Canada

[chittychattykathy]

Off to Canada, for some serious wine tasting fun. See ya in four. CCK

[cpurvis]

Have a GREAT time...and get the scoop on who has a good, red icewine at the moment. cp

[barnesy]

Looks like CCK picked a good time to leave seattle and avoid the shakin'.

Hope all is ok with her, her family and her wine.

Barnesy

[winoweenie]

CCK, Hope you experienced the same breakage as Bucko. Let us know the scoop when you get back.( Like your report on Germany) hehehe WW

[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!

[Innkeeper]

Sounds great. BC that is, not Seattle. Glad all was OK at home. Did the store have earthquake insurance? Did you coworkers clean it all up before you got back? Do you owe them?

Are all the wines you mentioned imported into the U.S.?

[chittychattykathy]

The deductible is more then what was damaged, so we just move on. Most of it was cleaned, (but for some glass behind the stacks & some glass stuck to the bottles on the bottom shelf ), before I came in yesterday afternoon. Good timing on my part, eh!
To my knowledge none of the wines I mention are exported to the US. at this moment. Lang is working on getting the Maple Ice Wine to Washington. We already have their riesling, and merlot ice wines available. I am going work with the folks from Pinot Reach and Red Rooster to match them up with an importer/dist here in the Seattle area. Blue Mountain will post off some of there wines next month, but only in the Seattle area. Tinhorn Creek, Hester Creek, Paradise Ranch, and Stag's Hollow are all available in the US, but I am not sure how many states they cover. The two biggie wineries, Mission Hills (owned by Gallo folks) and Gray Monk should have their wines all over the Northern US in comparision to the other brands, but are still hard to come by I imagine.
And since I am on the subject here's some stats from the BC Wine Institute:
Wineries in BC= 65
Acres of wine grapes= 4,200
# people employed= 500 by wineries, 475 by grape industry
Amount of wine sold in BC=18 million litres
Value of wine sold in BC= $184 million (Canadian)
Iternational medals won in 1999= Gold:89, Silver:233, Bronze: 256
Highest selling BC white wine= Chardonnay
Red= Pinot Noir
Most expensive BC wine= Ice Wine @ $108.00 per 750 ml.

[cpurvis]

Thanks CCK! Glad to hear you enjoyed the trip, & I appreciate the Paradise Ranch tip.

cp