Quails' Gate 2008 Old Vines Foch

Someone gave us a bottle of Quails' Gate 2008 Old Vines Foch as a gift recently. It was very thoughtful, as they know we love wine, tend to drink red, and have become BC wine enthusiasts. We were a little trepidatious, nevertheless. But with no ‘drinking wines’ at home last week, we thought, hey, let’s give it a try. We did, however, have another bottle picked out as a back-up, just in case, and we just about opened it. Chris initially thought the Foch was off. I assured him that it wasn’t, it was just not a great wine. Thankfully, we were distracted by our 2 year old long enough for the Foch to open up a little. I say luckily not because the Foch was fantastic (it wasn’t) but because I would much rather have the Oregon Pinot with duck as originally planned and the Foch was good enough.  It is an interesting wine, with hints of complexity and fullness, hints that don’t deliver in my opinion. It is dark, but not lush. It is not fruity, nor is it big and inky. It doesn’t have a great deal of tannin or acidity. I am describing it in terms of what it isn’t, rather than what it is. That’s because that’s how we experienced it. Chris described it as being something like a cross between a Beaujolais and a Primitivo. I think it’s a great description, if you do not expect the best of either grape. It fell quite flat with food, but was quite pleasant to drink on its own. I will make what might seem like a strange recommendation though, open it the day before you want to drink it. We decanted it, but it was still very tight on the first night. It was much better on the second night. Even Chris actually liked it, rather than tolerated it, and had a second glass.

We tend to be wine with food people, so wine that is best without food is something I don’t think much about. But this wine fits that bill, and is local (as in from BC), and given it’s apparent heft, appropriate for the current season (fall), so on those points, I can recommend it. The 2009 is listed at $24.99, which is a perfectly reasonable price for this wine.O ne reason why we tend to stay away from BC reds is that they just don’t represent good value. I', happy to say that the Foch doesn’t fit this generalization.