Austrian Sekt gets serious
Austrian Sekt producers have delineated a new category of native sparkling wine over the last three years with a protected designation of origin that includes strict regulations regarding origin, harvesting and production to guarantee three levels of quality: Klassik, Reserve and Grosse Reserve.
Every bottle of classified Sekt carries a red-white-red banderole on the capsule.
Grosse Reserve is reserved for the highest standards of international sparkling wines such as Champagne and Franciacorta, and the grapes must come from a single municipality or vineyard, must be harvested by hand, and they must be bottle fermented and matured on the lees for at least 30 months. Folks, that is how you get serious about your image and message to the international market.
The Bring Mission Hill Home Prize Pack continues for B.C. residents through March 19, and it’s an amazing deal.
The Mission Hill Culinary team will travel across the province, bringing the full Mission Hill experience to three lucky B.C. homes. At each stop, the winery chefs will prepare a four-course meal, complete with tips from the pros for each winner and six guests. If the free meal isn’t enough, the chefs will prepare it with a luxurious Staub enamelled cast-iron cooking set that is yours to keep. You’ll also get a Zwilling Henckels six-piece professional knife set to help slice, dice and mince your way to an elevated meal.
And there is more. The chefs will arrive at your door with a Mission Hill Family Estate gift basket to complete your in-home winery experience. It’s all free if you win, and it’s free to enter at Bring Mission Hill Home.
B.C. WINE OF THE WEEK
Terravista Albarino 2017, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley $24.90 I 91/100
UPC: 627843135302
What a delight. Brisk with bright, youthful, electric yellow fruits, this is Year 4 of the Terravista Albarino where 63 per cent comes off the home Lone Hand Ranch with the rest from the Gravelbourg Vineyard, on Black Sage Road in Oliver.
Limes and nectarines, bright and juicy, ridiculously tasty and unabashedly B.C., this wine should scare the Spanish.
Floral, stony, mineral, grassy, lemony and more, the food matches are endless.
I’m guessing it’s all sold out, so look for this in restaurants and get on the list to buy it next year. Brava Senka.
WINE FOR THE CELLAR
CheckMate Artisanal Winery End Game Merlot 2014, Okanagan Valley
$85 I 92/100
UPC: 776545800381 Winemaker Phil McGahan oversees a meticulous regime that starts in the vineyard with precision desert viticulture.
The fruit comes off two warm south Okanagan benches along the eastern side of the valley.
The nose has an enticing pure Merlot or red-fruit character that pushes the oak into the background.
McGahan’s barrel regime is designed to increase complexing by using wood from two different forests, using alternating airdried staves to complex the wine.
The attraction of Merlot is its texture, and this dense, soft, round, savoury red with bits of licorice, bitter chocolate and brown spice is more about texture than big flavours. It’s a new style of Okanagan Merlot where less is more.
You can drink this now with a grilled steak, but we would wait till 2020 and beyond. Winery direct.