Mission Hill Chardonnay

Allison Markin - Jul 7, 2019 / 5:00 am | Story: 260602

Photo: Contributed

Wine: Terroir Collection Chardonnay, 2017

Winery: Mission Hill, West Kelowna

Why drink it? The grapes come from Oliver, at Jagged Rock Vineyard, and much care has gone into this distinctive and refreshing wine, starting with the site selection and choosing specific blocks in the vineyard. Expressive notes on the nose of fresh picked pears, hints of guava, vanilla from the balanced French oak treatment, and citrus. The latter continues on the palate, with lime and lemon zest, a backbone of figs, and a round finish that is both earthy and fresh. Well worth a visit to the wine shop to fetch a bottle to tempt the “anything but chardonnay” crowd, or sip at the winery’s Terrace Restaurant.

Price: $45

Pair with: Creamy pasta with or without added seafood, perhaps prawns. Good take out lobster rolls that aren’t too spicy, a good New England clam chowder or crab cakes. Also great with homemade potato chips and super indulgent duck fat fries.

Music pairing: All We Are, Kim Mitchell

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About the Author

As a kid, Shelley Boettcher often found herself in the back seat of a pick-up, exploring the back roads of the Okanagan Valley with her parents. They’d occasionally leave her and her brother in the car while they stopped at mysterious addresses to buy wine. They would emerge, clearly happy, as they stuck a box or a few bottles in the vehicle. Then they would continue on their journey.

But it wasn’t until a trip to Spain in 2000 that Shelley herself fell in love with wine. She came home from the holiday and promptly told her editor she wanted to become a wine writer.

And she did.

An award-winning food and wine writer and editor, Shelley holds her master’s degree in journalism and her advanced WSET certification, as well as her level 2 International Sommelier Guild certification. A wine columnist for the Calgary Herald, she spent a decade as CBC Radio’s national syndicated wine columnist and she has written three books about wine, including two that were Canadian bestsellers. Her byline has appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail and Postmedia newspapers across Canada.

Shelley has travelled throughout many of the world’s wine regions and countries, including Niagara, Oregon, Washington, California, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Germany, Argentina and the Republic of Georgia. A few years ago, she even tracked down and visited a winery in Denmark.

Shelley has also served as a professional wine judge regionally and internationally, including the Okanagan Wine Festivals, Vinitaly and the Chianti Classico Consortium. For more than a decade, she has been a restaurant wine list judge for the Vancouver International Wine Festival, too. She still teases her parents for sparking her love for wine, especially BC wine.

And her favourite? Whatever she's drinking at the moment.

You can follow Shelley on Instagram @shelleyboettcher or Twitter at @shelley_wine.

If you have a BC wine you’d like to suggest, email Shelley at [email protected] with the name of the wine and a short note about why you enjoyed it.