Orofino On The Go

Unfortunately for me, it's my last day (and night) up here in the Kootenays. Everybody else gets to revel in Sparrowhawk's lushness, but I have to catch a plane in the morning and try to be back at my desk by noon. So, with the American relatives a-visitin', Boo and I figured that we needed to fix them up some BC salmon and pop open some of our favourite BC wine.

Since we had to drive through the Similkameen Valley to get to Mom Mary's, I rather insisted on stopping at Orofino to pick up a few bottles. As Boo is wont to predicting, when it comes to Orofino, a "few bottles" ended up being 16. Oh well. The best I could do to justify the purchase was that a) it was Orofino and we'd be laying down most of it and b) I couldn't very well go empty handed when it comes to dinner with the in-laws.

While enjoying appies al fresco on the porch, I didn't put any of the "juice" in the hummingbird feeder but I'm more-or-less certain that this little beauty knew we were enjoying the Orofino and wanted in on the action. Although we were sipping on the newest vintage of Riesling, our little friend must have known that Orofino Riesling's have won gold medals at Canadian wine championships for the last three years running.

I can't actually add the Riesling to The List because we've already opened a bottle as part of the Canucks' playoff series. Orofino was our BC winery of choice for the second round against Chicago and this vintage was opened as #438. We're definitely adding the next bottle to The List though.

495. 2007 Orofino Pinot Noir (Similkameen Valley)

Normally I wouldn't have opened the Pinot Noir only a couple of weeks after it had been released, but winemaker, John Weber, assured us that it was drinking fine already and that he definitely thought it would serve up nicely with the salmon. He hasn't steered us wrong yet; nor did he do so this time. I'm betting that they don't make Pinot like this in Florida or the Carolinas.

We'd actually hoped that Boo's brothers might be able to bring up a couple bottles of wine from the South. I figured that they'd make interesting additions to The List and the blog, but it wasn't to be this time around. BD said that he didn't think there were any Florida wines worth bringing - particularly on short notice. And HDR3 and kin were travelling with nothing but carry-on luggage. That didn't leave any option for packing liquid - even for such a noble cause.

The evening - and my visit - came to too quick of a conclusion, but it was a fine way to celebrate the birthdays and meet the rest of the in-laws. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to blog some wine from their homes before we hit the 2001st bottle here.