Five Golden Rings

For our Fifth wine of Christmas, my true love drank with me,

Five Golden Rings.

Mind you, those "golden rings" naturally relate to the Olympic rings. Seeing as how we're through and through Vancouverites, the upcoming Winter Olympics are pretty much front and centre nowadays. This wine seemed like a natural fit for our Twelve Wines of Christmas.

288. 2006 Jackson-Triggs Esprit Merlot (VQA Okanagan)

Jackson-Triggs' parent company, Vincor, is a branding partner with and an "official supplier" to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee. The Esprit line of wines is co-branded with the Games and features the Vancouver logo on every bottle.

Given the reasonable price tag of $11, I thought the wine was quite drinkable - simple, but not unpleasant - in an introductory taste sort of way. If this is the first red wine you ever drink, you won't be scared off by it.

Even more surprising for that $11 is the fact that $1.25 of every bottle goes to support the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic teams and the wines are VQA (or 100% BC grapes). The wines have been around for about a year and a half now and I understand that the wines haven't been VQA from the start. A better than average harvest in 2007 apparently allowed the winery to find enough grapes to carry them for the time being as a VQA product.

I've always been a sucker for the Olympics and I'm very much looking forward to their arrival in the city (despite all the naysayers). I don't regret adding this bottle to The List in the least.

Go Canada Go!