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2022 Sauvignon Blanc
First taste of 2022 from our local vineyards – and what a fresh zippy start. I wasn’t so convinced on Sauvignon Blanc in British Columbia until recently but Le Vieux Pin is further proof. Scents of elderflower and green herbs with a leesy accent. The palate is racy yet creamy and packed with lime pith and grapefruit all at a refreshingly modest 11% abv. It screams spring sipping.
2019 Syrah Cuvée Violette
93 points
Michaela Morris (MW candidate and Decanter Magazine writer) had Syrah Cuvee Violette as one of her top 10 wines of the year in 2022.
Le Vieux Pin crafts three Syrahs each highlighting a different aspect of the grape – Cuvée Violette an ode to the grape’s elegant, floral side. It is also consistently one of BC’s best-value Syrahs. Winemaker Severine Pinte ferments at low temperatures for a gentle extraction and the wine ages in a combination of stainless steel, concrete and French oak allowing the brightness and freshness of plum and raspberry fruit to take centre stage. Nuanced by herbs and violet and framed with fine tannins, the 2019 is a gorgeous mid-weight charmer.
2020 Syrah Cuvée Violette
95 points
A beautifully composed, medium bodied wine with all the elements in balance. Gorgeous red fruit with savoury tones
2020 Syrah Cuvée Violette
96 points
Opens with a medley of black and red forest berries. Medium bodied, with good freshness and vibrancy excellent well-structured tannins and a long persistent finish. Andrea Pritzker MW -96 points
2019 Syrah Cuvée Classique
92 points
This is the big brother to Violette, mostly from the Le Verger vineyard (used to be known as Airfield, due to the vineyard’s slightly elevated location on a small bench underneath the Osoyoos airport). This year’s Cuvée Classique comes 73% off Osoyoos Lake District and 27% off Black Sage Bench, with 19 months in French oak barrels and puncheons (35% new). Sultry dark blackberry, black plum are imbued with baking spices and downy violets running the length of the fuller palate, housed by ample, well-integrated tannins and lit with a grapefruit pith acidity. Dark cocoa and espresso is woven throughout, and the finish lingers with cracked black pepper. Very complete. A brooding, structural style drinking smartly now, and with time ahead.
2019 Équinoxe Syrah
93 points
Equinoxe is the flagship syrah of LVP. This comes from a few sites in the southern Okanagan, and vines nearing 20 years. This year sees 97% syrah, 3% viognier, with 19 months in French barrel (36% new) before bottling unfined. This masterful, structural red is entirely in balance, with rivers of wild blackberry, black cherry, espresso, iron, and cracked peppercorn. Tannins are long and fine, and acidity is easily matching the Southern Okanagan weight. The finish lingers with luring violets and bacon fat. Savoury and confident, this is drinking beautifully now and with time ahead. 199 cases.
2019 Équinoxe Syrah
94 Points
Consistently well made and at the top of the BC syrah mix, Équinoxe is all about balance: equal day, equal night; an equal heat of the day, the equal cold of the night leading to an equal New World, Old World style. As good as 2017 was, this is equally fine, if not even more elegant, despite having so much density and length on the palate. The balance is perfect, making it a joy to drink, and I know that kind of balance spells a long life in the bottle, meaning more and more complexity. The flavours are desert scrub, licorice, pepper, and savoury dried herbs mixed with ripe, dense, dark black fruit. The source is a mix of South Okanagan Valley sub-appellations, again honouring the adage that the whole is greater than its parts.
2019 Syrah Cuvée Violette
90 points
La Violette has been considered the benchmark in more affordable BC syrah for the past handful of years, thanks to the deft winemaking of Severine Pinte who emigrated from the south of France to the Okanagan several years ago. She is combining viticultural know-how and winemaking acuity to create syrahs that capture the grape to a tee, with a structural and winemaking sensibility that the French have mastered. There is a weave, complexity and balance that is very fine, if just a bit Euro rustic rather than New World glossy. Expect accurate syrah cherry, pepper, BC sage, dried leaf and dusty earthiness on the nose and palate. The length is very good to excellent, although I wished for more (which is to be found in her more expensive wines). Best 2022 to 2025.
2019 Syrah Cuvée Violette
92
Fresh and delicate with haunting aroma of red plum, violets and white pepper with subtle licorice notes on the finish. The touch of oak is integrated. Polished tannins with bright acid and a savory finish. One of the best Syrah coming out of the Okanagan. Bravo. Tasted blind at NWAC in October 2021.
2020 Ava
91 points
Fullish, fleshy, lightly grippy, noble bitters, comfortable palate, long finish. Very good wine. Tasted blind at the National Wine Awards of Canada October 2021. 5/5 value rating
2019 Syrah Cuvée Violette
91
Fruit lurks and the wine waits. Closed in such brooding youth. Darkening red fruit to purple and black. Quality tannins, sweet and high acid retention. Tang in spades, hearts and across palates. Wild ride, not the silkiest nor the most ethereal as far as syrah is concerned but do not judge less you be judged and here syrah perfume will emerge, emit and express. Be patient. Drink 2022-2026. Tasted blind at NWAC2021, October 2021.
2019 ‘Ava’
I’ve long been a fan of this wine, which in all honesty, is the opposite of the lean minerally whites I gravitate towards. Ava blends Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne in varying proportions depending on the vintage. It’s a tip of the hat to France’s Rhône Valley but ultimately BC in personality with peaches and apricots underscored by fragrances of lavender and sage. The palate is voluptuous with a fairly viscous texture but not heavy – just rounded and flattering. Exotic ginger and orange honey kick in on the lively finish.
2017 Equinoxe Syrah
92
This vintage expresses keen and sensitive winemaking applied to southern Okanagan syrah – where sophistication and weave make the wine seem almost understated. But give it some aeration or bottle age to let it fully express. It is deeply coloured with a soft ripe, plummy nose that has flecks of syrah pepper and licorice, Okanagan sage and subtle oak vanillin. It is full bodied, fairly dense and very smooth – almost svelte – with alcohol so nicely balanced compared to many south Okanagan reds. And the tannins are so nicely buffed. It is delicious but I kept wanting a bit more length, especially at the price. There is some minerality on the finish. Best 2022 to 2027. Tasted Feb 2021
2019 ‘Ava’
92
This is a rich yet fresh expression of the southern Rhone varieties grown in the southern, dessert like conditions of the Southern Okanagan. Viognier is just over 50% but roussanne and marsanne – the three principal southern Rhone varieties are adding their nuances (floral roussanne, orange-like marsanne). The nose shows ripe apricot, cantaloupe melon, saffron, vague light tea, licorice and dried herbs. It is quite full bodied and rich and a touch sweet, yet shows lively BC acid. In the end it is more about nuance, depth and complexity rather than immediacy. Excellent length. Tasted Feb 2021
2019 ‘Ava’
93
In a reversal of fame and varietal fortune the roussanne of 2019 submits to the viognier with the northerly and exotic one taking up 51 per cent blend time. The roussanne at (37) and marsanne at (12) come together in support at the Rhône turned Okanagan meridian to forge one of Western Canada’s finer, then rising to finest white wines. Elegant Ava begins out of a precocious nature, glides with graceful presence and makes good on prescient layering. Silk threads tie the varieties together, gift a gentility of texture and the most subtlety yet prescribed. Bâtonnage two times a week stirs up most excellent lees; clean, pure, unalloyed. And back to viognier at the helm because exotica is not just a six letter word but one that imagines that number of far away white, sweet and translucent fruits; litchi, longan, mangosteen, salak, rambutan and langsat. Take your pick because Ava goes there and also to an Okanagan place where evergreen and coolness reign. Captivating wine in 2019. Drink 2021-2025. Tasted January 2021.
2019 ‘Ava’
93/100
Le Vieux Pin Syrah Cuvée 2018 Violette is produced from 99% Syrah and 1% Viognier. Straight off the top the nose on this wine is fragrant with, well you guessed it, violets, as well as rich cherry, plum, fine herb and savoury aromas. On the palate this dry, fruity, medium-plus-bodied and elegant Syrah is so silky, sensual and liquid luscious and long with a kiss of pepper on the finish. The wine was fermented in cement, oak and stainless-steel tank with 10 months ageing in a mix of concrete, oak casks and six months in neutral French oak barrels. Pour with a duck confit and roasted small potatoes. This is a beautifully-crafted Syrah that is so good now, but will continue to evolve for the next five years. However, the 2018 vintage is already difficult to find! Tasted February 2021.
2017 Equinoxe Syrah
92 points- 4/5 value
Le Vieux Pin’s top end syrah cuts a particularly dashing figure in 2017, perfumed and finessed, yet tightly wound and structured, and destined for more some time in the cellar. I like the ongoing integration of fine, grainy tannins and the vibrant acids, while nearly half new-oak ageing goes essentially unnoticed, such is the depth of fruit flavour and density that has been fully digested by the wine. There’s a fine, peppery streak in the varietal idiom, and length and depth are excellent. Another refined and balanced syrah from Le Vieux Pin.
2016 Équinoxe Merlot
94 points- 4/5 value
Équinoxe is a concept, of that we are certain and in any given vintage la façon de penser that is Le Vieux Pin’s Reserve line will give itself up for a grape variety of promise, or in a vintage like 2016, to several worthy of holding the flame. If winemaker Severine Pinte intuits the prospect for balance, above all else, then another Èquinoxe baton is passed. This merlot joins the likes of cabernet franc from a vineyard known as La Feuille d’Or, “the golden leaf,” situated on the Golden Mile Bench. The gravels and cobbles suit these Right Bank-styled wines so well, equipping them with a natural, elemental, metalliferous and matter of fact base from which to develop. If time is permitted (and LVP has graced us this possibility) then all the building blocks will melt, render and morph like pulverized particles through a silken merlot of ductile texture. This glass is just that and the fruit holds taut against the musculature of structure. Opposing forces cooperate, unite and become one. Equal day, equal night. Equal old world, equal new world. Either spring or fall. Uguaglianza, égalité, equality. Drink 2022-2027.
2018 Le Grand Pin Syrah
91 points. 4.5/5 value
From the home LVP site on the Black Sage Bench, and its sand over clay base, this is a structural, masculine and savoury expression of Syrah. Based around a beautiful core of violet, dense blueberry and cassis, but with syrah’s meaty reductive face evident through. This was somewhat of an experiment, with the blend made up of two neighbouring blocks of 7 rows each, both clone 877, but utilizing two different canopy management techniques (one with early deleafing before flowering). The result of the latter was a lighter, smaller cluster, with thicker grape skins, adding an extra dimension of concentration to the whole. Quite a structural, age worthy wine. This is one of three small lot (50 case) single vineyard syrahs released by the winery from 2018, all raised in neutral barrel for 18 months.
2018 Le Faucon Syrah
93 points. 4/5 value
Le Faucon, referencing the falcons in the vineyard, is a super sandy vineyard in Osoyoos, and represents one of their warmest, and coldest vineyards. The lake affect is not so prominent here. This is one of three in LVP’s Terroir Series, a small lot (50 [cases] each) release of single vineyard syrah, all raised in neutral barrel for 18 months. This is entirely 174 clone, with vine age approximately 10 years. Savoury throughout, with a sandy textural component, wild cherries, fine tobacco, and subtle peppery spicing running along very lengthy, fine grained tannins. Beautiful finesse now, even in youth, this is certainly a highly cellar-worthy wine.
