It's New Day for Wine

If there is a story this week, it might be the search for high-quality wines selling at affordable prices. When I say affordable, I mean under $15 in the real wine-drinking world and under $20 in heavily taxed British Columbia. It's the ceiling most Canadian consumers will be working with throughout the rest of the year and likely well into 2010 and beyond.

I know wineries selling $25 and $30 wines are loath to read or hear such stories, but my response, as clichéd as it seems, is: Don't shoot the messenger. By the time the current recession is over, the landscape of wine will be completely renovated, so they may as well begin making the changes now to ensure their business will be in better shape to take advantage of whatever the new reality is come 2011 or 2012.

It is a funny thing about consumers -- in prosperous times if you suggest a wine is good for their health, or that it's unique because it comes from a special place, or that it's worth buying because it is family-- or locally made, often they will buy it. When times get tough, price is everything.

When you start judging wine by the amount of enjoyment it delivers, you can pretty much throw out the stories about barrels, vineyards, winemakers, origin, grapes and anything else that is extraneous to the task at hand. It's not the wine world I love, but it is reality.

Late last month I was asked to speak about the future of wine sales in Canada to a large segment of the Argentine wine community currently basking in the worldwide acceptance of their malbec. My question for the attendees: What was their plan for the future when consumers abandoned varietal wine, a.k.a. malbec or chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon?

I'm sure no one in the room was contemplating a future without varietal wine, but then no one was contemplating an economic downturn of the severity we are experiencing. In short, things change and you'd best be prepared. Once consumers start heading down the value-for-money-road and disassociate themselves from the persona of the producers, the grapes or the marketing, I believe they will change the way they think, purchase and enjoy wine.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. We know consumers recalibrate their palates every two or three years - a far cry from when they used to do it every generation -- but this time around, it's that added price correction that will have a lasting impact on the market.

As I like to remind producers, once a person has had a terrific bottle of $15 chardonnay or sauvignon blanc or pinot noir or what-have-you, it becomes more and more difficult to justify spending $35 or $45 per bottle.

Today we offer six very interesting bottles from the Playhouse tasting room that speak to the new order coming to the wine world quicker than some producers might like.

I'm a big fan of the Quails' Gate Dry Riesling 2007 and I love the price. It is super-fresh and dry, with a whack of floral, limy and grapefruit aromas and flavours. The style is lip-smacking fresh and dry, and it screams for food. Try it with assorted chicken or pork dishes.

Argentina will share the theme of next year's festival with New Zealand, so expect a flood of reds from South America. The Trivento Reserve Syrah 2006 fits our budget theme. At $13, it over-delivers by offering all the spicy, savoury, meaty, earthy, black plum and smoky, licorice flavours you could want. Barbecue, anyone?

The south of France is another place where value is alive and well, and Paul Mas is one producer who is on a mission to market serious value wines. Check out the Paul Mas Syrah -Viognier 2007, a blend that comes off the 100-year-old, 22-hectare Enclos de Nicole vineyard in the Hérault Valley. The nose is fresh and dry, with the aromatic lift you get from viognier and plenty of peppery dark fruit flavours. A perfect inexpensive dinner wine.

The middle name of the Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Private Bin 2008 is consistency. Year in and year out, it really over-delivers, and I'm excited that Vancouver will get a close-up look at New Zealand in 2010 when its producers will co-theme the festival with Argentina. Expect a super-fresh nose and flavours with bits of tangerine, capsicum, melon and grass. A wine that is difficult to beat for the money.

Vina Santa Rita Reserva Pinot Noir 2006 is the first 100-per-cent Leyda bottling from eight- and nine-year-old vines. There is fine acidity and alcohol balance with black cherry jam, orange peel, compost, celery salt, licorice and caraway flavours. Very New World, but very pinot.

You will have to go to the festival to taste this wine, but don't miss the Jacob's Creek Riesling Reserve 2008. Why a wide range of Jacob's Creek labels -- including cabernet merlot, chardonnay and shiraz cabernet -- are for sale locally and yet this wine, seemingly made for British Columbia's cuisine, is not listed is beyond me. Look for floral lime and honeysuckle aromas and flavours with a trace of chalk and minerality. Excellent quality.

See you in the room.