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Viognier!! Specifically Canadian viognier. Based on my experience few producers outside of France have managed to put forward as good a drop as Lariana Cellars in the Southern Okanagan. And this wine delivers on a Canadian all star pairing with Adoray cheese from Quebec.
From Wikipedia (really good summary): “Viognier is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley. Outside of the Rhône, Viognier can be found in regions of North and South America as well as Australia, New Zealand, the Cape Winelands in South Africa, south Moravia region in Czechia and Israel. In some wine regions, the variety is co-fermented with the red wine grape Syrah where it can contribute to the color and aroma of the wine. Like Chardonnay, Viognier has the potential to produce full-bodied wines with a lush, soft character. In contrast to Chardonnay, the Viognier varietal has more natural aromatics that include notes of peach, pears, violets and minerality. However, these aromatic notes can be easily destroyed by too much exposure to oxygen, which makes barrel fermentation a winemaking technique that requires a high level of skill on the part of any winemaker working with this variety. The grape is naturally a low-yielding variety, which can make it a less economically viable planting for some vineyards.” These are among the reasons why viognier is not as widely grown. Further, it is a tricky wine to pair with all those racy aromatic notes.
Lariana Cellars 2021 Viognier ( is my favourite of this varietal grown in Canada! This wine faced a multitude of challenges – wildfires in the region and the devasting heat dome, yet Lariana Cellars delivered vintage. Beautiful minerality, great acidity, highly aromatic, white flowers, stone fruit, slightly oily character yet perfectly balanced. This is a wine that is a perfect pairing for seafood – halibut, sturgeon, oysters – and aromatic SE Asian green and yellow curries (not to spicy). I picked up a case (delivered from the winery) at about $25/bottle. I am going to enjoy this for a while.
Here’s a review of the 2018 vintage courtesy BC Wine Trends:
We paired up this wine with a single cheese: Adoray.
Courtesy of Cheese Atlas: “Adoray is a recently introduced cheese (2016), and it was first made by Fromagerie Montebello in the Outaouais region of Québec, Canada. This small format cheese is made with pasteurised cow’s milk and wrapped in spruce bark. Moreover, the bark allows the soft oozy centre to keep its shape. In addition to this, the spruce also implements a woody character to the cheese.” The spruce, grassy, cream and a ginger note was evident on the palate. When paired with the wine, it was a heavenly marriage – it was total old world charm. The cheese made the wine luscious and elevated the acid – cascades of acidity – and the pairing was unique and exciting. Bring on some fresh stone fruit – apricots and peaches – when serving this cheese with this wine.
Here’s how to get on Lariana Cellars wine club: Please note, they are over subscribed as of posting this video (November 2022).
If you have not tried a viognier, what are you waiting for? And if you have, what’s your favourite? #tastetheworld. ✌🏽🥂
Please note, uncredited images here were taken from the Lariana Cellar’s website and some of my own when I visited there in 2019. And yes, the chicken really did cross the road.
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You can order this wine via Vivino (where applicable): (Note, 4.1/5 rating, and top 3% in the world there).