A Last Sip

Surprisingly, I wasn't able to find out a whole lot of information about this latest bottle. The magic "Google" didn't generate a whole lot of links to anything useful. I would have thought this bottle and the marketing efforts would result in a whole lot more being written about it. Guess not.

I'll just have to go with what little I could gather. Hopefully, some of it is still current and correct. On the more positive side, this will be a quicker post to write - especially seeing as this is likely our last bottle before we leave for Oz.

1100. 2008 St. Hubertus Fire Man's Red (VQA Okanagan Valley)

I'm pretty sure I've written a bit on St. Hubertus previously in the blog - both because of the big fire that devastated the winery close to a decade ago and the fact that they won a Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Wine Excellence last year - but it's the 2003 Okanagan forest fire that is the primary focal point in this post. It's hard to believe that it's already been nine years since the forest fire was front and centre on everyone's mind for much of the summer. It's even more difficult to comprehend that St. Hubertus was the only BC winery that was pretty much wiped out by the flames.

Despite the devastation that befell St. Hubertus that summer, there were some good news stories that surfaced as well. The Gebert family was quick to thank their neighbours and fellow winemakers for all the support and assistance that was given after the fire. It was great to hear of all the goodwill in the valley. Similarly, I loved the story of how St. Hubertus immediately set out to produce both a white and a red to honour all the firefighters and foresters that helped save as much of the winery and vineyard as they did. If memory serves, $2 from every bottle sold was donated to local fire fighting services - and this from a winery that was almost completely wiped out.

I haven't heard much more about the fundraising aspect of Fire Man's Red but the winery is obviously still producing it - since a 2008 vintage was made long after that 2003 fire. I didn't see any additional information on the bottle but I believe the 2008 was a Gamay Noir wine.

Unfortunately, we didn't like the wine as much as we like the background story. Not knowing that it was a Gamay when I opened the wine, I wasn't really expecting the lightness and thin body. There's lots about Gamay that I do like, but this one just didn't seem to capture what the varietal has to offer.

Hopefully, I'll come back from Australia all rested, excited and happy and I'll run right on back to St. Hubertus and love the next wine we try. Until then...