Fraser Valley wineries - A short summer trip

Well summer is here! Sort of. Well, hopefully soon. Don't let the poor weather slow you down though. Short weekend trips in the Fraser Valley could be a way to cheer your spirits. There are many wineries in BC's Fraser Valley. They are open to the public with tasting rooms, and are probably at most a 45 minute drive from most places in Vancouver.

So which wineries can you visit in the Fraser Valley (I put in the web links for you)?
- Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery & Bacchus Bistro

- The Fort Wine Company

- Lotusland Vineyards

- Pacific Breeze Winery

- Neck of the Woods Winery

- River's Bend Winery

- Sanduz Estate Winery

- St. Urban Winery Ltd.

- Wellbrook Winery

- Westham Island Estate Winery

- Lulu Island Winery

- Township 7 Vineyards

- Blue Heron Fruit Winery

Some of these wineries you may see from the links to their websites are berry fruit (not grape-based) wines. If you haven't tried a berry fruit wine, such as from red currant or blueberry, give it a try. I think the berry fruit wines, served chilled would be nice in the summer on the patio.

Cheers!

John Schreiner's Okanagan Wine Tour Guide

The third edition of John Schreiner's Okanagan Wine Tour guide is now available. I received my copy about a week ago, and I've been slowly reading through it. My bedside book. Eventhough I travel quite regularly to the Okanagan, it is still a pleasure to read through John Schreiner's book as I learn something about a winery I did not know, or he covers a new winery that I have not yet visited. Some new wineries in the book include Beaumont Family Estate winery, Volcanic Hills Vineyard & Cellars, and Ancient Hill Vineyards & Winery.

This book is good for those of you who are new to the Okanagan winery scene and need to get up-to-speed quickly. John provides 1 - 1.5 pages of text about each winery, and his recommendations for which wine(s) to try from each winery. What I also like is that it has the address, telephone number, website, and visiting hours for each winery.

This third edition, provided updated and revised information of the already established wineries plus info on 40 new wineries since the last edition. What I also like, is that the book has a map showing the locations of all the wineries he covers, plus he talks a bit about different "regions" within the Okanagan, such as "The Golden Mile" and "Naramata Bench". You may want to know what makes the Naramata Bench unique? Is it the soil? The direction the slope of the land faces; is it the proximity to Lake Okanagan? Useful info in this section.

If you want/need more details and history about these wineries, you may want to purchase John Schriener's "The Wineries of British Columbia", which covers both Okanagan wineries, plus the wineries in the Fraser Valley, the Gulf Islands, and Vancouver Island.

Enjoy the summer and enjoy some wine touring in BC!

Fraser Valley Wineries Association 2nd Annual Wine & Culinary Extravaganza

Today was a beautiful day for the Fraser Valley Wineries Association 2nd Annual Wine & Culinary Extravaganza in south Langley. A large tent was set up, wines were chilled, and hot & cold appetizers were plenty. Some of the wineries offered grape based wines, which most of us think of, but there were also several fruit berry wineries. On the grape-side we had:
- Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery
- Lotusland Vineyards
- Pacific Breeze Winery
- River's Bend Winery

On the fruit berry side there was:
- Westham Island Estate Winery
- Wellbrook Winery
- Sanduz Estate Wines
- The Fort Wine Company

Some people say they get headaches after drinking red wine from grapes. This could be due to the tannins in some of the heavier reds, such as from syrah, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot. There are lighter bodied reds, with less tannins, such as gamay and pinot noir. But there is also another route that these red wine suffers may want to take, and that is to drink red berry wine. At today's event, I was able to try wine made from blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, red currant, and black currant. I enjoyed the currant wines the most, as they were the closest to grape wine for me, but I can appreciate the other wines as well. There was also dessert (sweet) fruit wines to sample. One I enjoyed was the Sanduz blueberry dessert wine. It was almost porty.

On the grape side, I was very happy to find out that Lotusland Vineyards is an organic winery and also uses wild fermentation (that is using the native yeast in the vineyard to ferment the wines. The other method is to purchase specialized yeasts for fermentation.) Their gewurztraminer had a lychee / pear nose was light bodied and had a delicate flavour. Their pinot noir and merlot was also very nice. I unfortunately did not have a tasting sheet to make notes, for these wines or the other wines, but I do remember which wines I enjoyed the most. If you like big Rhone style or Bordeaux style wines, Pacific Breeze Winery, was pouring a Vin de Gariste and a GSM (Grenache / Syrah / Mouvedre) blend. They also had a very full bodied, creamy chardonnay. Another winery I enjoyed was River's Bend. They had a very nice white blend called Flaxen, a Viognier, and a Pinot Gris. On the red side, their 2006 Black Horse, a blend of Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, was nice paired up with the pulled pork sandwich from Memphis Blues Barbeque.

There were several other local restaurants, such as Coza Tuscan Grill and Sonoma Grill serving up appetizers to go with the wines. The event was overall run very well. I'd recommend people to attend next year's event so you can also try out these wines, or take a 1-day weekend trip to visit each winery.