Mountain Lines and Valley Vines: Ski Day Wine Pairings
Twice named Canada’s Best Winery of the Year, Cedar Creek Winery in the Okanagan Valley makes one of my favourite wines. Lucky for Last Frontier Heli-Skiers, this wine can be found on the lodges’ wine list. As I was perusing the tasting notes of Cedar Creek’s different wines, I saw that the winery recommends pairing their Platinum Meritage wine with….Deep Purple’s 1968 debut album. Which got me to thinking…if you can pair wine with music, could you pair it with your ski day as well?
Why the hell not? Now, I am a firm believer that wine pairings should be based on personal preference; thus, the following pairings are 100% up for debate. But here’s how I’d pair my ski days and Last Frontier Heli-Skiing’s wines:
Bluebird, Knee-Deep & See Ya Later Ranch Pinot Gris: There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun is making ice shimmers in the sky. It’s a bit magical. There’s a soft pink glint in the air, much like the “light pink salmon overtures” in the See Ya Later Ranch Pinot Gris. The snow isn’t sugary, but has a smooth consistency all day, changing only slightly with the day’s temperature variations, just like a Pinot Gris.
Sharp Cold, Blower Pow & Moet & Chandon Champagne Brut Imperial: It’s one of those days where you can’t sweat, or else you may freeze. All day you focus on temperature regulation. Your ski boots crunch and the cold air tingles your bones. As a result, the snow is unbelievably light and weightlessly blows around you…just…like…bubbles! Put your flutes outside for a half an hour and let them frost before popping the bottle; your champagne will stay light, smooth, and chilled (just like your day).
Big Flakes, Tree-Skiing & Poplar Grove Merlot: Big, slow-falling snow-flakes drift around you, lighting upon your jacket and sticking to your upper lip. It’s warm and the air is moist. The heaviness in the atmosphere silences the wilderness around you. With its smooth tannins and “underscore flavours of dark cherries, cigars & Okanagan sage,” the Poplar Grove Merlot is smooth, strong and full, a “wine-ification” of the deep glade skiing.
Big Open Bowls & Tinhorn Creek Cabernet Franc: OH GLORIOUS, big, wide, open bowl turns! Both stable and exhilarating, a day of linking beauty turns in the alpine should be paired with the consistent flavour of this Cabernet Franc. Plus, to be a bit cheeky, sometimes it is a more “mature” crowd that best appreciates the open alpine and this classic varietal.
Wind-Loaded, Waist-Deep & Sottano Malbec: Sometimes the wind doesn’t play nice: scouring the mountains, scraping some areas dry and amassing teetering cornices in others. It can also be playful, gusty and totally beneficial, stacking up layers for you to plough or filling in spots for you to rediscover. This dynamism reminded me of a Malbec, a wine with enough character to lay some spice into a meal and simultaneously play the role of a simply profound accent. Much like, “where did all this snow come from?!” Wind deposits into already fun terrain. Or, “where did all this flavour come from?” Oxygen deposits into already delicious wine.
Mark Twain said that “there are no standards of taste in wine…Each man’s own taste is the standard, and a majority vote cannot decide for him or in any slightest degree affect the supremacy of his own standard.”
I’ll drink to that.