Blind Tasting of BC’s Best Blends

Six top BC Meritages take centre stage at a unique tasting event

Wine education for the sheer enjoyment and edification of Vancouver Chaîne members recently hit a new high thanks to the passion and dedication of two members – Conseiller Gastronomique Jim Connolly and top Canadian sommelier and wine educator Chevalier Tim Ellison.

Jim and Tim’s most recent wine education event comprised a blind tasting of six of BritishColumbia’s top meritage wines, which took place on November 10^th at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.

Wine enthusiasts from both the Vancouver Bailliage and the Royal Vancouver YachtClub came together for this unique tasting event, which saw each participant presented with 6 unidentified glasses of red wine numbered 1 though 6.

Jim noted that the six represented “arguably the best blended red wines from BritishColumbia” creating the opportunity for a revealing side-by-side comparison. Each participant was then invited to rank the wines (1 though 6) according to their own taste.

Before the actual tasting began Tim took time to explain the term “meritage” (aBordeaux-style blend) then invited participants to carefully assess each wine paying close attention to the nose, the colour and most importantly the flavour profile. The tasters were supplied with a score sheet that allowed them to make their own tasting notes after which they would rank each wine.

Once all the score sheets were completed, they were gathered, and the results tabulated byJim.

Of course, wine preference is highly individual and overall the ratings were very close, however, ultimately it did produce an overall winner. Here are the results according to 51 participants in the blind tasting.

1               2018 Lake Breeze MacIntyre Ardua

2               2021 Black Hills Nota Bene

3               2019 Mt. Boucherie Summit

4               2020 Mission Hill Oculus

5               2021 Hester Creek “The Judge”

6               2020 Painted Rock Red Icon