Van Westen, Naramata

Allison Markin - Oct 21, 2018 / 1:30 pm | Story: 239817

Photo: Contributed

Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry and influences from around the world. For current availability and pricing, consult the winery. Unless indicated, international selections are generally available at government liquor stores or private wine shops.

Wine: Violeta (Malbec), 2015

Winery: Van Westen, Naramata

Why drink it? There is something distinct about wines from the Naramata Bench, a certain ruggedness blended with elegance, perhaps? This Malbec is a reflection of that, with rustic characteristics of pepper and spice notes with noticeable, but not overbearing, tannins. As the wine ages, or with decanting a couple of hours before dinner, the ruggedness evolves into a softer sip, still with the intrigue of tobacco and leather, but the dark plum and cherry notes come forward, almost paying tribute to the orchards in the area. Rich, warm, with hints of fruitcake on the second (or third) glass.

Price: $35

Pair with: Roasted or grilled game meat along with a side of lightly seasoned autumn root veggies, even roasted tomatoes may work based on the winery’s tasting notes. A savory blueberry sauce can take the place of cranberry sauce this coming holiday season, for a change.

Music pairing: Big Man on Mulberry Street, Billy Joel

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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.