2017 Icon Wine(s) of the Year

For the first time we have a co-winner of our Icon Wine of the Year award; two excellent Syrahs with a similar story:

Black Hills Estate Winery 2015 Syrah

Painted Rock Estate Winery 2015 Syrah

The Story

Both Syrah hail from estate wineries best known for producing big, bold, Bordeaux-styled, iconic red blends (Painted Rock's Red Icon and Black Hills' Nota Bene) yet, over the past few years, it is the house Syrah that I have found made a more lasting impression and are wines I would most often recommend, not as a consolation to the sold-out blends, but as a signature of quality for the winery and as an example of the heights this peppery, Rhone Valley grape can achieve in BC.

Syrah is handled with care in the vineyard, by both wineries, where the quality of the future wine is determined. Syrah needs constant care in the vineyard as it can grow wildly if left to its own devices and can get hit hard by BC's harshest winters.

Talking to vineyard staff about growing Syrah in BC is like discussing the ailment history of a self-diagnosing hypochondriac: you'll get a laundry list of complaints about keeping the vines healthy - even in good-weather years. Mention a particularly cold season to a vineyard manager, like the frost-heavy 2008 winter, and from the horror stories you'll hear, you'll be amazed that the vines survive at all.

Red Icon and Nota Bene have earned the hype these wines receive, but there is more to their producers than these well-promoted, 'flagship' wines, and it's their Syrah you will secretly crave and collect.

The Wines

Black Hills Estate Winery 2015 Syrah - 92+pts

Fantastical concentration in this Black Sage Bench sourced Syrah with deep, black cherry and sensual, floral aromas on the generous nose and oak-kissed layers of black cherry, mint, pepper, tobacco and blood orange flavours on the smoky, fine tannin palate. Simply gorgeous.

Full Review

Painted Rock Estate Winery 2015 Syrah - 92-93pts

This youthful Syrah displays ripe cherry and plum fruit with integrated white pepper, pepperoni and floral aromas followed on the dry, grippy-tannin palate with similar flavours and added layers of blood orange, mint and vanilla.

Full Review

Previous Winners

• 2016 - Cassini Cellars 2013 The Aristocrat
• 2015 - Le Vieux Pin 2012 Équinoxe Syrah
• 2014 - Painted Rock 2012 Red Icon
• 2013 - Stag's Hollow Winery 2010 Cachet No. 03
• 2012 - Painted Rock Estate Winery 2011 Chardonnay
• 2011 - Fairview Cellars 2009 The Wrath
• 2010 - Stratus Vineyards 2007 Red
• 2009 - Blackwood Lane Winery 2006 Alliance

2014 Icon Wine of the Year

Painted Rock's Red Icon has long been a yearly entrant in the top 5 of our Top 25 Icon Wines of the Year, but for 2014, we had to award this fabulous blend the top spot. Though the tasting score equals previous vintages, there's just something about the 2012 Red Icon that stays with you, even months later and proves it's worthy to be this year's Icon Wine of the Year:

Painted Rock Estate Winery 2012 Red Icon
31% Malbec blended with 28% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Franc and 15% Petit Verdot
$55 - 14.9%
93+pts - Full Review

Congratulations to our runner-ups for this year's Icon Wine of the Year award: the 2011 Château de Beaucastel and the supremely elegant LaStella 2011 Maestoso "Solo" Merlot.



The Wine
Though the components change year-to-year, Painted Rock's Red Icon is an exceptionally consistent, high-end blend that successfully executes its but de vie to deliver complex, New World flavours wrapped in an elegant, Old World structure.

This BC Icon offers a gorgeous, feminine nose of spiced plum, sweet red fruit, light vanilla-mocha and floral aromas. The understated, refined, palate follows with both dark and red fruit flavours creating the perception of sweetness upon entry, supported by silky-smooth tannins, rich savoury notes and effortless acidity through the very long, dry and balanced finish.

The Story
We love this wine for its uniqueness in the world of cookie-cutter big reds. The first vintage (2007) had Petit Verdot as the leading grape in the blend... yeah, Petit Verdot! None of the corporate wineries would ever try that. (And to be fair, I doubt proprietor John Skinner would ever again either... the bane of originality.) These bold risks combined with continual refinement of the winery's detailed vineyard management practices, pruning and harvesting programs have paid off delivering a unique blend from a picture perfect vineyard offering honest vintage variation. 

There's every reason to expect to see future vintages of the Red Icon in our top 5 for years to come as the Painted Rock team have committed to producing a flagship product for the BC wine industry. Lofty goals, but ones the team has thus far been able to deliver.
 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2014 IconWines.ca

Painted Rock's New Digs

The parting sea entrance to Painted Rock's new tasting room.

Since it released its first wines to the public in 2009 (with reds from the fantastic 2007 vintage and a Chardonnay from 2008), Painted Rock has been a must-visit winery due to the extraordinary quality and collectability of the destined to be cult-collected wines. Prior to the opening of its new facility, a visit to Painted Rock consisted of cramming into a humble, small shack, originally procured as an employee break room, or by filing into the winery's cellar warehouse for a sip of the critically acclaimed portfolio. Now, the Penticton winery, situated beautifully along the Skaha Bench, can entertain patrons in a style better suited to match the prestige of the winery's building brand. They are promoting a high-quality, luxury product, with prices to match, yet, ultimately delivering on this marketing promise with exceptional wines, raising the bar of expectations for all Okanagan valley winery's looking to release ultra-premium wines. With the opening of their new tasting room and event facility, Painted Rock are also helping to raise the bar on the expectations of BC's wine tourists.

All photos by author.

Minimalist interior with a white wash affect drawing your attention to the branding.

Interior space effortlessly transitions to the exterior offering more seating and entertaining options.

Lower landing takes full advantage of the incredible view for weddings or similar formal events.

Walk the beautiful vineyard.

Ultra-modern styling on the building envelop.

- Liam Carrier ©copyright 2013 IconWines.ca

Winery Spotlight: Painted Rock Estate Winery

Painted Rock Estate Winery is the brainchild of former stock broker John Skinner and his family who purchased the century old "Blackhawk" apricot orchard site on Skaha Bench, just outside of Penticton, in 2004 which had been left fallow for 17 years prior to their investment. Working with a hand selected winemaking and viticulture team that includes world renowned consultant Alain Sutre, the site was transformed into a truly world class vineyard site planted to Bordeaux varietals, Syrah and Chardonnay.

Since their first vintage from 2007, the winery has received a mountain of medals for every wine they've produced. Including making it to the top of our wine awards list in 2012 for their 2011 Chardonnay. With distribution growing worldwide and as a must have for BC's top restaurants' wine lists, it will be harder and harder to find their coveted wines in the future now that the estate vineyard's production has reached its maximum and optimum output of 5000 cases per year.

Gorgeous Vistas
The Painted Rock estate vineyard has been expertly tapered with a gentle slope that leans toward Skaha Lake to maximize its natural aspect to the sun for the south-west facing mountainside location. This gives visitors an infinite pool-like view of the vineyard pouring into the lake below. It's a lovely sight that the winery would like to capitalize on more in the future with a visiting center under construction and future accommodations. For now, we're limited to making the drive up the mountain and visiting the makeshift tasting room set-up in the winery's warehouse-like cellar building. Be sure to leave time to stroll-up the road to the vineyard to soak up the view and appreciate the finely sculpted rows of vines.

Key wines to try:
Red Icon 2010, 2009
Chardonnay 2011, 2010, 2009
Syrah 2009, 2008, 2007

 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2013 IconWines.ca

2012 Icon Wine of the Year

For the first time, we've elevated a white wine to be our Icon Wine of the Year as presented to the "best" wine released in the calendar year of 2012 that combines the following virtues: price, quality, pedigree, collectability, longevity and availability to the wine consuming public in Canada. The winner for 2012 is:

Painted Rock Estate Winery 2011 Chardonnay
100% Chardonnay
$30 - 500 cases - 14.3%
93pts - Icon Score

Congratulations to our runner-ups for this year's Icon Wine of the Year award: both from BC, the elegant Tinhorn Creek 2009 Oldfield Series 2Bench Red and the superb JoieFarm 2011 Pinot Blanc. All three wines are available direct from the wineries for $30 and under proving that great wine does not always have to come with a lofty price tag.

The Wine
This beautiful, bar-setting Chardonnay effortlessly combines the inherent crispness and pure fruit expression of an un-oaked example with the elegant texture and rich body derived from 100% new French Oak. Intense and concentrated with lush, tropical, melon and stonefruit characters supported by a vibrant backbone of citrus acidity and a long, long, balanced finish of tangy, green apple, tangerine and brioche flavours.

Light caramel, vanilla spice and oak notes add complexity and depth to the sublime palate which avoids the perils of over-oaked, butter-bomb Chardonnay by limiting the secondary malolactic fermentation to only 20% of the barrels used in the final blend and by integrating the oak influence so completely, you barely know it's there.

The Story
This sublime balance was achieved with an elaborate harvesting plan which saw the single-vineyard fruit picked on three separate dates each targeting the particular characteristics of individual vines. The three lots remained apart through vinification and a further 5 months in barrel prior to blending allowing the winemaking team to compile the finished wine from the unique attributes of each component. A time-consuming effort but one that has paid dividends for Painted Rock who have implementing the technique in subsequent vintages and taking it even further by introducing a vine-by-vine coding system for pruning.

In 2011, Painted Rock was narrowly beaten out by Fairview Cellars for that year's top honors for their outstanding 2009 red blend. This year we couldn't overlook their contribution to BC wine by raising the bar on single-vineyard Chardonnay production in the province; creating a product delightfully complex and supremely balanced - a true icon wine.
 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2012 IconWines.ca

Also see:
2011 Icon Wine of the Year
2010 Icon Wine of the Year
2009 Icon Wine of the Year

Painted Rock Scores Big

Momentum in the wine industry can be a tricky thing to gauge. New wines are generally released only twice a year in the Spring and/or Fall and to truly judge a winery's progress you have to evaluate multiple vintages of a product that may incubate for two or three years prior to its release. But every now and then a winery, winemaker or even a particular wine jolts from the industry peripheral into the mainstream, catching the attention of the public. Painted Rock Estate Winery, a favourite of restaurants and serious collectors since it opened in 2009, seems poised to take the next step towards  national recognition and familiarity with impressive results at the 2011 Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards.

The boutique sized winery achieved a perfect 100% accuracy with the 13 wines it entered scoring 13 medals including 3 gold medals. The results propelled the firm to the #3 spot on the magazine's list of the Top 25 Wineries of Canada. A truly amazing result as the Wine Access list is scored on the number of points achieved by each submission - a format that favours the larger wineries with a large portfolio of wines to select from.

To pull-off the feat, the winery, which only produces 5 wines each year, acted within the rules of the competition and submitted multiple vintages of its flagship Red Icon and other releases which can still be found on sale within the province. The practice may be hard for the winery to duplicate next year as the national exposure is sure to increase sales and, likely, wipe out the older vintages. However, proprietor John Skinner hinted recently that some more single varietal wines from the 2010 vintage may be in the cards for 2012 depending on what makes it into the final blend for their Bordeaux-inspired Red Icon.

The newly released wines are impressive and sure to, once again, be snapped up by BC's restaurants. To a hold of a few bottle for yourself or your collection, contact the winery direct (here) or keep an eye out for their arrival at your local VQA store.

2010 Chardonnay - $30
The best Chardonnay yet from Painted Rock is chalk full of character with a lovely, sensual balance of oak and sweet orchard fruit on the nose and palate.
Icon Score

2009 Merlot - $40
Despite the success (and relative higher scores) of most Bordeaux varietals from the hot 2009 Okanagan season, the Painted Rock Merlot doesn't manage to capture the intensity and charm of the 2008 vintage. Though, we're comparing a stellar wine with an above average one - nothing to complain about.

2009 Cabernet Sauvignon - $40
Delivers a dazzling display of complexity and depth. By far, the winery's best yet which is saying a lot considering the 2008 vintage won a Lieutenant Governor's Award of Excellent in 2010. This will be a hard wine to track down unless you order direct.
Icon Score

2009 Red Icon - $55
The 2009 is a blend of 30% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petit Verdot and 1% Syrah delivering massive concentration and complexity. California cult blends come to mind while tasting.
Icon Score

Note: The 2009 Syrah was not available for tasting at the Painted Rock release party.

 -  Liam Carrier ©copyright 2011 IconWines.ca