Tasting Note – Unicus was the first gruner veltliner released in the Okanagan Valley, in the 2013 vintage. I have never found the few subsequent B.C. versions to be particularly high quality, or very much like their Austrian forebearers. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted the Unicus 2025 at the National Wine Awards in June. It is a nicely ripe, fairly concentrated gruner perhaps thanks to the warmer vintage. It shows a very generous nose of green pear, lemon, white pepper (a gruner marker to me) and sage (likely from its southern Okanagan roots). It is medium bodied, warm and fairly firm with some textural richness and power thanks to 14% alcohol, and made in a dry to off-dry style. The length is excellent echoing the slightly greener notes one would not find in Austrian versions, but making it uniquely B.C.  Serve it fairly well chilled

Backgrounder – Gruner Veltliner is the signature white grape of Austria, and so popular there and among sommeliers around the world, that growers in many other regions just had to give it a try.  Almost every region, including New Zealand in particular, has had its ‘experimental’ versions, including a tiny plot a DeVine Cellars in Saanich on Vancouver Island.  So, when Don Triggs planted it on Margaret’s Bench in the south Okanagan, he was actually part of a tiny but global movement.  This is one of the coolest sites in the Okanagan. Sitting at 600 metres the one-hectare plot is actually at an elevation that precludes it from being within the Golden Mile appellation. The vineyard sits on classic schist mountain soils. Over the years fermentation techniques have been experimental too, but this year is it was 100% fermented in concrete egg, a treatment that accentuates the textural richness that I really like in gruner. 

Accolades: Gold Narional Wine Awards of Canada