Dragonfly Hill Vineyard, Vancouver Island Premier Release

2006 Dragonfly Hill Vineyard Chardonnay (fruit from Osprey Vineyard, Oliver B.C.

The initial nose is quiescent, belying the promise of soft stone fruit, the deftly profiled caramelized butter tones from second generation French Oak barrel aging and the sneaky release of vibrant florality pluming in the inoculated mouth as you breath into what you’ve swallowed. Interesting the self deceptive prejudices we have about price and perception of relative value: not unlike the experience of going on a blind date with low expectations and being shocked by the humble perfection of it all.

2005 Dragonfly Hills Merlot Cabernet (fruit from Stonequail Vineyard, Oliver B.C.

Like the ingenious frailty of an idiot savant, the predominance of Merlot cups the palate’s eye in a velvet sash wherein the compilation of Cabernet and phenolics from French Oak barrel aging engage the entire scope of experience in animated hyperbole that defines the wine itself as simultaneously monastic in depth yet joyful in behaviour on the palate and with food.

2006 Dragonfly Hill Vineyards Ortega Pinot Auxerrois ( Old West Saanich
Road Fruit)

This is what defines a vineyard: the unadulterated expression of where the fruit is grown that composes the proprietorial wine of the place. Terroire is the penultimate expression of this wine. You smell and taste the earth, the sun, the rain, hear the dragonfly hum through the leaves, even the occasional dog peeing against a post which syncopates the illusion of innocence into the sultry menage of Ortega banana peels and Auxxerois honeysuckle flowers, commingling in the racing acidity of a food perfect innuendo. The wine is superb without knowing it.