2016 Rollingdale Fort from West Kelowna

2016 Rollingdale Fort

Allison Markin - Feb 28, 2021 / 4:00 am | Story: 326440

Photo: Contributed

Wine: Fort, 2016

Winery: Rollingdale, West Kelowna

Why drink it? Fort is a fortified port-style wine made with organic Marechal Foch grapes, so it is to be sipped with care, at 22 percent alcohol, though you won’t feel the effect immediately. But you will feel it. This is a rich wine, and from the first sniff of the aromas of blueberry jam and toasted nuts, your sweet tooth will sense a treat is coming. The blueberry element combines with flavours of back cherries and dark chocolate, candied almonds, and a bit of raspberry on the finish, which is lighter than expected, but still leaves all of these flavours lingering for some time.

Pair with: You could get yourself a very creamy brie or other soft cheese to spread on a cracker and top with a touch of jam, or you could experiment with this in a cocktail. But all you really need to do to enjoy is sip slowly after dinner on the last cold night before spring.

Price: $39

Music pairing: Easy, Dragonette

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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.