Jackson-Triggs 2005 Meritage, Sun Rock Vineyard (British Columbia)

Far too many years have past since my last trip to British Columbia to check out the Okanagan Valley and drink their wines ... as I sit here reminiscing with a glass in my hand of this award winner (Best Red, All Canadian Wine Championships) ... I am remembering the day spent with the folks of Vincor and the tour of their properties, the lunch and dinner, the driving up and down (and back up) the Valley ... what a day.  They say you can never bring back those memories by opening the bottle, you have to create new ones, but with this wine in my hand it's hard not to thing back of those 10 days of summer - especially on this miserable April day.  Here we have a blend of 50% Merlot,  30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc ... and it is drinking absolutely fabulously ... in fact the longer it sits in glass the better it becomes.  Aromas of pepper, smoke, dried cassis, coffee and anise seem to lull the olfactories ... Palate starts off slow with plenty of wood on both the front, mid and back, but once air has done its magic (after an hour) it reveals itself to be a super pleasing combination full of mocha, blackberry, spiced-strawberry, anise, and cassis.  Everything has mellowed and has becomes silky smooth all the way to the finish.  This wine still has great life left in the bottle and after an hour smoothed our for the next 2, by then we had drank the whole thing.  So glad I held on to it, but now I have a typical wine buyer's lament:  wish I had gotten more.

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4 Wines - 1 Friends - 1 Big Headache (California / Rhone / British Columbia / Portugal)

Tonight we had some friends come over whom we see at least once a year, but thankfully speak to more often ... turns out it was the first time they have visited in the summer so we finally got a chance to sit out on the deck with them.  One of our friends just got her Canadian citizenship so we decided to kick things off with a little Canadian bubbly; but instead of hitting up Ontario for a bottle we picked something from the west coast, British Columbia: Steller's Jay 2007 Brut from Sumac Ridge ... to tell you it was a great starter is an understatement, it was delightful, delicious and a real winner, I think the whole bottle was gone in 3 minutes (poured out) and most, if not all of the glasses were consumed within 15 ... a real tribute to a wine when it's polished off that quickly.  We moved on to try a bottle of one of Ontario's soon to be wineries, Brickyard, and their 2012 Riesling - I will not be reviewing that here but it will appear on my website before too long.

Dinner was steak so red wine seemed in order.  One of our friends is a Pinot Noir fan, so he had a glass of Cattail 2010 Pinot Noir, another wine that will be reviewed on the website in short order.  He also mentioned that he was a fan of Zinfandel, one of my faovurites too ... but more on that in a minute.  The rest of us shared a bottle of Perrin & Fils 2008 Rasteau L'Andeol from the Rhone ... this was a lovely steak pairing wine that had plenty of raspberry and peppery goodness, old enough be smoothing out in all the right places, yet still has enough umph to pair with the smoky, char-grilled steak.  With that bottle down the hatch, and our Pinot-friend finished his glass out from the cellar came a bottle of Ravenswood 2004 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel, a bottle that is courtesy of my wife and her American roots.  At nine years of age this was a beauty of a Zin that has kept its plum and spice nature while developing other real robust flavours that made it more than a pleasure to drink - at 14.5% it is no shrinking violet of a wine ... it too was consumed with gusto.

Finally, our friends are big Port fans, and so it was decided a bottle must be cracked open so that we could have a glass ... there was some hemming and hawing over a Late Bottled Vintage, but when I said it was a 2000 Late Bottled Vintage suddenly it became a curiosity: Sandeman 2000 LBV - dark chocolate dominated with hints of cherry, spice and a beautiful baked raisin finish.  One glass turned into two, turned into three and then suddenly the bottle was gone.  And we realized that our Pinot-Zin lover had been secreting glasses while we were all engaged in conversation ... we were not aware of this fact till the next morning when our slow moving, hung over friend, heard every pin drop as if it were an a hammer on an anvil.  A good night was had by all - it's just the morning that wasn't as good for one.

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Tale of Two Vintages: Jackson Triggs Okanagan Cabernet Sauvignon (British Columbia)

Not sure what possessed me to do this but tonight I thought it a great idea to pull out two bottles of wine from the same winery: same grape variety but different vintages ... why not eh?  If you've got 'em flaunt 'em, or at least pull 'em out and try 'em.  The two wines were Jackson Triggs Proprietors' Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2001 and 2004 vintages.  Starting with the opening of the bottles:  the 2001's cork pretty much disintegrated in the bottle, it was spongy and soft and no matter how I tried I could not get that all the cork out of the bottle.  My last resort was to push the remainder of the cork into the bottle - while an eighth of the cork remained adhered to the side of the neck.  The 2004 was in much better condition and slid out without any hassle what-so-ever.  Colour of the wines were as expected, the 2001 was definitely brickier than the 2004 - though the 2001 was more evidently aged and showed its 12 years more readily, whereas the 2004 did not look to be a wine of 9 years from vintage date.  Initially the 2001 was a nice wine with sweet dried fruit notes and it was quite smooth with just a hint of some tannin or acidity - it was hard to make out what was biting back ... but that was short lived as the wine became very raisiny within 30 minutes and stayed that way for the rest of its life span in the glass (about 2-and-a-half hours) ... it had definitely crested the hill and was hurtling towards the bottom.  The 2004 had the opposite effect:  it started off pretty rough and rugged, almost to the point of being aggressive - but once it settled into the glass it started to reveal its true nature, lots of cassis and other dark fruit with creme de cacao on the palate ... over the course of its lifespan in the glass (same as the 2001) it developed a wonderful texture in the mouth, mixing tannins with a pseudo-creaminess.  Within the course of 2 hours it opened to the point that it was expressing itself with dark fruit (mostly dried) with black licorice and sweet spice.  Truly impressive.  So while the 2001 is definitely on the decline the 2004 is just a hair off its peak and should be drunk this year - yes it has crested the hill but it sure doesn't want to go down with any quickness.

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Golden Mile Cellars 2006 Zinfandel (British Columbia)

It's seems like forever since I have been to Golden Mile Cellars ... and as the saying goes, "You can never go back" - and in this case that is very true ... Golden Mile Cellars changed its name soon after I visited it (I am sure there is no corollary there) to Road 13, giving the name of the winery back to the region in which it resides - The Golden Mile - which is in the southern Okanagan.  But I still had a bottle with the old name and label and so tonight, along with my mother, with whom I visited the winery, drank and reminisced about our time in the Okanagan and the Luckhursts who own the winery.  Surprisingly the wine was better then I remembered it - we had tasted it almost two years to the date ago and all that was really apparent about the wine was the spiciness ... now sure it has spiced plum and just plain old spice but there was so much more like dried blackberries and a real nice seam of dark chocolate.  Sadly this is my last bottle of this wine in the cellar and all we have left from our Golden Mile Cellars experience are the memories and this blog ... cheers to good wine, good times and pleasant memories.

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Osoyoos Larose 2005 Petales d'Osoyoos (British Columbia)

This is one bottle from one of three mixed-cases of wine I brought back from British Columbia a few summers ago.  I have tasted Osoyoos Larose Grand Vin (the big wine) in the past at a variety of tastings and am fairly impressed with the wines coming out of this partnership between BC and France.  This 2005 is Merlot dominant and now has some 8 years from vintage date on it ... and considering this is the 2nd wine from the producer you have to wonder about the longevity.  I can tell you that I was super impressed with what I found.  The nose had earthy notes right from the get go - but those seemed to dissipate with air revealing some raspberry before settling in with dried blackberry and dried cherry.  The palate also opened with earthy notes but soon turned to dried red fruit as its mainstay along with black cherry, oak and spice - there was also some nice acidity to keep the wine lively on the tongue - but still had the smoothness of an older vintage wine settling into its golden years ... the good news is I would say this wine has a few more years ahead of it ... if you're looking for fresh fruit it ain't here, but if you want to understand older wines, how they age and what they can become this is a great place to get that education.

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A Night of Three Bottles: 2 Chards and a Vidal Bubble (Ontario / British Columbia)

Next Saturday night we are heading over to a friend's house for dinner ... this Saturday we stayed home and did that housework stuff that people tend to do (when they are bored).  My wife then prepared dinner for our Sunday dinner guests (Guinness Pie) and started the fresh bread process, which she was going to make Sunday afternoon.  Then we sat down together and tried to decided what we were going to have for dinner.  For the discussion of who was going to cook dinner we opened a bottle of Lighthall 2011 Progression - a bubbly from Prince Edward Country made in the Charmat method from Vidal grapes (I reviewed it recently so check out the review by clicking on the wine name).  Then we decided on pizza, cause neither of us wanted to cook, and so while waiting for the delivery guy to appear we opened a bottle of Sandhill 2010 Chardonnay from British Columbia - now I am a self admitted ABCer but you would never be able to tell as we opened another Chard after this one - but let's not jump ahead quite yet.  This is a beauty from a part of Canada that I am more fond of their reds than their Chardonnays.  A cooler vintage and a steady hand by winemaker Howard Soon has made this one of the best Chardonnays from the Okanagan I have tasted in recent memory.  Looking at Howard's notes: "The cooler 2010 vintage provided slower ripening, compared to the warmer 2009 vintage, however this assisted in developing perfect balance between ripe flavours ..."  I could not agree more.  A nose rich in peach, pineapple and vanilla led to a palate with hints of vanilla, spice, peach pit and caramel apple with a nice spiced apple finish ... here in Ontario the wine is selling for the same price as it is in BC, which is an accomplishment unto itself - great value and a delicious bottle.  As mentioned we opened another bottle of Chardonnay and this time it was a beauty from Ontario's own Coyote's Run, 2010 Black Paw - this one was a little more richer because of the hotter vintage we had in Ontario (another rarity for us to eclipse BC for heat) - it's another review that can be found on my website.  Needless to say in was a good night of good wines - and we slept very well.

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Twisted Tree 2005 Merlot (British Columbia)

This is a bottle I brought back from the Okanagan Valley, which seems like forever since I've been there, but in actual fact it's been only 4 years (which is quite a while in the wine world).  I remember this being one of my favourite visits, it was deep in the Osoyoos which is the southern most part of BC.  Everybody always talks about N'kmip, but this Twisted Tree winery was a little hole in the wall and they made some pretty outstanding wines.  But this is more a case of wanting to hold on to memories longer than one should - and this bottle of wine is a perfect example of what can happen when your memories over-shadow you common sense.  I kept waiting for that perfect time to open the bottle and it seemed a visit to mom and dad's house might provide that opportunity tonight, (after all I did the Okanagan trip with my mom for her 70th birthday).  The wine was a shade of brownish-red and the nose hinted at earthy-wooden notes while also giving off dried fruit like blackberry, sour cherry and cassis.  It drank pretty nicely for its first hour but then it turned and turned quickly, it's as if a switch had been pulled, the fading of the wine started to take place and continued to do so exponentially.  It was here that the wine turned woody and slightly vegetative ... sigh ... the waiting might be the hardest part but when you wait to savour and it and it turns on you quickly, that might be even harder.

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Jackson Triggs 2002 Proprietors' Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (British Columbia)

My love for older wines and experimentation continues ... and today in the middle of the afternoon, after a wine tasting that did not go so well, I decided to find something interesting to try.  That curiousity led me to this bottle from the Okanagan and surprisingly it was very good.  Sure it was mainly past its prime but it showed well as a mature wine.  The fruit on the nose was all dried, mainly blackberry and cherry in nature - sweet smelling and rather inviting.  The palate was the most interesting thing about it: licorice/anise notes with dried blackberry and cassis, smooth and quite drinkable in its present state ... then within half and hour the oak showed up on the drying finish and began to take over, thankfully the dried fruit remained intact.

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Mt. Boucherie 2005 Summit Reserve Merlot (British Columbia)

It's been a few years since I have been in British Columbia, but I still have wines from my trip in my wine cellar, so I decided tonight, with my parents in attendance for dinner, that I would dig deep and find something recognizable (to my mother anyway - she came with on the trip).  This Mt. Boucherie seemed like the perfect thing to pull out.  The nose was slightly spiced and dark fruited, while the palate was not exactly juicy (as one would expect from a Merlot), but it wasn't too wooden either (as one might think a Merlot would take on) ... it was, as Goldilocks would say, "just right": darker fruit, spiced wood character that was very easy to drink, especially when aerated.  I would not say this wine is at it's peak I would say it's just on the other side of it.

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Wines at the Bauer Kitchen (Italy, South Africa, BC, California)

My 2001 vintage experiment was put on hold for a night as a small group of friends headed out to a Kitchener-Waterloo restaurant called Bauer Kitchen (187 King Street South, Waterloo) where sommelier Jake Richards toured us through a number of interesting wines from a diverse array of places: Italy, South Africa, Japan (by way of Toronto), California and back to Canada (British Columbia to be exact).

Jake started us off with a lovely Prosecco from Contarini called Val-Secco because, according to Jake's information, when they re-drew the lines of the Prosecco region (in Italy) this winery fell just short of the line - so, not being able to call themselves Prosecco they took the first few letters of Valdobbiadene (a classic Prosecco region) and the "secco" to form their proprietary name.  What a delicious bottle of bubbly this is, full of fruit, persistent bubbles and lemon candy sweet with balancing acid notes.  A great starter to the evening, we could have happily drank this the rest of the evening, but Jake had more in-store.  Like a South Africa white blend from Sequillo, their 2008 white had us guessing the blend: Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and possibly some Chardonnay (?) - creamy vanilla, exotically grassy with some real intrigue in the mouth and a lovely long finish.

Next up was a palate cleansing Sake from Izumi of the North, a sake house located in, of all places, Toronto, Ontario,Canada - we drank the Nama Cho cold, and it refreshed and cleansed the palate for the reds that were to follow.

With a smile Jake brought over a very black bottle and started to pour, only once all the glasses were filled and we had taken our first taste and universally agreed on the "fine-ness" of the wine did he reveal it as a 2009 Syrah from Black Hills winery in British Columbia - nice blackberry, cassis and raspberry aromas with white pepper, blackberry, and mocha on the palate ... after tasting this you can see why you'd believe the rumour Jake was willing to start: that BC wineries are ripping out their Pinot Noir vines to replace with Syrah ... it's quite plausible and maybe even the right thing to do.  Finally, and surprisingly, the last wine was my least favourite of the evening: Caymus 2008 Zinfandel ... many of my readers know my love for Zin but this one seemed a little out of whack, there was plum and chocolate notes but you could also sense the alcohol heat on both the nose and palate (15.2%) and this made the wine seem unbalanced ... I suspect another couple years in bottle might rectify that situation.  All in all a fantastic wine tasting and the meal presented to us was equal to the task. Thanks to Jake and the wonderful staff at the Bauer Kitchen for a fantastic evening.

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Gray Monk 2004 Pinot Noir (British Columbia)

Having just sat through (and mostly enjoyed) a BC wine tasting, I thought it would be interesting to open something that I had sitting around from the West Coast of Canada.  I was surprised to see I had an eight year old Pinot. Now in truth, as much as I enjoy the red blends and Cabs from out there I was not that thrilled with the Pinot Noirs - though there were a few that sparked my interest.  So I opened this bottle with a little trepidation. The nose was dried cranberry with a touch of wood and a nice cinnamon overlay ... pretty simple.  The palate on the other hand was quite complex offering up a mix of dried and sour fruits.  First came some craisin and dried raspberry, then a freeze-dried-type of strawberry flavour, some cinnamon wood, gentle spice and as the wine opened up there almost seemed to be a element of fresh raspberry that sneaked through every third sip.  This wine still had an air of elegance to it.  Very nice.

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Jackson-Triggs Okanagan 2002 Proprietors' Reserve Merlot (British Columbia)

For all those who still think Merlot is soft and juicy you might want to reconsider that.  As the wine gets older, and made under the right conditions, it shucks the soft and juicy and develops more interesting and more complex flavours and aromas.  Tonight I yanked a wine out from the deeper part of the cellar, yet managed to stay in Canada, as a Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Merlot was the wine of choice.  The wine kept getting more interesting throughout the night, what started out earthy turned to dried leaves before settling nicely (and for the rest of the evening) into dried berries and fruit leather.  The palate seemed to have the same reaction, starting out as a very spicy and peppery number before coasting along in the latter stages with dried fruit a la blackberry and cassis ... as the night wore on the palate dried out even more to the point where there was super dry fruit and hints of wood holding it up.  This wine has held up rather well, but what really ends up coming out now is the spicy / peppery notes ... I suggest if you have some kicking about it's time to drink it up, but give it a little time in a decanter - not too much mind you - or you'll be left with too much wood and not enough fruit ... this really is a balancing act of a wine - there's a sweet spot here, you just have to have patience to find it ... forget the decanter go with a big glass and a lazy evening where you can sip and sample away.

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Mission Hill 2005 Reserve Shiraz (British Columbia)

I don't know why, but the idea of having something from BC just stuck in my head and I couldn't shake it.  I must have been looking through a magazine or something, and Mission Hill just kept coming up - even though I have other BC wines to chose from.  One that's really got me Jonesing to finally open it is a 2005 Twisted Tree Merlot - but I guess I am saving that for another day.  Tonight it was a beef pot roast and Shiraz that had my attention on the wine and food front. The wine proved to be quite good over the short term with a nose of black currant, cedary and cinnamon notes along with some spice and pepper (hard to tell them apart at this point in the evolution of the wine).  On the palate the cinnamon came through along with blackberry, cassis, white pepper and cedary notes ... and as the night wore on the cedary notes became more prevalent to the point of being more like dry pencil shavings ... but then there was also some pleasant smoked meat spices that complimented those woody flavours, when I took the last sip of the night the wood was over-shadowing even the spices.  Held up nicely but not sure it has too much longer to be called "fresh".

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Double Shot of Road 13 Wines (British Columbia)

As a freak occurrence I ended up with a number of bottles of Road 13 wine (formerly Golden Mile Cellars) and tonight, with friends in attendance on this holiday Monday I opened a couple of those bottles.  The first to be opened was on the deck and turned out to be the beauty of the batch: 2010 Old Vines Chenin Blanc.  This was just the cat's ass (if you'll excuse the language) with aromas that filled the air the moment I poured it (even outside you could smell the tropical fruit plain as day coming from the glass), this wine had what I like to call "sniff-all-day-edness" to it.  The palate was just as inviting loading on those sweet tropical fruit flavours of pineapple and hint of mango, yet also with some restarined mineral notes and citrus flair, especially on the finish where grapefruit and lemon pith intermingled to keep that sweet fruit at bay and bring out all the lovely enjoyment of the wine.  It was on this high that we then opened the 2010 Rosé, a primarily Gamay Noir based pink wine to go with the pork dish for dinner ... alas, it could not stand the scrutiny of the crowd won over by the Chenin's charms, nice but nothing spectacular; maybe we should have started with the rosé.

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Tinhorn Creek 2002 Pinot Noir (British Columbia)

I was just sorta wondering about in my cellar (well looking at the management program really, but it sounds better the other way) and noticed that I had a 9 year old bottle of Pinot Noir from Tinhorn Creek in British Columbia, siiting there (I also have an 8 year old bottle of the same wine) but the 9 year old one struck me as something I must put my hands on and drink right away - and so I did.  What a fantastic beverage this turned out to be ... the nose was still alive with fruit: black cherry and cranberry with a touch of earth and lots of red fruit, which seemed to pop out after the wine had been opened about half-an-hour (and with a slight chill).  The palate was just as engaging with earthy red fruit and great palate cleaning acidity, there was also just enough spice to keep it all very flavourful.  I tried the wine three different ways ... right from the cellar - where the fruit ended up being darker and the tannins more aggressive; with about half an hour of chill in the fridge - this is where the fruit really popped and seemed very good, it was the best temp for the wine; and with a full chill to it (some 2 hours kin the fridge) - robbed the wine of much of the flavour.  This wine also made me think that I am possibly not drinking enough Pinot.

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Quail's Gate 2005 Merlot and La Posta 2008 Malbec (British Columbia / Argentina)

This is the tale of two wines and a Saturday night family BBQ:  a Quail's Gate 2005 Merlot and a La Posta 2008 Malbec.  Both wines were good but it was the Quail's Gate that had the complexity and structure to go with the steak dinner.  Woody with cassis and pepper notes on the nose; while the palate benefited from the constant stirring and aeration of the Schott Zwiesel Bordeaux glass  The flavours were of spiced blackberry and pepper along with decent tannins (that held up to the meat) and a slight woody character ... the fruit was starting to subside so it was definitely time to drink this one.  On the other hand, the La Posta, while good, was a one note song after the complex and tertiary flavours of the Quail's Merlot, rich dark fruit that was smooth and easy, good for the after dinner sit around and chat-fest.  Best part of the Quail's Gate Merlot is that we could all feel like outlaws drinking it, I brought it back from my trip out west a few years back, so we were all consuming contraband.

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Golden Mile Cellars 2006 Zinfandel (British Columbia)

Now here's a wine that's a collector's item - or at least the bottle is.  This is a wine not usually found outside California, Zinfandel - oh, sure it is called Primitivo in Italy, but rarely do you see the name Zinfandel on the label outside the Golden State, but here it is in British Columbia Canada.  But that's not the part that is a collector's item.  Nope, this wine was produced by Golden Mile Cellars which technically is no more, they are now called Road 13 - same winery, same owners, they just decided to give the name (Golden Mile) back to the particular part of the Okanagan Valley their winery resides in - the Golden Mile.  I visited them when they were still Golden Mile Cellars and bought one of my favourite grape varieties, thrilled to see it here in Canada, even if it is on the other coast.  The wine is really really spicy with lots of pepper and spice notes on both the nose, and especially the palate ... there's a touch of plum on the palate also, but it too becomes very spiced by association, and the finish ends up being a dried sour plum ... with plenty of spice.  Tasty wine with grilled meats, which is exactly what I had with it.

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Black Hills Estate Winery 2008 Nota Bene (British Columbia)

What I`m drinking tonight has turned into `What I am Drinking this afternoon` - I decided to clean out the review buckets in my cellar and was tasting a number of Ontario reds for future reviews when I came across a cute little box from Black Hills Winery in British Columbia.  Inside I found two tubes, not bottles, literally test tubes of 2008 Nota Bene - the 10th Anniversary edition of this wine (a blend of the three big Bordeaux reds: Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon and Merlot).  Now, these test tubes were cute as a button and a great way to get wine to reviewers for tasting without having to waste a whole bottle ... only problem was getting into these tubes.  Although they were sealed with a screw cap the first one I tried would not loosen it just twisted and twisted and twisted ... I finally ended up putting two holes through the cap and shaking the wine out of the tube.  Glad I did, I`m sure this help aerate it a bit too (a lucky result of a bad beginning).  The nose was sweet with blackberries that just wouldn`t give up.  The palate had a lot more going for it: black cherry, cassis, cinnamon, vanilla and lots more - this was one sippable wine with complex flavours that came out with each additional sip, I would have loved to have spent more time with this wine, say a whole bottle`s worth, alas I have but one tube left and no time to fiddle with it, maybe later.  As for the wine I did have, delicious (4+ stars) ... a real winner.

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Inniskillin East West Series Wines (Canada)

Back in 2002 Vincor released a couple of wines called "Unity", a brilliant plan of blending wines from both wine coasts of Canada (British Columbia and Ontario), but that was the only year that they did it, and since then many have been asking themselves whatever happened to that initiative. Well the name Unity has been co-opted by Jackson Triggs for their new Cellared in Canada wines (but I refuse to get into that issue here); what I want to do is praise Inniskillin (still part of Vincor) for picking up the mantle of this great idea and once again trying to bring the 'coasts' together with their East/West Series of wines.  I had opportunity to try them tonight and have to say they are delicious wines.  Now, in these days of terroir and single vineyard driven wines, this is not what the purists want to see, because we are talking about combining two very different locales together to make one seemingly homeless wine.  But in actuality Inniskillin has created a true Canadian wine, one that deserves the word "Canada" on the label (not like that Cellared in Canada crap - okay that's my political rant for the moment).  

As for the wines I tried there was the 2009 Riesling-Gewurztraminer and the 2008 Merlot-Cabernet.  The Riesling-Gewurzt is broken down thusly: the Riesling is from Ontario and Gewurztraminer from British Columbia.  A fresh, crisp, quaffable wine with pear, peach, a touch of apricot and some floral-soapiness from the Gewurzt that provides a nice lift and spiciness to the presentation in the mouth along with some cleansing acidity ... lovely.  I rated it four stars out of five.

Next, was the 2008 Merlot-Cabernet: Merlot from Ontario, and the Cabernets (Franc and Sauvignon) from the West Coast.  This makes for another fine example in the glass.  The nose is smoky with notes of cassis and black raspberry while the palate had some pronounced raspberry with nice spice and some blackberry ... this is a very good wine and rated 4 stars+ out of 5.

All in all I thought these wines whose time has come again, thankfully, I just hope Inniskillin is smart enough to keep them around.  Kudos.

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Riddled by Jackson Triggs 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (Ontario / British Columbia)

Tonight I kicked off our soiree with a bottle of 2007 Flat Rock Riddled sparkling - I've reviewed this recently on my podacst so I'll link you over there for my thoughts.  Dinner was rib steaks on the BBQ (yes I still risk life and limb to bbq in the colder weather) and I dug deep into a box of older wines for a bottle of Jackson-Triggs 2004 Proprietors' Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from their Okanagan Estate in British Columbia.  Not sure what the weather was like out there that year, but they sure made a nice bottle from it, and it has aged very well.  The wine was all dark fruit with a hint of spice while the tannins were silky smooth; this bottle was ready to drink, and gulp it down we did.  What a great find to be found.  My notation on the bottle said "hold for 2 years", I think I held it for 4 and I was right to do so, I think it might even have another couple of years ahead of it left.  If I have another bottle in my collection I might just try that experiment.

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