SMOTHERED WITH FLAVOUR
Pork chops invite Cab Franc
California wine ambassadors Gina Gallo and Jean-Charles Boisset lead a long list of Golden State wine personalities that will be in town all next week at the Vancouver International Wine Festival.
Today we highlight a few of the visitors, and a wine that they have made globally famous. Our selections are based on whether the wine is generally available in B.C. retail outlets, be they private wine shops or government outlets.
Boisset, proprietor of Boisset
■ Collection, was born into the world of wine in Vougeot, Burgundy, France. Under his leadership, the Boisset Collection operates 24 wineries in California, France, and Canada.
JC, as he is widely known, has been on the Decanter magazine “Power List” of the 50 most important people in the wine world each year of its publication since 2007.
Recommended wine: JC Boisset 2016 Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Burgundy, France ($23.99).
Gallo, vice-president of winemaking,
■ estate wines for E&J Gallo, topped off her wine studies under the careful guidance of her grandfather Julio Gallo, and today is the winemaker behind the Gallo Signature Series where she carves out specific block selections from Gallo’s most sought-after vineyards to handcraft limited, batch wine.
Recommended wine: Louis Martini 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon ($35.99)
Bob Blue, founding winemaker
■ of Bonterra Organic Vineyards in 1990, was mentored by legendary “green” California winemakers Paul Dolan and Dennis Martin and is considered a pioneer in organic and biodynamic grapegrowing and winemaking. If you think green, Blue’s booth is a must stop.
Recommended wine: Bonterra 2017 Chardonnay, Mendocino ($19.99)
Austin Hope, winemaker and
■ president of Hope Family Wines, is one of the forces behind the growing reputation of Paso Robles wines. He graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a degree in fruit science, and worked with Caymus founder Chuck Wagner in Napa before returning to the family winery, putting the Treana brand on the map and powering up Hope Family Wines.
Recommended wine: Hope Family Wines 2015 Treana Blanc, Paso Robles ($42, private wine shops).
A busy pork chop dish pushes us toward medium weight reds to stand up to all the flavours.
Rabble Red Wine 2015,
■
Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County, California, $23.95
Intense, vibrant black fruit and cedar with mocha undertones and warm spicy, rustic black cherry flavours should easily complement the pork.
Hester Creek Block 3 Reserve
■ Cabernet Franc 2016, Golden Mile Bench, Okanagan Valley, $28.95
Cassis, wild blackberry and violets mingle with structured tannins and a core of juicy cool black plum fruit, providing plenty of pushback for this dish.
Joel Peterson, the founder
■
of Ravenswood Winery, is the godfather of California Zinfandel and the man behind the slogan “No Wimpy Wines.” Petersen is a fountain of knowledge on old vines, dry-farming, and where the best Zinfandel is grown in California, not to mention an absolute pleasure to taste with, especially if it involves his oldvine, single-vineyard Zins.
Recommended wine: Ravenswood 2015 Zinfandel Dickerson Vineyard, Napa Valley, ($43.99)
Randy Ullom, wine master at
■
Kendall-Jackson, studied crop production with a specialty in viticulture and oenology at Ohio State University. Hired by Jess Jackson 27 years ago to steer the ship, Ullom is perhaps the most complete winemaker in California. His kingdom — coastal and hillside vineyards — includes more than 14,000 such acres across the state. He is the king of Chardonnay, having kept K.J. Vintners Reserve Chardonnay on the No. 1 bestselling list for a quarter-century.
Recommended wine: KendallJackson 2016 Chardonnay Vintner’s Reserve ($21.99)
Karl Wente is a fifth-generation
■ winemaker and wine grower who grew up working at Wente Vineyards, but the family story goes back to 1883, when German immigrant C.H. Wente studied winemaking under Charles Krug in Napa Valley. Eventually he bought 47 acres just east of San Francisco in the Livermore Valley, where ultimately he was responsible for bringing in a Chardonnay clone from Burgundy in 1912 that is the source material for 80 per cent of American Chardonnay plantings today.
Recommended wine: Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2016, Livermore, San Francisco ($19.99)
Chief winemaker Genevieve
■Janssens of Robert Mondavi makes a rare stop in Vancouver with sidekick, educator and Master of Wine Mark DeVere, appropriately closing four decades of wine festivals first begun by founding festival chairman John Levine and the Mondavi family back in 1979.
Recommended wine: Robert Mondavi Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, Napa Valley ($59.99)