Tasting Note My favourite Compendium to date! I am particularly enthused with this 2020, from one of the great vintages in B.C. Part of my excitement is based on how beautifully the cabernet component is expressed, which is not common at his northerly latitude. It pours deep, luminous purple-ruby, signaling its youth. Cabernet blackcurrant/cassis dominates the fragrant nose, with herbs, camphor, tobacco and cedary wood spice. It is quite full bodied, fairly dense with fine firm acidity, 14.5% alcohol and grippy young tannins, all nicely proportioned. It is certainly firm and needs age, but all the components are moving together and the length is excellent to outstanding. This will hit stride through the next decade. Wait until 2028 at least. Tasted October 2025.
Backgrounder Mission Hill is among Canada’s largest wineries, producing dozens of wines across five price-quality tiers. Compendium is one of three wines in the second tier, in what Mission Hill calls its Legacy series. These are the best expressions of three different styles, with Perpetua being the top Chardonnay, Quatrain being a syrah-led blend, and Compendium being a cabernet sauvignon-based blend that hearkens to a left-bank style from the Medoc. The components are cabernet sauvignon (48%), merlot (27%), cabernet franc (23%), petit verdot (2%), from individual blocks largely in Osoyoos. It was aged 19 months in largely new French oak.
