One Season Winds Up & Another Starts

Our curling league had its annual wind-up party and BBQ to close out the season that was. Our team didn't exactly burn up the league in the standings or the playoffs but I'm happy to say that we did win for Best Team Name - which is obviously one of the most coveted awards in our league. This is a gay curling league after all - and names and team uniforms count.

Teams names were chock full of puns and double entendres. So, we were happy boys to hear our name called out. The other teams nominated were:

- The Curldashians
- C.U.R.L.R (a spin on the hook-up app G.R.N.D.R.)
- Asstrogliderz
- Summoning Dorby Nordby (in honour of the Norwegian player of yore)
- Grab YOUR Stick (Let's Measure) (curlers will understand the measuring stick)

Our name, you ask? Fifty Sheets of Gay - our little homage to the ever-so-topical book/movie and to the curling "sheets" that our league plays on. (The name doesn't need any explanation when playing in a gay league.)

1896.  2013 Rosemount Estate Bottled Shiraz (Australia)

The party was held in one of the Davie Street bars - where beer and hard liquor are obviously more popular than wine because this was the ONLY red wine they had. The wine was a fruit forward (appropriate for our crowd I suppose) and an easy sip for the occasion.

We didn't close down the bar, however, because we wanted to get home in time to watch the debut of new season of Game of Thrones.

I'd pulled out the Jon Snow POP! figure that I'd picked up for the event - because it is a true event in our household - and set it on the mantlepiece below the flat screen. Surprisingly, I had to prompt Boo a bit before he picked up on it. I would have guessed that he'd notice one of his favourite characters much sooner than he did. Perhaps he was more excited about seeing the live-action Jon Snow after all these months than he could ever be about some little vinyl toy.

Ah, he knows nothing.

1897.  2010 Wild Goose Black Brant (375ml) (Okanagan Valley)

Given the dark nature of GoT (and the fact that we'd already eaten and polished off the bottle of Shiraz), I grabbed the half bottle of Black Brant to accompany some cheese. Black Brant is a port-style wine that is made from Maréchal Foch grapes and is named after the Black Brant goose that stops in BC during its migration between Mexico and Alaska.

I'd be willing to bet that you won't find a Portuguese Port that contains any Maréchal Foch in it. Then again, you don't find many of the standard Portuguese grapes grown in the Okanagan - if any. The wine is still made in the traditional manner, however, where the ripe grapes are vinified but the fermentation is arrested while the while there is still noticeable residual sweetness on the juice. The wine is then fortified by adding brandy or grain alcohol.

I searched a little but couldn't find out what the folks at Wild Goose fortified the Black Brant with. I do like asking because the answers go all over the map and some of the more recent BC wineries have been adding some rather unique spirits.

I'm a sucker for fortified wines. So, this was a marvellous end to a good day. A chance to celebrate a winning season (of sorts) on the ice. A new season of a favourite show. And another two wines added to The List.