What wine lover doesn’t appreciate receiving a special bottle of wine no matter what the occasion? Besides, if you are never quite sure what gift to buy someone, wine makes it easy. I never have a problem walking through a wine shop and selecting wines for my friends. Of course, it helps if you know their preferences. Some people may think as long as the bottle is an expensive one they will like it. Not necessarily so. I am a firm believer in giving people what they like.
When I decided to write this article, I had many wines in mind to recommend to people but as I started I realized that my list would include so many top-notch BC wines it would be hard to know when to stop, so I enlisted the help of many friends and put it out on social media. I asked the question, “If someone was going to buy you a bottle of BC wine as a gift, what would you wish for? Feel free to select up to five if you need to.”
Well, that proved to be a very good decision. I was flooded with responses and the results surprised me in many ways.
Reds were most often picked, no surprise there, but not all were very expensive.
There were far more wineries mentioned than I ever would have guessed. Painted Rock, Blue Mountain, Black Hills, Le Vieux Pin, Meyer Family Vineyards, and Quails’ Gate were mentioned the most with a lot of people also championing Fort Berens, Lariana, TIME, Vanessa, Hester Creek, Osoyoos Larose, Fairview, CheckMate, Corcelettes, Mission Hill, SpearHead and Tantalus.
Also mentioned (sorry for such a long list) were, in alphabetical order, 8th Generation, Alderleaf, Arrowleaf, Blasted Church, Burrowing Owl, Cedar Creek, Chaberton, Clos du Soleil, Coolshanagh, Country Vines, Desert Hills, Fitzpatrick, Fox and Archer, Foxtrot, Gehringer Brothers, Giant’s Head, Haywire, Henriccson, Inniskillin, Intersection, Intrigue, Joie, Kalala, Kismet, Kitsch, Kutatas, La Frenz, La Stella, Lakeboat, Larch Hills, Laughing Stock, Little Engine, Martin’s Lane, Moon Curser, Moraine, Mount Boucherie, Niche, Nk’Mip, Noble Ridge, O’ Rourke, Peak Cellars, Phantom Creek, Priest Creek, Rust, Seven Directions, Silk Scarf, Summerhill, Van Westen, Wild Goose, Winemaker’s Cut.
See any surprises in those lists? If my sampling size had been any bigger, I might have had to list every winery in BC. The good news is that it is hard to go wrong when you are buying from a BC winery.
It likely comes as no surprise that red wines were most often mentioned (93) with whites being second (40). The remaining picks did surprise me with Sparkling (20), anything as long as it came from their favourite winery (13), Rosé (5) and after-dinner/dessert wines (3).
OK, any guesses as to favourite varieties? Again, I found many surprises in the results, Pinot Noir, (15), Chardonnay (14), Meritage or red blends (12), Syrah (9), Pinot Gris (6), Merlot (5), Cabernet Sauvignon (4), and Riesling (4). Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Sauvignon Blanc were each (3). Also mentioned were Bacchus, Carmenere, Chasselas, Ehrenfelser, Foch, Gamay, Schönburger, Semillon, Viognier, and Zinfandel. Were there any varieties not mentioned?
I am so glad I asked people for input. The list of desirable wines people would like to receive as gifts was far more extensive than I ever would have guessed.
The takeaway? You can feel very confident that if you decide to buy BC wine as a gift, it is hard to go wrong.
