We want Champagne tonight. Yet we also want hearty winter food. French fries work well with France’s famed bubbly. But what of Canada’s gift to heart surgeons: Poutine?
Both come from cold climates, right? This could work!
Luckily the Moët provides refreshing acid to keep that beast in the bowl from owning my palate. The autolytics of this particular Brut match the earthy mushroom gravy well. It is far from perfect, but a pleasant change.
Wayward Wine returns from its Vancouver detour to continue recapping its EU Austerity Drinking Tour this and each following Monday. So where the hell were we?
For 145 days we have backpacked from New York to Quebec, Quebec to Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia to Iceland , Iceland to Scotland, Scotland to Ireland, Ireland to France, France to Andorra, Andorra to Spain, Spain back to France, up the Rhone, through Burgundy to Luxemburg, and Strasbourg, cutting to Munich and finally, now, leaving Salzburg.
This trip only stands still a few day, tasting a city’s and region’s brews, wines, and spirits, then moving on. We see every museum and monument possible, all via foot and public transport.
Do not do this. Shoes have died. Bodies have broken. If my wife sees one more decontextualized ancient cup, stained glass, or cold quiche, she will scream. Nevertheless, drinking under $20, even under $10 wines -wines that locals drink- with local food has challenged and broadened our palates.
So what will Vienna bring?
From icy Salzbourg, somehow sunny gleaming Vienna spreads its urban carpet before us. Our hostel hangs over a public market that clicks and hums beneath Art Nouveau edifices:
In the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, we must go on the 40 (of 1,441) room Grand Tour of Schönbrunn palace. We lunch on veggie stir fry and apple cinnamon brezel in the palace Christmas market. Like Versailles, ornate rooms shift over 300 years of style. Baroque extravagance often fights with Neoclassical calm at this summer escape. No photos inside, but the endless grounds are amazing.
We find the world’s oldest zoo. Experiments in growing fancy pigeons, oranges, and wine grapes continue today:
Frozen, we race the setting sun to Vienna’s cemetery. This city of the dead houses 2.5 million glamorously. Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, a fake Mozart, and yes, Beethoven all rest here:
Frozen, we head back and stumble into 18th century confectionery Demel. Many chocolates get bought and eaten.
Luckily wine we grabbed in Salzburg awaits us back at our hostel, while we prep dinner. It comes from Austria’s oldest estate, Stift Kloster Neuburg, a cloister founded in 1114 just south of Vienna (Wien) in Thermenregion:
This is the largest single vineyard of Saint Laurent grape, in the world. The variety is so very awesome that it has its own subtype: Ausstich. Guess how much all this heritage costs…
€8.99. This may be an Austerity Drinking Tour, but we don’t mess around.
APPEARANCE: Neuburg looks a clear, medium ruby. AROMAS: smell tidy, developing, and moderately intense of red cherry and fancy dry, cedar-beamed furniture. PALATE: feels dry, with pouncing acid, medium tannins, warm alcohol 13%, and fine cotton texture. FLAVORS: taste evenly of tart red apple, cherry, wild game, white pepper, salt, and light smoke that last a medium length.
With Neuburg’s St. Laurent Ausstich, alcohol and acid out-weigh the fruit, making this lean, punchy and mineral. Luckily, my trademark pasta tames it. Here, now, it tastes very good (4 of 5). But anything warm, say a sauna full of creepy people, would seem amazing to us after our frigid, fantastic day out.
Wayward Wine ends eleven days in Canada, with British Columbia’s oldest winery: Chamberton Estate. Now oldest around here is 1991. But that gets near to 24 years old. Claude and Inge Violet left their vineyards in France to plant in BC. Only recently did they hand the winery to Eugene Kwan and Anthony Cheng, who are thoroughly involved. Let’s see how they fair.
Since this is off season we tour the vineyard. The Bacchus vines date back thirty years, and it shows:
Chilly we head into their tank room:
They have their own bottling line and my first sight of a box wine filling station:
I am excited. Their box white blend is very popular. We head on to the barrel room, which smells like an alcoholic sauna.
But how do their wines taste?
Highlights certainly included Chamberton’s 2013 Dry Bacchus (a cross between Riesling, Silvaner, and Müller Thurgau). It glows pale lemon, delicate, but upfront white peach, lemongrass, lime blossom. It feels soft yet sprightly, finishing with a knife sharp mineral finish (4 of 5). On sale for under $16 we grab one.
Their sweeter Bacchus loses that cut but fits a niche (3 of 5). As does their Valley White Blend (Madeline, Silvaner, and Sauv Blanc) even though it blends in Okanagan fruit.
Their 2013 Gamay (that grape that ends up in Beaujolais) shows fine balance, taught acid, clove, tomato, wild strawberry, and light tobacco from deftly employed French barrels (4 of 5). We buy one on sale for under 16.95.
We also purchase a bottle of Siegerrebe, even though we never tried it, because it was grown here.
As we drive between America and Canada on Avenue 0, we start to worry about our two cases of Canadian beer and wine.
Border fees or taxes do not scare us. But did we over-calibrate our palates over the last eleven days? Will all these bottles taste horrid once we acclimate stateside?
The guard passes us through. A week back, we retry the Dry Bacchus. It still smells delicate and brilliant. We almost rate it higher (nostalgic maybe). However, its acidity now slices at us and slightly odder flavors peak about. It is still very good (4 of 5), but speaks with a BC accent that now sounds foreign. Curious stuff.
We leave Backyard Vineyards, and grab lunch at a deli with more German imports than we saw in Germany. Satiated, we drive to Township 7.
Empty fields lead to vineyards. A yellow building sits above the vines. A pleased couple ambles out, glasses in hand, to a bench flanked by vineyards. We head in…
Our host, who also event plans, tastes us through their wines. She is fantastic and overly educated. Here’s my review.
Check in for our last visit to the grandparent of Fraser Valley: Chamberton Estate (yes estate) Winery.
With one “dry” weather day left in Vancouver, we hike the interior of Stanley Park. We feel like lost hobbits in this endless glade.
Dog walkers disappear as we delve deeper. Misty and free of the city’s steel, we find something odd.
Four placards declare the historic importance of this landmark: Hollow Tree. Once cars even elephants parked in it. A storm knocked it down in 2006 but private donations have propped it up with steel…moving on…
Another hour and we find the overlook near Lion Gate Bridge:
Oddly, Guinness (yes, Ireland’s Guinness) built the bridge half a century ago. Small world
The next day, we pack up and head to wine country (finally!).
An hour drive Southeast from Vancouver takes us to Fraser Valley: End of the World if I was a grape. We pull up to Backyard Vineyards. Luckily the building is labeled:
Tracy heads in to warm up. I pass the winery to check out real, actual vines!
Not much, but they exist. Shivering, I head inside to taste through their offerings.
Barely through the whites, they invite us into the winery. Stainless tanks loom behind doors, but right now, Backyard’s 2012 Cab is going into bottle:
Their winemaker, James, tastes me on the new cab. It’s tight, young, packed, but in a few months, will be quite good. He gives me a bottle. He expresses the tough balance between aging wines or releasing them according to the owner’s wishes.
We return to the quiet tasting room and take our time with their other wines (off season is glorious). This is what I think:
Hold your horses! It is only 11am! More wineries await!
WAYWARD WINE 