The Good, the Bad, and the F-ugly

There are apparently 27 pending applications for winery licenses in BC

Of which a high percentage when granted will no doubt be pedestrian or outright garbage (you want garbage, try the Granite Cellars Chard....)

A lot of activity out there, anyway. Now - our task - to find out which ones are worthy!

Our weapons are good palates, our good taste memories, fear, surprise, nice red uniforms.....no wait, I digress.....


I recall my trips to California in the very early 80s, when they had a similar mix of qualities. One guy would have a winery that looked like Disneyland but made crap wine, while the next guy lived in a double wide on the property and made exquisite wine.

Some made great wine in some vintages and poor in others. I recall visiting Grand Cru in Sonoma in the days of the A frame and trailer up a dirt road and getting lovely wines one year, and dubious ones the next. Got similar results from Raymond, Jekel, Geyser Peak....

Some hardly set a foot wrong from the beginning. I fastened onto Phelps early on when they'd only been going a few years and Walter Schug was still winemaker. I got to taste and buy their Syrah (they were about the first to do much with this varietal in California) and they had a very nice Pinot Noir that they dropped about the time I discovered them. And of course I still have cabs and late harvest wines in the cellar from that time.

The trick is to get out there and taste, or if you can't, listen to others you can trust. These 'new' wine areas can be pretty exciting - Washington State is only about one step ahead of BC in their development and look at the exciting things happening there.

That's what this sort of board is good for - spreading the word about the good ones - quietly, to people that care.

Bad day today, Bill?

Mark Lipton

Bill:

Would you care to give us your views on which current BC wineries belong in which category?

When my wife and I were in Vancouver a couple of summers ago, we drank some stellar BC wines. Over the course of two weeks I can only recall two bottles that were terrible.

Bill:

Would you care to give us your views on which current BC wineries belong in which category?

When my wife and I were in Vancouver a couple of summers ago, we drank some stellar BC wines. Over the course of two weeks I can only recall two bottles that were terrible.

The majority of the larger commercial wineries are reasonablt competent so few put out any truly bad wine, but many also fail to put out any inspired product either.

In my experience, some of the mid to smaller range producers are doing the most interesting stuff.

Poplar Grove has been good, but the pricing is (IMHO) out of kilter, Noble Ridge does an amazingly good job for a newish winery, Kettle Valley is reliably interesting, I like Black Hills, but not so much Burrowing Owl since Bill Dyer left. Blue mountain is good, as is Fairview Cellars and Golden Mile. La Frenz, Laughing Stock, Sumac, and a handful of others. Le Vieux Pin is a new high priced winery that has wines that merit attention.

There will be others but you get the idea. Don't expect to ever see some of these in Vancouver - several sell out by closed private lists every year.

Thanks for the list. Actually, many of the wines you mentioned were ones we enjoyed in Vancouver, granted they were selected from a restaurant list. These included: Laughling Stock, several varietals from La Frenz, Poplar Grove, Burrowing Owl, etc.

Glad you got them - some o the wineries sell to restaurants and that's the only place you can find them!