The Chase 2013

Today, Amber Pratt, winemaker at C.C. Jentsch Cellars in Oliver BC, discusses the winery's flagship wine, The Chase 2013.

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Holiday Wine pairing advice from a rising star wine maker

The holiday season is a great time to share great food and great wine with friends and family. Pairing the right wine can be a challenge. Amber Pratt is the winemaker at C.C. Jentsche Cellars, below are her recommandations to pair some of this award winning winery's great wines. 

Amber grew up on Vancouver Island and moved to the Okanagan in 2009 to pursue her passion for wine. Her knowledge, impeccable palate and love for rosé had her sought after by some of the Okanagan's best wineries. She came to C.C. Jentsch Cellars with an elite background of experience at Nk'Mip Cellars, Road 13, and Black Hills Estate Winery before accepting Chris' offer to craft his mature Golden Mile Bench fruit into award winning wines.

Have a great holiday season

Christmas dinner is often a big feast that presents us with spectacular opportunities to play with enlightening and delicious wine pairings. The most delightful food and wine pairings are those that are either complimentary or contrasting.

In complimentary pairings, you select a feature element of your dish, and match those flavours to one you might find in a wine.  I say an ‘element’ of the dish, because it’s unlikely to match an entire entrée with all its seasonings, sauces and sides perfectly to a wine…as a wine enjoyer, I have yet to find a ‘turkey-flavoured’ wine, and frankly, I don’t think I ever really want to!

Furthermore, when I think of a big traditional Christmas dinner, it’s the side dishes I get more excited about than the turkey or the ham.  Crispy herbed stuffing, sweet creamy yam casserole, and tartly mouth-watering Grand Marnier-laced cranberry sauce…mmm! Turkey? What turkey?

It’s exactly because they are so robustly flavourful that many favorite sides get paired with the somewhat more subtly flavored turkey.  This is the foundation of contrast pairing.  The salty, buttery stuffing enlivens each bite of turkey, and the cranberry sauce refreshes the palate, making my mouth water for just one more bite!

This holiday season I will have three bottles of wine at the table (to share, of course!):

2013 Viognier: 

This white wine shines as a refreshing counterpoint to anything salty and savory. Whether served with the cheese plate or the salty ham, our Viognier shines its golden light of juicy peach and fresh lemon flavours.  With a gloriously rich weight and mouthfeel, it stands up to such hearty fare. 

2013 The Dance:

If you serve rosé, you don’t even need cranberry sauce! The Dance is a basket of refreshing bright red fruits, with a slight herbal edge that complements both the rosemary-sage seasoning on your turkey, as well as all your favorite veggie side dishes.

Dry in style, our rosé is also a natural with appetizers of all types; my Nanny makes a French Canadian paté called ‘creton’ and this is a match made in heaven!

2013 The Chase:

Fruity, spicy and warming, this red blend complements all your herbs and spices, and has the subtle tannin and freshness to contrast the richness of glistening roast turkey, rosy ham, wine-braised roast beef or a rich vegetarian mushroom tart. 

When the leftovers are all put away and you’re sitting contentedly next to the tree, pour yourself another glass of this comforting red wine.

Happy Holidays and Bon Appetit!

            Amber Pratt, Winemaker, C.C. Jentsch Cellars

Grilled Salmon with Zesty mango salsa

Now that we have had a few days of wet weather to cool things off, it looks like this weekend will be warm again. Oh well, sound like the time to grill some salmon served with a zesty mango salsa. This is a regular in my home, its easy, can be scaled up easily and is always a crowd pleaser. This recipe serves 4 and can be scaled up very easily for larger group.

• One large salmon filet cut in 4 pieces.(preferably skin off)
• 1 ripe mango, pitted, peeled, and cut into small dice ( you can substitute mango for a papaya, cantaloupe or any other fruit).  
• ½ cup of diced cucumber
• 1/4 cup small-diced red onion
• 3/4 cup loosely packed, roughly chopped fresh cilantro
• fresh lime juice from one or more limes
• 1 green Thai chili, chopper

To prepare the salmon:

Brush the salmon with a good quality olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper.

Set your grill to high, oil it to minimize sticking. When ready simply put the salmon on the grill and do not touch for 4 minutes (watch for possible flare up because of the oil, have water on hands). Turn salmon and cook another 4 minutes. If the salmon is particularly thick cook a bit longer, but be careful not to overcook. The old idea that fish is flaky its ready is simply wrong. By the time its flaky, its likely overdone. Nowadays Salmon is served slightly undercooked to a light pink in the center. This is particularly important for BC salmon as it is less fatty than its Atlantic cousin. 

To prepare the Salsa:

Dice the fruit, cucumber and red onion to the same size (no bigger than your little finger’s nail). Mix together, and add the lime juice, the diced Thai chili and the chopped cilantro. Adjust seasoning to taste. My preference to have it very zesty, I’m not shy with the lime.

Serving is simple, lay you salmon in the center of the plate and lay a generous serving of the salsa over top and serve. Voila.. Can’t get any simpler.

Wine pairing:

I recommend an aromatic wine such as a dry Gewurztraminer, Viognier or a dry fruity Rose. C.C. Jentsch Cellars (#ccjentschcellar) has all three. I must say my favorite is the Viognier because of its strong tropical aromas and long finish, its stands up very well to the zesty notes of the salsa and the sweetness of the salmon.

Viognier, one of the world great aromatic grape

Viognier, one of the world great aromatic grape 

Have you ever wondered “What is that?” when a lunch date ordered a glass of Viognier with their meal? Have you scanned a wine list, seeing a number of French wines, or California wines, and increasingly Okanagan made with Viognier, and wonder what it taste like? All too often we stay in the safe zone with our wine choices, rarely venturing outside our box (or the bottle). After reading this, you’ll not only know what to expect in that glass of wine, but you will be able to pair it with foods, and talk about it, if you want.

Viognier is a French grape, not very widely planted there any longer, with less than 300 acres planted in its Northern Rhone home. Pronounced VEE-ohn-yay, it’s the main white grape of the French appellations of Condrieu and Chateau-Grillet, and often blended with Syrah to add an exotic bouquet to the red wine (as is C.C. Jentsch Cellar 2012 Syrah). Viognier wines exploded in popularity in the United States in the 1990s, and there are more than a thousand acres of the white grape there today. You can find Viognier wines from Virginia and France’s Languedoc-Roussillon regions in addition to California, the Rhone and increasingly the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.

Typical markers, or notes, of Viognier include white floral such as honey-suckle or jasmine, as well as orange blossom. Along with a honey or honey-suckle notes, you’ll also find stone fruit flavors, peach, apricot, nectarine, as well as a nice spice component that can be described as baking spices. On the palate, you will find it to be typically fuller bodied, often with an oily or “lanolin” feel in your mouth.

Food and wine pairings with Viognier include chicken and fish dishes, from grilled to broiled, or poached. Those meats, or others such as veal, with butter or cream sauces will also work well with Viognier. The white wine will enhance fruit flavors, making its great pairing with fruit dishes as appetizers, or as a topping with those chicken or fish dishes. Viognier will pair nicely with lobster, crab, shrimp or other seafood.
This is clearly food friendly, but also very nice white wine to sip on its own. Below are the tasting notes for C.C. Jentsch Cellars 2012 Viognier. Enjoy it today, and let me know what you think. If you favorite liquor store does not carry it, make sure you ask to be brought in.

C.C. Jentsch Cellars Viognier 2012

Bursting with white peach and orchard blossom, this fresh and full bodied wine awakens the senses. Lemon, pineapple and a touch of almond linger on the finish yet its racy freshness compliments a variety of dishes.
Decanter UK 2014- Bronze
Alcohol 14.1% Acid 7.4 g/L Residual Sugar 1.7 g/L
Price varies from store to store, expect to pay around $25.00 or