Box Populi

Our thoughts are with Mt. Boucherie.

As I write this Mt. Boucherie (the actual mountain, not the winery) is very seriously on fire and evacuations are proceeding. It seems trite in such circumstances to talk about wine, but given that I’m going to do it anyway it seems only right that I talk about Mt. Boucherie, the winery. While I’ve never met the proprietors and I hope to hell that they and their neighbours are safe and stay safe, I do feel like I know what sort of people they are by the wine they make. They make an outstanding Blaufrankisch that can’t be a huge seller but is a delicious taste into the Okanagan’s past and cause to re-examine some of the vine casualties that come from the vast amounts of new merlot et al. that everyone is planting. They also make a Zweigelt—also something no one is going to retire on (especially when they sell it for $17) and also a varietal that deserves more attention here. But what tells me most about them is the 3 litre box of Chardonnay that they make and sell for $38.50. That’s $9.62 a bottle for grapes grown in West Kelowna. It’s good—there’s no oak treatment, which is ballsy in a wine this price where a carton full of oak chips could mask a whole lot of faults and it shows nice, clean tropical flavours and reasonable balance. It’s not Meyer Family or Foxtrot Chardonnay’s but it’s not trying to be and it’s 1/4 the price. And while Mt. Boucherie makes fine examples of the more common grapes—Syrah, Pinot—its that they make this Chardonnay that sticks with me and tells me all I need to know about them.