Wine place
OK, I know this is going to sound pretentious. But, wine tasting at 39,000 feet is the best. On a recent Taipei-to-Vancouver flight on Air Canada’s new Dreamliner 787-9, my wife and I were fortuitously upgraded to business class.
Besides flying in your own pod with a seat that folds down into a completely lie-flat bed for incredible shut eye, one of the other perks of travelling in the front cabin is your choice of wine.
Air Canada’s new sommelier, Veronique Rivest, put the list together and refreshes it every few months.
Rivest is the owner of Soif wine bar in Gatineau, Quebec, just across the Ottawa River from the Parliment Buildings.
By the way, soif is the French word for thirst.
Rivest is the two-time winner of Canada’s Best Sommelier contest, has been crowned Best Sommelier of the Americas and came in second at the World’s Best Sommelier competition.
Since the winner was a man, she is the planet’s top woman somm.
Unfortunately, Rivest didn’t pick an Okanagan wine for the current line up, but she could in the future.
Thus said, my wife and I did manage to sip our way through the entire list.
Champagne Drappier from France was a very apropos welcome drink.
The Jurtschitsch Gruner Veltliner from Austria went nicely with the tuna appetizer and cherry-tomato-and-artichoke salad.
The elegantly-plated pan-fried sea bass was paired with Vineland Estates Select white from Niagara.
Running out of food courses to match wines, we took the cheese plate with a flight of reds – Vini Be Good Pinot Noir from France, Volpaia Citto from Tuscany, Italy and Masroig Rojalet Seleccio from Spain, and a port, Dow’s, from, of course, Portugal.
In the economy cabin on the outward Vancouver-to-Taipei, we still had wine with our chicken-in-foil-container meal.
But, there were only two choices, a serviceable red or white in one of those little plastic bottles.
Both are Paul Mas Les Tannes blends from France, the white a sauvignon blanc-grenache blanccolombard and the red a carighanmerlot-syrah.
Independent
To better reflect the diversity, autonomy, boldness and uniqueness of its members, the Similkameen Wineries Association has changed its name to Similkameen Independent Winegrowers.
“Since the association formed in 2011, it really concentrated on making people aware the Similkameen has a wine industry and playing off the Enroute (Air Canada’s inflight magazine) article naming the us one of the top five wine regions you’ve never heard of,” said marketing director Sara Crockett.
“Well, we’ve been discovered now, members have won hundreds of awards and it was time to further define our brand.”
The Similkameen is the tight valley to the southwest of the Okanagan with its own distinctive terroir shaped by soils deposited by retreating glaciers, meltwaters and the Similkameen River; winds that cleanse vineyards of
Tin Whistle, Barley Mill, Bad Tattoo, Cannery and Highway 9 7 breweries have hooked up in the name of hops to form the Penticton Ale Trail.
The trail is part of the wider B.C. Ale Trail network put together by the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild and Destination British Columba that promotes visiting small breweries and buying artisanal suds.
The Penticton brewers are all located fairly close to each other and have either restaurants or tasting rooms, so are ideal for visiting on a self-guided tour or on a walking, bike or shuttle tour.
“Penticton has been a leader of the Okanagan craft beer scene for more than 20- years and we are very proud of our breweries, which include some of B.C.’s oldest (Tin Whistle and Barley Mill) and newest (Highway 97) craft breweries,” said Travel Penticton executive director Thom Tischik.
Penticton Ale Trail signs are going up and maps and information can be found at BCAleTrail.ca, VisitPenticton.com and on the websites of the five Penticton breweries.
When consumers see the Okanagan, Similkameen, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and Gulf Island wine region names on a label they are ensured a remarkable vintage from a B.C. producer.
To formalize that commitment to quality and terroir, the Wines of British Columbia, the brand the B.C. Wine Institute uses to promote 100 per cent quality B.C. wines, have joined the Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origin.
The Wines of B.C. signed up during special events held at the massive Vinexpo convention in France recently along with other new members McLaren Vale, representing the South Australian wine region, and Texas Wine Growers.
Members of the declaration promise to use their geographical names as tools for consumers to identify wines distinctive to the region and discourage other wine producers from using names that cause confusion.
For instance, the Champagne region of France was one of the founding members of the declaration in 2005.
Many other producers around the world use the word champagne to describe their sparkling wines when only the bubbly from the specific region of France should labelled and referred to as such.
The same goes for fortified Port wine from Portugal and the Chianti red blend of predominantly Sangiovese from Tuscany, Italy.
Sparkling tea
Chilled sparkling teas in sleek silver 355ml tall cans are the latest additions to the product line up at Kelowna beverage and snack maker SunRype.
“We wanted the package to look different from other SunRype products to ensure consumers understood this is something different,” said SunRype marketing director Barb Grant.
“That means moving beyond juice and fruit snacks to offer a wider range of on-trend items.”
The brewed, sparkling and chilled teas come in four flavours – Twist of Lemon Black Tea, Mango Peach Black Tea, Honey Lemon Green Tea and Raspberry Rooibos Tea – and are on shelves and in coolers at stores across Canada.
SunRype’s flagship brand continues to be Blue Label apple juice made from Okanagan fruit, but the company has diversified into many other products.
Steve MacNaull is The Okanagan Weekend’s business reporter and columnist. But he loves to eat and drink too, thus his new column, Fill ‘er Up, on the Wine & Dine page. Reach him at steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca.