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Wine Recommendation
Red Rooster Winery
2006 Pinot Gris Reserve(Okanagan Valley)
Purchased in 2005 by Andrew Peller Ltd., Red Rooster was launched in 1997 by a couple from Switzerland, Beat and Prudence Mahrer, who kept chickens as the sort of low-maintenance pets that fitted their busy lifestyles. Their hobby, which they continued in the Okanagan, inspired the winery name and a few hi-jinks as well. They invited Prince Charles to the winery opening. When he declined (with a letter proudly hung in the wine shop), his replacement was the winery rooster, conveniently named Prince Charles.
Peller is a big corporation, the largest Canadian-owned wine company. Happily, the corporation has maintained most of the irreverent personality of Red Rooster, except for the chicken coop from which Prince Charles and his successors once welcomed visitors.
However, Peller is refining and extending the wine styles. The winery’s standard Pinot Gris (3,172 cases made in 2006) continues to be made in and easy, off-dry style. The reserve, considerably drier, is aimed at more experienced palates. The wine, showing a slight pink colour, is full-bodied, with attractive flavours of pears and peaches, with mineral notes that enhance the structure. The winery produced 943 cases. 87 points.
Reviewed July 17, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Red Rooster Winery
The Wine
Winery: Red Rooster Winery |
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. |