Geography: The southern Okanagan Valley in the area between Oliver and the border is classified as part of the Sonora Desert, which runs south to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.

Terroir: Borrowed from the French, this term encompasses the entire environment–soil, climate, aspect–that makes a vineyard special.*

Quality: The VQA designation (Vintners Quality Alliance) requires a professional tasting panel to approve each wine.

Must: Unfermented grape pulp or juice.*

Organic: A technique for growing grapes without using chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides or commercial fertilizers.*


*Schreiner, John - British Columbia Wine Country, Whitecap Books Ltd., 2003

  
 
 

The Wines of British Columbia reflect British Columbia’s agricultural and natural heritage. When you’re smelling and tasting them, you’re experiencing something uniquely BC. Learn to identify a few simple traits and you’ll be well on your way to a greater understanding of what makes the Wines of British Columbia special.

Try this tasting out with a few friends and a few bottles of the same varietal (perhaps Merlot, Riesling or Chardonnay ) from the same region of British Columbia. If possible, have a few reference scents on hand to compare. It’s easier to pick out the sage or honey aromas of a wine if you’ve got some on hand to compare.

Most importantly, have fun. Compare notes. You’ll be surprised how what you taste will differ from what others do. Or you might have totally different words for describing essentially the same thing. Wine is very personal. It’s more important to enjoy one than ‘get it right.’
THE TASTE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
 

These fragrances can occur in any BC white wine, but
they are especially prevalent in aromatic varieties
such as Gewürztraminer, Riesling, and Ehrenfelser.
Sagebrush is the dominant native shrub on dry Okanagan hillsides. Its intense sweet, herbal smell permeates the Okanagan air, and is perhaps the definitive BC white wine aroma.

RECOMMENDATION: CedarCreek Ehrenfelser

Another classic BC smell is clover, the bright green crop that grows all over the province. Its sweet green-pea smell is a quintessential memory trigger for anyone who has driven a BC back road in summer.

Honey may not be a truly ‘herbal’ smell, but BC’s best-known honey is clover honey and the two flavours invariably occur together in BC wines.

Elderflower is a common native shrub with a very distinctive green, pungent aroma. Many of our native trees and shrubs have a similar smell; for example chokecherry and red flowering currant. In spring, BC’s woods are scented with it. If you could bottle “spring-in-BC”, that’s what it would taste like.
 
RECOMMENDATION: Jackson-Triggs Sauvignon Blanc
 

When you taste BC white wine, think roadside fruit stand. Many BC whites have a green, earthy tartness reminiscent of Granny Smith apple skin. The sweet, almost perfume-y fragrance of ripe pears is equally common, especially in Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Peach and apricot aromas and flavours are hallmarks of BC white wines, occurring in virtually any varietal in both dry and sweet versions. Dessert wines (late harvest, Icewine ) invariably have a distinct dried apricot aroma and flavour.

RECOMMENDATION: Gray Monk Pinot Gris
 

BC red wines typically exhibit a mixture of red
fruit associations. Isolating a single one is quite
often impossible, which is why French tasters came up with the tasting term ‘petits fruits rouges’. Note that plums, cherries, raspberries, and blackberries all have an undertone of tartness. This is important because it provides a note of counterpoint that brightens and enlivens, making our wines more attractive with food. Our petits fruits rouges normally include cranberries, red currants and huckleberries, and sometimes salmonberries and salal berries.

RECOMMENDATION: Mission Hill “Five Vineyards” Pinot Noir
 

Earthy aromas and flavours are tremendously important in wine, if not always primary. Without an
underpinning of earthiness, otherwise attractively floral or fruity wines can seem hollow, dull, and empty. Many delicately fruity BC wines benefit enormously from an underlying jolt of minerality. It is interesting to note that, in the Okanagan, sagebrush occurs most frequently on volcanic soils: Sage-y wines typically have a corresponding whack of earthy pungency.

RECOMMENDATION:  Quails’ Gate Chenin Blanc

 

  
© 2006 British Columbia Wine Institute.  All rights reserved.