Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir VQA 2020

Quails’ Gate’s 2022 Reserve pinot noir pours a relatively deep red colour and offers a ripe and dense set of aromatics in the darker fruit spectrum, black cherry, black raspberry, with a dusting of sweet oak spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. The palate is fullish and rather firm, even tannic for the variety, with serious extraction, a long way from prime enjoyment I’d say. The palate is puckering for now, also supported by firm acids. Length and depth are good. It’s a bit of a bruiser, tough and chewy; try after 2027. Tasted October 2024. (John Szabo, MS,winealign.com)