My reflections on some wines for your enjoyment this holiday season – 2022 edition

1069 words – about a pleasurable 8-minute read…??

Well, what a year 2022 has been. I’m sure we say this towards the end of every year, but it certainly did feel like 2022 zoomed by us really fast.

This year, without foresight or some grand master plan or strategy, I was fortunate enough to find myself attending a number of wine tastings, most of which took place at the Water Street Café in Vancouver – a fabulous place to enjoy a meal with some good wines, IMHO.

The oldest wines I was fortunate enough to taste were from 1978, a French Bordeaux wine (hearty thanks to Jim Robertson for donating this wine to our wine club), a couple of wines from Bordeaux from 1982, and finally, a 1999 Wolf Blass Shiraz Premium Selection.

I was thoroughly impressed – the 1978 and the 1982 wines all had good structure and body, while still having mellowed in the bottle. They still had decent bouquets and I was so grateful to have had the chance to sample these wines. And yes, I should have noted the names down…sorry, I was in such awe of these wines that I dispensed with note-taking and record-keeping.

This year I also attended the Vancouver International Wine Festival for the first time. The event I attended was on a Thursday night and it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, due to COVID. There were a lot of British Columbia wineries participating, and I enjoyed sampling them. In fact, I was enamoured with a Rose from French Door Estate Winery.

On their website, they describe the Rose, which is of course, out of stock, as “a Provence-style Rosé made with Grenache and Mourvèdre. Delicate scents of pear,?mandarin, and apple. Clean and smooth flavours of grapefruit and grenadine on the palate.” I got grapefruit, apple, and a hint of mandarin. Regardless, it was delicious, and I’ll be looking to get my hands on more of these bottles into 2023.

So, what’s my take on 2022? As you may remember, my 2021 post was about how disappointed I generally was with wines in the $40 to $80 category, and how I had reverted to wines in the $20 to $30 range.

Well, in 2022, I pretty much carried on with this approach and I can’t say I’ve been disappointed. Sonoma Country has piqued my interest (I just had a sumptuous wine in the Seghesio 2020 Sonoma Zinfandel), and as the prices of Chilean wines continue to rise, I’ve turned my attention to value finds from Portugal (Duoro Valley in particular), and South Africa as well.

Without further ado then, here are my recommendations for wines you and your lucky gift recipients can enjoy for the 2022 holiday season. Enjoy, and of course, do so responsibly.

First up then, is the Almansa Laya from Spain. Currently available at the BC Liquor Distribution Board (BCLDB) for $2 off at $15.99, this one has a full body to it. It’s made of 70% garnacha tintorera and 30% monastrell and is Vegan. It has generated over 5,000 ratings on Vivino (a great App for wine lovers!), and what stuck with me was the great presence of dark fruit, leather, earthiness, and its decent finish. If I were you, I’d buy and gift this, whilst keeping about 6 bottles for yourself. ?

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I haven’t fully given up on Chile. One of my perennial favourites is the Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon from the Colchagua Valley. It has delivered for me with its full body, its juiciness, and the fact that it pairs well with red meats. I find it opens up with time, especially the more you swirl it, in a proper red wine glass of course! Coming in at $24.99, it’s a good value wine that punches above its weight.

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?Then there’s Blasted Church which I have always appreciated their whimsical take on wine and wine labels. My first introduction to Blasted Church, and my ex-wife’s actually, was their Hatsfield Fuse, but that’s a story for another day.

I’ve also had their Nectar of the Gods Red Blend, a gem that does not disappoint. However, the wine I want to recommend as a value wine, is the Blasted Church Cabernet Sauvignon which was gifted to me by my wonderful team at Weber Shandwick Vancouver when I left to start my own communications shop, Jamal Communications Inc. ?Thanks to Toru Levinson , Leslie Haber , Milena D'Agostino , Geoff N. , and John Tabbernor for this wonderful wine.

As a lover of full-bodied wines, this one is packed with notes of cassis, dark fruit, chocolate (characteristic of Merlots), dried herbs, and a bit of cocoa. It has a good structure that leads to a nice finish. I wanted this bottle to last longer, alas, I had to share it…??

Coming in at $30.99, it's on the steeper end of the range, but yup, you guessed it, get one or more as a gift, and then stock up for those 5 cms. of snow turns Vancouver into a parking lot nights…

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Next up is the Michael David Lodi Freakshow Cabernet Sauvignon. Regular readers of my column will immediately recognize that I have a thing for wines from Lodi – as I like my coffee bold, so do I like my wines bold as well, most of the time. And then there’s the label, which is always pleasing to the eye. ?Packing a punch at 14.5% yet medium-bodied, you can see the rich 150-year history of this winery come to life in this bottle. At $3 off, coming in at $26.99, this wine has rich notes of black cherry, strawberry, and toasted hazelnut and has good length on the finish.

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Finally, for this year’s list, the optimist in me wants to recommend the Daou Pessimist Red Blend. Inching up towards $40, this will lighten the purse or wallet a bit, but It will be worth it.

Having had the Daou Cabernet Sauvignon before, I didn’t hesitate when the BCLDB Product Consultant asked me to try the Pessimist. Boy does it ever deliver…at 15.2% (you can see that I like big wines), it is redolent with notes of black fruit, blackberry, oak, vanilla, and tobacco. A versatile wine IMHO. Don’t resist the urge to splurge. Dry January is just around the corner…

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?Well, that’s it, folks! I wish you all a safe, happy, healthy, and joyous holiday season and I look forward to talking to many of you in 2023!