Olympic Hangover

So, it's the Monday after the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games have ended. After all the years of waiting for the Games to arrive, it's going to be hard to believe that we may never see another event like this come to Vancouver - at least not in the rest of my life time. I experienced the summer of a lifetime when Expo86 thrilled the city, but we had the whole summer to experience the times and try to fit everything in. These Games were only 17 days and they really did play a huge part in my daily routine. Lord knows it's been a task to try and find any time for blogging.

The media spent a good part of today attempting to encapsulate the highs (of which there were many) and the lows. It seems that the common denominator among all the commentators was that there was a sense of Canadian pride that previously seemed untapped. Everywhere you turned, someone was sporting a Canada t-shirt, hat, scarf or the ubiquitous red mittens. It amazes me that there were over 3 million pairs of the mittens sold and that you can't find a pair to buy in any store in the city. Craziness - of the best sort.

I know that I barely scratched the surface of everything the city had to offer - and I was truly trying. There's definitely going to be some withdrawal symptoms, but I think Vancouver and Canada can hold its collective head high.

I definitely had some fun trying to come up with wines to enjoy in keeping with my theme of drinking a bottle from a country that had won a gold medal the previous day. There were a couple challenges - particularly given the fact that a lot of the countries that excel at winter sports don't necessarily have the best climates for winemaking.

There were 19 countries that won gold medals here and we managed to drink wines from 8 of them - Canada, United States, Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, China and Korea. The 11 countries that I couldn't find wines for aren't really all that surprising. Somehow, I just don't see a huge local market for any of them - Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Slovakia and Great Britain. I know that they all probably have wine industries, but their collective athletic prowess is more noticeable here than their vinicultural successes.

I did have wines in the wings from Croatia and Japan, but neither of them could muster more than a silver. I'll add those wines to The List down the road since I already have them.

As a last nod to Vancouver's Games, I think it's fitting that I open a final bottle from Canada and celebrate the record 14 gold medals that Canadians won. Indeed, I'll make it a wine from one of the official wineries of the Games. The fact that this winery has been named Canadian Winery of the Year no less than 18 times in various Canadian and international wine competitions justifiably gives it some gold medal stature of its own.

387. 2003 Jackson-Triggs - SunRock Vineyard Merlot (VQA Okanagan Valley)

The 2003 vintage saw the introduction of Jackson-Trigg's new single vineyard collection. The winery felt that the fruit coming off this vineyard, located on sun-drenched slopes above Osoyoos, was worthy of a special designation bottling. Along with a few other varietals such as Shiraz, Cab Sauv and Chardonnay, limited amounts of wine from the SunRock Vineyard were released. There were only 250 cases of the Merlot.

I haven't actually been buying an awful lot of straight varietal Merlot from BC lately. That's rather interesting because I think the Okanagan can do a great job with Merlot. The SunRock displayed a great nose, complexity and structure, and I'd definitely be buying more BC Merlots if they were all as good as this one. I suppose that, at $30, it should be good though.

So, on a happy wine note, I'll reluctantly say goodbye to the Games. I may be alone in this sentiment, but I'm going to miss the excitement that was Vancouver 2010. My guess is that I'm not the only one though. I suppose, I'd best get back and dedicate a little more time to this Olympian task of my own though. Only another 1604 bottles to go as we go for our own gold.