Foodists

Poppy Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Without diving too deeply into the political dramatics of the wine industry in British Columbia, our wines are savagely subjected to a 126% tax. This makes it difficult for me to justify the forking over of dollars without the following guilt of doing so thereafter. I use to live my life by sitting in the shallow gut of the gluttonous moment, but now not only does my conscience not allow for such hedonism, but I can’t fathom to financially forfeit my palate to the mercy of our province.

When in New York last fall, I felt a heavy sense of injustice when comparing their prices with ours of the same bottles. I laughed it off and carried on but the feeling of betrayal remained. It’s at least comforting to know that there is a collective group of passionate people in BC who are attempting to motivate change within the system. Our audacious prices certainly don’t mean that I’m brimming my basket with 2L bottles of barely BBQ worthy wine, but have instead altered my behavior by adjusting my budget creatively. My monetary goal is to hover beneath the $25 mark.

Last week, I craved a browbeater and so drove through the rural roads of South Point to visit Liberty, a wine shop on 152nd Street. I was drawn to an ‘05 Poppy Hill Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, despite the associate describing it as drab by stating it as being solely balanced. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the contrary. I kid you not, I tasted peat. Although I commonly taste smoke in wine, never have I had something that was so reminiscent of scotch. It was full-bodied and also carried characteristics of chocolate, cassis and hay.

You know what? I loved it. At $24.99, it barely broke even, but it ignited my interest and left me to ponder it for some time thereafter.