Happy New Year!

If I were twenty years younger and this outlet was Facebook - rather than a wine blog -I'd likely be recounting a wild New Year's Eve party with a thousand other revellers at a big circuit dance party. Been there. Done that. As a rule, it takes far too long today to recover from the more-than-likely hangover.

I'm still not quite to the point of watching Dick Clark (or I guess it's Ryan Seacrest nowadays) on TV - with the time zone differential so we can watch midnight at 9pm PST - and head off to bed. For the last so many years, we've generally put together a gang of friends and had a dinner party.

This year, we were lucky when Tyrant offered to host the dinner. The idea was to keep things toned down and make it a "simple" potluck with each person bringing along a ready-made course. So much for the simplicity of the dishes! From wild mushroom soup, through duck breast salad, to individual beef wellington's with foie gras and duxelles, this was a mighty fine potluck.

I'm very happy to report that the wines were also plentiful and delicious. The evening provided a nice addition of very enjoyable wines to The List.

307. 2007 Prunotto Moscato D'Asti (DOCG Moscato D'Asti - Piedmont - Italy)

We opened the evening with a glass of sweetness to off-set the heat of the spiced olives, chipotle-infused goat cheese and spot prawn bruschetta hors d'oeuvres that were presented.

I've posted Prunotto previously, but I've only seen their red wines available in BC - and there aren't many of those to be found. The ones that can be found are usually accompanied by higher price tags. At $24, I think this is a lovely start to saying goodbye to the year.

Mr. D. was delayed in joining us in that he was only scheduled to return to town from an unexpected jaunt to the snowy Prairies that are Saskatchewan. His flight was delayed - how unexpected - in Calgary. We stalled a bit with a couple more wines to give him time to arrive.

308. 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay (South Australia)

309. 2008 Arrowleaf Solstice Gewurztraminer (VQA Okanagan)

Arrowleaf isn't a winery that I gravitate to but I was surprised by the Gewurz. I was even more surprised when I found out that it was one of the younger guests that brought the wine and he said that Gewurz is his favourite varietal. I don't run across to many people that say that.

Eventually, we had to sit down to the first course - with or without Mr. D.

310. 2001 Kettle Valley Foxtrot Pinot Noir (Naramata - Okanagan)

We anticipated that the earthiness of the Pinot would match up with the wild mushroom soup that Axel and the English Doc brought and, by George, it did. Luckily for me, Mr. D. still hadn't arrived. It was our first red and I'd over-poured a bit on the glasses and was short one glass. Normally that empty would have had to be mine, but, although he didn't realize it, the ever-gracious Mr. D. donated his glass to me. We did save him soup though.

This bottle was pulled from Tyrant's cellar and I was quite intrigued. Boo and I have previously had a bottle of Foxtrot Vineyards Pinot Noir while dining in Whistler and it was recommended to us as one of BC's new premium producers. It's a new winery though - only having started up in 2007. We're thinking that the old owners of the vineyard used to sell their grapes to Kettle Valley and they, in turn, identified this wine with a single vineyard designation. No wonder the new owners looked to capitalize on the Foxtrot name.

Mr. D finally arrived and started working on his duck salad, but that was going to take a bit of time. So, we forced ourselves to take a bit of a break and work on another bottle.

311. 2006 CedarCreek Estate Select Meritage (VQA Okanagan)

A traditional Bordeaux blend, using the five standard varietals. This vintage saw a higher percentage of Merlot to Cab Sauv (51% to 36%), with the balance made up of Cab Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

312. 2004 Black Hills Nota Bene (Black Sage Road - Okanagan)

Next up was another BC Meritage blend that Mr. D offered up with his duck. If I'd been a smarter boy, I'd have saved a bit of the CedarCreek to compare to the Nota Bene. But, I wasn't. The salad course was rather delayed and the CedarCreek just kept going down too easily. Unlike the CedarCreek, Nota Bene is known more for its being anchored by Cab Sauv (46% with this vintage), which is then followed by Merlot (38%). The remaining 18% is straight Cab Franc. Considering the cult status of this wine in BC, it was a treat to share it for the evening.

313. 2001 Langmeil Fifth Wave Grenache (Barossa Valley - Australia)

314. 1993 Rosemount Estate Balmoral (McLaren Vale - Australia)

The next two wines just kept cranking up the standard for the evening. Langmeil is a favourite producer of mine but we generally know them for their Syrah. This was an interesting departure.

The Balmoral is a flagship wine for Rosemount. One of Australia's big names in wine, James Halliday, rated this vintage a 94 and he said that it should best be opened by 2005, but we found it to still be completely memorable.

Both of these wines deserve individual posts of their own but time and space here dictate that I'll just say that both wines just felt like the next step to happiness.

Tyrant's Beef Wellington was as good as it can get at a potluck dinner. The taste alone was superb but when you throw in his Julia Child impersonation as he was wrapping the pastry - priceless. The pictures of the Tyrant Julia would have added an interesting twist to this posting, but he wasn't sporting a wine glass in those shots and they weren't necessarily as flattering as he contorted his face for the full effect. Meryl and Ackroyd would both have been proud.

We had just enough time to settle a bit and sort out our New Year's finery of hats, beads and noisemakers. At the stroke of midnight, we popped the cork and enjoyed some of the street sounds from the balcony while making some noise of our own. We also noticed that the Olympic rings in Coal Harbour gave us a show of changing colours to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic year.

315. Moet et Chandon Brut Imperial (AOC Champagne - France)

Another stroke of luck for us is that Tyrant had some Moet left over from his Winter Solstice soiree. Naturally, I'd grabbed a sip the other week, but I didn't think I'd done the bottle enough justice to add it to The List. No such problem tonight.

The only problem was not spilling a drop while dancing away to Cher and Lady Gaga.

316. 2005 Mission Hill S.L.C. Riesling Icewine (VQA - Okanagan)

There was one last bottle that we had to give its due though. Elzee had brought along an Icewine to go along with (as Tyrant terms it) her world famous lemon tart.

It also was as good as ever - both the tart and the Icewine.

There wasn't much room or desire to dive into the cheese course though. Most of the cheese came home with Boo and I since Tyrant was still nursing more than enough leftovers from the Solstice party to keep a household of mice happy. He didn't need to add to that cache.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening of great food, wonderful wines and good friends. What a way to end one year and start another. Here's hoping that 2010 is full of such moments.

Pirrimmima

306. 2006 Pirramimma Stock's Hill Chardonnay (McLaren Vale - Australia)

This is the second Pirramimma wine that been added to The List and it's interesting since, if no other reason, I've always thought of the winery for their red wines. Turns out that Chardonnay is the most planted white varietal in the estate vineyards. That may be why it made its way up here to Vancouver.

The Stock's Hill name on the label refers to the vineyard where the grapes are grown and it is the most elevated vineyard on the estate. As mentioned in the previous Pirramimma posting, McLaren Vale is located about 40km south of Adelaide in South Australia. As such, it's not exactly a cool climate region (by Canadian standards), but the elevation of the vineyard and the fact that Pirramimma doesn't oak its Chardonnay lends itself to a fruity, yet restrained, wine.

This is the sort of Chardonnay that I don't mind drinking at all.

Pretty Much Gone

This will be a quick post for a couple of reasons, but primarily for the fact that either the bottle had seen better days or it was just rather unpalatable. I'm leaning towards the former.

305. 2005 Peller Estates Private Reserve Merlot (VQA Okanagan)

I don't think the wine was fully corked; however, it was well on its way to nasty. I'm pretty sure that the bottle was left behind from a party some time ago. (Whoa, I remember days when there would never have been any booze left over after a party - unless it was a half finished beer bottle that someone had forgotten or abandoned. Times do change.)

I kind of figure that the bottle was left behind by someone else because I don't remember having bought anything from Peller Estates. I buy a lot of BC wine, but they aren't a winery that tends to show up on my radar. Maybe it's because I still associate Peller with the old volume, Calona "value" wines like their bestseller Baby Duck. They've come a long way since those days (although Baby Duck still has a following), but they haven't managed to get me to cross the wine store aisle.

That is interesting fact since I do have a "jones" for Sandhill wines and Peller owns Sandhill and Sandhill's winemaker, Howard Soon, is still intimately involved with Peller itself. This is why I think this particular bottle was just off.

Perhaps I'll wipe the slate clean come the new year and give them another chance.

Like Wine? Love, Actually.

I hadn't had my seasonal fix of "Love Actually" yet this year and Boo wasn't all that interested in watching it again. The movie just doesn't have that annual pull as a seasonal classic for him. So, I put out the call to the neighbours to see if there'd be any takers to make a bit of a night of it. Both Baby Mama and GatuBela were ready, willing and able to sit back with popcorn and wine glass in hand.

Danchuk had never seen the flick before, but he was game to check it out with the chicks as well. And it wasn't even just the wine that drew him in since he brought along the beer. But, you know that, since I'm recording it here, there was wine...

303. 2006 Wild Goose Gewurztraminer (VQA Okanagan)

This wasn't exactly chosen as a popcorn wine. (I've actually heard that sparkling wines are a natural fit with that.) But, I did think it would go along with the evening's pre-movie course of butter chicken and aloo gobi. Plus, it was handy since it was one of the Christmas dinner wines that I'd left behind on the counter the other night. It went fine with the popcorn as well though.

When it comes to Gewurztraminer and BC, there are a lot of people that will immediately turn to Wild Goose. We don't tend to drink too much Gewurz, but I think I could be coaxed into a more regular glass if either the varietal and/or Wild Goose continues to go down as nicely as this did.

We were pretty much finished that bottle when, lo and behold - thanks to the miracle of baby monitors - even Arty400 made a surprise visit. Arty400 - or RD4 for short (not sure if he's a distant relative of R2D2 or not) - didn't have much interest in the movie but he is always good for a nice glass of wine.

He and Baby Mama brought along our second bottle for the night:

304. 2007 Delas Saint-Esprit Cotes-du-Rhone (AOC Cotes-du-Rhone - France)

RD4 had been tipped off to this wine as a nice bottle at a good price and, like me, he's an easy mark for Syrah-based wines. This one is 75% Syrah and 25% Grenache. Turns out that his source's enjoyment of this wine is mirrored by others. Indeed, none other than Robert Parker, one of the biggest names in the wine-writing (and wine-scoring) business, has given this wine 90 points (which is well up there for an $18 French wine) and declared that the 2007 vintage was a great one for the Rhone.

I hadn't heard those comments about 2007 Rhone wines until I looked up this bottle. I'll have to keep an eye out for some more to give them a try. I'm not sure that this one killed it for me but a couple of Chateauneauf-du-Poofs would always be welcome at our table. Banner year or not.

As for the movie, I'm glad that, unlike Danchuk, I'd already seen the movie. The commentary was endless - and vicious to boot. You'd have thought we were watching it with deadlines to send in a scathing review. "That's just so unrealistic." "My least favourite part of the movie." "How stupid is that."

At least RD4 liked the fact that Billy Bob Thornton was cast as the US President. Might have been the only thing he liked - other than the wine.

People, it's a light-hearted Christmas romantic comedy. I might need to limit my movie choices with this crowd to more serious fare like Star Trek or Julie and Julia when we try this out next time.

Or serve even more wine before the movie starts.

Taking Stock on Boxing Day

Well, our "Twelve Wines of Christmas" may be all finished and wrapped now, but I know there's still plenty of wine to be enjoyed before all the seasonal treats are similarly completed. Case in point, it may be Boxing Day - and, hence, the time for packing up the season - but here we are opening up and bringing out a little something more to celebrate with.

302. 2006 Laughing Stock Vineyards Pinot Pinot (Naramata Bench - Okanagan)

Laughing Stock wines can be both difficult to find and a tad on the higher end of the pricing scale, but I do like to try and get my hands on their Pinot Pinot. Around the $20 mark, it's still within my budget and I really enjoy their blending of two of the white varietals that might be best suited for our province - Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc.

The winery's owners (and winemaker), David and Cynthia Enns, both had pasts in financial management and I love how their background whimsically shows in many aspects of their marketing. The bottle design cleverly incorporates information about the wine inside and shows the closing market values of a number of stocks on the vintage date.

The Pinot Pinot is part of the winery's Small Cap Program which, according to their website, allows them to "explore smaller market plays" with varietals that they don't necessarily fit into their primary wines. There were only 170 cases of the 2006 vintage and they saw a blend of 75% Gris and 25% Blanc. The Pinot Gris saw some fermentation in second-fill oak barrels and the Pinot Blanc saw stainless steel the whole way - thereby allowing for a fullness from the Gris and additional acidity and fruit from the Blanc.

I'm sold. I'll be sure to invest in another couple bottles if I can find them.

Christmas Day

"For Our Twelfth Wine of Christmas, My True Love Drank with me,

As Kiddies Played with Presents."

As mentioned in the previous post, Boo had to work Christmas Day and wouldn't be able to make it to my sister's until around 8pm that evening. So, my day was spent finishing up the wrapping and even blogging a bit. Mid afternoon, I headed out to Vixen's home to do the family gathering - and have a couple seasonal tipples.

Only problem was, when I arrived there, I realized that I'd left two of my three bottles of wine laying on the kitchen counter. Now, my sis doesn't exactly have a wine cellar going on. She's like the vast majority of BC residents. The most aging her wines see, on average, is the 20 minutes it takes to drive the bottles home from the liquor store. Nothing wrong with that - it just meant that my mistake could have left us high and dry for Christmas dinner. Luckily, Vixen had been given a couple of bottles for Christmas by clients. So, we'd be able to manage - especially since my Dad's more partial to beer anyhow.

299. 2008 Jackson-Triggs Proprietors' Edition Chardonnay (VQA Okanagan)

As can be seen in this blog and The List of wines that we've enjoyed thus far, I don't tend to be the first person to reach for a Chardonnay. I guess to borrow one of wine personality, Gary Vaynerchuk's, catch phrases, I can be very wary of the "oak monsters" that are out there. Nothing to worry about here.

The bottle refers to some oak aging, but the oak wasn't front and centre. The fruit still came through and it was an enjoyable glass as the kids tore away at wrapping paper and I ate more cheese than I likely needed to with a big dinner coming up.

300. 2007 La Frenz Small Lots Riesling (Naramata Bench)

I may not sprint to Chardonnay, but I do love my Rieslings - and this is one of my favourite BC versions of the versatile varietal. In fact, this was one of the wines that Boo and I served at our wedding reception/anniversary party a couple of summers ago. I'll likely come back to a posting on the wines we chose for our second go at getting hitched. For the moment, we fortunately still have a couple of bottles left from the party.

I figured that Christmas dinner is as good an occasion as any to open one of the remaining bottles. This was one of two white wines that we served at the wedding, with the La Frenz offering just enough of a hint of residual sugar to please those in the gang (like Mom) that like their wine on the sweeter side of things. I thought that the Riesling would be a nice counter to the turkey and stuffing spices - and, I mean, what could go better with brussels sprouts? I'm glad this was the wine I didn't forget to bring.

301. 2006 Nk'mip Qwam Qwmt Cabernet Sauvignon (VQA Okanagan)

Admittedly, I'd left a Pinot Noir behind on the counter and a Cab likely isn't seen as being most folks' first choice for turkey, but there was no missing with this bottle. Vixen's to be thanking her client for this bottle. I'm a long time fan of Nk'mip, although I can't say as I've had much of their Cab over the years. I'm still not convinced that BC has a climate all that suitable for producing nice, big Cab's.

BC Cab's can often have that overall "green" aspect that happens when the grapes don't fully ripen. I suppose that if anyone is going to have the heat units to ripen Cab Sauv, it will be the Nk'mip vineyards located right down at Osoyoos and the southern end of the Okanagan Valley. The winery's website says that they found 2006 to be good year for fully ripened fruit and that appeared to have been captured in the bottle.

For having left the dinner wines behind, I think we did pretty darned well. And, in the Christmas spirit, we even made sure that there was some wine left for Boo when he arrived.

There was no seasonal good will present, however, when it came to playing Cam's new Mario & Sonic's Winter Olympics on the Wii. Despite being the skip in the family, I found that my sport may really be the Downhill Cross-Ski or Short Track Speed Skating. I lost all three of my curling matches (our games were only two ends though) but I won all my ski races or skating events.

Cheers and all the best of the Season to everyone!

A Celebratory Martini

"For Our Eleventh Wine of Christmas, My True Love Drank with Me,

A Wine-based Martini."

297. 2007 Elephant Island Apricot (Okanagan)

Before I started our Wine Odyssey and this blog, we used to drink a lot more martinis than we do now. Another bottle of wine, rather than a stiff gin or vodka, just seems a tad more pressing nowadays. All the same, I'm not so sure that man can live on (or drink) wine alone. And, for this Christmas Eve, I figured that we could sip outside the lines for a bit of a treat.

Besides, I clearly remember that, many years ago, when we visited the Elephant Island Winery and bought our first bottle of their Apricot wine, the woman at the tasting bar told us that they particularly like to use the wine as a component of a vodka martini. She wasn't just whistling Dixie either. We generally try to keep a bottle on hand for just such an occasion. I also had to figure out a way to get the Absolut disco "ball"/bottle into a picture somehow. How could anyone who ever danced to "I Will Survive" or "It's Raining Men" not adore that little marketing play?!

As much as the Apricot wine lends a strong hand to some tasty mixed drinks, the winery markets it as a dessert wine and the sweet/tart combination appeals just as much to me as a wine as it does as a cocktail component. The price, at $18, is a heckuva lot less than BC's best known dessert wines - late harvest and icewines.

Honestly, there was no ulterior or cunning ploy to open an Elephant Island bottle just so that I could tie it in with a picture of Cam with his elephant. He just happened to get the elephant that night for a belated birthday present. He's one of those unlucky guys that have December birthdays. We don't always get to see him for his actual birthday and, this year, we were even later than usual.

Boo and I had decided to have my sis, Vixen, and her babies over for dinner since Boo was going to have to work Christmas Day and wouldn't be able to join everyone at Vixen's home until long after Christmas Dinner would be over. We left all the effort of a turkey for her though - nothing says lovin' like Costco lasagna (and maybe one early Christmas present) to a bunch of kids. They got a present so that the adults could have another glass of wine.

298. 2005 Col D'Orcia (DOC Rosso di Montalcino)

The story on Rosso di Montalcino - or Baby Brunello - deserves to be more fully fleshed out than I'll be able to go into here. Suffice it to say, that when eating Italian, you can rarely fail by drinking Italian as well. I don't think it would take much arm-twisting to get us to open another bottle of the Col d'Orcia.

Boo and I were lucky enough to visit the Montalcino region briefly during our vacation to Italy in 2008. We didn't see this winery or try any Col d'Orcia wines while there but we likely weren't far from it. Montalcino one of the hilltop towns in Tuscany not too far from Sienna. The Montalcino district is a relatively small area though - being less than a tenth of the size of the nearby Chianti region.

Rosso di Montalcino wines, like their big brother Brunello's, are made from 100% Sangiovese grapes (the same grape that is used in making Chianti), although they use a clone that has particularly adapted to the region's soils and conditions and is known as Brunello or Sangiovese Grosso. The big difference between the two wines is the

reduced period of time that the Rosso di Montalcino's have to age before release - one year versus three. This allows the wineries to make some earlier sales and earn some money much sooner and tends to result in a fresher, lighter wine than is seen with the Brunello's. It also results in prices that are about a third to half the price of the more expensive Brunello.

With all those Italian juices flowing now, a spirited game of the "new" World City Monopoly broke out. We've known for awhile that Skeletor is a master of "whine" - despite never having enjoyed a glass of wine - but who knew that she was so enamoured with London. I didn't get to buy Vancouver, but I did get Montreal and the latter is the new Boardwalk.

Cam got worried about not being home in time for Santa to visit though, so we didn't actually finish the game. We'd see everyone soon enough the next day anyhow.

Cheers and Merry Christmas to all!

Tippling The Solstice Away

For our Tenth Wine of Christmas, my True Love Drank with Me,

Many Solstice Tipples.

One of the traditional highlights of the holiday season for the last so many years has been the Tyrant's Mid-Winter's Eve Solstice party. One of the Tyrant's many talents is throwing a bang-up bash. As our fair city gets ready for 2010 and hosting the Winter Olympics, Tyrant, very wittily, incorporated the Olympic rings into his invite as Christmas tree ornaments. That's just the tip.

Having known him for over three decades now, we've seen a lot of mutual acquaintances and friends pass through and form part of our lives. This annual soiree has become a much anticipated chance to catch up with a great many of those folks - when we might not get many opportunities to cross paths in our every day lives.

And this year was no different. In fact, I think the number of people that I reminisced with might have been bigger than ever. I saw some old friends that had move back to Vancouver after many years, some that I rarely see because they live out in the Valley or have kids that keep them too occupied for socializing and still others that I just haven't seen but a handful of times since we were at university together all those years ago.

As always, there was an endless supply of fine wine and tasty hors d'oeuvres. The only regret was that the Solstice fell on a Monday night this year; so, I had to try and be a good boy. I could have - and would have liked to - add a number of wines to The List after tonight, but I found a new wine that I liked and I decided to simply stick with it.

296. 2007 Cellars Can Blau Monstat (D.O. Monstat - Spain)

Lately, Tyrant has been seduced by the new assortment of tasty, and well-valued, wines coming out of Spain. This is yet another. When many of the sought-after BC wines are now regularly hitting $40 a bottle and up, it's pretty tough to drink them on an everyday basis - and even tougher to entertain a large crowd on. A viable alternative, however, is the selection of Spanish wines that offer some varietal nuance and exposure to new areas of winemaking.

As noted in this wine's name, it hails from the Monstat appellation which is a horseshoe shaped region that wraps arounds the highly valued (and much higher priced) Priorat appellation. The wine is a blend of Rhone varietals and is the entry level wine for the winery.

The blend consists of the Carignan, Syrah and Grenache varietals - although Carignan is called Mazuelo in the region - and, like the Rhone wines it "mimics," it offers up some nice structure with obvious fruit and tannins. I'll definitely look to try it again and look forward to an opportunity to taste the premium bottle offered up by Can Blau.

It looks like the only picture I took of tonight's bottle was one where I posed with Skipper while giving him a tour of Tyrant's wine cellar. I'd have been very happy to just close the door behind us - so long as we had a corkscrew - and spend a bit of time to ourselves. I can tell you, I'd have a few more additions to The List were that scenario to ever happen.

What fun! Happy Solstice everyone (or whatever the appropriate greeting is).

Still Surviving

For Our Ninth Wines of Christmas, My True Love Drank with Me,

To the Final Survivor.

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but I likely watch more reality TV than I should. I'm a bona fide sucker for Amazing Race and Top Chef and Boo will tell you that I'm addicted to a lot more than that. "Addicted" is a rather strong term - and I think I could give them up easily. Well, maybe not Survivor.

At least I'm not completely alone in my enjoyment of Survivor. Elzee still keeps up with it and Mr. D. catches the odd episode (when all the cute guys haven't been kicked out yet). Even Boo found himself in a love/hate relationship with the evil Russell this season.

We'd been invited to Elzee's for dinner, but we moved the evening to our place when we saw that the Survivor finale was scheduled for that night. We've got a bigger screen and that time differential program with our cable. It's not exactly a Christmas-themed dinner, but it made sense to watch it in HD and know the winner much earlier in the evening.

294. 2005 Golden Mile Black Arts Chardonnay (VQA Okanagan)

It's been awhile since we've opened a bottle of Golden Mile (or Road 13 as it's now known). In fact, I think it was back towards the beginning of this blog and The List - it was last spring and the Canucks were still winning in the playoffs. We won't go there; not much survival in that playoff run.

Names changes, re-branding of wines and label changes made it rather difficult to follow the winery over the last so many years. To play on the Survivor theme a tad, I suppose all the movement at the winery is an effort to "Out play, Out wit, and Out last" the competition. I'm not sure that the current end result is going to be the favourable ending to that journey, but I do think that, as the new Road 13, the winery's marketing is going to settle down for a bit and that's going to help them out in the marketplace.

It's a good thing that it's the wine in the bottles that ultimately has to get the job done and, on the whole, I think the winemaking team is doing a good job. I don't necessarily think that I'd run back to this wine as a $35 Chardonnay, but it matched nicely with Elzee's carrot and brie soup.

Oh yeah, even though we moved the dinner table to our place, she'd already worked on putting together the menu. So, she simply packed it up and brought the soup and entree along with her. Now, this is a concept of throwing a dinner party that I could get used to. Just have your guests bring all the food while you open a couple bottles of wine.

We also discovered that a joy of digital TV is that you can just pause the show whenever you want. A soup course after they vote off the first finalist? Not a problem. You'd like your main just before the final vote? Let me hit that pause button. It allowed us to stop for dinner, avoid all commercials and still know the winner an hour before the show actually ended in our time zone. Gotta love it.

We also had to love Elzee's tourtiere!! None of us hail from La Belle Province but, if memory serves, tourtiere is a traditional meal in Quebec for Christmas. I don't know if Elzee's version would get a big "oui" from les Quebecois, but she can serve it to me any time she'd like to. It also matched up perfectly with a jar of Mr. D's jalapeno jelly.

295. 2004 Chateau Gloria (AOC Saint-Julien - France)

For us, this is one of those "occasion" wines and what could be better than an early Christmas dinner with two of our best friends. This is also a wine where formal tasting notes are common, if not expected. Those notes, however, are best left to those with better noses and palates than I. Suffice it to say, that Boo loved it. For me, I wouldn't stand around drinking a glass at a cocktail party to best enjoy it. This is a food wine and I thought that the meat and richness of the tourtiere matched it wonderfully.

Chateau Gloria, itself, is an interesting story. It produces well-received Bordeaux wines but those wines are produced outside of the historical 1855 Bordeaux classification which plays a huge part in the setting of wine values and prices. The reason for that exclusion is that the winery was only started in 1942, almost a century after the original classification was made. All of the winery's approximately 120 acres were purchased from "class growth properties" but the tradition - and vested interests - in maintaining the original list pretty much rules out the possibility of any reclassification in the foreseeable future.

Located in the Haut-Medoc region, the vineyards have been planted in a fairly traditional Left Bank composition - 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, with 5% each of Petit Verdot and Cab Franc.

For those of us not able (or willing) to stock up on the big name Bordeaux wines at huge prices each fall, this is a reliable, higher end on the entry level wines from the region.

The only thing left after the Chateau Gloria and the tourtiere was Boo's pecan pie. We figured that, as Southern a tradition as this is, it's pretty close to the Quebecois sugar pies that would be a tremendous finish to the evening. The sweetness wasn't going to easily lend itself to a further wine though, so we stopped at the Chateau Gloria and settled back for a coffee and the final Survivor vote.

Eight Flamboyant Reindeer

For Our Eighth Wine of Christmas, My True Love drank with Me,

And Eight Flamboyant Reindeer.

293. 2007 8th Generation Dry Riesling (Okanagan)

The bottle might read "Since 1783;" but 8th Generation is a fairly new winery in the Okanagan. The label refers to the fact that proprietor, Bernd Schales', family has been in the winemaking and grape-growing business for eight generations back in Germany. The Canadian connection for the Schales family began when Bernd and his wife, Stephanie, decided to set up shop in the Okanagan after brief stints in New Zealand and South Africa.

It would seem that Germany's "loss" is our gain. The winery's first commercial white wines were from the 2006 vintage. I'd seen the winery represented by a table at three tastings over the last year or so and I walked away each time thinking that they've hit their stride straight out of the blocks. I'm now starting to see their wines show up on some shelves around town as well - which is going to make it easier to actually try a few more bottles.

As might be expected with the German background, to me, this Riesling is more indicative of a European style - a bit more tree fruit and lower acidity than some of the sharp acid and citrus that is common with some of the big name Rieslings we see on the BC market. Since my preference tends a bit towards this type of Riesling, I really look forward to seeing what their wines are like in the years to come.

(I also note that they've already changed their labels since the initial offerings and I quite like the new artwork.)

Eighth wine. 8th Generation. Eight tiny reindeer. It seemed to make sense.