Notes from an excellent visit to the Wine Research Centre at UBC as a guest of the director, Dr. Hennie van Vuuren.
As per my usual methodology, the wines were tasted blind.
2001 Dageneau Blanc Fume de Pouilly 'Pur Sang' - some shaking heads on this one. The nose was sauvignon blanc of the non-grassy style, or it could possibly have been a lightly oaked chard, but we waffled and came back to our first, and correct impression. It has high acidity and definitely improved with food, and it showed much more fruit and fullness in the palate as it warmed. Beautiful well made wine.
1996 Ch.-Chalon Dom. Berther-Boudet - brought over from England by visitor John Taverner and shared at a wine dinner in his honour (notes previously posted), I had slung this unusual and expensive little gem into the fridge, planning on sharing the other half with an appreciative group. Bottled in a specially allowed 62 cl bottle, supposedly the amount of wine that is left from a 750 ml after 6 years ageing in cask under flor, like a fino sherry. I must say that the wine had benefited significantly by the two weeks since being opened. The nose, which basically resembles that of a fino sherry, had taken on a bit of toffee, and the wine had taken on additional flavour dimension on palate, with nuttiness and complexity that weren't readily discernable when we tasted it immediately after it was opened.. It was very clean and had a full mouth feel, and a 2 minute finish that lingered on and on. Pity it is so costly!
1998 Ch. Bel Air (Pomerol) - no, this wasn't the better known St. Emilion, Belair. This wine showed mellow fruit with a hint of cocoa in the nose and was quite fruit forward and harmonious with soft well integrated tannins. Nice claret for the relatively near term.
2002 Venturi Schulze Pinot Noir - it was time for some serious taste displacement therapy - this wine, made by a small winery in BCs Gulf Islands (they also run a specialty vinegar cellar) was bizarre. Totally unidentifiable as a Pinot, it showed a ripe raisin and orange peel nose that had us scrambling for Recioto style wines from around the world. It seemed to be a hot country wine, and had tons of concentration and good length. Clearly these winemakers do not feel bound by conventional paradigms, nor if it comes to that, conventional pricing theory - it was $45.
1998 Burrowing Owl Cabernet Sauvignon - another BC wine made by Californian Bill Dyer formerly of Sterling and more recently of the Dyer Straits Wine Company (I hope to see him again in a few weeks, and must remember to ask if he is a Knopfler fan or just likes puns). A big purple wine with a warm persistent nose. It has a sweet entry but follows up with (almost an excess of) acidity. Pleasant now, I doubt that it will get any better with further ageing.
2001 Moss Wood Glenmore Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - sweet ripe nose of currants, anise and the obligatory vanilla. Round in the mouth with well integrated tannins, and very good length. I'm not sure how much this will improve, though it has the structure to last well. Hard to resist right now. Only Western Australia seems able to produce cabernet with such a deft touch.
1996 Delille Chaleur - I had tasted this Bordeaux blend from Washington state a couple of days before and it had underwhelmed me a bit, so I decided to bring it to this event as a Pacific Northwest wine. It indeed showed better (perhaps not being side by side with the 2001 Delille worked to its advantage). The nose was a good Bordeaux style with some berries underlying the oak. Mellow, integrated, showing a bit more weight than the previous time, it went well with cheese.
1998 Fox Creek JSM - we had a discussion following the revelation of the wine, as to where the name comes from. Often mistaken for GSM (grenache syrah mourvedre) or some other oenologically significant label, in fact it refers to the names of the owners children, I believe. A shiraz cabernet blend, this wine is now reaching a nice plateau of drinkability. Early on it was a bit monolithic and showed little differentiation in either nose or taste, but it is getting past that now and exhibited a nice bit of complexity in the nose, with elements of blackberry, cherry and a bit of mint, and on palate, with the softening tannins allowing the underlying flavours through. I know there are people that say that this wine must be drunk young and loses fruit after a couple of years. Chacun à son gout, I suppose. For me, it is just coming into focus now. Time to start trying to find the case in the cellar.