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Wine-Reviews

2019 Lightning Rock Viognier

Lightning Rock Viognier

Wine: Viognier, 2019

Winery: Lightning Rock, Summerland

Why drink it? For fun, compare this Viognier with the winery’s sparkling Pét-Nat version (if you can find a bottle), and decide if you prefer the bubbly or this one. A sunshine-y golden hue in the glass with some viscosity on a swirl, indicating a bit of weight. True to the varietal, you’ll find aromas of white peaches and honeysuckle with a bit of mandarin orange rind. Pressed into concrete tanks and left to relax through malolactic fermentation, flavours of stone fruits mingle with some creaminess and a pleasant oiliness, giving this wine favourable comparisons to an Okanagan chardonnay, minus the oak notes.

Pair with: Fresh prawns dressed simply in butter or a classic shrimp salad. Paired perfectly with a takeout club sandwich and a side of duck fat fries, with a summer dessert of an apricot crumble with a dollop of good vanilla ice cream.

Price: $25

Music pairing: After the Storm, Mumford & Sons



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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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