Good to see the Canadians make an appearance. Rhys was honest about the values of Okanagan wines. It is hard to find value there. Best value is with the whites, that’s for sure. Lot’s of risk due to “Mother Nature” with the wine industry in the valley. Few years does the Cab/Sau ripen properly.
I think the Wineries should show some patience and not try to make the “Big Bucks” too quick. It may for people to shop elsewhere once the Honeymoon is over>

strong show – i had no clue oakanagan wines were any good – but maybe i’ll have to head up there to check them out (before the olympic madness)

I live in Vancouver, BC, so it’s nice for Canada to start getting wine recognition. However, since our market is so ‘insulated,’ we get so few wines from around the world and BC wines are everywhere. The focus of our International Wine festival in March is, you guessed it, BC wines! I’d say about 3/4 of all WLTV’s wines are unavailable here. But I love it here so we just have to suffer from small selection. Excuse to travel I guess 🙂
Gary, why you no accept my friend request on facebook?
Thanks for a great show!

QOTD: Baseball tourney in May. I was up there around the same time last year and apparently no one in Victoria has heard of a wine bar. I was confused. Any suggestions for good places to eat/drink?

Best wine bar in downtown Vancouver is Uva Wine Bar in the Moda Hotel.
Just let sommelier Sebastien Le Goff know what you feel like, and he’ll serve you a mood-matching wine. Very tasty small plate dishes, too.
http://www.uvawinebar.ca/

What a great episode! Gary, love when you have guests because the interaction is so cool.

Haven’t been to BC in years. I drove through there one summer on the way from Banff to Vancouver, and made a stop at Mt. Revelstoke. It was beautiful, though I was practically eaten alive by some very large and aggressive flying insects.

Guess I’ll have to make a trip up to Vancouver to try some of those BC wines!

Thanks for this episode. I have been many times to BC. Most recently I was last year, skiing at Big White, so we flew into the Okanagan. I used to live in Ontario, and we would occasionally get some BC wines, I have enjoyed Quails Gate in the past. Also have enjoyed Nk’mip pinot noir (aboriginal owned vineyard) and Burrowing Owl.

Big White is small, but good facilities and the snow was excellent when I was there.

A beautiful place to visit, I recommend BC, almost any part of it, if you haven’t been.

Killah Show, would have been nice to see some Gehringer Bros Vino, or Poplar Grove. Im from Vancouver, and try to get down to the interior once a year in the summer. Always love the Gehringer for just pure value, and some cool german varietals that blow my mind. Really like some cedar creek and a bunch of others. one thing I find is that quite a few of the okanagon wines use American oak to finish, and gotta tell you.. OAK MONSTER city, and I am no fan. WAYYYYY to much oak on more than a few wines down there. anyway, good show…. Canucks Represent!

Long time lurker, first time poster! (I also have become an iTunes convert so get to see these later than usual too)

I visited the Okanagan last year from the UK, and it was fantastic for many reasons – not least the wine.

Such nice people, lovely views, and a whole range of friendly vineyards to visit, taste and enjoy!

Great episode, a really good guest, and you did a really good job of interviewing. Would love to try the wines.

QOTD – No idea.

First time to post here. I was intrigued by the Canadian wines, which I am quite familiar with as I live in Calgary. Definitely agree with all of these wines being overpriced compared to Napa and French wines. (Not even a contest against Australian or Chilean wines).

I wish the guest would have brought the sparkling wine they make at the Summerhill Pyramid Winery. It’s called Cipes Brut and it’s compared to Dom Perignon. Definitely one of my favorites.

I continue to buy these wines more as a national responsibility then anything else. But when the Canadian dollar was 1:1 with the US, I did buy a ton of stuff south of the border.

QOTD: Proud to say that we just adopted a row of vines in the Red Rooster winery, and we’ll be involved in the pruning and picking the grapes which brings us twice to the region.

What’s his full name, Gary? I live in Washington State and am planning a trip up there. It’d be nice to google him.

Fascinating. I did not realize that BC had such a diverse climate.

QOTD: Doubtful. Montreal (Quebec)definetely. Toronto, likely. BC?
alittle too far out for me.

Great show, though, I was surprised that Pinot Blanc was not noted as this regions flagship varietal. You might even say that Pinot Blanc is to British Columbia like Palomino is to Jerez. The Wild Goose Vineyards 2007 Mystic River Pinot Blanc, and the Nk?Mip Cellars 2007 Pinot Blanc are both outstanding examples.

“Canadian Bones!”

QOTD: haven’t been to Canada since the college days (you could drink legally up there!). Would love to take the trip, but probably won’t happen for a year or so…..

QOTD: There’s no way I’m missing Olympic hockey in Canada. I’ll see you in 2010!

Nice- this was really interesting. Go Team Canada!

QOTD: I’d love to visit BC. Just a matter of $$ and time…

Nice show there. Great to see wines from Canada other than the ice wines im so used to hearing about. Great guest too. QOTD: Well about half the guests seem to ask that. I have no idea at this point since Im never going to catch up and visit you all. I’ll try…. Lord knows i’ll try.

Loved this episode.

It is so refreshing to hear some frank talk about the outrageous pricing of Okanagan wines. The wine industry here is comparatively young and criticism is still in the booster-ism phase. It would be wonderful to get your impressions of some of the more “ambitiously” priced entrants to the marketplace. It’s a shame to lose the old orchards to some of these investment brokers.

Speaking of our dearly departing orchards, we also have a fruit wine industry that is not just for grannies: Forbidden Fruit in Cawston, Silver Sage in Oliver, and Elephant Island in Naramata make outstanding wines. Okanagan Spirits in Vernon make some devastating eau de vies that capture the essence of the orchards.

The positive side to the nascent aspect of the industry is the lack of homogeneity in wine styles, everything grows and everything goes- French style, German style, Portuguese style, California style — there’s a new organic winery in Oliver operated by an East Indian family and another owned by the Osoyoos Indian Band. No single philosophy or varietal reigns supreme which is makes for varied and entertaining tasting. It doesn’t hurt that our region is as gorgeous as Northern California either.

Oliver B.C.’s Festival of the Grape is a great way to take in 40 regional wineries in one venue. It’s terrible time to buy wine though, as everything spectacular is usually sold out by then.

Quinta Ferreira is a new favorite local winery, but if harsh mineral rieslings are your thing, try to find some of the old Domaine Combret, now known as Antelope Ridge, it’s like drinking fine old diesel. Burrowing Owl had a syrah with pronounced bacon notes, if memory serves. For my taste the old german style varieties do best here: Gehringer, Wild Goose,Gray Monk, Hainle, St.Hubertus, 8th Generation are all outstanding.

There’s plenty to drink in the South Okanagan, it would take two weeks to taste your way from the border to OK Falls, just don’t expect the food to be to a similar standard. A&W reigns supreme.

Very nice show, GV. You should also do something on the Niagara wines from the Niagara-on-the-Lake area. Somewhat like the Loire Valley – decent Cabernet Franc, for example.

QOTD: I have been to Vancouver, but nowhere else in BC. I would love to visit.

So cool to hear about BC wines. QOTD: 2010 Winter Olympics baby!!!

QOTD: Already done it. I left for vancouver on Jan 27 and spent the weekend. I was already planning a trip, so i was super psyched to see this show. I picked a bottle of the Tantalus 2007, the oldvine tantalus 2006, an 8th Generation Riesling from 2006, a Quail’s Gate 2006 Chardonay (i had real hard time finding any quail’s gate at all…most shop owners think they are trying to go only restaurant.) i also picked up 2 other pinot noirs, but i can’t remember their names off the top of my head right now. hopefully they will be good.

it is interesting that up there most people seemed to identify BC with Riesling and Gewurztraminer, not pinot and chardonnay.

i also have to agree with your guest…BC is really, really beautiful. i live in northern new mexico and travel to california and colorado a lot, as well as occational trips to france and switzerland, and BC is head-and-shoulders more beautiful than most wine country or mountain communities.

awesome show…i had no idea about okanagan wines, and i am really excited. i’ll report on the forum how the wines are.

Do you like any type of chardonnays?

gary, i am always appreciative when you score wines honestly even in front of very kind and friendly guests–that takes courage, and i am sure the winemakers know as do we that your criticism or praise will help to increase quality over time!