If you missed my latest episode of the “Cheap and Cheerful” series, you can check it out here!
Below are the full reviews of these wines, along with a couple bonus reviews from some recent stuff we’ve enjoyed. But before we get to that, I have some disappointing news to share about the 2021 vintage in BC.
Following last month’s announcement by Blue Mountain that they would not be releasing any 2021 wines due to smoke taint from the terrible fires that swept across the Okanagan Valley last summer, today we received word that Synchromesh will also not be releasing the bulk of their 2021 crop. They had previously released two of their entry-level Rieslings (don’t let ‘entry-level’ fool you, these are great wines!), but the rest of their crop won’t be released as winemaker Alan Dickinson stated that they are just not up to the quality of wine they produce. From the release that was sent this morning:
“First off, we have some sad news to share with our wonderful supporters. The 2021 Thomas Creek Wildfire that burned within 1 km of our home property has left it’s stamp on most of the wine from Storm Haven Vineyard. Unfortunately, the continuous smoke exposure through a critical time in grape ripening has left the bulk of the wines from the home vineyard with significant smoke affect. After doing our best to mitigate this during winemaking, I am just not comfortable standing behind these wines and will not be releasing them.
Some of you may have already noticed that our volumes were pretty low across the board, this is because a large contributor to our entry level Riesling is usually Storm Haven Vineyard. We had to supplement the volume with wine from our other single vineyard offerings so everything is in short supply. We will also not have any further releases from Storm Haven later in the year, usually the second release for us would be our individual block selections of our highest quality wines (Riesling, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir).”
Although I applaud Alan’s commitment to quality, this is a devastating blow to a small winery like Synchromesh. They have limited quantities of the two previously-released 2021 Rieslings available as of this writing. If you are interested in getting some of them, they can be purchased from their website. They also mentioned they will open up the library later in the summer to release some aged offerings.
We visited Synchromesh last year and had a terrific experience, so we wish them all the best going forward.
Now, to the wines from my latest vlog:
And here are a couple other reviews of some nice stuff we’ve tasted in the last couple weeks.
That’s it for today! Coming up soon: Lots of more reviews, including part 2 of my annual “Rosé” series! Stay tuned!
Confessions of a Huge Wine-R 