GISMONDI ON WINE: Local Heroes 101: Wine Knowledge Begins at Home
by Anthony Gismondi

Is this the year that you are finally going to sort out BC wine? Local wine is much in demand, which has led to shortages - both imagined and real - and perhaps more important, rising prices. The combination can be deadly for your bottom line unless you come to the game completely equipped.

The single best way to learn about BC wine is to travel to wine country and spend some time in the Okanagan or on Vancouver Island visiting wineries and immersing yourself in the terroir and geography of our local regions. Tasting at the winery and visiting the vineyards can give you a bond with a property that allows you to sell their wine with confidence.

Not everyone can just jump in the car or hop on a plane and go to wine country, so failing that here are some ideas on how to improve your local wine knowledge without leaving home.

Facts and figures are a good starting point. According to the folks who measure the size of our vineyards, there will be approximately 7,500 acres of vines in BC this year, or roughly 3,000 hectares. Size doesn’t really matter but it does provide perspective. California counts 471,000 acres of vineyards (or 190,000 hectares), so you can see we are a tiny global player.

A great source of information is the BCWI website, www.winebc.com. There you will learn that there are 136 wineries in BC, up from 19 in 1990, and that the average selling price of VQA wine is $16.72 per 750ml bottle. As an industry, sales in 2006-2007 topped $151 million.

In terms of grapes, we grow over 60 different types, but the top four white grape varieties (not varietals as I often hear people say, because varietal refers to the wine not grapes) planted are chardonnay, pinot gris, gewürztraminer, and pinot blanc. The red rankings are merlot, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, and syrah or shiraz. Interestingly, by 2006 the ratio of white grapes to red has dropped to 48% from 52%.

Remember, the trip to wine country doesn’t have to mean going to the Okanagan Valley or any of its five officially recognized sub-regions: Kelowna, Naramata, Okanagan Falls, Golden Mile, and Black Sage/Osoyoos. There are other options.

The Similkameen Valley lies to the west of the southern Okanagan Valley, connected by the Richter Pass. Its vineyards extend from Keremeos to Chopaka on the US border. Its warm summer nights and stony, gravelly, and silty loams are showing much promise.

The Fraser Valley boasts a small collection of wineries that are easy to visit for city dwellers. Early ripening German varieties along with chardonnay and pinot noir are the most likely to succeed.

There are several wineries spread across the southern half of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. There’s a cluster in the Cowichan Valley near Duncan, with others in Nanaimo, the Saanich Peninsula, and near the city of Victoria. On the Gulf Islands, vineyards have popped up on Salt Spring, Pender, Saturna, Quadra and Bowen. Pinot noir may eventually be the strong suit along the Pacific, but there is plenty of work to be done yet.

Reading is another way to get up to speed and here you can turn to BC’s wine book machine, author John Schreiner. Schreiner’s resumé of BC books that should be on your reading list include the latest editions of The Wineries of British Columbia; John Schreiner’s Okanagan Wine Tour Guide; and Icewine: The Complete Story. 
Finally, this writer offers comprehensive reviews of BC wines as they are released into the marketplace at www.gismondionwine.com. You can search a large database of reviews by winery name or simply check out the latest summaries entitled BC’s Top Ten Wines and An A to Z of BC’s Best.

There’s no real shortcut to knowledge, especially when it comes to wine. Hundreds of writers and bloggers talk ad nauseam about simplifying wine and taking the snobbery out of the subject. My experience after 25 years is somewhat different. Wine is a complicated subject that requires anyone hoping to become more knowledgeable, or to use the dubious term, expert, must do their homework first.

Anthony Gismondi is a globetrotting wine writer who makes his home in West Vancouver, BC. For more of his thoughts on wine, log onto www.gismondionwine.com.