Texture was the hot topic of conversation – where on the mouth it stripped you of saliva, stuffed your face full of cotton balls, or made your teeth feel like they were dissolving. Loads of fruit, loads of odd-ball descriptors, and overall high average scores. The ringer was a pleaser, offering tremendous QPR. Buy it. Preferences were all over the … Read More
Saskatoon Wine – 2009 Batch 2
Batch 1 Update: has been hangin’ with medium plus toast american oak for a week now, and is showing enough wood to come off in the next few days for this batch. I think. Reality is that I have no guidelines to work with. The infusion spirals are fully extracted at 6 weeks. Where prior to that is a good … Read More
Saskatoon Wine – 2009 Batch 1
As with quite a few other items lately, I’m posting about making ‘Saskatoon Wine’ because there seems to be a hole in online information about the topic. After doing some research, I realized that it’s partly because it’s very Canadiana to even call them saskatoons. Amélanche, juneberry, serviceberry, shadberry are more common names elsewhere. I’ll use the terms interchangeably, just … Read More
South Okanagan 2009: PINOT GRIS
PINOT GRIS I’m going to broadly generalize that there are two camps of pinot gris here: the stinky camp, and the fresh fruit camp. Admittedly, I’m not sure why that seems to be the case. What I do know is that I am not a fan of the stinky MLF-Chardonnay-esque version. I do enjoy the bright fruit-driven crisp style, but … Read More
South Okanagan 2009: CHARDONNAY
CHARDONNAY If there was a movement to tear out all the white varietals in the South Okanagan and leave but the best, I would be marching day and night on Highway 97 with a sign reading “Save The Chardonnay!”. I find they do both fresh, fruity, stainless versions well, as well as barrel fermented MLF versions – and everything in … Read More
Top 5 South Okanagan Producers
Among the pages and pages of writing from my journey in South Okanagan wine, I figured it might be best to start with the best. Cut to the chase. Who are the best producers? Which are the best wines? It’s important to note that it is not a tight field – there are some seriously weak producers on the bottom … Read More
South Okanagan 2009: Mission Complete
I’m back. 22 wineries. 140+ sets of tasting notes and scores. Full review to come.
Floggin’ The Okanagan
I’m currently winding my way through some of the most beautiful wine country I’ve seen – down in the south Okanagan of B.C., Canada. It’s been an odd experience. I’ve tasted some of the shittiest wines imaginable, and some better than I would have ever guessed could be made here. I’ve put together tasting notes on over 100 wines so … Read More
4 Wines & A Plate – Pinot Noir
Stangely, film created a significant pinot noir fad and a merlot sag in the wine market a few years back. In hindsight, it doesn’t seem to make much sense – although I suppose neither holywood nor fads do. My take on pinot noir is that most people aren’t big fans when it boils right down to it. It is a … Read More
The new, AWESOMER, plunger assembly.
As requested: the new plunger assembly. Notice the fine craftsmanship of the fir plate. Yes. Sarcasm. I was in a flap of excitement the day of crushing and pressing, and we were trying all kinds of quick things to see what would work best. That’s my excuse. I essentially chopped down and trimmed corners off a piece of 2×10 fir … Read More