WTN: cheap and cheerful Canadian wine

2008 Gray Monk Latitude 50 Red (Okanagan) - $15 CDN

Not much to say about this wine in detail, other than that it is kind of floral, kind of spicy, kind of fruity, and very, very light on the palate. It seriously looks about two shades shy of a rosé. It was an inoffensive quaffing wine that went surprisingly well with goat cheese.

Apparently it's made from a blend of "four premium grape varieties" but I wasn't able to find out what these might be. I've sent an email to the winery asking them, and I'll post an update (either here or on my blog) when/if I get a response from them. My guess was: Gamay, Pinot Noir, Rotberger, and Siegerrebe, but I'm probably totally wrong. And I'm ok with that.

Oh happy day! The winemaker of Gray Monk just posted a comment on my blog, identifying the grapes that went into the L50 red. Turns out I was only half right (though this was expected, as I was making some fairly wild guesses). The blend is mostly Gamay, with some Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cab Franc.

Apparently they stopped publishing the wine's composition because of issues with copycatting.

(Here's the link to the blog post, for any interested parties: http://www.melpriestley.com/archives/692)

Gray Monk is one of my go-to wineries for Pinot Gris!

[Jenise]

Rotberger! I have really liked Gray Monk's version of that in the past. Also, in general I like the winery's style. More European than most there.

Also, in general I like the winery's style. More European than most there.

I totally agree - the owners/winemaker are of German-Austrian descent, so it's not surprisingly that they go for an Old World-ish style. I really like their Siegerrebe too. It's awesome that they are one of the only places in the Okanagan that has plantings of these German and Austrian varieties.