The policy at Burrowing Owl is to allocate its wines among three sales channels – restaurants and wine stores; internet sales and finally at the winery’s shop in the Okanagan. By the time the review sample of this magnificent wine reached me, the winery had closed down its internet sales. But stop by the winery on your next Okanagan trip.

Burrowing Owl has made a Meritage – another name for a blend of Bordeaux varieties – since 2000. In recent years, all five varieties go into the blend. The winery further tweaks the complexity with its barrel program. The wine spent 22 months in a selection of barrels: 41% French, 26% American, 28% Russian and 5% Hungarian. Two-thirds of the barrels were new. Surprisingly, this wine is not over-oaked. The wine is so rich that it just seems to have soaked up the wood, reflecting in vanilla notes in the aroma and palate.

 This wine is full-bodied, with an inviting aroma of plums, red berries and chocolate. That leads to flavours of chocolate, plums and currants. The long, ripe tannins contribute to the earthy, mouth-filling textures of this wine. The finish lingers forever, with a delicious hint of liquorice and mint. The winery suggests this wine, while drinking well now, will age to at least 2016.

Burrowing Owl has improved the age-ability of its wines by switching away from the irritating synthetic stoppers the winery had been using. Those closures, hard to extract or to push back in and not ideal for long-term cellaring, were used with the best of intentions – to eliminate cork taint. The winery now uses a state of the art natural cork with membrane barriers at either end. This promises to banish cork taint while retaining the qualities of cork for aging wines.  91