Had lunch with the agents, winemaker, reps etc. for some wineries at the
Vancouver festival, and had the chance to taste some of their wines.

2003 Ca del Solo Malvasia Bianca - yup - I was sitting at the Bonny Doon
table. Figured it ought to be interesting, if nothing else. This wine is a
fruit salad in a bottle, with a bunch of flowers added to the blender. It
finishes fairly dry, although it didn't seem as dry as my favourite summer
sipper, the bone dry southern French Muscats. The previous vintage had been
intentionally left with some RS to combat the relatively vicious levels of
acidity. Nice starter wine.

2001 Cline Viognier - long an admirer of the bargain Ancient Vines Mourvedre, I
hadn't tried their Viognier before. Clean, fresh, a tad on the soft side, it
didn't get in the way of the conversation.

2001 Edna Valley Chardonnay - the basic chard. At last - a California chard
where the winemaker didn't fall asleep while leaning on the OAK spigot.
Balanced, clean, very nice with food.

2001 Jade Mountain Syrah - big dark purple wine with a smooth thick feel to it.
It absolutely sheeted down the glass, as it should at 15% alcohol. Sounds like
a wine that needs age? Well it doesn't! Delightful to drink now and for the
next few years. Tired of overblown Aussie Shiraz? This might offer some
respite.

2002 Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel - another 15% bruiser, this one was quite
ripe in the nose with a ton of sweet black fruit and maybe some raspberry as
well. It had a full feel to it and then narrowed a bit at the end. Not bad.

2001 Bonny Doon Cigar Volante - I have often admired this wine in various
vintages, but have frankly never considered it a ringer for a Chateauneuf,
despite the faithful replication of a Southern Rhone sort of encepagement by
Bonny Doon. This was a dark, sweet, well structured wine with earthy spicy
fruit aromas that were certainly reminiscent of the Rhone, but as always, it
struck me like one of those manuals you sometimes get with your new audio/video
toys - translated by a native Japanese speaker into quasi-English, it never
fools you into thinking it is the real thing, while seldom failing to amuse.
Maybe its a terroir thing?