#33- Kerner

Well well well. We have ourselves a winner! And not just a winner. Craig has officially declared this wine his favourite to date. I'm not even exaggerating when I say Craig and our mother went on and on about how good this wine was! Liquid goodness.

So what wine is this? Amazingly it's a Canadian wine and from a winery that I've actually been to. The grape however, is new to me. I'd never heard of the Kerner grape before but I do like the Gray Monk Estate Winery in Kelowna, British Columbia (that's our western most province in case you're not from around here). The Kerner grape is very aromatic, very acidic and is a lightweight wine. The colour of the wine was straw, but very blonde.

Like I said, I am familiar with this winery. I lived in Kelowna in 1996 for my radio practicum and we were lucky enough to get a winery tour and drink some fabulous wine. I bought my very first ice wine from them! Being in a cold Canadian climate, ice wine is a great wine to buy from here.

I chose the wine based on its pairing with my dinner. Now, looking at the picture of my dinner, I wouldn't want to eat it. But trust me- this dinner is delicious! (if I could serve this at my wedding without being laughed at I would). The dinner is Creamed Turkey on Toast, a meal that uses your left over turkey. It is so good. Made with mushroom soup and vegetables, you pour it over a bed of rice or pieces of toast. To die for. The Kerner wine mentioned it went well with white meat.

So I was pretty excited to try the Gray Monk Kerner wine. Nicely chilled, I poured myself a glass.I immediately liked it and thought it paired well with the turkey. While I was able to pull out the fruity flavour, Craig was immediately able to taste the pear (maybe because the bottle had been open for a while, the flavour became more pronounced). The wine did remind me a bit of a Riesling and looking at the varietal table, it is the most similar grape I've tried to date (though it is very different in overall taste, there is definite hints of riesling). 

The wine is also quite sweet but not overbearing. I definitely wouldn't serve it on its own. Craig would disagree and so would my mom. I'm pretty sure if I plopped a couple of wine bottles of this in front of them, they'd down them! Maybe an experiment is in order...

Anyway, the wine is fabulous and I had two glasses before putting the cork in it to take over for others to taste. I would definitely stay with a lighter food or supper with this wine and the high acidity was nicely neutralized with the mushroom sauce. Overall-  a great dinner and wine!

The next wine on the list is a red wine- the Petite Syrah!