The Event: the launch of Osoyoos Larose 2005 Le Grand Vin, Feb 3, 2009

The Time and Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009 10AM to 2 PM
The Event: the launch of Osoyoos Larose 2005 Le Grand Vin.
The Venue: St. Andrews Club, King St West
The Target Audience: wine media.
The Availability/Catalogue: 1000 cases are coming to Vintages on February
28, 2009, $45 a bottle.
The Quote/Background: Osoyoos Larose is a partnership between Bordeaux's
Groupe Taillan and Vincor in Canada; this is its tenth anniversary. It is
sited by Lake Osoyoos in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. "Larose"
refers to Chateau Gruaud-Larose, one of the wineries owned by Taillan. Their
goal is to create a Bordeaux-inspired wine based on the classic grape
varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and
Malbec. The first vintage (2001) was released in Spring 2004. 32 hectares
produces grapes in the range of 67% merlot, 23% cabernet sauvignon, and the
remaining 10% spread around the other three grape varietals. Petales, the
second wine, was first made in 2004, and this is its second vintage. 15% of
Le Grand Vin is sold outside Canada.

The Wines: The proceedings were opened by Jay Wright (CEO Vincor) and
Antoine Merlaut (Managing Director Taillan). We tasted Le Grand Vin 2004,
2005, 2006, and 2007. In addition, we had a component tasting of the five
varietals for 2008 (arranged in picking order), and then we could blend our
own for 2008. Petales 2005 came with lunch. The tasting was conducted by
Pascal Madevon, the winemaker, together with consultant Alain Sutre from
France.

-2004 Osoyoos Larose: still deep purple, cedary with red berry notes, leaf
tobacco. Euro style was pronounced, with some aging on the mid-palate,
vanilla cream.
-2005 Osoyoos Larose: dense dark colour, black fruit dominates, prominent
oak, hot finish, firm spine, hard merlot character.
-2006 Osoyoos Larose: deep almost black, more black fruits especially black
currants woody and tight, very strong wine, mocha-herbal complexity, my fave
of the tasting.
-2007 Osoyoos Larose: deep ink, cedary and more wooden tones, red fruits,
tannic, but maturing already.

The Food: we were served a Bordeaux-inspired lunch, paired with Osoyoos
Larose Petales 2005 and Le Grand Vin 2005, a great opportunity to compare
and contrast a first wine and a second wine from the same vintage. Petales,
of course, is a faster maturing, lighter wine, at about $25 a bottle. We
started with a duck confit and onion tart, moving to a rack of lamb crusted
with grainy Dijon mustard, and ending with four cheeses: a Savoie and a
Comte from France, and a Bench Miranda and Tiger Blue from British Columbia.
The Petales was just perfect with everything, Le Grand Vin needing more
cellaring.
The Downside: we started late.
The Upside: a better seating arrangement at lunch meant that we could talk
to more people.
The Contact Person: christine.liber@ccltd.ca
The Marketing Effectiveness (numerical grade): 90.

Chimo! www.deantudor.com