Blanc de Blanc 2018

Bar Cart: Tinhorn Creek Blanc de Blanc 2018

A Canadian champagne dupe.

The Okanagan Valley’s Tinhorn Creek winery may be roughly 8,000 kilometres away from Champagne, but its Blanc de Blanc from the 2018 vintage might convert even the most ardent champagne drinker to a different bubbly. A relatively recent addition to the winery’s portfolio, the first vintage of this 100 per cent chardonnay sparkling wine feels as fine-tuned as a wine that has been in production for decades. A cooler vintage than the five-year average, 2018 was an excellent year for sparkling wine production, and in the hands of Leandro Nosal, Tinhorn Creek’s head winemaker, some champagne-like magic happened.

Tinhorn Creek’s 2018 Blanc de Blanc leads with a heaping dose of high-acid, tropical, and citrus fruit on the nose and palate. Along with lemon and apple qualities, the low sugar (5.9 grams per litre) makes this an ideal wine for an aperitif throughout the summer months. Thanks to the 36 months the wine spends aging on lees (the minimum amount of time vintage champagne spends on lees), there are ample brioche flavours and a rich mouthfeel to round things out.