Boo's Big Day

Now that I'm well into the final 100 wines on this Odyssey, I'm particularly thrilled when I get to work in special events with special wines and the best of drinking buddies. That's exactly what this blog was meant to focus on.

Boo was running up against one of those landmark birthdays. So, I organized a BBQ with some of our nearest and dearest. It also provided the "perfect" opportunity to pull the cork on possibly our most unique bottle of all to be added to The List.

Seeing as how it was Boo's b-day, there was plenty of pulled pork, chili and red wine. There were certainly more than three empty bottles at the end of night but these were the three that I played a part in finishing.

1937.  2012 Synchromesh Pinot Noir Rosé - Palo Solara Vineyard (Okanagan Valley)

Memphis Blues (our favourite local BBQ haunt) has long convinced me that Rosé wine pairs perfectly with smoked meat. It only made sense then to grab a bottle from one of our favourite new producers in the Okanagan. Alan Dickinson's wines from Synchromesh are, shall we say, difficult to obtain because he only makes limited, single vineyard bottlings. Things might get a tad easier for Boo and I to get our hands on their wines though since we joined the Synchromesh wine club. With so many wonderful BC wines being made nowadays, we have to be careful not to over-extend our excitement and join too many of the clubs that are popping up to tempt one and all. Synchromesh is one that I've obviously succumbed to.

It's easy to say that I've simply fallen for Alan's emphasis on Riesling but there's definitely more to it than that. This Pinot Noir Rosé is an example. The Palo Solara Vineyard is located in East Kelowna and its north-west facing slopes results in a high retention of acidity, a critical component when using the traditional saignée method of bleeding the juice for the Rosé off the pressed fruit for the primary Pinot Noir wine. The saignée method not only results in a bolder base wine but can create a vibrant Rosé to boot. Win. Win. Just like we did on this summer afternoon.

1938.  2008 Sacred Hill Deerstalkers Syrah (Hawkes Bay - New Zealand)

I have to admit that, when it comes to New Zealand wines, my initial thoughts generally gravitate to their whites - the famous Sauv Blancs and, more and more, the Pinot Gris and Rieslings. I don't usually think red unless it's Pinot Noir - and particularly Central Otago Pinots. Thing is, I can't afford many of the latter wines. It was, therefore, a different treat when Shelback and Chewbacca brought along a Kiwi Syrah. It's almost an inevitability that Boo and I quaff BC wines with these two ladies since they're two of our closest confidantes from the BC Wine Appreciation Society. It almost seems like we're cheating on BCWAS when we drink wines from other regions.

Being the equal opportunity drinkers we are, however, pulling the cork on a bottle from Gimblett Gravels - one of most valued sub-regions in New Zealand - definitely falls within the definition of birthday treat. I don't think Sacred Hill is a regular find in the Vancouver market although I know they've participated in the Vancouver International Wine Festival on at least a couple of occasions. Far from the big, juicy Shiraz wines made across the Tasman Sea in Oz, this was a more elegant approach that I think I would have enjoyed more at a formal sit down dinner as opposed to only grabbing a casual sip every now and then while wandering around and through birthday guests and duties.

Gotta love friends that bring sweet bottles like this to your party though.

1939.  2008 Red Rooster Meritage - 3L (Okanagan Valley VQA)

This Red Rooster is one of those bottles that you have to wait for the right moment to open. I wanted to make sure I added it to The List and I figured this was as perfect an opportunity as I was likely to come across. Firstly, because we needed a few friends to join in with us. I don't even want to consider the possibility of Boo and I finishing off a 3-litre bottle on our own (especially in one sitting). And, secondly, since this was a full circle kind of opportunity. I'd arranged a consignment for the bottle for Boo's last landmark birthday. I figured it made good sense to enjoy it five years on.

During one of our Adopt-A-Row visits with the good folks at Red Rooster winery, I noticed a couple of hand-painted artist bottles. I obtained the name of the artist and enquired whether she'd create a bottle "all about Boo." I sent her some favourite photos and memories of my man and she created an homage to travelling (& kissing camels), Star Trek, ferrets and Pride.

The next step was to ask Red Rooster winemaker, Karen Gillis to fill the one-of-a-kind bottle. I gave her carte blanche to choose whatever she thought was tasting good in the cellar at the time - simply advising her that Boo has a penchant for big reds. She picked her 2008 Meritage - which just happened to win a Lt. Governor's Wine Award the next year in 2011. If you simply must have a double magnum sitting around in your cellar, it might as well be filled with one of that winery - and region's - more celebrated wines.

I hadn't actually looked at the bottle in awhile and we had a bit of a scare when I pulled it out of the winery box. There'd been some leakage from the cork - not a lot but enough to lead us to immediate fears of oxidation. Having tried this vintage previously, I'd expected a little more boldness to the fruit but, thankfully, the wine showed no other signs of spoilage.

For some reason, there was no problem polishing off even that big of a bottle. Must be something about Boo's friends.

I guess our next step will be to see if Karen will give us a re-fill on the bottle - in the spirit of recycling and all that you know. I'm pretty sure that we won't be pulling the cork on any refill prior to hitting my 2001st bottle on this Odyssey though, but I'll have to see what, if anything, this blog has morphed into by that time. Time - and birthdays - will only tell.

In the meantime, I think there are still a few more bottles, if not birthdays, in the immediate future and I'd best get to them.

Red Rooster Chardonnay

One of the bigger issues I face when picking a wine for dinner is "Have we already opened a bottle of that vintage and I have I added it to The List?" I have to be particularly wary of wineries - like Red Rooster - that play are predominant role in our cellar. Having been involved for many a year with Red Rooster's Adopt-A-Row program, Boo and I have quite the array of their wines.

I'm guessing that, when I've polished off the 2001st wine in this Odyssey, I'll find that there are going to be more Red Rooster wines on The List than wines from any other winery. As such, I was glad to find that tonight's bottle hasn't already been added to The List. There's an '04, an '09 and a '10 Chardonnay but this 2011 vintage hasn't shown up yet.

1932.  2011 Red Rooster Chardonnay (Okanagan Valley VQA)

For me, one of the hallmarks of Karen Gillis, Red Rooster's winemaker's, Chardonnay is that she doesn't overplay the oak card. While there's been some oak ageing evident, it stays in background leaving the fruit to shine - this is a good thing in my books.

That being said, however, this wasn't a favourite of mine when it comes to Karen's wines. I found it to be lacking in acidity and the fruit wasn't as noticeable as I remember from past vintages. It didn't strike me as being on the same par as the 2009 when that wine was named one of the Top 10 Chardonnays in the 2011 Chardonnay-du-Monde competition - out of over 900 entries that year.

Just goes to show you that the circumstances surrounding the terroir, the vintage, the winemaking and even the circumstance surrounding your tasting of a particular bottle play such a big role in how enjoyable an individual wine can be.

Despite this bottle's underwhelming cachet, I know there'll be plenty more Red Rooster bottles being poured in our household in the years to come. I'm going to be glad, though, that I won't have to be concerned about whether I've already polished off any certain vintage. I'm rather looking forward to that aspect of drinking whatever I fancy - regardless of its presence on The List.

Pruning Our Little Ones

It's pruning time for us Red Rooster Adopt-A-Row types. Boo and I have been part of this early-adopter version of a wine club for Okanagan wineries. As more and more wineries started to appear on the BC wine scene, there weren't many ways for customers to enjoy an "intimate" connection with the wineries. Red Rooster introduced the Adopt-A-Row program where "parents" do exactly that - they "adopt" a row of the Malbec vines that are planted right outside the Red Rooster winery. There may be a number of unique opportunities nowadays but I think Red Rooster might have been the very first to try something like this.

It's not like the program gives you any control over the management of the vines or in the making of the wine, but you can find your name on a row, you receive wine (naturally) and the winery throws two parties each year for the parents: a harvest party in the Fall and a pruning party, like the one at hand, in the Spring.

Boo and I haven't been able to make the last couple of celebratory weekends. So, I was happy to see that I could make the drive to the Naramata Bench this time around - sans Boo, unfortunately - but at least our vines got a little lovin' from one of their adopted daddies.

The weekend kicked into gear with a winery reception on the Friday night and, this year, they hosted a parlour game where they served up eight wines blind - a pair each of four varietal wines - where one wine was made by Karen Gillis and the Red Rooster team and the other was an international wine from a region well-versed in the particular grape variety. There were also four cheeses paired to the varietal wines. It was our job to identify the grapes AND which of the two was the Red Rooster wine and to name the type of cheese (from a list of four choices).

There were some clues to the grape varieties. So, I'll admit that I found naming the varietal wines - Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir - to be easy enough. Picking which one was the Red Rooster wine was a bit tougher but I figure I've quaffed enough Red Rooster over the years that I had a pretty good handle on Karen's stylistic traits. Picking the cheeses was a crap shoot.

The good news was that I was the grand prize winner and, furthermore, they announced that, for the first time when they've played this game, the winner had gotten all of the answers correct. Humble, as always, I had to admit that the cheeses were pure guesses for the most part. It was nice to know that it can pay off to drink all that wine that I have over the years.

Being solo Friday night, I was able to make an early evening of it and was even able to get up the next morning with enough time to complete a short run to fit in some training for the Half Corked Half Marathon. The race takes place through the vineyards of the Oliver-Osooyoos area and was coming up at the end of May. The region might be a half-hour down Highway 97, but it's the closest I'd be able to train on the race course.

After the run, it was time to get those pruning juices flowing. The first time we attended a pruning party, the winery actually trusted us to decide where to make the initial cut on the vines. I think they must have learned that might not have been the smartest move for the ensured longevity of the vines. Nowadays, the vineyard staff have pre-cut the vines and we parents are tasked more with clearing out the cut vines. There was plenty of cutting and carting to be accomplished though as you can see by the pile of cut vines.

Karen and vineyard manager, Rolf, also talk some about how the winery operates and why certain steps are taken. I found it interesting that, this year, the cuttings were all going to be burned - as opposed to being mulched for compost - because they felt that there were some traces of a black mould that had appeared on some vines that had been damaged by a particularly cold winter spell the previous season. They wanted to ensure that the mould wasn't introduced to any future compost.

After our efforts in the vineyard, everyone is treated to a lunch and wine tasting in the winery. A pretty good payoff for maybe an hour's work in the vineyard.

It's become a bit of tradition that the Adopt-A-Row weekend is ended with a winery dinner for those who can attend. Luckily for me, Bella Gianna was able to play "plus-one" for me in Boo's absence. She drove down from Lake Country and we had a grand afternoon touring the Naramata Bench before we headed off to the dinner.

1880.  2012 Red Rooster Reserve Malbec (VQA Okanagan Valley)

As with most wine dinners, there was a wide selection of wines served. However, since our Adopt-A-Row vines are all Malbec, it seems like a good idea to add the newest vintage to be released to The List.  With only 194 cases having been made, the Malbec is rather rare and is initially released only to Adopt-A-Row members. There isn't a lot of the wine made because Malbec isn't one of the more common grapes grown for varietal wines in the Okanagan. Rather, it is generally grown as a component of BC Bordeaux or Meritage blends.

Being a blending component was the intent for Red Rooster's Malbec vines as well; however, back in 2006, the winery team decided that the Malbec fruit and resulting wine was good enough to bottle as a varietal wine even if it might limit the Meritage production a bit. The winery has released a varietal Malbec ever since.

Bella Gianna and I were particularly blessed in our table mates that night in that winery manager (and all-around good guy and goof), Blair Dufty, joined us and, to top that off, winemaker, Karen, joined us for the main course since there was an empty seat at our table. Both Blair and Karen are always good for particularly insightful stories about the Red Rooster in particular - and the BC wine industry, as a whole, in general. Information doesn't come much more directly than that.

By the look of the count on with this bottle, this may well be the last Adopt-A-Row visit that I'll make before I hit bottle number 2001 on this little Odyssey. I'm pretty sure that it won't be the last Red Rooster wine to make The List, but I'll just have to see how I continue with the blog once that landmark goal is reached. Something tells me this won't be the last Adopt-A-Row venture that I'll write about.

Until then, it's back to The List at hand.

Adopt-A-Row Preview

It's time to head up to the Okanagan and to the Spring Pruning Party as part of Red Rooster's Adopt-A-Row program. Boo and I haven't been able to make many of the semi-annual Adopt-A-Row events lately. Isn't it just a pain how often work and/or life can get in the way of having fun? Indeed, Boo isn't able to attend this time around either as he has to work through the whole weekend.

Poor boy. I figured we should open a little Red Rooster so that he wouldn't feel that he was completely missing out on the weekend.

1879.  2012 Red Rooster Viognier (Okanagan Valley VQA)

Knowing that we tend to grab some of winemaker, Karen Gillis', Viognier every year, I had to check back to make sure that I haven't already added this Red Rooster vintage to The List already. There have been 2009, 2010 and 2011 bottles already poured on this little Odyssey, but we haven't made it to the 2012 thus far. So, here we go.

2011 wasn't the best of vintages in the Okanagan for reds but there were still some tasty whites to be found and Red Rooster's Viognier proved to be a popular gem for the winery. It pulled in a Gold medal at the 2012 All Canadian Wine Championships. Tough act to follow - or so you'd think. Turns out that Karen and gang did just that. The 2012 vintage was one of only twelve wines to win a 2013 Lt. Governor's Award for Excellence in Wine.

In what has become a bit of calling card for Karen's Viognier, I found that the aromatics didn't overwhelm. There was plenty of body to the wine - as well as acidity - but I guess it just goes to show how little I know about tasting. While the Lt. Gov's tasting panel found the wine to be an award winning varietal wine, I would have been hard-pressed to identify it as Viognier if I'd tasted it blind.

The wine paired nicely with our spicy chicken and rice noodles though. Plus, it let Boo have a little Red Rooster of his own since he wouldn't be able to head up to the winery for the weekend's activities. I figure a little award-worthy Viognier is better than nothing.

Reaching Back in the Red Rooster Syrah Bank

Boo and I would normally have headed up to the Okanagan for this weekend. Red Rooster winery had scheduled its annual Harvest Party for the winery's Adopt-A-Row "parents" - a title that Boo and I have happily claimed for a good many years now. It's a great little weekend. I thoroughly enjoy picking the vintage's grapes (even if we're only "farm boys" for a couple of hours at most) and there never seem to be enough grapes to satiate the gathered pickers.

Unfortunately, we'd already made plans to attend another annual mainstay in our calendar before the winery weekend was announced. 

As we were destined to be naughty, absentee parents this year, I thought we could at least open a bottle of Red Rooster wine in an effort to pay homage to the adopted babies we so callously abandoned.

1453.  2005 Red Rooster Syrah (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Having added probably as many - if not more - Red Rooster wines to The List than any other single winery, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I've probably written more about Red Rooster than I have of any other winery as well. If you haven't been reading the blog all along and want to take a refresher course in the Red Rooster winery, I'd highly recommend that you just click onto the post I wrote about them in preparing to attend the 2013 Wine Bloggers' Conference this past June. If I say so myself, I think it covers a few bases.

I will say that, before opening the bottle, I wondered a bit about the staying power of the wine. Red Rooster hasn't necessarily been known for the biggest of red wines and eight years can be seen as pushing the envelope on BC reds. Our wineries haven't been making quality wines but two decades and most juries are still out when it comes to making a decision on the ageability of our wines.

Luckily, our bottle still had some life to it. The colour was still a deep purple but the wine was taking on a bit of brackish tone. The nose, however, was beautiful - with a big ripe blackberry note just exploding from the glass.

The taste wasn't quite so fruity or expressive. There was still plenty of acidity - and maybe that overwhelmed the remaining fruit a bit - but the brightness of the acid subsided some the longer the bottle was open and the dark fruit shone through a bit more.

All in all, we were quite happy with the bottle. As the majority of Red Rooster wines are made with purchased fruit, the provenance of the wine is not always apparent. I did find some winery tasting notes that stated that these Syrah grapes were sourced from a single vineyard that only brought in six tons of Syrah - enough to produce a whopping 350 cases.

I'm thinking this might have been one of the last remaining bottles. Too bad. I wouldn't say no to  another pour or two.

2013 BCWAS Bus Tour Begins

One of the perks of sharing a suite for the Annual BCWAS Bus Tour with Shelback and Chewbacca is that they coordinate breakfast so that we're well prepped to take in a day of wine tasting. Having Chef Boy KC in the suite with us made things even easier this year. He was so omnipresent in the kitchen that all I had to do was worry about OJ and coffee. A task that is not beyond me - even early in the morning.

Chef KC's treats were offered to Dolce & Gabbana (otherwise known as Gloushan - in honour of the great couple names like Brangelina or Klaine), Mr. Technicolour, Haley and Cockney Queen. With Mr. T. joining us, the "Sabering of the Breakfast Bubble" became a must event for all future Bus Tours - even if some attempts to sabre were less successful than others.

1421.  2006 Blue Mountain Blanc de Blancs (Okanagan Valley)

As far as starts to the morning go, this special vintage Blue Mountain brut is hard to match. I can't speak for the others, but there was NO OJ being mixed with this baby in my glass. Made in the Méthode Traditionelle, this 100% Chardonnay brut was aged sur-lie for five years before being disgorged, finished off with dosage and aged for an additional nine months before release. This was anything but an easy bottle to find; so, it was a very generous bubble to be shared with our  assembled gang - especially before 8.00 a.m.

1422.  2008 Steller's Jay Brut (VQA Okanagan Valley)

It's a whole lot easier to find a bottle of the Sumac Ridge stalwart but Steller's Jay is a treat in itself. Sabering a bottle of Jay seems entirely appropriate to the Bus Tour as well - seeing as how Sumac Ridge is on tomorrow's itinerary. I also recall that my first attempt at sabering some bubbly was a bottle of Steller's Jay while on the BCWAS Bus Tour two years ago.

The Steller's Jay is also made in the traditional Champenoise method; however, Sumac Ridge adds a component of Pinot Blanc to the classic Champagne grapes - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Serving up both of these lauded BC bubbles was just the kick we needed to get us started for our first day on the bus. A true breakfast of champions, I'd say.

Our first stop with the entire BCWAS gang was Upper Bench Estate Winery - the new-ish winery found at the start of the Naramata Bench. 2013 will be only the third vintage for Upper Bench and winemaker/proprietor, Gavin Miller. Gavin and his wife, cheesemaker Shana, purchased the winery from part of the Lang/Holman bankruptcy a few years back. Accordingly, they are still working primarily with the grapes planted by the previous owners. Gavin is working on revamping the vineyard and is transitioning to organic farming.

They currently offer four whites, three reds and a rosé and our tasting was a first introduction to the winery for most of the folks on the bus. The accompanying cheese tasting was equally eye-opening to the crowd. I'd dropped in on Upper Bench during a previous visit to the Naramata Bench because I'd heard that Shana used to be the assistant cheesemaker at Poplar Grove. That asterisk on her resumé and the fact that Gavin had previously been part of the winemaking team at Painted Rock made them folks to be contended with in my book.

If part of the reason for the Bus Tour is to introduce our members to new facets of the BC wine scene. I think a check mark was earned with Upper Bench.

My fave of the tasting was the 2012 Chardonnay and, yes, despite the No Buy Leash, I did pick up a bottle of that Chardy to add to The List in due course (as well as two of Shana's tasty cheeses).

Our next stop was just up the road at Poplar Grove. I doubt anyone on the Bus Tour was unfamiliar with Poplar Grove - long a star producer in the Okanagan. This was the first time, however, that I'd been on a tour of their facilities and a first chance for an extensive tasting in the winery's new showcase, reserve tasting room. The unveiling of the general tasting room a couple of seasons back was incredible enough, but there's just a touch more cachet to a private group tasting being led by Poplar Grove's founding winemaker Ian Sutherland. He was particularly engrossing when talking about the process behind the design and construction of the new showcase winery. Ian talked of his years of travelling the world - something that allowed him to, fortuitously, co-opt some of the best ideas he'd encountered in wineries visited along the way.

The wines are always impressive at Poplar Grove but, during our tour, I admit I was immediately drawn to Maxine, a 40 foot tank used to blend the red wines. The tank is so big that it holds the contents of four smaller tanks and thereby allows all of the finished wine to be the same blend - instead of a "mostly the same" blend. The shipping behind this baby was a story in itself.

Picking a favourite wine at Poplar Grove is like choosing a favourite child. I will say, however, that I was particularly taken with the 2012 Viognier during our tasting. That might well be because it's a limited production wine that is generally only available to Poplar Grove's wine club members. Lucky them.

And, lucky us, not only because we got to try the Viognier but because lunch had been arranged at the winery's on-site restaurant, Vanilla Pod. Sitting out on the patio - with a commanding view of Penticton and Okanagan Lake, we had a superb lunch. I'm hard pressed to come up with a memory of ever having tasted a better tomato salad. Each of the myriad of heirloom tomatoes was better tasting than the last and combination of those tomatoes, high end olive oil and balsamic and a delectable fresh burrata was sublime. They could have served me another three of those salads and I'd have been good for the rest of the day.

There was more food - and wine - to come though; so we moved on to our next stop on the tour - Township 7.

Brad Cooper, winemaker at Township 7 - and all-around funny guy - arranged for all of us bus folk to get involved in an inter-active blending exercise. Soon, Brad was going to need to start work on the winery's flagship blend, their Reserve 7. He thought it would be an interesting exercise for us to break into groups - and work with the same component wines that he'd have to work with - to come up with our own blend. He led us through a tasting of each of the separately aged wines and spoke of what he saw as their most compelling traits. We then tried a team approach at creating a wine worthy of impressing Brad and the buying public.

Working with Dolce & Gabbana and R-Ball, I'm sure there was little doubt that our take on the classic Bordeaux blend was the "winning" blend. I will say that, in all honesty, even Brad said that he was impressed with our finished wine. Now, he might have said that to everyone, but we gave him our systematic breakdown all the same so that he could re-produce it for the winery. We agreed that no credit or consultancy fee would be necessary, but that we'd be more than happy to take a case of the finished product.

There were additional wines to try in the tasting room but, after a couple, I opted to take a glass of red and plop down in the sun (and shade) for a bit - because, of course, blending and tasting a winning wine is hard work.

Our last stop on the Tour for Day One was Red Rooster. Anyone familiar with this blog knows that Boo and I are very well-acquainted with the gang at Red Rooster since we've been long time participants in the winery's Adopt-A-Row program. The winery was in full motion during our visit. Not only was winemaker, Karen Gillis, off-site tending to early harvest concerns but General Manager Blair Dufty was busy tending to all the parents and kids that had shown up for the local Fire Department interaction and appreciation day.

I'll admit that I missed a bit of the very extensive tasting of the winery's portfolio. I knew I'd tried most of the wines already (and probably had most of them at home in our "cellar") but I wanted to check out how our Adopt-A-Row babies were doing and, naturally, to chat up a fireman or two. Our Malbec grapes were coming along nicely and so were the firemen and their hoses. Being the intimate that I was with Red Rooster, I was even made a Junior Fire Chief.

Try and top that one.

I will give Mr. Technicolour his due though when he cracked up the gang by announcing that "the big difference between Bob and Charles' row and all the others is that their Malbec is much fruitier."

And on that happy note, we all got back on the bus and headed home for a brief respite before dinner.

Dinner was at the resort's Local Lounge and Grill and they didn't hold back anything in an attempt to add a little wow factor. Dinner featured a combination of wines from Tom DiBello and Van Westen Vineyards. Tom's is a well known name among Okanagan winemakers as he steered the way for many years at CedarCreek. He left CedarCreek a few years back and now spends his time consulting and producing a very limited 300 cases of his own Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah. Originally basing his wine production at Okanagan Crush Pad, he has just relocated to Van Westen Vineyards.

1423.  2011 Van Westen Vineyards VD Pinot Noir (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

I don't generally add a bottle to The List from wine dinners but tonight's extravagance calls out for one. I think my favourite pairing of the evening (before everything just got to be a little bit too much for one sitting) was the VD Pinot Noir with the bison tartare. This has to be one of the most interesting choices in wine marketing that I've ever come across. For those not familiar with Van Westen Vineyards, all of their wines have proprietary names that start with the letter "V." This Pinot is a co-effort between Rob Van Westen and Tom and, wisely or not, they took the first letter from both of their names and came up with "VD" since the wine was being released on Valentine's Day.

I'm not so sure that everyone will want to offer up a glass of VD to their sweetie on Valentine's Day but I was okay with it tonight.

Plenty of food. Plenty of wine. And a bunch of plumbed tuckered BCWAS folks. If there was any effort in taking the party a little further into the night, it did so without me. I definitely needed a little beauty sleep before doing it all over again the following day.

Looking Ahead to WBC13 - A Visit to Red Rooster

With the Wine Bloggers Conference 2013 quickly approaching, I'm starting to see more and more posts and tweets relating to this June's extravaganza. For the first time, the North American version of WBC is going to cross the 49th Parallel and meet in Canada - in British Columbia and the Okanagan Valley none-the-less. Being a BC kind of a guy, I think it's safe to say that I've been rather intimate with my share of BC wines over the years. With that in mind and knowing that many of this year's participants will have never tried a BC wine before in their life, I thought I'd take a stab at a series of posts to highlight some of my favourite BC wineries.

The idea is to feature a different winery each week leading up to the start of the conference. If I'm reading the calendar correctly, that'll see ten terrific wineries featured before we all meet in Penticton. Keeping in the spirit of this blog, I'll naturally have to drink a bottle from each of those wineries so that I can add the bottle to The List. Hopefully, I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. Lord knows I'm chronically behind with my writing. On the other hand, the drinking part won't be a problem.

Seeing as how Boo and I just spent this past weekend with a fine assortment of folks at Red Rooster winery, it only makes sense that this is the natural place to start.

Red Rooster is one of the 23 wineries (at last count) now found on the Naramata Bench just outside of Penticton - and there's no doubt that most of the bloggers attending WBC13 will find themselves on the Bench (if not at Red Rooster itself) at some point during their stay. The winery was established by Beat and Prudence Mahrer in 1997 at the far end of the Bench. That original location, however, had a maximum capacity of 10,000 cases and the Mahrer's found that they needed to reinvent themselves at what might have been the first showcase winery on Bench in 2004 - and its much increased 30,000 case capacity.

The winery has always had a tie to local art and some feature pieces are prominently displayed on the property and in the winery. The current location even features a gallery on its second floor. One of my favourite stories about Red Rooster, however, relates to Frank the Baggage Handler - the whimsical statue that greets guests just outside the tasting room.  Frank was initially commissioned as public art by the City of Penticton in 2004 but his installation - and the public display of his man parts - proved to be a tad outrageous for some of the city's residents. Although the city tried concealing Frank's privates at first, some self appointed art critics were sufficiently appalled that they performed a "Lorena Bobbitt" and vandalized poor old Frank's penis. Since it was evident that Frank's manlihood was still a bit much for some residents, Red Rooster adopted him - and all his glory - and moved him to the winery.

 

The best part of the story for me, though, was that, for their next vintage, the winery produced a special release "Cabernet Frank" and quickly sold out of all of the artist signed bottles. I've tried for years to find a bottle of Frank but, much to my dismay, there just don't seem to be any bottles still hanging around - and that's even with the winery's help in trying to find a bottle. Sadly, they no longer produce a varietal Cab Franc. I'm thinking the marketing tie-in is still ripe to be picked should they ever go the Cab Franc route again though.

Shortly after Frank was moved to Red Rooster, the Andrew Peller group purchased the winery in 2005. Accordingly, the winery benefits from shared experiences with stablemates Sandhill, Peller Estates and Calona in BC and with Trius, Wayne Gretzky and Thirty Bench in Ontario.

The next step in the winery's evolution was the appointment of Karen Gillis as its winemaker in 2007. Prior to Karen's arrival, the winery had seen a bit of revolving door when it came to winemakers. Karen has now finished her sixth vintage with Red Rooster and she seems to have become an anchoring influence at the winery. Born and raised in BC, Karen attended BCIT where she studied food technology. Those studies included a winemaking component and it didn't take too long for her to gravitate to the world of wine where she cut her winemaking teeth with Okanagan superstar, Howard Soon. She now oversees a varied production of wines that covers a full spectrum of Okanagan varieties and she's known for favouring a fruit forward style that is delivered at reasonable prices. It's also a style that is earning some hefty recognition and hardware I might add.

Karen is as down-to-earth and self-effacing as a person can be and she'll inevitably give credit to the growers and her team at the winery but it's easy to conclude that the lady has talent. I need only point you to some of the accolades she garnered in 2011. Her 2009 Chardonnay won Canada's only Gold Medal at the Chardonnay du Monde competition in France and, not only that, it was named one of the Top 10 wines in the competition (out of 914 entered). That award was followed shortly thereafter when her 2009 Pinot Noir was named Best of Varietal, Best of Class and Best New World Pinot Noir at Jerry Mead's New World International Wine Competition in the States. And the tributes kept coming. The 2008 Meritage was given a Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in BC Wine - one of only eleven wines to be named in 2011.

I think I've already added all three of those wines to The List. So, I figured we'd treat ourselves to yet another big winner from that year.

1274. 2009 Red Rooster Syrah (VQA Okanagan Valley)

The Syrah was named Red Wine of the Year at the 2011 Okanagan Fall Wine Festival and, in my humble opinion, it is drinking beautifully - think rich, black cherries and a bit of spice coming through. The wine was definitely New World in its approach but there's also no way you'd confuse it for a big Aussie Shiraz. Both Boo and I were very pleased to see that this wasn't our last bottle either.

Early on with the move to the new location, Red Rooster introduced what I feel is one of the smartest marketing moves I've seen in the BC wine industry. I've written a fair bit about the winery's unique Adopt-A-Row program through the years; so, I won't go into too much detail here (you only need to search the topic in the blog for more). However, the concept is that the rows of Malbec planted on the estate vineyard are adopted by wine lovers and the winery delivers an annual case of wine and throws a Spring Pruning weekend and a Fall Harvest party for any adoptive parents that can make it - in addition to other perks like early notice on wines and discounts at the winery. This past weekend, we attended the pruning party - during which we tasted our way through current releases, sampled the yet-to-be-released 2012 whites, enjoyed a lunch and Q&A session, feasted at a winemaker's dinner at one of Penticton's heralded restaurants and pruned the 50 or so vines that make up our row. I can attest that there was far more wining and dining than there was work. Boo and I had finished our row in less than 45 minutes and there wasn't enough work to do to keep us going any longer - much to our dismay actually.

Picking grapes in the Fall is even more fun.

Through the Adopt-A-Row events, I've come to know Karen and some of her team and I truly value all the time and patience everyone affords me. Karen took the time to answer a whack of questions that I'd thrown her way in preparation for this post. It was hardly a Proustian questionnaire but I definitely learned some hitherto unknown aspects of Karen's approach to wine. A few highlights of the repartée - for me anyhow - were:

A favourite aspect of the industry for her is that it's still a small community and that everyone knows each other. But, more than that, she loves the huge connection between all the different components of the agricultural business community - particularly the fact that the region's chefs are working hard to create "amazing wine and food pairings, all sourced locally." You only need look at Red Rooster's relationship with Bogner's Darin Paterson to see how intimately the winery tries to work hand in hand with the local food community.

When asked if there was a particular wine she makes that gives her slightly more of a thrill than the others, Karen advised that it was Red Rooster's Golden Egg - the Valley's only take (to my knowledge) on the classic Rhône or Aussie Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre blend. There is very little Grenache or Mourvèdre grown in the province; so, in order to get her hands on some, Karen has coaxed some of her regular growers to plant a row here or there. The vines are still young and have yet to reach their potential but Karen hopes to keep learning about the blend and seeing how those grapes and vines evolve in the vineyards. Aussie drinkers will be familiar with the GSM nickname, but Karen couldn't source enough "G" to go that route. Mourvèdre is the biggest component in her blend; she just didn't think the MSG name would go that well with the wine's label or with winery's marketing plan. Hence, Golden Egg name is here to stay.

Karen is also having fun playing around with the winery's new concrete egg fermenter. Red Rooster received their first egg from France in time for Karen to try it out on some of last Fall's vintage of Viognier and Pinot Gris. The new concrete fermenter provided her with yet another outlet to quench her thirst for knowledge and she's looking forward to seeing what influences the egg might have on different wines down the road.

And, speaking of "thirst," Karen confessed to a favourite tipple of sherries and ports during the colder months of the Okanagan calendar. A lover of winter comfort foods, she advised that a full, nutty and well developed sherry queues up nicely as a "comfort wine."

Being the gentleman that I am, I'm never going to ask a woman her age, but Karen's considerably younger than me. As such, I was surprised to hear her say that she's sees "young superstar" winemakers as being a big trend in BC wine - and she wasn't counting herself in that group of "youngsters." She's already finding a next generation of winemakers coming through the ranks and she's impressed with their desire to try new approaches - whether those approaches be experimental or a throwback to more traditional methods.

It was Karen, herself, who was recently being heralded as a young gun. When someone like Karen is already looking to a new generation, I guess it just goes to show how quickly the BC winemaking scene is growing and changing. I have to think that Karen and Red Rooster are laying a good foundation for the years to come though.

As mentioned, Red Rooster produces a fairly wide range of both varietal and blended wines. Personal favourites over the years have been Bantam (the easy drinking white blend), the Reserve Merlot, the Riesling, Rosé and Reserve Gewürztraminer. The best way to find a favourite of your own is to visit the well appointed tasting room and take in the view and the breadth of Karen and the winery's hard work.

If you're visiting the Okanagan for WBC13, be sure to take in the Naramata Bench. I don't think you'll regret the excursion or making Red Rooster one of your stops en route.

Bogner's Dinner

Our final stop on the Red Rooster Adopt-A-Row weekend calendar was the Winemaker's Dinner being held at Bogner's, one of Penticton's grand dames for dining.

The Winemaker's Dinner has become a bit of a tradition at these Adopt-A-Row events and they're always bang on.  Tonight's dinner was based on a family-style Italian supper - that is, if your family happened to one of the top restaurants in town.  Mr. D. and I joined up with a pair of couples that we hadn't previously met - and they turned out be great dinner partners, both interesting and fun to be with.  I'm sure all the camaraderie wasn't hurt by the fact that there were another five wines paired with dinner.   It's not as if we hadn't had much opportunity to taste any wine throughout the day - but what's a winemaker's dinner without an abundance of wine?

A particularly enjoyable aspect of the evening is that we had visits to our table by Red Rooster winemaker, Karen Gillis, winery manager, Blair Dufty, and Bogner's Chef, Darin Paterson.  One-on-one opportunities like that are rare in my books and they always take an event to a whole different level - particularly when each one of them is so down-to-earth and approachable.

There was no fear of a shortage of wine at the table.  And it didn't hurt that a couple of my faves - like the Riesling and the Cab/Merlot - were included in the dinner.  I know fully well that our table finished off more than a single bottle of wine.  It was more like a bottle per person, but I'm only adding one to The List at this time.  If truth be told, the reason is that I have the other bottles in a case coming home with me and they'll get added to The List at another time.  I wasn't so lucky as to pick up the following bottle though.  It was sold out at the winery and our little dinner crowd was being treated to the last bottles around - ones that were saved specifically for this dinner.

1272.  2010 Red Rooster Reserve Malbec (VQA Okanagan Valley)

I'm glad that we got to enjoy the Malbec because there were only 191 cases made and I was too slow off the mark to buy any of the 2010 vintage.  The production is so limited because the vines were originally planted simply so that the winery would have some regular access to Malbec fruit for blending into the winery's Meritage blends.  The 2006 vintage proved so tasty that it was bottled as a varietal wine and never saw its way into the Meritage blend.  The winery has made a varietal wine ever since.

Not to be confused with the Malbecs of Mendoza and Argentine fame.  Red Rooster's 2010 Malbec still features plenty of fruit but it's a lighter fruit as opposed to a dark and brooding one.  You're not going to need to worry about tannins taking over your mouth either.  It matched up nicely to the ragu, potato gnocchi and lemon chicken piccata but our table didn't have any problem drinking it all on its own either.  Luckily, one of our new table mates had little shame about finding us an unfinished bottle on one of the other tables as well.  So, it safe to say that we had our share of the fruits of our adoptive parent labours.

This was the first time that I'd learned as much as I had about Chef Darin Paterson.  He came over and chatted with us once the dinner service was completed.  Interesting guy.  His resumé includes stints of working for Saudi Arabia's royal family for four years and feeding Nobel Prize recipients in Sweden while he operated a catering service in Stockholm.

Although Bogner's has been a constant in Penticton for many a year, Darin bought the restaurant in 2006 when he wanted to return to Canada from cooking abroad.  One of his trademarks is taking the sourcing of local foods to a new level.  He actually has a two acre property nearby where he grows tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, potatoes, herbs and more.  More than just paying lip service to the whole local food scene, Bogner's is actually self-sufficient with the provision of vegetables for the better part of the year.

Darin's credentials as a chef are indisputable as well.  In the upcoming weeks, he'll participate in the BC playdowns for the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships - putting up his dishes with some of the biggest culinary names in the province.  When asked, he admitted that he was still working on the dish that he'd be serving up.  I'll look forward to seeing what he ultimately decides and see how he fares in the competition.

As filling as the meal had been, there was no way I was passing on dessert and the Italian Zeppole Doughnuts with chocolate dipping sauce.  I don't think I've ever had a dessert like that before.  I'll be watching for it on menus in the future though.  I suppose that, if leaving the restaurant completely stuffed is a testament to the chef's prowess in the kitchen, Darin should fare nicely at the upcoming Gold Medal Plates competition.   Mr. D. and I left the restaurant as sated as one could hope.

And our waddling departure brought this Adopt-A-Row weekend to an end.  All except for the drive home in the morning.  There was one heckuva storm outside and both Mr. D. and I were fervently hoping that the storm wasn't dumping snow all over the mountain passes.  We knew that we'd find out soon enough.  By then, we'd pretty much determined that the weekend's events were definitely worth the drive and the effort though.

Red Rooster's Annual Adopt-A-Row Harvest

It's time for my annual chance to play the teensiest role in the annual fall harvest.  The Red Rooster Adopt-A-Row Harvest Party is nigh and by most accounts, the 2012 vintage is going to be an all around great year for Okanagan wines.  Despite a particularly wet spring and a slow start to the summer, a favourable growing season eventually kicked in - and stayed.  Harvest reports have been good - one after another - and harvest has been under way for over a month.

With that in mind, when the dates for the Harvest Party were announced for the last weekend of October, I wondered whether there were actually going to be any grapes left to pick.  Lord knows, the grapes don't wait around for pre-arranged weekends to ripen.  They're ready when they're ready and you have to jump to it.

Luckily the grapes cooperated.  They were both ripe and waiting for us.

The weather, on the other hand, wasn't quite as favourable.  The last of all that glorious Fall sunshine had finally decided to give up the ghost.  Indian Summer had turned rather wet - even in the normally dry Okanagan - and snow was starting to hit lower elevations.  I was more than a little concerned about the drive up to the Okanagan, particularly since there'd been reports of snow in the mountain passes.  Being a boy from the Coast, my snow-driving experience has been limited in recent years - especially when my little sports car doesn't even have winter tires.  Boo was going to have to work through the weekend and wasn't able to come with, but we switched cars and put on his snow tires.  That'd help but, as fortune would have it, the roads stayed clear.  Some fog here, a bit of snow on the side there, but all thing considered, it was just another day on the highway.

Boo and I have been adoptive parents under the Adopt-A-Row program for some years now and I really look forward to the annual Spring Pruning and Fall Harvest Parties.  As such, I've written about the program on other occasions in this blog.  While each event is a little different in scope, they're also somewhat similar; so, I'll try not to repeat myself too much.

The primary concept is that interested wine lovers can "adopt" a row of Malbec vines in the vineyard adjacent to the winery tasting room.  In addition to an identifying plaque on your row, "adoptive parents" get a case of wine and other winery perks.  For me, the aforementioned Pruning and Harvest parties are the highlights.  During the Fall weekend, we parents get a first hand opportunity to pick grapes and learn about the process that follows.

Since Boo had to work during the weekend, Mr. D. took his place as my Plus-One and we managed to make it up to Penticton and the Naramata Bench just in time to take part in the winery's Friday night meet'n'greet.  Nibblies and a wide array of Red Rooster wines made for quite the tasty start to the weekend, but we knew that duty called in the morning.  So, we were good boys and made an early evening of it.

Everyone at the winery was hoping that the forecasted rain would hold off until we'd had time to pick all the grapes.  Let's just say that I was glad I'd brought along an extra layer of clothes, a hoody and a baseball cap.  The vineyard manager was quick to admit that they wouldn't normally pick the grapes in wet conditions like this, but they proceeded all the same as they didn't want to deprive us parents or our picking experience.

Lucky for us, our group actually got to harvest the Adopt-A-Row Malbec vines.  That's not always a given because of scheduling around those variable ripening dates.  I found Boo's and my row and Mr. D. and I set off to play farmboy.  Our row seemed particularly fecund to me this year.  If memory serves, the Malbec vines were planted almost 10 years ago and are old enough now that they're really starting to come into their own.  Picking the row still took no more than an hour.  Despite the poor start with the weather, it did stop raining and I'd have happily continued on.  There was some consolation in that warm coffee and copious wine awaited us inside the winery.

We had a little time to kill as we waited for another group of parents to return from picking a vineyard up the road.  So, with glass in hand, Mr. D. and I wandered around back to the crush pad and watched as some of the cellarhands tended to the tasks at hand.  The winery might be hosting 100 some odd "parents" but the crush had been going on through the night (and weeks beforehand) and there was plenty to do to get ready for the Malbec crush to come.

After a warming lunch of Mulligatawny soup, any interested parents were invited to see what happened to the grapes that had just been picked.  It's not that often that regular consumers get the chance to watch a crush under way - let alone actually draw the grapes out of the bin and into the crusher-destemmer.  I think many of the attendees were surprised that the first stage of the crush left so much of the grape in tact.  

We learned that the year's harvest had been so large and consistent for the last so many weeks that the winery had run out of fermentation tanks.  Despite having brought in some more tanks as last minute additions, they were still having to temporarily fill plastic bins with the crushed juice until they could clear out some of the tanks that were currently in use.  I hadn't seen that process previously and that provided for an incredibly up close and personal view of what the crushed juice looked like.  It also begged the ever-so-practical question, "So, what does the juice taste like at this stage - exactly?" A quick fill from the makeshift tank was a welcome introduction to just what our adoptive rows lead to.

And, I can confirm that it was eminently tasty.  The sweetness of the grape juice belies its eventually dry finish.  It will no doubt be a couple of years until we can taste the finished product.  By then, I rather hope to have reached bottle number 2001 on The List.  But, if I haven't, adding the 2012 Red Rooster Malbec seems like a no brainer.

As for us adoptive parents, our work day was done.  I dare say we only scratched the surface of all the work and dedication that goes into making a bottle of wine, but it was sure fun.  Now, we just had to kill a couple of hours (with some wine shopping - much to Boo's dismay) and put in our final effort of the weekend - a winemaker's dinner.

Yes, life can be tough.

Red Rooster Re-Visited

Needing to unearth all our hidden Halloween decorations, a little Fall cleaning was required over the weekend.  Lo and behold, in addition to the cobwebs, chandeliers and skulls, I found a cache of older BC wines that I'd managed to bury over the years.  Sometimes my ability to put things away gets the best of me and I forget that I've even put the item away in the first place.

When talking wine, finding that forgotten case or bottle can be a welcome occasion.  Nowadays, most wines are fashioned to be ready to drink as soon the consumer buys them, but a bit of ageing can still add some favourable rounding out of the wine.  BC's wine industry is still far too young for the jury to have made a decision on the overall ability of the region's wines to age.  There are definitely BC wines being made today that require some age, but I'm not so sure that the region's red wines, in general, are up to it - particularly with the more entry level bottles.

Guess we were going to get a bit of test with tonight's bottle.  It was part of the "lost" cache and it seemed a natural choice to open because I was going to be heading up to the winery over the weekend for another "Adopt-A-Row" Parents' Weekend.

1271.  2004 Red Rooster Merlot (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Because of our participation in the Adopt-A-Row program, Boo and I have amassed more than a couple of Red Rooster wines over the years - and we've laid down a number of them to see how they develop.  I think it's safe to say  that I hadn't exactly intended to lay down their entry level Merlot for this long though.  This was going to be an interesting test.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was still a very full and enjoyable nose greeting us as we poured those first glasses.  As for the first couple sips, not so welcoming.   The lack of fruit or tannin had me thinking that the wine might be past prime by a long shot.  The wine was still viable; it was just rather flat with an over-abundance of acidity for my taste.

The hope was that food would help but, as it turned out, the food wasn't even necessary.  After about an hour, the pronounced nose had faded but the wine had mellowed out and tasted a lot more integrated.  For a Merlot, it was still lacking in BC's trademark abundance of fruit, but it had become totally quaffable on its own.  I doubt that this bottle would out-perform a newer vintage on a side-by-side tasting, but it was a treat to finish the bottle rather than pour it down the sink.

Maybe the wine's revitalization after a bit of time is simply keeping in theme with Halloween being just around the corner.  The threat of zombies coming back form the dead and all.  Luckily, in this case, that rebirth wasn't quite as scary.

Considering the array of finds - wine and otherwise - that I run across when cleaning, it might not be a bad idea to try the concept a little more often.  Maybe when I need to find the Christmas decorations.  You never know.

Absentee Parents

Having sipped back on a trio of Red Rooster wines this weekend, I'm hoping our babies up in the Red Rooster vineyard weren't feeling neglected or abandoned. The winery scheduled the annual spring pruning party for all the Adopt-A-Row parents for this weekend but Boo and I just weren't able to fit the trip up to the Naramata Bench into our schedules this time around. The Adopt-A-Row weekends are always a great time but, what with our trip Down Under quickly approaching - and Boo having to work this weekend anyhow - as much fun as the weekend would have been, the thought of all the "lost" hours away from tasks at home just seemed a bit daunting.

In lieu of visiting the winery in person, we decided to open a different bottle of Red Rooster for each of the days that we would have been communing with the vines.

1088. 2010 Red Rooster Riesling (VQA Okanagan Valley)

I'm currently seeing lots of variety when it comes to Okanagan Rieslings. The varietal is open to a full range of production styles and local wineries seem to be covering the spectrum. Red Rooster's winemaker, Karen Gillis, is always happy to serve up her Riesling and she knows that I'm particularly drawn to this grape. This current vintage is perhaps styled a bit more along the lines of the Aussie versions I anticipate we'll run into in Oz. There's all sorts of acidity and puckery lemonade tartness - which I find can lead to wines that are a tad austere for my tastes - but I liked the fact that there was still enough of that Okanagan tree fruit coming through to balance out the acidity. Me likey - particularly with a seafood pasta.

2009 Red Rooster Rosé (VQA Okanagan Valley)

I always have to be careful when looking to add a Red Rooster bottle to The List. Being members of the Adopt-A-Row, we tend to drink our fair share of Red Rooster and it's pretty easy to find that I've already added a particular vintage to The List - as is the case with this '09 Rosé. Having been added all the back at #655, it would have been easy to miss that entry on this easy sipper. We're seeing more and more Rosé coming out of the Okanagan and Karen's is a nice example of this fruit forward and food friendly sip.

1089. 2008 Red Rooster Reserve Malbec (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Seeing as how as our adopted row is full of Malbec vines, it only seemed natural to open a bottle, knowing that some of the fruit going into this wine came from Boo's and my row. If I'm not mistaken, there are only two acres of Malbec planted at Red Rooster. It was originally planted with the idea of using the fruit in a Meritage blend but the fruit proved to be good enough to be vinified on its own. A small lot production has been the result ever since the 2006 vintage. As Adopt-A-Row members, we get first crack at the wines - and we regularly take advantage of that opportunity. It's a far cry from owning a winery but it's a nice way of getting a more comprehensive feel for the activities of a winery that go on behind the scenes and the tasting room.

I think the whole Adopt-A-Row program is a great little marketing effort on Red Rooster's part and I'm sorry that we had to miss this weekend's affairs. Luckily we were able to toast our row in absentia. Hopefully, we'll be able to make the harvest party come the Fall. I'm already looking forward to it.

Award Winning Neighbours

In the cause of brevity and catching up, I'm going to add the next two wines to The List on the same post. They might not have been opened on the same night but they are neighbours on the Naramata Bench and both appear regularly in this blog.

1043. 2005 La Frenz Merlot (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

La Frenz is definitely one of our favourite "Go To" wineries. Consistent quality is a hallmark for La Frenz, but that being said, I think we might have been better off had we "gone to" this bottle a little while ago. Boo's tightening of the "No Buy Leash" is going to see our opening more bottles like this - ones that have seen a bit of ageing - and maybe that's a good thing. As much as I enjoy La Frenz on the whole, I think the integration of fruit, acidity and structure that we're used to with their wines had passed us by with this bottle.

On the other hand, our slight disappointment in the wine might just show how little Boo and I know when it comes to fine wine. The 2005 Merlot won Gold at the All Canadian Wine Championships and won "Best Wine of Show" and "Best Red Wine" at the 2007 Northwest Wine Summit. Awards don't get much bigger than that for BC wines.

What the heck do I know anyhow? Guess it's a good thing that we have one more bottle to give it another go.

1044. 2010 Red Rooster Pinot Blanc (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Red Rooster's home estate vineyard and winery is located less than a mile down the road from La Frenz and, as often noted in this blog, winemaker, Karen Gillis, and team have been raising the bar year after year of late. Karen's had a banner year of awards herself in 2011. Her Chardonnay was named one of the top five in the world at the Chardonnay du Monde competition in France; the Pinot Noir won Best New World Pinot in California; her Syrah was named Best Red at the 2011 BC Wine Awards and a recent Meritage won one of eleven Lieutenant Governor's Wine Awards given last summer.

The Pinot Blanc hasn't garnered huge press and hardware yet; but, boy, were Boo and I ever pleasantly surprised when we opened this bottle! As participants in the Adopt-A-Row program, we receive a mixed case of wine every year and this year's case recently arrived. (Thankfully, it doesn't contravene the No Buy Leash.) We simply grabbed the Pinot Blanc as an easy weeknight wine. I could easily have opened a second bottle right then and there.

Most folks go right past Pinot Blanc on the wine shelves. It generally doesn't tend to stir much in the way of flavourful emotions. This bottle proves that such a statement doesn't have to be the case. I know that Barbara Philip, Canada's first female Master of Wine, feels that Pinot Blanc could be the best choice of a varietal for the Okanagan Valley to adopt as a signature grape and help the region make a splash on the world wine scene - much along the lines that Sauvignon Blanc became synonymous with New Zealand.

This is a prime example of a wine that can turn heads. It did just that for us. With its partial exposure to a bit of French oak and 6 months of ageing on its lees, the wine was rich and complex in a way that I don't usually associate with Pinot Blanc. There was plenty of Okanagan tree fruit front and centre and a real nice, but bracing, acidity and citrus note on the finish.

A $17 price tag isn't going to hurt at all either.

I'm going to look forward to another bottle of this one.