I have to admit something right out front. I’ve been a huge fan of this winery since a trade tasting introduced me to their products in the fall of 2009. A co-worker and I had tasted through a hotel ballroom-full of white wines and then went into the second smaller room to see some of the other wineries there.

That’s when a woman walked up to us and said, “Here, try our Chardonnay!” She poured wine in our glasses and we asked her which winery she was from. She said, “We are Painted Rock Estate winery near Penticton and wah wah wah wahwah…” As soon as we took a first whiff of the wine, we completely tuned her out and I remember nothing of what she said. I’m sure she was doing her job fabulously but the wine was speaking louder than she was and nothing she said registered. The chardonnay was amazing.

She offered us other wines that she had but we declined because we still had more whites to try and we wanted to taste through some of the reds before trying the ones from Painted Rock. We wanted to see if they could stand out among the reds the way the Chardonnay stood out. We continued on and progressed to reds before returning to her booth to eagerly try the Painted Rock Merlot, Syrah, and Red Icon, all from the 2007. They, too, stood out among their peers for us that day.

Fast-forward a few years (through buying the first vintage of Merlot, interviewing winery owner John Skinner for my podcast, going to their wine shop when it first opened, trying their wines throughout the summer and again later at other trade tastings) to a recent dinner party with a bottle of their Merlot 2008. At almost 4 years old, this wine still needs more time in the cellar or a group extremely patient dinner guests. The tannins have smoothed out a little and the bouquet has opened up slightly. It is no longer hiding quite so effectively as it once was but it still isn’t offering up the whole deal.

To me, this wine is like looking at a mountain. From my back yard, the mountain I can see to the west doesn’t look very large. It looks like a medium size mountain at best. But if I drive to the east side of town, the perspective changes and it looks way bigger than it seems from my back yard. When I lived in North Vancouver, The 3 north shore mountains didn’t look as impressive from my apartment as they did from downtown Vancouver.

This is how I think my impressions of the Painted Rock Merlot will change. As we get farther away from the vintage, the Merlot will reveal the full altitude of its flavours. That requires a little bit of patience, or at least some degree of forgetfulness so that you don’t remember that such a towering BC wine is in your cellar.

For my money, Painted Rock represents a true and noble Grand Cru of BC wine and one that I will happily be purchasing each and every vintage for years to come. While I enjoyed this Merlot 2008 now, I would have loved to have tasted it in another 5 years. But, sometimes dinner guests aren’t that patient.

Sometimes, I’m not either.

Cheers from wine country!

~Luke

The Bottle Shot

The perfect storm of hospitality is a beautiful thing. When a friend stops by unexpectedly, and you open up a bottle of wine and settle in for a good, long chat; it promises to be a great night. Although, when you lose track of time and wind up opening three bottles of wine before watching the sun rise, that might officially qualify as getting a little carried away.
The final bottle of the night was a doozy though. I opened the 2008 Desert Hills Proprietor’s Reserve Cabernet Franc. Why does the best bottle always have to be the third? It was amazing! The nose was packed with ripe plums and blackberries. On the palate it was all sorts of lush fruitiness, with notes of vanilla, toasted wood and caramel. The tannins were fine and supportive, which made me wonder if I didn’t open this bottle too soon. It always makes me a little sad when I consider the road not travelled. Oh well, there’s always another bottle!

There are some wines that just work well on their own. Wine writers and sales people sometimes call them “patio sippers” which isn’t really something I’ve latched onto to be perfectly honest. Most any wine can be a “patio sipper” and it depends entirely on what you like about a wine.

Another wine term (let’s start calling them cliché’s) that I’m not fond of is “easy drinking”. Are some wines really difficult to drink? Do you really have to work harder to swallow some wines rather than others? What makes a wine easier to drink than others?

Perhaps why these expressions have been created is to explain a wine that doesn’t require a lot of preparation. There might be occasions when you just don’t have the time, energy, location, or resources to prepare oysters on the half shell every time you want to sip Chablis. Want to have meritage every night but can’t be bothered to have huge lamb and meat dishes each day? Relax, there are some wines that don’t need specific food pairings to fully appreciate what they have to offer.

(Yes, I am one of those people who tries to pair wines appropriately with food. I get more enjoyment from both the food and the wine that way. If you want to drink Pinot Blanc with your rack of lamb because it’s your choice, go for it. I’m not going to stop you from missing out on something.)

The Intrigue Gewürztraminer is one of those wines that really doesn’t need food to make it tasty. It’s totally tasty on its own, and it knows it. It’s got tons of flavour and some sweetness which makes it a great candidate for drinking with spicy foods. But even without any food, it’s great to have as a drink to sip on its own.

You know, like when you’re sitting on a deck. Or maybe an enclosed deck-like location behind your house.

Cheers from wine country!

~Luke

I can have problems tasting wine sometimes. It’s always with a similar style of wine – aromatic wines. I am particularly weak around Rieslings and Gewurztraminers but Ortegas, Siegerrebes, Bacchuses, and Ehrenfelsers are also in that category too. I just love how uniquely scented they are. When it’s done right, there is a lot of complex aromas to pick up on and I have been known to take up to 15 minutes just smelling a wine before even taking the first sip.

It is with this attitude that I approached the Arrowleaf Gewürztraminer 2010. It had a great nose of flowers and perfume with a hint of Fruit Loops. (Honestly, the repertoire of proper aromatic descriptors is seriously lacking in our culture.)

The palate was slightly off-dry with a little acidity to keep it from getting flabby. Flavours were the same as on the nose – more flowers and perfumey and then… It was like it had stopped in mid-sentence. The wine disappeared. I took another sip and tasted the lovely flavours again and then it was gone. The finish was annoyingly quick. The nose of this wine was writing cheques that the palate couldn’t cash.

Still when it was there, it was beautiful and reminded me of my love of Gewürztraminer from BC.

Cheers from wine country!

~Luke

Similkameen, Similkameen

How long has it really been?

To taste your grapes and drink your wine

Is getting to be quite divine.

Bad poetry, great wine. I’m not a poet and I’m quite sure that everyone knows it. At least now they do.

What I’d like to know is how many people have tried wine from the Similkameen Valley lately? If you haven’t yet, you are truly missing out. There are some solidly built wines coming from the Similkameen these days. Considering that even 5 years ago there were almost no wines from this valley making it to store shelves, this is probably one of the fastest growing wine regions in BC.

There are lots of vineyards and orchards in “the Sim”. It is a very rural valley with lots of farms of all kinds. There is a noticeable lack of civilization there – no big urban areas, no strip malls, no large parking lots and no traffic lights until Princeton, possibly, although I’m not even sure Princeton has one either.

It from here that Robin Ridge’s Chardonnay comes. For as relaxed a pace as the Similkameen offers, this wine delivers and intensity that almost belies it’s provenance.

I will go on record here to say that I like Chardonnay and always have. It never went out of fashion for me. I like them both oaked and unoaked and love that it can be a lot of different things. Yes, for a while there was a fashion that made some chards into a big bottle of buttered popcorn and that got out of hand but thankfully, we’ve come away from that here in BC at least.

The Robin Ridge Chardonnay still points in that direction with a subtle oak treatment which only intensifies its complexity. It is everything that I look for in a chardonnay.

But wait, there’s more.

It has something different that many BC chardonnay’s don’t have. If you taste it at just the right temperature, it has a mineral note that hides until the finish and writes a little name in scribbled handwriting, as if the Similkameen were adding its signature to the wine’s flavour profile. It’s a signature that’s written on a lot of wines coming out of the Similkameen and it makes wines there distinct, even in these early days of BC wine.

It isn’t only Chardonnay that Robin Ridge makes well. The Robin Ridge Gamay accompanied the turkey-based entrée created by Chris VanHooydonk, executive chef at the Sonora Room at Burrowing Owl, as he won top spot at the Similkameen Barbecue Championship in July 2011. Pinot Noir and Merlot are other wines to try from this winery as well, if you can find them!

Cheers from wine country!

~Luke

I recently returned from the Wine and Jazz Festival at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, as the guests of the fabulous management team. It was a blast! Three days of events centered around the wines of the U.S. (well, mostly California & Oregon).

When I think about the California and Oregon wine industries, I can’t help but think in terms of large, corporate entities, like Gallo or Mondavi. It is so great to get the opportunity to see some of the smaller production wineries up close and personal. Of course, it is Vegas, so during the consumer tasting, you have to talk to the winery reps through a “model”, which can be both frustrating and entertaining at the same time.

On the first night, we enjoyed some excellent live jazz and tasted the sparkling wine lineup from Domaine Carneros by Tattinger, among others.  The 2007 Domaine Carneros was crisp and dry with fine bubbles and refreshing flavours of green apples and citrus and a comforting yeasty note on the finish.  Their rose bubbly (a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes) was a tad lush, with berry notes and fine tannins on the finish.

On the second night, I felt like a kid in a candy store.  It was consumer tasting time in the Grand Ballroom.  Wines from Caymus and Seghesio Family Vineyards tickled my palate, to name a few.  The Caymus Conundrum will always be a favorite of mine, with it’s juicy, rich, round palate and it’s silky, honeyed finish.  The Select Cabernet Sauvignon from Caymus was delightful as well with it’s ripe berries, spice and hints of tobacco.

On Sunday morning, I got up early (11am is early for Vegas!) to enjoy the Champagne and Jazz Brunch.  The food was an amazing cross cultural array, but the music was even better.  Everything ground to an absolute halt though when the vocalist on stage began his rendition of What a Wonderful World.  He sounded precisely like Louis Armstrong and it was mind blowing!  It was worthy of the standing ovation that it garnered.

The highlight of the weekend was the poolside wine tasting known as the “Winedown with the Winemakers”.  The sun was shining, and the water was warm, which made the wine taste even better.  I have never spent a wine tasting supine, but it turned out to be the way that things ought to be.  Five hours and a slight sunburn later, I had tasted my way through several lovely California Sauvignon Blancs and was much the better for the experience.

If you’re interested in trying something new next year, check out the link below:

http://www.goldennugget.com/LasVegas/springwinefest.asp

I highly recommend it.  In order to appreciate what we have to offer the world here in our little corner of it, it’s important to step outside our boundaries once in a while.  Now if I can just find a way to head farther south and taste a bunch of really great tequilas!