A tasting put on by friends, with a value motive:
NV Frind Estate Winery Brut Okanagan Valley VQA White Blend
76% Riesling and 24% chardonnay spent 15 months in secondary fermentation. The result is a dead ringer for Spanish cava with an off-dry bitter almond finish. This winery has/had a Spanish winemaker, and you have to wonder if impersonating cava wasn't a reflex. Well-made, but like most cavas not dry enough for me.
2022 Poplar Grove Winery Chardonnay Okanagan Valley VQA
Lovely lemon yellow color with an overtly ripe nose of yellow apple and pineapple which follow through to the palate, picking up malted notes and salinity along the way. Too ripe for my palate.
2024 Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery Riesling International Series Dry Washington
Dark straw-gold color. Washington state grapes produced a riper, fuller-bodied dry riesling than I'm used to with pronounced jasmine and honeysuckle notes. Not exactly a GG. Eh.
2022 Sage Hayward Vineyards Nuance Aromatic Blend British Columbia White Blend
From BC's Saturna Island, this is a 3:1 ratio of pinot gris and gewurz with 1% muscat aged in French oak. Taut, crisp, delicate and balanced. In posting here I see that I first tasted it three years ago and predicted a long shelf life. Indeed it's in there now, still fresh and lively. Could have been a '24. Best of the whites, loved it.
2025 Gray Monk Estate Winery Limited Edition Rose, Eastern Canada
This is a bit of a factory winery but they do hit some home runs, and this is one. Cab Franc, Gamay and Pinot Noir were sourced from Eastern vineyards between Lakes Ontario and Erie to create a bang-on rose of complex light red fruits with a clean finish--that is, the winery describes it as off-dry but I did not pick up any residual sweetness.
2023 Chaberton Estate Winery CVO Okanagan Valley VQA Red Blend
Blend of 42% Merlot, 25% Cab Franc, 15% ea Cab Sauv and Pinot Noir with small amounts of malbec and PV. Aged in mostly neutral oak, this sophisticated, dry red drinks like a very good Bordeaux Superior. (The owners are French.) Black and red fruit, tobacco, spice and mint...if I needed a house red, I'd go back for a case. Great QPR too, just $22C at the winery. Easily my fave of the night.
2023 Tinhorn Creek The Creek Okanagan Valley VQA Red Bordeaux Blend
Interesting to compare this Bordeaux Blend with the sophisticated Chaberton described above. A close-to 50/50 right bank blend with low single digit amounts of CS, Syrah and PV, this lacks the dark fruit of it's namesake and tastes too raw/young. There's potential here but it needs time.
2022 Adega on 45th Cabernet Franc Okanagan Valley
A friend's a big fan so I've enjoyed earlier vintages, but I don't care for this one. It's quite smokey in spite of the fact that '22 wasn't a fire year, and it lacks the cassis fruit and herbs that I usually love about this grape.
2024 Quails' Gate Estate Winery Pinot Noir Field & Flight Oregon
A light style but no less charming, Quails Gate reached down to Oregon for fruit after their own vineyards were decimated by the big freeze of '24. Light on oak, rich in crunchy red fruit and acidity, fun and frisky, it's an ideal young summer pinot. One of those wines you could pour for a mixed crowd and everyone would like it.