Question: Do you have a special wine and food pairing that is flying under the radar?

Answer: Drinking more of my Sauternes. Usually show rather too sweet for me with the classic foie gras match. Like them better with salty & spicy foods. Blue cheese is a natural but also try potato chips, French fries, popcorn, pretzels, pulled pork, Peking duck, spicy Indian dishes, pizza, or a ham sandwich.  André Simon liked Chateau d’Yquem with peaches but Bill Blatch of Bordeaux Gold updates his choice to roast turkey. Experiment with some new ideas of your own to match those great value for the quality Sauternes.

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There is a quality winery Laughing Stock (www.laughingstock.ca) on the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia that deserves more recognition. Consultants in the investment business who switched to wine now finds Cynthia Enns the family vineyard manager and her husband David Enns is the winemaker. There were 100 wineries in BC when they started with their first vintage of 2003 but now the industry has exploded to over 273 today. The 37th Vancouver International Wine Festival (VanWineFest.ca) showed 170 wineries from 14 countries spotlighting Australia as the 2015 theme country. Still it was a wonderful opportunity for the Enns at a popular seminar moderated by this writer to spotlight a 10 year vertical of their amazing Bordeaux blend called Portfolio. Here are some brief impressions of the wines served:

2003     64 merlot 33 cabernet sauvignon 3 cab franc. Only 500 cases of a very hot vintage of 1494 degree days with nearby forest fires is on a ripe stewed slightly alcoholic plateau with smooth textures of merlot for best drinking now. Only 8 Tons from 3-10 year old vines.

2004     55 merlot 35 cab sauv 10 cab franc. Cool year like 2011 left for 21 months in oak but is lean herbal and drying out but would show better with food. 32 Tons

2005     59 merlot 33 cab sauv 3 cab franc 4 malbec 1 petit verdot . Year of firsts-new gravity fed winery, all 5 varietals, foot stomped grapes, cap air turned, sorting tables-shows blueberries charm and drinking delightfully. 43Tons.

2006     61m 16 cs 16cf 5malbec 2pv. Right bank Bx styling with lowest amount of cab sauv using some whole berry ferment making an open softer forwardly statement.

2007     56m 25cs 12cf 6m 1pv. Still a deep colour with elegant balance using larger puncheons and more familiar with their vineyards.

2008     53m 24cs 12cf 9m 2pv. Finding the style they want plus using some in-barrel ferments because so juicy quality lovely delicious fruit here. Aging well and the group 2nd fav tie

2009     36m 27cs 22cf 14m 1pv. Full rich balanced impressive fruit with sage herb complexity of the terroir. Highest cab franc with 2012 and adds real middle body quality and length. Ranked 1st by group.

2010     32m 42cs 6cf 18m 2pv. Most cabernet sauvignon with cooler fruit and harder edges of power and concentration. Will improve.

2011     42m 32cs 17cf 7m 2pv. Coolest year with only 1195 degree days with late picking of merlot October 14-cabernet sauvignon 2nd week November is very herbal but structured for further aging.

2012     45m 25cs 22cf 7m 1pv. More oak showing but deep ripe with a special sweetness. So classy. Needs more time to evolve and develop but already group 2nd fav tie.

Exciting progress already made with amazing quality in the cellars of ripe consistent fruit from both 2013 & 2014 in the pipeline. Get in line to order.

Like the non interventionist policy used by the Enns with low sulphur, little racking, no fining, no filtering, tight grain aged French oak staves and not over oaked. Cab franc doing well in picking up oak early from 500 litre puncheons.

The Global focus for the latest Festival was 170+ expressions of Syrah-Shiraz from the Rhone to the Barossa. However Laughing Stock also makes a fabulous one and 2012 Syrah which is their 5th release with 4% viognier certainly brings the ripe cool fruit of Northern Rhone and Cote Rotie to mind.  Recommend you check this winery out for these excellent wines!

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By Joseph Temple

There probably isn’t a greater success story in the history of American viticulture than what has transpired throughout Washington.  That’s because in the decades following prohibition, the Evergreen State was largely known for producing a lot of uninspiring fortified wines and growing mostly Concord grapes.  But fast forward to the present and Washington is now home to twelve American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) and their many wineries have gone on to win numerous awards.

At the International Wine & Food Society, we are proud to have a branch in the city of Spokane and just last week, the Dallas Branch hosted an event dedicated to the state’s wine industry.  So for this week’s entry, have a look at ten interesting facts about the wines from Washington State.

By Agne27 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

1. Washington State is second only to California as the largest producer of premium table wine in America.

 Source: Henderson, J. Patrick. About Wine. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011.

2. In 1970, there were only ten wineries in all of Washington State.  Today, there are more than 750!

Source: gotastewine.com

3. The first wine grapes in Washington State were planted at Fort Vancouver as early as 1825
by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Source: Maltese, William. William Maltese’s Wine Taster’s Diary: Spokane and Pullman, Washington. Rockville: Wildside Press LLC, 2010.

4. 98% of the wine grapes grown in Washington State are east of the Cascade Mountains.

Source: Drake, Albert Nathaniel. Washington State Winemakers: Nature Produces and People Create. Lincoln: iUniverse, 2006.

5. These mountains soak up most of the rain from the western part of the state, resulting in
just 7-12 inches of annual precipitation for most Washington State vineyards.

Source: Gregutt, Paul. Washington Wines and Wineries: The Essential Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

6. Additionally, the vineyards in Washington State receive an average of 17.4 hours of daily sunlight during the growing season – 2 more than in California.

 Source: Danehower, Cole. Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest. Portland: Timber Press, 2010.

By Agne27 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

7. The wineries of Washington State are at approximately the same latitude (46-47 degrees) as Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Source: Drake, Albert Nathaniel. Washington State Winemakers: Nature Produces and People Create. Lincoln: iUniverse, 2006. 

By Bernt Rostad (originally posted to Flickr as Riesling grapes) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

8. There are more Riesling grapes planted in Washington than any other state in the union.

Source: Zraly, Kevin. Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2010.

9. As of 2009, the grape ratio in Washington State was 52% white and 48% red.

 Source: Danehower, Cole. Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest. Portland: Timber Press, 2010.

Bluedisk at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

10. In 1969, the state legislature eliminated a tax on out-of-state wine, forcing local vineyards to compete, thus improving the quality of their vintages.

Source: Veseth, Mike. Wine Wars: The Curse of the Blue Nun, the Miracle of Two Buck Chuck, and the Revenge of the Terroirists. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.

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Question: Do you have a tip for us of a top winery from a relatively unknown wine region?

Answer: Lots of choices with countries like Brazil, Uruguay, and China all emerging. The buzz here this week at the 37th Vancouver International Wine Festival spotlighting 170 wineries is the leading Croatian winery Stina (www.stina-vino.hr) from the island of Brac in Dalmatia. Vineyards at 420-550 metres on a stony plateau facing the sea east and southeast are producing some quality wines from unique varietals: 2013 Posip, 2010 Plavac Mali Majstor, 2010 Plavac Mali Barrique, and 2011 Prosek.

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By Alessandro Vecchi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Great buzz in the trade presently for the value provided by purchasing some top 2010 Barolo (and Barbaresco) for having a proven wine of long ageability. Classified Bordeaux and Burgundy as well as other treasures for cellaring are now mostly too expensive. Consistent rave reviews abound for 2010 as a classic vintage from the long growing season with excellent conditions to ripen nebbiolo. Improvements in viticulture and winemaking techniques also have made these wines more approachable for earlier drinking. Antonio Galloni (www.vinousmedia.com) boldly asserts “2010 is the greatest young Barolo vintage I have tasted in 18 years of visiting the region and a lifetime of buying, cellaring and drinking these wines.” In fact there is so much natural aromatics and intense flavours packed into this vintage that traditional thinkers believe they don’t need oak while more modern feel there is so much depth there that they can support some new oak. Which school will prove to be correct?

To put our recent tastings of this vintage into perspective we just tried at dinner some interesting older Barolo examples as follows:
1. 2005 Bussiador Chardonnay Langhe Aldo Conterno – rich full ready butterscotch white.
2. 1971 Rainero Monta D’Alba – still fresh but slightly fishy VA
3. 1997 Badarina Bersano – shows very ripe soupy soft easy vintage
4. 1997 Cannubi Boschis Sandrone – Wow! Open complex bouquet Ready vintage so delicious
5. 2000 Costi Russi Gaja – slowly developing in glass but Barbera mix shows through in this harder powerful statement of older nebbiolo vines from controversial score of 100 points given by Wine Spectator
6. 1996 Ciabot Mentin Ginestra Domenico Clerico – says 14 alcohol but still a quality keeper from this angular long aging classic year
7. 2001 Ciabot Mentin Ginestra Domenico Clerico – Says 14.5 alcohol from a terrific vintage but needs more time to really blossom out to best potential
8. 1996 Bricco Boschis Cavallotto – Another classic 1996 from a really top producer flying under the radar shows better each time I have tried it now fuller richer smoother complex
9. 2001 Ginestra Vigna Casa Mate Elio Grasso – Herbal geraniums big rich still in a dumb stage. Pleased to own some of the hard to get amazing 2010 as well as their Gavarini Chinera
10. 1995 Rincot Elio Grasso – highest property point riserva some volatility on the nose but tastes better with tannic edges
11 2001 Gran Bussia Riserva Aldo Conterno – one of the best because so elegant and stylish as harmonious now but balance of 2001 to age well too
12. 2004 Percristina Domenico Clerico – strong and powerful from another classic late vintage but needs time
13. 2004 Cascina Francia Giacomo Conterno – full rich concentrated classy

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