Local...or is it?
I feel that before I offer my, oh so humble opinion, in the drabble that follows I should give you a little background on myself. Firstly, and most importantly, I love wine, I love beer, I love all sorts of spirited beverages, in a social drinking, non-alcoholic sort of way, of course. Secondly, I've been working in fine dining establishments for 16 (oh my god!!) years. Now that doesn't necessarily make me an expert, it just means I've got to try a lot of really good stuff over the years.For the last six years I've been living in the Cowichan Valley, a humble and up and coming wine region. The restaurant I work in is very committed to promoting local everything and let me say, we have some good stuff to promote. Several of our local wineries such as, Venturi-Schulze, Alderlea, and Blue Grouse are in such high demand in fine dining places all over the island and mainland, we all fight for what inventory there is to carry. However, as our wineries have gained notoriety, more and more wineries have been popping up to prosper on this new found industry to our area. Now obviously when you start a new vineyard, the grapes aren't already there patiently and succulently waiting to be picked and turned into the nectar for the gods, so it takes a while to build your vineyard to have enough grapes to produce your own locally grown wine. So a lot of wineries, when they are starting out, bring in grapes or pressed juice from the Okanagan until they have enough of their own, some wineries just bring in basically ready made wine and bottle it with their labels. Is this OK? Do we care? Well many of the 100% Cowichan Valley wineries care. These wineries have decided to create a Vintner's Quality Association, to allow their labels to state their product is Cowichan Valley grown, rather that just British Columbia. I believe the passion and commitment these Vintner's have towards their products is really apparent when you taste them.
Here's a few of my favorites, now I know these are hard to get unless you are in the area, however, another good reason to visit our beautiful island. Alderlea Vineyards, Clarinet (Marechal Foch), rich, full and wonderful. Blue Grouse Vineyards, Siegerrebe, fruity but dry, no chardonnays around these parts! Venturi-Schulze, our premier winery really, their Brut Naturel, for bubbly lovers is fantastic. They also have a traditionally made Balsamic Vinegar, that will make you want to grab a glass and drink it! So these are some of our local offerings, a little difficult to get but worth the effort. Cheers!
~christle
posted by unsophisicated mom @ 3:49 PM
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