Choosing an everyday red wine

mike31154 · #1 05-10-2010, 03:13 PM

Okanagan wines have come a long way in the last decade or so. I like to 'buy local' whenever I can for that reason. Support your BC wine industry and I'm sure you'll find a reasonably priced variety that suits your taste. Yes, I'm a little biased since I live in the North Okanagan, but I've tried many varieties of wine from all parts of the globe and the quality here is second to none these days. In the end, it comes down to your own taste buds.

Try a Latitude 50 red from Gray Monk, I think that fits into the price range you're looking at. It's a blend of several grape varieties, taking advantage of the desireable qualities from each as determined by the head wine maker. If you like a lighter red, try the Gray Monk Rotenberger. Pretty sure both are available in most BC liquor stores.

Farther south in the Okanagan valley, there's the Golden mile near Oliver. More wineries there than you can shake a stick at. The competition is pretty intense these days, so if you don't produce a quality wine, you won't last long down there. Also a number of them in the Kelowna area. As suggested by StirCrazy, try a few from a particular region to see if something suits your taste. I quite regularly buy the Peller Estates Proprietor's Reserve Cabernet-Merlot in the 4 litre box (= 5 & 1/3 bottles) from the local liquor store. It's about $35, so less than $10 per litre for a nice everday red wine.

doch · #2 05-10-2010, 05:29 PM

I always liked Masi Valipolcella from Italy. Quit drinking now for three years though, so maybe it's not as good now....?

DiverDude · #3 05-10-2010, 05:48 PM

Ask for "Fuzion". The Red is a Cabernet-Shriaz and is amazingly good for ~$8 a bottle. This stuff set records with the Ontario liquor board in the last year and there were fistfights in liquor stores when they ran out. It took over a year to get supply volumes to meed demand !

They now have a white as well -I have a bottle but haven't tried it yet. Can't go wrong for the price.