A Tale of Two Vintages at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards

It’s been a busy time at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards with the grape picking wrapping up for the year and Winemaker and CEO Sandra Oldfield celebrating the winery’s 20th harvest with a special year that saw two types of vintage emerge.

The Okanagan’s hot summer leading up to September meant that the Tinhorn Creek team was tracking the maturity of the grapes two weeks earlier than usual, a promising sign for the first vintage. Variable weather in September that ranged from hot sun to hail, wind and drizzle, lasted well into October and created the second vintage.

The good news from September’s mixed weather was that it slowed down the ripening of the grapes enough to help the flavours catch up with the rapidly rising sugars – giving an incredible intensity of flavour to the grapes at harvest, this slow down in ripening simultaneously caused some initial concern about attaining the proper ripeness for harvest, as it has done for the past three years, but ultimately the quality was attained in enough quantity to produce the full range of high-quality reds.

“This year we’ve expanded on the popularity of our Pinot Gris and our Gewürztraminer,” says Winemaker and CEO Sandra Oldfield, adding “both are pretty exceptional in the tanks right now. Variety-wise one of the stand-outs of this vintage is the Merlot – the grapes loved the hot summer and its flavours are going to knock peoples’ collective socks off when the wines are released.”

For first access to new releases and limited issue wines, join Tinhorn Creek Vineyards’ Crush Club by calling 1-888-484-6467 or emailing crushclub@tinhorn.com.