For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjoying a glass. For current availability, consult the winery.
Wine: Pinot Noir, 2015
Winery: Mirabel, West Kelowna
Why drink it? Rarely does an Okanagan wine create as much buzz as this pinot without a tasting room (to come), or ample shelf space at your favourite wine shop (buy the wine online). Carefully crafted with a brooding and intricate pinot noir character, this is a bottle to collect, attempt to hold in the cellar, and share with your favourite wine friends. A hearty sniff beguiles with toasty notes wrapped around dark, red fruits. A slow sip wakes the taste buds up to a subtle earthiness surrounded by dark cherry, strawberries, and a hint of hazelnuts. This wine will transport you to a previous life as a poet living in a French vineyard.
Price: $70
Pair with: The earthiness suggests mushrooms, think morels or wild varieties, mushroom risotto. Rare meats – lamb, steak, carpaccio – or roast pork. Tourtiere or really, any harvest-season French-inspired dish that you’ve seen a chef prepare on the Gusto network or a Bourdain show.
Classic CanCon music pairing: Dance Me to the End of Love, Leonard Cohen
Have a wine you'd like to suggest? Contact us at [email protected], and we will put you in touch with our wine writer.