Township 7 Merlot 2006

Recently the media savvy winemaker Bradley Cooper at Township 7 Winery and the underground winery Black Cloud Wine called me out on my blog for not adding Township 7 to my list of wineries to see at the 2010 Spring Wine Fest here in the Okanagan.

Admittedly I felt a bit sheepish about it, and then I had to ask myself why I hadn’t thought about including T7. Is the wine bad? Did I have a bad tasting room experience there as a child? Is it because it’s the first winery I see when I drive to Naramata, or do I not like Bradley because he is the mayor of Burger 55 on Foursquare? All of these things come to mind, but none of them are true. Although I will say I am a bit jealous of the Burger 55 mayorship, but that is social media geekery for another time.

The real reason I overlooked Township 7 was probably because I actually drink the T7 Cab Sauv quite often — possibly too often! My local haunt in Penticton, The Hooded Merganser, has a decent by the glass wine list, but it rarely changes. When they recently added the Township Cab to the list I was on it like a fat kid on cake. Something new and delicious, and I am someone that typically orders the same thing over and over again. I’m also friendly with the local T7 sales rep, so I have been privy to a few off-the-grid tastings.

So inadvertently those factors probably lead me to seek out other wines on my wine touring adventures, but today in honour of the Spring Wine Fest, I decided to stop in for a secret rainy day lunch time tasting at the Township 7 Winery to try and dig myself out of the whole that I have dug, but also to venture beyond the familar-to-me Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine shop is attached to the winery and is a neat place to visit because there are a bunch of barrels in the shop, I know this sounds obvious, but it’s not as common as you might think, and there really are horses just over the fence at the ranch next door. This is a real working winery. A forklift is buzzing around moving barrels. The winery is humbly nice and very Naramata Bench — a good thing I believe. Thankfully I beat the drove of people that came in behind me to avoid the rain and I managed to enjoy the wine tasting without being rushed.

On the list for my tasting today were:

• Semillon
• Oaked Chardonnay
• Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon
• Merlot
• Syrah

All of them were very good, and the prices were reasonable, but noteworthy of the bunch were: the Oaked Chardonnay, for its only lightly oaky fresh citrus influenced taste; the Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, for its great taste to value ratio (this one makes my great Okanagan Reds for $20 or less list); and the 2006 Merlot just because it was bombastic. What makes a wine bombastic you might ask? I can’t really put my finger on what exactly, but it certainly will put a smile on your face. Apparently the 2006 Merlot won some gold medals somewhere, but those details don’t overly concern me, this Merlot is simply a great Okanagan Red and I would drink it with or without food quite easily. Kudos Brad and watch your back over that Burger 55 mayorship.

Township 7 Winery
1450 McMillan Avenue, Penticton, BC V2A 8T4
[t] 250-770-1743