Finished off our national holiday long week-end with a couple of nice bottles of Canadian white wine from B.C.'s Okanagan Valley.
Started with the Pinot Gris from Burrowing Owl. One of my favourites from Canada in this dry, light coloured, acidic style similar to those from Blue Mountain and Sandhill.
Just a hint of yellow with lots of subtle ripe melon fruit.
Finished off our pan roasted chicken breast accompanied by lemon and artichoke ricotta and potato ravioli with a bottle of 85/15 or 88/12 Sauv blanc/Semillon blend labelled Alibi from Black Hills.
Virtually colourless. Perhaps just a glint of green. Light, sharp and acidic. Again flavours of ripe melon, lemon, apricot.
I thought I detected pine but my wife who has a much better sense of smell when it comes to descriptors suggested not simply pine but pinapple.
Once suggested I tried it again and she was absolutely right along with even some cherry. Not so much the black cherry one tastes in red wines like chianti but just a faint, almost artificial whiff of cherry like one might find in cherry flavoured candy. It was there and then just as quickly gone.
This was our third bottle and the one I enjoyed the most. Having it with food certainly did make a difference because the first two were almost so big and acidic that they were too much by themselves. Reminded me of New Zealand Jackson Estate and similar big and intense sauv blanc's.
Synthetic cork closure for the Burrowing Owl and screw top for the Alibi.
