IVSA Vancouver

About 4 times a year, the IVSA (Import Vinters and Spirits Association) put on a giant fair for buyers and sellers of wine, spirits and beer. Most of the hundreds of beverages on display are wine but it's not uncommon to find some unique spirits or cool beers being poured for the adventurous tasters.
I love going to the IVSA tasting because it gives me an opportunity to try about 100 wines in a 2-3 hour span, many of them products that I wouldn't seek out on my own. I usually keep an eye out for the weirdest and coolest new things on the market but I also like trying what's popular so that I'm up to date with consumer trends.
Yesterday was the fantastic fall IVSA and there were some pretty interesting drinks available to taste.
Below are a few of the products that I thought were worthy of mentioning, and worthy of checking out if you happen to come across them in the store.

Marani whites and reds from Georgia: This series of wines won my top award because of both their quality and their uniqueness in our market. All of the wines in this series except for one come in at just under $20, well within my blog range, and the quality is exceptional. This is yet another fine example of how high quality wines entering our market from places not usually associated with wine can be a fantastic value.
For the white wines, the first was the 2009 Mtsvane at $19.90. Fully dry yet refreshingly fruity on the nose and crisp on the palate. Interesting and almost reminiscent of Sauvignon Blanc. This wine gets a solid 'A' from me!
2009 Tbilisuri; a semi-dry wine balanced with lots of acid. It had great floral and ripe fruit notes and was a joy to try. I gave it an 'A+', one of the two I gave all day.
2008 Tvishi; this was the one wine from Marani that was over the $20 mark but considering the extra effort taken to make it semi-sweet, the price increase is justified. This wine also got a solid 'A' from me for it's sweet dried fruit and honey notes. What was especially nice about this wine was that it was still very acidic and wasn't too syrupy like some semi-sweet wines can be.
There were also 2 red wines.
2008 Saperavi; I thought that this wine was the most common out of the flight. It was still good but it didn't stand out like the others. It had notes of dark fruit and its full-bodied charm made it a delightful drink especially at under $20 but it wasn't anything really special.
2008 Pirosmani; another solid 'A' wine and a really interesting wine in that it is a semi-dry red. It's full-bodied with lots of rich ripe red fruits and really good. It doesn't come off as semi-dry but the extra sugar adds a really nice balance to final product.
Who knew that wines like this could come from the interior of Georgia. Apparently the area of Kakheti, where these wines are made, has a peculiar micro-climate making it ideal for grape growing. I'm really excited to try these wines again!

Heitz Cellars 2008 Sauvignon Blanc: This is my other 'A+' rated wine and while I don't know the price range, I'm guessing it's a lot over $20. Heitz Cellars makes some great stuff and I always like to try their wines when I have a chance. They had their Cabernet Sauvignon as well as their Sauvignon Blanc available to try and while their Cab is great and worth the premium prices charged for it, I was more impressed with the quality and tone of their Sauvignon Blanc. It was crisp and full of great citrus, mineral and gooseberry flavours; typical of sauvignon blanc in general but there was something about the balance in the acidity and body in this wine that made it truly spectacular.

Camelback Shiraz Viognier from Australia: This wine gets a solid 'A' for its great flavours and structure and the uniqueness of the product being made. Adding Viognier to a wine is an age-old tradition in certain areas of the world, including in the Southern Rhone Valley where Viognier is often blended with Grenache, Syrah and several other grape varieties to add colour, body and aromas. Camelback has taken this basic idea and made it their own, and I think it works wonderfully. This wine is bright, not too heavy and really nice notes of pepper, spice and red fruits like cherries and some raspberries. Great to drink on it's own for it's depth and silkiness but also a great for pairing with a variety of different foods and meats.

Blackbird Vineyard Arise: Blackbird vineyards is another one of those amazing Californian producers that commands premium prices for it's fantastically concentrated and artistically crafted wines. Once a wine hits the premium price point, I often find that the product inside is rather disappointing considering the cost. At $84 a bottle, this is NOT one of those wines. In fact, it's worth every penny. A solid 'A' rating, it's rich but soft with notes of berries and pepper. A joy to drink.

Chateau D'Orignac: This is a really cool concept for a wine that is apparently very popular in France but has yet to make inroads in the North America market. It is a wine that is fortified with VSOP Cognac, giving a really nice complexity of flavour to this really nice but not too sweet fortified wine. In France, because this wine isn't too rich or sweet, it's often served as an aperitif instead of after dinner which is how we tend to do things in Canada. Under $40 in our market and worth investing in a bottle if you're looking to impress some future dinner guests.

Gran Feudo Edicion: 100% Tempranillo from Spain. It's easy to savour with it's light notes of dark fruit and peppery tones. It's not too full bodied and not too watery but it strikes a very nice balance in the middle ground. At $15, it's a bargain.

Other notable mentions go to:
Fetzer 2009 Gewurztraminer, California: easy to drink, off dry, yummy fruit and not too demanding.
Cannonball Cabernet Sauvignon, California: Very rich and big, full of fruit and pepper. It is extremely typical of californian Cabs and is still only around $30. Great value for the quality and typicity it brings forth.
Heavyweight Red, California Cabernet Sauvignon: Really nice wine but the name is rather misleading. Much more approachable and much less 'heavy' than I thought it would be. There is a small percentage of Zinfindel which adds a lot of really nice and soft flavours to the mix. Not typical of a Californian Cabernet Sauvignon but still a really nice and kind of different wine.