The 2007 wines now being released from Blasted Church represent the solo debut there of winemaker Richard Kanazawa, on his own since Kelly Moss returned to Ontario. She was a fine, if cautious, winemaker. Richard, a one-time rugby player who did his major winemaking training in Australia, is a little more inclined to go out on the edge.

But with this Pinot Gris, he has stayed with the approach that has made Pinot Gris such a wildly popular white, and let the grapes speak for themselves. He has had a big advantage. In 2007, Blasted Church sourced Pinot Gris from four other areas of the Okanagan in addition to its Okanagan Falls vineyard – from Kelowna to Oliver. As a result, he had a rich palate of flavours to work with. Each lot of grapes were treated separately. Two-thirds of the berries for cold-soaked for up to two days, extracting even more flavour.

He pulled off a terrific fruit-driven wine, with aromas of pears, bananas and apples, and with pears, apples and melons. The finish is crisp and dry and the flavours linger for a long time. A textbook Pinot Gris. 88