In 2010, Rollingdale Winery was recognized by the website Organic Wine Review as one of only two wineries in BC as being fully organic. Usually renowned for their ice wines, Rollingdale even beat out Willamette Valley’s Sokol Blosser Winery for this honour.

The complete antithesis to Mission Hill Winery on Kelowna’s West Bank, Rollingdale is run out of a Quonset hut and the winemaker is often there himself for tastings. The La Gauche (get it? West Bank x 2) won Canada’s Wine Access 2012 silver medal for red wine and is a blend of 90% Cab Sav with a splash of Merlot on top. When we were there in June 2012, we tasted several and I’ll never forget there was a special deal on a bubbly that day that was purported to be capable of blowing in the back of the car unless consumed almost immediately. I loved the place just based on that.

Unfined and unfiltered, La Gauche is clear and bright, medium garnet with deep legs. Clean with medium plus intense aromas of deep red fruit, plum, ripe raspberry, boysenberry, cassis and some dried strawberry, it is a developed wine.

On the palate, it’s got medium plus acidity, beautifully balanced and dusty tannins, medium slender body, and medium plus flavour profile of boysenberry, damson plums, black tea leaves, forest floor, slight cedar and moss. The finish is medium plus.

Drink now; don’t age this elegant red any further. It’s drinking gorgeously. Enjoy as we did with Mike’s Meat Sauce and fettuccine.

Pic credit to Mike Woods Photography…