A Colossal Win

So it's time for Game 4 and the team's down in San Jose. The Sharks managed to bruise our boys a bit in the last game but we're still hopeful that the Canucks might dine on a little shark meat. Two thoughts for tonight's wine - 1) the team'll be wearing their away jerseys. They're white. So how about a white wine? 2) Canucks'll need a bit of strength and determination to pull this off. I call for muscles to match that white wine - or is that mussels? Whatever.

809. 2008 Jackson-Triggs Proprietor's Grand Reserve White Meritage (VQA Okanagan Valley)

We don't tend to see a lot of Sauvignon Blanc grown in the Okanagan. I'd say it's becoming a somewhat more common, but it's hardly a varietal that I immediately associate with the region's wineries. We see even less Semillon. So, a blend of the two isn't something I'd regularly expect to see unless it's from one of the bigger players - like J-T. I didn't see any notes online about this particular vintage. The J-T website says that the '09 vintage is 80% Sauv Blanc but I couldn't find a reference for the '08. My guess is that it's fairly close.

I'll be honest with you as well though. We don't tend to see many hockey games starting at noon either; but this one did. As much as these playoff series' bottles are linked to the games - and there was a glass of the Meritage downed during the game itself, maybe a good one at that - I did keep the better part of the bottle for dinner that night. Polishing off a bottle of wine before the afternoon was hardly half over wouldn't have been in my - or our garden's - best interest since I headed out there after the game.

I think the wine might have been a bit better as an accompaniment to the game than it was to the dinner though. There was some big acidity in the wine and it didn't quite match up to the cream, tomatoes and chipotles that the mussels were cooked in.

Mussels. Muscles. Sem. Sauv. What's it all matter anyhow? The Canucks scored three huge goals in a couple of minutes to bust open the game and, luckily, seal that third win. Time to bring the series home to VanCity and finish it off.

As much as I wouldn't mind any number of future J-T wines, I'd just as soon move on to the Stanley Cup Finals and a new winery.