Superb Wine at Martin's Lane - Riesling and Pinot Noir

Our family tasting group at Martin's Lane

Just last summer, I enjoyed a visit to an amazing winery, right here, in the Okanagan.

Martin's Lane is owned by Anthony von Mandl of Mission Hill fame and their first wines were actually made at Mission Hill. Then, in 2014, the Martin's Lane winery was build on Lakeshore Road, just above Cedar Creek (also owned by Anthony von Mandl). It is a stunning winery with amazing wine and I was impressed by the experience.

Outside the winery, there is a large sculpture of Van Gogh's head (sculpted by Douglas Coupland of Generation X and Microserfs fame), with his missing ear to the ground. There was a contest to find a suitable subject for the statue and Vincent  is apparently listening to the grapes growing. The whole story of 'Project Redhead' is quite fascinating and you can read about it here.

As you can tell, it was an unusual start to our visit.

After giving the sculpture the heads up (argh), we headed towards the giant door that allowed us to entire the winery. By the way, Martin's Lane is a certified organic winery and the winemaking philosophy is one of non-intervention from the vineyard to the bottle.

I loved this spiral staircase right by the front door. There were  many interesting and unique architectural features at Martin's Lane.

Our first actual stop was a room with windows opening to the barrel room below. This was a place to watch the cellar hands work and look at the barrels of Pinot Noir and Riesling as they aged. Martin's Lane only grows those two varietals, similar to another von Mandl property, Checkmate, which only has Chardonnay and Merlot.  

Sitting on a table in the room was our first taste - a 2014 Naramata Bench Riesling ($65). This wine is made with grapes from old vines and was our favourite Riesling. There was a touch of sweetness and tastes of apples and pears with a wonderful minerality that balanced the fruit. Outstanding.

After one last look down at the barrel room, where we noticed another head of Van Gogh (insert joke here), we continued our tour of the winery. 

We saw this tiled floor with gold (probably real gold) tiles which represents the Pinot Noir and Riesling that is processed in their approximate ratio. 

I was also impressed by the display of different sizes of wine bottles. Just for kicks, it goes...

Piccolo or Split- 187.5 ml

Demi or Half - 375 ml

Standard - 750 ml

Magnum - 1.5 L

Double Magnum. - 3 L

Jeroboam - 3 or 4.5 L

Methuselah or Imperial - 6 L

Salamanazar - 9 L - that's a case of wine

Balthazar - 12 L

Nebuchadnezzar - 15 L

Solomon or Melchoir - 18 L

We then ended up in the tank room. 

One of the unique things about Martin's Lane is that it is on a slanted hill - the grapes are delivered to the top and work their way down the hill of the winery. The grapes are crushed and then the juice is gravity-fed to the stainless steel fermentation tanks. 

Then, down the slope to what looks like concrete ageing vessels. They actually might be clay/porcelain, as my vague notes have suggested. 

Speaking of concrete and stainless steel, there's lots of controversy. Stainless is very easy to control in terms of temperature and oxygen exposure but can impart a slight harshness to the wine. Concrete, on the other hand, gently oxygenates with little harshness but doesn't have quite the same amount of control that stainless had. Clay/porcelain, to further confuse things, apparently doesn't impart any tannins or minerality that concrete can.

Our tour over, it was time to taste some wines. Lauren, our guide, was knowledgable, experienced, humorous and personable. We really enjoyed our tasting experience with her. 

The 2015 Simes Vineyard Riesling ($55) was dryer than the first Riesling with a minerality complimenting the apple, pear and peach flavours as well as the floral aromas. This French clone also had some citrus notes. Very good. 

The final Riesling that we tried was the 2015 Fritzi's Vineyard Riesling ($75).  This wine had a complex nose and leaned towards tropical fruits. It was a drier wine as well and had some herbaceous notes as well as citrus flavours. There was also a touch of that wonderful petrol aroma to this wine. Very good. 

The first Pinot Noir we tried was the 2014 Naramata Ranch Pinot Noir ($100). It was a very aromatic wine with aromas and tastes of red fruit, especially cherries. It had medium tannins and a wonderful earthiness. Very good. 

Our second wine was a 2014 Simes Vineyard Pinot Noir ($100). This wine was both less floral and less tannic than the first wine. It was more refined  - even austere. Medium tannins. There were tastes of red fruit including cranberry and raspberry. Very good. 

Our final wine was the 2014 Fritzi's Vineyard Pinot Noir ($150). This wine really made me think of the Domaine Serene Evenstad Pinot Noir that I had had from the Willamette Valley. It was another complex wine with cherry as well as darker red fruit on both the nose and the palate. It had softer tannins than the other two and had a wonderful mouth feel. This wine is ready to drink but has definite ageability,. Outstanding. 

So, what did I buy? Well, even though I am always looking for a great deal, I bought two of these rather pricey wines because the quality was so high. I bought a Naramata Bench Riesling and a Fritzi's Vineyard Pinot Noir. The Riesling was opened for a special occasion - and was beautiful - and the Pinot Noir is in my cellar awaiting another special occasion. 

I also have this Pinot Noir that my son-in-law gave me - a 2012 Martin's Lane Pinot Noir. Could be time to pop this one...

Cheers!

"I can't hear the grapes!"