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Wine-Reviews

Frind Sparkling Brut

Wine: Brut (sparkling), NV

Winery: Frind, West Kelowna

Why drink it? A medal winner in several international competitions, this is good value for a sparkling wine. A blend of Riesling and Chardonnay, this lively bottle of bubbles begins with aromas of green apples, lime, and touches of green melon. The citrus notes continue on the palate, with the addition of just picked Okanagan stone fruits. The Riesling does give it a very slight sweetness, particularly on the finish, but the residual sugars balance out with the mild zippy elements. This is not a complicated nor challenging bottle, but one to simply enjoy. Keep a bottle on hand for spontaneous celebrations.

Pair with: Take a bottle with you on a first/blind date (or order it off the wine list). The label is Instagram worthy next to some candlelight if you want to capture a moment, and the wine will pair nicely with almost any selection of appetizers to kick off the evening.

Price: $25



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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. 

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