Wine Maven

The nominal amount of residual sugar is kept refreshing by near-perfect acidity allowing the lovely lime, pear and red apple aromas and flavours to shine. One of a good Riesling’s great charms is its ability to work with just about any food—green and yellow curries, salads, bitter greens, fresh summer vegetables, even steak.

Tinhorn’s 2009 exhibits all we love about Okanagan Valley Chard; lively food-friendly acidity balanced by subtle creamy richness. There is a nice juicy complexity in the flavours with layers of fruit from green apple and Okanagan stone fruit to a whisper of tropicality, pineapple and melon, plus some fresh herbs. This wine is extremely versatile, complementing both trout in green curry and simple grilled salmon with rosemary. Our suggestion? Keep a bottle of this in your fridge at all times for emergencies.

Expectations were high, then more than exceeded. A wine by the master of Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc, Kevin Judd (Cloudy Bay) now on his own, redefining the category—again. This sauv blanc is subtle, with an elegant, sure-footed minerality, and evanescent fragrance of lime, yellow grapefruit, nectarine and just-picked ripe peach that comes in waves as if on a summer breeze. Fullbodied yet understated, with a firm structure containing lush fruit—we couldn’t stop thinking about (or drinking) this wine.

Drink this and feel good, not just because the wine is a terrific sipper and value priced, but because 15 per cent of the sales go to support conservation efforts for the white bear (Kermode) habitat in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. White Bear Wines donated $100,000 on its first anniversary, April 2010. We like the crisp and clean flavours of the Pinot Blanc as an aperitif.

Crisp, focused, packing a wallop of generous juicy red fruit. We loved this with a tangy strawberry and goat cheese salad or try with crispy calamari. The Joie rose could handle a bit of heat as well.