Bradley James Cooper

If you’re a subscriber to our Cloudy Day club, we’ve shipped the latest Pinot Noir. The friendly FedEx man came by and picked up all the packages today and they are on their speedy way.  Hope everybody gets to enjoy that 2010 Fleuvage. The next release is the 2011 Altostratus that goes out in September. 

We’re acutely aware that some of our fans wish we had a physical location for our winery where they could visit and live the terroir first hand. We don’t have a tasting room or a winery building to visit - for now. But we can recommend other places we think embody the Okanagan and BC wine experience.

A lot of the wineries in BC certainly don’t need our help.  But sometimes even our jaded perspective gets a wake-up call and we feel compelled to pass on what we think is essential for visitors and residents to know about.

Lately we had the opportunity to visit Black Hills in the South Okanagan and thoroughly enjoyed the premium tasting that was offered.  We hadn’t been to Black Hills since they opened their new visitor center and we didn’t intend on doing anything more than standing at the tasting bar and having a couple sips.  But once we stepped into the modern, cool reception area and took in the view, staying a little longer and having a richer adventure seemed like the right thing to do.

The wines, scenery and architecture were great.  But without a good guide the journey can be confusing or lacking. Not so at Black Hills. They’ve got some top talent twisting tops and pulling corks.  I thoroughly endorse Jeff Stewart for the way he shepherded our group through our flight of wines, offering information and insights into vintage variations and winemaking stylistic nuances.  You can book Jeff directly at jeff@blackhillswinery.com when you book your tasting.

And I advise booking soon.  We were told that these custom tasting sessions are quickly finding a favoured place among wine touring visitors and this is something you don’t want to miss.

The Vancouver International Wine Festival provided the backdrop for our 2nd annual POP-up Pinot Noir tasting last Saturday and the buzz inside the suite at the Hotel LeSoleil matched the general wine vibe in the city all week.

We set out an array of Pinot Noirs from the past, present and future releases to a small but appreciative crowd.  Featured during the tasting:

2012 Rose (unreleased, tank sample)

2006 Fleuvage

2008 Altostratus

2009 Altostratus

2010 Altostratus (unreleased)

2010 Fleuvage

2011 Altostratus (barrel sample)

2012 Altostratus (barrel sample)

Only about 20 cases of the 2012 Rose were made and these will be available to the Cloudy Day club members first as an add on to the regular subscription chosen.  It’s crisp and clean with a nose of raspberry and rose petals with a light cherry palate.  A great spring and summer accompaniment to any patio experience.

Be sure to read this blog for the next event featuring our Pinot Noirs.

If you’re in Vancouver for the International Wine Festival this weekend, conslder dropping into our POP-UP Pinot Noir tasting on Saturday, March 2.

We’ll be pouring past, present and future releases of our Fleuvage and Altostratus Pinot Noirs. Including our first rose which we’ll be releasing this spring through our Cloudy Day club.

If you think you’d like to join us just email us at info@blackcloud.ca and we’ll set you and your plus 1 up with the location and other details.  We’ll need a mobile number to give you a special passphrase on Saturday.

It’s a good question but I’m not sure I can answer that at the moment. Instead I’m going to pass the buck to a couple of worthies who have a few words to say about it.

One is Jamie Goode,  who has been writing a blog about wine for better than a decade and always has something of value in his scribblings. The other is Sam Neill, the actor and vineyard owner.  In this piece, Goode relays part of a speech Neill recently gave in his home country of New Zealand. In his ten points to prospective Pinot Noir growers, I particularily liked this one:

You must try to avoid using the word ‘passion’, as in ‘passion for Pinot’. Passion is an overused word that should be reserved for the sort of heightened emotion that can happen between two people that may possibly result sometimes in the discarding of trousers. If you are a grower of Pinot you may lose your shirt but you are unlikely to lose your trousers.

While this doesn’t completely explain why we do an exclusive Pinot Noir label, it does capture the essence of the Pinot producers.

I do like the part about being a bastard, too.

As part of our series that highlights the stores that carry our Pinot Noir, here’s a quick look at Stag’s Head Liquor in Kamloops.  One of the best looking layouts and a huge inventory, the staff at Stag’s Head really know their stuff.  We just dropped off some 2010 Fleuvage there and they still have some of the now very rare 2009 Altostratus too.

We’ve been sold out of the regular size of the 2009 Altostratus for a while but a small amount has surfaced in our inventory and it’s now on sale.  Check out our store and use this coupon SHIPFREE13 when you order $100 or more.

Every once in a while we like to feature one of our retail partners.  We don’t blanket every area by trying to be in every store.  Instead we like to choose shops that specialize in wine and take the time to work with their customers to guarantee they get the wine experience they’re looking for.

Broadway Wine (originally Broadway International) is that kind of store. They’ve been selling Black Cloud since we started almost 5 years ago.  They’re the embodiment of a good neighbourhood wine store.  The staff is friendly and very knowledgeable.

The store has a somewhat unique license that allows them to have wine only, but includes import and domestic selections.  The result is an eclectic mix of difficult-to-find wines that are far from the ordinary.

2752 West Broadway, Vancouver

604.734.8543   Open daily 11 – 9pm

This photo of a bottle of our 2010 Fleuvage Pinot Noir was taken on a bed of stones and rock chips that we collected while on vacation. During the long winter months we’ll sometimes pick up a stone while enjoying a glass of wine and reminisce about where the stone was found and what we were doing that day. The sharp-eyed may be able to see a couple fossilized impressions among the rock chips as well. It certainly brings warmth to our chilly days when we can recall fun with friends and family and look forward to the journeys of the future.