Nichol Vineyard - Pinot Noir

Nichol Vineyard is among the first three pioneering wineries on the Naramata Bench. The first part of their home vineyard was planted in 1989 and completed in 1991. They currently farm and grow all of their wines within 900 meters of the winery. They continue to operate on a small scale and focus their attention and resources on the quality of their grapes and their subsequent élevage in the winery. Their focus is on wine-making, not sales or marketing.

Farming is mostly done by hand with minimal tractor use. The fruit is picked by hand into 10L baskets to ensure the integrity of every bunch. Their yields are relatively low both by Okanagan and international standards.

The attention paid in the vineyard to growing grapes that are best suited to the cool climate site and specific terroir of Naramata is followed by wine-making practices rooted in minimal intervention. The intention is to avoid obfuscating the inherent qualities of their grapes.

Though Nichol Vineyard wines are not big or heavily extracted, they have proven over the last 30 years to age very well. In regular vintages, their Syrah has proven to age well up to and slightly beyond 10+ years; the Cabernet Franc from 6 to 10+ years; and the Pinot Noir from 4 to 8+ years.