MATURING B.C. WINES POISED TO JOIN THE BIG LEAGUES
Province garnering international recognition as its wines win accolades
A couple of weeks ago, the River Cafe celebrated its 25th anniversary and to mark the event they hosted a remarkable luncheon and dinner featuring the wines of British Columbia.
The River Cafe has always been an advocate for local ingredients and Canadian wine, so this beloved Calgary institution was the ideal venue.
Wine Spectator columnist and author Matt Kramer was on hand to host the trade luncheon and gala dinner, which pitted B.C. wines (in a blind-tasting format) against their counterparts from other parts of the world.
As B.C.’s wine industry has matured, the province’s wines are now garnering international recognition.
For example, Meyer’s McLean Creek 2013 Pinot Noir was recently acknowledged by Decanter magazine as one of the best Pinots in the world outside of Burgundy.
That’s no small feat when you consider the quality that can be found in places like New Zealand, Oregon and California. As plantings and volumes have increased the wines are now getting international exposure, and as a tourist destination the region is seeing record numbers — with some help from the beleaguered Canadian dollar.
If there is a downside to all of this it is the cost.
The better wines tend to start at about $25 a bottle and many fall into the $40 to $50 range, but as California wines continue their inevitable rise in cost, B.C. wines are looking more attractive all the time.
Here are some of the wines that showed very well at the tasting:
QUAILS’ GATE 2014 CHARDONNAY — $ 24
At $24, this is one of the more reasonably priced wines from the event and it held its own against a fairly serious example of $40 Pouilly-Fuisse from Burgundy. The wine is almost Chablis-like in style (in the blind tasting I mistook it for Chablis), with notes of stone fruits and minerals and a touch of new French oak. Quails’ Gate has been at it for 25 years, making them one of the Okanagan pioneers and this is a seriously good bottle of Chardonnay for the price.
HAYWIRE 2013 PINOT GRIS — $ 32
Pinot Gris has long been acknowledged as one of B.C.’s trademark grapes as the varietal seems particularly well-suited to the Okanagan terroir. The Haywire was paired with Canadian sturgeon over lunch and was a nice match with this intensely flavoured fish. Fermented using wild yeast in concrete tanks, the wine has a core of citrus and melon with some minerality and lively acid. Haywire produces its wines at the Okanagan Crush Pad, a facility that offers winemaking equipment and consultation to smaller wineries. Famed Italian winemaker Alberto Antonini consults for Haywire, for example.
LAUGHING STOCK 2013 SYRAH — $ 49
This wine was one of the clear favourites at the trade luncheon and I was not surprised. Laughing Stock has been on a roll over the last few years, producing some of B.C.’s best red wines. Stylistically, it falls somewhere between the northern Rhone and South Australia, a big, chewy style of Syrah with a core of blackberry fruit and a touch of black pepper. The wine sees a small addition of Viognier — as is typical for Syrah from France’s northern Rhone Valley — which lends it an aromatic lift. Syrah is showing great potential in the Okanagan and this wine demonstrates that in a big way. At almost $50, it was one of the priciest wines in the tasting, but there is no question this is a serious bottle of red wine that should improve with a few years in the cellar.
MEYER McLEAN CREEK 2014 PINOT NOIR — $ 42
While I generally feel that the cooler northern end of the Okanagan Valley is better suited to Pinot Noir, this wine proves to be an exception to that theory (Meyer is situated in Okanagan Falls). On the day of the tasting, Jack Meyer had only just found out about the recognition from Decanter magazine so he was understandably thrilled to have received such an accolade from this highly respected publication. The wine offers a core of black cherry fruit with some intriguing albeit subtle campfire notes backed by vibrant acidity. It will improve with a few years in the cellar but is certainly drinkable now, ideally with some seared or smoked duck breast.
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