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Wine Recommendation
Seven Stones Winery
2006 Chardonnay(Similkameen Valley)
A former telephone company manager, George Hanson was new to viticulture when he began planting his Similkameen Valley vineyard. One challenge the valley throws at growers is fierce summer heat, which can sunburn the grapes and send alcohols through the roof. Township 7’s Brad Cooper, one of the winemakers buying fruit from Hanson, admires the way Hanson has adapted the vineyard to the site. The grapes are shaded with full canopy that is not removed until late in the season; and the fruiting wires are hip height, allowing good air movement under the vines. And natural air drainage brings cool air down from a nearby mountain most nights. “He practices vineyard techniques that are really paying off,” Cooper says.
They pay off for Seven Stones, the winery Hanson and his wife, Vivianne, opened last year. Their debut 2005 Chardonnay won a gold medal at the All Canadian Wine Championships. The 2006 Chardonnay has half a percent less alcohol than the previous year, suggesting that Hanson tweaked his management of heat units a bit in that vintage. The wine begins with a toasty, buttery aroma with a hint of citrus. On the palate, the wine has flavours of tangerine and orange peel, subtly supported with oak. The texture is full and rich. 88 points.
Reviewed September 12, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Seven Stones Winery
The Wine
Winery: Seven Stones 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. |