a Huge fan of BC wines and a connoisseur of fine wines.
Doug writes WineWise which appears weekly in the North Islander weekend
newspaper in Campbell River, B.C.
He also contributes articles to Wines of Canada
BC VQA wines at Christmas? Check this turkey-friendly list twice….
France has AOC ; Italy has DOC and even DOCG; Califonia has developed AVA 's. The international wine alphabet has more acronym's that grape varieties
Like most other wine-producing regions and countries, Ontario and British Columbia share a regional wine quality program – abbreviated, here, to VQA. Vintners Quality Alliance (BC) wines are produced under a regulatory and appellation system which guarantees the high quality and authenticity of origin from 100 percent British Columbia grapes .
Some Vintners Quality Alliance wines come with an octagonal black and gold VQA necktag. Other wineries and their marketing magicians seem to have decided that simply adding “VQA” to the label gets the message across without muddying up their expensively-designed labels.
Although you will have some difficulty finding this fantasy winery, Okanagan Vineyards VQA wines certainly appear to be as available as they are affordable. Much leaner than the similarly named grape-blended whites that we have learned to expect from Australia, Okanagan Vineyards Semillon Chardonnay (+792721) $11.99 manages to titillate the tastebuds with a medley of lemon and grapefruit flavours at an exceptionally affordable price for a BC VQA white wine.
Different wineries and winemakers have unique and individual styles. With his unusually rare Sandhill Small Lots wines, crafted from unusual grapes for British Columbia like Barbera, Malbec and Sangiovese, etc… Calona's Chief Winemaker, Howard Soon seems capable of excellence with anything he does. But it is his exuberantly fruity Artist Series wines that continue to capture unsuspecting wineloving prisoners and hold them for life.
Calona Artist Series Reserve Sovereign Opal (+364265) $12.99 is a uniquely British Columbian winegrape and a world world exclusive to Calona's Artist Series. Off-dry, this gorgeous white overflows with exotic aromas of violets and mandarin oranges and tastes like a mouthful of freshly picked green grapes. Lush, sweetly seductive, delightful, delicious!
Somewhat sexier, slicker than Sideways, the perfect red wine for white winelovers and a mouthful of almost sweet strawberry fruitiness that is just as much at home with salmon as it is with turkey, Calona Artist Series Reserve Pinot Noir (+432898) $13.99 would be reminiscent of sipping silk if silk was sippable. So easy to enjoy…
Sandhill Pinot Blanc (+541185) $17.99 somehow continues to get better with every vintage. Bright and ripe, rich and lean and fully fruited all at the same time, it overflows with juicy pear, honeyed melon, spicy pineapple and sunny mango flavours. Terribly cleverly blended from batches aged in stainless steel to highlight the fruit and oak to add creamy vanilla notes and a subtle hint of resinous complexity.
There are still independent wineries in the Okanagan, though the major players consolidate their hold more effectively every year. Gray Monk is one of the founding Estate Wineries in the Okanagan Valley , owned by the Heiss family and family run for 25 years – like Quails' Gate and Gehringer Brothers.
Gray Monk Latitude Fifty Select White (+321646) $13.99 is a classically built off-dry white in an Okanagan tradition that combines aromatic white wine grapes as varied as Bacchus, Riesling and Gewurztraminer with leaner white winegrapes like Pinot Blanc. The lip-smacking variety of flavours covers a fruit-salad spectrum.
Thankfully, the Heiss family has always indulged their own preferences with wines from grapes they thought perfectly suited to the Okanagan. Gray Monk Rotberger (+321620) $15.49 is grown exclusively in their own estate vineyards. It produces a deeply coloured rosé that overflows with a medley of red and black berry fruit flavours – cherry, raspberry, cranberry and even blackcurrant.
Sumac Ridge bought Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards only to be bought up themselves by Vincor which in turn was consolidated into Constellation Brands. In between rounds of buy-outs and mergers, it is amazing that winemakers can work their magic on fine Okanagan grapes.
Formerly known as Hawthorne Mountain , See Ya Later Ranch has at last brought their Ping (+220145) $24.99 out of their Tasting Room and onto shelves near you. Built on a base of 69% ripe Merlot, this Bordeaux-styled blended red is filled out with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc. Nice to see Ping reach wider availability – even nicer to sip this lush and food-friendly mouthful of ripe black raspberry and sweet Bing cherry flavours.
Guaranteeing each and every one of these wines as suitable for serving with turkey, Doug's opinions are nevertheless exclusively his own and not representative of those of his employer the BCLDB or this website. Reach him by email at douglas_sloan@yahoo.com
Other Doug SLoan Articles
History of British Columbia Wines
BC VQA REDS
Too Good To Be True: Ooh! Oooh!! Ooooh!!!
Middle Mountain Mead
Zanatta Vineyards
Doug can be reached by email at douglas_sloan@yahoo.com
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