Current vintages by award
Prior vintages by award
Magazine articles
Gold Medal
- Syrah 2004
Lieutenant Governor's Award, July 2007
- Syrah 2000
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2004
Silver Medal
- Syrah Reservare 2003
Northwest Wine Summit, April 2006
- Syrah 2002
Okanagan Wine Festival 2005
- Cabernet Franc 2002
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2005
- Pinot Noir 2002
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2005
- Pinot Noir 2001
All Canadian Wine Awards, Toronto, April
2004
Bronze Medal
- Pinot Noir 2002
All Canadian Wine Championships, Windsor, April
2005
- Syrah 2001
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2005
- Syrah 2002
All Canadian Wine Championships, Windsor, April
2005
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2005
- Pinot Noir 2001
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2004
- Impromptu
Okanagan Wine Festival, Fall 2003
Selected by Ontario Liquor Board to their Vintages Specialty
Store
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Prior Vintages
Gold Medal
- Cabernet Franc 2000
All Canadian Wine Awards, Toronto, May
2003
- Pinot Noir 2000
All Canadian Wine Festival, May 2003
Silver Medal
- Syrah 1999
All Canadian Wine Awards, Toronto, May
2003
Bronze Medal
- Cabernet Franc 2001
Northwest Wine Summit, Oregon, April 2004
All Canadian Wine Awards, Toronto, April
2004
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Magazine articles
The Georgia Straight June 30-July 7, 2005
Popular pinot grapes grow in a grey area.
by Jurgen Gothe
"NICHOL VINEYARD PINOT GRIS 2003
...Nichol Vineyard Pinot Gris 2003...which is the rich, pink
one—deep, salmon pink, with a whopping 15 percent alcohol, but it
arm-wrestles that easily. This unconventional Pinot Gris is a wine
for the intrepid: gorgeous, off-the-scale fullness of fruit but
retaining just a little stern edge, making it one of the most
structured Pinot Gris in the world. Astonishing, mind-bending, and
impossible to judge "blind" since the colour always gives
it away, it continues to be simply a superb wine...."
(Winemaker's note: and the 2004 is even bigger! and the client
list grows daily, so get your order in quickly)
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Vines, Winter 2005
2001 Syrah is at top of the list of the Naramata Bench Tasting
Notes
**** + an open star (4.5 stars out of 5)
Nichol Vineyard 2001 Syrah
"Kathleen and Alex Nichol pioneered in the area [Naramata] as
small grape growers...They consider Syrah to be the winery's
flagship....no producer matches Nichol's classic northern Rhone
Valley design for old world depth and dimension. The 2001 Syrah is a
credit to the grape and the New World potential it projects.
Impatient drinkers can drink it decadently with wild game or rack of
lamb and hope for another chance to do it again."
**** (4 stars)
Nichol Vineyard 2001 Pinot Noir
"This Burgundian lookalike has a focus and finish that Old
World producers would love to copy. Such a full-blown, complete
package provides convincing evidence that Okanagan terroir can
achieve greatness with the wine grower's holy terror of grapes.
Roasted wild game and dark plum pie flavours melt together in firm
mesh of tannin support, with teasing hints of wild mushroom, sage
and dark soy making for a wild mix of purely imaginative
pleasure."
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Okanagan Life October 2004 p.35-6
Syrah 2000 Received 4 Stars, "Excellent"
Michael Botner "We rate the grapes"
Under the heading "RICH, CLASSIC, FULL-BODIED REDS"
"Nichol Vineyard Syrah 2000 ****
Classic old world style Syrah boasts sweet, supple, meaty black
cherry and plum fruit, notes of smoked bacon, licorice and black
pepper, a touch of earth, and ripe tannins. Pepper steak and
barbecued game dishes."
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'Uncorked' Jurgen Gothe Georgia Straight, August 5, 2004
How Can You Say No to These 10 Pinots?
Pinot Gris has its own identity crisis, unable to decide if it's
a dark grape or a light one. The skins show hues from grey-blue to
pinky brown; in fact in Italy and Switzerland the wine is often
pinkish. Sometimes it gets that way in the Okanagan, too.
......we've got it growing all over the place: Gris galore—10
out of the chute first time and we weren't even breathing hard.
Some were tap-water pale; others practically pink. Some were big
and bold and full of fruit; others, lean and light, reserved or
subtle. The palest came from Lake Breeze on the Naramata Bench at a
sensible 11.5 percent alcohol; the pinkest came from there, too:
Nichol Vineyard's lush 2002 with an eyebrow-elevating 14 percent.
Nichol Vineyards 2002 Welcome to big pink: killer fruit front to
back; angular and assertive; rich and robust; full-frontal fruit and
a hit of pepper at the back. Just terrific and, fashionable or not,
it's my solid favourite. But hard to find; you're talking trunkloads
from the valley for most of these.
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