Wine Club - Alderlea Vineyards

My wife and I belong to a semi-monthly club for wine. The person whose turn it is to host chooses the region/variety/theme and obtains the food that goes with the wine. People bring wine they have bought, generally at the $20 to $30 level. We start at 2pm to give time for people to drink and sober up before heading home. Everyone gets a little pour of each and we then comment on each one and chitchat. Once all the wine has been sampled, it is a free for all and more substantial food is brought out by the host.

For this wine club meeting, Alderlea Vineyard's Clarinet was chosen and we had a bottle of each on hand from 1997 to 2011. Clarinet is their Marechal Foch grape that was common in the Loire and used for blending. It is well suited to Vancouver Island because of its heartiness and resistance to cold. Roger Dosman, one of the owners of the winery was present, a first for our club. His knowledge and graciousness in providing a few missing vintages was greatly appreciated. He knew what years had good or bad weather, which affected the wines in subtle ways. Alderlea has always been for me consistently good but different tasting from year to year, and this tasting proved it.