Tasting Note: This was my first encounter with a top-notch merlot-led Okanagan Bordeaux blend that compete with but is priced well below the triple-digit price threshold already established by others!  It shows a gentle yet complex and ripe nose that is very much like Saint Emilion of Bordeaux, with raspberry, sage, mint, cedar, violet and vague nutmeg.  It is open-knit, fairly dense yet tidy with a certain suppleness and warmth, even at 14.4 % alcohol. It is big but so well managed and trimmed and tucked within its largesse. The acid is a bit low, tannins are quite refined and grainy. The length is excellent even if I wanted just a bit more at the price.

Backgrounder – Roche is a Naramata winery with deep French roots. Pénélope Roche is a viticulturist and winemaker from Bordeaux, where for six generations her family owned Chateau Les Carmes Haut-Brion. She studied oenology in Bordeaux and made wine in Spain, New Zealand and Australia. Vancouver-born Dylan found his passion for wine working for a travel company in Burgundy, then went on to a viticulture and winemaking program in Beaune. After meeting in France, and Dylan being convinced of the potential of Okanagan wines, they put down roots in Naramata, arriving in May 2011. Roche grew as a virtual label until 2017 when they opened the winery on the bench above Penticton.  The 85% merlot for Chateau is grown at the organic Kozier Vineyard on west-facing slopes overlooking Okanagan Lake, on granite gravel and finer glacial sediments soils. The cabernet franc and sauvignon are grown just north of Oliver. It was aged 14 months in 15% new French oak.

Accolades: Gold National Wine Awards