The following is a list of the wines, cheeses and dishes that suit our upcoming live Zoom session with Mark Shipway on the red wines of North East Italy. You will find some useful links to further your enjoyment food and wine of the regions. All of the wines mentioned are available in the BC market either at the BC Liquor stores, or Marquis Wine Cellars. Private wine stores may have additional offerings. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Is there a better long lunch than DimSum? Influenced by "nouvelle cuisine"  in the 70s, trends in Hong Kong quickly crossed the Pacific arriving in Vancouver. Succulent petite portions of super fresh prawn, scallop, and pork dumplings in a variety of shapes and sizes with fillings that could transport you places that you'd never been. Flavours that you'd never tasted before exploded onto your palate and all you wanted was more texture, flavour and slurpy goodness. Then there were sauces - smooth spicy red chili, yellow mustard, oily hot chili flakes, salty soy, sweet umami hoisin and sweet vinaigrette that could shift sweet succulent Sui Mai into a fiery salty mouthfilling explosions.  Pass me a glass of water, green tea or Coca-cola.

Now add Robert Stelmachuk and voila -  mind blowing! It's DimSomm - four styles of wine paired with the main styles of Dim Sum and the celebration just moved to a whole new level. Who would have thought? Yet imagine champange with Har Gow? Pinot Noir with steam rice in tea leaf with minced meat? But don't listen to me - find out what Robert recommends.

All wines are evaluated on a 100 point scale. The tasting notes are converted to word clouds that reference the key highlights of each wine. The top scoring BC Wines then go into wine packs of 2, 3, 4 and 6 bottles. These packs are posted on 90+Wines and can be ordered online for pick up or delivery.

Puglia (or Apulia in anglicised form) is one of southern Italy’s lesser known but up-and-coming viticultural regions and one that every wine lover should have on their radar. Geographically speaking, Puglia is the high heel on the boot of Italy, jutting out into the Mediterranean, the Adriatic sea to the east and Ionian to the south. However, the region is somewhat unique within the typical mountainous terrain of the south, as it boasts a very sizeable proportion of flat agricultural land; a fact that has enabled a recent surge in the total acreage under vine which has catapulted Puglia to become Italy’s second largest wine producing region. Historically less fortunate, the region was characterized for a large part of the 20th century by anonymous bulk wine; a stigma which has confined Puglia until recently to the cheap and cheerful category. However, now is the time to view Puglia’s vinous output through another lens; a lens that focuses on quality rather than quantity with an increasing number of wineries creating authentic wines from a vast variety of native Puglian grapes.

Italy is known as land of vine and wine! They say over 1000 grape varieties can be found growing in diverse micro climates and ancient soils over a landmass where wine growing has existed for thousands of years. Most of us are familiar with Tuscany, famous for Chianti from the Sangiovese grape, but there is so much more just under the radar.  When it comes to Southern Italy there are three cool influences that make it stand out. These influences are unique grape varieties, the wine regions and the active volcanoes.

Monte Cascas Colheita 2019 is a blend of Aragonez *85% & Rufete. It is a full bodied, fruity and smooth red that would make any red wine lover happy.
Tasting Note:
Appearance is deep ruby in the glass. On the nose ripe red fruits with black fruit undertones (red raspberry, red plum, black berry, black currant) with toasted biscuits, warm sweet spice, mineral salts, and dried chives. On the palate the flavours of stewed plums and sweetened black currant compote even cherry pie with pastry complete with sweet vanilla spice and chocolate flakes. There is so much freshness and vibrancy in this wine that I couldn’t resist taking another sip. The finish lingers juicy and fresh to the end. Smooth soft tannins on this wine supports the good balance of fresh acidity moderate alcohol. Available at Marquis Wine Cellars for $29 before tax.

Spain is one of Europe’s (and hence the world’s) three largest wine producing countries and the one which is currently undergoing a very marked stylistic revolution in terms of its vinous output. Spain has a long and rich viticultural history that includes a well-established production and export of some very famous wines (think sherry and Rioja) which has provided Spain with all the necessary tools for success in today’s global wine market. However, it is a rejuvenation of mindset amongst an ever increasing number of the nation’s producers that makes this country one of most exciting to explore for today’s adventurous drinker. Gone are the days of the quantity over quality dynamic that typified the industry for a large part of the 20th century during the Franco dictatorship; likewise what came next - the desire to make wines to purely to satisfy the mass market demands of the high volume importers is thankfully now being reassessed. New Spain is all about the journey to discover authentic wines of place.