Hello and happy wine Wednesday, wine lovers! It has been almost 2 weeks since my wonderful experience at the Wine Blogging Conference in Penticton…truly an amazing event.
Calling all Red Wine lovers – I was utterly impressed with the B.C. Red wine category! I had presumed that I was going to prefer the whites category but quite a few of the reds won me over. As I posted last week – here are my fast and furious reviews with five minutes per wine exactly as I wrote it down while tasting and experiencing…
Gray Monk Oddessey Merlot 2010 BC’s oldest owned winery. George and Trudy Heiss 30 years of wine making, 40 years of growing grapes and 50 years of marriage. Nice. 2 unique vineyard sites in Oliver. One side is sand and other side is alluvial (river) rock. 660 cases made. Small lot. Top tier. 100 acres of vineyards. Central OK and bought vineyards in the south. Freaking fantastic. Sage and savoury character. So smooth. Holy hannah. Nice acidy. $23.99 Bargoon! George and Trudy helped start the VQA. 14.7% abv. Sourced from 2 vineyards = beauty in a glass. Off to a stellar start! A GGG Hell Yes!
Black Hills Note Bene 2011 Bordeaux Blend. “Take Note”. N. of Oysoos. East Bench has sun into the late night Black Sage Road. Big Red. 270 feet of sand. They hand pick, hand sort, hand craft. Winemaker nicknamed “The Grape Whisperer” ‘he knows every vine personally in the vineyard.” 14% abv. More sunlight hours than Napa? Cool. 51% Cabernet Sauvginon/40% Merlot 1/3 new oak, 80 % French oak. $52.00 3300 – 4200 cases per year. Not sure why but this wine isn’t for me. Nothing stands out. Hmmm…
Poplar Grove Cab Sauvignon 2009 boutique type wine then investor came in 2006 and up to 15,000 cases cold production almost 25,000 cases built a new facility. a newer variety to the quite big Bordeaux style wine 93% Cab. Sav. aged for 18 – 24 months in French oak and then another year in bottle at least. Only releases the wines when they are ready to drink. $39.90 primarily sold through wine club. All made to the ‘reserve’ standard. Good and worth the money. GGG Hell Yes!
Monster Vineyard (2nd label of Poplar Grove). Monster 48% Cab Sauv. 28% Cab Franc 450 cases of this wine. $19.90 named after the Ogopogo. A bit green and a bit austere – not high enough acidity to get me through. No thank you.
Hester Creek Judge 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend Oliver Golden Mile Bench aged separately 12- 15 months Rob Summers Limited Edition. He commits to 24 months with an oak program. What type of oak? One time buys. Amercian oak. $35.00 a bottle. Elegant oak. Soft tannin. Beautiful. I would like a case of this please…GGG Hell Yes!
Painted Rock ICON 2009 John Skinner the propietor. Holy Hannah – a whole lot of awesome! family business. 30% Merlot. 5,000 cases. We don’t want to get bigger we want to get better. Bordeaux consultant comes and does his blending. 15% Petit Verdot $55.00 Really smooooooooth… US distribution coming. GGG Hell Yes!
Tinhorn Creek Cabernet Franc 2010 a bit different. Angular tannin, higher acidity. WOW. This is awesome. Low rainfall 100 % sand. Very refreshing. I like this baby. Andrew is the wine maker. Great control low rainfall. No vegetative characteristics. Nice acidity. Lovely grippy tannin. Very little vine death in the vineyard. She is a ‘goer’. 4,000 cases. Makes also a reserve Cab. Franc. MORE PLEASE! GGG Hell Yes!
Bartier Bros Syrah 2011 $26.90 13.2% abv. Very purple. Deficit irrigation. Incredible situation where the vine feeds off the rocks. Sounds like a Geology major. The wine was a bit short for me. Nothing really to write home about. Darn.
Haywire Gamay Noir 2011 96 cases. I like it. It is fruit forward and food friendly. $25. Happiness is. Made in concrete egg. Quite juicy. Simple and easy. Should do more of this type of wine! GGG Hell Yes.
Jackson Triggs Sun Rock Meritage 2010 short growing season and 47% Merlot 36% Cab Franc Top Tier they make the wines to age. $34.99 18 months in French and American Oak. Fruity. I really like this – a lot! 250 – 500 cases. Brooke Blair Winemaker – what a talented woman. GGG Hell Yes!
Truly amazing 50 minutes with some fantastic wine and some fantastic people. A big shout out to Allison Markin who put this fantastic event together and did a huge amount of work to get the blogging conference held in Penticton, B.C. You are a star!
That is is for this week! Off to write my WSET Level 3 Advanced exam this evening…
Enjoy!
XO
C
Girls Go Grape 
I cannot fathom the high prices for BC wine compared to some excellent California wine at same or less price You should do an article on that issue. Ie Nota bene. Priced that high because Jason Priestley is part owner no doubt Another example is Burrowing Owl. Except for the PGrigio cheers Terry
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