With a nod to Shakespeare, I offer up two wines from the Okanagan’s Roche Wines. The first is their 2019 Texture Pinot Noir while the other is their 2020 Texture Rosé wine. Some people love red wines and others rosé wines so I offer both to you, As You Like It.
My Wine Tasting Notes
Roche Wines Texture Pinot Noir 2019 (BC $26.90)
The grapes for this wine come from the organically farmed Kozier Vineyard.
Appearance: A lighter garnet colour with slight bricking, 60% translucent, uniform from core to rim.
Nose: Medium intensity, evolving aromas of leather, tar, sweet spices, red cherries, and touches of floral and oak. A lighter intensity nose with decanting, you still get leather, sweet spices, floral, oak and red cherries, and lose the tar.
Palate: This wine has a slightly off-dry character. It is very smooth but then gets a dark chocolate or tarry tone from the mid-palate to the finish. Medium-bodied. Very fine light tannins to start and bright acidity. Medium intensity flavours covering plums, light candied cherries and pepperiness, and touches of oakiness and floral violets on the palate. More restrained flavours with decanting and firmer tannins. The dark tone on the palate leans more to the dark chocolate side.
Finish: The tannins firm up to medium intensity on the finish. Sweet red cherries, pepperiness, some dark chocolate bitterness, and bright acidity round out the finish.
I think that this wine should be enjoyed now rather than let it age unless you enjoy tertiary aromas and flavours in your red wines.
Rating: 
A wine that is evolving from its youth. A mix of leather, tar, sweet spices, floral, and red cherry aromas. Slightly off-dry that starts smooth and round then adds a dark chocolate or tarry tone. Plums and candied cherries on the palate along with a hint of violets.
Roche Wines Texture Rosé 2020 (Sold Out at the winery)
This rosé wine is made with two grapes you may not have heard of before, Zweigelt and Schonburger, the former a red grape and the latter a white grape. Sconburger, according to Wikipedia, “is a variety of grape, formally designated Geisenheim 15-114, a crossing developed at Geisenheim Institute for Grape Breeding in Germany, and released in 1979, of Pinot noir x (Chasselas x Muscat Hamburg)”. Zweigelt shows as the #10 most grown red grape in BC, while Schonburger does not show up in the top 10 list of white grapes, so you really need to look around for Schonburger (Roche does offer a single varietal wine). There are single varietal Zweigelt that you can buy in BC.
Appearance: A clear medium pinkish cherry colour.
Nose: Medium intensity sweet aromas of red cherries, raspberries and rhubarb, plus a hint of herbaceousness / leafiness. The aromas stay the same, but the volume of rhubarb is turned up a bit.
Palate: Off-dry, with a thicker round mouthfeel that has a waxy texture. Medium-plus acidity that leaves a prickle in your tongue. Red berries and minerality to start, then pepperiness on the mid-palate to the finish. With a bit of swirling you get rhubarb flavour and it gets stronger, the longer the wine is exposed to air. I also noticed that the acidity became brighter with exposure to air as well. The wine has the same flavours and texture after decanting.
Finish: A medium-plus length finishing with sweet red berry fruit, some rhubarb and pepperiness, and a lightly puckering finish.
No need to decant this wine. Just make sure you serve it chilled on your patio.
Rating: 
A refreshing rosé made with lesser-known grape varieties in BC. The result is a wine with sweet red berries aromas that continue to the palate. A round, thicker, waxy texture, along with an acidic prickle to keep the wine lively. Pepperiness and sweet red berry fruit on the finish. An easy sipper.
Where Can I Buy These Wines?
These wines are available to order from their website. The Rosé is available at the Vancouver and North Vancouver Everything Wine stores.
Thank you to Roche Wines for providing me with these wines to review.
