An Evening With La Frenz and Friends

Friday night, Boo and I went to the annual BC Wine Appreciation Society's dinner event and this year, a single winery was featured at the dinner.  We were very glad to hear that the winery chosen to participate was La Frenz.  As mentioned only a few postings ago, La Frenz is one of our favourite wineries in the province.

As we were drinking a flight of six wines with the various courses, there is no one bottle that we get to add to The List.  As pointed out in that post, a number of these wines would have been added had the Canucks made the third round of the playoffs though.  All six will make The List in due course.  We have at least one bottle of each in our "cellar."  

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Jeff Martin, the proprietor and winemaker at La Frenz walk us through the wines he was serving - particularly when he came to chat at the individual tables.  He was perhaps a tad more forthcoming on the down and dirty about such topics as why he doesn't care about VQA designation, about the creation of the Naramata Bench Association and about the state of and future of the BC wine industry.  With 38 vintages to his name, in both the northern and southern hemispheres, he's got a great base to work from should he choose to mount the soapbox.

All the wines met with great approval at our table.  Some of the dishes created by the students at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts were more successful than others.  Despite an intriguing presentation on a small ice block, not many went for the buttermilk and avocado sorbet as the palate cleanser - although I finished mine off just fine.  Generally, I think the most successful pairing of the night was the Reserve Chardonnay with scallops served with a miso glaze and citrus marmalade.

Now, to get those La Frenz wines on The List.