Report from - Osoyoos-Larose Release and Tasting ... February 3, 2009
In his opening remarks, Antoine Merlaut (managing director of Group Taillan) said, “When I pour this wine for people they say ‘I didn’t know Canada made wine’ or the more knowledgeable know about icewine ... I will be happy when Canada is known as a wine producing country all over the world.” With that he thanked the crowd and took his seat at the 5th vintage release / 10th Anniversary of Osoyoos Larose – a partnership between Vincor Canada and Groupe Taillan of Bordeaux. From humble beginnings in 1998, their first vintage of 3700 6-bottle cases in 2001 (released spring 2004) to the now 20,000 cases of the 2005 Grand Vin (released last year in B.C. – February 28 in Vintages in Ontario) and 8000 cases of the second label Petales d’Osoyoos (available on consignment), Osoyoos-Larose has made quite a name for itself. Last year they showed up to launch the 2004 vintage – if you wish to read further background from my previous story click here.
We were informed that Osoyoos-Larose had just beat out Opus One in a recent tasting in Japan, where the wine fetches $120USD – which makes our $50 a bottle price tag seem like a real bargain. Of course this is significantly less than what a bottle of Opus One will set you back in either country. O-L is now sold in five countries (Canada, France, U.K., U.S. and Japan) with the majority sold in Canada (85%).
Some interesting pieces of info came from the presentation this year – and not just the numbers - the principals behind the wines Alain Sutre (Technical Project Manager) and Pascal Madevon (Winemaker and vineyard manager) were quite candid with their remarks ... (Read more)
