Wine column: 6 fresh and beautiful wines for spring

It's inevitable.

Spring has sprung and, all of a sudden, our drinking habits veer to whites, roses and light reds.

It definitely has something to do with longer days, sunshine and a penchant to get out on a patio, glass of wine in hand.

Since spring officially arrived at 2:34 pm on Monday this week, this is what my wife, Kerry, and I have sipped and savoured.

- The just-released 2022 King Family Vineyard Pinot Gris from Haywire Winery in Summerland.

While the winery is in Summerland, the grapes for this wine are from King Family Vineyard on the Naramata Bench.

Haywire calls the 2022 vintage "a cliff-hanger" because after a cool and wet spring the vintage looked iffy until a decent summer and long, warm fall made everything right.

As a result, the 2022 Pinot Gris came together with a wonderfully textured profile of crisp pear and pineapple thanks to fermentation and aging on the lees in Haywire's signature concrete tanks.

- The pleasing pale pink colour of Mission Hill Organic Reserve Rose 2022 ($26) from West Kelowna was the first thing that snagged our attention.

Then, once poured in the glass, it delivers big-time rose aroma and flavours of classic strawberries and cream with some herbal hints.

- Mission Hill's 2021 Organic Reserve Riesling ($25) is exactly what an Okanagan Riesling should be -- lush, yet crisp, with a green apple, lime and stoney minerality profile.

- Covert Farms in Oliver is a pioneer in organic and regenerative vineyard management and that purity shines through in its Grand Reserve wines.

The first being the 2017 Covert Farms Grand Reserve Roussanne ($38) with its exotic aromas and flavours of lemon, orange peel, fuzzy peach and gooseberry.

- Covert Farms 2021 Grand Reserve Chardonnay ($57) is quintessential New World Chard with a lemon and toasted nuts profile from judicious fermentation and aging in both new and used French oak barrels.

- There's definitely a place for red wine in the spring and summer, especially if it's a light red like Pinot Noir.

Covert Farm's 2020 Grand Reserve Pinot Noir ($36) fits the bill with a lifted aromas of cherry and chocolate.

Along with the arrival of spring this week, it is also National Women in Wine Day on Saturday.

So, we should salute the women who had a hand in the wines mentioned above.

Corrie Kriebel is the talented chief winemaker at Mission Hill.

Kat D'Costa is the production winemaker at Haywire who works with chief winemaker Matt Dumayne.

And Shelly Covert is the co-owner and co-manager of Covert Farms with her husband, Gene.

Osoyoos Larose introduces new wine club

This is a winery membership two decades in the making.

For the first time, prestigious Osoyoos Larose is opening its cellar and library selection of wines to members of LaMaisonOsoyoosLarose.com.

Osoyoos Larose flagship wine is the iconic Le Grand Vin, an elegant Bordeaux-inspired red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec.

Annual membership is $1,500 and covers three shipments of wine over the year.

The first is six bottles of the pre-release of the latest vintage, which is usually sold out.

The second shipment is six bottles of Le Grand Vin from 20 years of back vintages.

The third shipment is member-only access to large-format bottles of Le Grand Vin -- either three 1.5-litre magnums or a three-litre double-magnum plus a magnum.

Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.