Food and Wine Supplement

After 10 days in the mountains we took an urban swing through Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.
With some fancy mapwork, we were happy to discover that a very slight detour from our route would take us via Kelowna through the heart of Western Canada’s finest wine-growing region, the Okanagan Valley. 84 beautiful wineries to choose from!
We stopped at Quails Gate and Mission Hills, the latter founded by the guy who launched Mike’s Hard Lemonade. After Mike made his fortune, he decided to try his hand at grapes. Among the 10 different Mission Hill wines we tasted, the Ice wine and Rieslings that we assumed would be best turned out to be loaded down with sugar. In fact, the ice wine was reminiscent of Mike’s original creation. We found a wonderful Pinot Grigio, just as we’ve found an abundance of great Pinot Grigio throughout Canada.

Views from Quail's Gate and Mission Hills

At Quails Gate the only really interesting wine we tasted was Old Vines Foch, from a varietal (Foch) that is new to us. Named after the (in)famous French Admiral who was revered after World War I and disdained after World War II , this complex and unusual tasting grape shall remain non-descript, for now, as a bottle of this curious wine could be among the prizes we share for solving our mystery photo quizzes.

We honed our mapwork skills further in Oregon where our friend Dave Grushkin took us into the Willamette Valley, swooping over the city of Portland and onto dirt roads through orchards and vineyards. After tasting some terrible wine from Ponzi (the name should have tipped us off) where a used car salesman posing as a wine pourer maintained a fixed smile throughout, we happily stumbled upon Brickhouse winery. This very small production wine sells out immediately upon release, but they give people on the e-list first access to their wine before the distributors. So they really do love sharing their wine with people who love it too. That was evident in the tasting room, a large barn eclectically transformed, surrounded by wildflowers and a well-used hammock. As we pulled up, the friendly wine manager was pouring for a single customer. Tasting at Brickhouse is by appointment only and even the winery access road is marked ‘Closed’. Ken called and mentioned that we had enjoyed their Gamay Noir two nights before in a wonderful restaurant named Herbfarm and that opened the door.

Entering Brickhouse

and tasting room

After the next tasting, at Penner-Ash, a brief lunch seemed necessary before driving further. At Horseradish restaurant, in Carlton, a selection of local cheeses and such revived us sufficiently to be able to taste a new offering from the son of the famed vintner Ken Wright who helped spark the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir craze. We think it was a cabernet-merlot blend but our memory of this lunch is slightly hazy. Continuing further in the Willamette Valley we went to Argyle winery in Dundee to re-taste their vintage 2002 brut, also served at the Herbfarm. However, they were only pouring the 2000, which was not bad, but led us steadily downhill through an array of sparklers that ended in a fizzy Pinot Noir. Imagine tasting a bitter deep purple sparkling wine. Not. And we’ll say no more.
Some 08 road trip wine recommendations we leave you with include a British Columbian Pinot Noir named Burrowing Owl, and the Mission Hills Pinot Gris, a French H. Billiot Brut Reserve, a small production (35,000 cases) Champagne that’s terrific, and the Brickhouse Gamay Noir and any of their Pinot you can get your hands on (especially the 2006 vintage).Their next release is in the late fall – get some of the Gamay for Thanksgiving.

The Herbfarm (outside of Seattle) was part of a three week long celebration of Micheline’s birthday which started in Vancouver and will culminate in a week or so in Chicago. The Herbfarm is a special place; rustic elegance, herbs picked from their gardens (as you might have guessed) and an extraordinarily talented staff.
Our friends, Erik and Lenore Hanisch, joined us for M’s celebration and they brought a magic carpet as a gift.......

At the Herbfarm entrance----

We’ll spare you the complete list of extraordinary food and wine pairings at the Herbfarm , but one dish involved salmon smoked on the tips of fresh-picked Douglas fir branches. And the evening culminated with a vintage 1912 Barbeito Bual Madeira. We’ve never been fans of the oft too sweet Madeira but this one deserved a chance. Nutty and gracious at 96 (remind you of any family members?) A treat.
Back in Vancouver where M’s B’day celebration began, we visited the Blue Water Café, another “rustic elegant” restaurant that served up a three tier food tower of fresh crustaceans, sushi, oysters and the like. And the following night we ate at the Chinese Imperial Palace, the place where Johnny Dukovich (from Micheline’s Tuesday night art group) got married. The live prawns, barely cooked and incredibly juicy, were the best we have ever had.
---Stay tuned for a broader cultural, environmental and political overview of these areas in our next posting.