Miles and miles of wine

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Michelle Hopkins/ Vancouver Sun Okanagan Valley (CNS VANCOUVER SUN)

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Photo by Anita MacPherson Jost Vineyards in Nova Scotia. (CNS)

Last year was yet another humbling, incredible 12 months of learning about and tasting wine for me. I was lucky enough to travel a fair bit both within Canada and abroad, and in the process tasted roughly 2,000 wines.

My top highlight of 2011 was spending two weeks visiting wineries throughout Australia, tasting wines that are available in our market as well as smaller-run or older gems. Spending a few days in Tasmania was a remarkable eye-opener in terms of just how good wines from the southern Aussie island can be. They're making world-class Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and sparkling wine that's criminally underrepresented in Canada.

Another under-the-radar wine region I visited this year was significantly closer to home: Nova Scotia. Wine Access's 2011 Canadian Wine Awards were held in Halifax this year, and judges were whisked around Nova Scotia's wine regions in between hours of tasting Canadian whites and reds all day in a hotel banquet room. We tasted some crisp, lean whites that were as good as any I've had and that paired beautifully with local seafood.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much I enjoyed my two trips to the Okanagan Valley this year -- the first on my own and the second with contest winners Ken and Hedy Pawluk. British Columbia wine already does very well in Canada, and it's only a matter of time before it starts finding greater success outside our borders.

Finally, the 2011 Winnipeg Wine Festival and its theme region (California) proved to be a huge success, and got people's palates tuned into what's going on in the Golden State.

This year holds great promise when it comes to wine, and for me it'll start big. I'm travelling to California at the end of this month for a week-long excursion through Napa and Sonoma. While I've visited California wineries, I've never been to either region before.

The 2012 Winnipeg Wine Festival will bring Canadian wines back to the forefront, as its theme regions are Wines of British Columbia and Wine Country Ontario. Outside of Canadian wine competitions, the sharing of the spotlight by Canada's two main wine regions is unprecedented. Given the time of the year the festival takes place (April 29 to May 5), there's a good chance we'll see at least a few winemakers coming to town to pour their wines and talk vino.

In terms of regions to watch, Argentina should continue its rise to international stardom as it encroaches on Chile's share of the value-for-money sector. While Spain is doing well in our market and beyond, Portuguese wine is poised to make great strides as a killer food-friendly value.

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Sadly, Provence Bistro has closed its doors. The French-inspired restaurant, located at Niakwa Golf & Country Club, has long retained one of the best wine lists in the city, deftly chosen by the extremely knowledgeable (and personable) Shawn Brandston.

But fear not -- Promenade Bistro is picking up where Provence has left off. Located at the corner of Provencher and Taché, Brandston and company's spot overlooks the Esplanade Riel and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It will relaunch in spring 2012 as Promenade Café and Wine, and feature some pretty innovative wine programs/initiatives. More to come on this venture.

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Tawse 2010 Unoaked Chardonnay (Niagara Peninsula, Ont. -- around $20, private wine stores)

In 2011, Tawse won its second consecutive Winery of the Year award at Wine Access' Canadian Wine Awards; taste its wines and you'll see why. Extremely pale straw in colour, this unoaked Chardonnay brings bright red apple, ripe lemon, perfume, chalky mineral and a hint of melon on the nose. With red apple skin, pear, melon and lemon rind flavours neatly packaged in crisp acidity and minerality, this elegant white could stand up well against white Burgundies at nearly twice the price. Picked up at Banville & Jones. 91/100

Louis M. Martini 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma County, Calif. -- $18.99, Liquor Marts and beyond)

Bright cherry, raspberry, tobacco leaf, leather and mint show well on the nose here. A medium-plus bodied Cabernet, this Louis Martini (there's a Napa Valley bottling as well) shows a fair bit of plum, cinnamon, and blueberry on the palate - almost more Merlot-like in nature. Still, there's some light mint and white pepper notes and a hint of tannin on the medium finish. 86/100

St. Hallett 2008 GST (Barossa, Australia -- $21.95, Liquor Marts and beyond)

A 60/35/5 blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Touriga (hence the name), there's loads of big blackberry, black cherry, vanilla and white pepper aromas here. This is a no-nonsense, fruit-forward Australian red wine that delivers jammy red and black berry flavours with some light tarry, spicy notes. Hey, this wine once made me think of our national sales tax; now I associate it with one of the Winnipeg Jets' lines. 88/100

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 7, 2012 E4