This past weekend I was visiting friends in Canada and attended my 13th consecutive Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. There were many awesome wines and a few really stuck out amongst the crowd. I will do my best to report on the Top 5, which were chosen because they left me with a very favorable impression and were all wines I had never heard of before.
As I only have a moment, I’ll have to write about the others over the next day or so, but this one I had three times during the weekend and was impressed by the quality of what was in the bottle as well as the selling price.
The inaugural vintage, 2006 FUSE is a non-traditional blend of 100% Napa fruit, a mix of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Syrah. I tasted this twice on its own and then shared a couple of bottles at a local restaurant where it paired perfectly with our varied appetizers and the meat course as well. Not only is it exceptionally food-friendly, but it is quite approachable and extremely smooth in the mouth. The Syrah provides a spicy component to the nose, along with a meaty and smoky note that was quite pleasing. The palate exhibits a richness and wild berry concentration which was impressive, along with blackcurrant and plum flavors and round tannins. Beautifully balanced by ample acidity, this was a very tasty wine and although it’s easy to drink now, I believe Fuse will be even better with another year in bottle and then should drink well for a decade or more.
Although it was retailing for $40 Canadian (in the BC Province) one of my friends checked winesearcher for me in the midst of our meal, and found it selling for $22 at K&L. Time to go order a case. 91+ points