Wine Tasting Group - The Great Ones! - Part 2

Wine tasting is such fun!

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a wine testing with a number of people, some I knew from my WSET 3 course, and some that were new to me. This is part two of that evening. And there are some truly great wines that we had!

After a wonderful break of fancy cheeses, and some stimulating conversation about wine, we proceeded to the next flight of wines. Unlike the first flight, where we silent evaluated all of the wines at once before discussing, this time we tried a wine, took some notes and then had a (sometimes raucous) discussion on the wine. Although most of us spat some of the wine from the first four tastings, the wine certainly was having an effect and a lot more wine ended up being drunk in the second flight!

The first was the only white - one that most people were stumped by although I think that Verity nailed it.... The 2016 Granbazan Albarino Etiqueta Amber from Rias Baixas, Spain ($26 Vivino) had a very floral aroma with peach, apricot, apples, and a mineral taste on the palate that came from extended lees contact. There was also some citrus flavours on the palate as well. This was a high acid wine with medium body, medium alcohol, medium plus intensity, and a medium finish and complexity. I would rate this as a Good wine - not fabulous but still a drinkable glass.

Next was a wine that fooled us all. I tasted a spicy, minerally, funky, herbal, gamey wine that had red fruit. I was surprised that it was a Nebbiolo grape wine as the aroma profile for Nebbiolo is tar and roses. Nevertheless, this was a 2006 Giribaldi Barbaresco from Italy ($169 Vivino). The tannins on this wine had softened considerable but I could tell that this had once been a real mouth puckerer, The tannins were n ow just medium plus with high acidity, and additional flavours of tobacco and cedar on the palate. The group felt that it had been faked but not with new oak. I love a wine like this that has had enormous tannins and has softened to a tamed beast state! I rated this wine as Outstanding, despite not smelling tar and roses.

Our third wine had aromas of both red fruit and black fruit, at least for my nose. Along with cherry, strawberry, and plum, there was oak, leather and a nice, funky earthiness. This high acid, medium tannin wine was another one that the experts struggled with, although there were a couple correct guesses. It was a 2013 Ricasoli Colledila Chianti Classico Gran Selezione from Italy ($50 Vivino). The way this works is Chianti is the big region, Chianti Classico is the best of that region, Chianti Classico Riserva had additional ageing and quality markers, and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione, a relatively new designation, has more ageing (30 months), 100% single estate fruit, and has to pass a selection board for each vintage. It's a rare feat and probably why I had such a hard time figuring out what it was. I would rate this as Very Good.

Our last wine in the flight was one that I should have got but I didn't. I was thinking a southern Rhone, Petit Sarah, or maybe a Mouvedre - but, no. It was a 2015 Chateau des Annereaux Lalande-de-Pomerol ($36 Vivino). This blend 60% Merlot and 20% each of Cab Sauv and Cab Franc had flavours and aromas of blueberry, black currant, blackberry, tobacco, vanilla, smoke, barnyard, and leather. I found the barnyard smell so strong - as did a couple others - that someone joked that it was like your grandmothers bathroom - a slight whiff of poo with a floral scent of perfume! Maybe we had all had a bit of wine at this point? Medium plus tannins, full body and medium acidity made for a balanced, fairly complex wine with a medium plus finish. Overall, a Very Good wine.

But wait! That's not all!

Our host, Andrew, brought out a bottle that, it turned out, had been given to him by one of the guests a while ago! It was excellent...

The last wine was my favourite of the night. I guessed, Syrah - right! Then I guessed Northern Rhone Syrah - right! Then I was asked the year - I guessed 2014 but it really was just a guess - my wine expertise is not there yet! So what was it? A 2015 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert from Tain Hermitage in the Northern Rhone ($61 - BC Liquor for a 2016). Crozes- Hermitage wines are usually not quite as good as Hermitage but this was wonderful. The next best region is Cornas and then Cote-Rotie. This wine was almost as good as some of the Cornas wines I have tried! I was impressed. There were medium plus tannins, medium acidity, medium plus body, and a balanced array of tastes and aromas including blackberry, blueberry, cassis, plum, black cherry, black olive, leather, smoke, mushroom, tobacco, and chocolate. This could probably age for another 5 years but it was delicious now. A stellar Outstanding rating.

And that is it!

Cheers!

Wine and Friends - A Spectacular Wine Tasting Evening - Part 1

Ah, wine tasting….

One of the best things about taking both my WSET 2 and WSET 3 was being able to methodically taste a number of wines in one evening. It’s not easy but it is something you can learn. And like most things that people learn, if you don’t practice, you get rusty. 

Last year, before moving up to Kelowna, I practised my wine tasting almost weekly with a friend. Now, although I still drink my fair share of wine, I don’t always drink my wine in a thoughtful enough manner. So I was very pleased when my old WSET wine tasting group decided to get together in Vancouver - with a few other wine aficionados. 

Our host, Andrew, and another guest, Justin, were by far the most accurate tasters - not a huge surprise as both have extensive wine education and are both competing for Best Somm of BC! There were other experts, including Stephanie, a Somm at a major Vancouver restaurant as well as my friends from WSET 3, Sarah and Verity. There was a Russian couple (the husband knew his wines extremely well, despite no formal courses), another female Somm from a Vancouver restaurant, Alicia, an artist who has a wine and art company (Unwined Events) with Sarah, and my friend, Stewart, who has a strong interest in wine. 

After some social time where I got to know some of the guests a bit better, we sat down to do some tasting. We did two flights of four wines and then a bonus wine at the end. 

The first four wines were poured and we began tasting. It was a bit more formal than our last tasting and my friend, Stewart, was a bit surprised. We silently swirled, sniffed, sipped, spat, scribbled and repeated as we made our notes on each wine. The WSET 3 focus was on describing the attributes of the wine but what everyone really wants to be able to do is to tell what the wine is, where it’s from and when it was made. Not easy!

The first wine was a white from Bordeaux, a 2011 Smith Haut Lafitte 'Les Hauts' from Pessac Leognan (a 2016 is available at the BCLB for $65 - I suspect that will be at the Wine Festival). There were aromas of citrus, lime, lemon, wet stone, oak and a minerally/funky aroma that we decided was lanolin. This wine was dry with medium acidity, medium body, a medium finish and was balanced. It was complex and had intense flavours. I thought this was a Sauvignon Blanc - and I was mostly right. Because it was a Bordeaux white, the general consensus was that it was a Sauv Blanc/Semillon blend. It is actually 90% Sauv Blanc, and 5% each Sauvignon Gris (which is basically a clone of Sauv Blanc) and  Semillon.  This is one of the best wines that the winery has produced, according to their site. I enjoyed it and thought is was Very Good. 

Next was another white. This was a wonderfully sweet wine, something that I didn't appreciate until a few years ago. It was a 1997 Moulin Touchais Chenin Blanc from Côteaux de Layon in the Loire Valley of France (Vivino $100). I believe, like most of the wines tasted, this was from a private liquor store - either Jak's or Marquis - but I can't get a price. Everything Wine lists a 1994 vintage at $51. This wine had aromas of honey, vanilla, fig, ginger, honeysuckle and mushroom. This botrytis affected wine had high acidity, full body, and a great long finish. Balanced, intense, and complex, I rated this wine as Outstanding. I did struggle with what this wine was, thinking it might be a Tokaji from Hungary.

Next was a red wine that I could not get - but was not alone in this. I thought it might be a Zinfandel or a Gamay or even some Swiss grape. It wasn't. It was a 2016 CaRo (Catena and Rothschild) Aruma Malbec from Argentina ($30 Everything Wine but out of stock). This wine that fooled us all had an overall musty character to it with blackberry, blueberry and cherry. There was a lot more red fruit on the palate. It had medium acidity, good balance, and medium complexity and finish. There were very soft tannins, however, which I felt made this wine a little dull. Overall, this was a Good wine.

The last wine of the first flight was a 2016 Artezin Zinfandel from Mendocino ($30 Everything Wine). There were aromas and tastes of cherry, raspberry, strawberry and blackberry as well as pepper, cinnamon spice and 5 spice. The tannins were medium plus with high alcohol, a strong finish, and was balanced. It wasn't overly complex but everything else about this wine was great. I would rate this Zin as Very Good. My guess on this was either a Gamay or a Zinfandel - although I thought it was from Lodi.

At this point we had a break - for cheese and crackers. The cheese I brought (sourced at Perseval and Young in Kelowna) was an Ossau-Iraty from France. This sheep's milk cheese is amazing and really complemented the wines. Ossau-Iraty is one of the oldest cheese producing locations in the world (at least 3000 years!).

Next time, the second flight and the bonus round!

Three Celebratory Wines

As the turkey and festivities of Christmas slowly fade and the shiny New Year rapidly approaches, I thought I'd reflect on three wines that my family enjoyed over the holidays. We were at a wonderful little French restaurant, which is now closed forever, where the chef made what he made and you brought your own wines.

It was unfortunate that we only discovered the now defunct restaurant in November but were lucky enough to have enjoyed it a second time over the holidays. There was just the chef, and when you entered, he motioned you to have a seat, and then the food would begin. Near the end of the evening, we invited the chef for a glass of wine and he pulled up a chair, sipped a glass, and joined in on our conversation. What an experience!

Two of the three wines had spent some time in a cellar. It is gratifying when you hold onto a wine for a few years and it turns out well. It is not an exact science and I have been burned before by keeping a wine for too long. It seems to me that a high quality, strong tasting Bordeaux blend or bold grape such as Merlot or Cab Sauv has the potential to age better than some other grapes. Of course, there are exceptions but I think this is a pretty good starting point.

Now, onto the wines....

First we had a 2012 Cantina Tollo Mo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Italy. It was a great deal at $23.50 - way less than I thought it cost as I had bought it a few months before and stuck it in my cellar.  It was the perfect pairing with  charcuterie that included mushroom caps, prosciutto, and various cheeses. There were aromas and tastes of black cherries, blueberries, blackberries, leather, cedar, and tobacco. There were medium tannins with this wine and medium body, medium plus acidity, and medium  plus (13.5%) alcohol. Even before I knew the price of this wine, I would have given it a rating of Very Good.

The 2006 Mission Hill Select Lot Collection Merlot ($70 if you can find it) was a wine that my son-in-law was a bit nervous about sharing. He’s opened a couple of these and they have had faults - but not the bottle he shared with me. This was a fantastic Merlot - much better than most that I have ever tasted before. Even after 13 years, there was still some nice fruitiness to the wine but there was also the benefits from ageing. There were flavours and aromas of blueberry and blackberry along with oaky flavours of chocolate and caramel. The ageing brought leather and tobacco to the table as well as other earthy flavours. The different flavours, however were wonderfully integrated in this wine. It was a perfect glass. This wine had full body and a silky, soft mouthfeel with medium tannins. It retained medium minus acidity and was definitely ready to drink. If you can find this wine, buy it and drink it. Unfortunately, Mission Hill no longer makes the Select Lot Collection any more. An Excellent rated wine.

Finally, there was wonderful Bordeaux-style blend from the Okanagan. The 2012 5th Element from Road 13 Winery in the south Okanagan is not going to be easy to find. There is, however, a 2017 available for under $50 and, if the 2012 is any indication, it’s going to be a great wine. By the way, although Road 13 is owned by Iconic Wines, the same company that owns Mission Hill, this wine was bought when Road 13 was an independent winery. The grapes in this wine are Merlot dominate with Cab Franc, Syrah, Cab Sauv, Malbec and Petit Verdot. There were tastes and aromas of blackberry, plum, and black currant as well as oaky flavours of tobacco, cedar, and vanilla. The ageing of this wine also added leather, smoke, and other earthy flavours. This is a full bodied wine with softening tannins, medium acidity, and a wonderful intensity of integrated flavours. This had aged nicely and benefitted from a half hour or so in a decanter. I have another bottle of this in my cellar and feel it will still age a couple more years - although it is definitely fine to drink now. Balanced, with length, intensity and complexity - overall, an Excellent wine.

Now, to pick something out for New Year's Eve.

Cheers!

Two value wines to enjoy over the holidays

The sun still smiles on our terrace, despite the snow...

Hmmm - it's been a while.

In September, I went 'back to school' and starting taking classes in Spanish at the local college. I have been so focussed on study, that I have unfortunately been neglecting my wine blogging. Rest assured, however, that I have been drinking my fair share of wine!

As Christmas rapidly approaches, and wallets and purses are emptied of money in the pursuit of the perfect present, I thought I'd share two value priced wines that are very tasty and could even accompany your Christmas turkey. There's a red from Portugal and a white from France.

The white is a wine from the the Languedoc region of France. There aren't very many wines that I drink from this particular region as this is also known as the 'wine lake' of France. There are a lot of low acid, high alcohol wines that don't have a lot of character., There are, however, some appellations that make good or even great wine, but they are few and far between.

One of the wines that I tried when taking my WSET 3 was a Picpoul wine - and I really enjoyed it. The wine is made with the Picpoul grape and is distinctively different then other white wine grapes.

The wine that I bought was an Ormarine 2018 Les Pins de Camille Picpoul de Pinet. Picpoul de Pinet is the AOC for this wine and is only made form the Picpoul Blanc grape. At the BC Liquor Store it is currently $16 ($2 off) until the end of the year.

This wine had aromas and flavours of lemon, grapefruit, apple, pear, honey and a minerality - think wet stone - that makes me think of a Chablis. It was fairly dry with medium body, medium plus acidity, and very little oak. This is a crisp, refreshing wine and would be fine on a summer's day, while you sat in the patio. However, it is also very nice with poultry (I've had it with chicken twice in the last couple of weeks) so I think it would be a standout with a turkey dinner. It is agreeable enough that it would go with all of the dishes being served. I would rate this as Very Good.

The red is a wine from the Alentejo region of southern Portugal. My wife and I are headed there in the spring so I took the opportunity to try this one. How I selected it did not call on my expertise, however; I was at the liquor store and the cashier indicated this wine as it was on sale and there was a display at the front. I asked what grapes were in it and she said that she didn't know but that it was from Portugal. Sold!

The wine is a 2018 Segredos de São Miguel Vinho Tinto made by Herdade de São Miguel (can't find a web site) and is ridiculously priced $3 off at the BC Liquor Store for just $12 until the end of December. Amazing!  The name means Secret of São Miguel and this is one that you want in on!

This is a blend of four grapes - Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez, Touriga Nacional, and Trincadeira - as well as some other grapes. It is a bolder wine with aromas and tastes of blueberry, blackberry, plum as well as some red fruit such as strawberry. There's also some definite leathery, earthy flavours that make this a very enjoyable wine to drink. This wine has medium minus tannins, is mostly dry, and has medium acidity. It actually stood up well to chicken and would be a good red wine pairing with turkey. It would also be a good accompaniment to steak, lamb or duck. I would also rate this wine as Very Good.

There you have it - two super value wines that are good to drink on their own or pair with turkey.
Happy holidays and a big cheers - or, "¡Salud!" as we say in Spanish!

Cedar Creek - Renovated, Re-Opened, and Refined

Cedar Creek winery in Kelowna just re-opened - and it is well worth visiting!

Apparently the soft opening (for wine club members only) was last weekend but lots of other people caught wind of it and there were line ups out the door and down the path of the wine tasting room! I wasn't there that day but did go mid week and, I have to tell you, I was impressed!

In the whole Okanagan wine picture, I had previously considered Cedar Creek to be sort of in the middle to lower bracket. I hadn't tried a lot of their wine because of that and really didn't have an accurate reading on the winery.

Cedar Creek is owned by the Mark Anthony group, Anthony Von Mandl's company which also owns Mission Hill, Road 13, Checkmate and Martin's Lane, among others. The restaurant at Cedar Creek, Home Block, was also recently given a facelift but has been open for a while. I haven't eaten there but people that have are very positive about the food and service.

We were lucky enough to have both a tasting and a tour around the vineyard. Going through the vineyard was fabulous but it was a rather special opportunity that is not part of the standard wine tasting!

Cedar Creek has two levels of wine - their Estate series and their Platinum series.We had mostly the Estate level with the exception of our first tasting.

Courtesy Cedar Creek website

We started our wine tasting with a wonderful 2018 Block 1 Pinot Noir Rosé ($29.99). I love a good rosé, and this one was one of the best of summer. This had tastes and aromas of grapefruit, strawberries, cherries (those yellow and red Rainier ones) and watermelon and was made with two different pickings of grapes. Some was placed in neutral oak and was on the lees as well. This wine was not too sweet - it had good acidity but was still nice and fruity. This was my favourite wine of the day, perhaps enhanced by our racing along the vineyards in a golf cart while I was sipping on my rosė. Outstanding.

We then tried the 2018 Estate Sauvignon Blanc and the 2017 Gewürztraminer  (both were $18.99). I enjoyed both of these and thought the price point was pretty good. The Sauvignon Blanc was not too citrusy and had some grapefruit flavour that didn't overpower this bone dry wine. The Gewürztraminer was off dry and had a wonderful nose of pear and peach. It would be great with Asian food as well as slurping on the patio with your friends - or even by yourself! Both were Very Good.

Courtesy Cedar Creek website

Next was the 2016 Meritage ($24.99) which was Merlot dominant with about a quarter each of Cab Sauv and Cab Franc. I was quite excited to try this as the price point seemed rather reasonable but I was a little disappointed with the wine. There were flavours and aromas of cassis, plum, blackberry and vanilla but there was also a bit of roughness to the wine that I didn't enjoy. Maybe a year or two in the cellar might round out this wine a bit. Acceptable to Good.

The final wine was the 2016 Syrah ($24.99). The grapes for this wine are grown in the same place as the grapes for the Meritage (Haynes Creek Vineyard near Osoyoos) but these grapes were destined for greatness! The Syrah is made in a Rhone style, with a small bit (1%) of Viognier added. This wine had wonderful aromas and tastes  of violet, blueberries and plums. There were some vanilla notes amongst the explosion of red and black fruit. You could probably age this 5 or 6 years but I would be hard pressed to do so as it is so wonderfully tasty right now! Outstanding.

Next time, I think I'll have to cough up for a Platinum tasting - by the way, the Estate tasting has no charge!

By the way, I have started a wine touring business in the Okanagan. I do have this blog on my company website, but it just doesn't look as good as it is here! Please feel free to check out my website at wineandthensommwinetours.com !

Cheers

New to Old - Two Very Different Okanagan Wineries

It’s been a crazy, busy summer.

But I’m happy to say that I have successfully moved from the coast (Maple Ridge) to the Okanagan (Kelowna).

We dealt with the usual things of packing, unpacking, figuring out where the hell everything is going to go, and then making the place livable - the most difficult part being getting rid of a bunch of big, old pots and plants and preparing big, new pots and plants and bags and bags of dirt.

It was a welcome change, then, when we went on a very nice wine tour today, with the first and last of the day

We left Kelowna and headed south - to Checkmate Artisanal Winery just outside of Oliver. This winery is the brainchild of Anthony Von Mandl, owner of Mission Hill and many other wine related ventures. They only make Chardonnay and Merlot.

I had been to Checkmate two years ago and was eager to see how it was growing. Back then, we basically did our tasting in an office - this time, it was in their pop-up tasting room - a temporary building that has been open almost two years but will be replaced by an appointment only tasting room.

The tasting was $20 per person - but you do get the money refunded if you buy a bottle of wine. Mind you, while we were there, a couple came in for a tasting, blanched at the price, and hurriedly left.

It’s a bit different - we were at a table and could sit down. We were tasting four different wines and so had four glasses each in front of us. Our pourer (didn’t catch the name) was friendly and knowledgable.

First up was the 2015 Queen’s Taken Chardonnay ($125). This was an oaked Chardonnay and had a nice, smooth taste. There were stone fruits such as peach on the nose and palate as well as a hint of tropical fruits. There was also a definite mineralogy about the wine. Very Good.

Next was the 2015 Knight’s Challenge Chardonnay ($85). This was a less oaked Chardonnay - and had stronger tastes of citrus fruit as well as butter. It was quite lively on the palate, something I don’t usually mind, but this did not like as much as the first one. Good

The first Merlot was the 2014 Silent Bishop ($85). I have a 2013 vintage of this wine in the cellar and it was easy to see why as this wine had powerful fruit tastes of blackberry, blueberry and black cherry as well as underlying tastes of coffee, vanilla, and tobacco.  Outstanding.

The final Merlot was a 2014 Opening Gambit. This was all black fruits like cassis and blackberry with medium tannins and integrated oak. This was a wine to age, as is the other Merlot, and, since it was my wife’s favourite, we bought a bottle. Very Good.

As a bonus, we also got to taste the Bear’s Move Chardonnay ($60). This wine is natural, open ferment. The first year it was made, a bear opened the top of the fermenter but got scared off by the venting gasses! This is a wonderful, funky wine that has the stone fruit that you associate with Chardonnay but has a whole bunch of other, earthy, funky flavours intermingling with the wine. In fact, I bought two bottles! Outstanding.

After visiting two other wineries on the way back towards Kelowna, we stopped in at Hainle Winery in Peachland.

My wife and I had visited Hainle Vineyards about 30 years ago so it was interesting to see what it was like now. ]

When they opened in the 1970s, I believe it was one of the few wineries that actually knew what they were doing and made good wines. They were the first winery to make ice wine in Canada and were the first certified organic winery in Canada in 1988.
The original owner, Walter Hainle, was originally from Germany, and was winemaker and owner until his passing. In 2002, Walter Huber (the other Walter), bought Hainle Winery and combined it with Deep Creek Winery to make one winery. Walter Huber sold the winery in 2006 but has stayed on as winemaker ever since. He is a very charming man and we were privileged to have both Walter and our pourer, Barbie, for our tasting.

We had many different wines there and I don’t quite recall everything about all of the wines but here are my notes

2009 Deep Creek Ehrenfelser  ($30)- A very aromatic wine with some stone fruits. A bit subdued in taste, overall. Acceptable.

2016 Gewurztraminer ($25) - Another very aromatic wine. This one did not disappoint in the fruit as the tastes of stone fruit, tropical fruit and roses. Good.

2016 Estate Zweigelt ($31) - This is a crossing between Blaufrankish and St. Laurent in Austria. The wine had definite red and blue berry tastes balanced with high acidity. A good food wine that would satisfy a number of people at a dinner party. Very Good.

2008 Reserve Pinot Noir ($477) - This was an amazing Pinot Noir! There were wonderful aromas and tastes of cherry, strawberry, and even some tropical fruit. There were also underlying earth flavours as well as leather and tobacco. The price was a bit high but the 2009 Reserve Pinot (regularly $370) was on sale for $99 so I bought one (which is why the 2009 is pictured here). Outstanding.

We also tried some fortified wine (OK) and some Madeira that was more of a barrel taste (has potential). I think that’s all we tried….

Overall, it was a good tasting day with our two bookends, Checkmate and Hainle, contrasting as one of the newest wineries versus one of the oldest in the Okanagan. Both of them were well worth the visit.

Cheers

Sex on the Vine - Crossings and Hybrids

The reproduction of grapes is a strange and wonderful thing.

Grapes are hermaphrodites - that means they have both male and female parts. When it comes time to fertilize, they don't need bees to pollinate them - they do it on their own. Truly self-sufficient! That makes sure that the grapes are identical - clones - year over year.

If you want to plant a new vine, you can simply cut off a hunk of vine and plant it somewhere else. Usually, that hunk of vine is grafted onto another type of vine so that it is resistant to phylloxera, the nasty little bugger that almost wiped out all the grapes in Europe in the nineteenth century.  There's other ways of propagating vines, but that is the one most commonly used.

A recent trip to Arrowleaf Cellars with the family.

If you take a grape seedling of a species (most wine vines, for example, are from the species vitis vinifera),
 and cross it with another seedling from the same species, you get what is called a crossing. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc that happened in nature. There are lots of crossings, however, that happen in a lab. The South African grape Pinotage, for example, is a crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, made so it would taste like Pinot Noir but could stand hotter temperatures like Cinsault.

Weirdly, even if you take a seedling from a certain type of grape and cross it with another seedling from the exact same grape, you will get something different. Crazy!

Zweigelt, an Austrian grape, is a crossing of two well known Austrian grapes, St. Laurent and Blaufrankisch. It is now the most common red grape varietal in Austria.

The Zweigelt that we tried was from Arrowleaf in Lake Country, just east of Kelowna. The 2017 Arrowleaf Zweigelt ($23) had aromas of blackberry, blueberry, plum, pepper, and spice, It had a faint aroma of acidity as well and had a medium plus intensity on the nose. On the palate were similar tastes to the nose with the addition of leather. It was quite acidic with medium tannins and a medium finish. This was a pleasant, easy-drinking wine that was rated as Good.

Now, here's where it gets a little  crazier.

If you take a grape vine seedling from one species (like vitis vinifera) and cross it with a grape from another species (think, grape juice grapes), this is called a hybrid. The advantage of hybrids is that they are resistant to phylloxera as well as other nasty things like nematodes and mildew. The Canadian icewine grape Vidal, for example, is a hybrid grape.

Our second wine was a Marechal Foch - a hybrid of Goldriesling (a crossing between Riesling and another grape) and another grape that is a different species, which itself is a cross between the river grape and mountain grape.

The wine was a 2014 Little Straw Single Vineyard Marechal Foch from West Kelowna ($19.90). This wine had aromas and flavours of red cherry, blueberry, spice, a lot of pepper, some leather, and a definite minerality. The intensity of the nose was medium and this wine had medium plus acidity, medium minus tannins, and a short finish. The pepper aspect of this wine combined with its spiciness would make it a great food wine, accompanying a nice soft cheese or some chicken. This was also rated as a Good wine.

So why aren't there a ton of hybrid grapes? The problem with many of them is that they develop a 'foxy' or musky aroma in wine which is definitely not desirable. Although the Marechal Foch is a pleasant grape, that is not always the case.

There you have it - reproduction, propagation, crossings and hybrids. For grapes, sex is a complicated and fairly unique process.

I think I'll light up a smoke and have a glass of wine....