The Terrace restaurant overlooks Mission Hill winery and has a superb view of the hills of the Okanagan. Travel & Leisure magazine recently rated it among the top five winery restaurants in the world. With that kind of attention to food, Mission Hill's owner and founder Anthony von Mandl chose one of Toronto's top restaurants to host a tasting for an assortment of Ontario wine and foodservice professionals.
Mission Hill President Daniel Zepponi raises a glass at Canoe, on the 54th floor of the TD Bank tower.
Founder Anthony von Mandl established the Mission Hill Family Estate back in 1981, when the Okanagan was awash with nasty hybrid grapes and cheap plonk, with privileged access to the domestic market guaranteeing sales. The sprawling hilltop winery of today, located in the Westbank suburb of Kelowna, B.C. has been gradually built over the years, and has benefitted from Anthony van Mandl's single-minded approach to being the best: "whatever it takes," he says is his response most of his winemaker's and viticulturalist's requests for quality boosting improvements.
Selected Mission Hill Wines @ Canoe. July 9.
Some of these wines are available at Vintages. Prices given where known. For more info contact Peter Wille at 250-542-6514 / pwille@missionhillwinery.com
Select Lot Collection Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2006. $29.95 (for 2005 vintage)
The classic white Bordeaux blend, BC-style. Though it's 84% sauvignon blanc and the bold nose has tropical fruit and herbaceous notes, it doesn't scream sauv blanc. Very fresh on the palate, which is medium bodied. Citrus fruit, vanilla hint and a bit of toast are the flavours, with vanilla and melon on the finish. Very smooth, very nice, very interesting. The semillon is both taming and enriching it, but its contribution is tactically limited to good effect. 89 points.
Mission Hill Reserve Chardonnay 2006. $21.95
This is delightful. The nose is very fruity for a chard: worryingly fruity, in fact, with too much fresh honeydew melon and citrus. However it is smooth and rich on the palate, and obvious vanilla and smoke notes from the oak tame the fruit nicely and the overall feel is dry. Some mineral notes emerge and you forget about the initial fruitiness and enjoy the complexity. Nice lingering finish with sweet lemon and more oaky notes interplaying. More Burgundy than Cali in style, though neither really - BC perhaps? Very nice at a good price. 90 points.
Select Lot Collection Syrah 2004 (circa $40)
Inky dark ruby colour and a very rich fruity nose. Another nod to France here with the very Rhone-style white pepper, cassis and dark plum aromas dominating. Also Old Worldish in that it's less fruity than expected on the palate. However, the fruit that is there is rich and ripe (take that Niagara!) and there's more white pepper and some spicy notes. It's all nicely complex and there are even some floral notes too. Nice finish, rather Old World all round. 90 points.
Oculus 2004. $70
The high end Bordeaux blend of Mission Hill, Oculus is mostly merlot (about 75%), but there's cab sauv, cab franc and petit verdot as well. Uber-wine consultant Michel Rolland (the micro-oxygenation man with the magic touch) has been consulting for Mission Hill for the last four years and advised on this one. Another very rich nose here, with dark cherry and berry fruit and secondary hints of mint and chocolate. It's nicely rich on the palate, but still feels very youthful, with high acidity and very grippy/powdery tannins. There's good ripe red fruit as well as earthy notes that edge towards woody with a slight roughness: this one still needs more time, but there's enough ripe fruit for improvement. Good lingering finish, with more cherry and berry fruit, but a little more muted. 89 points.
Select Lot Collection Rielsing Icewine 2005
Super rich nose on this award winning icewine. David Lawrason noted that it ranked number one in a recent comprehensive tasting for Wine Access magazine. Honeyed raisin and sweet pineapple dominate on the nose. On the palate it's fresh because of the great acidity - sweet lemon and lime notes on the fairly full body lead into an almost candied finish of lemon drops, cut perfectly by the high acidity so it's not cloying. 90 points.
The wines chosen for the very creative and stylish five-course dinner were superb - a terrific preview for my forthcoming visit to the property... next week. Stayed tuned for more info on Mission Hill and its wines.
