Lots of whites showed up at this blind tasting given the summer heat.
1997 Mission Hill Grand Reserve Chardonnay – this BC wine was showing a fair bit of colour, a mature nose with oak and some VA, clean entry and lots of terminal acidity. Getting long in the tooth.
2005 Tantalus Old Vines Riesling – generally acknowledged as the best and incidentally the most European rendition of Riesling from BC, this wine had a classic petroleum nose good fruit and excellent acidity. Rhine Valley or Okanagan – truly hard to tell!
2006 Beringer Alluvium – I find this wine more dependably interesting, with it’s basically Bordeaux blend, than I do the Caymus Conundrum with its Heinz 57 approach, that while producing excellent results on occasion, lacks the consistency of the more conventional wine. Smooth well balanced wine showing grapefruit in the nose lots of fruit and good flavour interest.
2006 Walter Hansel Cahill Lane Vd. Chardonnay – sulphur in the nose, well made, not too heavily oaked, some nice mineral.
1987 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet – as good a bottle as I’ve tasted in the last 5 years, but very, very French! A mature Bordeaux nose with a hint of green not normally associated with Napa, mellow, good acidity and length. What a great ringer for a claret tasting!
1997 Dom. Remizieres Crozes Hermitage Cuvee Christophe – a slightly funky warm nose, with a marked tomato note, finishing soft and sweet. Drink now.
2002 Artadi Vinas de Gain Rioja - cherry fruit nose, dark colour, mature wine with sweet fruit on palate, and good length.
1999 Frescobaldi Lamaione – this merlot had dark fruit and cocoa, was still tannic but good fruit and length, and about zero Italian typicity, except for the slightly high terminal acidity.
1994 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle – some nice blood and earthy notes in this, warm, good concentration, soft tannin, seemed younger than it is.
2003 Black Hills Nota Bene – a mature cab blend from arguably BC’s best producer of cabernet. Big plumy fruit nose, warm and ripe in the mouth sweet and long. Nice mouthful of wine at peak now.
2006 Orofino Late Harvest Muscat – another BC wine. Very little Muscat character, but on the other hand, it was balanced (many/most late harvest BC wines are not) and had a crisp nose, more like Riesling than Muscat, though with a pronounced orange component. Not bad.
2006 Ch. Doisy Vedrines Sauternes – good botrytis nose, sweet and nutty, and contrary to some reports, this did have sufficient acidity although it was certainly on the soft side.