Our vineyard site has long produced fine bubbly - hearkening back to the Pioneer Vineyard days with the Dulik family, with some of the original clonal selections chosen for their makeup to produce great sparkling wine.
We are immensely proud to carry on this tradition and in doing so help further the evolution of quality, traditional method sparklings from the Okanagan Valley.
A brilliant straw in colour, and showcasing a fine bead and mousse in the glass, this 100% Chardonnay sparkling wine opens with classic notes of toast, oyster shell, and a sea breeze freshness. The aromatics are wrapped together by more fruity aromas of lemon zest and baked pear strudel. On the palate, the wine is long and mineral-driven, with citrus zest, tart orange and Granny Smith apple. An intriguing slightly salty character lingers, making this wine ever so moreish.
WINEMAKER'S NOTES
Fruit for our sparkling Chardonnay release is sourced from a single block of our 2013 plantings. The grapes were picked early in our 2021 harvest window to allow for low alcohol and elevated acidity. Upon pressing, the pristine juice was fermented in old puncheons with a champagne specific yeast culture. The base wine then spent 7 months on fermentation lees in older barriques before being racked to bottle for secondary fermentation en tirage. After 22 months on lees, the wine was disgorged in February 2024 with a small amount of dosage wine, built from our still 2020 Chardonnay, to bring out a toasty and creamy addition.
ACCOLADES
92 points - Anthony Gismondi, Vancouver Sun and Gismondi On Wine
"I am a big fan of Blanc de Blancs, which, at its best, pours with complexity and finesse, as this does. The Tantalus BdB comes off an ageing 11-year-old chardonnay block on the home East Kelowna estate. .. Expect a creamy palate with intriguing textures mixed with early morning ocean notes. Citrus and oyster liquor fill the back end of an enticing sparkler that should live well through 2030. Oh, and I love the price."
91 points - Treve Ring, Gismondi On Wine
"Fruit from this BC classic chardonnay brut comes off a single block of 2013 plantings, and was fermented in older puncheons over 7 months prior to heading to bottle for 22 months sur lattes. This was disgorged in February with a low dosage (built from 2020 Chardonnay), leaving it under 4 g/L. Crisp green apple, crunchy Asian pear, grapefruit pith, anise is lit with a strident acidity, sharpening the edges and driving this forward to a lingering, savoury finish."
TECHNICAL INFO
100% Chardonnay
Alcohol: 12.7%
Residual Sweetness: 3.85 g/L
pH: 3.21
Total Acidity: 7.5 g/L
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VINTAGE NOTES
After a few recent winters with remarkably cold weather events, we managed to emerge from the 2020/21 winter without much cold damage to our vineyards. Bud break fell on the early end of the long-term average, fueled by warm spring temperatures and marginal rainfall, conditions that would persist until summer. The 2021 heat dome (we measured a temperature high of 48.5C on site) coincided with flowering in the vineyard. The extreme heat at such a sensitive time in the grapes’ development resulted in smaller than average berries and clusters and
lower yields.
Smoky August skies slowed berry ripening and pushed harvest back from what would have been a record early start on our site. Harvest kicked off in early September and the weather stayed warm with little precipitation for the rest of the month, allowing us to pick our fruit at peak ripeness and flavour and wrap up harvest on October 5th, two weeks earlier than our average end date, making for a remarkably short and busy harvest season!
