#21- Petit Verdot

This wine was a special wine. We're still trying to determine if it was the setting, the timing of the drinking of the wine or that the wine itself was very good. My suggestion to you is to try it yourself and let me know.

Now why do I ask such questions? Well, have a close look at our pictures. This wasn't just a regular wine tasting nor a walk in the park. No, it was much more than that.

Craig and I decided to a weekend of camping and hiking in Jasper National Park here in our home province of Alberta. If you're not from Alberta, you definitely want to come for a visit and see the spectacular Rocky Mountains. If you're from this province, you know what I'm talking about. Jasper National Park is about 3 hours west of Edmonton Alberta and close to the British Columbia border. It is a stunning park with lots of activities to do, both in summer and winter. While I could tell you about our mishaps snowboarding (I probably did come to think of it...) our summer activities are a little less dangerous (though I could post the picture of my cut up finger after I slipped on a rock trying to take some funky pictures).

So, Craig and I planned our weekend of hiking in Jasper. To make a long story short, and one I'll revisit a few times over the next 10 months, I am trekking to Base Camp Mount Everest next May so I have to train for my 25 day excursion. Craig and I chose to tackle two hikes- Geraldine Lakes and Valley of the Five Lakes.

A 12km round trip, Geraldine Lakes is a challenging hike and it takes a couple of hours to make it to the second lake (and where we stopped to drink wine and pose for pics). After hiking 6km, we're not sure if everything tastes amazing or not, but the Petit Verdot was absolutely delicious.

Finally, I'm talking about the wine! The wine is an Australian wine and is from the Deen de Bortoli Vat Series (4) winery. The Petit Verdot was a common grape used in a blended wine such as the Bordeaux in the "Old World" countries. In the "New World" countries, such as Australia, it is often used as a single varietal.

The wine is very acidic and is considered a heavyweight. I'm starting to think it was indeed just the combination we needed to make this such a fantastic wine to drink on a hot day and and at the end of a 2 hour climb (that and we didn't have to worry about keeping the wine chilled). It did have a spicy kick to it and according to the website, blackcurrents (how appropos for a hike in the mountains!)

Being responsible climbers, Craig and I only had a small glass each (plastic wine glasses too) and it was our incentive to get back to camp and drink it with dinner. After heading down the trail, Craig and I decided to do one more hike that evening (Valley of the Five Lakes) before we got back to our campsite at Wabasso campground. And just as Craig and I pulled up to the site, the sky decided to pour buckets of rain on us. We quickly set up our "kitchen" to stay dry and Craig quickly set to work barbequing us dinner. And what a fantastic dinner it was! There's nothing like a great steak on the barbeque. The potatoes were put in tin foil right into the fire. We had some vegetables to round out our dinner. And guess what? The wine was just as fantastic as it had been 4 hours earlier. This complimented the red meat beautifully and we were quickly able to finish the bottle off before dinner was done!

The next wine is a white wine- A Verdehlo. It too was brought on the trip for day two of our hikes but Craig felt a little under the weather on Monday so we came home instead. But not to worry, we always find a way to come through for our loyal readers!

#20- Tinta Barocca

Drinking wine in Edmonton lately hasn't exactly been fun, unless you're a Vancouverite and you're used to rainy weather. We have had the most bizarre weather this year and what we're experiencing has some people on edge. If you've been a longtime Edmonton resident, green clouds make you think of one thing- tornadoes! So to get a sunny break is few and far between this summer (though I hear a rumour from CTV weatherman Josh Classen that we're in for a hot spell)

Anyway, my point is, wine drinking hasn't been as enjoyable as it should be outside so I went to the store with the intention of buying some reds that can be drank in less than stellar weather. Interesting enough, I went to Crestwood Wines in West Edmonton and managed to pick up not one but four new wines!! Add that to the three wines my sister found for me in Washington and we are good for 19 through 26! The best part though was when I went to the register to pay for my wine, the cashier noticed the unusual wines and said to me "interesting, all very rare grape varietals!" Ha!! Finally someone noticed that I've been picking odd wines! So I told him what I was doing and he found it very interesting. Not interesting enough for him to become a follower of this blog, but enough for a two minute conversation.

So with four wines in hand, I headed home and took out one of the reds (three reds and one white) and put it in the fridge for a quick chill. The wine is a Tinta Barocca wine and my first wine from South Africa! A product of Swartland, the winery is Allesverloren, a winery about 100 miles from Cape Town. The Tinta Barocca grape is very rare and was originally a portugese port varietal. It is very smooth and oaky and has just a touch of fruit flavours. If you like a malbec wine (of which I'm a huge fan) you will really like a Tinta Barocca as they are very similar in taste.

I very much enjoyed this wine and took advantage that I knew this wine would likely go well with steak. The sun decided to peak from the clouds so I decided to whip up a quick cucumber, steak and onion salad with just a simple vinegar dressing. Outside I went to enjoy the five minutes of brief sun, listen to the birds chirp, the jack rabbit hop by and the wine hit my taste buds just right as I sat back and enjoyed my evening before I had to pack for my weekend trip to the mountains (and yes, I brought wine with me!)

After packing up the car and heading to the parents to stay the night (I was borrowing their trailer and it made sense just to stay over for my 6am wake up call. Alright, too much information and moving on...) Craig got to try the wine later that evening and he did enjoy it though he is a fan of fruitier reds. While he enjoyed it (and almost broke the cork trying to get at the wine) it wouldn't be on his top 10 list. But he didn't like the Malbec either so it made sense that he wasn't a huge fan of the Tinta Barocca.

So it was a quick hot tub and then off to bed. Twenty wines down, 165 to go! The next few weeks are going to so much fun as we've decided we have to double up on our wine tasting to two a week to make up for my trips...alright...if we have to....

Our next wine is another red- the Petit Verdot!