The world’s viticultural areas are renowned for their natural beauty as well as their wines, but many have succumbed to crass commercialization and often exude an exulted sense of themselves, but happily not all.  If you truly love wine and are looking for an exciting young wine country with many exceptional wines, plenty of friendly and passionate people, and an unspoiled land that offers a true feast for the eyes as well as the palate, try British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.  Situated in a scenic valley between the coastal mountains and the Canadian Rockies, Okanagan flows north for nearly 125 miles from the border with Washington State to north of Kelowna.  The Okanagan’s vines lay primarily on sunny, well drained bench lands that overlook the countryside’s deep glacial lakes.  Think Lake Tahoe.  

So, yes indeed, the scenery is knockout beautiful and the Okanagan is serious wine country, too, so what more could you want?  How about 200 fun loving wine bloggers, dozens of winery owners to go along with the picturesque scenery and fine food, the latter emanating from fresh sustainably grown foods from farms nearby!  The organizers’ of this year’s International Bloggers’ Conference, which was held in Penticton, British Columbia, wisely chose to highlight Okanagan during the 2013 International Wine Bloggers’ Conference.  Imagine spending four days with 200 passionate wine bloggers, hundreds and hundreds of wines from the Okanagan and from around the world, and passionate winemakers. 

A good time was had by all.  And in case you’re wondering, the wines of Okanagan are well worth searching out.  What began earlier this month as a voyage of discovery has already yielded great fruit in the form of many of Canada’s most compelling wines.  Stay tuned for more about Okanagan and this year’s wine bloggers’ conference.

Don

In some wine regions of the world, the quality of wine doesn’t vary tremendously from year to year.  The reason is that the weather in some wine areas remains fairly consistent and predictable.  In other wine lands such as Bordeaux, vintage means everything.  The weather in Bordeaux varies enormously throughout the growing season and from year to year, and because weather largely determines the quality of the vintage and the resulting wine, vintage speaks volumes in the most hallowed of French appellations.  The saying in Bordeaux is June makes the quantity, August the style, and September the quality.  If the flowering and subsequent berry set go well in June, growers can look forward to a bumper crop.  And by August, the vignerons know roughly what to expect in style.  But it’s September that ultimately determines how good the Bordeaux will be, particularly the reds, based largely on the amount and frequency of rain that falls during the month.  If a tropical depression sweeps in from the Atlantic, all bets will be off.  With this said, Bordeaux has enjoyed a bevy of fine vintages in recent years, and no two back to back vintages in memory rank higher than 2009 and 2010.  Although the resulting wines are different in style, each of these vintages enjoyed ideal weather in September and October.  The years 2009 and 2010 produced from top to bottom some of Bordeaux’s most drinkable and profound red wines.  Consequently, I’m putting as many 2009 and 2010 red Bordeaux in my cellar as I can afford because Bordeaux doesn’t get much better than in these two vintages.

Don

Whether we refer to this great varietal as Shiraz or Syrah, we are talking about one of the world’s most illustrious red grape varieties.  It is also one of my personal favorites.  Grown for centuries in the Rhone Valley of France, where it is responsible in all or part of many of the greatest red wines of France (Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape specifically), the exact origin of this full-flavored varietal remains in debate.  However, historians do agree that it was brought to Europe from the Middle East, but when and by whom remains a mystery.

Some historians maintain that it was the Crusaders, who first brought Syrah to France, while others point to the earlier Roman legions under Probes, and yet others claim it was the remnants of Alexander the Great’s army on its return from Persia.  The latter theory is particularly intriguing since Alexander himself was so enamored of the rich, powerful wines he found around the city of Shiraz in Central Persia, that he insisted on staying there, apparently far longer than he should have, since that is where he met his end.  Nonetheless, the one point that has been ascertained that everyone seems to agree upon is that the name Shiraz, from the Persian city of that name, is the origin of the varietal’s name.  The grape’s name changed to Syrah as it traveled west.  In any case, Syrah flourishes today not only in the south of France but in other Mediterranean climates.  It fares particularly well in Australia, California, and South Africa, where it is often called by its original name – Shiraz.   Australia’s Barossa Valley, South Africa’s Western Cape and several appellations throughout California produce a bevy of lush, polished Syrah/Shiraz wines that are not to be missed.

 

A Votre Santé!

Don