Lake Breeze Vineyards 2019 Alizé Roussanne - 88pts

Lake Breeze Vineyards 2019 Alizé Roussanne (Naramata Bench) Okanagan Valley - BC

Availability: Direct from winery here
Cost: $25 + taxes
Alcohol: 13.5%
Date Tasted: May 22nd, 2022

Tasting Notes: Very little Roussanne is grown in the Okanagan Valley and even less is bottled as a standalone varietal. Lake Breeze, with their Alizé release, gives us the rare opportunity to experience how the Rhone grape fares away from its traditional home. This Naramata grown version might be missing the unctuousness of its French brethren, but it succeeds in delivering a complex nose of stone fruit, floral tea and unpasteurized honey with similar flavours on the relatively full-ish and refreshing palate.

The current vintage is already 3 years old and ready to go. Drink now-2024.

- Liam Carrier ©copyright 2022 IconWines.ca

Black Hills Estate Winery 2016 Roussanne - 88pts

Black Hills Estate Winery 2016 Roussanne (Black Sage Bench) Okanagan Valley - BC

Availability: Direct from winery here
Cost: $29.90 + taxes
Alcohol: 12.9%
Date Tasted: June 6th, 2018
@blackhillswine

Tasting Notes: A textural experience, this youthful Roussanne weaves layers of tangy citrus, prickly ginger and plump stone fruit together with a flood of mannered spice into an intriguing, dry, Summer sipper with a well-balanced, though, slightly short finish. Ready to go now. Drink 2018-2021.
 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2018 IconWines.ca

Black Hills Estate Winery 2015 Roussanne - 87pts

Black Hills Estate Winery 2015 Roussanne (Black Sage Bench) Okanagan Valley - BC

Availability: Direct from winery here
Cost: TBA
Alcohol: 13.9%
Date Tasted: January 13th, 2018

Tasting Notes: This (nearly) off-dry Roussanne makes an intriguing addition to the Black Hills portfolio, offering a blend of fresh, unpasteurized honey, apricot, canned peach, coconut flesh and stewed carrot aromas on the nose with a similar cacophony of flavours on the mouth-watering'yet'creamy palate where additional notes of spicy ginger and cinnamon applesauce present themselves. The finish is a little short and watering after the spice and stone fruit notes fade.

Sealed with a Stelvin cap enclosure to prolong the natural freshness of this Roussanne. Pair with undressed pork chops served with fava beans and theme-betrothed, cinnamon-infused applesauce. Ready to go now. Drink 2018-2020.
 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2018 IconWines.ca