Meritage Rankings

Flat Rock Sparkling Brut

We were joined by Ed Madronich, co-founder of Flat Rock Cellars in Niagara as our guest speaker who was terrifically knowledgeable about BC and Ontario wines. Flat Rock also supplied our reception wine - a lovely Sparkling Brut from 2006 which sells for $35.20 at the winery. I was very surprised to see their sparkling wine topped with a bottlecap like you used to see on pop bottles (or now on beer bottles) but Ed explained how sparkling wines are capped this way all throughout the aging process.  He explained that the cap is as effective as a cork and far, far safer when opening the bottle, even though it may not look ‘as nice’. Either way, the wine was a treat to taste.  Thank you so much Ed and Flat Rock Cellars!

The group's fav

And our Meritage wines showed very well too.  The group and our speaker weren’t in agreement on their top selection but overall, people enjoyed these complex wines. The group’s fav was a BC Meritage - 2004 Cedar Creek Platinum Reserve Meritage  while Ed ranked the 2002 Henry of Pelham Speck Family Reserve from Ontario as his #1 (the group ranked this #7).  There was more agreement on the 2004 Burrowing Owl Meritage which the group ranked 8th and Ed ranked ranked 7th.  But here are the other rankings:

Name of Wine (in order poured)	Group Ranking	Guest Ranking
A. 2007 Thirty Bench Benchmark Red	4	3
B. 2005 Creekside Estate Reserve Meritage	3	8
C. Henry of Pelham Speck Family Reserve 2002	7	1
D. 2004 Cedar Creek Platinum Reserve Meritage	1	4
E. 2004 NK'MIP Qwam Qwmt Meritage	6	6
F. Jackson-Triggs Sun Rock Vineyard Meritage 2004	5	2
G. 2004 Burrowing Owl Meritage	8	7
H. 2000 Sumac Ridge Pinnacle	2	5