Tasting Note. This is such a staunchly sturdy, tannic and powerful pinot noir that it is difficult to look down the road and imagine it will ever become truly elegant. It certainly does have the concentration and length to be 95+, but it is a very savoury, herbal expression from the rugged Naramata Bench with 70% whole cluster fermentation exaggerating the non-fruit bits.  As well, this could be in a ‘shut down’ youthful phase. It is quite deeply coloured. The nose did open with aeration – I gave it lots of time – revealing fairly ripe almost dried cherry/cranberry fruit within a savoury spice mix of fresh and dried herbs, sage, stone, forest floor – that is actually very indicative of the place. It is medium bodied, indeed full bodied for Canadian pinot, with good flavour intensity and very firm, crusty, drying tannin. The length is excellent, but wanted more at this price. Shelf this until 2030, as it just may prove to be one of the longest cellaring pinots in Canada. So, I am hedging my rating on this one and look forward to future arm wrestles. 

Backgrounder – Martins Lane opened in 2016 after two years constructing the most detailed and innovative, six level gravity fed wineries in Canada. It is architecturally arresting and was purpose-built specifically to make pinot noir and riesling only. Five vineyards deliver pinot to intricate Martins Lane winemaker Shane Munn, allowing exploration of different Okanagan aspects. Naramata Bench is one of the larger sites, on raised west facing, evening sun-capturing benches enveloped by evergreen and scrub and hot rocks. It is planted to Pommard and Djon clones 943, 667, 828. The 2023 vintage produced a smaller crop overall but the season delivering well structured, ripe but not overripe or smoke-affected grapes. This was hand harvested, 70% whole cluster fermented by wild yeast, with 28 days of maceration. It was then aged 15 months in tight gained French and Austrian barrels, before bottling unfined and unfiltered.