Since Canadian wines are so readily unavailable in the United States, we made certain to grab a couple of bottles during our Olympic trip earlier this month. We stopped in and had a nice visit with the staff at Taylorwood Wines in Yaletown, a local shop that only carries BC wines.

As I’ve been learning about BC wines this month, I’ve been skeptical that they would be able to produce red wines of substance due to the northerly latitude.

This bottle, Mt Boucherie Summit, was recommended highly by Taylorwood as a quintessential example of the BC capability to produce a powerful full bodied red wine from Merlot, Cab Franc, and Cab Sauv grapes. I figured it would be a good sample to see what BC is capable of.

While not mind blowing or life changing, I am impressed and encouraged by the potential to ripen these classic varietals this far to the north. Much of this is due to the long summer days and temperate effects of the huge lake Okanagon. With a little more global warming they could really be on to something in the next 50 years.

Mt Boucherie has vineyards in both the Okanagon Falls subregion of the Okanagon Valley region and the Similkameen Valley, all of which they own and maintain themselves.  The Gidda family has been in the BC wine business for over 40 years, and are the largest family owned and operated outfit in BC.

Their winery and tasting room is located in Kelowna and I will definitely be making a stop to visit someday.