What’s new at Hillside? I’ll tell you what’s new! Last month we released our first vintage of the newest addition to our Single Vineyard Series, the Occhi Dolci Vineyard Merlot.
This merlot was planted and grown on a beautiful vineyard site (come on they’re all beautiful) just below the Penticton sign at the south end of the Naramata Bench Sub-GI by Pat Bowen and Carl Bogdanoff, retired scientists from the Summerland Research Station. Planted in 2009 this vineyard has given us awesome merlot and cabernet franc fruit for Mosaic and other blends over the years, but we were reluctant to put “Bowen-Bogdanoff” on a wine label, and Pat and Carl struggled to find the perfect name. The Merlot fruit has been so exceptional that we really wanted to include it in the series and I badgered them year after year.
This sloped vineyard is on lacustrine soils—formerly lake-bottom during the last ice age—so is made up of silt, loam and fine sediment. The sloped vineyard runs almost to the edge of the cliffs above the lake and its west-facing aspect ensures great sun exposure and full-ripening. The resulting wine bursts with aromas and flavours of dark fruit, the tannins are ripe, fine-grained and elegant, and the acidity is well balanced to ensure long aging potential.
The proximity to the lake is important not only in full ripening of fruit by mitigating summer heat spells and shoulder season cool spells, it kept the vineyard temperature high enough during our calamitous January 2024 freeze that the vines survived, without a need to re-train the trunks. We should enjoy a full harvest from that block in 2025. The only vineyard to have fruit to pick this year was the Dickinson vineyard, similarly situated above the lake. We received one bin of gorgeous pinot gris which will become our first Single Vineyard white wine (stay tuned). Learn more from our conversation with Pat in the summer of 2022.
Pat and Carl finally named the vineyard Occhi Dolci, and we immediately had labels printed. Meaning “sweet eyes” Occhi Dolci (pronounced “oh-key duel-chee”) refers to the gorgeous view from this vineyard perched high over Okanagan Lake, but is also Italian slang for a flirtatious look, or what my sister referred to as her “come-hither look”.
Dr. Pat Bowen was a key contributor to the body of Okanagan Valley viticulture knowledge over the decades she spent at the research station. She created a GPS data bank which is used to collect data on the vineyards valleywide. This has been a key resource and is especially important currently as we are faced with climate anomalies that impact our growing area. Pat and colleagues also received the 2010 Best Viticulture Paper award from the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. https://www.asev.org/press-release/honorary-research-lecturer-discuss-spatial-variations-vineyard-environments-asev
Pat’s husband and collaborator Carl Bogdanoff was key in creating a methodical system for monitoring and predicting wine grapevine bud-hardiness throughout the dormant season. This is a key tool for assessing expected vine health as well as for predicting the following season’s yield.
We have been pouring this wine in our tasting room since its release and folks are crazy about it.
Here’s what John Schreiner had to say:
This wine was aged 16 months in French oak (42% new). This is a pretty Merlot, with bright floral fruit aromas mingled with cassis and blueberry. The flavours are voluptuous – cherry, blueberry, black currant and plum – with a touch of spice on the lingering finish. 93.
