Friday, April 19, 2013

Some Island Aromata

1292.  2009 Salt Spring Vineyards - Aromata (Vancouver/Gulf Islands)

When I grabbed this bottle, I thought it might be one of the Salt Spring Vineyards wines that feature the new Swiss-engineered Blattner grapes - particularly since this bottle featured a little Silver Medal sticker from the 2010 Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards. I knew Salt Spring's white Blattner wine had picked up an award on the national stage and I thought that might have been the reason I picked up the bottle. Looks like Salt Spring picked a second medal from Wine Access because there are no Blattner grapes to be found in this bottle.

There may be none of that new breed of grape evident in this glass but Aromata is still a blend of largely unknown grapes - try Auxerrois, Sylvaner and Bacchus. I wouldn't bet too much on your average wine drinker being able to tell you much about any of those grapes. That is, if your average wine drinker could even identify them as grapes.

On the other hand, while I know of all three grapes, I have yet to add Sylvaner to my tally of grape varieties for my Wine Century Club list. I took a quick look back on my blog posts and I've referred to Sylvaner on a handful of occasions, but those mentions have mostly revolved around its having been a parent (or grandparent) in the creation of grapes like Bacchus and Ehrenfelser. I know that Sylvaner has been used in some white blends that I added to The List. I guess I just missed adding it to the Wine Century Club list.

Adding it now works for me. Particularly when the wine didn't exactly jump out of the glass for either Boo or I.  Being an aromatic, light blend, I might have waited a bit long to open it (seeing as how it's a 2009 vintage) because it didn't really have the bright nose and sharp acidity that I was expecting. The bottle was under screw cap but I was rather hoping that it would cut through the cream sauce on our pasta a bit more than it did.

Oh well, I get to add #153 on my way to a second century and that's a pretty good replacement for a little lost acidity.


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