BC Wines

[appreciator]

At Thanksgiving this year, I experimented by paring the usual turkey feast with a Pinot Noir from Orofino Vineyards (this was not out of the blue, nor an original thought (sigh)… I’d read somewhere that Pinot Noir made a good pairing with the usual T-Day fair).

As an additional challenge, I asked my brothers to contribute a Pinot Noir from Oregon and one from New Zealand.

Guess what? The PN from Orofino (in the Similkameen valley) won, hands down!

Joyously, I did buy two bottles so will be going that route again at Christmas. Though I do wish that I'd picked up at least a half a case. Oh well..... there's always next year.

What about everyone else? Are you pairing some nice BC whites or branching out into red territory? Sticking to BC wines or.....

Edited December 22, 2005 by appreciator (log)

[merlin]

I am heading over to the "Outlaws" for Christmas dinner along with a couple of bottles of LaFrenz Naramata Bench Semillon for "da bird" and likely a pinot noir from Blue Mountain and/or Cedar Creek.

[kurtisk]

Anyone who managed to hold onto their last bottle of Joie 2004 Pinot Noir Rose is in great shape for Christmas trimmin's. There will most certainly be Sumac Ridge 'Stellar's Jay' Brut being popped, some Golden Mile Cellars 2003 Pinot Noir being opened, a back vintage of Black Hills Nota Bene being decanted, and a certain Manager/Wine Guy from around town being tipsy!

Happy Holidays!

k.

[Daddy-A]

I still have a couple bottles of Silver Sage Sage Grand Reserve (Gewurtz fermented with sage) which IMO is the ultimate turkey wine. Silver Sage's The Passion is their Pinot ... never thought of trying it with turkey, but I just may have to do so.

Good call on the Stellar's Jay Kurtis! However, I'm not opening the Note Bene for anyone just yet. Mine's still got a couple years to go.

Some Township 7 Late Harvest Riesling will be accompanying the cheese plate after dinner, along with some Elephant Island Cassis or some Salt Spring Island Vineyards Blackberry Port. Sorry, the cheeses are all French this year

Enjoy your turkey!

A.

[vanderb]

Had an excellent Cali Syrah with the bird last night, but the top of the heap was a pre-turkey dinner of Elk pie with hunter sauce... decanted a 2002 Burrowing Owl Merlot (the last of the batch). The merlot was velvetty and full of wonderful fruit, I'm very sad it was the last bottle. The only up side is I still have a few other Okanagan vintages cellaring, Nichol 2003 Syrah, Lake Breeze 7 Poplars Merlot, Sumac Ridge vertial Merlot tasting (2000, 2001 & 2002) and a Hillside Barrel Reserve Gamay to name a few. This winter won't be so bad.

[lemon curd]

I still have a couple bottles of Silver Sage Sage Grand Reserve (Gewurtz fermented with sage) which IMO is the ultimate turkey wine.  Silver Sage's The Passion is their Pinot ... never thought of trying it with turkey, but I just may have to do so.

A.

←

We were over at relatives for Christmas Dinner and they served the Silver Sage Grand Reserve with our turkey dinner. I had not heard of it before but was immediately woo'd It's certainly unique but I'm a big gewurtz fan and I really liked the hints of sage. Last year we had Elephant Island Cherry Wine with our turkey dinner - it was also unique and good but I think I prefer the Silver Sage.

Edited December 27, 2005 by lemon curd (log)

[chef jeff]

My wife and I had one Christmas dinner with our urban family of friends on the Monday before Christmas. We opened a 1999 Black Hills Nota Bene from BC, and a 1996 Chateau Musar from Lebanon. While not exactly perfect matches for turkey, they were fun wines to drink and compare in the company of good friends. I was amazed by the Nota Bene. Nice deep colour, soft tannins, stewed plums, and a bit of leather and tobacco on the nose. What was really amazing was the similarity between the two wines, despite the fact that the Nota Bene is a Cab S/Cab Fr/ Merlot blend, and the Musar is a Cab Sauv/ Syrah blend (if I remember correctly). Also, the Musar had a VERY light colour, which was wierd because it tasted like it should be a very dark colour. I've never seen that before.

Christmas Dinner on the 25th was out at Gary and Naty King's of Hazelmere Organic Farms. Standout BC wines from that dinner were a bottle of Nichol Pinot Gris, and a bottle of 2003 Cedar Creek Platinum Reserve Chardonnay. The Nichol Pinot Gris had a beautiful light orangy pink colour, which I'm told was achieved through 20 minutes of contact with the skins after being crushed. This wine went beautifully with the organic ham. MMMMmmmmmm! The Cedar Creek Chard was, to me, one of the nicest Chards I've had from BC.

Ah, Christmas. Four days off, lots of eating and drinking.

Thanks for being open on boxing day Sean. We had a great reunion of old friends in the back room at the Heather. Your new haircut is very dashing.

Jeff.