with WSET Certified Sommelier Kat Vucic & wine loving lay woman Liz
Welcome to the Holiday edition of Uncork with Kat & Liz. We’re demystifying the wine world and its’ lingo, guiding you through shopping, wine list reading, drinking and celebrating good grappa. The spectacular world of fermented grapes has more variation than the origin of species, and for this Winter Holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule, Insert Celebration Here), we’ve got three stellar BC wines which will make your season shine.
How to Taste (Or Sample Wine):
If you’re going to pop into a wine tasting, you need to know what to do without looking like the wide eyed doorknob in the room. Swish a red. Swish a white. Never swish a bubble. Always go with your second sip.
The first sip is a cleanser, like washing your face or brushing your teeth. The second sip is the flavour your mouth is waiting for, and what you’re actually tasting. The tip of your tongue is sweetness, the sides are acidity (pucker, anyone?), the back is bitter and savoury flavours come to the middle of the tongue.
Have fun with it! If you smell bacon and taste a dirt road, there you go. Keep a mental note (or a written one) on what you found with which wine. You’re never wrong. People assume you’re supposed to be tasting certain things. Wine is about your experience, and it’s subjective. Different grapes give you different flavour profiles, and different years produce differing levels of complexity and flavour.
It’s a wide wonderful world. Time to uncork.
Bubbles: Summerhill Cipes Rosé, $26.95
Kat: Strictly 100% Pinot Noir, these grapes are organically grown specifically for making sparkling wine, nothing else. Why is that important? They want more acidity to be present in these grapes, so they will give a refreshing quality to the wine in the end. It will last longer, because acidity preserves wine.
Tasting Notes: Subtle notes of strawberry, raspberry, a little bit of cranberry, delicate red fruit and a nice acidity. The Cipes Rosé makes your mouth water, without being totally dry and without a cloying sweetness. A little bit of creamy texture.
Food Pairing: Always try popcorn first.
Liz: Every holiday needs its’ bubbles. When I go for a celebration wine, it’s Summerhill’s Cipes Rosé. My personal favourite bubbles (and favourite varietal: Pinot Noir), I like that it’s less dry than some of the mouth-puckering champagne-style ones, and yet it’s not as sweet as something like Baby Duck, which to me tastes like sugary pop with booze. My partner loves the Cipes Rosé, too, and we’re planning on using it to toast our wedding this spring!
Red: Osoyoos Larose Petales $25
Kat: First of all, this is a red blend of five grapes, a bordeaux style. The five grapes are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. The Merlot and Malbec are your fruit driven wines, which give balance to the tannins and the weight of the Cab Franc, Cab Sauv and Petit Verdot. Without them you would just have a very heavy, not finessed wine. And a lot of tannins. You would not be able to drink it, unless you aged it for a decade. It would suck all the moisture out of your mouth. This blend is pristinely balanced, a perfect holiday classic.
Tasting Notes: Black cherries, ripe black plums, a little bit of tobacco and leather, medium tannins, and a medium finish. Deliciousness!
Food Pairing:This wine has elegance and subtlety, it is approachable to sip on its’ own, yet heavy enough to pair with roasts and other heavier meats. Even pizza, if you want to go and step up your game and have some fun with your wine.
Liz: Osoyoos Larose Petales is one of those wines I love to bring to a friends’ house or girl-time gathering. I love the balance in it, and it’s a crowd pleaser for the wine newbies, the casual drinkers (who know wine as ‘tasting good/bad/eh’), and the enthusiasts. When I make my beef wellington, or sunday roast, this is one of the wines I most reach for.
White: Quail’s Gate Chasselas, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris $20
Kat: A three grape blend that is appropriate for any occasion and absolutely any food, be it spicy, poultry, ethnic, no steak. It is off-dry, but not sweet and not dry. In the middle, right?
Don’t know what a guest or hostess likes to drink? Bring one of these. It’s a mass appeal wine. Green apples, ripe red apples, peach, pear, melon on the nose and palate.
Liz: I love introducing new wine drinkers to a white like this. It tends to be an easier introduction to a wine’s great taste and it’s easily approachable with no prior experience to go on. That being said, the real enthusiasts in my life love this, too (if they go for whites), as the Chasselas and the Pinot blends dance in a beautiful waltz on the palate.
If you are buying for people these holidays and don’t know what kind of red or white they drink, always buy a blend. This is why we did a red and white blend for our tasting, we definitely like to help you shop. Live in Metro Vancouver and need help? Come visit Kat at her Okanagan Estate Wine Cellar in Langley, BC right off the 200th Street Exit of HWY 1. You’ll get a fantastically curated selection of BC wines to choose from, within any budget.
About the Uncorked Girls:
Kat Vucic is a European-born Sommelier, whose early life adventures brought her from Eastern Europe, to South Africa, to the great outdoors of BC, Canada. She’s a WSET Certified Sommelier, and the owner of the Okanagan Estate Wine Cellar. Kat teaches classes on wine, and would love to conduct tasting parties for your friends’ night, corporate function or party.
Liz Ratajczak Ratel is the award-winning CEO of Vraeyda Media, a multimedia corporation dedicated to corporate & commercial film, letter/speech writing, design, branding & marketing, publishing speculative literature, and planning corporate, cultural & charitable events. An amateur musician, author, producer and avid home cook, Liz fell into the wonderful world of wine, when she stopped in at Kat’s store for the first time several years ago.
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