I Love Mussels

Apologies to Diana Ross. When she was singing about loving muscles, she was referring to the bicep-tual ones, not the bivalves. But, from my side of the dancefloor, you can't really go wrong with mussels, muscles or a little disco.

These additions to The List were "cooking wines" in the true sense of the words. They pretty much went entirely into the cooking or the cook's glass while slaving away in the kitchen. The mussel soup being made was going to scream Sauvignon Blanc and I figured that grabbing a couple different bottles would make for a nice comparison.

439. 2009 Caliterra Reserva Sauvignon Blanc (Valle de Casablanca - Chile)

440. 2009 Errazuriz Estate Sauvignon Blanc (Valle de Aconcagua - Chile)

Since a good portion of the bottles was going to make it into the actual pot, I kept to entry level pricing. The Caliterra was $12.50 and the Errazuriz was $13.99. It just seemed easier on the pocketbook than two bottles of Kiwi Sauv Blanc or Sancerre. The word on Chilean Sauv Blanc generally seems to like the quality for value scale as well. This was a way to check out two of the names I always see on our government liquor store shelves.

What I didn't realize until I did a little net surfing (after the fact) that both wineries are owned by the same folks. The Errazuriz family started up their namesake winery in 1870 and, together with the Mondavi family, started Caliterra in 1996. This was the first joint venture between a Chilean business and foreign investors. When Mondavi was bought up by the Constellation group in 2004, the Errazuriz family bought back the Mondavi share in Caliterra.

The two wineries are operated as separate entities however. Caliterra is located in the Colchagua Valley while Errazuriz is centred in the Aconcagua Valley. Both have their own vineyards and winemakers and there was a definite difference between the two wines. I'd likely go back to the Errazuriz first as I found it to have a more vibrant nose and bit more fruit on the palate. The Caliterra was a bit more in line with what I associate with an old-style New Zealand profile - more herbaceous and acidic. The difference may stem from the fact that the Errazuriz was aged for three months on its lees.

Both wineries are emphasizing their commitment to greening up their production. Caliterra is transitioning its vineyards to organic standards, while Errazuriz has some organically labeled wine already (not this Sauv Blanc though) and has reduced the weight of its wine bottles by 14% to reduce its carbon footprint when transporting the finished product.

The mussels and broth tasted great as well.

Good Thing I Wasn't Stuck in Front of the TV

Not sure about all this coincidental frequency of late but here it is Game 4 for the Canucks and Blackhawks and I've got another wine tasting to head off to. This one was booked some time ago - long before we knew the Canucks would be facing such a big game - so, game or not, we're off to Maple Ridge with my sis, Vixen. Her great pals, The Guru and Bride of Frank'n'Wine (we really need to get her a new name) are involved with this annual tasting event at the Golf & Country.

I decided to wear my Canucks jersey again since it seemed to play to my advantage the other week at the Vancouver Playhouse tasting. The first thing Vixen said to me, with some incredulity, though was "How can you wear a hockey jersey to a Country Club?"

My response, "What are you talking about? They play golf there. They wear shorts. They like sports. My guess is that half the people there would rather be watching the game." And, wouldn't you know it, the first three men that we saw there were all in shorts and two of them commented to me about the big game.

Like I have no fashion sense. Sometimes I think she must mix me up with some straight guy she knows.

In any event it was a good thing that we went to the tasting. The game was horrific. They had a big screen playing the game in one end of the room and, much like the Canucks, most people had given up trying to keep up with the game part way through the second period. I was more worried about people throwing red wine at the jersey by the end of the game than I was about the club's dress code - especially when the score hit 7-4 for the bad guys.

There was quite a decent array of wines to try throughout the evening. A good number of the wineries in attendance were BC based, but even among those, there were some that I hadn't run across before. The balance of the wines covered the gamut - from light Italian bubbles to a new-to-the-market Argentine Tannat.

I don't think there was much doubt that the overall top table of the night was Pacific Breeze. With The Guru and Bride-y serving up wine at times, there were some healthy pours and some very decent wines. I'm going to have to open up some of their bottles that we're currently cellaring.

Add, to all this, some very tasty nibblies (lamb popsicles and spot prawns for example) and a $25 price tag and it (almost) made up for the terrible hockey result.

Not quite, but almost. The Canucks are now down three games to one. I never would have thought that the Canucks would lose both of their home games. Where'd they go?

As the end of the tasting approached, Boo, Vixen and I filled our glasses with some more Pacific Breeze and went out on the balcony patio to actually sit a spell and enjoy some wine. Guru and Bride-y soon joined us for a quick chat, but the Guru grew a little restless as he had an empty glass.

Normally, at these tasting events, I don't get to add a bottle to The List since we don't actually drink a bottle but, lo and behold, The Guru ran off to the bar and brought back a bottle for all to enjoy. And, talk about coincidences, he even brought back a bottle of Orofino. In fact, the very bottle that I'd planned to open tonight at home had we been watching the game on our own couch. Hard to believe. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that Guru was actually reading this blog and knew that we were drinking Orofino throughout this series.

438. 2007 Orofino Beleza (Similkameen Valley)

The back label states that "Beleza" is Portugese for "beauty" and that the word is "used to describe a perfect moment or feeling." Certainly, the game gave us no perfect feelings that night (unless you were a Chicago fan at heart). Good thing the wine was much better.

Beleza is Orofino's new, signature entry in the BC Meritage stakes. Like many of its wines, this one is Merlot-based, with that varietal forming 70% of the blend. The balance features almost equal shares of Cab Sauv (14%) and Cab Franc (12%) and a smaller part (4%) of Petit Verdot. The 2007 is the first vintage that the winery has produced and, like most of their wines, it has garnered some good reviews from the wine scribes.

This is a wine that could easily be laid down for a couple of years to let it settle and integrate a bit. There's a lot going on in that bottle - with enough balance between the ample tannins and more subtle acidity to suggest that it should even be better down the road. Good thing we've got another couple bottles stowed away. We'll have to see if The Guru is available to help finish off a bottle down the road.

I can only imagine how good it could be with a bit more time and no crappy hockey game result to sour the mood.

Cinqo de Mayo and Sinking Canucks Chances

It was one of those two birds with one glass kind of nights. The Canucks were playing the Blackhawks in Game 3 - so, I'm pulling out another bottle of Orofino to keep in theme with one BC winery for each round of the playoffs. But, it's also Cinqo de Mayo; so, we invited Mr. D over and put Boo in charge of whipping up some fajitas.

Although the thought of icy margaritas and hockey has some appeal, I figured that it only made sense to open a bottle of Mexican wine since we don't see it very often and I'm more likely to be forgiving of a questionable bottle on a day that calls out for all things Mexican (even if it is more of an occasion in the US and Canada than in Mexico).

436. 2006 L.A. Cetto Chenin Blanc (Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California - Mexico)

Although I didn't buy this bottle at the recent Playhouse Festival, L.A. Cetto was one of the wineries pouring at the Festival Tasting Room. The Festival program states that it is "Mexico's largest wine producer and the largest winery in Latin America with a production of about one million cases annually."

I know next to nothing about Mexican wines and the rare occasions where I've run across them in the past certainly didn't leave me screaming for more. Like much of the rest of the world, however, great strides in quality have been made over the last decade. I've read that Baja California is Mexico's answer to the Napa Valley and Valle de Guadalupe is apparently the most important sub-region in the country. Baja's climate and soil have been called comparable to both Napa and to the Rhone Valley in France.

My initial thoughts about Mexico and winemaking would be that the climate is just too hot to allow for extended maturation of the grapes. There should be no problem with ripening the fruit but I'd wonder if the grapes could hang long enough and have any acidity whatsoever left to them. The valley apparently gets a cooling maritime breeze that assists in the grape growing though.

Whether it's the cooling breezes or not, we were pleasantly surprised by the Chenin Blanc. It offered up nice fruit and still had enough acidity to nicely match up with the spice and flavour of the chicken fajitas. I'm not familiar enough with Chenin Blanc to say whether this wine showed varietal characteristics but, I can say that, at $14, I could see myself buying it again - and not just for Cinqo de Mayo.

437. 2009 Orofino Riesling (Similkameen Valley)

As one might well expect, the Riesling had quite a different profile. The contrast of acidity and a touch of residual sugar was more sophisticated and didn't quite match up with the fajitas as well as the Chenin did. As a result, the Mexican wine may have seemed an easier quaff with dinner. However, that fact didn't detract from drinking the Orofino on its own. I found that the three of us finished off this bottle first - even if the L.A. Cetto seemed a bit more approachable at first sip.

Orofino is making a bit of a name for itself and its Riesling. The vineyard's Riesling vines are now approaching 20 years of age and were planted long before the Webers and Orofino set up shop. Their grapes are supplemented by a couple of neighbour's Riesling vines that are also grown near the town of Cawston in the Similkameen.

Two good additions to The List wasn't enough to lead the Canucks to a second win though. Not sure what team showed up but it wasn't the Canuck team that we've come to expect at home games. They were bad - much like what I'd recalled of Mexican wine in the past - and, the resulting loss was so evident that Mr. D. didn't even wait until the end of the game before he ventured home.

I suppose it's possible that he could have left because the wine bottles were empty as well. Seeing as it was a "school night," we weren't likely to open another bottle - even though it could have come in handy to drown our sorrows about the Canucks. Now down two games to one, hopefully, the Canucks can find their game so that we can keep on drinking some fine BC wines - or come up with another "holiday" to celebrate.

A New Game, A New Vintage

When I was pulling out and lining up some of the Orofino wines that I thought we might open during this playoff series, I don't imagine that I expected to open the two vintages of Merlot Cabernet right after each other, but such is the case. Game 1 was the 2005 and, here, Game 2 is the 2006.

435. 2006 Orofino Merlot Cabernet (Similkameen Valley)

Same wine. Different vintage. Same brilliant start to this game as in the first. Our boys were up 2-0 early on - the lead just didn't seem to hold up as long as the wine did.

There's not a lot that I'll add here to my post of two nights ago. It might have been a bit more interesting from a tasting standpoint to open the two vintages at the same time and try them side by side, but that begs a little more forethought and effort on my part (not to mention the self restraint needed not to finish off both bottles immediately) and, let's face it, right now, the hockey's almost as much in the forefront as the wines are.

The only big difference that I remember about this evening and the 2006 is that this wine went down a lot better than the game did. The other night saw both wine and game finish on a really tasty note, but, here, the Blackhawks came back to stomp the Canucks 5-2. The wine may have been just as nice as the 2005, but the game wasn't nearly as vintage.

I'm good with a split of the games in Chicago though. Bring the team home to Vancouver. I've got another couple of bottles ready.

A Retreat to Penfolds

434. 2008 Penfolds Rawson's Retreat Semillon/Chardonnay (South East Australia)

Whoa, after all the postings that have been related to the Playhouse Wine Festival, hockey playoffs and special events, it's going to seem tame to just have a basic weeknight wine to write about. Not to downplay Penfolds or anything, but this is simply a have-at-home-on-any-evening kind of wine. We just thought it'd go with a corn and crab chowder.

The Penfolds website even refers to this brand as being "affordable, everyday, easy-drinking wine and is a classic Australian marriage of fruit power and structure." I think the first part of the sentence is perhaps the more memorable aspect of the wine.

The Semillon plays almost a 2/3's role in the blend and the grapes are sourced from throughout the South East wine regions of the country - which pretty much encompasses every region in the country.

It's not likely to become a summer, go-to white around our house. But, then, it's a $12 bottle of wine; so, I don't think one's expectations should be a whole lot more than a nice sip - and it's all that.

Round 2 - Blackhawks Redux

Same Round 2. Same teams - Canucks and Blackhawks. Different year. The City of Vancouver may not be fully committed to the band wagon yet, but it's certainly looking for a bit of redemption after the Hawks took out our boys - somewhat unexpectedly - last year. Hopefully it'll be a different result this year.

And if Game 1 is any indication, there might be another BC winery or two that we get to sample during the playoffs.

But for this round, I've decided to drink along with Orofino. Still relatively new on the BC wine scene, Boo and I have enjoyed their wines pretty much since Day 1. We lucked onto a discovery of the winery early in the game plan as owner/winemaker, John Weber, came to speak to the BC Wine Appreciation Society during a tasting that featured the wines of the Similkameen Valley.

The winery and the Webers have some interesting stories to go with the wine - their straw bale winery not being the least - but it does come down to the wines and Orofino is playing a big part in putting the Similkameen on the wine map.

The one problem I might have with this round is that I don't have an unlimited choice of Orofino wines on hand, and I've already opened and blogged a number of the wines that I do have in our cellar (see The List wines #12, 64, 94, 175, 359 and 411).

433. 2005 Orofino Merlot Cabernet (Similkameen Valley)

Orofino's calling card for the red varietals may well be Merlot. It features largely in many of the winery's red wines.

And, in my book, this is a good thing. Many have pegged Merlot as perhaps being the one red noble varietal that is best suited for the Okanagan. Well, this is the neighbouring Similkameen Valley, but Orofino does it up very nicely as well.

This is a blend with Cab Sauv and I don't know the percentages but, true to expected form, the wine is big with ripe fruit, but is well-integrated and smooth. The bottle's label says that the wine is both "unfined and unfiltered" and this likely helps result in the overall presence of fruit and body.

The Canucks definitely had a bit of a grudge to make up for last year's loss in the playoffs to Chicago, but, if tonight's 5-1 game (for the good guys) is any indication of the series to come, Vancouver fans may need a little more room on the bandwagon - and I'm hopefully going to enjoy these Orofino wines even more.

Gewurz Across the Strait

Last Fall, I was saying how little I see or hear of Vancouver Island wineries. I know they're out there and I've even tried a few of them, but not nearly to the extent that I know and enjoy wines from the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. Lately, however, I seem to be continually running across Averill Creek - one of the newer wineries in Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley.I saw that the BC Wine Appreciation Society recently held an Averill Creek tasting. We weren't able to make it that evening though.

I then ran across them at the Playhouse Wine Festival last weekend as they were one of only fifteen BC wineries that were invited to participate this year. I just saw an article about them in the local EAT magazine. And, finally, to top it off, we were just given this bottle.

Someone must be trying to tell me something. Best get this bottle added to The List, I figure.

432. 2009 Averill Creek Gewurztraminer (Vancouver Island)

It's interesting that we're trying a Gewurz since almost every reference to them that I see involves a story about how owner, Andy Johnston, started the winery to try and achieve his dream "to make the quintessential Canadian Pinot Noir" - to the extent that he chose the Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island location because he thought the climate as better suited to growing the "heartbreak grape" than the hotter Okanagan would be. Part of his reasoning was that Cowichan is found at the same latitude as Dijon and the Burgundy region in France - home to arguably the world's greatest Pinot Noirs.

But all the Pinot talk will have to be a story for another occasion.

Like all of Averill Creek's wines, all the grapes for the Gewurztraminer were estate grown - which is good news for Vancouver Island (where a number of wineries will "import" grapes from the Okanagan). I'm not generally the first to reach for this varietal but I thought this bottle was fine - neither overly floral, nor off-dry.

This may be my first entry involving Averill Creek, but I dare say it won't be my last.

Finca Flichman

Goodness, it seems a bit out of sorts, posting an entry that doesn't have anything to do with wine festivals or hockey. Just a plain old bottle of wine at home.

I think I like it. Bit easier. In any event...

431. 2006 Finca Flichman Oak Aged Malbec (Mendoza - Argentina)

Despite the proximity of the timing, this bottle actually wasn't a holdover from Argentina being the theme region at the recent Playhouse Wine Festival. It was simply a bottle that was easy to grab from the wine rack and it fit the need.

I've added a Finca Flichman Malbec to The List previously but it was a different vintage and "brand." As previously mentioned in the blog, Finca Flichman is one of the oldest and biggest brands in Argentina and they have worked on modernizing winery facilities and improving their quality in the last decade. They have a number of labels now and the winery proudly pointed out that it's been winning international awards with some of its higher end wines.

This label - despite the "Oak Aged" moniker - is still one of the winery's entry level wines. It's made to offer up fruit and approachability at a good price ($11 in BC) and to be drunk early in its life. The fact that this was a 2006 vintage is a bit surprising, but the wine didn't suffer.

Fairly popular in Vancouver, it'll see its fair share of BBQ's this summer.

Canucks Knock Out the Kings

Seeing as how I was at the Playhouse Wine Festival instead of sitting back with a bottle of La Frenz for Game 5 last Friday, I decided to try and make up for it with a double header of wine Sunday night. The fact that the Canucks were up two games to one and could close out the series left me thinking that I should bring out the big reds. The hope was that a bit of punch and body to the wine would provide that little extra to put away the Kings.

Looks like it worked. (Were it only that easy.)

429. 2004 La Frenz Reserve (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

430. 2005 La Frenz Reserve (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

Reserve is La Frenz's entry into the Bordeaux styled blends. The free thinker that he is, Jeff Martin doesn't cater to the marketing that is the "Meritage" name, but he delivers all the same.

I didn't see breakdowns of the varietals, but the labels say that Martin's Bordeaux blend is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, with Merlot being the second most prominent component. It was interesting to try the two vintages side by side. I don't know that I would have recalled much of a difference had we tried them on separate occasions. While the overall profile was very similar, I think there was a touch more fruit on the nose and the palate with the 2005.

And, being the fruit-driven kind of guy that I am, I suppose it makes sense that I took a bit bigger pour of the '05 with the second glass.

Don't take me too literally on a more prominent fruit though. Neither of the bottles struck me as big, new world, fruit bomb kind of wines. They were more of smooth Sedin kind of pass than a big Alexander Edler hit (that'll test your hockey trivia).

The end result, however, was that the Canucks indeed won the game and the series. The series of La Frenz wines carried the day in their winning ways and Boo and I clearly won in that we had the chance to drink six of Jeff Martin's wines over the course of a week and a half. Seems to me that the only losers were the L.A. Kings.

Bring on the second round! Now to pick the series winery.

Volcanic B-day

Following another round of tasting at the Playhouse Festival, what I really need to do is go home for a good sleep. But it is Friday night, the Canucks won big and the Cockney Queen is hosting a bit of an impromptu party. Turns out that one of her good friends was visiting from England and has been stranded because of the volcanic ash being spewed in Iceland.

Tomorrow night was to be one of those landmark birthday parties for her back in London. The Cockney Queen's place isn't all that far from the Trade and Convention Centre, so I ventured off for a quick chorus of "Happy Birthday."

Unlike at the Festival, people at the party weren't spitting. Whoa. After two days of spending more time over a bucket than I ever did even during my university drinking days, this comes across as a novel - and welcome - idea.

I could see that a great number of bottles had already sacrificed their contents to the Icelandic volcano in the hope of getting the birthday girl home soon.

Another welcome side effect is that I get to add a bottle to The List. It seemed such a shame to not add any bottles after all the sipping at the Festival, but here's a legitimate bottle that I actually helped offer up to the volcano gods.

428. 2009 Crossroads Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough - New Zealand)

It's almost like I was back at the Festival - a New Zealand wine that I've never seen before. And, bonus, I hadn't made it to the Crossroads table yet.

Although this wine is from the Marlborough region on the South Island, the boutique winery was started and is based in Hawkes Bay on the North Island. According to its website, the winery principals were so fascinated with the success of Marlborough Sauv Blanc that they figured they should buy up some land down there and get in on the show.

With a typical New Zealand profile, the wine was an easy way to finish off the evening.

So there you have it, Kiwi wine, British birthday girl, hockey-mad Canadians and the logistical sensibilities to realize that you can't really even have a birthday if you're stranded on foreign shores because of volcanic eruptions. The conclusion - the volcano gods will have to wait another year before we can sacrifice this poor girl to the big four-oh.