Spring Wine Festival 2009

I surprised Kris on her birthday a few years ago with a trip to the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival. Three days with just the two of us and as many wineries as we could handle. It was terrific.

So terrific in fact that we've gone back almost every year. I think this was our 4th or 5th time. We stayed in a rental condo in Okanagan Falls, which has a not too glamorous reputation but is actually quite nice. We're headed back there to the same condo complex with the kids this summer. Apart from being quite comfortable and reasonably priced, it is strategically located about ten minutes south of Penticton in the centre of the wine trail for maximum tasting accessibility.

We must have gone to at least 40 wineries and tasted God knows how many wines. As always, I wish I wrote them down. I'll need to confer with Kris and post some reviews. Honestly, we drank one last night that we brought back which I don't even remember going to the winery. (My wife of course was reminding me of what colour shirt the proprietor was wearing while we were there.) So it was a bit of a whirlwind, but a blast as always. I hope we get to do this every year.

I'll try to get some specific wines posted, but my lasting impressions are that anything from Wild Goose or LaFrenz is outstanding and worth the money. See Ya Later was, for the first time, a disappointment. Generally, the quality in the valley continues to improve, and the prices seemed to be going up as well. I'd like to get back to the Similkameen - there's about 6 or 7 wineries out there - but we didn't find time this trip as usual. We did make it to a few Kelowna locations which were mostly excellent and worth the effort.

Don Miguel Gascon Malbec 2007

I'm back. Sorry for the delay.

This one I'd never heard of, just happened to see it on the shelf with a fancy "90" around the neck of the bottles. The 2006 was apparently one of DeVines' best sellers.

A deep purple colour, this Malbec needs a little time out in the open, as advertised. Nice earthy and alcohol-ey bouquet, I get a lot of plum taste. Would go well with, well, I'm not sure... a rare steak, pasta with a tomato sauce, lamb maybe. Quite dry with slightly aggressive tannins. If you do buy a bottle of this you really have to look at the colour, it's quite dark and unique. A very nice Malbec once it breathes.

89 points. About $18 at DeVines.