Trip to Birch Bay - Awesome Wine in the USA

I recently spent a few days just south of the border, in Birch Bay, Washington.

There was sun, fun and family but there was also wine.

It's no secret that wine prices in Canada are much higher than the US. There are also some amazing wines available in the US that I don't even know if BC carries in our own liquor stores.

The first place we went to was Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is famous (or infamous) for its 'Two Buck Chuck' which is Charles Shaw wine. This comes in a variety of styles and prices. I bought a bottle of something for about $3 a few years ago and, even without any wine experience and several years of making my own wine in the basement, 'Two Buck Chuck' was truly a hideous wine that was not worth drinking. It has truly turned me off the entire Charles Shaw line.

However, during this trip, I looked around at some of the other wines and there was a wine that intrigued me. I have just started listening to a podcast called, "Wine for Normal People" which has good information although the host of the program is a bit annoying because she often interrupts the guests that she has on the show. "Let them speak!" he complained, derisively. As I said, though, the podcast has good information and one of the episodes I listened to was on rosé. The host, Elizabeth Schneider, did a great job discussing rosé in general and one style that she really liked was a French rosé from Tavel - an appellation that only makes rosé.

Well, in Trader Joe's, there was a Tavel rosé that cost under $20 so I thought I'd give it a try. My apologies for the photo, but it was a Réserve de Chastelles 2016 Tavel Rosé.

This Tavel had some nice red fruit taste and was very interesting. The colour was not your pale, pinkish rosé colour that is so common - it was definitely reddish pink and actually looked quite appetizing! At first on the palate, it tasted a bit sweet - but then the acidity hit my palate and - wow! It balanced beautifully with the sweetness to make a very delicious, crisp rosé. It is a blend of Grenache and Syrah grapes. We enjoyed it very much and had some nice cheese and charcuterie to accompany the wine. I will definitely try a Tavel Rosé again.

After Trader Joe's we headed to that wonderful giant of warehouse shopping, Costco. I picked up two wines for our trip at this mega store.

The first was a Vouvray which is made from Chenin Blanc. It was a Domaine le Peu de la Moriette which cost around $20 US. This Vouvray had apple and honey on the nose and more so on the pallet with nice fruit forward flavours. It also had a touch of a bready taste due to the wine lying sur lees (basically absorbing the taste of the dead yeast cells). The finish was medium. Overall, it was a very crisp chenin blanc which was enjoyable to drink. It  accompanied our barbecued chicken very well and would also be good to sip on the patio.

The final wine cost close to $25 US at Costco. I really enjoy a good Pinot Noir but have had my share of these wines that have not been that great - thin or watery or just lacking in character or structure. In my WSET studies,  I learned about Oregon's Willamette Valley and how their wines are giving Burgundy wines tough competition, and for a better price. This gave me the perfect opportunity try one so I bought a 2013 Lange Pinot Noir from the Williamette Valley in Oregon.

This was an amazing wine - it was definitely up with some of the better Pinot Noir wines that I have tasted. It was rich and tasted of red fruit. There were many different tastes including red cherry, blackberry, leather and tobacco. There was also a vanilla taste and an earthiness that you don't always get with Pinot Noir. There were light to medium tannins but the wine was structured enough to easily pair with a grilled rib eye steak. It had a medium finish, was complex, expressive of the varietal, balanced and intense. I would rate it very good or excellent. I will have to try this one again. Unfortunately, I couldn't find this one on the BC Liquor Board website so I may have to bop down to the US Costco on a regular basis!

Finally, in amongst all of the liquor at Costco (that makes this Canadian drool terribly), there is a locked case with some of the higher priced alcohol items. I had just finished the section on Bordeaux in Karen McNeil's wonderful resource, The Wine Bible. Near the end of the chapter, she suggested several wines as stand outs for Bordeaux including two that were at Costco. I didn't buy them, but I thought I'd briefly comment on them and maybe, just maybe, I will find a reason to spend over $100 US on a fine vintage....

The first was  2014 Chateau Leoville Las Cases Grand Vin de Leoville du Marquis de Las Cases from St. Julien in Medoc. It was priced at $125 US and could be found on WineSearcher.com anywhere between $75 to over $200 - and wine.com lists it at $150. More tellingly, the older vintages are well into the $400 or $500 range - a 2005 will set you back $900!

The second was a 2014 Cos D'Estournel from Saint-Estéphe for $115. A bottle, online, ranged from $70 to close to $200 and the vintages available at the BC Liquor store ranged from 2004 ($290) to 2009 ( $800) to 2010 ($600) and 2011 and 2012 ($270).  Maybe buying this and hanging on would have been a good idea?

Despite what you may think about warehouse stores like Costco, it seems that, along with the $6 bottles of Yellowtail, there are some very nice wines to be had. I've purchased a couple more that were in the $30 to $40US range and look forward to blogging about them at a later date.

Hope you enjoyed this look at US warehouse wines - salut!