Sunday, June 23, 2013

Hello all

Starting a new blog dedicated specifically to all things vino. First, a few things:

My wife and I are big wine fans, but far from experts. Wine is a new thing for us, we discovered it on a wine tour of the Okanagan only a few years ago. I've always been intrigued by wine and the wine culture, but before that tour I wasn't a big fan of wine itself. That's probably because my only real experience with wine was a house wine here and there when I was out for dinner with my mom. And, to this day, I STILL don't like most crappy house wine.

Unfortunately for me, and my wallet, I tend to gravitate to really expensive wines. I will no doubt post some of those in this blog, but will also try to share some less expensive wines that can be enjoyed for everyone, even those on a budget.

Anyway, as our wine appreciation and knowledge grows, I thought I'd start up a blog to dedicate to our new passion. Neither my wife nor I claim to be sommeliers, so if you see something here that doesn't make sense or just seems completely wrong, please send me a message. Always nice to hear from a fellow wine enthusiast.

We started out mainly on BC wine, but have branched out to good wine from all over the world. We are still big fans of BC wine, which is highly underrated by the wine communities around the world. Today, for my first post, let's start with a nice BC red.

Church and State 2008 Coyote Bowl Meritage



Specs are below.

http://store.churchandstatewines.com/2008-coyote-bowl-meritage-p6.aspx

"Coyote Bowl" refers to the area of the Okanagan, about 10 miles south of Oliver, where the grapes are harvested. This winery also has grapes on Vancouver Island.

This is a blend of the usual "big three" red Meritage grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Ironically these are generally not our favorite three red grapes (in fact, they might be our least favorite of the grapes readily available in BC). As Paul Giamatti so eloquently put it in "Sideways": "I've come to never expect greatness from a Cab Franc". I agree, in fact I've yet to find a single varietal Cab Franc that I enjoy.

This wine, however, is terrific. The big, bold bouquet is so exquisite that I didn't want to take my nose out of the glass to taste the wine!

On the palate, this wine is rich and smooth. It is absolutely ready to drink right now, and would probably only be improved by another year or two in the bottle. According to the C&S website, it's good to drink "now through 2015". I have no doubt this would be a terrific wine to cellar for a year or two more, but it's good enough now that I expect we'll be picking up another bottle or two for "now" drinking.

This wine retails for $35 and is a solid value at that price point.

Rating: 8.5/10

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