Food

[Henry Krinkle]

I have heard that is very good

It was quite good. I think there are some really wonderful BC reds coming from one valley over from the Okanagan. Orofino vineyards in the Similkameen Valley has some really fine product.

[CanadianStraps]

I drink more red wine than I might be willing to admit to, but I've never really found a Canadian offering that I 'love'. In Ontario, the flavour profiles are huge and badass, but even the best ones lack proper refinement. From the west coast, I find that a lack of body is a common problem, and dryness as well. On the other side of the wine coin, I think that Ontario has some of the best whites I've ever had. I admittedly don't have the palette for white as I do for red, but I'm no slouch. Old World wines of almost all types have been disappointing me over the last few years as well.

[Henry Krinkle]

I have not had many Ontario reds since I had a Thirty Bench that tasted like green peppers. Not a hint of green peppers. Not notes of wild fruit, caramel and green pepper. Green pepper. That's all. It didn't even taste like wine. It tasted like green peppers run through a Juice Tiger. I like green pepper a lot but that was profoundly off-putting.

[Der Amf]

iirc the cause of green pepper flavours is the winemaker fermenting at an excessively low temperature, rather than anything to do with the grapes and how they were grown. I'll have to check I've not got confused though. Hang about.....

[Henry Krinkle]

iirc the cause of green pepper flavours is the winemaker fermenting at an excessively low temperature, rather than anything to do with the grapes and how they were grown. I'll have to check I've not got confused though. Hang about.....

Clearly they did something profoundly wrong.

[Der Amf]

Clearly they did something profoundly wrong.

Ah hang about, I *was* confused sorry. I remember now

Here's something interesting on the green pepper problem:

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/42244

Edit: at least, interesting to me

[Der Amf]

The flavour that comes from fermenting too cool, btw, is bananas. I once had an Argentine Chardonnay that tasted of bananas, about twenty years ago. Amusing but wearing

[Henry Krinkle]

Ah hang about, I *was* confused sorry. I remember now

Here's something interesting on the green pepper problem:

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/42244

Edit: at least, interesting to me

Actually, that is interesting.

[Henry Krinkle]

I drink more red wine than I might be willing to admit to, but I've never really found a Canadian offering that I 'love'. In Ontario, the flavour profiles are huge and badass, but even the best ones lack proper refinement. From the west coast, I find that a lack of body is a common problem, and dryness as well. On the other side of the wine coin, I think that Ontario has some of the best whites I've ever had. I admittedly don't have the palette for white as I do for red, but I'm no slouch. Old World wines of almost all types have been disappointing me over the last few years as well.

Apparently I was not entirely correct. My wife just reminded me we used to drink Hank of Pelham's cheap Baco Noir with BBQ a fair bit. The trouble with those hybrids is that when they reach a certain age they get a lot better. It happened to the Marechal Foch in BC a while ago. In that case I approved, but with the Eastern Baco Noirs they have lost the ability to stand up to spicy grilled food.

[CanadianStraps]

Baco noir is often proclaimed as 'Ontario's red' and a few Niagara wineries claim to specialize in it, but it's all so subjective.

'good' Ontario reds are also above average in price, and often represent a poor value proposition to me.