Canada

[chittychattykathy]

I was on the Victoria Clipper when the earthquake hit, so I missed it completely. I managed to be on a boat for the last (bigger) one in 95 as well! House is fine, friends and family are all fine, my wines are all fine. Did loose about 100 bottles of wine at the store, (mostly cheaper wines that were on metro racking, none of the wines in the cellar or on the wood lay-down shelving on the perimeter walls were damaged) have about 80 more that will be exchanged for new ones, (labels are messed up or they are chipped).
As for the festival, let me just say that BC Canadians know how to show a good time! I am so impressed with both the quality of the event itself, which was very well scheduled and ran very smoothly, but also the quality of the wines, which were all from BC. You know me, I am never going to get around to doing a full-sized posting of this trip, but here's some basics and questions are welcome!
LANG, maple ice wine, I start with this one because I figured that it would be THE scariest of all of them, I have waited quite some time for a maple wine tasting, as I was never willing to pay for a bottle in order to gross myself out! But in all seriousness, it was not bad at all, in fact it surprised even a few "wine industry" Canadians whom I spoke with. It's a lot dryer then I thought it would be, and has a nose of, you guessed it, light maple flavor.
From Auxerrois ice wines to Maple Brut sparking wine, there was a whole lot of interesting wines to try.
A few of the best wines for me were:
The sparkling wines of Blue Mountain (each truly brut)
Hillside Cellars, Auxerrois
Lake Breeze, Ehrenfelser
Peller Estates, pinot blanc (one of the few pinot blanc wines that I have enjoyed!)
Pinot Reach, Gewurtraminer (can we say, just short of Alsace?)
Glenterra, red meritage
Jaskson Triggs, riesling ice wine (which is one I was expecting to love, as it's get the most hype which is well deserved, it did not let me down!)
And for cpurivs; Paradise ranch, late harvest merlot, 1999, was just sweet enough to pull off the late harvest name, with cherry and blackberry flavors & bright acidity. Yum!