Dees Fine Wine Makers, Wine and Beer Makers, New WestminsterNews
News
Dees Award Winning Wine, Beer, coolers and Ciders
Serving New Westminster. Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam,Delta
Your Business is appreciated! Thanks for your referrals! New Automatic bottle sanitizer!
|
 |
January - Australian Shiraz/ViognierThe Region:
The warm climate and rich sandy loam soils of
Australia’s Riverland region could produce high
yields, but the artisan grape growers at Salmon
Gum Vineyards remove half the fruit at budburst
and limit irrigation. With smaller numbers of
berries and water-stressed vines, the resultant
grapes display highly concentrated flavour, aroma and body.The Wine: Blending red and white grapes brings lush balance to this lively, deep ruby wine. Ripe berry fruit and violet aromas from the Shiraz are balanced by floral and stone fruit notes from the Viognier, with beguiling hints of orange blossom followed by toast and smokiness. There’s sufficient acidity to give it structure, but the overall impression is soft and velvety. The long, gentle finish is ripe and appealing with surprising complexity.The Food: A great choice for game or meat dishes, it also works spectacularly with ratatouille and even soft fruit, especially combined with soft-ripened or goat’s cheeses. It’s also great all by itself as an elegant sipping wine.Ageing: Appealingly bright and fruity when young, it will develop more of its floral aromas after six months, and after a year will begin to show violets and blackberry flavours, and continue to deepen in flavour.Sweetness Code: 0 (dry) |
 |
January - Pacifica White (Off-Dry)The Region:
The Pacific Rim has micro-climates and terroir
as diverse and excellent as any in the world.
With Semillon from the blazing sunshine in
Australia, Chardonnay from the crisp valley air
in Okanagan, British Columbia, and Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier from the hot sunny mornings and cool afternoons of California’s North Coast, each vineyard also has unique soil ranging from sandy river bottom loam, to stony red clay, and nearly pure limestone.The Wine: Pacifica White showcases bright fruit, excellent structure and a long layered finish running out from a veritable fruit salad of flavours and aromas. Complex pear and honey notes, grassy citrus and grapefruit, ripe apple, fig, melon, peach, and pineapple all mellow into spicy, honey, butter, butterscotch and hazelnut flavors that linger beguilingly.The Food: Full-bodied yet supple, this wine has a range of fruit characters and enough acidity to stand up to a wide range of foods. Off dry, but perfectly balanced it works well with spices, seafood, clams, mussels in saffron cream, and especially with Asian food.Ageing: Delicious and ready to drink almost immediately, this wine has the ability to change with time, evolving dominant notes from one grape to the next. Sauvignon Blanc’s citrus and herbs provide crispness early on, giving way to melon and honey notes of Semillon, then Viognier rises to show stone fruit, flowers, ripe apricots and candied orange peel while Chardonnay asserts its green apple and notes of white fruits and minerals.Sweetness Code: 1 |
 |
February - Italian PrimitivoThe Region: Puglia forms a long narrow peninsula, making up the heel of the boot of Italy. Dry and warm, it basks in the Mediterranean sun, and has a long, rich history of grape growing. The Appenine mountains give an excellent range of elevations and soil types, and it produces more wine than any other region in Italy, specializing in intensely ripe grapes from its hillsides.The Wine: Italian Primitivo is medium red in colour veering to brick, rich, and concentrated, exuding aromas of blackberry, plums, tobacco, prunes and red cherries, with the Italian signature of firm tannins and a long, gripping finish with notes of vanilla and toast. Like most Italian reds it retains acidity to balance fruit character and marry well with food.The Food: Primitivo shines in the company of assertively flavoured foods like lamb, pork, grilled beef, ribs, roasted red meats, wild game, spicy cheeses and pizza. Its firm backbone of acids and tannins make it work well with rich and spicy foods like Italian sausages or lasagna.Ageing: Medium-bodied but with good grip and intensity, this wine will begin to open up after six months, the richer flavours will show at 12 months.Sweetness: 0 (dry) |
 |
March - Austria Grüner VeltlinerThe Region: Grüner Veltliner is almost unique to the Niederösterreich, Austria’s growing region along the Danube River North of Vienna. It finds its finest balance in loess, the fine-grained, densely compacted glacial dust that has blown in to the vineyards over many thousands of years. This unique terrior is largely responsible for the distinctive characteristics of arguably Austria’s greatest asset.The Wine: Grüner Veltliner produces stunningly intense and concentrated wines that start with citrus and grapefruit aromas, hinting from the very beginning at the variety’s most distinguishing characteristic, the spicy fragrance of freshly ground white pepper. In addition to white pepper they can also show aromas of sour apples, flowers and minerals —surprisingly delicate.The Food: The steely dryness and bracing acidity of Grüner Veltliner works brilliantly with seafood, mussels, salmon, grilled halibut, fish stew, and grilled oysters.Ageing: This wine has huge ageing potential. After three months in the bottle it will present bright, simple flavours of citrus, but after a year the tropical fruits will come out to duel with the white pepper.Sweetness: 0 (dry) |
 |
April - Portuguese Douro TintoThe Region:
The Douro valley
is Portugal’s premium wine region. Situated
along the Rio Douro (River of Gold), the scenery
is spectacular and the soil is just about
perfect for growing quality wine grapes. The
climate is continental, very hot and desert-dry
in the summer; cold and wet in the winter.
Douro’s most memorable feature is its difficult
terrain. Most of the slopes are so steep that
the only way to grow anything is by creating
terraces, the painstaking construction of dry
stonewalls to support the banks of soil.The
Wine: A blend of Touriga Nacional,
Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca, the names may be
unfamiliar, but Tinta Roriz is the same grape as
Spanish Tempranillo. Together they make an
intensely aromatic wine with an impressive depth
of fruit and complexity. Black fruits such as
cassis along with mulberry and raspberry
predominate and are complemented by plums and
tobacco, followed by the resinous aromas of
violets and rockrose. High tannin levels and
good natural acidity mean that the wine has an
excellent potential for ageing without loss of structure or balance.The Food: Incredibly flexible as a food wine, Douro Tinto will match perfectly with roasted lamb, or duck, barbecued meats, grilled eel and meat sauces. The finesse and complexity also make it intriguing just on its own.Ageing: This wine will show black fruit, plums and a firm structure of acid and tannins. Six to twelve months will reveal more floral aromas and a hint of ripe berries and cassis.Sweetness: 0 (dry) |
