc Best in Class award at the 28th Pacific Rim International Wine competition.
Poplar Grove Winery delays release of their wines until they are ready to drink. This is especially important for the Legacy, a combination of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and now Malbec added in recent years. The winery tastes hundreds of barrels and picks only the best for the blend. The recent release is 2007 which is predominately Merlot-based with some Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine saw 21 months in French oak and 24 months in the bottle resulting in a powerful, complex wine with flavours of cassis, ripe plum, leather, vanilla and spice. Drinking well now, but could be cellared for 10 years plus.
The spring releases at Poplar Grove included the 2012 Pinot Gris, a celebrated and popular wine with consumers. In 2012 this wine showed lots of tropical, citrus, grapefruit, peach and apricot notes due to a warmer season. The previous two vintages were more austere with more mineral and citrus flavours.
If you join Poplar Grove’s Wine Club now you’ll receive discounts on direct wine purchases, access to member-only wines and be just in time for the summer wine club shipment and events. Look out for them in July and August.
~ Cassandra Anderton