Wineing

I have been planning for a while now a review of wines with a link to cycling.
Last night I was reading Momentum Magazine, a BC based bike culture periodical that is really quite good. Anyway there was an article about wine, more specifically wine with some sort of link to cycling (they beat me to it). They discussed 3 wines, each of which I have tried and enjoyed. One wine that they missed was the Cycles Gladiator 2005 Syrah.

Now I am not a wine snob by a long shot. My wife and I have used wine touring as an excuse for some bike touring. We have toured the Napa Valley and around the Naramata Bench in BC's Okanagan, both by bike. So we at least have an interest.

I saw this wine in the liquor store the other day. Although I know a bit about wine, I know I like drinking it, I am a sucker the little "helpful" promotional material that the BCL Stores put on display with the wines. The note on this wine was that it was a Gold medal winner from some wine festival and that -- and this is what I really look at -- it received 91 points. Now I don't know if I have ever had a wine that received 91 points. I stick to the affordable 88 point wines.

Now I must admit during the past couple of years my attitude towards wine has changed. Before I was singularly focused on finding the best inexpensive wines possible. There are a lot of great cheap wines (around $10.00, around US$5.00 probably), but recently I have raised my focused price range to the mid-teens. Even with this increased price range I can't seem to afford the wines over 90 points. That is why I was surprised to see that the Cycles Gladiator 2005 Syrah, that won a gold medal and received 91 points, was under $17.00 (I noticed on their website that it is US$9.99 -- ah the joys of socialised health care).

I bought a couple of bottles a few weeks ago and was really surprised by the smoothness and rich flavour of this wine. It was really wonderful. I did a little more research on Cycles Gladiator's excellent website and found that they sponsor a couple of bike racing teams and are really into the whole bike culture thing. So really it is a win win wine, The product is good, and the proceeds of my purchase help support bike culture. I was so thrilled that I actually went out and bought a case last night.

Ahh I have a winter of good wine drinking ahead of me.