A few observations from my annual BC wine trip in September.

First, I always go the weekend before the festival, as the wineries in which I
am normally interested sell out quickly if you go later, and they don't have
the wines in bottle with labels on if you go much earlier!

I noted a new development this year, however - more wineries were releasing at
different times over the year, and this makes it more difficult for sceptics
like me who prefer not to buy without tasting. In several cases (Fairview,
Black Hills) they had sold out earlier in the year and were closed when I went
by, although I heard that they may have held back a bit of product just so
they'd be able to open up again for the festival.

I always do a 3 day tour - day one in the North - sometimes going to the
Kelowna side, often not, one day down South in the OK Falls and Oliver area,
and one full day on the Naramata bench, which I'd call the Napa Valley of BC.
Someone has probably already called it that, but if not, you heard it here
first!

DAY 1- The North

HAINLE - the lunch room at the wine outlet used to be perfectly located for a
quick sustenance stop after negotiating the Peachland connector (watching the
Radar detector can be such arduous work). We were slowed for far too many
miles by what was a dead ringer for a police car, but turned out to be a fire
chief's car from Armstrong BC. They should make them paint them red or
something! As we were driving in the minivan instead of one of the more
interesting cars (we did the trip last time in a 1971 Jensen Interceptor - 8
cases, only bottomed once gassing up in Hope) because we had an extra person
with us (forced incarceration in the back seat of an Interceptor would render
anyone but a 6 year old a cripple, and SWMBO unaccountably refuses to ride back
there), it was a more sedate trip than usual anyway. Getting back to the point,
they have now closed the lunchroom, and as that was the only reason we stopped
there, having never been all that impressed with the wines, we passed them by
this year.

GREATA RANCH - a nice and relatively new sales room down on the lake 9 km.
south of Peachland. The wines are made by Cedar Creek, as a sort of second
label, but based on my experience they are certainly not second rate. Well
worth a stop, although I did manage not to buy anything except a bottle for our
friend's in Penticton, with whom we were staying.
http://www.cedarcreek.bc.ca/greataranch.htm

SUMAC RIDGE - two reasons to stop here - the often excellent wines and the
lunch room. Now only part of the McWatters Wine Empire (Harry now runs
Hawethorne as well). Tasted the usual range, and the one that stood out enough
for me to buy some was the 2002 Cab Franc Black Sage Vineyard - a steal at
$15.50. The 2000 Pinnacle was good, but at $50, not nearly good enough to get
past the cellar door chez Spohn! The restaurant is also very good and fed two
hungry wine maniacs and one semi-bored spouse in fine fashion.
http://www.sumacridge.com/

THORNHAVEN - this was an obligatory stop as I had discovered an excellent
slightly off dry Gewurztraminer (I am still searching for that perfect Alsatian
style Gewurz that I know BC is capable of producing) in their 2002 vintage. Sad
to report, none of the wines showed any distinction at all, though the pourer
was kind of cute€¦.. I don't know what has happened here or if the 02 Gewurz
was a one-hit wonder, but I advise that you tatse before you buy! BTW, there is
no truth to the rumour (printed in the festival guide) that Calliope is selling
out of this winery. For those who don't know, Calliope is a joint venture
between winemaker Ross Mirko (formerly at Cedar Creek) and his wife, Cheri. I
first met them when they were sharing the wine making facility and sales room
at Poplar Grove a few years ago, and after talking to Ross and tasting his
wines, I have been buying ever since. He was supposed to be at a couple of
other sales rooms, but in the end you have to either find the right door to tap
three times on and leave money under the third rock from the right, or contact
them by e-mail - see their site at http://www.calliopewines.com/. Ross has
apparently landed at Lang Vineyards as winemaker. http://www.thornhaven.com/

We called it a (short) day and went for dinner with friends and a bunch of good
wine that for which I did not take notes - it was after all a holiday.

DAY 2 - The South

TINHORN CREEK - went right down to pick up a case of the 2002 Merlot, which I
had ordered the previous year as futures after tasting barrel samples. Tasted
03 chard, pinot gris and gewurz, all decent but unexceptional and went through
the reds with no further purchases being called for. They are releasing a
special wine called the Oldfield Collection that will be the first of a new
premium level. The first will be the 2001 Merlot, and Manny Ferreira is up at
the winery doing a dinner event (Friday Oct. 1) to celebrate it. There will
also be a mirror event later in October at Gavroche, but I believe it may be
sold out. I haven't tasted this yet, but Gismondi said:

89/100 Very rich, round, smooth palate with quite grainy tannins. Big coffee,
smoky oak, vanilla, peppery, black olive, clove and black cherry flavours. -
Gismondi on Wine, Aug. 2004

I somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy a special 'two-pack' (no, of
wine, not the deceased rapper), one with cork and one with Stelvin closure, for
those with the patience to cellar them and try them side by side in a few
years.
After cruising around the golf course, only to find a 'closed' sign at
Fairview, we headed off south. http://www.tinhorn.com/

SILVER SAGE - Holy Schutstaffel Batman! Winemakers of the SS! We had this
eerie feeling as we drove into Castle Wolfenstein€¦..er, sorry, Silver Sage.
It may have been the giant bottle on their sundeck adorned with a dead ringer
for the Nazi SS symbol - don't these guys have any PR consultants?? This is
the winery where, tragically, Victor Manola and Frank Supernak (Prpich, now
Blasted Church) did the Duke of Clarence/ butt of Malmsey thing and died when
they fell into an open fermentation tank. The wines are, to put it mildly, a
mixed bunch. Some are pretty average wines made from the normal varietals, but
some boggle the imagination. Apparently sage isn't just a name, as one of their
pride and joys is a Gewurz in which they steep said vegetation - and charge
more for it than the unadulterated product. As if that were not bizarre enough,
this winery, which prides itself on naturally made wine without additives, make
an ice wine (Pinot Blanc based, I think, but I was back-pedalling too fast at
this point to quite catch the details) with a chilli pepper floating in the
bottle. Grus Gott, what have we here? You vill taste zis wine and you vill
enchoy it!! I opted for allowing them to experiment on she-who-must-be-obeyed,
who related to me that it wasn't all THAT bad, after the first wave of heat
(and surprise) passed€¦€¦.

BLACK HILLS - again, this one was sold out and closed, but it bears mention as
their red Nota Bene gets better and better every vintage - and has to be one of
the weightiest BC reds - and their new attempt at a dry Bordeaux white blend,
Alibi, shows promise, though I'm not sure what they thought they needed to
apologise for.

BURROWING OWL - off to Hooters. I'd already taken delivery of my 03 Chardonnay
- too tempting to pay the extra $15 a case and have it delivered the next day,
and at the point I ordered it, I still thought I'd be taking the other car
(repairs to the undercarriage of an overloaded 33 year old British car cost a
lot more than $15!). We had lunch here at the quite nice restaurant, and I was
gratified to see that the waiter that had been there last year was absent ("Hi,
my name is Norman and I'll cherish you and be your best buddy for the next two
hours€¦€¦)

Tasted the Chard, which I'd already bought, and had a glass of the 02 Syrah
with an excellent lunch - they do an antipasto platter for two that I highly
recommend! http://www.bovwine.ca/


Back up the highway to make our appointment at Blue Mountain (they do not
advertise, allow their location or any information to appear in the tourist
guides, nor welcome drop-ins, so when you make an appointment, you darned well
better be on time!) Sadly, had to drive right by the tank farm at
Vincor/Jackson Triggs without the time to stop and taste. Perhaps another time
(yeah, right).

BLUE MOUNTAIN - I'd called Jane Mavety the previous day to set a time, but both
she and the pair of killer hounds were notable by their absence when I showed
up. The referenced dogs are really quite nice Cocker Spaniels that once savaged
(to hear her tell it, anyway) my friend's young daughter, by nipping her in the
leg. I can just about hear Jane saying "Please don't feed the dogs€¦."

The only things not sold out right now are the Brut sparkling wine, and the
2003 Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. I bought some Pinot Gris (which I
much preferred to the less expensive Pinot Blanc) and some Chard for the
cellar. http://www.bluemountainwinery.com/

STAG'S HOLLOW - I've followed this winery for years. An interesting mix of
capably made varietals and quirky wines harking back to earlier days, like
'Tragically Vidal'. Guess they couldn't use 'Gore Vidal'€¦.. A stand out was
their Sauvignon Blanc at $17 - tons of character (though not in the idiom of
grassy or cat's pee) at a fair price. http://www.stagshollowwinery.com/

WILD GOOSE - right next door, this winery has gone from $8 mundane wine to some
now rather decent current product. I bought some 2003 Riesling ($14.50), which
was very good in the Alsatian style, and their 2002 Merlot ($16). This is
always worth a visit just to see if they have a winner in their current stable.
http://www.wildgoosewinery.com/

BLASTED CHURCH - formerly Prpich Cellars, this winery has distinguished itself
with quirky labels. I bought a couple of bottles of 2003 Riesling at $15 that
turned out to be a bit so-so when we tried it (not available for tasting at the
winery - and bottled in Stelvin), and some 2002 Cabernet, which I did taste and
which is decent at $24 http://www.blastedchurch.com/index.php

We called it a day and went to dinner with 10 people and I forget how many
wines.

DAY 3 - The Middle (Naramata)

Drove by the magnificent and a bit over the top new winery location for Red
Rooster to visit:

LA FRENZ - Good track record for this relatively new winery. The
winemaker/owner is Jeff Martin, who used to be at Quail's Gate. They started up
on their own a few years ago, sharing winery space at Poplar Grove, and opened
their new winery recently. While Jeff makes some interesting reds (as he did at
Quail's Gate with the Old Vines Foch), in my opinion his very best wines are
whites, often made with varietals few others are playing with. They do the
obligatory Chard, but also a Viognier, Semillon, a sweet Muscat wine, and Cab
Sauv, Merlot, and a lower end blend of those two with some added Pinot Noir.
Just this year he has started a new premium selection called Reserve at $35
that I found promising and I grabbed a few (along with some 03 Semillon, now
sold out, and 02 Merlot) for the cellar. http://www.lafrenzwinery.com/

NICHOL VINEYARDS - We next blasted up to the top of the Naramata bench to visit
this small and often interesting winery to pick up some stuff I had ordered
previously. They do Cab Franc, Pinot, a Syrah that looks lighter than it
eventually turns out to be, and some oddball varietals like St. Laurent and
Michurinetz that most people have never heard of - but great fodder for blind
tastings! http://www.nicholvineyard.com/

KETTLE VALLEY - lots of interesting stuff made here, and for the first time the
'winery' was moved out of the large garage that also housed the tasting room,
so Colleen had room to spread out. Only place I've seen a Gewurztraminer slushy
for sale! They do the usual run of varietals, but also blend, and watch out, as
they use names that you might mistakenly assume are for low end early drinking
wines - which isn't always the case. The Rock Oven Red, for instance, is a
cab-shiraz (they have a microclimate that allows them to reliably ripen shiraz,
right at the winery, but they call wine made from that 'Syrah' - this is from
other vineyards) blend. They also do a Malbec that boggles the mind. I honestly
still don't know what to make of it - interesting wine in any case, so I bought
some more to help me make up my mind whether I really like it or don't like it.
They are still attempting to get a website running and many of their wines must
be purchased direct as they make small (40-80 cases) amounts of some.

LANG VINEYARDS - I drop in on some wineries every few years just to see if
there has been some improvement since my last visit. The rumour of a good
Viognier tempted me back, but they weren't pouring it and the rest of the
portfolio was unremittingly average. Maybe the new winemaker (Mirko of
Calliope) will change this. http://www.langvineyards.com/

POPLAR GROVE - this has been one of my favourites for many years. When we
showed up, they were just finishing the Pinot Gris harvest. For anyone that has
not 'helped' at a harvest (I helped mostly by staying out of the way), it is
not the romantic and hygienic process you might think. The pickers are covered
in drying sticky juice and can't touch anything without adhering to it. The
clumsier ones also sport the odd gash from their shears ("No, no, cut the
STEMS, not your fingers"), are invariably hot and sweaty and sometimes
bloodied. Not much romance there.

Take the cover off one of the primary fermenters (large chest-high square
plastic tubs) to smell the must, and you'll almost be bowled over by the swarm
of fruit flies that rise out of them. As for the unpressed juice, that has gone
through the destemmer and is allowed to sit for a bit, before it is taken to
the press, there is a veritable swarm of wasps buzzing around it, and they do
sting (What was that you said, Ian - sounded like 'futz'€¦.). And if you think
that each and every wasp is picked out of the bladder press by hand€¦€¦.but
perhaps the larger swarms add a certain pettilance on the tongue to some of the
whites?

When we left, after a nice lunch on their new deck, they were getting ready to
test the sugars in the merlot grapes, and Ian said that the rain hadn't
fattened and diluted the grapes as much as people had thought. Poplar are
pretty much sold out, although I did pick up some 2003 Reserve Chard, and some
2001 Reserve which wasn't to be released until this weekend. I was impressed by
the new winery building - first class all the way, and I'm sure that Ian will
add his own design features as he used to be a welder and you can see tanks and
machinery that he built from scratch. Maybe I can talk him into coming down to
the 'big city' to do a dinner with his wines some time.
http://www.poplargrove.ca/

And that was what we did on our long weekend.

Bill
How did the Nicols St Laurent compare to recent Austrian St laurent.
regards Paul Jacobson


Bill Spohn wrote:

>A few observations from my annual BC wine trip in September.
>
>First, I always go the weekend before the festival, as the wineries in which I
>am normally interested sell out quickly if you go later, and they don't have
>the wines in bottle with labels on if you go much earlier!
>
>I noted a new development this year, however - more wineries were releasing at
>different times over the year, and this makes it more difficult for sceptics
>like me who prefer not to buy without tasting. In several cases (Fairview,
>Black Hills) they had sold out earlier in the year and were closed when I went
>by, although I heard that they may have held back a bit of product just so
>they'd be able to open up again for the festival.
>
>I always do a 3 day tour - day one in the North - sometimes going to the
>Kelowna side, often not, one day down South in the OK Falls and Oliver area,
>and one full day on the Naramata bench, which I'd call the Napa Valley of BC.
>Someone has probably already called it that, but if not, you heard it here
>first!
>
>DAY 1- The North
>
>HAINLE - the lunch room at the wine outlet used to be perfectly located for a
>quick sustenance stop after negotiating the Peachland connector (watching the
>Radar detector can be such arduous work). We were slowed for far too many
>miles by what was a dead ringer for a police car, but turned out to be a fire
>chief's car from Armstrong BC. They should make them paint them red or
>something! As we were driving in the minivan instead of one of the more
>interesting cars (we did the trip last time in a 1971 Jensen Interceptor - 8
>cases, only bottomed once gassing up in Hope) because we had an extra person
>with us (forced incarceration in the back seat of an Interceptor would render
>anyone but a 6 year old a cripple, and SWMBO unaccountably refuses to ride back
>there), it was a more sedate trip than usual anyway. Getting back to the point,
>they have now closed the lunchroom, and as that was the only reason we stopped
>there, having never been all that impressed with the wines, we passed them by
>this year.
>
>GREATA RANCH - a nice and relatively new sales room down on the lake 9 km.
>south of Peachland. The wines are made by Cedar Creek, as a sort of second
>label, but based on my experience they are certainly not second rate. Well
>worth a stop, although I did manage not to buy anything except a bottle for our
>friend's in Penticton, with whom we were staying.
>http://www.cedarcreek.bc.ca/greataranch.htm
>
>SUMAC RIDGE - two reasons to stop here - the often excellent wines and the
>lunch room. Now only part of the McWatters Wine Empire (Harry now runs
>Hawethorne as well). Tasted the usual range, and the one that stood out enough
>for me to buy some was the 2002 Cab Franc Black Sage Vineyard - a steal at
>$15.50. The 2000 Pinnacle was good, but at $50, not nearly good enough to get
>past the cellar door chez Spohn! The restaurant is also very good and fed two
>hungry wine maniacs and one semi-bored spouse in fine fashion.
>http://www.sumacridge.com/
>
>THORNHAVEN - this was an obligatory stop as I had discovered an excellent
>slightly off dry Gewurztraminer (I am still searching for that perfect Alsatian
>style Gewurz that I know BC is capable of producing) in their 2002 vintage. Sad
>to report, none of the wines showed any distinction at all, though the pourer
>was kind of cute€¦.. I don't know what has happened here or if the 02 Gewurz
>was a one-hit wonder, but I advise that you tatse before you buy! BTW, there is
>no truth to the rumour (printed in the festival guide) that Calliope is selling
>out of this winery. For those who don't know, Calliope is a joint venture
>between winemaker Ross Mirko (formerly at Cedar Creek) and his wife, Cheri. I
>first met them when they were sharing the wine making facility and sales room
>at Poplar Grove a few years ago, and after talking to Ross and tasting his
>wines, I have been buying ever since. He was supposed to be at a couple of
>other sales rooms, but in the end you have to either find the right door to tap
>three times on and leave money under the third rock from the right, or contact
>them by e-mail - see their site at http://www.calliopewines.com/. Ross has
>apparently landed at Lang Vineyards as winemaker. http://www.thornhaven.com/
>
>We called it a (short) day and went for dinner with friends and a bunch of good
>wine that for which I did not take notes - it was after all a holiday.
>
>DAY 2 - The South
>
>TINHORN CREEK - went right down to pick up a case of the 2002 Merlot, which I
>had ordered the previous year as futures after tasting barrel samples. Tasted
>03 chard, pinot gris and gewurz, all decent but unexceptional and went through
>the reds with no further purchases being called for. They are releasing a
>special wine called the Oldfield Collection that will be the first of a new
>premium level. The first will be the 2001 Merlot, and Manny Ferreira is up at
>the winery doing a dinner event (Friday Oct. 1) to celebrate it. There will
>also be a mirror event later in October at Gavroche, but I believe it may be
>sold out. I haven't tasted this yet, but Gismondi said:
>
>89/100 Very rich, round, smooth palate with quite grainy tannins. Big coffee,
>smoky oak, vanilla, peppery, black olive, clove and black cherry flavours. -
>Gismondi on Wine, Aug. 2004
>
>I somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy a special 'two-pack' (no, of
>wine, not the deceased rapper), one with cork and one with Stelvin closure, for
>those with the patience to cellar them and try them side by side in a few
>years.
>After cruising around the golf course, only to find a 'closed' sign at
>Fairview, we headed off south. http://www.tinhorn.com/
>
>SILVER SAGE - Holy Schutstaffel Batman! Winemakers of the SS! We had this
>eerie feeling as we drove into Castle Wolfenstein€¦..er, sorry, Silver Sage.
>It may have been the giant bottle on their sundeck adorned with a dead ringer
>for the Nazi SS symbol - don't these guys have any PR consultants?? This is
>the winery where, tragically, Victor Manola and Frank Supernak (Prpich, now
>Blasted Church) did the Duke of Clarence/ butt of Malmsey thing and died when
>they fell into an open fermentation tank. The wines are, to put it mildly, a
>mixed bunch. Some are pretty average wines made from the normal varietals, but
>some boggle the imagination. Apparently sage isn't just a name, as one of their
>pride and joys is a Gewurz in which they steep said vegetation - and charge
>more for it than the unadulterated product. As if that were not bizarre enough,
>this winery, which prides itself on naturally made wine without additives, make
>an ice wine (Pinot Blanc based, I think, but I was back-pedalling too fast at
>this point to quite catch the details) with a chilli pepper floating in the
>bottle. Grus Gott, what have we here? You vill taste zis wine and you vill
>enchoy it!! I opted for allowing them to experiment on she-who-must-be-obeyed,
>who related to me that it wasn't all THAT bad, after the first wave of heat
>(and surprise) passed€¦€¦.
>
>BLACK HILLS - again, this one was sold out and closed, but it bears mention as
>their red Nota Bene gets better and better every vintage - and has to be one of
>the weightiest BC reds - and their new attempt at a dry Bordeaux white blend,
>Alibi, shows promise, though I'm not sure what they thought they needed to
>apologise for.
>
>BURROWING OWL - off to Hooters. I'd already taken delivery of my 03 Chardonnay
>- too tempting to pay the extra $15 a case and have it delivered the next day,
>and at the point I ordered it, I still thought I'd be taking the other car
>(repairs to the undercarriage of an overloaded 33 year old British car cost a
>lot more than $15!). We had lunch here at the quite nice restaurant, and I was
>gratified to see that the waiter that had been there last year was absent ("Hi,
>my name is Norman and I'll cherish you and be your best buddy for the next two
>hours€¦€¦)
>
>Tasted the Chard, which I'd already bought, and had a glass of the 02 Syrah
>with an excellent lunch - they do an antipasto platter for two that I highly
>recommend! http://www.bovwine.ca/
>
>
>Back up the highway to make our appointment at Blue Mountain (they do not
>advertise, allow their location or any information to appear in the tourist
>guides, nor welcome drop-ins, so when you make an appointment, you darned well
>better be on time!) Sadly, had to drive right by the tank farm at
>Vincor/Jackson Triggs without the time to stop and taste. Perhaps another time
>(yeah, right).
>
>BLUE MOUNTAIN - I'd called Jane Mavety the previous day to set a time, but both
>she and the pair of killer hounds were notable by their absence when I showed
>up. The referenced dogs are really quite nice Cocker Spaniels that once savaged
>(to hear her tell it, anyway) my friend's young daughter, by nipping her in the
>leg. I can just about hear Jane saying "Please don't feed the dogs€¦."
>
>The only things not sold out right now are the Brut sparkling wine, and the
>2003 Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. I bought some Pinot Gris (which I
>much preferred to the less expensive Pinot Blanc) and some Chard for the
>cellar. http://www.bluemountainwinery.com/
>
>STAG'S HOLLOW - I've followed this winery for years. An interesting mix of
>capably made varietals and quirky wines harking back to earlier days, like
>'Tragically Vidal'. Guess they couldn't use 'Gore Vidal'€¦.. A stand out was
>their Sauvignon Blanc at $17 - tons of character (though not in the idiom of
>grassy or cat's pee) at a fair price. http://www.stagshollowwinery.com/
>
>WILD GOOSE - right next door, this winery has gone from $8 mundane wine to some
>now rather decent current product. I bought some 2003 Riesling ($14.50), which
>was very good in the Alsatian style, and their 2002 Merlot ($16). This is
>always worth a visit just to see if they have a winner in their current stable.
> http://www.wildgoosewinery.com/
>
>BLASTED CHURCH - formerly Prpich Cellars, this winery has distinguished itself
>with quirky labels. I bought a couple of bottles of 2003 Riesling at $15 that
>turned out to be a bit so-so when we tried it (not available for tasting at the
>winery - and bottled in Stelvin), and some 2002 Cabernet, which I did taste and
>which is decent at $24 http://www.blastedchurch.com/index.php
>
>We called it a day and went to dinner with 10 people and I forget how many
>wines.
>
>DAY 3 - The Middle (Naramata)
>
>Drove by the magnificent and a bit over the top new winery location for Red
>Rooster to visit:
>
>LA FRENZ - Good track record for this relatively new winery. The
>winemaker/owner is Jeff Martin, who used to be at Quail's Gate. They started up
>on their own a few years ago, sharing winery space at Poplar Grove, and opened
>their new winery recently. While Jeff makes some interesting reds (as he did at
>Quail's Gate with the Old Vines Foch), in my opinion his very best wines are
>whites, often made with varietals few others are playing with. They do the
>obligatory Chard, but also a Viognier, Semillon, a sweet Muscat wine, and Cab
>Sauv, Merlot, and a lower end blend of those two with some added Pinot Noir.
>Just this year he has started a new premium selection called Reserve at $35
>that I found promising and I grabbed a few (along with some 03 Semillon, now
>sold out, and 02 Merlot) for the cellar. http://www.lafrenzwinery.com/
>
>NICHOL VINEYARDS - We next blasted up to the top of the Naramata bench to visit
>this small and often interesting winery to pick up some stuff I had ordered
>previously. They do Cab Franc, Pinot, a Syrah that looks lighter than it
>eventually turns out to be, and some oddball varietals like St. Laurent and
>Michurinetz that most people have never heard of - but great fodder for blind
>tastings! http://www.nicholvineyard.com/
>
>KETTLE VALLEY - lots of interesting stuff made here, and for the first time the
>'winery' was moved out of the large garage that also housed the tasting room,
>so Colleen had room to spread out. Only place I've seen a Gewurztraminer slushy
>for sale! They do the usual run of varietals, but also blend, and watch out, as
>they use names that you might mistakenly assume are for low end early drinking
>wines - which isn't always the case. The Rock Oven Red, for instance, is a
>cab-shiraz (they have a microclimate that allows them to reliably ripen shiraz,
>right at the winery, but they call wine made from that 'Syrah' - this is from
>other vineyards) blend. They also do a Malbec that boggles the mind. I honestly
>still don't know what to make of it - interesting wine in any case, so I bought
>some more to help me make up my mind whether I really like it or don't like it.
>They are still attempting to get a website running and many of their wines must
>be purchased direct as they make small (40-80 cases) amounts of some.
>
>LANG VINEYARDS - I drop in on some wineries every few years just to see if
>there has been some improvement since my last visit. The rumour of a good
>Viognier tempted me back, but they weren't pouring it and the rest of the
>portfolio was unremittingly average. Maybe the new winemaker (Mirko of
>Calliope) will change this. http://www.langvineyards.com/
>
>POPLAR GROVE - this has been one of my favourites for many years. When we
>showed up, they were just finishing the Pinot Gris harvest. For anyone that has
>not 'helped' at a harvest (I helped mostly by staying out of the way), it is
>not the romantic and hygienic process you might think. The pickers are covered
>in drying sticky juice and can't touch anything without adhering to it. The
>clumsier ones also sport the odd gash from their shears ("No, no, cut the
>STEMS, not your fingers"), are invariably hot and sweaty and sometimes
>bloodied. Not much romance there.
>
>Take the cover off one of the primary fermenters (large chest-high square
>plastic tubs) to smell the must, and you'll almost be bowled over by the swarm
>of fruit flies that rise out of them. As for the unpressed juice, that has gone
>through the destemmer and is allowed to sit for a bit, before it is taken to
>the press, there is a veritable swarm of wasps buzzing around it, and they do
>sting (What was that you said, Ian - sounded like 'futz'€¦.). And if you think
>that each and every wasp is picked out of the bladder press by hand€¦€¦.but
>perhaps the larger swarms add a certain pettilance on the tongue to some of the
>whites?
>
>When we left, after a nice lunch on their new deck, they were getting ready to
>test the sugars in the merlot grapes, and Ian said that the rain hadn't
>fattened and diluted the grapes as much as people had thought. Poplar are
>pretty much sold out, although I did pick up some 2003 Reserve Chard, and some
>2001 Reserve which wasn't to be released until this weekend. I was impressed by
>the new winery building - first class all the way, and I'm sure that Ian will
>add his own design features as he used to be a welder and you can see tanks and
>machinery that he built from scratch. Maybe I can talk him into coming down to
>the 'big city' to do a dinner with his wines some time.
>http://www.poplargrove.ca/
>
>And that was what we did on our long weekend.
>
>
>

Bill
How did the Nicols St Laurent compare to recent Austrian St laurent.
regards Paul Jacobson


Bill Spohn wrote:

>A few observations from my annual BC wine trip in September.
>
>First, I always go the weekend before the festival, as the wineries in which I
>am normally interested sell out quickly if you go later, and they don't have
>the wines in bottle with labels on if you go much earlier!
>
>I noted a new development this year, however - more wineries were releasing at
>different times over the year, and this makes it more difficult for sceptics
>like me who prefer not to buy without tasting. In several cases (Fairview,
>Black Hills) they had sold out earlier in the year and were closed when I went
>by, although I heard that they may have held back a bit of product just so
>they'd be able to open up again for the festival.
>
>I always do a 3 day tour - day one in the North - sometimes going to the
>Kelowna side, often not, one day down South in the OK Falls and Oliver area,
>and one full day on the Naramata bench, which I'd call the Napa Valley of BC.
>Someone has probably already called it that, but if not, you heard it here
>first!
>
>DAY 1- The North
>
>HAINLE - the lunch room at the wine outlet used to be perfectly located for a
>quick sustenance stop after negotiating the Peachland connector (watching the
>Radar detector can be such arduous work). We were slowed for far too many
>miles by what was a dead ringer for a police car, but turned out to be a fire
>chief's car from Armstrong BC. They should make them paint them red or
>something! As we were driving in the minivan instead of one of the more
>interesting cars (we did the trip last time in a 1971 Jensen Interceptor - 8
>cases, only bottomed once gassing up in Hope) because we had an extra person
>with us (forced incarceration in the back seat of an Interceptor would render
>anyone but a 6 year old a cripple, and SWMBO unaccountably refuses to ride back
>there), it was a more sedate trip than usual anyway. Getting back to the point,
>they have now closed the lunchroom, and as that was the only reason we stopped
>there, having never been all that impressed with the wines, we passed them by
>this year.
>
>GREATA RANCH - a nice and relatively new sales room down on the lake 9 km.
>south of Peachland. The wines are made by Cedar Creek, as a sort of second
>label, but based on my experience they are certainly not second rate. Well
>worth a stop, although I did manage not to buy anything except a bottle for our
>friend's in Penticton, with whom we were staying.
>http://www.cedarcreek.bc.ca/greataranch.htm
>
>SUMAC RIDGE - two reasons to stop here - the often excellent wines and the
>lunch room. Now only part of the McWatters Wine Empire (Harry now runs
>Hawethorne as well). Tasted the usual range, and the one that stood out enough
>for me to buy some was the 2002 Cab Franc Black Sage Vineyard - a steal at
>$15.50. The 2000 Pinnacle was good, but at $50, not nearly good enough to get
>past the cellar door chez Spohn! The restaurant is also very good and fed two
>hungry wine maniacs and one semi-bored spouse in fine fashion.
>http://www.sumacridge.com/
>
>THORNHAVEN - this was an obligatory stop as I had discovered an excellent
>slightly off dry Gewurztraminer (I am still searching for that perfect Alsatian
>style Gewurz that I know BC is capable of producing) in their 2002 vintage. Sad
>to report, none of the wines showed any distinction at all, though the pourer
>was kind of cute€¦.. I don't know what has happened here or if the 02 Gewurz
>was a one-hit wonder, but I advise that you tatse before you buy! BTW, there is
>no truth to the rumour (printed in the festival guide) that Calliope is selling
>out of this winery. For those who don't know, Calliope is a joint venture
>between winemaker Ross Mirko (formerly at Cedar Creek) and his wife, Cheri. I
>first met them when they were sharing the wine making facility and sales room
>at Poplar Grove a few years ago, and after talking to Ross and tasting his
>wines, I have been buying ever since. He was supposed to be at a couple of
>other sales rooms, but in the end you have to either find the right door to tap
>three times on and leave money under the third rock from the right, or contact
>them by e-mail - see their site at http://www.calliopewines.com/. Ross has
>apparently landed at Lang Vineyards as winemaker. http://www.thornhaven.com/
>
>We called it a (short) day and went for dinner with friends and a bunch of good
>wine that for which I did not take notes - it was after all a holiday.
>
>DAY 2 - The South
>
>TINHORN CREEK - went right down to pick up a case of the 2002 Merlot, which I
>had ordered the previous year as futures after tasting barrel samples. Tasted
>03 chard, pinot gris and gewurz, all decent but unexceptional and went through
>the reds with no further purchases being called for. They are releasing a
>special wine called the Oldfield Collection that will be the first of a new
>premium level. The first will be the 2001 Merlot, and Manny Ferreira is up at
>the winery doing a dinner event (Friday Oct. 1) to celebrate it. There will
>also be a mirror event later in October at Gavroche, but I believe it may be
>sold out. I haven't tasted this yet, but Gismondi said:
>
>89/100 Very rich, round, smooth palate with quite grainy tannins. Big coffee,
>smoky oak, vanilla, peppery, black olive, clove and black cherry flavours. -
>Gismondi on Wine, Aug. 2004
>
>I somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy a special 'two-pack' (no, of
>wine, not the deceased rapper), one with cork and one with Stelvin closure, for
>those with the patience to cellar them and try them side by side in a few
>years.
>After cruising around the golf course, only to find a 'closed' sign at
>Fairview, we headed off south. http://www.tinhorn.com/
>
>SILVER SAGE - Holy Schutstaffel Batman! Winemakers of the SS! We had this
>eerie feeling as we drove into Castle Wolfenstein€¦..er, sorry, Silver Sage.
>It may have been the giant bottle on their sundeck adorned with a dead ringer
>for the Nazi SS symbol - don't these guys have any PR consultants?? This is
>the winery where, tragically, Victor Manola and Frank Supernak (Prpich, now
>Blasted Church) did the Duke of Clarence/ butt of Malmsey thing and died when
>they fell into an open fermentation tank. The wines are, to put it mildly, a
>mixed bunch. Some are pretty average wines made from the normal varietals, but
>some boggle the imagination. Apparently sage isn't just a name, as one of their
>pride and joys is a Gewurz in which they steep said vegetation - and charge
>more for it than the unadulterated product. As if that were not bizarre enough,
>this winery, which prides itself on naturally made wine without additives, make
>an ice wine (Pinot Blanc based, I think, but I was back-pedalling too fast at
>this point to quite catch the details) with a chilli pepper floating in the
>bottle. Grus Gott, what have we here? You vill taste zis wine and you vill
>enchoy it!! I opted for allowing them to experiment on she-who-must-be-obeyed,
>who related to me that it wasn't all THAT bad, after the first wave of heat
>(and surprise) passed€¦€¦.
>
>BLACK HILLS - again, this one was sold out and closed, but it bears mention as
>their red Nota Bene gets better and better every vintage - and has to be one of
>the weightiest BC reds - and their new attempt at a dry Bordeaux white blend,
>Alibi, shows promise, though I'm not sure what they thought they needed to
>apologise for.
>
>BURROWING OWL - off to Hooters. I'd already taken delivery of my 03 Chardonnay
>- too tempting to pay the extra $15 a case and have it delivered the next day,
>and at the point I ordered it, I still thought I'd be taking the other car
>(repairs to the undercarriage of an overloaded 33 year old British car cost a
>lot more than $15!). We had lunch here at the quite nice restaurant, and I was
>gratified to see that the waiter that had been there last year was absent ("Hi,
>my name is Norman and I'll cherish you and be your best buddy for the next two
>hours€¦€¦)
>
>Tasted the Chard, which I'd already bought, and had a glass of the 02 Syrah
>with an excellent lunch - they do an antipasto platter for two that I highly
>recommend! http://www.bovwine.ca/
>
>
>Back up the highway to make our appointment at Blue Mountain (they do not
>advertise, allow their location or any information to appear in the tourist
>guides, nor welcome drop-ins, so when you make an appointment, you darned well
>better be on time!) Sadly, had to drive right by the tank farm at
>Vincor/Jackson Triggs without the time to stop and taste. Perhaps another time
>(yeah, right).
>
>BLUE MOUNTAIN - I'd called Jane Mavety the previous day to set a time, but both
>she and the pair of killer hounds were notable by their absence when I showed
>up. The referenced dogs are really quite nice Cocker Spaniels that once savaged
>(to hear her tell it, anyway) my friend's young daughter, by nipping her in the
>leg. I can just about hear Jane saying "Please don't feed the dogs€¦."
>
>The only things not sold out right now are the Brut sparkling wine, and the
>2003 Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. I bought some Pinot Gris (which I
>much preferred to the less expensive Pinot Blanc) and some Chard for the
>cellar. http://www.bluemountainwinery.com/
>
>STAG'S HOLLOW - I've followed this winery for years. An interesting mix of
>capably made varietals and quirky wines harking back to earlier days, like
>'Tragically Vidal'. Guess they couldn't use 'Gore Vidal'€¦.. A stand out was
>their Sauvignon Blanc at $17 - tons of character (though not in the idiom of
>grassy or cat's pee) at a fair price. http://www.stagshollowwinery.com/
>
>WILD GOOSE - right next door, this winery has gone from $8 mundane wine to some
>now rather decent current product. I bought some 2003 Riesling ($14.50), which
>was very good in the Alsatian style, and their 2002 Merlot ($16). This is
>always worth a visit just to see if they have a winner in their current stable.
> http://www.wildgoosewinery.com/
>
>BLASTED CHURCH - formerly Prpich Cellars, this winery has distinguished itself
>with quirky labels. I bought a couple of bottles of 2003 Riesling at $15 that
>turned out to be a bit so-so when we tried it (not available for tasting at the
>winery - and bottled in Stelvin), and some 2002 Cabernet, which I did taste and
>which is decent at $24 http://www.blastedchurch.com/index.php
>
>We called it a day and went to dinner with 10 people and I forget how many
>wines.
>
>DAY 3 - The Middle (Naramata)
>
>Drove by the magnificent and a bit over the top new winery location for Red
>Rooster to visit:
>
>LA FRENZ - Good track record for this relatively new winery. The
>winemaker/owner is Jeff Martin, who used to be at Quail's Gate. They started up
>on their own a few years ago, sharing winery space at Poplar Grove, and opened
>their new winery recently. While Jeff makes some interesting reds (as he did at
>Quail's Gate with the Old Vines Foch), in my opinion his very best wines are
>whites, often made with varietals few others are playing with. They do the
>obligatory Chard, but also a Viognier, Semillon, a sweet Muscat wine, and Cab
>Sauv, Merlot, and a lower end blend of those two with some added Pinot Noir.
>Just this year he has started a new premium selection called Reserve at $35
>that I found promising and I grabbed a few (along with some 03 Semillon, now
>sold out, and 02 Merlot) for the cellar. http://www.lafrenzwinery.com/
>
>NICHOL VINEYARDS - We next blasted up to the top of the Naramata bench to visit
>this small and often interesting winery to pick up some stuff I had ordered
>previously. They do Cab Franc, Pinot, a Syrah that looks lighter than it
>eventually turns out to be, and some oddball varietals like St. Laurent and
>Michurinetz that most people have never heard of - but great fodder for blind
>tastings! http://www.nicholvineyard.com/
>
>KETTLE VALLEY - lots of interesting stuff made here, and for the first time the
>'winery' was moved out of the large garage that also housed the tasting room,
>so Colleen had room to spread out. Only place I've seen a Gewurztraminer slushy
>for sale! They do the usual run of varietals, but also blend, and watch out, as
>they use names that you might mistakenly assume are for low end early drinking
>wines - which isn't always the case. The Rock Oven Red, for instance, is a
>cab-shiraz (they have a microclimate that allows them to reliably ripen shiraz,
>right at the winery, but they call wine made from that 'Syrah' - this is from
>other vineyards) blend. They also do a Malbec that boggles the mind. I honestly
>still don't know what to make of it - interesting wine in any case, so I bought
>some more to help me make up my mind whether I really like it or don't like it.
>They are still attempting to get a website running and many of their wines must
>be purchased direct as they make small (40-80 cases) amounts of some.
>
>LANG VINEYARDS - I drop in on some wineries every few years just to see if
>there has been some improvement since my last visit. The rumour of a good
>Viognier tempted me back, but they weren't pouring it and the rest of the
>portfolio was unremittingly average. Maybe the new winemaker (Mirko of
>Calliope) will change this. http://www.langvineyards.com/
>
>POPLAR GROVE - this has been one of my favourites for many years. When we
>showed up, they were just finishing the Pinot Gris harvest. For anyone that has
>not 'helped' at a harvest (I helped mostly by staying out of the way), it is
>not the romantic and hygienic process you might think. The pickers are covered
>in drying sticky juice and can't touch anything without adhering to it. The
>clumsier ones also sport the odd gash from their shears ("No, no, cut the
>STEMS, not your fingers"), are invariably hot and sweaty and sometimes
>bloodied. Not much romance there.
>
>Take the cover off one of the primary fermenters (large chest-high square
>plastic tubs) to smell the must, and you'll almost be bowled over by the swarm
>of fruit flies that rise out of them. As for the unpressed juice, that has gone
>through the destemmer and is allowed to sit for a bit, before it is taken to
>the press, there is a veritable swarm of wasps buzzing around it, and they do
>sting (What was that you said, Ian - sounded like 'futz'€¦.). And if you think
>that each and every wasp is picked out of the bladder press by hand€¦€¦.but
>perhaps the larger swarms add a certain pettilance on the tongue to some of the
>whites?
>
>When we left, after a nice lunch on their new deck, they were getting ready to
>test the sugars in the merlot grapes, and Ian said that the rain hadn't
>fattened and diluted the grapes as much as people had thought. Poplar are
>pretty much sold out, although I did pick up some 2003 Reserve Chard, and some
>2001 Reserve which wasn't to be released until this weekend. I was impressed by
>the new winery building - first class all the way, and I'm sure that Ian will
>add his own design features as he used to be a welder and you can see tanks and
>machinery that he built from scratch. Maybe I can talk him into coming down to
>the 'big city' to do a dinner with his wines some time.
>http://www.poplargrove.ca/
>
>And that was what we did on our long weekend.
>
>
>