A Penticton winery has been recognized among the world’s best.
Painted Rock Estate Winery’s 2017 Red Icon wine has been given the prestigious honour of being included in Decanter’s “Wine of the Year” list for the January 2021 edition of Decanter Magazine.
Decanter is the oldest consumer wine publication in the UK and one of the leading international voices in wine media. Painted Rock’s Red Icon was the only Canadian wine selected to the “Wine of the Year” list.
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Decanter asked their experts from around the world, and the Decanter team, to nominate wines that impressed them most in 2020.
The trio of judges, including Andy Howard, Ronan Sayburn, and Beth Willard, blind-tasted the wines and the results have now been revealed — with Red Icon being one of the clear favourites.
“I was…really excited by the Canadian Merlot blend - an outstanding red with great elegance and intensity,” Willard said of Red Icon when discussing which wines piqued their interest.
Decanter’s Sonja van Pragg nominated Painted Rock’s Red Icon wine for consideration.
“A rich wine displaying lots of fruit and intensity, but with an underlying elegance. The nose is very pretty, revealing attractive raspberry and other red fruits, while the palate is quite plummy with a touch of mint, red pepper and black pepper spice on the finish,” said Van Pragg of Red Icon.
All three judges gave the wine impressively high scores, with Howard and Willard both awarding 96 points out of a possible 100 and Sayburn giving the wine a score of 94 points.
Painted Rock took to social media Wednesday, Dec. 2 to thank everyone that helped them earn the recognition.
“In addition to the Decanter team, we would like to thank our Painted Rock team whose hard work made this possible: our winemaker Gabriel Reis, winemaking consultant Alain Sutre, and our vineyard team, led by Barry Green,” reads a Facebook post from the winery.
Painted Rock describes their Red Icon wine as a vintage that “invites you in with rich, pronounced aromas of cassis, black cherry, bramble fruit and nutmeg. The palate with it’s well-balanced, smooth tannins shows further development of the dark fruit with further blueberry and chocolate notes. Elegantly balanced with a rich texture, bright acidity and smooth texture.”
A 750ml bottle sells for $59.99.
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jesse.day@pentictonwesternnews.com
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