Canada's wines, especially our whites, are steadily improving.

Just as France has its AOP and AOC quality levels, Italy its DOCG
and DOC designations and Germany its QmP and QbA qualifications.
Canada has a VQA (Vintners Quality Assurance) designation.

One such wine is Quails' Gate Estate Series dry Riesling from the
Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Quails' Gate market five levels
of quality ranging in price from $18 to $80. The estate series that
made its way into my house is the bottom rung but still very
drinkable. A niece who likes sweet wines like Blue Nun gifted me
with 7/8th of a bottle! I had never encountered a truly dry Riesling
before; it had a green apple nose and taste, and a steely minerality
in the style of an austere Chablis with prickling acidity. It took
some getting used to but I decided in the end that I liked it.

Some of it became Kir: 3 oz of white wine with 1 desertspoon of
creme de cassis. A dessertspoon being 10 ml as opposed to a table or
soup spoon (15ml) or a teaspoon (5 ml).

I also added a splash of my homemade sweet and sour mix to one of
them (lemon and mandarin orange peels boiled in a light sugar syrup,
strained and then enriched with honey, and mandarin, lemon and lime
juices)

Kir was originally made in Burgundy from Aligote but today any
number of white wines are used throughout France including Chablis.
So my experimentation was fair game.

Similar drinks can be made with creme de mure (blackberry) or
framboise (raspberry).

And a Kir Royal is made with Champagne; I make mine with an
inexpensive Spanish Cava like Freixenet or a cheap German sparkler
like Henkell Trocken. I find Champagne overpriced and overrated.)

I certainly intend to try other Quails' Gate offerings in the
future.


Cheers

Jim

... Another wine review: Boone's Farm Watermelon tastes like Jolly Ranchers

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