WTN: Church & State

[Jenise]

While on Vancouver Island last weekend we tasted the offerings at Church & State Winery, who have facilities both here and in the Okanagan Valley:

2009 Pinot Gris (Vancouver Island): from five year estate vines, first harvest. Green apple and celery, crisp and refreshing but not especially complex. Presume unoaked. Spendy at $20 but I bought two just for yucks.

2010 Gewurztraminer (Okanagan): Joy dishwashing soap, indistinct fruit, very clear wine/no apparent skin contact, no spice, very drinkable but odd in everything it wasn't. Pass.

2008 Chardonnay: (Okanagan) 12 months in new French Oak, washed rind cheese, smokey, obvious malo, sweet butter, green fig, nice concentration but not, for me, compelling. $25.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon blanc (Okanagan): watermelon, sour cherry and sawdust. Love love love that sawdust thing that occurs in cab roses so bought two bottles, even though at $20 it's no bargain.

2009 Pinot Noir (Vancouver Island): very light, very young, vegetal, peppery, lean. Doesn't make a strong case for growing pinot on VI. Pass. $26.

2009 Merlot (Okanagan): green bell pepper, floral, more St. Emillion than Sonoma, minerally and restrained. Didn't dislike the wine but kept waiting for the fruit to kick in and fill out the finish, and it never did. $26.

2006 Meritage (Okanagan): They're very proud of this, it won some big awards, but it has not aged especially well (I tasted it, coincidentally, shortly after release). Jammy ripeness dominates the nose, better on the palate with sturdy tannins, med weight. But jeez, that nose. Yuck. $35.

2007 Quintessential (Okanagan): 25% each CF, CS and Merlot with the rest PV and malbec. Fresher than the 06, with good fruit, definition and tannins. Shows more merlot and PV at this point. Very good plus. But $50? No, not from me.

[David M. Bueker]

I wonder if the pricing of wines like the Quintessential is a necessity in order to make a go of it, or just some grab for prestige...

The Chard sounds very nice.

Thanks for posting Jenise, having heard about this new outfit. Will pass!

[Jenise]

I wonder if the pricing of wines like the Quintessential is a necessity in order to make a go of it, or just some grab for prestige...

You've got it. They want to run with the big boys, and you need a $50 wine to do that. And of course that's just the starting point.

On the Rogov corner, we've been around this bush a number of times regarding relatively new wineries that put out expensive wines. On the one hand, they say, because they don't have the economy of scale that the more well established producers have, and thus high costs equals expensive wine, but on the other hand no one (at least in the kosher wine world) is willing to underprice their wines and trust the consumers to decide if they're actually worth more, as has happened with certain wines from South America over the last few years.

[Jenise]

It's hard to tell about the motivations, Joel. It's probably both: whoever the owner is, he bought the winery about five years ago. In addition to the vineyards there's a magnificently large building on the property that houses not only a tasting room but a restaurant/bistro and kitchen that he either built or paid for, but there isn't enough traffic to be open on weekdays even during summer. And god knows what he has in the Okanagan. In addition to overhead, though, is the way the marketplace tends to take big priced wines more seriously than lower priced wines. Anymore, and I know I'm generalizing here, most wineries seem to need an expensive flagship product or the Robert Parker's of this world won't give you a second look.