Filter Accolades By:
2020 Ava
93 points
A white Rhone-style blend that’s medium- to full-bodied with a rounded texture and interesting flavors of fruit, minerals and lanolin. Earthy, flinty aromas lead to more ripe and rich flavors of melon, guavas and mint. 59% viognier, 35% roussanne and 6% marsanne. Drink now.
2018 Syrah Cuvée Classique
95 points
A tight, firm, snugly textured red with rather lean fruit on the palate and plenty of savory, smoky, earthy flavors on a full body. Complex flavors of meat, pepper and dark cherries. Drink now or hold.
2018 Syrah Cuvée Violette
94 points
Such a beautifully balanced syrah with aromas of plums, spices and some bark and mushrooms. Medium-bodied with juicy fruit and a lovely finish. Aging beautifully. Drink now.
2022 Cuvée Dorée
94 points
Really delicious, layered, elegant and nicely balanced by acidity. It’s a white Rhone-style blend of 69% roussanne, 21% viognier and 10% marsanne. Good breadth and body, with honeydew melon, green apple and light almond accents. Drink now.
2025 Sauvignon Blanc
92 Points
This wine is super clean, crisp and mineral-driven, vivid in acidity and light in body. Almost electric in texture, with flint and citrus aromas, then a tangy and nervy palate. Drink now. Screw cap.
2022 Equinoxe Syrah
96 points
One of the best red wines we tasted from Canada. Wonderful aromas of blackberries, green tobacco, tar and graphite follow through to a medium to full body with lovely polished tannins and a savory finish. Hints of meat and spices at the end. Drink now.
2025 Sauvignon Blanc
“This is a very complete, detailed and well-structured sauvignon, the likes of which Canada has seldom seen…”
Tasting Note The winery website says this is inspired by New Zealand, Sancerre and California, which charts a wide scope. But, in its way, it does capture them all, in a firm, serious, dry and almost lean but not austere style. If I had to pick one style it would be Sancerre for the sense of minerality, but also the lifted fresh herbs, nettle and spruce evergreen. But there are also hints of NZ passion fruit, grapefruit, cucumber and elderflower, making it aromatically complex and intriguing. It is medium weight with 13% ABV, firm crunchy acidity, and a certain squareness mindful of Mondavi’s Napa sauvignons. Then comes the dry, slightly bitter grapefruit and mineral finish. This is a very complete, detailed and well-structed sauvignon, the likes of which Canada has seldom seen, but is getting more frequent. The length is excellent.
2025 Vaïla Rosé
“This is a riveting, bone-dry classic of the genre… Quite powerful yet balanced with excellent length. Destined for the table, not casual refreshment.”
Tasting Note This is a riveting, bone-dry classic of the genre. It pours moderately deep salmon/copper. The nose is immediately pinot noir and piquant with redcurrant, rhubarb, cherry and grapefruit along with considerable sage herbality. It is medium bodied, structured and serious, and a dry, scouring but not austere palate. Alcohol is stated as 12.5% but there is modest warmth here, along with some bitterness. Quite powerful yet balanced with excellent length. Destined for the table, not casual refreshment.
2025 Vaïla Rosé
91
This dry and distinctive rosé is produced from 100-per-cent pinot noir grapes from vineyards in the Skaha Bench, Okanagan Falls and Oliver sub-regions. The harvested grapes spent 23 hours on the skins before pressing and fermentation and aging in stainless steel to preserve fruit flavours and focus in the finished wine. Expect a vibrant mix of cherry and berry fruit with rhubarb and citrus notes. This is made in a refined and refreshing style that’s bound to please at the dinner table or on the patio. This has 12.5-per-cent ABV. Drink now. Available at the above price direct, levieuxpin.ca
2025 Sauvignon Blanc
It feels like BC sauvignon blanc has been flying under the radar recently, and Le Vieux Pin shows why it’s worth our attention. It lands somewhere between Marlborough and Sancerre in style, with an attractive grassiness that doesn’t overpower the fruit, backed by lemon, white grapefruit, and white blossom.
2022 Syrah Cuvée Violette
92 points
For many years CuvĂ©e Violette lives up to its floral moniker, with an abundance of perfumed violets and irises. Though the 1% viognier of previous vintages has now been dropped, this continues with its alluring charms. In 2022, the Syrah came off the south Okanagan’s Crowley Vineyard, Deadman Lake Vineyard, and Le Grand Pin. After a ferment in concrete and stainless, this rested 15 months in older French oak barrels and foudre (77%) and 23% in concrete. Fragrant violets, wild blueberries, and blackberries flow throughout this medium-bodied red, with long, fine tannins housing the lifted fruit, and a dusting of red and black pepper seasoning the finish. There’s a lovely poise and delicacy here, atypical of South Okanagan reds, but not of winemaker Severine Pinte.
2022 Syrah Cuvée Violette
92 points
Cuvée Violette continues to evolve and impress, becoming more serious for the price, albeit with all the fun you could want drinking syrah. 2022 is a complete syrah from its floral violet and blueberry to its meaty, licorice, black olive, savoury, peppery, sagebrush notes, met with silky smooth, dense tannins. I appreciate the freshness and tangy acidity that brightens the mid-palate and keeps the finish lively. This is more than ready to drink, but if you have a cellar, it is also worth laying a few bottles away. Classic Severine Pinte.
2022 Syrah Cuvée Violette
91 points
This is a leaner yet so precise expression of Okanagan syrah in an excellent vintage, that began very cool then picked up heat toward harvest. There is an energy and tension, with lower alcohol (moderate 13%) good acidity and fine yet mildly edgy tannin. The nose is cooler clime classic syrah with typical red cherry (not black), sage, pepper and smoked meat. With aeration some florals emerge. There is a sense of contained rawness and authenticity I really like here – very BC. The length is very good. I wanted more but it fits the price tier. I would buy as much as you can afford and age this over the next five years.
2023 Vaïla Rosé
This pale salmon shaded rose is dry, well textured and shows very good length.[…] The nose is quite complex with a compote of red fruits – rhubarb, currant and strawberry – very typical of pinot noir rose. There is also a subtle, odd meaty/charcuterie note. It is medium weight with good flavour intensity and very good to excellent length. This will be best enjoyed with food rather than as a patio charmer.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc
91 points
Located near Oliver, Le Vieux Pin is focused on provocative white blends of Roussanne, and expressive red wines from Syrah and Marsanne and Viognier. But wine lovers shouldn’t overlook this stylish expression of sauvignon blanc made from vineyards in the South Okanagan. A blend of tank- and barrel-fermented wines, this is really refreshing with intense citrusy and earthy notes that carry through to a lingering finish. Drink now to 2027.
2019 Équinoxe Merlot
93 points
The last time I tasted this wine was the 2016 vintage, and I remarked that we need more, and we still do. Equinoxe Merlot, a specific block of 25+ year old vines, mid slopes at the south end of the Golden Mile Bench, is a powerful expression of this much-maligned grape. There is 19 percent new oak for support, but it doesn’t need much help. Winemaker Severine Pinte’s has a quieter, drier French style that suits the site and grape. Plums and blackberries coat the palate with streaky cedar and minerals, with a dash of cocoa. This wine will only get better through 2030. Lamb is today’s ticket while we wait for it to reach total harmony.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc
89 points
Winemaker Severine Pinte was inspired to make this wine, having tasted the wines of the late legendary Loire winemaker Didier Dagueneau. Grassy grapefruit marks the nose and spills onto the palate, with a citrus herby undercurrent running through its leesy mid-palate and finish. Dry with a touch of bitterness, it is built for local shellfish. The wine is aged for 6 months on its lees and regularly stirred in a mix of 43% stainless steel tanks, 15% French barriques, and 42% larger (puncheon) barrels. Delicious and ready to drink.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc
90 points
Inspired by the late legendary Loire winemaker Didier Dagueneau, this sauvignon blanc rested 6 months on lees in a mix of 43% stainless, 15% French barrels, and 42% puncheons, with regularly diminishing bâtonnage. Crunchy grapefruit, greengage, and lime blossom are lined with a fine lees bed and shaped with grapefruit rind along a slender palate, finishing with a citrus twist. Very stylish, and moreish. 599 cases.
2022 Sauvignon Blanc
First taste of 2022 from our local vineyards – and what a fresh zippy start. I wasn’t so convinced on Sauvignon Blanc in British Columbia until recently but Le Vieux Pin is further proof. Scents of elderflower and green herbs with a leesy accent. The palate is racy yet creamy and packed with lime pith and grapefruit all at a refreshingly modest 11% abv. It screams spring sipping.
2019 Syrah Cuvée Violette
93 points
Michaela Morris (MW candidate and Decanter Magazine writer) had Syrah Cuvee Violette as one of her top 10 wines of the year in 2022.
Le Vieux Pin crafts three Syrahs each highlighting a different aspect of the grape – Cuvée Violette an ode to the grape’s elegant, floral side. It is also consistently one of BC’s best-value Syrahs. Winemaker Severine Pinte ferments at low temperatures for a gentle extraction and the wine ages in a combination of stainless steel, concrete and French oak allowing the brightness and freshness of plum and raspberry fruit to take centre stage. Nuanced by herbs and violet and framed with fine tannins, the 2019 is a gorgeous mid-weight charmer.