Poplar Grove adds a low-alcohol rosé

Photo: Winemaker Stefan Arnason

Poplar Grove Estate Winery in Penticton has joined the producers of low-alcohol (and non-alcoholic) wines. This is a segment of the wine market that has been growing in response to the demand from consumers who are counting calories or who have been spooked by the neo-prohibitionist campaign against drinking. These consumers still enjoy the taste of wine (and beer). More and more producers are serving this market.

Poplar Grove, which is run by Tony Holler and his family, has an extensive portfolio. The winery’s website currently has 24 wines in bottles (including multiple vintages) along with two wines in three-litre boxes. As an aside, boxed wines have also risen in popularity. The New York Times recently published a review of ten boxed wines from around the world that it judged better than average. Poplar Grove has both Pinot Gris and Rosé in its boxes. The winery happens to be one of the Okanagan’s major Pinot Gris producers, both in volume and in quality, so much so that the winery plans to expand its own acreage of the most widely planted white in British Columbia.

The winery is also an important player in the rosé market. In addition to its boxed rosé, it has three in bottle, including the low-alcohol wine launched this spring as Rosé Nouveau. Poplar Grove’s veteran winemaker, Stefan Arnason, described making the Nouveau “as an educational journey that has undoubtedly shaped aspects of our future winemaking.”

Both the Nouveau and the regular Rosé are made with similar varietals. The grapes had about three hours of skin contact before being pressed and fermented cool at 15◦C, a technique that preserves the fruitiness. The varietals for the Nouveau were fermented separately and then blended. The finished wine for the Nouveau was membrane-filtered to reduce the alcohol to eight percent, compared with the regular rosé’s 12.5%. Both wines were finished dry. The third rosé in Poplar Grove’s portfolio is Lakeview Rosé 2022, a single vineyard rosé made with Malbec grapes and priced at $30 a bottle. I have not had a chance to taste this wine. Only a handful of wineries in B.C. have enough Malbec to even think about making a rosé. It speaks to the demand for rosé wines that Poplar Grove would have three, plus the boxed wine.

Here are notes on two of those wines.

Poplar Grove Rosé 2022 ($21.65). This is 40% Merlot, 36% Malbec, 17% Syrah, 4% Pinot Noir and 3% Cabernet Franc. The wine presents with a delicate (but not anaemic) rose petal hue, and with aromas of strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb. There is more of the same on the palate, which is juicy and refreshing. 90.

Poplar Grove Nouveau Rosé 2022 ($25.99). The blend is similar to the other rosé. The colour of this wine is a bit darker and more dramatic in the glass. There are aromas and flavours of strawberry and watermelon. Perhaps because the alcohol is lower, there is a little less concentration on the palate – but that is hardly a fault in a rosé. 90.