WTN - A few recent tastes

• 2002 Craneford Grenache John Zilm - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (7/10/2006)
  Deep ruby, with purple hues. A slightly sweet nose of plums, blueberries and hint of mint. Also a little sweet on the medium-full bodied, very smooth palate - there's no doubting it's an Oz wine - with more plum and blueberry notes, with some earthy and oak notes as well. Almost syrah-like in it's thickness and ripeness. Very tasty, and quite easy (too easy?) to drink, but just a little too sweet for my tastes, which brought it down it my eyes and palate. Less sweetness, more acidity and structure would help, I think. (B+) I also had the 2002 shiraz a while back, and liked it even less: a little too clumsy and obvious for me (B+).
• 2002 De Moor Chablis Bel Air - France, Burgundy, Chablis (7/10/2006)
  Hazy notes from a quick taste after I opened this up at a small party. Not much showing now, especially when out of the fridge, but I warmed up to the wine when it warmed up, as it showed more classic mineral notes then. Still quite primary, but still tasty (B+/A-).

[*]2005 Hillside Estate Pinot Gris Reserve - Canada, Okanagan Valley(7/10/2006)
Hazy notes: tried and bought this at the winery a couple of weeks ago, and opened it up at a small gathering. Nice mouthfeel here, with just a hint of oak and a nice creamy texture in the midpalate. Interesting grey/slightly pink colour too. A nice BC pinot gris (B+).[/list]

Great to see a fellow Canadian posting notes on the Okanagan! Thought I was the sole PG taster around here!!!

You are not alone--though Pinot Gris is not often in our wine glasses. I have not tried the Hillside, but might grab some for those who come to the house that are not wine geeks.

Ruth

Ruth B..where are you?!!

Thought I was the sole PG taster around here!!!

Oi!!!! You take that back, Bob!!! I'll never turn down a good PG and report on every Alsatian that we get here and any other potentially interesting one that we see. That's not many, I'll admit, but it is the thought that counts, no?

Hi Otto....I was really thinking of the Okanagan!!! Are you getting into the `04s from Alsace yet?

I'm not the biggest fan of BC wines, but I has a quick visit to the Narramatta region of the Okanagan area a while back, and brought the Hillside PG back, as I thought it was a nice summer wine for a reasonable price ($17).

Hi Otto....I was really thinking of the Okanagan!!! Are you getting into the `04s from Alsace yet?

Ah! My apologies, I misunderstood. But no, we don't have 04s yet - just a couple 02s. How are the 04s looking like? Good?

Not much chance to taste too many but am starting to stock up on my fav. producers.......Zinck, P Sparr, Albrecht etc. Looks like a fair vintage.

Not much chance to taste too many but am starting to stock up on my fav. producers.......Zinck, P Sparr, Albrecht etc. Looks like a fair vintage.

Zinck makes good PG? Good to hear. I've not had much luck with this producer. But have you tried Lorenz? We just got a quite lovely 2002 PG from them!

North of Edmonton (which is where I buy most of my wine).
You?

[Jenise]

Great to see a fellow Canadian posting notes on the Okanagan! Thought I was the sole PG taster around here!!!

Bob, speaking of your loneliness--what happened to Bob McDonald? We miss him!

Jenise.

Bob McD has been seen around town but guess he is too busy with the legal stuff? Maybe not a big forum fan for some reason?

Ruth.

Edmonton, slab bang in the middle!!

[Jenise]

Bob, he was a regular for a long time in his own way. I hope no one offended him or anything like that. If you see him, tell him he's missed.

I am an on again off again poster, so I can relate to Bob McD. It had been so long since I logged in the format on the board had been changed for months!

I confess, I logged in to find some wine info and noticed a post from Bill Spohn(who I have been lucky enough to pull corks with a couple of times) on a topic that held interest for me and just started checking in again

John,

The words "BC Wines" and "reasonable price" rarely, if ever, fit into the same sentence, so I agree with you that a $17 PG is of more reasonable value. I feel a heartfelt affinity to BC products as I truly do believe they produce some great wines and it's a fantastic feeling to support local businesses, but I think they're all, at least for the most part, one price bracket too expensive. I try to relate this to colleagues as, many $25 BC wines are of $18-20 quality, or $50 BC wines are of $30-$40 quality.

Case in point, as much as I like CedarCreek, when I get their email this morning announcing the release of their Platinum Pinot Noir, and find out it's $40.50 a bottle, I think to myself, wow, that'll buy a Russian River La Crema or Jadot Burgundy and I just don't think CedarCreek is at that level.

This all being said, I keep a number of Canadian bottles at home and enjoy them every time they're poured.

[Jenise]

Ruth, you've pulled corks with Bill Spohn, too? Gosh, that boy gets around. Nice to know yet another person in Edmonton. I plan to drive up that way one of these days (I live just outside Vancouver on the American side of the border)--we'll have to stage an offline with Doris. Maybe we can even coax Bob McD out.

The words "BC Wines" and "reasonable price" rarely, if ever, fit into the same sentence, so I agree with you that a $17 PG is of more reasonable value. I feel a heartfelt affinity to BC products as I truly do believe they produce some great wines and it's a fantastic feeling to support local businesses, but I think they're all, at least for the most part, one price bracket too expensive. I try to relate this to colleagues as, many $25 BC wines are of $18-20 quality, or $50 BC wines are of $30-$40 quality.

I totally agree. But even more annoying is that the BC gov't gives them a tax break as compared to imported wines, so the prices are even more absurd.

BC and ON make some nice table wines, but very few, if any, great wines, and no wines are consistently great (though much more famous regions, wineries and wines are plagued with the same problem!). But they are young regions, and important lessons are being learned; climate change might help as well!

The irony is that we can buy BC wine cheaper in Alberta than in BC!


Ruth