After what was often a real Canadian winter in Vancouver, spring is finally here! Ideally, this means we should have more sunshine and warmer temperatures, but what we can more reliably count on are cherry blossoms blooming, more tourists around town, and a flock of fresh releases from Naramata’s JoieFarm Winery hitting store shelves.

As ever, owner and winemaker Heidi Noble has made a set of wines that are fresh and lively, and they suit the season well. Her 2016s mark Joie­Farm’s 13th vintage and maintain the constant precision of authentic wines of place, with nods to the styles of Burgundy and Alsace.

The season also marks the release of Noble’s “En Famille” reserve series of wines from 2015, wines that have a little more complexity and oomph. Let’s dive in.

JoieFarm Un-Oaked Chardonnay 2016

($23)

From fruit sourced up on the eastern bench above Skaha Lake, this crisp, shimmering Chardonnay offers juicy bites of Granny Smith apple, then splashes into the tropics with notes of guava and mango, all buoyed by mouthwatering acidity and bright minerality. Barbecue some chicken as well as a little first-of-the-season asparagus and you’re good to go!

JoieFarm A Noble Blend 2016

($24)

Hey, maybe it’s a cliché, but Joie­Farm’s Noble Blend just may be the epitome of the Okanagan in a glass.

This year’s blend sees a mix of Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Schoenberger, and Muscat, but it’s way more about the whole than the sum of its parts. An aromatic, breezy wine with zippy acidity, peaches, nectarines, Golden Delicious apples, and a few leaves of hallmark Okanagan sage.

Make things easy on yourself and pick up a couple of those Vij’s At Home boil-in-a-bag meals (I’m leaning toward the caramelized-onion and ginger lamb curry along with a little saag and paneer), pour a glass of this wine, and top it up liberally.

JoieFarm Muscat 2016

($23)

Another pleasurable sipper that checks in at only 10.8 percent alcohol, so you can easily enjoy a couple of glasses without it weighing you down. When you’re swirling it in the glass, the aromatics are so darn pretty. Litchi, jasmine, rose petals, and grapefruit zest will fill the room, then charge their way onto your palate with a bunch of crunchy green grapes in tow.

JoieFarm Rosé 2016

($21)

One of the most versatile wine styles for food pairing. We should all be drinking more pink. On the nose, there’s some solid Turkish delight business going on, along with watermelon and hints of strawberry, but when you get to those first few sips, waves of citrus fruit—like blood orange, key lime, and mandarin—carry the wine forward, finishing off with a kiss of ripe apricot.

A great time and place for Thai takeout, as the wine finishes a wee bit off-dry, just enough to handle any spice and heat.

JoieFarm “En Famille” Riesling 2015

($28)

I tasted all these wines in my office just last week when Noble swung by with them, and although I don’t put energy into keeping any sort of poker face when tasting with winemakers, there’s no way I could have maintained one upon trying this Riesling. After just one sip, I was automatically beaming, exclaiming: “Oh, wow!” So let’s allow that to stand as my initial tasting note.

Some lovely Ambrosia apple flavours fill the palate, and there’s even a touch of apple skin in there that provides some fine texture. What gets me most is the ginger notes that ride all the way through to the lengthy finish. I’m not talking ginger that may be on your baking rack but the fresh-sliced stuff that’s lively, clean, and zingy; it brings a really cool dimension to the wine.

JoieFarm “En Famille” Chardonnay 2015

($30)

A departure from the Un-Oaked Chardonnay above, the “En Famille” take on the grape is fermented with native yeast and carries some enjoyable lifted oak, perfectly balancing all the wine’s orchard fruit. All the pears are here, too: Bosc! Anjou! Bartlett! Each one of them is perfectly ripe yet still fresh, with juicy acidity. A stunning example of how elegant Okanagan Chardonnay can be, I think it’s the best one she has made to date.

JoieFarm “En Famille” Gewürztraminer 2015

($28)

There’s so much intensity and purity of fruit with this wine, it’s almost like a Gewürztraminer reduction. It has all the attributes we expect from the variety; all of the litchi, rosewater, and ginger are present and opulent, with a nice dusting of sage to balance things out. The grape can make for soft or flabby wines from time to time, but the acid and structure here are right on point.

Prices listed are for ordering wine directly from the winery at the Joie Farm website, but they’re all also available at private stores around the city for a few bucks more, with the Noble Blend and rosé also available on B.C. Liquor Stores shelves.