Hey, this white wine doesn't suck...

 

Way back, when I was first exposed to alcohol (I must have been legal, right?) I drank hideous wines. They were cheap and sweet and high in alcohol.

Lonesome Charlie comes to mind as one that fit the bill. Another was Moody Blues which, I believe, came in a convenient mini six-pack. Watching the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon laser show at the Vancouver Planetarium after consuming a number of these turned out to be a very bad idea, indeed.

Unfortunately, I tended to unfairly paint a whole slew of wines with the same sickly sweet brush. Mostly white wines.

Of course, one of those wines was Sauvignon Blanc.

Fast forward 40 years to now and to educate myself in some of the wines I don't know very well, I went to my favourite BC Signature Liquor Store in Pitt Meadows. I, of course, spoke to my favourite wine expert (got to get his name!).

I wanted to try some different Sauvignon Blancs but, of course, I said, "Cabernet Sauvignon," instead... so after I had three nice bottles of Cab Sauv in my basket to try, I finally selected, with his help, two Sauvignon Blancs.

I had the first one tonight at dinner.

The Sauvignon Blanc is a Chilean Casas del Bosque 2016 ($15.99) that I actually couldn't find on the BC Liquor Store website but, obviously, is carried there. It says Reserva on the bottle but, after a bit of research, that just means it has more than 12% alcohol (it has 13.5%).

The grapes for this wine were grown in the Casablanca Valley. It was a very clear wine and was very pale - my wife said that it was "practically invisible"! It was lemon in colour with a greenish tinge on the edges.

The nose was floral, clean and crisp. There were flavours of green apple, pear and peach, both in the nose and on the palate with the addition of lychees on the palate. I think it was medium acidity and had a short to medium finish.

We were asked, for WSET homework, to try a white wine with something acidic. I licked a lemon slice and then drank this wine. It was definitely sweeter in comparison but the lemon really did something that made the wine just a bit unpleasant. Maybe having something acidic and bitter was a bad idea. After a couple pieces of baguette, this wine returned to its crisp, clean and very pleasant taste. We had it with chicken sausages (from Oyama - not just your average sausages) and it was a nice pairing. I thing that Sauvignon Blanc would be a good pairing with a wide variety of foods.

I have now fully recovered from my unfair bias towards Sauvignon Blanc that I developed in my youth. I am truly looking forward to having another very soon as I did pick up two bottles of Sauvignon Blanc. Don't think I'll be going back to Lonesome Charlie, though!

Super Chianti!

Remember these? Chianti with a nice straw bottom?

That was the Chianti of my youth. 

At first, I thought the straw was a distinctive element, reserved for a special wine. Then, I started to realize that much of the Chianti (with straw) was not that good. And then I stopped drinking it.

In a previous blog, I alluded to a visit to Rome a couple of years ago. While there, I did my best to drink a fair bit of wine and some variety as well. Near the apartment we were staying (in Trastevere), there was a little grocery story run by, I think, Pakistanis. Their selection of wines was not extensive or fancy but for a few Euros, we could buy a decent bottle of Chianti. 

The nice thing about Rome is that most of what you want to see is in a fairly compact area. We walked everywhere during our 10 day stay. It was a wonderful way to see such a unique and archetypal city and so we walked and walked and walked. Every day, it seemed like we walked for three or four hours. 

At the end of the day, sometimes we would go out for a wonderful meal - usually pasta with a shared appetizer and possibly dessert as well as a bottle of wine. 

But, sometimes, we were exhausted with all of our walking and all we wanted to do was have a seat and talk about our exciting day. On those days we would go to the local take out pizza place, choose a couple of different types of pizza pieces, and then stop at that Pakistani grocery store for a cheap, but tasty, bottle of Chianti. It was delizioso! 

While preparing to take the WSET course, I discovered a couple of things about Chianti...

•  Chianti is not a grape, but is a region - it is actually made from sangiovese grape (true fact - years ago, when visiting with my - at the time - little kids, I saw signs for Chianti at a bus stop that we were taking photos. I just figured the region was named after the grape!).
• Chianti, the stuff I had bought at home, was the lower quality wine - the higher quality wine is called Chianti Classico.

Today, back and the Dundarave Wine Merchant, I looked around while my wife shopped for some non-wine product at a clothing store. Unfortunately, the guy behind the till was not the same as a couple of weeks ago so I felt a bit on my own. I looked through Bordeaux wines, Burgundy, and some French whites but eventually found myself looking at the Italian wines. I thought, why not try the Chianti Classico - something I had never done before! 

 

The wine I tried was a Santa Margherita Chianti Classico ($28). It was a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wine which is the highest category in Italy. 

Taking out my snazzy WSET Level 2 tasting card, I first looked carefully at the wine, It was a clear wine with light intensity and a ruby colour. On the nose, it showed red fruit, red cherry and some jamminess. Once I tasted it, I noticed more red fruit, strong plum flavour, a bit of strawberry and some raisin. There were, I think, medium tannins, which really made the wine well rounded and enjoyable. It had medium acidity and a medium finish.

It was another amazing pizza wine (we had left over pizza from last night) and would also go with BBQ and pork. It actually seemed like a pretty versatile wine but had some nice punch with the tannins. Maybe next time I should grab a bottle of Chianti to compare - just not the one with the straw bottom.....

Pizza Wine!

I love pizza.

Really love pizza.

I remember our trip to Rome a couple years ago where we had the best pizza imaginable. It was a simple Margherita pizza with the crust, tomato sauce, basil, and a bit of cheese. It was an amazing moment!

Since then, I have had no time for crappy take out pizza from one of the many chains. No cardboard for me!

Soon after I cam back from Rome, a fellow teacher at my school, Deanne, introduced me to the Inno Bakery that had frozen, pre-made pizza dough. Defrost one of these suckers and you have enough dough for two, thin, Italian style pizzas!

It was a tiring week at work for both of us, so I decided that this was an excellent time to create a couple of tasty homemade pizzas.

One I cooked in the very cool Breville toaster oven which has an actual pizza setting and comes with a pizza pan (although I have since replaced it since I wore it out). This pizza had tomato sauce made with just tomatoes, prosciutto salami, sliced tomatoes, black olives and shredded mozzarella.

The other I cooked on a pizza stone on the BBQ. This one had the same ingredients except for pesto instead of tomato sauce (Italissama makes great pesto sauce - just like we had in the Cinque Terra!) and sundried tomatoes instead of sliced tomatoes.

I like doing both because the toaster oven takes longer than the BBQ so I can make that one, throw it in the oven, prepare the next pizza, throw it on the BBQ, and they are ready about the same time.

But what kind of wine? What kind of wine, indeed?

Well, certainly not a Bordeaux or another strong wine with lots of tannins. That just would not do for a simple dish like pizza. So I looked through my purchases from last week and found what I thought would go well, a Côtes de Rhône Villages!

This wine is grown near the Rhone River. It is made of Grenache and Syrah grapes and sometimes other grapes such as Mouvedre and Cinsault. The way it works it that the base level (still good wine!) is called Côtes de Rhône. The next level is called Côtes de Rhône Villages - the one I bought. Finally, the highest level are the ones from named villages such as Chateauneuf de Papes.

This wine was a 2013 Côtes de Rhône Villages Boutinot Les Coteaux which sold for $17.79. It had a red fruit and plummy nose and a medium intensity in colour (which means I could see through the wine but not super clearly). It tasted of red fruit like raspberries and cherries although there was a bit of black currant and some light tannins. It also had a medium finish.

And after a very hectic week, it was delicious! Sometimes that's good enough...

Wine Tips From the Master - WSET Class 1 - Part 2

After a brief break (checking to make sure I hadn't spit Riesling down my shirt), the owner of Fine Vintage, James Cluer, Master of Wine, spoke to our group. He is an interesting speaker and I would be happy to have him as a teacher in a future course.

He talked about a few things but what stuck with me were his tips - and here they are:

• concentrate - really concentrate - on the first smell you have of the wine
• "two sips and you're out" - by the time you get to the third sip, your palate has become used to the wine and you will start to miss flavours
• move the wine up and down your mouth, and rub your tongue across the roof of your mouth to check for tannins

Then we started tasting some reds......

The first was purply and pale (I thought it was deep but realized that if you can see the page underneath on a piece of paper, it's pale). It was light in intensity and had lots of red fruits in it. It was high in acidity and had a short to medium finish. I also tasted tannins - but that was an error. The problem is that when you have had white wine and it is still on the palate, even a mild red wine will taste of tannins. "First red wine of the day, you will taste tannins."

This wine was a Bouchard Aîné and Fils  Beaujoulais from France which is made from the Gamay Noir grape. it was a 2015 that goes for $14. 

The wine we compared it to was actually garnet (sort of an orangey red colour) and was pale ( I was wrong again). Although the nose tasted of red fruit, once I tasted it, black fruits like cherry and baked prunes seemed to show up. It was high in tannins (blew the Beaujolais away) and high in acidity and was really full bodied. It had a long finish and was a very good wine. 

This was a Comm G.B. Burlotto Barolo - made from the Nebbiolo grape from Italy and was a 2011 - and came in at $86. 

Comparing the two, the Barolo was wonderful but would be more difficult to pair - it would need to go with a steak or some game. The Beaujolais, on the other hand, would pair with many things including some fish, chicken, pork, pasta and pizza! 

The next two wines were the same type of wine but differed rather slightly in quality!

The first was a clear, rather simple wine with some nice red fruit taste but with a rather short finish. This was a Chartron La Fleur Bordeaux from the Right Bank - so, it was merlot based. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just a bit simple - and so was the price, $14. Sorry, but I couldn't find a link for this winery.

Then we had a bottle of liquid gold. It was a Chateau Bonalgue Pomerol from 2010, also from the Right Bank of Bordeaux. This was a wine with colour so deep that it was difficult to tell what colour it actually was. It, too, was a merlot blend, It had a pronounced nose and tasted of black fruit, tobacco, and high tannins. It was far more complex than the other Bordeaux and had a great long finish.  This wine was one that I would love to drink regularly - unfortunately, I don't think I can afford the $115 a bottle price!

Our final wine of the night was a Sauternes - and it was a wine like I had never had before! This is because it had "nobel rot"! Noble rot or Botrytis is a fungus that causes grapes to partially dry out like raisins which lets them be very sweet. It was a clear wine with a pronounced nose (mushrooms, nectarine), sweet taste, and high acidity (I'm realizing that every wine that is sweet also has high acidity to keep it in balance).  It was suggested that this would be a great wine to have with something spicy. 

The wine was a 2003 Sauternes from La Chapelle LaFaurie-Peyrague and, although not quite my cup of tea (or cup of wine) I did appreciate the age and nice flavours the wine had. This was $33 for a half sized bottle.

Overall, my first class was great - I learned some new things about wine tasting and wine pairings but the real excitement for me was the 9 wine tastings. That is apparently something that only Fine Vintage does - extended numbers of wine tastings each class. The other thing they do is extend all of the classes from two hours to three hours - and I think that is a brilliant idea. Can't wait until next week!

"I have a dead thing in the middle of my face" or WSET Class 1, Part 1

Last night, I embarked on my wine journey in earnest.

The WSET level 2 course offered by Fine Vintage was held last night in Vancouver. Thinking I had plenty of time, I left home and arrived around 6:15 for the 6:30 class. Damn, I thought, I hate being the first one there. To my surprise, the classroom was packed with only a two seats left! Not your typical school crowd....

I sat down at my table and met my fellow wine aficionados for the evening. Across from me was a woman from White Rock who had just sold one business and I think was getting ready to start another one involving wine. Beside me was a guy that grew as part of the family that owns Desert Hills Winery in the Okanagan and wanted to improve his knowledge of wine. Finally, at the end of the table, was a woman who works at Capilano Golf Course - I think in the restaurant. Everyone was quite friendly at the beginning of the evening but our table was pretty quiet through most of the night - I think that people take this course very seriously and it's probably good that I'm not chatting to someone while the teacher is teaching, so to speak, as I do tend to get distracted.

Speaking of our teacher, his name is Dave Munro and he is did a great job the first night, keeping us interested, using lots of humour, and showing an expert understanding of wine.

Right off, we tasted two fizzy wines. I had come to the course with the intention of spitting out the wine that I tasted but that didn't last past the first glass. I did manage to spit or dump half of most of the wines so I felt fine by the end of the evening.  Interestingly, the wine tastings were all blind. It's a really good way to train the palate and not bias yourself to a particular type of wine, but it's also really difficult!

The first wine in our fancy ISO tasting glasses was a nice bubbly champagne. It had lots of baked apple, even apple crisp and also the smell of toast caused by having the dead yeast cells (lees) being in contact with the wine. This is called autolysis and I think this info will be on the exam.....  It was not too sweet and had a high acidity and was a dry wine. Dave rated it as a very good wine - which is not hard to believe as it is a Grand Cru - the highest rating, I believe, for Champagne.

It was revealed as a Charlemagne Grand Cru Champagne that was a blanc de blanc - all Chardonnay grapes - made in 2010. The price? $96.00.

The comparison wine had an amazing almost perfume nose. There were tropical fruits, melon and even lychee in the nose. It was a sweet wine which, I found out, usually means high acidity to balance the sweetness. This was also a very good wine and Dave noted that it would make a very good breakfast wine!

This was a La Serra Moscato D'Asti from Italy made in 2015. It was only 5% so you could drink it all day! It was also just $32 a bottle.

After covering some more information about tasting, we tried that next two wines.

And this is when I realized that I had a dead thing in the middle of my face.

I thought I was doing pretty well with the tastings of the first two wines, when the third wine was passed around, I couldn't smell a damned thing! The little tasting glasses makes it difficult to jam your nose in the glass but, try as I did, I couldn't smell anything.

Of course, the know-it-alls from the course sagely nodded and pronounced "cork taint" which was so frustrating to me because I had always wanted to find out what it smelled like. And, thanks to my dead thing, it didn't't smell.

Happily, when instructed to drink (and spit) this spoiled wine, it truly tasted hideous! Few things have ever tasted this bad!

This was an Alsace Riesling made by Gustave Lorentz, and it costs $38 for a hopefully unspoiled batch!

The final wine before the break was another Riesling. This was a clear wine that was German so it was rated as a "spatlese" that was medium sweet with high acidity, and a medium finish. The pronounced nose included green apple, apricot and petrol (!). Stone fruits like peach and apricot were also noticeable in the tasting notes.

This was a German Riesling from a Mosel producer called St. Urbans that was 11% and cost $82.

I was interested by the range of people and also the knowledge of wine. One woman said that she only knew the difference between red and white wine while others knew so much, especially about the wine tasting, that I felt as dead as my nose.....

Next time, I will look at the reds we tasted and a special kind of wine that I have never tried before!

Bordeaux Redux

Image of 1980 Bordeaux, France from images Stud Ouest

Many, many years ago, when I was just 23 years old, I went on a backpacking trip with a friend to Europe. We ended up staying close to eight months and had so many wonderful experiences, both together and apart. One of the times we split up for a while was when I wanted to go to France, and he, I believe, wanted to travel with some girl he had met.

I spent about three weeks in France, speaking my high school French and sampling wines, even though I was not a wine drinker at that time. I just knew that France was the kind of place where you drank wine.

I was eventually drawn to Bordeaux. I knew nothing about Bordeaux except the name and that it was famous for wine. I stayed there for a couple of days.

I remember wandering through the rather large city of Bordeaux looking for, well, something. Looking for a giant bottle of wine? For grape vines everywhere? I really didn't know. I was completely unprepared to actually order some wine because there was such a plethora of choices (By the time I got to the Burgundy region, however, I did find a way to taste many of the wines....more on that in a later blog).

I'm sure I saw some well manicured grounds and probably a couple of cathedrals but I didn't know where to look to find the wine.

Where I should have been looking was not in the bustling city of Bordeaux, but in the land around the city. What I have since found out (in the last few weeks, actually) is that there are two, distinct areas of Bordeaux. On the left side (called the Left Bank) of the Gironde River the vineyards grow mostly Cabernet Sauvignon - and arguably the best Cab Sauv there is. On the Right Bank of the Gironde River, Merlot is grown. There can definitely be a little mixing of Merlot into Cab Sauv and vice versa and there are a few other wines grown there but those are the main grapes of Bordeaux.

On the map, you may notice lots of names of places like Medoc, Haut Medoc, Saint Estephe and Margaux on the Left Bank, for example. Those are some of the top areas of Bordeaux wine. Those are such good growing areas that they are given their own Appellation - their own official wine making region. For example, wine from Medoc is "Appellation Medoc Controlee"  because it is better quality wine that is just from Bordeaux ("Appellation Bordeaux Controlee"), for example. There are even higher levels (Premiere Cru, Grand Cru) but those are wines that I'm not sure I can afford.

Anyways, 30 odd years after I came up empty with a proper wine, I finally had a Bordeaux wine to try, thanks to that Dundrave wine merchant!

The Chateau de Callac ($32) was the wine I bought last weekend in Dundrave in West Vancouver. This wine is from Graves region and is the regions is named that because of the gravel soil. Interestingly, terrible soil is the best for growing wonderful wine grapes. Graves is its own appellation ("Appellation Graves Controlee") so you know it's got to be a good quality wine.

Following the wine merchant's instructions, I decanted the wine 30 minutes before having it with a nice, rare, rib eye steak.

When I poured my first glass, I looked at the colour which seemed fairly ruby purply although there looked like some garnet on the edges of the wine. I had asked the merchant to suggest a wine that I could drink know so  I was worried that this was too young.

When I nosed the wine, I smelled blackberry, black cherry and possibly a bit of vanilla. When I tasted it I tasted tannins - but not overpowering at all - and a little bit of white pepper (which, apparently, indicates a young wine).  As I drank a few more sips, I tasted a wonderful roundness or smoothness which told me that this wine was a good wine to drink.

Overall, I really liked this wine. It had a complexity that kept me swishing and slurping throughout the meal.  The tannins were just the right amount and there was a richness that paired the wine perfectly with the steak. I would definitely buy this wine again.

You say Chablis, I say Chardonnay

Chardonnay map - from Wine Folly

Chardonnay is a white wine grape that's grown frickin' everywhere! Well, everywhere in the wine world, that is....

I start my WSET Level 2 course on Tuesday so I looked at the course outline sent to me a few days ago. The first two weeks seem to cover general aspects of wine, wine production, wine pairings, etc. It's not until week 3 that we start looking at specific varietals. During week 3, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the main events.

In my readings and Youtube viewings, I've learned a little about Chardonnay. It can be produced in hot,  moderate and cool climates, each giving the wine a different characteristic. The other interesting thing for me is that Chablis is actually a region where Chardonnay is grown, not the grape (Check out this humorous article, "I don't like Chardonnay, but I do like Chablis". There are many other examples of this region/grape confusion and I will touch on it again in later entries.

Areas of Chablis from Winefolly

I want to get a bit of a jump on things, so I decided to buy a couple of Chardonnay wines and try them out.

This time I went to the Signature liquor store in Pitt Meadows (for those not in the know, a Signature liquor store is sort of an enhanced version of our regular government liquor store). My wife and I looked around and I went over to the fancy wine section and tried to figure out what wines to choose. Luckily, the wine expert (he has been extremely helpful in the past) showed up and I explained my predicament. He suggested two wines, and I bought them both.

The first wine he suggested was a Chablis that was more or less typical for a good example. I haven't drunk a lot of Chablis, so I really didn't know what to expect. The wine was a Drouhin Vaudon Reserve de Vaudon Chablis 2014 ($36.99). Hey, with wine names like that, I'm already sounding like an expert!

After chilling the wine (but not freezing it to a Chablis-sicle) I pulled the wine from the freezer. I grabbed a corkscrew and expectantly punctured the cork. As the cork slowly came out of the bottle, I wondered how it would taste - and then the cork broke! Three-quarters of the cork was on the corkscrew and a quarter was left in the bottle! that made me think back years ago to the cheap corks used for homemade wine where a similar thing would happen and the wine would become saturated with tiny bits of cork. I shuddered. Luckily, after re-puncturing the cork, the final quarter came out smoothly.

The wine was clear and pale golden in colour. The aroma was apples and apricots which was also very evident in the taste. There was an overall fruity taste as well.

There was also something else - herbal? no... spicy? no.... ahh, acidity!

All wine has some acidity but with the Chablis, it was really noticeable. Not that it was bad - it was just noticeable.

It was light bodied (and unoaked, like all Chablis) and had a crisp clear finish.

Overall, it was a very nice wine to drink - a refreshing wine with some delicate flavours. The wine expert suggested seafood with a cream sauce so I whipped up a garlic shrimp cream sauce over homemade linguine. It was a fabulous pairing! The recipe is here - the only difference I made was to only put the shrimp in boiling water for one minute.

I also bought a typical oaked Chardonnay from the US which I intended to try out at a later date. Then our good friends Greg and Sheila called us and we invited them to drop by for a drink. Out came the next Chardonnay!

This one was the Toasted Head Barrel Aged 2015 Chardonnay. This wine is from California with grapes mostly from a place called Dunnigan Hills (20 miles - or 30 km - east of Napa Valley).  It rocked in the label department.

Dunnigan Hills, California - from SVB on Wine

This one was certainly bolder than the first. It seemed a bit sweeter and I could taste apricot (again), butter, maybe some butterscotch (that, after reading the label) and some peach. It was definitely more full bodied than the first one and I think that the order I drank them in was good. I couldn't taste so much apple this time. The acidity was definitely there, however.

Overall, the two Chardonnays were very different. The oaking made a difference but there was also a boldness in the California wine that was contrasted with the subtleness of the Chablis. I think the Chablis was a good one to have with the seafood cream sauce but would be overwhelmed by other, stronger dishes. The California Chardonnay, on the other hand, seemed a bit more versatile, as it had a bolder flavour and could stand up to a variety of different foods - off the top of my head - maybe fish, chicken, and even pork but might overwhelm a seafood with a cream sauce.

This kind of homework, I could get used to!

"Why are you so into Pinot?"

I remember when I saw the movie "Sideways" for the first time. It made me understand how important wine and knowledge about wine is. The people in the movie had a passion for wine that I was just beginning to feel.

In one of the scenes of the movie, the main character, Miles, shares why he loves Pinot noir so much when asked the question, "Why are you so into Pinot?"

Now, please understand, at the tine I really didn't know much about Pinot noir. I had made lots of wine at home but never Pinot noir.

And then I saw the scene. And I wanted to try Pinot noir.

Pinot noir, like Miles says, is not the easiest grape to grow. The famous red wines from Burgundy, France, are made with the Pinot noir grape.

It is a cooler climate grape and makes subtler wines than Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah.

And there is a lot of bad Pinot noir out there. I've had some of them, let me tell you. If you have a cheaper Cab Sauv or a cheaper Merlot, that's not the best but it can still be drinkable. However, a cheap, crappy Pinot noir tastes thin or watery and can even have a sour taste to it. I remember having some cheaper Pinot noir and being so disappointed (and wondering, what the hell is Miles talking about).

Fast forward to more recent times. The Okanagan is now growing a lot of Pinot noir (perhaps more than any other grape) and is having a lot of success with it. On our last trip a few weeks ago, we did happen to come back with a couple of bottles of Pinot noir.

Last night we were visiting relatives in Port Moody (which happens to have four excellent craft breweries nearby but that's for another day).  We grabbed a bottle of Stoneboat 2013 Pinot noir ($24.90) and a lasagna from Costco. I'm not sure if it was the ideal pairing but, luckily, while the four of us waited for the lasagna to cook, we drank most of the Pinot noir while we chatted.

The Stoneboat was an enjoyable wine and was the first wine that seemed more garnet than ruby that I've tasted since I've started writing this blog. The Pinot noir was also very clear. The smell of black cherries was the most obvious smell and taste and there were also hints of grapes (not sure what kind - probably Pinot noir!), tobacco, and even rhubarb. I'm still working at identifying the different smells and tastes of the more complex wines. It was a medium bodied wine and had some light tannins with a long finish.

I think I need to do some more exploring into Pinot noir. My only worry is that I would really like to try some of the better ones from Burgundy but I don't know if my desire to drink fine wine matches my ability to earn wine money....

Mystery Wine

The wine I'm going to talk about today is something that you can't buy. Sorry!

About six months ago, a relative that works in the industry (can't say who - don't want to jeopardize any position) came across a very interesting deal. A winery in Kelowna was going out of business. This winery seemed to have success as it had been open over ten years, I believe, and was even the main supplier for a famous spa (my wife has gone there and enjoyed the spa). I had never tried this winery's wine before and would, now, never get the chance at all. Or would I?

The deal was this - the soon to be defunct winery was liquidating all of its wine but you kind of had to be in the know - or know someone in the know - to buy any. I don't remember if there was any white but there was definitely red.

From what I heard, they just bottled everything in the winery - I'n not sure if they mixed batches or not. I'm not sure about the age. All I know is that it was red wine.

And it was a good price.

$57 a case.

That's right, $57 a case. Or $4.75 a bottle!

Who could turn that down?

A couple of weeks later, I opened a bottle of the four cases I had bought. It tasted awful.

But I persevered.

Now, six months later (and almost into the last case), most of this wine is quite drinkable! It does have a bit of a bite to it at first, thanks to its youth, and there is a fair bit of sediment as it is unfiltered.  Also, I don't think it is all the same variety of wine as some bottles taste a lot better than others. At this point, I can't figure out what the wine is made from but I can tell you that this is a nice, Wednesday night pasta wine, even if it is a bit young.

Like all things in life, in the world of wine, there are deals to be had and disappointments to be felt. A $5 bottle of plonk might just be a great find and perfect with a burger or some linguine. A $50 bottle is most likely going to be a bottle to remember but has the potential to disappoint and merely taste like some $15 bottle.

There have been studies done where even experts can't tell the difference between fine wine and plonk such as those cited in this The Atlantic magazine article. But I find that, since I have been reading about wine, and studying about wine, and really tasting wine, I am noticing differences and am starting to tell when I have a good wine and when I have a not-so-good whine. I am encouraged that I can sometimes taste a $4.75 bottle of wine and confidently state that this is actually a pleasant bottle of wine.

And  that is why I am so excited about learning about wine, mystery or not!

A Fine Rosé

My wife and I went on a lovely trip with our two (at the time) teenage girls to Europe for a grand tour of six weeks in the summer of 2005. It was a great tour, with the first three weeks in the UK visiting friends and relatives - I had completed a year long teacher exchange in 2001 and this part of the trip provided closure.

The second half was a house exchange with a family in Nîmes, France. We had a wonderful time while we stayed there from the first night where we spent the evening with our exchange family (it's funny how much my French improved as I drank more wine) to a day at the Chateauneuf du Pape wine festival to seeing a multitude of ancient bridges, aqueducts, buildings and statues to enjoying the wonderful food and wine in Southern France.

At this point in our lives, we had started to drink better - not just the crappy stuff I used to make in my basement. But we were a bit snooty about white wine. "Sorry, we're red wiiiine drinkers (you poor ignorant twit)!"

Nîmes was really hot. Like 40 degrees Celsius hot. Like over 100 degrees Fahrenheit hot.

Have you ever tried to drink a bold red wine in the heat? Forget it.

Drinking a fine rosé on the patio of our exchange home.

So we figured out what everyone else did. They drank rosé, so we drank rosé.

We unabashedly bought wine at the hypermarché (supermarket) and it was really, really good! We sipped on our chilled rosé in the evening on the patio of our exchange house while we ate the most wonderful food - little lamb savoury pastries, bull sausage, fresh, hot baguettes, a French cake with wonderful filling and sugar bits stuck on the outside, foie gras (yes, I felt bad for the goose but it was overwhelmingly delicious), and a host of other foods. And with it all, rosé and more rosé!

After that wonderful summer, we decided that rosé would be our summer drink. Since then, I have gotten over my prejudice against white wine but I still have a fondness for rosé.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when we were in the Okanagan. We stopped at Hester Creek and had a wonderful wine tasting with Sarah.She poured a nice range of wines and the one that we liked the most was their rosé. We also like Sarah as she was particularly friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming.

When it came time to choose a wine to accompany a turkey at our house for our family dinner, I thought about the rose and served it.

The 2016 rosé (currently on sale at BC liquor stores for $15.99) is made from Cabernet Franc, a grape that I don't usually associate with rosé. It was very drinkable - still fairly dry but also quite fruity. It was crisp and clean on the palate and paired well with the turkey. It would pair even more favourably with a hot day on the deck....

Easter Dinner

What could be better than a wonderful Easter dinner of roast beef, potatoes, and plenty of other tasty foods? An Easter dinner with friends!

That's what we had last night. Good friends, good food, good wine, good times!

One person I was talking to last night was the girlfriend of our friends' oldest son. Her name is Caitlin (spelled the same as my daughter) and she has done both the WSET 2 and WSET 3. I was really pleased to hear how much she enjoyed WSET 2 - she said that she would have been happy to keep on going each week to class indefinitely! That sounds great! She also wants to take her WSET 4 but the price tag for that (~$10,000) is a bit out there.... The WSET 2, by the way, is still no bargain at $1000.

The first wine was one that we brought. It is one of my favourite Okanagan grapes, the Cabernet Franc - ($31.99). This is another of Tinhorn Creek's wines and is a very drinkable wine. There were some tannins (which made it go along fairly well with the roost beef) and some tastes of plum and currant (although I couldn't place if it was red currant or black currant - still working on that palate). It was nicely balanced and, even though it is just a 2013, I think it really was good to drink now.

After a small glass (I was the family designated driver, after all), I tried a wine that another friend had brought. The Alamos Malbec ($13.99) is an Argentinian Malbec that the friend loved because it tasted good and was inexpensive. I found it to be a smooth wine but not overly complex. It certainly is drinkable and I can imagine having this with a grilled steak with a bunch of guys hanging around the barbecue. It's not as strong a taste as most malbecs that I have had which was interesting.  Interestingly, their website only has wines as recent as 2013. It seemed to me that this might be a good weeknight wine - especially with some sort of beef or pork dish.

After our great dinner, we headed home.

The last tasting of the day was a Meadow Vista Cloud Horse ($22). Full disclosure - my daughter, Caitlin, works in the wine industry and is the manager of Meadow Vista. Meadow Vista makes honey wine - or mead - and I wouldn't usually go out and buy honey wine. However, she often will bring us a bottle to try and sometimes I am surprised.

Cloud Horse was one of those surprises. It was a pleasant wine for drinking - light and clear. It had a honey taste (so surprising) as well as a butter hint as well. It would make a good drinking wine or perhaps with some cheese as it's a bit sweet and would offer a good contrast. Maybe I'll actually have to go out and buy some.....

That's it for my Easter weekend - I will continue to post whenever I learn something interesting or drink an interesting wine. Feel free to drop me a comment!

Rock 'n' Wine - 5440 Concert with some nice wine pairings....

Last night I went to the 5440 concert in a local venue. It was a different kind of concert as it was billed as an 'unplugged' event.

I was more than a little wary of how I would enjoy the show. I first saw 5440 in 1999, I believe, at the Arts County Fair at Thunderbird Stadium at UBC. A group of fantastic student teachers at my school (including the famous Shoeless Tam) invited their grizzled veteran sponsor teachers to the concert which featured a number of bands. By far, the best group was 5440 and, at the tender age of 39, I entered my first mosh pit. It was a very memorable concert!

Since then I have seen 5440 in a number of different venues but usually the same kind of loud, rocking' show with screaming guitars, pounding drums and lead singer Neil Osborne's awesome voice melding with the sound. Last night's concert would be a definite change.

But first, some friends came over and we did the appy and wine thing. As my friend, Dale, commented, we don't just do Ripple Chips and French Onion Dip any more. There was salad, tartine with sautéed mushrooms, crab balls with a heavenly green coloured dip, baked chicken thighs, a bread, cheese and nut appy that was to die for, and a spinach salad with homemade raspberry dressing.

The wine that we cracked to have with this was a Tinhorn Creek 2 Bench White ($19.95). My wife needed a splash of white wine to cook the tartine so I thought, why not serve the rest of the white! Tinhorn Creek is one of the wineries that we are a member of and get a shipment of 12 every year.

It was a perfect appy wine - very light in colour, leaning towards gold. It was a very crisp. clean wine which was just a bit sweet (off dry?) and I could taste fruit such as pear and peach. We all enjoyed it!

After finishing our appy meal, we walked down to the theatre and took our seats for the concert. We were all very impressed with the stripped down arrangements of 5440's songs. They were not simply unplugged but completely re-arranged with a variety of instruments including piano, banjo and some sort of mouth instrument that had piano keys on it. Dominating the evening, though, was Neil Osborne's, dare I say, sweet voice. His voice hasn't changed over the past twenty years - it is still clear and unstrained - even by the end of the concert.

At the end of the two and a half hours of playing time, I bought a slick 5440 t-shirt and a CD (what's a CD?) of some of their unplugged songs (La Difference). We bid goodnight to our friends and headed home where my daughter joined us, having driven down from the Okanagan for Easter.

To celebrate her arrival, we decided to open up another bottle of wine. We had a bottle of Narrative 2015 Syrah ($29.90) that we had bought at Okanagan Crush Pad the previous month.

The wine had a ruby colour so it was probably a bit too young - when we visited the winery, they may even have told us that it would benefit from a bit of aging. This would probably explain the slightly astringent taste. After several sips and swirls, my daughter and I came up with cranberry, cherry, tannins, stewed fruit and barnyard as the things we could taste. A good long finish, as well.

I am glad I had purchased another bottle of this and will put it away in the cellar.; it probably has some good aging potential.

After killing the bottle, I retired for the evening, with the sounds of 5440 still reverberating in my head.

Why am I doing a wine blog?

So, I've decided to take the plunge.

In a little less than two weeks, I will beginning to take a wine course - one, I hope, that is going to be a serious exposure to all things wine.

Despite the title, I won't become a sommelier, though, although this would probably be a step onto that path.

I will be taking a course called WSET 2 - Wine and Spirit Education Trust Level 2.

Why?

I've progressed a long way in my wine appreciation over the years.

Wayyyy back during the late 70s, drinking wine meant high alcohol, high sweetness local wines like Calona White and sweet, bubbly Fuddle Duck, wines that were closer to Kool Aid than Cabernet.

After pretty much avoiding wine in the 80s and 90s, I started making my own wine in the basement, sometimes from kits, sometimes from juice, and once, from juice and skins from a winery in the Okanagan. I did learn a lot about making wine, probably the most important thing being, I don't really like making wine. Then I 'made' wine at u-brew places, the best being a one called Once Upon a Vine where I convinced myself that I was making a pretty fine wine.

I was kidding myself. The wine was really still plonk.

Over the past 10 years I have become more and more interested in wine and have definitely become intently interested in learning about wine.

What is WSET and why am I taking level 2?

Well, it is an international organization that oversees a number of levels (4, actually) of wine knowledge, service and tasting. Becoming an actual sommelier is beyond level 4. But that's OK - I am not interested in becoming an actual sommelier - I just want to be a wine nerd. Also, I really enjoy drinking wine. And this course will help me enjoy drinking wine even more!

Level 1 is pretty basic so, after talking to a few people in the know, I felt that level 2 was a better starting level for me.

The purpose of this blog is to hopefully give you some insight on what it's like to take the WSET and to give you my opinion about some different wines that I will try during the WSET course.

So....onto the wines.

I was at a good friend's house for dinner last night and had a couple of interesting wines....

The first was an Adega and 45th Cabernet Franc ($26). We bought this at the winery a couple months ago and it was one of the few wineries open during the winter. When we were at the wintery, the grand-daughter of the founder served us. Grandpa came over from Portugal to farm in the Okanagan and switched to wine in 2005 with the winery opening in 2011.

The Cabernet Franc was a very nice drinking wine. It had some great fruit aromas - some berry and some plum - and left a nice taste in my mouth.

The second was an Australian red wine blend made in Port Misery (!) called Hope's End ($14.99). It was more had more tannins than the Adega and had a stronger taste but was also a bit jammy. According to the website, it is a blend of Shiraz, Malbec and Grenache and is quite drinkable. We had it with a beef and rice dish and it seemed to compliment it well.

Two to try for later:

My wife and I went for a great walk along the seawall in West Vancouver yesterday. While in Dundrave, we went to the Dundrave Wine Cellar to look at their wine. I spoke to the gentleman in the store and explained that I was going to be starting my WSET 2 and was interested in trying either a Burgundy or Bordeaux that was ready to drink now. He gave me several options and I found that I was able to follow around 75% of what he said - six months ago, it would have be 25%!

We settled on a Chateau de Callac from Graves ($32).

This is a Bordeaux wine from a winery on the left bank of the Bordeaux region. As you can see in the map below, it is in the lower left bank of the region.

The left bank of Bordeaux is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and the right bank is predominantly Merlot. According to Wikipedia, the Graves region is the birthplace of Claret. Interestingly, a website I saw talked about how Claret was a name the English used for Bordeaux. Why? Well, during one of the umpteen wars against France, the English decided that, although they wanted to drink French wines, they didn't want to actually have French names for them. Claret was what the Portuguese called Bordeaux so the English starting using that non-French name for French wine from Bordeaux! 

The other wine is a Paso Creek Zinfandel ($15.99) that my friend is into at this point. It is a red Zinfandel which is curious as I have only drunk while Zinfandel before. Will have to try that one in the future!