With all our wonderful sunny, warm weather in the Vancouver lower mainland, and the spot prawn festival going on, some nice fruity BC white wines would be appropriate. Two bottles I received to try from SpierHead Winery in Kelowna are their Pinot Gris and Riesling, both from the 2014 vintage. I’ve been tasting their wines quite regularly over the past years, and the wines are always of very good quality, with the white wines showing off fresh BC fruit. 2014 was a great year for BC wines, so I was expecting more wonderful BC fruit from these 2 wines, and I was not disappointed. Enjoy.
SpierHead Pinot Gris, 2014 ($19) – Medium lemon in colour. Upon first tasting, it had a delicate, flowery nose, together with stone fruit aromas. With some decanting time, citrus became more obvious. A day later, and then I picked up citrus and grapefruit specifically. It is dry with lively acidity, leaving a prickle on your tongue, quite full-bodied. Mixed flavours of stone fruit (primarily) and tropical fruit (secondarily). Mid-palate you pick up some greenness, and lime in the background. A day later grapefruit and pear flavours became more obvious. Medium length with some leafiness and citrus rind on the finish. I think a pairing with a goat cheese salad would be nice with this wine, if opened and poured immediately. With decanting time, you can enjoy sipping this wine on it’s own.
Rating: 
This wine, with lively acidity, and a mix of stone fruits, tropical and citrus, will keep your mouth happy as you enjoy it with a summer salad and cheeses.
SpierHead Riesling, 2014 ($19) – Medium lemon with a greenish tinge in the glass. Youthful aromas of lemons, a hint of oranges and white flowers, followed by honey and lime. Slightly off-dry, with medium acidity leaving a light acidic prickle on the tongue. Soft with an acidic edge. You first get tropical fruit on the palate, followed by ripe stone fruit, and a hint of lime rind. After decanting a few hours, the wine became much more round, and less crisp, except on the finish. It does finish with mouth-watering acidity, citrus flavour and on Day 2 of my tasting, some citrus rind. The flavours progress tropical fruit – stone fruit – citrus on the palate. You also get some stony minerality on this wine, which is a little more obvious on Day 2. Don’t be afraid to linger over this wine for a few days. It is very good. Buy some take-out sushi and enjoy it on your deck with this wine.
Rating: 
A very nice wine with the full gamut of fruit flavours from tropical fruit to stone fruit and citrus. With a little decanting it becomes much more round, and can be enjoyed over a few days.
Where Can I Buy These Wines?
You can, of course, purchase the wine online through the SpierHead website, but they also have a long list of wine shops where you can pick up their wine across BC. Here is a list of the private retailers.
If you want to read about past articles I’ve written about SpierHead’s wines, here are the links:
