Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
84 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 and Summerhill 2014 Pyramid Riesling (mouth-watering peach)." Of special note was the Monte 2015 Creek Ranch Riesling from further north in Thompson Valley, where calcareous soils and 40-day cold steel fermentation result in an exotic, off-dry style with real Riesling delicacy (8 grams residual sugar, 12% alcohol), pungent with spicy gardenia, lime and lemon peel. On the way to our next stop, at CedarCreek Estate in Okanagan Valley's East Kelowna area, we stopped at Summerhill Pyramid Winery for a Kodak moment beneath their giant Champagne bottle levitating above the crystal-blue waters of Okanagan Lake, and, of course, a walk into their iconic pyramid—a visit Basaldu describes as "a wine geek amuse - ment park." At CedarCreek Estate, winemaker Alexis Moore walked us up steep hillsides over - looking the lake, planted to multiple clones of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir dating as far back as 1991 (some of the oldest plantings in B.C.). "Okanagan Valley is different from other wine countries," Moore told us; "here at the north end you find bedrock and silty lakeside soils where cold-climate varieties excel, whereas you can drive an hour to the south in places like Osoyoos [bumping up against the Canadian/American border] to find soil that is almost pure sand, where warmer climate Rhône or Bordeaux grapes thrive." There on CedarCreek's bright, early spring sun-soaked hill, Moore tasted us on a super-spicy, sharp yet silky, lemon, lime and flint laced CedarCreek 2014 Old Vines Riesling, followed by the equally minerally, partially concrete egg–fermented CedarCreek 2014 Platinum-Block 5 Chardonnay, tinged with flourishes of toasty French oak. This was followed by a Pinot Noir Focus tasting at CedarCreek Estate: a tasting of 11 Pinot Noirs by eight producers that, as a group, spoke to the evolving, iconoclastic style—distinguished by moderate alcohol, keenly felt acid, lavish red fruit perfumes and a minerality often tinged by wild scrub- like (sagebrush or sweet woody herbs like pennyroyal and thyme) qualities—setting British Columbia apart from the rest of the Pinot-crazy world. Comments Kristiansen: "I have always held up Oregon Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays as the 'bridge' between the ripeness of California and the tart, mineral-driven wines of Burgundy. Now it seems to me that Okanagan Valley wines from these two grapes can be accurately described as stylistic 'bridges' between Oregon and Burgundy." Several sommeliers have singled out the wild yeast–fermented CedarCreek 2012 Platinum-Block 4 Pinot Noir precisely for that coiled "tension," as Kristiansen puts it, "between mature [but not overly ripe] fruit with edgy acid and the region's signature mineral spine." DeBoeur favors the Meyer Family 2014 McLean Creek Pinot Noir for its "terroir-driven minerality balanced by deliciously bright red fruit, herbal tea, red licorice and clove." The Summerhill 2012 Pyramid Pinot Noir and Mission Hill 2014 Reserve Pinot Noir bottlings repre - sent more gentle sides of Okanagan Valley Pinot, whereas the Tantalus 2013 Pinot Noir, while finely delineated in the nose, could be perceived as either rigidly austere or wonderfully granitic in density. Our next stop was on the opposite side of Okanagan Lake, along the shores of West Kelowna, at Quails' Gate Winery, founded by the Stewart family in 1989—as such, one of British Columbia's modern-day pioneers. In a barrel room tasting person - ally conducted by owner Tony Stewart we found both sophistication and allegiance to Burgundian methodology in their dramati- cally balanced 2015 Chardonnay cuvées, all with varying dimensions of sweet, toasty French oak filling in the seams of densely compacted, mineral and lemony, acid-driven qualities—borne out in a finished bottling of Quails' Gate 2013 Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay. There is nothing like the sight of a vine - yard rolling down a slanted hill to the very edges of a postcard-pretty waterway like Okanagan Lake. At Quails' Gate, Stewart CedarCreek Estate - Block 5 Platinum Chardonnay. CAMP [ ] [ ] Summerhill Pyramid Winery.