Wine Recommendation
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Wine Recommendation

Wine:Burrowing Owl Vineyards 2006 Pinot Gris, Estate (Okanagan Valley)

Burrowing Owl Vineyards

2006 Pinot Gris, Estate
(Okanagan Valley)




This wine marks Burrowing Owl’s 10th vintage with Pinot Gris. During those years, the winery has established this as one of the Okanagan’s benchmark Pinot Gris wines.

There are many fine Pinot Gris wines in British Columbia, where 563 acres are now planted, second only to Chardonnay among white varietals. The first Pinot Gris vines in British Columbia (and likely in Canada) were imported in 1976 by Gray Monk. Since then, the variety has adapted successfully to almost every appellation in the province.

Burrowing Owl’s Okanagan appellation vineyard is on sun-drenched Black Sage Road, in the southern part of the valley, in a sub-appellation better known for full-bodied reds. The Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris style that has emerged from this terroir over the past decade is a wine typically rich in texture, almost Alsace-like.

The 2006 Pinot Gris has appealing aromas of fresh apples, mangoes and pears. On the palate, the wine is luscious with ripe pear and tangerine notes. The finish is crisp and refreshing. 88 points.

Reviewed July 17, 2007 by John Schreiner.

The Wine

Winery: Burrowing Owl Vineyards
Vineyard: Estate
Vintage: 2006
Wine: Pinot Gris
Appellation: Okanagan Valley
Grape: Pinot Gris / Grigio
Price: 750ml $20.00

Review Date: 7/17/2007

The Reviewer

John Schreiner

John Schreiner has been covering the wines of British Columbia for the past 30 years and has written 10 books on the wines of Canada and BC. He has judged at major competitions and is currently a panel member for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Both as a judge and as a wine critic, he approaches each wine not to find fault, but to find excellence. That he now finds the latter more often than the former testifies to the dramatic improvement shown by BC winemaking in the past decade.