Wines for Canada Day 2012

Each year July 1st marks Canada’s “birthday” and many of us have the day off and an excuse to celebrate. Sadly, Canada Day doesn’t always equate to good weather, therefore, we've compiled a list of wines for you to enjoy no matter what Mother Nature sends your way.

For this year's list we're, appropriately, only listing the excellent and under appreciated wines of Canada, which, with the recent passing of Bill C-311 should be easier to purchase across Provincial borders in due time.

Sunny
If it’s nice and hot where you are – and ideally that will be the case for most of us – then we have some heat-quenching wine suggestions for you to enjoy of a hot patio, deck or dock.

Chateau Des Charmes 2010 St. David's Bench Vineyard Sauvignon - $15
The acid is high and a tad sharp, but when paired with a hot deck and fresh oysters, you'll be thankful it's there. The moderate finish lingers with cool minerality and tart, green apple flavours and just a hint of spice.
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Bartier-Scholefield 2010 Rosé Table Wine - $20
The concentration achieved on the palate is so great and cheerful, that despite the dryness, one is left with a loving embrace of freshly baked cherry-goodness and rhubarb-tang. The texture and balance are spot-on with a touch of tannin from the Gamay skins and mouth-watering acidity.
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Young and Wyse Collection 2011 Pinot Gris - $20
Cool, crisp and masculine with lively stonefruit, lemon/lime, pink grapefruit and peach skin characters and a nice mineral backbone highlighted by a steely finish and a touch of lingering spice.
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Cloudy
If it’s cloudy where you are, well, look on the bright side – at least it isn’t raining. Cloudy weather (assuming it’s also a bit cool) calls for something with a bit more body as your senses aren’t being overloaded with sun and heat. A nicely oaked Chardonnay is the cure.

Cassini Cellars 2009 Reserve Chardonnay - $29
A delightful, fully oaked Chardonnay from a concentrated, hot vintage that manages to remain fairly bright and fruity - not burdened with the chunky nature of lesser, over-oaked Chards.
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JoieFarm 2009 Reserve Chardonnay - $30
A gorgeous nose of candied pears, cold butter and river rocks is presented subtly followed by increased intensity on the dry palate with lush poached pear characters, slick minerality and some tropical fruit notes. Sits lovingly on your palate with evenly matched energetic acid and glycerol fullness.
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Herder Winery and Vineyards 2009 Estate Chardonnay - $35
A full bodied Chardonnay with just enough acid to add extra dimension to the lush mouth feel and liven up the long finish. A satisfying all-spice taste lingers.
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Rainy
If it’s raining where you are then you may be spending a large portion of your Canada Day indoors. This calls for a soothing and cheerful red wine to lift your spirits.

Hillebrand Winery 2010 Trius Cabernet Franc - $15
Not overly complex, but tasty and satisfying with good concentration and moderately intense tannins. The finish is long and balanced with lingering clove spice and a touch of minerality.
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River Stone Estate Winery 2010 Merlot - $20
The tannins are tad rough but tend to enhance the rustic, terroir-driven character of this wine. Some vegetal notes are present on the dry palate, but the fruit is ripe and expressive. Good concentration, good balance, mouth-watering acid and a uniquely spicy presentation all for just under $20!
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Fairview Cellars 2010 Cabernet Franc - $27
A cool, but long 2010 growing season has given birth to a low alcohol and nuanced Cabernet Franc that offers a warm, feminine nose of violets, mandarin peel, ripe blackberry, boysenberry and soft oak aromas.
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Have a wonderful and safe Canada Day celebration – wherever you are!

 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2012 IconWines.ca

What's In Your Cellar, John?

John Skinner
Painted Rock Estate Winery
Proprietor
http://www.paintedrock.ca/

Prior to starting a winery, John was a stockbroker for 25 years where he would have been very familiar with the concept of buying and holding. As a wine enthusiast first, his passions were routed with blue chip Bordeaux wines and as such it should be no surprise that the family's excellent estate wines take their inspiration from the long lasting wines of Aquitaine and are making proud editions to many collector's New World section of their cellar.

Q - What are your favourite wine regions to cellar?
To break my cellar down I think it is 70/30 Old World to New World. I began collecting wine years ago and bought reasonable quantities of names that I enjoyed. The majority are Bordeaux because I knew them and had confidence in their ability to cellar. I also have wines from other regions in France and a fair amount from Italy. In recent years I have expanded my largely Napa New World section to include some great Chilean producers, some smaller Australian producers and a number from Washington and Oregon. Happily my BC section is growing as the quality of our regions wines improve and I have greater confidence in the wines ability to cellar.

Q - What is the purpose of your wine cellar?
I actually bought a small but very high quality cellar from a very good collector some years ago because he had gems from virtually every good region in the world. This I called “due diligence” for my building a winery. My cellar was somewhat one dimensional and this cellar added opportunities for me to do broad regional comparisons which I have found very helpful.

Q - Is there a jewel of note or a favourite wine in your collection?
I own some very good Bordeaux 1st Growths that I take great pleasure sharing with my adult children but my favourite cellaring experience to date was buying a case of 1984 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard in 1988 and starting in 1998 opening a bottle a year with my buddies. For our Christmas lunch we would each bring a favourite and I decided to take them on a 12 year experiment. That wine was almost routinely the favourite each year until the last when it sadly disappointed. We were never quite sure if the wine was past its prime or it was a bad bottle. It wasn’t corked but was tired. Great memories.

 - Liam Carrier ©copyright 2012 IconWines.ca

Winery Spotlight: Tinhorn Creek

Few wineries in the Okanagan Valley can top the consistent value-for-money-to-quality ratio executed by Tinhorn Creek with their impressive line-up of varietal wines priced at $20 and below. The list offers a wide range of wines that should appeal to your touring party where everyone should find something they like, including, for the discerning bunch, a series of excellent, cellar worthy reserve wines.

Located in the Southern Okanagan's soon-to-designated appellation of the Golden Mile Bench, Tinhorn boasts a handsomely situated winery and wine shop with an adjoining restaurant which serves wine-friendly entrées and tapas-styled sharing plates. Miradoro sells Tinhorn wines at wine shop prices and offers a decent list of local favourites from neighboring wineries with the normal restaurant mark-up. A cool, wine community-building gesture, however, with the menu at Miradoro geared towards matching the Tinhorn line-up, the "house wines" remain your best bet.
http://www.tinhorn.com/

Family-Friendly Credentials

Tinhorn's Compost Pile

So... you're touring with your family trying to balance your time with fun activities for the kids and wine related fun for the adults. It's hard to commit to winery tours that adhere to a posted schedule and will likely cause your kids to yawn and complain. Tinhorn Creek removes these barriers with their self-guided winery tour that you can start or stop at anytime and not feel like you're holding up a tour group full of folks who, although, publicly smile at your kids are secretly wishing you hadn't brought them.

For older kids, who have caught the save-the-planet fever we all do at some point in our youths when we still think we can single-handedly change the world, you can regale them with the impressive details of Tinhorn's concerted effort in going Green. They are Canada's first 100% carbon neutral winery which includes an emphasis on recycling water and composting all materials. That should satisfy even the most cynical teenager in the group who's pissed they can't drink and you can.

Key wines to try:
Cabernet Franc
Oldfield Series 2Bench Red
Gewurztraminer