The GOODS from LaStella

Osoyoos, BC | Announcing the 2014 Vivace Pinot Grigio. The Vivace is showing robust and bright flavours for the 2014 vintage. It greets you with a very expressive nose of apple and pear aromas, mountain herbs and Meyer lemon zest. The palate is packed with fruit cocktail flavours that enter the mouth in a concentrated fashion before they blossom into bright citrus and golden delicious apple notes.

What’s the difference between a Pinot Grigio and a Pinot Gris? Although they are the same grape variety, each is known for a certain style. For instance, Italy makes Pinot Grigio. It’s usually grown on cooler sites, picked earlier and immediately pressed without any skin contact. It’s lighter in body, refreshingly crisp and citrus and stone fruit notes. Where as in France, they make a Pinot Gris. Their style tends to be richer, fuller bodied with tropical fruit, pear compote and spice notes. Usually the grapes are picked later and they encourage skin contact before pressing. In and around BC you will find both styles, but the focus at LaStella Winery is that of Pinot Grigio.

The 2014 Vivace will compliment a wide range of foods, making it a perfect companion to your spring and summer dishes. Recently, the renowned Restaurant de Hamert of Holland picked this wine to go with the inaugural white asparagus celebration event held in Vancouver. The Chef paired 7 white asparagus dishes with the 2014 Vivace. A perfect match! You can find more recipes and pictures from the event on our website here.

With just 771 cases produced, the 2014 Vivace Pinot Grigio will certainly not last. Taste it for yourself, just $24.90 per bottle or buy it by the case (it’s that good). Learn more, purchase wine, sign up for the newsletter or join the wine club at www.lastella.com.

DETAILS

La Stella Winery | 8123-148th Avenue, Osoyoos, BC V0H 1V0 | MAP
Tel: 250-495-8180 | Fax: 250-495-8160
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.lastella.ca | Twitter
Tasting Room Hours: Apr-Oct, 7 days a week, 10am-7pm. | Off-season: weekdays or by appointment

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The People That Make It Happen

Viticulturist and Winemaker: Severine Pinte
Vineyard Manager: Jody Subotin
General Manager: Rasoul Salehi

About LaStella

LaStella was created to capture our vision of la dolce vita: fine food, wonderful wine, great music, and the good things in life. At LaStella, we celebrate the sun that ripens our grapes and brings warmth to our life, and we share that with everyone who visits us.

LaStella is situated at Osoyoos Lake in the sunny South Okanagan valley of beautiful British Columbia. Here our vineyards produce great fruit and we craft them into such proprietary wines as Allegretto, Vivace and Maestoso. Each wine has its own story — and to convey this unique story we name our wines after Italian musical motifs.

LaStella has assembled an all-star cast to lead the production of BC’s best wines. Head winemaker and viticulturist Severine Pinte, Vineyard Manager Jody Subotin and General Manager Rasoul Salehi work tirelessly to deliver award winning wines vintage after vintage.

Please visit the winery when you visit the Okanagan and join our email newsletter for the latest news from wine country. Visit us online at www.lastella.ca on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lastellawinery and twitter at twitter.com/lastella_winery.

The History

LaStella was created to be the embodiment of the Tuscan way of life. For us, we are making more than wine. We are making our own fun. We are making something different yet reassuringly familiar.

LaStella is situated at Osoyoos Lake in the South Okanagan valley of beautiful British Columbia. The winery opened its doors in May 2007 with its first vintage of 2006. This included Vivace Pinot Grigio, Lastellina Rosato, Allegretto Merlot (Pie Franco) and the very low yield, highly complex Maestoso Merlot.

In 2008, 4 clones of Brunello (Sangiovese Grosso) have come to production. Soon the super Tuscan expression from the Okanagan will come to life.

In the Vineyard

Fortunately for us (and you), the Okanagan valley happens to be one of the best wine regions with its unique climate and variety of latitudes and soils. There is a perceptible difference in temperature and greenery, from the lushness of the north to the sage ridden desert in the south.

According to WineBC, the area between Oliver and Osoyoos is the northernmost tip of the northern most desert in the world; Sonora Desert. Summers are generally very hot with July and August being warmer than Napa Valley, but the evenings are markedly cooler. Osoyoos has 1450 growing degree days and 8 inches of average annual rainfall (WineBC.com). Low rainfall, high heat units and a dry environment allow us to farm in a sustainable manner with all the respect the land deserves.

In the vineyards we do a blend of organic and biodynamic practices, which we call ‘non-interventionism’. Along with our sister winery; Le Vieux Pin, we have around 50 acres of small parcel, prime vineyards in Oliver’s Golden Mile and Black Sage Bench as well as vineyards at Osoyoos lake. We have very distinct soil composition in our vineyards that result in very unique and distinctive wines. We also contract grapes from quality minded growers who grow organically and sustainably. We practice low input viticulture and employ dry farming. As a result our yields are very low and help concentrate the flavours and complexities in the fruit. Our average yield is 2 tons per acre and for some of our wines as low as 1 ton per acre, compared to the widely accepted 4-8 tons per acre yields used with quantity focused producers.

In addition to the above, the underpinning of our success is passion, friendship, dedication and commitment to excellence.