Culmina delivers flavours

Photo: Culmina's Elaine and Don Triggs 

The white wines released this spring by Culmina Family Estate Winery showed a remarkable consistency of style, regardless of the varietal.

The wines were rich in texture and full of flavour. Each was a satisfying experience. Jean-Marc Enixon, the French winemaker there for the last several vintages, has settled very nicely in the Okanagan.

No doubt, credit also is due to viticulture. Don and Elaine Triggs, the winery founders, began planting Culmina’s Golden Mile vineyard in 2007. The vines have had time to settle in and extract flavour from the terroir.

As well, the 2018 vintage was a good one. The winery summarized vintage conditions in its notes on the wines.

“A cool start in 2018 resulted in a slightly later budbreak at the end of April, with warm temperatures in May leading to early flowering,” the winery writes. “Warm conditions continued until mid-summer, at which point temperatures cooled to bring seasonal veraison in mid-August. This swing of the pendulum allowed for phenolic and flavour to finally catch up with that of sugar development for a well-balanced profile in all varieties.”

Here are notes on the wines.

Culmina Unicus 2018 ($27). This is the proprietary name the winery has given it Grüner Veltliner. Arguably, this is the Okanagan’s best expression of this white varietal from Austria. The wine is fermented with indigenous yeast, with 35% fermented in a concrete egg, 26% in a concrete amphora, 22% in stainless steel and 17% in neutral French oak. The aromas and flavours show luscious tropical fruits: guava, peach mango. The finish is dry and the flavours linger. 92.  

Culmina Wild Ferment Viognier 2018 No. 007 ($N/A). Only 44 cases of this wine have been released, likely only in the tasting room. A very complex white, it fermented for 71 days in a combination of stainless steel and used barrels. The wine begins with honeyed aromas of stone fruit and almonds. Rich on the palate, it has flavours of apricot and mandarin orange. The finish is persistent. 92.

Culmina Dry-ish Riesling 2018 ($19). Fermented entirely in stainless steel, the wine appears to be called dry-ish because the residual sugar is superbly balanced with acidity. The wine begins with aromas of citrus and cantaloupe. The flavours are intense, with lemon and grapefruit mingled with apple and peach. 91.

Culmina Skin Contact Gewürztraminer 2018 No. 008 ($N/A). Only 100 cases of this wine have been released. This wine was on the skins for 16 hours before being pressed into a stainless steel cask and fermented with indigenous yeast. It begins with aromas of spice and tropical fruits, leading to flavours of ripe peach and guava. There is a touch of residual sweetness. It is hardly a typical Gewürztraminer but the wine is utterly delicious. 93.