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Sips Happen column: A quartet for autumn

Welcome to autumn! This is the harvest season when the grapes ripen, are picked, crushed, and transformed into wine. And to salute the season, here are four wines to enjoy while September transitions to October.
autumn wines
A Roman and a Spanish, plus two Fraser Valley Wines to toast the autumn. Photo submitted

Welcome to autumn! This is the harvest season when the grapes ripen, are picked, crushed, and transformed into wine. 

And to salute the season, here are four wines to enjoy while September transitions to October.

First, a new Italian wine to this region that will whisk you away to the Eternal City in the blink of a pulled cork. 

The 2014 Roma Bianco ($12.99) is surprisingly flavourful compared to the many bland Roman wines from years ago.

Expect a golden brilliance in the glass and honeyed floral bouquet wafting to your nose. 

And there is a delicious ripe peach and pear flavour with a lovely texture in the mouth ending on a dry note. 

Roma is a seductive wine, made from three indigenous varietals, suitable for linguine in clam sauce and other light seafood dishes, pasta, and poultry. Available at the BCLDB.

Moving from Rome to Rioja, I am also impressed with the 2010 Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva ($17.49) , also available at government stores.  

If you want high quality for a low price, look to Spanish wines and if you want the best of Spain, Rioja is the region to pick.

It’s distinctive and delicious, made from Spain’s premium grape, Tempranillo. 

And the fact that it is now six years old, it is probably at it’s best: Mellow, flavourful, with layers of delicious notes. 

There’s a vanilla and dried plum bouquet…it’s aged in American and French oak which imparts that vanilla component.

The flavour is a mix of strawberries, blackberries, plum leather, with smooth tannins. 

Enjoyed with Oka Artisan and Piave cheeses makes the wine’s spiciness and the fruit flavours emerge. 

And the wine brings out the creaminess in the Quebec and Italian cheeses. 

From Abbotsford comes two whites from the family winery of Garnet and Debbie Etzell. Opened in 2014, Singletree Winery produces a wide range of wines from both Okanagan and Fraser Valley fruit. 

Their Singletree 2015 Sauvignon Blanc ($19.05) is a stylish wine and is different in a pleasant way from most wines made from this variety. 

Unlike many SB’s which are not wood aged, the Singletree’s French oak barrel fermentation adds a deep straw colour, a lovely toasted hazelnut aroma and flavour, and a firmer texture in the mouth. 

I enjoyed its marmalade flavour with its mango and guava finish. 

Bone-dry with lots of fruit and nuts, what’s not to like! This would be ideal with halibut or albacore tuna, done medium rare on the barbecue!

The 2015 Singletree Homestead ($17.30) is an off-dry white, blended with four varietals co-fermented in stainless steel: Pinot Gris, Gruner Veltliner (the famous Austrian grape seldom grown in B.C.), as well as Chardonnay and Kerner. 

A delicious ripe pear nose and flavour is dominant thanks to the Pinot Gris. 

And the other three components adds a refreshing zing, more body, pineapple and mango, and a lovely Kerner fruit finish. 

The Homestead makes for a tasty aperitif after you finish mowing the lawn for a final time. 

Enjoy with a roast pork or duck, with half a cup of the wine into the pan juices.

Singletree wines are available at the Legacy Liquor Store in Olympic Village, online at the winery website, or at the winery on Mt. Lehman Road in Abbotsford.

Eric Hanson is a retired Richmond teacher and wine educator. Reach him at Ehanson0705@gmail.com