Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut

Blue Mountain Brut

Allison Markin - Jan 1, 2023 / 4:00 am | Story: 403061

Photo: Contributed

Wine: Gold Label Brut (sparkling)

Winery: Blue Mountain, Okanagan Falls \

Why drink it? First of all, there's never a bad time for a good bottle of bubbly. Second, the value of this one is exceptional. Produced in the classic méthode traditonelle used in Champagne, France with estate grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes carefully managed from the vineyard all the way to the bottle, the result is an elegant sparkling wine. Brioche, toasted hazelnuts, and fresh lemon rind on the nose, with fine bubbles in the glass. Secondary fermentation in the bottle and aged sur-lie to add creaminess and complexity, the finish is exquisitely dry and bright.

Pair with: Sparkling wine can elevate almost any dish on the lighter side of a menu. Avoid tomato-based dishes. Go for a buttery breakfast of Belgian waffles, fluffy pancakes, or a mushroom frittata, or a comforting dinner of buttermilk fried chicken and truffle fries.

Price: $28

Music pairing: Raise Your Glass, P!nk

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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.