Canadian Yachting April 2023 - 49

READY
TO
wines was prodigious.
passengers,
I was
other
BECOME
WINE
Ready to beome wine. Photo Marianne Scott
industry advisor. Her knowledge of local
vinos and of the prolifi c Okanagan and
Similkameen
" Wine is a way to travel, " she said.
Unlike the
a novice wine connoisseur and happily
absorbed Tania' s lectures about
grape varieties, terroir, dry-farming, our
cool-climate Mediterranean region tempered
by the Pacifi c Ocean and the Salish
Sea and what vines thrive in various geographic
locations. She told us to swirl and
then deeply sniff our libations, as for her,
75 percent of wine is olfactory. Avoiding
the more baroq ue, extravagant terms
sometimes used to describe wines, Tania' s
lectures nonetheless fl uently incorporated
specializ ed wine language such as acidity,
tannin, body, fruitiness, nose, sweetness,
balance, earthy and spicy.
Sea and what vines thrive in various geographic
locations. She told us to swirl and
75 percent of wine is olfactory. Avoiding
the more baroq ue, extravagant terms the more baroq ue, extravagant terms
sometimes used to describe wines, Tania' s
specializ ed wine language such as acidity,
sometimes used to describe wines, Tania' s
lectures nonetheless fl uently incorporated
specializ ed wine language such as acidity,
tannin, body, fruitiness, nose, sweetness,
balance, earthy and spicy.
lectures nonetheless fl uently incorporated
She taught us precisely how to taste
wine. " The fi rst step is a palette cleanser, "
she said. " The second is the 'conditioner,'
while the third sip is the actual taste. " She
explained that drinking fi ne wine while
partaking of a meal alters the experience of
both, making it deeper, more sensual. She
was right. The two types of chardonnay
certainly enhanced our meal
of roasted acorn and butternut
sq uash with camembert,
followed by salmon with
salsa verde, wild rice and
roasted beets, and fi nished
by apple-cider crè me brulee.
" Although we drank white
wine with the salmon, " Tania
added with a wink, " it's OK
to pair red wine with fi sh. "
I slept well in my comfortable,
gently
swaying
cabin and was ready for our
fi rst land excursion. After a
three-course lunch and Salt
Spring's Kutatás wine pairing,
Cascadia's skiff took
us ashore in Bedwell Harbour
and a bus delivered us to the
winery. The sun burnished the grapes'
late-season golden leaves, while ghostlike
bird netting prevented avians from
eating the blue-purple pinot noir grapes.
After a cold, wet spring, a hot, dry summer
and fall had delayed the harvest
and we were invited to walk among the
vines where hand pickers loaded buckets,
Wine expert Tania Tomaszewska enlightens us about a
special grape. Photo Marianne Scott
then emptied them in bins ready for the
crusher. In their tasting room, Vignerons
Mira Tusz and Daniel Drager poured their
pinot gris, BC' s most widely grown white
grape, followed by a taste of Ortega and
sips of pinot noir matured in French oak
barrels. " Our wines are barrel-fermented
and barrel-aged delivering a textured
style of land and sea, " said Daniel. He
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49
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Canadian Yachting April 2023

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