Burrowing Owl, Oliver

Photo: Contributed

For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjoying a glass. For current availability, consult the winery.

Wine: Chardonnay, 2014

Winery: Burrowing Owl, Oliver

Why drink it? Love it or hate it, if you’re part of the “ABC” – anything but chardonnay – crowd, chards come both oaked and unoaked. The latter is often a mix of flinty citrus, but the former? When you find an oaked chardonnay that is balanced and integrated, it is a glass to behold. This one shows ripe stone fruits and tropical notes, with a vanilla-caramel aspect from the oak aging, only on 60 percent of the juice. Need a fancy wine term? Just say, ‘malolactic’ fermentation; a second ferment of some of the wine brings forth the soft butter notes. A skillfully crafted chard, this is a good one for taste buds just trying on oak for size, and is great value for the price.

Price: $25

Pair with: The winey suggests crab or scallops. If you’re handy in the kitchen, fire up a creamy seafood risotto, grilled fish, or a chicken dish doused in an indulgent cream sauce. Snacking? Treat yourself to some roasted nuts – macadamias and almonds – or a soft, creamy cheese.

Classic cancon music pairing: Romantic Traffic, Spoons