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Wine-Reviews

Hester Creeek's 2018 Pinot Blanc

'Late Harvest' for early spring

Wine: Late Harvest Pinot Blanc, 2018

Winery: Hester Creek, Oliver

Why drink it? It may officially be spring but there is still a chill in the air, as we bridge between winter and summer. A late harvest like this one from Pinot Blanc, an under-rated grape, is a good bridge to icewine if you want something to indulge in but is little less sweet. Fragrant scents of honey, violets, and freshly picked apricots will remind you of spring, while a smooth sip brings forth balance with some tartness and acidity and flavours of peach jam and lemon curd. Enjoy a nice, somewhat opulent, sip in front of the fireplace before it gets turned off and we leave winter behind.

Price: $17

Pair with: As with most sweet wines, a sharp contrast does well. Blue cheese dipping sauce will provide the contrast, while with some honey garlic chicken wings are complementary. A roasted beet and walnut salad with an aged balsamic dressing will do nicely too.

Music pairing: Late in the evening, Paul Simon



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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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