Apr 12 2012

Chenin Who?

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 6:15 am

Chenin Blanc doesn’t really make a lot of people’s Top 10 lists in BC wine. It’s not that common a grape in these parts and for those wine lovers who hunt down their favorite varieties, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris are probably going to get more shelf space in BC than Chenin Blanc. But here’s the deal with BC Chenin: It makes some awesome wines.

20120411-231914.jpgChardonnay is going to be a relatively predictable variety. Even unoaked versions can be soft and fruity. Pinot Gris can be soft on its own and Sauvignon Blanc is typically going to be a little on the crisper, more acidic side.

Chenin is more of a chameleon that way. Like Riesling, it can be made into all different kinds of styles. It can be racey and crisp, which is Quail’s Gate’s style, or soft and fruity, which is Road 13′s version made from old vines. Inniskillin makes a Chenin as part of their Discovery series and I recall it falling into the “soft and fruity” category as well, although it has been a while since I last tasted it.

In the “classic regions” for Chenin Blanc in France’s Loire Valley, it is made in all manners of these styles from bone-dry to lusciously sweet and makes a pretty good sparkling wine as well. Famously, Road 13 has tried out Chenin as a sparkler with some great success.

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Versatility and taste is what makes Chenin Blanc a great new variety to look for in the wine shop aisles. Many adventurous wine consumers are now looking for something new to step outside the ‘normal’ varieties that we’ve become all to which we’ve all become accustomed: Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s not that these grapes make boring wines, quite the opposite. But we, as a wine-buying public, have hinged our tastes so closely to the single-variety wine for so long, it feels great to take a little trip with something different.

Because of it’s versatility, trying to figure out the style of a particular Chenin Blanc might pose a problem. For those who like the real crisp, zesty, and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc or un-oaked Chardonnay would really enjoy the Quail’s Gate Chennin Blanc. If a rounder Pinot Gris or Chardonnay is your thing, may I suggest the Road 13 Old Vines Chenin Blanc.

Outside of BC, the styles will continue to run through the shades of grey in between and beyond the limited amount of styles that are found here in BC. And that’s what makes the wine world exciting! Happy hunting!

Cheers from wine country!

~Luke

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Dec 17 2010

gifts for the gift-giver

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 1:43 am

The holiday season is about giving: to family and friends, neighbours, your physician, school crossing guardā€¦ the list goes on. We spend days at stores and hours online, shopping for the perfect gift for everyone on our list. But in all the giving, we often forget the most important person: ourselves.

If weā€™re going to do gift-giving right, we need to be in a sharing frame of mind. What puts me in the holiday spirit is a really good glass of wine, so it makes sense that Iā€™d seek out a few ā€˜meā€™ presents to keep up with the holiday cheer.

Set out in easy-to-follow categories, hereā€™s a little list of some ā€˜youā€™ gifts. I suggest printing it out and keeping a copy in the car, just in case you find yourself near a liquor store during your shopping extravaganza. Itā€™s best to be prepared.

good gewĆ¼rztraminers

  • The View
  • Ruby Tuesday

rippinā€™ rieslings

  • 8th Generation (they make a couple, so try one on for size)
  • Wild Goose
  • Orofino

big reds

  • Aces
  • Spier Head Vanguard
  • Osoyoos Larose
  • Road 13 Rockpile

cheery chardonnays

  • Crowā€™s Nest Stahltank
  • Cassini Cellars Reserve
  • Painted Rock

merry merlots

  • Hester Creek Reserve
  • Stagā€™s Hollow Renaissance

killer cabs

  • Inniskillin Dark Horse Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Fairview Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Tinhorn Creek Oldfield Series Cabernet Franc
  • Poplar Grove Cabernet Franc

delightful (fruity) desserts

  • Rustic Roots
  • Elephant Island
  • Forbidden Fruit

bountiful bubbles

  • Gray Monk Odyssey Brut
  • Blue Mountain
  • Summerhill Cipes

Go forth and be merry, because the happiness of everyone on your entire shopping list depends upon it. After all, ā€˜tis the season to un*wine*d.

Cheers!

~ Jeannette

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Nov 23 2010

‘best of’ pinot party 2010

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 3:14 am

I have a very, very sweet gig – taste wine, maybe invite some friends to join… and write about it. That’s a whole lot of fabulous right there.

Earlier I announced that I’d be having aĀ pinot party to taste my way through a number of BC wines. Turns out a few of my friends decided to join me on my dangerously yummy mission. You know who you are, and I’m grateful.

I haven’t been part of a varietal-specific evening before, and it was an absolute blast. Made food choices easy because people didn’t have to ask me what they could bring – I simply informed them of the 12 bottles of pinot noir we were to consume, and attendees brought everything from salmon, spinach and mascarpone stuffed baked goodness to cheese and chocolate. We were covered.

The lineup was varied in production and age with small lots going head-to-head with larger production contenders. But considering this is BC, production at many wineries is usually capped at something reasonable. We’re just not that big. Yet.

We started out tasting, but ended up drinking. In my books that’s a successful wine night. We had a few professional wine-o types (a viticulturist, a marketer and a winemaker), some non-professional wine-o types (let’s just call them happy consumers) and a few in between (yours truly, and a chemical engineer who spends far too much time around wine). It’s always good to have a mixed crowd when tasting – way more interesting.

We brown-bagged the bottles so as to have as close to a blind tasting as possible. A few guests tweeted (hashtag #pinotparty, not to be confused with #pintoparty); take a peek and see a bit of the play-by-play. (remember: we were socializing, and that significantly impedes my ability to tweet, drink and chat)

One party-goer said that after ranking the top three, the rest were are fairly close – BC wine tends to do that. Our folks make pretty good booze.

Without further ado, here’s the breakdown in popular vote:

  1. Arrowleaf 2006 (picture perfect pinot noir, classic taste with wet stone and fresh berries)
  2. Stoneboat 2007 (heftier, bricks and mortar meets end of season strawberries – you know, the small and real intense kind)
  3. Tinhorn Creek 2007 (strawberries and clay – delicate) / Gehringer Brothers 2008 (pale beauty, softer and quieter)

The rest fell somewhere around 4th place, give or take an “ooh” or an “aah” moment. In case you’ve forgotten what else was on the pinot menu, here goes:

  • D’Angelo 2006 (tied for someone’s 2nd choice)
  • Mount Boucherie 2007
  • Stag’s Hollow 2006 (tied for someone’s 2nd choice)
  • Robin Ridge 2007 (someone’s 1st choice)
  • Eagle Bluff 2008
  • Le Vieux Pin 2006
  • Inniskillin 2006
  • Silkscarf 2006

Our surprise for the evening was a contribution by the Oldfields from Tinhorn Creek: a 2003 and 2005. All I can say about the 2003 is wow – drink it if you’ve got it, because it’s absolutely stellar. By far my favourite of the night, even though it wasn’t in the original lineup. There’s much to be said for late entries.

What I learned from this night was that you can’t judge a wine by its bottle – I’m the first to admit that I have packaging bias. Often it’s unintentional, but it’s there. I get caught up in the pretty font (oh, I love me a good font) and nice labels (texture is everything). Taking it beyond the marketing and straight to the booze was definitely the way to go. Turns out I liked some way better than others I thought for sure I’d be swooning over.

Ultimately, the best way to un*wine*d is with friends, food and fun. After all, isn’t that what the whole wine thing’s about?

Cheers!

~ Jeannette

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Nov 06 2010

all pinot, all night

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 4:33 am

I have a staggering amount of Pinot Noir to drink. It’s a heavy burden, and one that I choose not to carry alone. I’ll be asking some of my favourite wine drinkers to join me in tackling this mountain. Don’t worry – many of them are trained professionals. The rest are groupies – like me.

Yes, I’m fortunate to live in the heart of BC wine country and have made friends with some of the locals. Considering many of the locals are wine folks, I’m not the only one who has an affection for the boozey stuff. Here’s a little known secret: many winemakers start making wine so they can drink what they like.

I’m more of a refreshing, crisp white wine gal in the heat of the summer – so that means my cellar can get a little backlogged by fall. You see, just because I don’t drink as much red wine in the summer doesn’t mean I refrain from acquiring bottles of it during that time. Hell no. With our BC wineries at limited production, you gotta grab what you can when you can.

My cellar isn’t well documented. In fact, it’s not a “wine cellar” per se; it’s more of a slightly creepy basement where the temperature stays cool so we pack as much wine onto dilapidated shelves as we can without causing breakage. Told you I wasn’t a wine snob.

However, the cellar is somewhat organized into areas: sleeping imports, ready-to-drink imports, sleeping BC wines, can-sleep-but-can-drink-now-if-we-really-want-to BC wines, need-to-drink-now BC wines, fortified…and a special shelf for bubble. (I finally have a bubble shelf – three sleeping bottles, but I have a bubble shelf!)

Somehow, I managed to gather 11 bottles of BC Pinot Noir that’s ready to drink.

What’s a gal to do with so much good booze? Have a pinot party.

In no particular order, here’s what my friends and I will be tasting. Notes will follow – but anticipation is everything. Drool now, drink later.

  • Arrowleaf 2006
  • Eagle Bluff ‘Crooked Post’ 2008
  • Inniskillin Dark Horse Vineyard 2006
  • Stag’s Hollow 2006
  • Gehringer Brothers 2008
  • Tinhorn Creek 2007
  • Robin Ridge 2007
  • Stoneboat 2007 (!)
  • D’Angelo 2006
  • Silkscarf 2006
  • Le Vieux Pin ‘Belle’ 2006

To say I’m stoked for this night is beyond an understatement. A good pinot noir is worth so very, very much to me. I want it to take me into the memory bank: to picking wild strawberries on the elementary school lawn at recess in the fourth grade; to riding in the back seat of a car without air conditioning on a hot summer day after collecting rocks at the edge of the lake; to that first cold drink out of the hose on a Saturday in July – after squishing potato bugs in my mom’s garden. It was a big garden.

The stakes are high – after all, these grapes are competing against some of my most fond memories. Even the potato bug one. But I have faith in our BC winemakers, our burgeoning viticulturists and our dirt. We make great booze.

Some of you may be wondering whether we’ll be tasting or drinking. If you’ve gleaned anything about me from this gig, you’ll be able to sort that out for yourself. If not – just be aware that I know a thing or two about how to un*wine*d.

Cheers!

~ Jeannette

PS: Pinot Noir night wine sampling is November 20 – we’ll be live tweeting via my Twitter handle @okanaganwriting, hashtag #bcwine (with special guests!)

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Oct 26 2010

an apple a day – what about wine?

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 10:26 pm

It’s cold and flu season, and I’ve been hit by the germ wave something fierce. As illness seriously impedes my ability to drink wine, let’s just say I’m not a happy camper about it.Ā But it got me thinking about the old adage of ‘a glass of wine a day’ as being good for one’s health.

So what did I do? After I returned home from the doctor’s office, I let my fingers do the walking – and Googled it.Ā Not surprisingly, there’s a ton of information floating about on the interwebs about booze and germ fighting. Ā Some wine folks have chimed in on the subject, too.Ā Someone asked our friends at Wine Spectator about the merits of drinking wine while affected by a cold; internet news in the UK is talking wine and cold prevention; a fun site called the New Scientist dishes the dirt on wine’s cold-fighting possibilities as well as busts the myths about colds (some of the reading is rather, um, yucky – proceed with caution).

However, many seem to be using data from research in Spain – a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology;Ā that drinking red wine may indeed be beneficial in fighting the germ fight. Good news for us wine lovers. Yet despite my rather regular intake of the good stuff, I still managed to get sick. I blame wine-resistant germs.

Now that I’m learning about the glass-of-wine-a-day theory (or more, depending on how you dice the stats), I’m inclined to get a little more specific – say, which wine. Remember, the study said red wine appeared to have more effect. This means it’s time for a new list: theĀ Top Five Glass-A-Day Red Wines list. There’s no criteria for the list, other than these are some of my favourite reds to be found in the Okanagan. And since it’s my list, makes sense it would be my faves.

The Top Five Glass-A-Day Red Wines List

Disclaimer: there is no proof that drinking any of these wines will help you reduce your chance of catching a cold. But that’s not the point, is it? Give it a go and see if you manage to keep those germs at bay, because although staying home from work to sleep on the sofa sounds like fun – it’s really not how I like to un*wine*d.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some germ fighting to get back to.

Cheers!

Jeannette

PS: That guy on the intro page for Poplar Grove? It’s John Clerides from Marquis Wine Cellars, sticking his nose in a glass of great BC wine. After 25 years in the wine biz, he knows his stuff. I’ll drink with him again any day.

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Aug 06 2010

read this, drink that: CanLit & BC wine

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 12:51 am

Ā 

Yes, Iā€™m about to inundate you with wine-and-reading selections. But Iā€™m not very traditional; you should know that by now, dear reader. So what does that mean when it comes to a reading and wine-ing list presented by yours truly? Allow me to explain.

Iā€™m dragging out the hasnā€™t-been-published-in-ages books; ones you need to hunt down in your local used book store treasure trove or thrift store. And Iā€™m choosing some newer releases ā€“ those published in the last ten years. Maybe there will be something in here that youā€™ve never heard of.

Good reads should challenge us and our expectations ā€“ kind of like good wine does.Ā Both are sensory and seductive, and both can take you a world away.

Enjoy.

Read: Robertson Davies, Leaven of Malice. This guy shoves us into a world of academics, tenure and compound sentences. His characters drink wine. I like that. This is one dude who doesnā€™t lead you around by the nose: heā€™s got witty, layered characters that keep surprising you, and he has an expectation youā€™ve a decent head on your shoulders.Ā 

Drink: This says bubble all over it. Try Blue Mountain, Sumac Ridgeā€™s Stellarā€™s Jay (after sleeping for a couple of years, itā€™s one mighty good bottle) or Gray Monk Odyssey White Brut. Not a bubble fan? Shame. But you can play along ā€“ with a bottle of Twisted TreeĀ Syrah, or a Pinot Noir from Meyer Family Vineyards.

Read: Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman. Ahead of her time in so many ways. This is foodie Can-lit for foodies before there were foodies. Of course, thereā€™s a glass or two of wine in here. I read this only recently, having put it off in a covet kind of way. Iā€™m glad I did.

Drink: Margaret says unusual yet beautiful structure, and so must the wine. Think Mount BoucherieĀ Ehrenfelser,Ā  InniskillinĀ Dark Horse Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Lake BreezeĀ Pinot Blanc or Road 13 VineyardsĀ Jackpot Pinot Noir.

Read: Douglas Coupland, J Pod. I love him; heā€™s magnificent at loading a sentence with so much stuff. Plus, I want to meet Ethanā€™s mom. Think easy street meets the wrong side of the tracks, in a very Rice-Krispie-square kind of way.

Drink: More than meets the eye, this one. Makes me want Rollingdaleā€™s Cabernet Sauvignon ā€œLa Gaucheā€, Township 7ā€™s Chardonnay (not the reserve, but not the un-oaked for this one), Cedar Creekā€™s Platinum Reserve Chardonnay or Tinhorn Creekā€™s Oldfield Series Merlot ā€“ because thereā€™s more going on than you would expect.

Read: Mordecai Richler, Barneyā€™s Version. The guy writes a good story, hands down. These are characters that I not only want to drink with, but also want to go to Europe with. Thatā€™s good character development.

Drink: I recall the protagonist as a scotch drinker, but also one who enjoyed aĀ bottle of wine. That being said ā€“ try something from Osoyoos Larose, or maybe Laughing Stockā€™s Portfolio. Perhaps followed by a nice fortified, like Sumac Ridge Pipe or Granite Creek Merlot.

Read: Zoe Whittall, Bottle Rocket Hearts. Maybe itā€™s because I met her brother in the parking lot of an Okanagan winery (true story), or maybe itā€™s because I had a summer of unemployed drunken fun in Montreal in the early 90ā€™s (slightly hazy true story). It could be both, but also because this is one brilliant author. Storytelling stream-of-consciousness. I miss Eve.

Drink: Memories of misspent youth, character-building events that at the time are rip-your-heart-out experiences you donā€™t think youā€™ll ever recover from and the unmistakable sweetness of firsts. Try La FrenzĀ Cabernet Sauvignon, OrofinoĀ Pinot Noir,Ā Cassini Cellars Reserve Chardonnay or Desert Hills Gamay.Ā 

The point is this: wine, like literature, is highly dependent on situation. I truly believe that. Reading the same book at different points in your life will bring out different qualities of that book – just like drinking wine with different people, or in different situations, will show you something new.

Mix it up. Experiment. Un*wine*d a little. Now excuse me while I go back to Timothy Findley’s SpadeworkĀ and my glass of…well, I’m not going to tell you all my secrets – read it and tell me what you’d drink with it.

Cheers!

Jeannette

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Mar 05 2010

monopoly + wine = wineopoly

Category: Wine tasting — admin @ 2:34 am

Question: What do you get when you cross wine with Monopoly? Answer: Four happy players.

Think you know the game? Think again. Monopoly has come a long way from Baltic Avenue, and a game played recently with friends showed me itā€™s not the game of our youth. Itā€™s now Wineopoly. Thatā€™s right. Monopoly with a wine theme. How could I not play?

You buy vineyards and plantings, sometimes countries and regions (I held on to France; Luke was after an empire). Instead of buying houses and hotels you purchase grape bunches and bottles. And rather than going to jail, players go to the cellar to age. Nice touch.

We started the game with a Pinot Blanc from Lake Breeze in Naramata. Game? What game? I was surrounded by big, leafy trees and sitting on a patio on a warm afternoon. When I closed my eyes I could almost smell the apples; the fresh, ripe granny smith type. Iā€™m easily distracted so itā€™s a good thing Iā€™m not very competitive.

When the game got going, and I remembered to buy a property or two, I got into a Marsanne Rousanne white blend from Inniskillin, outside of Oliver. These grapes are less commonly planted (theyā€™re originally from North Rhone in France ā€“ see, I hung on to France for a reason) and combined here at a ratio of about 50/50.

Inniskillin has a series called ā€˜Discoveryā€™ that produces small amounts, but done very well. The Marsanne Rousanne is in that series, and itā€™s a sweet discovery indeed. You can read the flavour profile on the Inniskillin website because I wonā€™t do the wine-speak thing (itā€™s less fun). But Iā€™ll say this about it: grade school recess.

My elementary school in Ontario had a huge expanse of lawn and most of the lower slope wasnā€™t often mowed in June. Thatā€™s when the wild strawberries were just coming into season. My friends and I would hustle down the hill at afternoon recess, throw ourselves on the ground and root around for the little berries. They always tasted so much sweeter than the store bought kind.

No, the Marsanne Rousanne didnā€™t taste or smell like strawberries. Iā€™m not done yet.

When weā€™d found all of the ripe berries weā€™d spend the last bit of recess hunting for clover. The kind of clover with big, fat purple-pink heads and individual sections. Weā€™d pull each section out, suck the pinhead of sweetness off the bottom and repeat.

Thatā€™s what this wine reminded me of: laying on my stomach in the grass on a June day and tasting little bits of sweet clover goodness. Now thatā€™s a good wine.

As for the Wineopoly; I lost. But I was being silly with my fella and our friends Heather & Luke on a Saturday night ā€“ and we were drinking awesome BC wine. What a great way to un*wine*d.

Cheers!

Jeannette

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