Wow, I like to be surprised by a great Canadian Merlot that can go toe to toe with the best Napa Merlots

Description: Medium to dark ruby in colour with a medium to medium+ intense nose. This complex wine features cedar, sandalwood, bramble fruit, cherry pie, plums, chocolate, coffee, peppers, cinnamon, cloves, pencil shavings and leather. Medium+ body and tannins with good acidity and a long length.

Negatives: None

Interesting Point: Nk’Mip (pronounced in-ka-MEEP) is the first Aboriginally owned and operated winery in North America.

Drink now or in the next 3 years on its own or pair it with Wagyu steak

Tasted: 22 Oct 2014

Best Buy

Score: 9+/10, Value: 9.5/10, Total: 19/20

Out of 5 stars, I rated this wine: 4.5

This B.C. Merlot comes across like a decent impersonation of right-bank Bordeaux, even as it's very much indicative of that single varietal. There are aromas of blueberry, plum, leather, earth, charcoal, tobacco, and pencil lead, with some rubber emerging later, and that fairly complex combination is certainly enticing. Spice enters on the palette, but by that point the sweetness has taken over, with the wine seeming a bit confected and artificial, and while it's medium-bodied, there's not much depth, the flavours dying mid-palette with the onset of dryness, the finish chalky.