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Wine Recommendation
Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery
2006 Bacchus VQA(Fraser Valley)
A variety developed with crossings of Riesling, Sylvaner and Müller-Thurgau, the Muscat-like Bacchus was classified officially in 1972 by the German research station at Geilweilerhof. Designed for cool climate viticulture, it soon arrived in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley. Claude Violet, the original owner of the Domaine de Chaberton winery, planted nine acres, beginning in 1982. After the winery opened in 1992, this varietal became one of its signature whites. Even the winery’s busy bistro bears the variety’s name.
Until recently, the winery supplemented its Bacchus grape requirements with purchases from the Okanagan. But several major suppliers have replaced Bacchus (whose total acreage in British Columbia is only 44 acres). Consequently, Chaberton planted eight more acres during the past two years and intends to add a further five acres next year.
Chaberton’s Bacchus is made in a popular style with a touch of residual sweetness to balance the acidity and lift the variety’s exotic aromas and flavours. Floral and herbal on the nose, the wine delivers a spicy mouthful of pineapple and papaya flavours. 86 points.
Reviewed December 14, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery
The Wine
Winery: Domaine de Chaberton Estate Winery |
The Reviewer
John Schreiner
John Schreiner has been covering the wines of British Columbia for the past 30 years and has written 10 books on the wines of Canada and BC. He has judged at major competitions and is currently a panel member for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Both as a judge and as a wine critic, he approaches each wine not to find fault, but to find excellence. That he now finds the latter more often than the former testifies to the dramatic improvement shown by BC winemaking in the past decade. |