Tasting Note:  Every once in a while along comes a pinot that is very sensual, even seductive. And it has nothing to do weight or colour. This pours quite pale ruby-garnet, paler in fact and looking more evolved than the 2023 Estate tasted alongside. The nose is generous and beguiling with a fine weave and complexity bringing together sour cherry/pomegranate seed, gentle distant wood smoke, cedary spice and evergreen forest floor. And on the palate the sophistication, grace and power continue to unfold. It is light to medium bodied at 12.9%, with finely embedded acidity, warmth and chalky tannin. The length is excellent to outstanding. Let this aerate about 30 minutes. It drinks very easily now but should hold into the early 2023’s.  

Backgrounder:  The Cowichan Valley is a coastal region near Mill Bay on the Salish Sea, yet blessed by rain shadow growing conditions in the summer and mild winters.  Unsworth is one of the most well-established wineries therein, founded by the Tim and Colleen Turyk in 2010, who along with son Chris Turyk have created a very popular vineyard, winery and restaurant/hospitality space less than an hour over the Malahat Pass from Victoria. California’s Jackson Family saw the potential and purchased Unsworth in 2020, building a stylish new winery facility and refurbished restaurant. In 2023 Unsworth made four single vineyard pinot noirs, but this from the nearby, south-facing Saison Vineyard has stood out from the beginning. It is a 4.5 acre site on glacial till planted to four clones (828, 667, 777, 115) that may account for this complexity. As with other pinots the winemaking is fairly straightforward.  The destemmed, whole berry fruit was fermented in stainless before resting 15 months in French oak (15% new). The 2023 Estate tasted at the same time has scored 90 points, value ***1/2, being delicate, firm and balanced if not as sensual or long on the finish.