Vancouver BC - a weekend of wine…and scotch…and mezcal…and I forget the rest
This weekend my fiance and I went to Vancouver, BC to unwind from a long school quarter, among other things. I had some bad wines, some good wines, and some great scotch…but I’ll explain chronologically.
Friday at Lumière
This restaurant is justifiably recognized as one of the best in Vancouver, if not one of the best places on the West Coast. The food was unbelievably good, but this is a wine blog, so:
- “Aviation” cocktail: Gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur - extremely nice
- Glass of Balthasar Ress Hattenheimer Schutzenhaus Riesling Kabinet 2003 - also extremely nice, very sweet for a Riesling, but delicious with lobster bisque
- Glass of 2001 Palandri Shiraz - not all that great, unfortunately…a bit too weak and thin on the fruit so it wasn’t a very good match with the veal chop…but I did drink it all, so it wasn’t horrible or anything
- Glass of Penfolds Grandfather Tawny - delicious, but perhaps a bit too much red fruit showing in the finish (not tawny enough, somehow)
- Glass of Aberlour d’abunadh (Speyside single malt Scotch) - really nice Scotch…I’m just starting to appreciate single malts and this one is quite nice
Saturday at Blue Water Café
- “Manuka Mojito” cocktail: Honey vodka, fresh pineapple, mint, lime, ginger beer - very tasty and spicy!
- Tasting of an Inniskillin red blend - pretty bad, I didn’t order any
- Carafe of 2002 DeLoach Pinot Noir - good, standard Pinot Noir…nothing too fancy, but it tasted good with my arctic char
- Glass of Embajador Reserva Especial 7-year aged Anejo Mezcal - absolutely mind-blowing stuff…well worth tracking down!
- Flight of three single malt Scotches from the Isle of Islay - Caol Ila 25-year (too smoky and dry for my taste), Port Ellen 24-year (very peaty and smoky, but nice), and Bruichladdich 32-year (really incredible Scotch)
So, it was a fun weekend…although a bit expensive. In the end I think the first wine (the Riesling) was my favorite overall, but the mezcal and the Bruichladdich Scotch were the clear winners in terms of spirits.
March 27th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Sounds like a great, great weekend.
One thing that I think would be nice to incorporate into the blog is an organized list of the wines that you’ve tasted. Maybe it could be sorted under grape and/or region or some other criteria. I know that you have a section where you compile reviews, but I’m thinking of something that’s a little more searchable.
April 4th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
I’ve got an Excel spreadsheet right now with all the wines I’ve tried over the past few months, but I still need to figure out exactly which data categories matter, you know? I should just post the file every once in a while since that would be the easiest thing to do.