Read about the tasting profiles of Monte Creek’s Cabernet Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sparkling Rose. Plus, get 10% off your order of 3 or more wines from Monte Creek with code DEANNA10.
It’s already mid-June!! Can you believe it?? Wine Girl Summer is happening all summer long on Wineisseur including everything to bring the heat and deliciousness this season like new blogs, sales on our products, and announcements you don’t want to miss. Be sure to keep up-to-date on the buzz by subscribing and following our social pages (Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest). Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to try wine from a lovely up n’ coming winery in the South Thompson Valley (situated in a 2-hour drive Northwest from Kelowna) called Monte Creek. They started planting their vineyards in 2009, so they’ve been growing wine for a bit over a decade, which seems like a long time, but in the wine world, they’re considered young. When someone plants new vines, it takes around 3 years to have your first harvest from those vines. Then it takes several years for those vines to mature and actually be able to produce good wine grapes. So for farmers to grow a flourishing vineyard, they need to be in it for the long game and Monte Creek has done well so far. They’ve been the recipient of the 2020 All Canadian Wine Championships Founder’s Award for Best Overall Performance and won 9 medals in the overall competitions! Crazy, eh. As well, they use sustainable farming practices to minimize their environmental impact like giving their restaurant leftovers to their pigs, using chickens to fertilize their vineyards, and minimizing the amount of pesticides sprayed on their vines. I love a winery that can be good to the earth while producing great wine because, in my opinion, they go hand-in-hand. So let’s get to it! Here’s my review of the 3 wines I tried from Monte Creek Winery - Cabernet Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sparkling Rosé.
This was my favourite wine out of the 3 and clearly shows that Monte Creek does Bordeaux-style blends right. It’s juicy, rich, and so damn-fricken delicious! If you need a wine with BODY, this will not disappoint. It’s Merlot-dominant (69%) with 26% Cab Sauv and 5% Cab Franc, all grown in the southern parts of the Okanagan – Oliver, Osoyoos, and Similkameen. This wine has a deep ruby colour and a lovely fragrant nose of ripe red and black fruit like black currants and cherries. When the Cab Merlot hits your palate, it’s bumpin’ with lots of pronounced flavours. You’ve got notes of ripe red and black fruit like plum, black cherries, blackberries, and cranberries, with some eucalyptus, violets, forest floor, and licorice undertones. Not only that, this Cab Merlot has an extremely smooth texture with a savoury bite and dry sweetness (0.7g/L residual sugar) from aging in French Oak Barrels for 18 months. The finish is long, smooth, and carried medium tannins, so your palate soaks up all the residual flavours. Overall, this wine is akin to Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, “just right” in every category, and definitely one of the best Bordeaux-style blends I’ve had. Try the Cab Merlot with seared or smoked red meat with asparagus and a rich dark chocolate ganache dessert.
This is a solid Okanagan Chardonnay to try. Chardonnay is a very versatile grape since it can be grown in many climates and there are many different styles winemakers can produce this wine in, hence why there are so many variations of Chardonnay. If you’ve tried a lot of Chardonnays, you’ll notice that Monte Creek’s Chardonnay showcases a true Okanagan grown Chard and I’ll tell you why. Firstly, I can tell it’s grown in a cooler climate from the flavour profile - green fruit and citrus notes with hints of grass. Secondly, it has more complexity in the flavour and texture, and a fuller body for two reasons: 1) the grapes have grown in a longer season, and 2) they've been in contact with French oak barriques for 9 months. The Okanagan is known to have longer growing seasons in comparison to places like Napa Valley because it has an overall cooler climate and more temperature variations, allowing for that development of flavour complexity in the grapes. You’ll notice that you get a bit of everything with this Chardonnay – it’s got sour, oaky and citrus characteristics, plus slight buttery notes from 30% of the wine undergoing the malolactic fermentation process. I like how Monte Creek has integrated many different wine-making techniques to show the complex nature of Chardonnay. If you’d like to read more about the winemaking process, check out this blog.
Get the party starting with bubbly rosé!! This wine is made using the Charmat method, which is when the wine is fermented twice in a pressurized stainless steel tank that creates carbon dioxide. After, the wine does not undergo any aging process and is put straight into the bottles. The Charmat method is used to make most sparkling wines including Prosecco (my favourite). This a light-bodied, off-dry rosé with fresh, juicy notes of strawberry, watermelon, raspberry. Personally, I would have liked this wine more if it was a tad less sweet, but overall, a great patio wine you can’t go wrong with. If you’d like to learn more about sparkling wines, check out this blog.
Thanks for reading my blog. If any of these wines interest you, head to Monte Creek’s online store and use code DEANNA10 to receive 10% off any purchase of 3 or more wines (feel free to mix and match). Let me know in the comments, which wines you order.
Happy Wineing!
With Love, Deanna
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