Hello to you and happy wine day to you!  And a VERY happy birthday to my love, David…

As I mentioned last week, I was off to attend a Cornucopia session in Whistler and I am happy to report that it was a great, educational seminar.

Hosted by Araxi‘s Wine Director, Samantha Rahn and Taste Whistler‘s Eric Blouin, the seminar showcased ‘cool climate’ wines with a nice background of information on why these wines are, indeed, important in the world of wine.

To begin, the definition of a ‘cool climate’ region is one where the growing season is shorter than those of warm or hot regions.  It is not a simple determination but there are indeed factors that contribute to and make ‘cool climate’ wines.

Ultimately, cool climate wine regions tend to produce wines that contain more acid.  Regions where the heat levels drop significantly during the evening allow the fruit to cool down and maintain acidity thereby creating cool climate wines.  This diurnal shift in temperature is key to producing wines in this style.

Yes, vintage is of utmost importance on how any wine expresses itself and if it is a hot vintage, even cool climate regions will have wines with more alcohol, bigger fruit flavours and not as much acidity as normal.  Some examples of cool climate regions are: Champagne, Tasmania, Germany, Alsace, Piedmont, Chile, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, Finger Lakes and British Columbia (but this isn’t always the case).

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You will notice that there are predominately white wines represented above. The cool climate reds on display are a Nebbiolo from Piedmont, a Pinot Noir from Limari Valley, Chile and a Syrah from Okanagan Falls, B.C.

For this seminar, there were eight wines to taste ranging from a beautiful glass of bubble from Nova Scotia to Pinot Noir from Chile.  I found a few new additions to my personal wine list:

The presenters showcased some delightful wines and there was an engaging dialogue about food and wine pairing with each selection.

I cannot post without mentioning the ‘crazy’ that has been happening in the world over the last week.  I got angry, sad, stoic and then found my peace again.  I send love to the world and then a little bit more.

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XO

C