If you’re a B.C. wine lover you’ll know we’re entering one of the most exciting times of the year with the release of B.C. 2013 whites and more.
By all accounts, 2013 was a very good vintage in just about every corner of the province’s ever-expanding wine producing regions. One neophyte area that I continue to watch with interest is the once considered unlikely but now very realistically producing Creston Valley in the heart of the Kootenays.
There’s a handful of small wineries popping up east of the Okanagan Valley, although in my mind the most successful and quality-driven to date is Creston’s Baillie Grohman Estate Winery.
There’s no shortage of good reasons why Bob Johnson and Petra Flaa are starting to make their mark. But a major factor was their decision at the outset to work with highly regarded Kiwi winemaker Dan Barker.
When Barker isn’t busy with Baillie Grohman, he’s busy making wine at his own, award-winning, Moana Park Winery, in Hawke’s Bay, which certainly competes high on the scenery scale with the Creston Valley.
Moana sports some international renown, and consistently wins in benchmark competitions such as Air New Zealand Wine Awards, and London’s Decanter World Wine Awards, where its 2010 Viognier struck Gold.
Barker says Creston reminds him somewhat of Central Otago, and I’m guessing that he might just say that the Similkameen Valley, from where he sources single-vineyard fruit for his Cab Merlot, could be a dead ringer for Otago’s neighbouring Gibbston Valley.
It is also, like Similkameen, known for its early gold rush days, and is now famous for that other great Kiwi gift to the world (after rugby supremacy): bungee jumping.
Even though Baillie Grohman grows Pinot Noir successfully, it’s worth noting that Barker looks elsewhere for Bordeaux varieties, that would be infinitely more challenging to ripen in the more condensed Kootenay growing season.
Here are a few drops (among several) worth noting from the latest release.
Baillie Grohman Recolte 2013 Blanc
A charming, gently off-dry blend of 60 per cent Pinot Gris, with 25 per cent Schoenbuger and 15 per cent Kerner. Honey, pear and orchard fruits on the nose, before a luscious, full and fresh palate ruled by tropical and floral notes with a lengthy close. Unoaked. Think grilled chicken, Waldorf salad or lightly spiced Asian dishes (90 points, $17).
Baillie Grohman Gewurztraminer 2013
Rose petal, ginger and floral aromas precede a generous, well-textured palate of lychee, tropical tones and citrus zest, with a lengthy end (89 points, $19)
Baillie Grohman Blanc de Noirs Rosé 2013
Brilliant rose hues in the glass. Aromas of cranberry and melon, followed by a mouth-filling, fruit-driven intense cherry-and-raspberry toned palate (89 points, $19). Prices shown are from the winery, and may vary.
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Raise a glass for a good cause. Pick up a bottle of Central City’s nicely dry hopped Imperial IPA for autism through April and May and $2 will go to helping to fund a four-year clinical trial at SFU of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for children with autism. Definitely a fave with hopheads, sip this zesty, grapefruit and properly bittered drop on its own or with that first burger of spring (at BCLS now).
Tim Pawsey writes about wine for numerous publications and online as the Hired Belly at hiredbelly.com. Contact: [email protected].
