If you haven’t heard of Culmina, you’re forgiven. Culmina Family Estate Winery is fairly new to the BC wine scene. However, the Triggs family behind the family estate winery part is a legend in our industry. If you know anything of Canadian wine, wherever you may be, you will probably have heard of Jackson-Triggs. Donald Triggs, left the successful, groundbreaking winery years ago for retirement—but it didn’t last very long.
Enter Culmina, one of the most exciting, meticulously planned and funded winery projects in the Okanagan Valley in—ever. Triggs and family have researched their site on the Golden Mile Bench to the nth degree–including the soils and climate—before ever planting their first grape. They found a special terroir and site up on the Bench that was worthy of making fantastic wine, so the retirement plans were scuttled, gladly.
Unicus 2013 marks their first release of Grüner Veltliner. Not only their first release of this cool and hip Austrian white grape, but the first Okanagan release of GV. The grapes are from the high altitude (600m) Margaret’s Bench vineyard on the Golden Mile Bench. Expressive spicy persimmon, pear and herbal meadow flowers on the nose entices to an oily, waxy palate with citrus, white pepper, wild mint, pear and grapefruit pith vibrancy on the finish. This is a big wine (at 14 percent ABV) but all the Golden Mile’s warmth is tempered by bracing acidity. GV in BC? More please! Only 60 cases were made, and when I visited the winery in June more than half were already sold, so search quickly.
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