Note: my new wine blog is at Sharp Rich North - Wine.
In early 2006 I took the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 1 Foundation course in wine tasting. The course was taught by James Cluer of Fine Vintage Ltd in Vancouver. For these posts I am using the Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine (PDF, 50K). Wine is evaluated according to Appearance (clarity, intensity, and colour); Nose (condition, intensity, and aroma); Palate (sweetness, acidity, tannin, body, flavour characteristics, and length); and a conclusion on overall quality. I prefer whites, or I am more familiar with them, so that is what I will focus on, at least initially. I will sample wine from a variety of countries, and search out good BC wines. Let me know if you have any comments or something to suggest.
Visit Local Wine Events, a great source of tastings and other happenings for many locations in Canada, the U.S., and other countries. And vote for this blog!
Bought this at Nancy’s Wine for Food in New York (wine is certainly cheaper in the US). Medium to deep yellow-gold appearance; nice apricot-honey nose with floral hints. Medium body with good acidity; stone fruit and nice sweetness but a little one-dimensional. Good length.
This is a blend of Optima, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Ehrenfelser, and Riesling. See spec sheet (PDF). Pale, clear silver-gold. A real Okanagan nose: apple, peach, and a hint of sagebrush. Not quite dry on the palette, with a nice complexity, lime and Riesling dominating. I don’t drink many blends, but this is very good. See Blasted Church.
Clear medium gold. Lemon-mineral nose with a hint of vanilla. Fairly light body, good acidity, straightforward Chardonnay with citrus and green fruit qualities. See domaine Bernard Defaix . About $35 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Clear medium lemon-gold, with a light sweet fruit nose. Honey-apple with slate and slight stone fruit notes and good acidity. A pleasure to drink: straightforward with a nice steel-green fruit finish.
Medium clear lemon-gold appearance. Sweet citrus and mineral on the nose with the floral-petrol quality typical of the varietal. High acidity on the palette; a nice bite balanced by medium honey-pineapple sweetness. A little one-dimensional, but quite drinkable. See Weingut Selbach-Oster. $34 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Clear medium gold. Nice straightforward petrol-honey nose with a hint of apricot. Medium body, medium sweetness, light stone fruit notes with slight steely qualities, easy on the palette. Finishes a little disappointingly with an earthy-prune quality.
This is a blend of Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Kerner, Pinot Gris and Ehrenfelser. Pale lemon-gold appearance, with a hint of green. Nose is light and clean, refreshing citrus-pineapple with a hint of sweetness. Medium body off-dry on the palette with good acidity. Complex Okanagan peach and green apple flavours with tropical fruit notes. Very good! Another winner from Joie Wines. About $27 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.
Pale lemon-gold appearance. Medium nose with fruit and spice qualities, nicely balanced citrus-apple vanilla. Medium body with strong acidity on the palette, strong sense of citrus fruit with floral qualities and tasteful oaking. Very good. See Qupé Wine Cellars. $28 at Marquis Wine Cellars.
Clear, medium lemon-gold appearance. Significant clover-vanilla oak tones on the nose, with green fruit or grapefruit and a hint of earthiness. Medium body dry with good acidity; oak tones balanced with pepper/mushroom qualities. A bit of a harshness that develops through good length. I lined up to buy this wine; not quite sure why. Burrowing Owl Estate Winery.
Medium, clear lemon-gold. Pineapple-petrol on the nose with just a hint of sweetness; tempting to say it’s got a sage quality that I recognize from the interior of British Columbia (I grew up in Kamloops; Joie is in the Okanagan valley). Nice balance of sweetness and acidity on the palette, with tropical fruit and stone fruit notes. Very good to excellent; Joie is fast becoming my favourite BC producer. About $27 at Kitsilano Wine Cellar.