Amicitia (red blend), 2016, Covert Farms review

Amicitia, Covert Farms

Allison Markin - Jan 18, 2020 / 2:54 pm | Story: 274967

Photo: Contributed

Wine: Amicitia (red blend), 2016

Winery: Covert Farms, Oliver

Why drink it? A blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Pettit Verdot, and Syrah (in descending order by the percentage in the bottle), there’s a bit of something for every red wine drinker in this certified organic and vegan wine. Raisins, blackberries, and sour cherry jam lift out of the glass, followed by a bit of vanilla and nuttiness, and tobacco owing to the barrel treatment. The flavours are a mix of tart red fruits, cranberry, sage and herbs. A longer finish than you might expect from the fruit forwardness, and this bottle is age-worthy for a few more years if you have patience.

Price: $30

Pair with: Red blends are always intriguing and open to trying a variety of dishes. Leaner meats such as pork roast or duck, or flavourful meat pies. A pasta dish on a lazy evening with a veggie based red sauce will do. Add some salty goat cheese for a mac’n’cheese change up.

Music pairing: Dreams, Beck

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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.