Morning Bay Reserve Merlot 2005
This past Christmas day we were treated to a wonderful Christmas dinner by friends. Instead of the usual turkey (an overrated bird, if ever there was one), we enjoyed a roasted leg of lamb, brussell sprout with chorizo sausage and delicious creamed yams. We started the evening with a delightful Okanagan red – the Morning Bay Reserve Merlot 2005. There’s not too many of these around, and so no point looking in your local prairie liquor store. Morning Bay winery is actually located on the B.C. coast, on Pender Island, but they source their grapes for this wine from arguably one of Canada’s best red grape growing patches – the Nk’Mip (pronounced “inkameep”) Vineyard, planted more than 25 years ago by the Osoyoos First Nation. Okanagan reds, unlike other hotter climate reds, offer less jam and more subtle fruit flavours, which can be overwhelmed by oaking without care and attention. This wine making shows both, with the fruit sitting in the middle of the mix, brought to expression via the clean tannic structure and lovely french oaking. Plums, mochoa linger in the finish. Drink now or cellar for another two or three years. Photo by Blake Sittler.
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