Painted Rock Merlot 2013

Producer Description

Vision

Painted Rock began with John and Trish Skinner’s belief that the Okanagan Valley had enormous, largely unrealized, potential. While the area was long known for producing some of the world’s finest fruit, it was the wines produced from the 1980’s “Vinifera Program” (where vineyards were paid to remove high producing, inferior hybrids and plant vinifera) that convinced the Skinner’s that the Okanagan would one day be an internationally recognized wine region. John knew that if they wanted to be involved, and make an impact, they had to move quickly. The goal was simple: find the best property and apply the most aggressive mandate for quality. Their extensive search took nearly three years and ended when they found “The Black Hawk”, a spectacular 56 acre bench on Skaha Lake in Penticton. In 2004 they purchased what was once “the largest apricot orchard in the British Commonwealth”. The orchard had been felled in the 1980’s and had lain fallow since.

Detailed analysis of the property occurred for the next year while the site was prepared and the property was planted in 2005.  Envisioned as a family-run estate winery, the assumption was that this could be some of the finest “terroir” in the world and it was their job to deliver on its promise.   From expertise to equipment to mandate the commitment was and remains uncompromising. According to John Skinner, “If Painted Rock is going to compete with the best in the world we must have confidence in our terroir and allow it to express its uniqueness. That's why we are 100% Estate."

Our Vineyard

1 vineyard: Our estate sits atop a 56 acre bench. Currently 27 acres are planted.

52,500 plants: The majority were planted in 2005, with small infill plantings done in 2006, 2009, 2018 and an additional Chardonnay block planted in 2017. High density plantings with 2,100 plants per acre at 7’x3’ spacing.

15 clones + 3 Rootstocks: Our clones and rootstock were sourced and propagated from a Bordeaux nursery. Each variety has at least two clones planted to offer blending opportunities and complexity.

UNIQUE SITE INFLUENCES:

• West sloping bench
• Surrounding amphitheatre of rock
• Lake reflection
• East-west planting strategy
• Natural pest eliminators

LAND COMPOSITION:

• Top soil
• Layers of glacial silt, clay, sand and volcanic ash deposits
• Underlying gravels

INTENTIONAL FARMING:

• No pesticides used
• Root training used to reduce irrigation
• Labour intensive vigor pruning strategy implemented

Winemaking

Our pursuit of pure terroir expression.

• Uncompromising. Since our beginning a conscious decision has been made to never cut corners. Our property has the potential and it is up to us to realize it.
• Collaborative winemaking. Consultant Alain Sutre of Ertus Consulting in Bordeaux oversees the vineyard and winemaking team, lead locally by Gabriel Reis.
• 100% single varietal wines. All varietally labelled wines are true single varieties.
• Hand harvested. To ensure pristine berries, only undamaged clusters are harvested, gently destemmed and hand sorted.
• No transportation. With our winery and vineyard onsite, there is no travel or delay between harvesting and processing, and no environmental impact from grape transportation.
• Unfiltered. Our red wines are never filtered to ensure their most complete expression.
• Renewable Energy. Solar panels were installed on our winery in 2017 to provide the power needs for the estate.