#85- Pinot Auxerrois

I am a proud Canadian so it always gives me a bit of a thrill to find a wine that I love and can't wait to brag about. Plus, I have a cool connection to the winery.

The grape is the Pinot Auxerrois and goes by several names depending on where it's grown. In Alsace for example it's known as Auxerrois Blanc. But in Canada it's known as the former. It's not a grape that is commonly grown in North America. There is one winery that is known for their Pinot Auxerrois and that is Gray Monk in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.

Way back in 1996 I lived in Kelowna for my radio practicum. My two classmates- Karen and Leanne and I packed up and moved to the Okanagan Valley for 4 months to work at three separate radio stations for our last semester of college. We were working for free so we figured we'd go someplace warm to do it. So Kelowna was our chosen destination. Just to give a nice point of fact here- Kelowna had one of the coldest and snowiest winters they'd had in 20 years that winter. It's almost as if we brought winter with us! Can't win em all I guess.

In any event, in late April, we got to do a wine tour and the very first stop on our wine tour was Gray Monk Winery. At the time there were very few wineries in the region (not compared to the 200 + now that call BC home) so we became familiar with the local wineries. Gray Monk has always stayed in my memory as one of my favourites.

Back to the grape. The parents of the Pinot Auxerrois is the Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir. Wine fact- it is a full sibling to the Chardonnay grape as they both have the same parents! (I'm taking a good whiff of it now and I can certainly see how it relates to its sibling. Its character does indeed remind me of a chardonnay on the nose).

But it doesn't taste anything like the chardonnay grape at all. This one is buttery and creamy with great notes of peach and other orchard fruits (in Canada, many of our fruits come from this valley). On the tongue, I capture honey before any of the fruits such as lime and a tinge of apple. It is a very delicious combination. I am very reluctant to keep any for Craig though I bet he'd very much like this wine. It's not very acidic and moderate in alcohol, this is a wine that is great to drink on its own or to pair with white meats. I had barbequed chicken and side vegetables with the wine and found it to be a perfect pairing.

I do recommend this wine and am a huge fan of it for summer barbeques. It's also a reasonably priced wine and you can find it in most stores for under $20.

#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!