Tinhorn Creek Vertical

Hot on the heels of the Blue Mountain and Friends event, Boo and I joined up with the BC Wine Appreciation Society and their special Tinhorn Creek tasting. I think this is the first time that BCWAS has hosted such an ambitious vertical tasting. Sandra Oldfield and a few members of her team at Tinhorn Creek came down from their Golden Mile Road winery to walk us through a vertical tasting of every vintage of Cabernet Franc that they've produced since the initial bottling in 1996 - except for the 2008 and 2009 vintages which haven't been bottled yet.

Twelve wines is a fair bit to talk about but Sandra is an engaging speaker and can keep an audience captivated with interesting and witty stories - just ask her how she came to call the 1999 Cab Franc her "Jesus" wine. She's also a font of knowledge on Okanagan wine and what's happening up there.

Although Tinhorn made its early reputation with its Merlot, Sandra has been trying to sell Cab Franc as an exciting varietal - on its own - for BC for years now and she's admitted that she wondered if the wine drinking public would ever reach the same conclusion. She admitted that, throughout the years 1999 to 2005, they had monthly meetings where they battled with the logic of tearing out all their Cab Franc vines and replacing them with more popular varietals. Their persistence seems to have paid off now as the wine is proving to be a favourite at the winery's shop.

Although Cab Franc is one of the varietals that go into Bordeaux or Meritage wines, it is often cast as the poor cousin to the more robust Cab Sauv or approachable Merlot. When the Oldfields arrived in the Okanagan, just after finishing their respective Masters degrees at UC Davis, they bucked the prevailing trend of planting the most marketable vinifera vines and planted Cab Franc instead of Cab Sauv. The former ripens a bit earlier than the Cab Sauv and the Oldfieds were concerned that - even in the Southern Okanagan Valley - it can be touch and go whether the big reds will fully ripen.

There's still no guarantee that the Cab Franc will fully ripen. It is generally the last varietal picked at Tinhorn, but Sandra takes the position that the Franc is often the star in BC Meritage wines.

Sandra told us that this was the first time they'd ever done such an extensive Cab Franc varietal tasting and she was frank enough (pun intended) to say that some of the bottles were past their prime. She also provided us with a chart that compared certain aspects of the wine's production over the years. I found it interesting to see how harvest dates, tonnage per acre and bottles produced varied so much from year to year.

One thing that changed little over those twelve years though was the price. Sandra was proud to point out that - despite some of the perceptible increases in prices for BC wines lately - their Franc originally sold for $16.95 in 1996 and the 2007 vintage still sells for $17.99. An increase of $1.00 over twelve years. Talk about being consumer friendly.

I make no pretence to have a palate sophisticated enough to discern all the nuanced differences from year to year, but I do think that I would have appreciated the wines more than I did if we'd been drinking them along with dinner. I think Cab Franc, as a varietal wine, is more of a food wine than a cocktail sipper. On the whole, I enjoyed the latter vintages and, in the setting at hand, would probably reach first for the 2004. It seem a little more full bodied with discernable fruit.

Two nights of wine in a row where I haven't been able to add a bottle to The List. Can't say that evenings like this will get me to 2001 bottles any time soon; however, I think I can certainly forego a bottle or two for interesting tastings like this Tinhorn Creek and Blue Mountain's though.

Blue Mountain & Friends

Following a hiatus of a couple years, Boo and I were thrilled to be able to attend Blue Mountain and Friends - a fundraising event that, after two years, was back to celebrate Blue Mountain's current releases and to help raise over $13,000 for the BC Children's Hospital Foundation.

The evening sees the winery's ten wines each matched with a dish that one of Vancouver's top chefs has prepared to pair with "their" wine. Even though we thoroughly enjoyed both the variety of dishes and the wines, there are always standouts - and, for us, it probably came down to the "I Love Pig" Charcuterie presented by DB Bisto Moderne that was paired with the 2008 Gamay Noir, YEW Restaurant + Bar's Parmesan-truffle Crusted Rack of Lamb with the 2006 Striped Label Pinot Noir or the Seafood Salad served in a Scallop Shell that was served up by Provence Marinaside and matched with the Brut Gold Label.

If I were just picking the wines alone though, I think I'd have to reach first for the 2005 Brut Rose, the Striped Label Pinot or, surprisingly(?) the 2008 Pinot Blanc. Boo preferred the Alsatian Pinot Blanc from last night, but I really enjoyed the Blue Mountain.

We had more than a couple of laughs when we bumped into the CBC Radio One's effervescent Fred Lee who was in his full-on, irrepressible gad-fly about town mode. That boy is a party on his own and I can see why folks jostle to be his plus-one for the evening.

Considering how difficult it can be to see any of Blue Mountain's wines in local wine shops, it was a marvelous way to taste everything that the winery is serving up nowadays. Too bad we didn't actually get the chance to down a whole bottle. I would have dearly liked to add another bottle to The List, but it wasn't meant to happen tonight.

I was rather surprised to see that we hadn't taken many pictures that night and was even more surprised when I didn't see a single glass or bottle of wine in any of the shots.

You'll just have to believe me that there was plenty of wine flowing. You can also believe that I'll be talking more Blue Mountain down the road as well. I'm really going to have to put my mind to getting a bottle of that Brut Rose. Blue Mountain's wines, in general, can be hard enough to find, but the Rose has the smallest production of any of their wines. Makes me want it even more.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening. Hopefully, it will be back next year and we'll be able to make it. I might even try to figure out a way to justify adding a bottle to The List.

A Pinot Blanc Comparison

335. 2006 Hugel & Fils "Hugel" Pinot Blanc (Alsace AOC - France)

This post was meant to be one of those down & dirty, let's get it over and done with, speed entries. Problem is that Hugel & Fils have one of the most comprehensive winery websites that I've seen and there's plenty of interesting information that I could pass on. I'm still going to try and keep it short though because you can always go and visit the site if any of this piques your interest.

We don't drink a lot of Alsatian wines in our household even though we usually enjoy them. That could be because there aren't an awful lot of them sold in the provincial stores. That might be changing somewhat though as the region has seen big and steady changes to its winemaking throughout the 20th century. Thinking further about it, the most likely reason for that is that 80% of all wine produced in the Alsace is white and the traditional varietals grown there largely correspond to some of the best grapes to be found in our BC wines.

Indeed, I grabbed this bottle as a comparison to some of the BC Pinot Blancs that we've tried. I've mentioned previously that it's been argued, by as notable a source as Barb Phillips - BC own Wine Master, that Pinot Blanc could be the grape to put BC winemaking on the map from a global perspective. I won't go into that much more now, but Alsace is one of the few other global regions that produces Pinot Blanc on a large scale, varietal basis.

Pinot Blanc still isn't really seen as one of the star attractions on the white varietal scene. So,we often find BC Pinot Blanc wines blended with other varietals. An Alsatian Pinot Blanc is required by law, however, to be 100% straight varietal wine. That may be why this wine seemed to have a bit more acidity and a little less fruit than I often see with those BC wines. If the BC Pinot Blanc is blended, the additional grapes could flesh out the wine and make it seem a little fuller on the palate.

I digress.

The Hugel site calls this Pinot Blanc an "all purpose dry white wine" and it certainly worked for us. The Hugel brand is more of an entry level for the winery; but, entry level or not, the wine comes in at $20 and that's not exactly bargain pricing for Pinot Blanc in our market.

The wine is made exclusively from grapes that are purchased from long term, contract growers. While Hugel & Fils has their own vineyards, those grapes are used for the winery's higher end labels. The family has had a lot of time to make those contacts with growers and to hone their production as the family's wine roots in Alsace go back to 1639.

I also found it interesting that, as an indication of its prominence in the wine world, Hugel & Fils was elected to the "Primum Familiae Vini" - an association of top family owned wine companies in major world wine producing regions. The wineries forming the group are chosen by their peers and the membership is limited to no more than twelve wineries at any one time - and that's for the entire world. Pretty high praise.

My guess is that we'll see Hugel on The List again before we're done here.

Pacific Rim Curling Bonspiel

This is going to be one of those entries that has more to do with the event and the people than it will about the wine. But a bottle for The List is a bottle for The List.

I don't think too many folks associate curling with wine. Beer, yes - and lots of it. But it's not that often that I'd expect to sip on a Chardonnay after eight ends of rocks have been thrown. But this wasn't exactly an ordinary game.

Come to think of it, my guess is that a weekend of curling is hardly one of the initial associations one makes with a couple hundred gay men. Having signed up for a spare, "throw together" team in the annual Pac Rim Bonspiel, I was spending the pretty much the whole weekend at the curling rink and this boy no longer lives on beer alone.

Despite the fact that the new Olympic curling "stadium" is immediately next door to our old rink, I can't say that we were playing Games calibre curling. Our team ended up 1 and 2 over the weekend, but we weren't blown out in either of our two losses. Our post-game escapades were more medal-worthy however.

We played our first game on Friday night, so we didn't stick around for but one beer that evening. We were finished up by 7pm on Saturday though, so I picked up one of the bottles that were available at the bar and settled in to watch part of the next round of games.

333. 2008 Concha Y Toro Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot (Central Valley - Chile)

It won't come as any surprise that this is just a simple, easy drinking, entry level wine. Even with the club mark-up, it was still only $15. But, it certainly disappeared soon enough from the glass. And it helped set a receptive mood - at least on my part - for the evening's floor show.

The highlight of the evening's festivities saw three of bonspiel's teams nervous and surprised as they were "randomly" picked to participate - for the first time ever - in a little competition called "Drag in a Bag." Each team had to nominate one of their members to transform themselves into ravishing beauties, using the shopping bag of accoutrements that each team was lovingly presented by the one and only Bill Munroe.

Good thing each of the guys was a great sport because the laughs were full and plentiful - and not just because of the wine. What they didn't know as they got dolled up was that each contestant would also have to bring out her inner diva and channel Shania, Diana or Beyonce and perform a musical number that they randomly picked out of a hat.

All three of them could have full - and maybe even successful - drag queen careers ahead of them. Despite the fact that she might have needed a bit of a shave, the ravishing beauty in blue and her sassy rendition of Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) wowed everyone and was a clear favourite with the crowd. I didn't see her sporting her crown during Sunday's games though.

Full kudos to all three of our impromptu queens and to the organizers. There were many glasses raised to them and I'm sure they all needed more than one glass of wine after the performances.

334. 2008 Wild Horse Canyon Shiraz (Cellared in Canada)

Our team didn't quite make it to any of the finals, but I was still ready for another drink at the post-bonspiel banquet. Like last night at the curling club, tonight's wine was another entry level bottle but I did find out a few things that I didn't know about the wine behind the label. Artisan Wine produces the Wild Horse Canyon label (as well as the Rigamarole wines found earlier on The List) and it is an offshoot of Mission Hill.

They've found an interesting way to address the whole "cellared in Canada" issue - where the wines are assembled and cellared in Canada but the bulk of the grapes and wine can be sourced from any region in the world. Wild Horse has fashioned a "West Coast Appellation" that consists of grapes sourced from BC, Washington state and California. I couldn't find a breakdown of the percentages from each region, but my guess would be that this wine is primarily from California as BC and Washington Shiraz grapes tend to be on the expensive side and this wine is still sold in BC at $13. In fact, it is apparently the third best selling brand, in the $10-$13 category, in BC after Australia's Lindemans and that other little Aussie wine [yellow tail].

It might not have been as fruity as last night's impromptu drag show, but some might see that as a good thing. For $13, I can see some value there though. It won't be a regular purchase of mine but I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it either.

It had been a number of years since I'd participated in the bonspiel. Having had as much fun as I did, I'll hope to be able to fit it in next year as well. Maybe if we can manage a second win in 2011, we'll add even more bottles to The List in celebration. Bargain wine or not though, I think I'll do my best to avoid being volunteered for the 2nd annual Drag in a Bag pageant should they have it.

Curling Cocktails

Lately, it seems like we've been opening a number of bottles and adding them to The List thanks to invites to the Tyrant's. I'm sure that there must be incredible prestige (tee hee) when anyone finds themselves mentioned in this blog, but I don't think that Tyrant is making a conscious effort to score the biggest number of "Drinking Buddy" points. I'll have to do a tally of just who we sip wine with and see who our "luscious" (sic, and pun intended) friends are.

Far be it from me to turn down an invite for another evening of wine and friends - particularly when I've mentioned that Tyrant is the commensurate host. Tonight's soiree was being held in honour of some of Tyrant's friends who had flown in from Toronto for our club's big curling bonspiel on the weekend. Tyrant took advantage of the opportunity to also invite the team that he was going to play with and our regular team members.

The intent was to have a couple of glasses of wine and then maybe move on for dinner, but Tyrant had enough food to feed five or six teams, let alone our two and a half. We just nibbled and noshed our way until dinner was no longer necessary.

As always the wine was varied:

330. 2006 Grao Vasco Red (Dao DOC - Portugal)

Still red wines from Portugal aren't always that easy to find in Vancouver, although we're tending to see a larger choice of wines with each passing year. Unlike many of the wines showing up on our shelves that are higher end (and higher priced), this bottle is entry level priced at $10. I suppose that, with such a bargain price, it shouldn't be too surprising that this winery is operated as part of the Sogrape group which is the largest wine producer is Portugal.

The wine is a blend of the varietals most common to the Dao region. They might be common there but I dare say that few folks, in our neck of the woods, have heard of Jaen, Alfrocherio, Tinta Pinheira, Touriga Nacional or Tinta Roriz. The taste profile isn't your basic Merlot either. However, it is a decent way to introduce one's self to some different varietals and areas.

331. 2007 Ganton & Larson Prospect Winery Haynes Barn Merlot/Cabernet (VQA Okanagan Valley)

It was interesting that the boys from Ontario picked out this wine to bring to the table. Ganton & Larson Prospect is a fairly new label on the BC wine scene. People see it around but they don't seem to know much about it. Chances are, the story will become a bit more commonly known. G&L is actually a mid-range offshoot of Mission Hill. As I understand it, the flagship winery is going to limit its brand to its higher end wines - Oculus, Perpetua, Compendium and some of their select lot wines. G&L is one of the separate brands that is being positioned to take over from Mission Hill's Five Vineyards level.

Each of the G&L wines is named after a historical place, figure, animal or item from the Okanagan. Haynes Barn is a landmark building on a former homestead of a prominent landowner and cattle rancher in the Oliver area. Each label also features a piece of art, by a local artist, commemorating the label's namesake.

332. 2006 Bodegas La Milagrosa Milcampos Tempranillo (Ribera del Duero DO)

Tyrant proffered yet another reasonably priced Spanish wine that truly did deliver. I think this was my favourite wine of the evening and a full varietal Tempranillo isn't often the first bottle that I'd reach for.

The wine is produced in the Ribera del Duero region which is located on Spain's northern plateau. The primary red grape is the Tempranillo and the area is becoming more and more of a showcase area for Spanish wines - after Rioja and Priorat. It had plenty of body, fruit and, at $18, it was well worth the price.

There were more bottles opened during the course of the evening but I limited my partaking to these three. It was a work night after all and I didn't want to be at a disadvantage come our first game the next day. After all, I have a slight suspicion that the evening was a bit of a veiled attempt to try and sabotage the Toronto team by ensuring that they wouldn't be at their best. Ply 'em with wine and hope that a hangover inhibits their collective delivery of the rocks. I suppose anything goes with these East/West rivalries.

Wine Olympics (Guerilla, that is)

They might have been flying in the face of VANOC marketing guidelines, but Vancouver wine history was made the other night when four of the local wine societies got together to host the Vancouver Wine Olympics. Knowing how VANOC (the Olympic Organizing Committee) doesn't take so kindly to the unauthorized use of the "O" word, we all had to be sworn to secrecy and silence during the course of the evening. No one wanted to be shut down for guerilla marketing before we'd even had the chance to sample the wines.

I'm not exactly sure that the local populace has been ecstatic in its embrace of the Games. For the longest time, you'd be hard-pressed to think that the upcoming Winter Olympics were going to create any excitement in VanCity at all. However, that didn't stop the members of the BC, Australia, American and French wine societies from jumping at the chance to buy the less than 100 tickets available for this special tasting.

The concept was that each of the four societies would chose three red wines - all had to be currently available in town and had to cost less than $40. All wines would then be served up blind to a cross mixture of all four societies and ranked. The top three wines (and their respective society) - as chosen by the participants - would be awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

Each society was only allotted 22 tickets and all of them were sold out within a day. So no one group had an advantage in numbers and no one in attendance knew which wines were which when they were poured.

After some time for tasting and table discussion, everyone was asked to rank the 12 wines from 1 - 12 (or at least 1 - 10, with three 10's). It was very evident at our table that there were some wines that were clearly enjoyed and others that met with some rather nasty reactions.

I was actually surprised a bit by the fact that I wasn't more blown away by the wines in general. At $40 a bottle, I thought that each of the societies could have come up with some rockin' wines. There were definitely some that I thoroughly enjoyed, but some of them just didn't seem to live up to the occasion.

I do have to admit that, secretly, I was praying that the BC wines didn't finish dead last as a group.

Once the tasting was done and the scores were tallied, there was one big surprise (cum embarrassment?) when, in our own little "Bottleshock" moment, the "bottom" three wines were all presented by the French society. Either they chose wines that matched up much better with food or the wines being imported from France don't really match the Vancouver palate - particularly when you see that they presented a Bordeaux, a St. Chinian and a Rhone as their wines, which would normally right up my alley (or palate).

The top three wines were evenly split between the three remaining societies. Australia took the gold, the US (read California) took silver and the BC home team took bronze.

Those three wines were:

Gold - 2007 St. Halletts Blackwell Shiraz

Silver - 2006 Starmont Merryvale Napa Cabernet Suvignon

Bronze - 2007 Seven Stones Similkameen Meritage

We were told that the Blackwell was a clear winner - by 140 votes - while numbers two, three, four and five were only separated by 7 votes - pretty much a dead heat amongst 88+ voters.

For interest sake, I'll note that the Blackwell was my first choice but Boo's 7th. Whereas we both ranked the Starmont Merrydale as our second picks. Both of us also pegged the number 4 overall wine, the 2006 Thorn-Clarke Shotfire Ridge Shiraz (Australia) as our third fave.

Boo's overall fave didn't fare so well. He picked the 2007 Margaret River Ringbolt Cab Sauv whereas the group ranked it as ninth overall. He only ranked the Blackwell as his 7th pick.

All in all, I think it was a fun evening. I hope they try another tasting - maybe with white wines. The unfortunate part about it is that I don't get to add a bottle to The List since it was only a tasting. I know that I will be grabbing a couple of these bottles down the road.

Snow Day - Wine Blog Wednesday #65

The other week, while surfing the net for tasty bits of info for the blog, I ran across a reference to "Wine Blogging Wednesday" (or "WBW" for short). Now, I vaguely recall having seen such a reference once or twice previously but I never followed up on what it was all about. This time, I took a couple extra minutes to check out the concept.

Having been conceived over five years ago by a New York blogger, Lenn Thompson, as a monthly, virtual event, it's simple enough. As this month's host - Michelle of blog "My Wine Education" at www.wine-girl.net - has recapped, "people interested in wine, the world over, would coalesce each month around a single theme." Everyone submits their postings or e-mail comments to the coordinator, which are then coordinated and shared. This month is WBW#65 and it's hard to believe that it took me so long to discover it.

Michelle is starting off the new decade with the theme of "Snow Day!" Being a home grown Canuck in the True North Strong and Free, you'd think that this theme would be a natural, a no-brainer, a slam-dunk so to speak. Guess we'll see.

In a way, I hate to fall back on such a cultural cliche but, being Canadian, how can I not just go with the GREAT WHITE NORTH. I'm just going to put aside my curling broom for the moment (which I really do have) and sit myself down to ponder snow and wine.

Ironically, out here in Vancouver, the headlines for the past week have been the LACK of snow. Perhaps the "Great WET North" is the more appropriate moniker for our town nowadays. The big news has been whether organizers will be able to keep enough of the accumulated base on the local hills to successfully host the Winter Olympics next month. Other than for one or two days at Christmas, it's not too often that, as a city, we find ourselves collectively hoping for colder weather and for the white stuff to fall. Over the next couple of weeks though, there might be the odd snow dance being performed around here.

It's a good thing that we had a cold November and there was a good build up of a snow base in the mountains, because I was actually driving around this weekend past

with the top down on the car. Compare that to these shots of last year's winter when, at times, we had more snow than anyone could remember.

But, this is a wine blog - not a weather report - so let's get to it and add another bottle to The List (since that's what I do here) and do a little deconstruction of the phrase "Great White North."

339. 2005 Jackson-Triggs Grand Reserve Sparkling Riesling Icewine (VQA OkanaganValley)

There are a number of reasons I chose this wine - least of which is that it only seems fitting to feature a bottle of icewine for a wintery topic like snow.

To start, the "North" component of this posting is rather self-evident. How could I do anything but head North of the Canada/U.S. border and the 49th parallel? Done.

"Great" might be a little more subjective, but it certainly doesn't hurt that the production of icewine may still be seen as Canada's biggest strength on the international wine stage. I also figured that Jackson-Triggs would be an appropriate choice. While some might balk at describing J-T as a "Great" winery, it is certainly one of the few Canadian wineries to consistently garner attention both nationally and internationally. It has been named "Best Canadian winery" 19 times in competitions over the last nine years. The fact that Jackson-Triggs is a corporate sponsor of the upcoming Winter Olympics also seemed fitting.

To capture the essence of "White," I'm going with perhaps my favourite white varietal - Riesling. I've blogged previously about one of Vancouver's best known wine commentators, Mark Davidson, and paraphrased his well-worked statement that he tells his students: "By the end of this course, you will come to understand and appreciate Riesling. If you don't, you will not only fail this course - but in life as well."

There you have it, - Great - White - and, North - all encompassed in a single bottle (and a half-bottle at that). But what hopeful expectations for a bottle!

Icewine, in itself, is rare enough, but a sparkling icewine is that much rarer of a bird - much like a snowy day in L.A. or Sydney. I didn't see how much wine was produced with this vintage, but it isn't produced every year and there were only 101 cases of the most recent vintage in 2007.

In 2005, the grapes were harvested on December 7 while the temperature was a balmy -11 C degrees. That's 12 F degrees for the Americans amongst us. The grapes were then pressed immediately upon arrival at the winery to prevent any of the water in the grapes from thawing. Following an initial fermentation, the juice was re-inoculated with yeast for a secondary fermentation in a sealed, stainless cuvee-close.

To be honest though, I'm not so sure where the "sparkle" was in the icewine. If the bottle hadn't told us that this was a "sparkling" wine, I doubt that I would have noticed much of a difference from a more standard icewine. I will say that there was a very slight effervescence in the mouth-feel which might have lightened up the unctuousness I often find with an icewine, but there was certainly no mousse along the lines of a Champagne or even a Cava - which is more what I had hoped for.

I wouldn't exactly call the marketing a snow-job - the wine had a deep, golden hue and a rich, full body that screamed honey and ripe tree fruit and a finish that lasted forever. There was also just enough acidity to counterpoint the sweetness. It's just that, when I reach for sparkling, I'm big on bubbles going crazy in my mouth and that wasn't happening here - although I think the idea of it still intrigues me.

All the same, the wine was hardly out of place with the creme brulee we matched it to and I can just imagine tasting it along with some foie gras. When it comes in at $60 a half-bottle, however, this is definitely a special occasion wine - at least for this household. Then again, what could be more special than a very first posting for Wine Blogging Wednesday? I'm thinking I'll have a few most WBW postings under my belt though before we head back to the sparkling icewine though.

Osborne Solaz

This is one of those wines that we knew nothing about when we ordered it at a restaurant. We were grabbing a quick bite to eat with Mr. D. before hitting a movie and the wine was reasonably priced and sounded interesting. I'm not familiar with this sort of a blend. I don't if it's becoming more common or has been so all along.

We never expected it to be out of this world - after all, under $30 in a Vancouver restaurant doesn't get you too much. It turns out, however, that it's a nice little burger wine, but, more than that, there was a whole lot of interesting story behind the winery.

328. 2006 Osborne Solaz Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon (Tierra de Castilla - Spain)

In this case, it's not the wine that offers up the story but, rather, it's the history behind the winery, the label and its marketing history. Grupo Osborne has been producing wines in Spain for over 200 years and is best known for its sherries and brandy. But the real story, for me, was the tale of the Osborne bull.

The company started placing the bull on their labels in 1956 and, as part of their marketing plan, they placed large "bullboards" along the Spanish roadways. The first bull was erected in 1957 and there were over 500 in place by 1964. The bulls eventually evolved into metal structures, 40 feet in height, and it almost became a local right of passage for the young to climb a bull, while others decorated the bulls or painted them.

In 1988, however, the Spanish government passed a law to forbid advertising that was visible from the public highways. As decrees to remove the bullboards were being made and enforced, a movement that crossed all aspects of the cultural spectrum started to try and "Save the Bull."

By this time, the bull had become almost synonymous with Spain. Spanish flags emblazoned with the bull are stalwarts at football (soccer) games, t-shirts are found everywhere, as are stickers, keyrings and the like. In 1997, the movement saw the Spanish Supreme Court declare that the Osborne Bull had become part of the Spanish landscape and order that it could remain.

There are currently 90 Bulls still found in Spain and the bull is arguably the best known trademark in the country.

As for the wine, we were in no hurry to finish it off and we lost track of time a tad and ended up missing the movie that we were intending to see. We arrived at the theatre about five minutes prior to the start and it was sold out. So, rather than wait three hours until the second show or just pick another movie, we decided to just walk Mr. D home and make a little stop in at Marquis Wine Cellar. They didn't carry the Solaz but that didn't stop us from buying another couple of Spanish wines that will eventually end up on The List as well.

Sandhill - 2009 Canadian Winery of the Year

Howard Soon and Sandhill winery recently pulled off what has to be seen as a stunning coup in the Canadian wine industry. Sandhill was not only named the top winery in Canada at the Canadian Wine Awards, but Howard and crew took home the trophies for overall Top Red Wine and overall Top White Wine - not an easy feat considering the tasting panel works their way through over a thousand wines in reaching their choices for awards.

I've made a number of stops at Sandhill previously on this little Wine Odyssey that we've got going here - and I think I've made it clear that Sandhill is one of my local favourites - so I won't go into any real recap of what Mr. Soon and the winery's focus and objectives are. Syrah is definitely one of their strongpoints when it comes to filling my wineglass however.

327. 2006 Sandhill Small Lots Phantom Creek Vineyard Syrah (VQA Okanagan Valley)

It was the 2007 Small Lots Syrah that won the Red Wine of the Year trophy that I mentioned earlier, so I figured it would be a treat to open one of the 2006 bottles since I had a couple handy. It might not have been Red Wine of the Year, but it still won a silver medal at the 2008 Canadian Wine Awards (that year it was Jackson-Triggs that took the gold).

The Small Lots designation is fairly self-explanatory. It is the winery's experimental program where grapes may be sourced from specific blocks in the vineyard or it might be a look at new varietals that the winery feels may have potential or it might simply be that a single barrel or two stand out from all the others in the cellar and Mr. Soon feels that their unique quality merits separate bottling. In any event, there are never a lot of bottles available - as can be seen with this wine, there were only 403 cases of the Small Lots Syrah produced from 2006.

John Schreiner wrote that the spring rains in 2006 were plentiful and encouraged a big fruit set for Sandhill's Syrah plantings. Seeing that Syrah is a naturally vigorous varietal, veteran grower and owner of the Phantom Creek vineyard, Richard Cleave, found it necessary to green harvest (or cut back) 40% of the unripened grapes in order to avoid an overproduction that would result in a less intense wine.

It's debatable whether I'd go so far as to join in with one veteran wine scribe who wrote "there is a vivacious sweetness to the flavours that is downright sexy." However, there was no problem in finishing off this bottle quickly. I'll look forward to trying out the 2007 in due course.

Langmeil 3 Gardens

It didn't take that long to head back for another bottle of Langmeil. I guess I just enjoyed the Grenache so much on New Year's Eve that it was worth reaching for another bottle from these guys.

326. 2002 Langmeil Three Gardens (Barossa - Australia)

Most of the Langmeil that we have on hand is the Valley Floor Shiraz but I'd picked up this Three Gardens some time ago to give one of the winery's other products a try. This "traditional" Rhone blend isn't generally made for its aging potential (like some of their bigger Shiraz's and Cabs), but we've had this bottle for some years now and it lasted just fine for us.

The back labels tells a brief story about the old Barossa vignerons calling their vineyard the "Garden" and the grapes for this wine is sourced from three of the winery's vineyards in the region. Hence the name.

The blend was 46% Shiraz, 44% Grenache and 10% Mourvedre. Aussie winemakers can often been found making such a blend and, depending on the percentages, will call their wine a GSM, an SGM or whatever combination is applicable. Although I don't think you'd normally see a wine sold over here as an MSG - unless the winery just decides not to use the abbreviation in its marketing.

Considering that the Shiraz grapes used are those that would otherwise be headed for our beloved Valley Floor, I guess it should be no surprise that we enjoyed this bottle as much as we did. Balance, structure and fruit forward. If that's the kind of wine you like, you could well like Langmeil as much as I do.