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One of the many highlights of the 41st International Wine Festival in Vancouver earlier this year @VanWineFest #VIWF was learning a lot about the diversity of the different wine regions (AVA – American Viticultural Area) of the Napa Valley. AVA is a legally designated grape growing area possessing distinguishable characteristics for climate, soils, terrain, and other historic significance. In the Napa Valley there are 16 of these. Wineries and tastings focused on these AVA as being very important whether the wine was from a single vineyard AVA or a blend of several to take advantage of different styles from the grapes.

Napa Vintners.com has put out a most useful map showing where these 16 AVA are with a helpful breakdown of the climate, elevation and principal varieties grown in each. You will see they range from cool to warm to hot reaching 792 metres elevation in the mountainous districts. These are important background facts to get to know so you have a better understanding of why Napa Valley wines can smell and taste different depending on their AVA. Some are more well known than others but all are finding their distinctive mark and hopefully showing a unique terroir. Investigate.

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Question: When I order a glass of House Wine at a restaurant what size serving should I expect to receive?

Answer: Excellent question because there is no clearly recognized standard size. Perhaps there should be. Some places note their service size right on the Wine List. If not shown ask them. Most serve either a 5 ounce or 6 ounce size. A full standard bottle is 750 ml. so often they try to get 5 pours per bottle of around 150 ml each (or 5 ounces). Others provide a more generous pour using a 4 per bottle serving  guide for about 180 ml. (or 6+ ounces).  Check the price differences too. I ordered a glass of quality wine at a one star Michelin restaurant in Paris that stated on the menu that it would be 150 ml but must have been close to only 100. I complained. The best idea I have seen is the one used at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles by Nancy Silverton & Joe Bastianich. They take a wine bottle and pour it into 3 small carafes of 250 ml. each which you can then pour all for yourself to have with your delicious pizza or share with others. The good deal is that that you pay only 1/3 of the Wine List bottle price for your 1/3 carafe serving. Encourage more places to follow this type of fair wine service.

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Your scribe often attends food shows of the latest hot products on the consumer market. Usually disappointed by too many fast food items ranging from potato chips to popcorn with a new sometimes bizarre flavour. Therefore approached the latest one GSF19 Grocery & Specialty Food West Show at the Vancouver Convention Centre with lower expectations on April 1. However I found 5 food discoveries that captured my interest and recommend them as follows:

1. Nature Valley Granola Bars. Bit sweet but can be a good emergency fallback at breakfast while travelling. Like their crunchy Oats ‘n’ Dark Chocolate one and there is a new one chewy trail mix coconut dark chocolate.

2. QueenBee Natural Honey 100% Canadian but newly mixed with a Ginger Boost.

3. Siggi’s Icelandic Skyr Thick 0% Fat Plain Yogurt with only 3 grams of sugar – that is low. Like they use 100% natural ingredients and have large print notice of LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES. Also like what it lists that it doesn’t have: NO aspartame, sucralose, stervia, gelatin, artificial, preservatives – none of those.

4. Fruta Mil (frutamil.com.br) 100% natural frozen pulp from Brazil – especially passion fruit + açai – imported by nutreewholesale.com. Investigate.

5. Casa Luker Cacoa from Columbia at www.cacaofinodearoma.com. Good quality at better prices. My fav single origin Tumaco 85%.

Good luck exploring new food products.

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Question: Seeking out the name of a famous deceased French winemaker who made two top white wines from different regions. Who would that be?

Answer: Suspect you must be thinking of Didier Dagueneau who died in a plane crash in 2008. He had a cult following for his Pouilly Fume Sauvignon Blanc named Silex from the Loire Valley and also Les Jardins de Babylone made from Petit Manseng in Jurancon (at the foot of the Pyrennes in Southwest France).

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Arguably the Chardonnay grape variety has been the most successful one in adapting to the different growing conditions around the world. These days many wine regions are proud to show off their own local style ranging from quaffable light unoaked ones to ripe heavily toasted examples and everything in between. Traditionally we looked for guidance from the Kimmeridgean chalky soils of Chablis & Cote des Blancs of Champagne to the limestone of Burgundy’s Cote de Beaune. Now pockets of preferred growing conditions with differences for producing quality Chardonnay are found around the globe. Ontario has plentiful calciferous bedded limestone soils and British Columbia is finding bands of it in their geologically complex blocks. Writer John Schreiner in his blog on February 22, 2019 gave a bullish 100 point score to the expensive $110 CheckMate Little Pawn 2015 single vineyard stating “it is impossible to find anything negative about this wine.” This chardonnay is outstanding but your scribe believes a score of 100 should be rarely used & extremely difficult to obtain only with very enthusiastic positives from un-matched complexity in the wine. Nonetheless it seems Okanagan Chardonnay has finally come of age. This statement was affirmed by a blind tasting of top Chardonnays all from the respected 2016 vintage well organized by the BC Wine Appreciation Society (bcwas.org) held on March 18, 2019. There were 10 Chardonnays 2016 in competition with a few comments from me below and served blind in the following order:

1. POPLAR GROVE RESERVE $26: Group Rank 5. 63% Osoyoos & 37% Naramata estate fruit harvested October 5 whole cluster into fully oaked Burgundian barrels aged on lees for 10 months producing 275 cases at 13.3. Open big apple stylish aromas plus vanilla with solid full rich creamy rather softer flavours. Expressive.

2. LITTLE FARM PIED DE CUVE $31: Group Rank 10. Only one from Similkameen Valley organically farmed Mulberry Tree Vineyard early harvested August 29-September 3, unfined & unfiltered at 12.5 alcohol. Left a bucket of foot crushed grapes fermenting for a week in the vineyard with native yeasts before the main harvest began. Older neutral French oak on the lees for about 10 months. Showed lots of sweet applesauce on the nose with a dramatically different big lees unique style not fully appreciated by this group.

3. TINHORN CREEK OLDFIELD RESERVE $35: Group Rank 6. Harvested September 24 from younger 6 year old vines from Golden Mile Bench on sandy gravel soil at 13.5. Natural ferment in French oak with 1/3 each of new, second fill, & neutral with longest time of 17 months for 286 cases. Liked the vibrant citrus and varietal character with good balance. Well done.

4. LIQUIDITY RESERVE: Group Rank 7. Expensive now as the winner of Chardonnay du Monde 2018 with only 152 cases made at 13.5 from 3.5 short tons per acre off 22 year old Allendale property in Okanagan Falls harvested late September. Intense closed in nose but has lovely stone fruit with pineapple finishing with some length.

5. LA FRENZ RESERVE $25+: Group Rank 3. Best blocks from Freedom 75 Vineyard (fine sandy loam + clay) on the Naramata Bench fermented 80% French oak (25% new) & 20% cement eggs at 13.3. Interesting cloves with spice notes but some bathroom-like talc powder too. Unclean bottle or glass? Unusual. Neighbour’s glass at another table from a different bottle shows much cleaner and the group overall liked it.

6. PAINTED ROCK $30+: Group Rank 8. Three micro-harvests Of Estate grown fruit over 3 weeks gives special attention to detail in capturing it at best balanced ripeness. Opened nicely as it warmed and aired showing richness with some minerals though highest alcohol comes through on the finish at 14.8. Likeable.

7. CEDARCREEK PLATINUM BLOCK 5 $35: Group Rank 4 (#1 for your scribe). Home vineyard block 5 uses French oak barriques & puncheons for 10 months for 378 cases at 13.7. This has multi-dimension fruit complexity on both the nose and the palate with intriguing minerals. The structure is tremendous with outstanding lift & vibrancy from their distinct natural higher yet balanced acidity. No rush to enjoy. This will make a great bottle for a $35 steal! Congrats.

8. NK’MIP CELLARS QWAM QWMT $30: Group Rank 2. Early harvest September 9 start but finish on October 4 with whole cluster pressed into French oak (38% new) for ferment. Big open sweet pineapple candy in a good way. Very tropical butterscotch chardonnay. Perhaps a bit obvious and softer rather than subtle but still attractive.

9. MEYER FAMILY McLEAN CREEK ROAD VINEYARD $33: Group Rank 9. Planted in 1994 in Okanagan Falls on alluvial glacial soils with gravel & sandy loams with 2 different facing slopes. Use French oak 18% new and 11 months sur lees without stirring. One of BC’s very best premium producers of chardonnay (and pinot noir) but unfortunately hit by an off bottle here. Dank and cellar aromas with a “filter paper” taste disappoint. Tried another bottle that was more typical and showed the wine deserves to be in the first ranked grouping. Tough atypical result from bottle variation.

10. QUAILS’ GATE ROSEMARY’S BLOCK $45: Group Rank 1 (#2 for your scribe). 340+ cases of this whole cluster pressed old + new French oak fermented 11 months regular stirring (battonage) of lees full malo at 13.5. Also make their Stewart Family Reserve of both Chardonnay & Pinot Noir that are worthy to collect. Banana notes on the aromas here but also peaches, other stone fruits, with toasted nuts. Impressive rich buttery statement yet refined and elegant too. Very good indeed.

An excellent showing by top BC 2016 chardonnay all from the Okanagan except for a differently styled one from Similkameen. Prices here ranged from $30 to $50 Canadian representing very fair value in the world market. Recommend checking out the many new chardonnay examples from BC. Have you tried any? Your thoughts?

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