Every Rose Has A Thorn

Every Rose Has Its Thorn « WINEcouver

We attended a tasting last month where the highlight of the night was a 7-year vertical of one of BC’s most celebrated red blends: Osoyoos Larose’s Le Grand Vin. Unfortunately, the tasting ended up being an anti-climactic car wreck of unbalanced wines that left us regretting the roughly $350 worth of wine on the table before us.

Firstly, Osoyoos Larose bills itself as “an inspired partnership with a vision to create a world-class Canadian wine from classic Bordeaux varietals”. The goal with this partnership between Groupe Taillan of Bordeaux and Vincor Canada is to produce a BC wine to rival the best of Bordeaux. The price point is proof of this aspiration, and at $45/bottle, it falls into the premium category of BC reds.

I’ve met the winemaker, Pascal Madevon, at prior tasting events, and indeed, he bleeds enthusiasm and passion. He was quick to hand me a shiny, multi-page, full-size pamphlet telling the story of Osoyoos Larose. When tasting the current vintage at these events, the senses are pummelled by big, over-extracted tannins and oak. Yet, most people buy the wine (sold) on the promise that this is built-like-Bordeaux and will be a bottle to lay down and treasure 3-5 years down the road.

Our tasting was startling in it’s outcome. The oldest wines were unbalanced, had lost their fruit, were strangled by mouth-drying tannins, and had unpleasant tertiary flavours such as vegemite, black olives, & leather. (We had to double-check that the 2001 vintage wasn’t accidentally replaced with a 1980′s Italian bottle. No such luck.)

What conclusions can we come to? These wines aren’t yet ready for long-term aging, and are probably best drunk at 5-6 years old. Before that, they’re dominated by their tannins and oak. Past the sweet spot, the wines seem to decline very quickly, likely due to the quality of the fruit and youth of the vines. There is also a lot of greenness & tannins throughout the wines which points to the usual complaint that the growing season is not long enough for the Okanagan to be focusing on Bordeaux varieties.

I’ve seen some pretty decent scores given for these wines (90-92 points), and I think that most reviewers are trusting that the dominant youthfulness of the just-released vintage will mellow out into balance and finesse. We’ve definitely seen that with Bordeaux wines we’ve personally laid down for 5-10 years. The truth of the matter is that the quality is not there yet for these wines to last past the 5-6 year mark. Our advice? Drink (immediately) anything you have from the 01, 02, & 03 vintages; plan to drink the 04, 05 vintages in the coming year; hold the 06 & 07 vintages for a few more years, or drink now with a big, juicy steak and some soda water to restore moisture to your mouth.

@ I have seen them a ton, and "every rose has a thorn" has closed every show.

Every rose has a thorn? Or Talk Dirty to Me? Hmmm... which one will Poison close with tonight?

Someone should make a movie out of Poison's "Every Rose Has its Thorn" Preferably @ but probably @. My ideas are free.

I liked a @ video ?a Miley Cyrus-Every rose has its thorn [lyrics]

I liked a @ video ?a Every Rose Has Its Thorn in the Style of

Every Rose Has a Thorn. . .

Every Rose Has Its Thorn, The Rock 'n' Roll Field Guide to Guys

Dating advice columnist Bradley offers a hilarious and invaluable handbook to using rock-star archetypes to decode and take charge of one's own dating life.

Secrets of the Sexually Satisfied Woman

EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN: GENITAL SELFESTEEM Women need to feel good about their genitals. Yes, every now and then a yeast infection will crop up, ...

Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Riser)

Searchings in the silence, a series of devotional meditations / by George Matheson

Every rose has its thorn ; but the rose is in the bud, and the thorn is on the surface. Christ had His thorn — His crown of thorns ; but peace was at the ...