Goldilocks and the three bottles of wine.....

Today's entry comes from BC winery Fairview Cellars. It is called The Bear (see what I did there with the title of this blog entry??).

From their website:

The Bear: Previously call “The Bear’s Meritage” this is part of the “Premier Series” wines (along with the higher end Cabs).  A blend of five of the classic Bordeaux cultivars (Cab. Sauv., Merlot, Cab. Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot) with Cabernet Sauvignon being at least 50% of the blend, sometimes reaching as high as 75% of the blend in exceptional Cab. years.  The best barrels are always chosen for this wine, with the Cab. Sauv. grapes usually coming from a later picking to add to the complexity.  The wine is stored for longer periods of time in the barrel. (anywhere from 14 to 20 months)  The time “on the skins” is usually longer, again to achieve higher extraction from the skins.

 

 

At a retail of around $40 it might not be everyone's "everyday" red wine but it's a beautiful bottle, full of robust flavors. Tonight we are cracking open a 2008 vintage, to be paired with pork tenderloin. It will be a fantastic pairing, we've had it before. If you like bold BC reds, this is for you.

 

Rating: 8/10

Tonight's white.....

....a beautiful white blend from Sperling Vineyards called "The Market White". It's a blend of Pinot Blanc, Bacchus and Gewürztraminer. Off-dry but not sweet, it is crisp and clean with fruity undertones.

Very pleasant with tonight's dinner of chicken sautéed in wine and cream.

Goes for a very respectable $19 in VQA wine stores.

Rating: 6/10

Madeira.....the verdict

So we finally decided to pop open that Madeira-style wine, the 2004 Cedarcreek Platinum M, that I've had in the cellar for a little while.

It was.......interesting.

It has been described as a port-style wine, and I'd say that's a decent description. It's a little thicker and more syrupy than a normal wine. It's stronger than a normal wine too. Tracey described it as "whiskey-like going down your throat". At first, I agree with that description, but after a couple of sips you get used to that and it's actually very nice.

It has a small amount of sweetness to it, but it's not a dessert wine. It's perfect as a digestif, before a nice meal, which is what we used it for. Would probably be good after a meal too.

Is it worth the hefty $65 price point? Hmm. If you like port (or if you've had Madeira wines from Portugal and want one you can find more easily), then this is probably for you and worth the money. And, keep in mind that the process this wine has undergone allows us to consume this bottle a little bit at a time, so that is a huge plus; we'll be having a little bit of this before every nice dinner we have for the next year, and that would not be something you could do with a normal port.

I like it!!

Rating: 7/10

Big, bold BC red

2009 Pocket Kings, from ACES winery.

Aces winery, founded by BC professional poker player Holger Clausen, makes some excellent wine, none better than this one.

Aged 18 months in French and American oak, this Meritage (Cab Franc/Cab Sauv./Merlot) blend offers a fabulous combination of black cherry and dark chocolate on the palate. It is a perfect pairing with red meats and a good burger (in fact, I published a recipe for a burger that I called the "Pocket Kings" burger on my normal blog a few months back). I had one this afternoon, accompanied by this beautiful wine. At $35 it is not cheap, but is worth every penny. It will also age beautifully for a few years, if you have the patience and the cellar for it.

Rating: 8.5/10    

Madeira, you are such a tease.....

Follow up to my blog entry a few days ago about the 2004 Cedarcreek Platinum "M" wine I have in my cellar; big thanks to Darryl Brooker, the winemaker at Cedarcreek, for answering my questions as below. My questions are in black, his responses in blue:

1. How long can we age this bottle before it deteriorates? – The wine has had 5 years in barrel, in the sun.  It will last indefinitely.  We recently tried a M from the 1990’s and it was looking great.  You are safe for up to 15 years from vintage.

2. The bottle says it should be an after dinner wine, how sweet is it? As sweet as dessert ice wine? – it is nothing like an ice wine.  It is hard to even call it sweet.  It can be used as an aperitif or after dinner.  It has approximately 20g/L of residual sugar, which is about 10% of an ice wine.

3. What temperature should we be serving this at? – I would serve at room temperature, between 15-20oC would be ideal.

4. Madeira wines are supposed to be stored upright to protect the cork, but this bottle is a screw cap, so I presume it's not important how it is stored? – You can store it anyway you like.  The screw cap allows for easy storage and easy re-sealing.  Remember that you can have some and put the cap back on and keep on ‘sampling’ for as long as you like.  The wine will not spoil as it has been exposed to oxygen and the elements during its aging.

5. Once it is opened, how long will it stay good in the fridge? – the wine does not need to be refrigerated.  It has seen a lot of oxygen during its aging and will not be affected.  You should be good for up to 1 year open

As a follow up to his Email, I asked one more question:

6. oh I might as well ask one more question....you say we have a good 15 years from vintage, is there a reason to age it longer? In other words, will aging further enhance the wine? Will it be better in 2015 than it is today?

Good question and the answer is probably not.  The wines does go through minor changes as it gets older, however I think the improvements from bottling to 10 years in the bottle are very minor and it is not a wine I would deliberately age.  The bottom line is that there is no hurry to drink it (even after opening) however there is no real advantage to aging it either.

Wow, it's great to get that kind of detailed information directly from the winemaker! Excellent service, IMO.

And even more exciting is the opportunity we have to pop this baby open, have a little, and re-seal it with no ill-effects! I think this weekend is going to have to be the time that we try it out!

I will report on our findings!

Dean

when Pinot Noir is done right......

It looks a little bit like this:

Tonight I cracked open a 2010 Quails' Gate Pinot Noir, and it was pretty much the same as every other one I've had, terrific.

This is definitely our "go-to" red, and it doesn't really seem to matter the vintage, it's fabulous. Sure, like any good red, it ages well (and I have several in my cellar from 2006/07/08/09 that we'll be opening eventually), but I'm fine with opening up a newer one when I feel like a good red.

Here are the specs:

http://quailsgate.com/wines/quails-gate-pinot-noir/

Their "Stewart Family Reserve" Pinot Noir are ridiculously good, and we have several of them in the cellar as well....but their regular PN are so good it almost doesn't matter.

Retail on their regular Pinot is only $24.95, which is a complete steal for a wine of this quality.

Since my seafood hating wife is in Vegas right now, I paired this with the following:

Cedar planked salmon in lemon, garlic and dill, asparagus sautéed in butter and onion sugar, and coconut rice. Freaking amazing.

If you need a reliable Pinot Noir at a reasonable ticket, this is the one for you. If you have the patience to age it for 4-5 years, it will pay off.

And if you have the funds to get the Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir ($45), you won't regret it. Age it a few years and you will be in heaven.

Rating (regular Pinot Noir): 8/10
Rating (Reserve Pinot Noir): 9/10

Why does Canadian wine get no respect in the world?

So I'm on the winespectator site the other day, and I notice that they have virtually no information on any Canadian wine. Given how good many BC wines have become (and I'm sure Ontario has good wine too), that seems odd to me.....almost prejudicial, in fact. Frankly, it pissed me off.

On the weekend I'm walking through Safeway and I see a magazine on the shelf called "MacLean's Wine in Canada". Hmm. OK so I pick it up and thought it might be interesting to check it out.

One of the introductory articles mentions how much success Canadian wine has been having at competitions and how many world renowned wine critics have been praising our wine. Renowned English critic and author Jancis Robinson has chronicled the steady improvement in Canadian wines. "In her latest testing, her highest praise went to Okanagan's offerings, both whites like chardonnay and dry Rieslings, and especially the 'strapping' reds from the semi-desert of the South Okanagan. Okanagan vines, she's written, 'almost punch you between the eyes with their frankness' ".

The article continues: "The problem is, few people outside Ontario and B.C. have the opportunity to get smacked with the fruits of the Canadian winemakers' labour. Canada has just 11,000 hectares of wine vineyards, compared to more than 34,000 in New Zealand, which has a population slightly smaller than B.C. and a ripping export business - the 11th highest by volume in the world".

Hmm. New Zealand, which has less people than B.C., clobbers Canada in the export business? Why would that be?

Sandhill Wines winemaker Howard Soon makes the point that New Zealand has more sheep than people. "If they get the sheep to drink wine, New Zealand's got it made, domestically. They have to export because they have few people and lots of friggin' wine."

OK, so that's a fair point; New Zealand makes more wine than their population could possibly handle, so exporting it is clearly paramount to the success of their industry.

So since Canada has more people, that means we don't need to export our wine? It seems so. In 2010, Canada exported a paltry $28M, and $12M of that was ice wine.

I had always assumed we were just getting overlooked by the world, but is it possible that it's our fault? Would the world embrace our wines if we'd just get them into their hands? Not being a winemaker, I can't definitively answer that, but the evidence is compelling.

On winespectator.com, many people (presumably Canadians) have lauded our wines, and admonished the site in the comments sections for overlooking them. Lots and lots of complaints. And I mean lots. Then I got to a response from the site, which basically said (and I'm paraphrasing a bit), "we'd be happy to include your wines, if you guys would just f**king send them to us!!!".

That seemed so odd until I thought about it. We've been to some huge wine stores in California, Vegas and Florida, and there is no sign of ANY Canadian wine except for the occasional ice wine. We've had dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Vegas with a wine list that takes about a month to peruse, yet there are no Canadian wines on the list at all, to my recollection. I just always assumed that was due to their prejudices, but I'm beginning to think that our wineries need to rethink their strategies and reach out to other countries. If we are having success with wine critics and in competitions, why on Earth would we not be able to successfully sell our wines to other countries?

That seems like the $28M question, doesn't it?