Game 3 - California Dreaming

One thing I always figure I can count on is a good bottle of La Frenz Shiraz. Wish I could say the same for a Canucks game. The wine hit the spot. Our team did not. It wasn't like the Canucks stunk the joint out (although I think we can officially say that the street is wondering where Luongo's mojo and the Canuck's penalty killing have gone), but they lost it and now they're down two games to one and they have a bit more work to do to win this series.

426. 2006 La Frenz Shiraz (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

At least the wine again helped sooth some frayed nerves. Maybe La Frenz and Shiraz go hand in hand, not only because owner and winemaker, Jeff Martin, is a transplanted Aussie, but because he also cut his chops working with McWilliams, one of the best known houses Down Under. If you're ever going to get some exposure to the Shiraz varietal, Oz has got to be one of the best places to do so.

Too bad, but I don't think Martin plays hockey.

I'm just one of many that's glad he's seen fit to stay with us Canucks for all the time that he has - having set roots in the Okanagan in 1994. There's no doubt that, in what still might be termed a fledgling BC wine industry, his experience counts - much like it does in the playoffs. In fact, Martin realized during this 2006 bottling that - counting his stints in both hemispheres - he was completing his 36th vintage.

VanCity had hoped for a better start to this California jaunt, but conspiracy theories aside, perhaps we should just see about sending some La Frenz wines to NHL headquarters and buy off the scoundrels that judged Daniel Sedin's goal to have been "kicked" in. Give me another glass of wine, puh-leeze!