I’ve been in Vancouver and have been sampling a bunch of British Columbia wines. There has been a quantum leap up in quality in the reds in the last decade, so there are some terrific, balanced wines from a range of producers. I mentioned Laughing Stock and Le Vieux Pin syrahs in another thread. Those are on the order of 90- and 88-point wines for me. I also had the very good 2012 Joie “En Famille” pinot, which was very precise and elegant.
This week I tried a 2012 Meyer Family Vineyards - McLean Creek Road Vineyard (Okanagan Valley), which came highly recommended at Kitsilano Cellars, which is the best wine store in Vancouver for my tastes.
This has a lot of French oak up front, which carries through into the mouth. It was still pretty dominating even in the remains two days later. Still, this is a nice wine, and there is a depth of fruit there so I think there’s a good chance the oak will marry with the wine better eventually. The oak wasn’t bothersome; just too conspicuous at this stage. It’s 13.5% ABV but has no trace of the candied flavors you get in so many California pinots – a taste I really don’t like. At C$46/US$41 I’d prefer to gamble on the Joie which had no noticeable oak (though it spends 10 months in unspecified French oak). But the Meyer is a high quality wine. I’d far rather drink this than 97% of California pinots. I’d give it ~88+ points. I’d given the Joie a slightly higher score.
Given the tax-inflated retail prices here, it’s a good value in the local market. (You pay ~$30 or more for a good Cotes du Rhone Villages.)
There is a common thread to all these wines which was very pure, uncandied fruits. The syrahs were much closer in flavors and balance to the Northern Rhone than most New World syrahs, and the Joie and Meyer pinots wouldn’t be out of place in a flight of full-bodied vintage Cote de Nuits. They’re closer to Old World pinot than even a lot from Oregon.
The Okanagan and the other interior wine areas are at roughly the 50th parallel, so about the level of Paris, which makes days and hours of sunlight critical. It has a fairly harsh winter but it’s arid and hot and sunny across the summer.
The middle-aged woman in the wine store, who has worked in retail for 20 years here, said she thinks B.C. has really hit its stride with pinot and syrah. I have to agree
Historical footnote: B.C. wines stank for a long time. In the late 1970s I attended a luncheon in Vancouver for German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and was seated next to two German reporters. (I was a mere college student, I hasten to add.) One of the Germans sampled the B.C. white that was served and nudged his friend to do the same. Then the first one turned to me and said, “Tell me, do they make wine in Alaska, too?”