A Bucket o' Blood for Halloween

Trick or treat.

I do love Halloween. Around work, folks say they're surprised if they get more than a dozen kids come to their door. We still get well over a hundred kids every year. Admittedly, not all of them are cute, little ones but enough of them are that it's worth the effort to put up a few decorations and spend the early part of the evening at home.

The leftover Cheesies and fruit berries are nothing to sneer at either.

Since many of our friends live in apartments downtown where they see no kids at all, we regularly get an assortment of pals coming by to share in the fun.

1462.  2009 Fairview Cellars Bucket o' Blood (Golden Mile - Okanagan Valley)

Seeing as how I previously wrote an extensive post on Fairview Cellars during the lead up to the 2013 Wine Bloggers Conference, I won't spend much time here repeating myself. I'm quite sure, however, that there are more stories about Bill Eggert - the driving force behind Fairview - than I could ever fit into a handful of blog posts.

I figured a wine called Bucket o' Blood was appropriate for serving to Halloween guests. While the wine might be a deeply hued red, it is not named for any particularly sanguine qualities. Rather, the Syrah/Cab Sauv (30/70) blend is named, with a nod and a wink, for the Moffatt Saloon - a watering hole above the historical Fairview townsite that was frequented by local miners in the 1890's. The old bar was nicknamed the "Bucket o' Blood" - after another renowned saloon in Virginia City, Nevada.

Syrah/Cab blends may be a popular combination Down Under but they aren't that common in the Okanagan and, as if it isn't enough that they're rare to start, like virtually any Fairview wine, the quantity of this wine was limited. Only 190 cases were made - in part because Bill only has one row of Syrah planted in his vineyard - and one row doesn't leave him with a whole lot of fruit to work with. Ever the pragmatist, Bill's favourite grape to work with is Cab Sauv however, and, not surprisingly, that's the fruit he has most at his disposal. Hence, Syrah/Cab it is.

Finding myself continually having to put my glass down to keep up with the visiting creatures and superheroes, there wasn't much thought put into tasting notes. I can confidently say that this was far more of a treat than it was a trick though. Hopefully, I have another bottle stashed away that we can sit down with and enjoy a little more appropriately down the road.