Tuesday Blind Tastings

O'Leary Walker Riesling 2008

Clare Valley, Australia

Price: $25

Rating: 92

Source: Cellar door

Description: Golden colour. Lemons, stone fruit, apricot and a touch of kero on the nose. The palate was developed and mineraly with good citrus fruit, lots of acid and a hard edge to it. A long-tasting wine that will continue to improve over 10 years.

Tasting date: 25 July 2017

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Canadian Wine 19. 809.Canada has been making fine wine for less than fifty years. Inniskillin pioneered truly good quality wine in Ontario about thirty years ago. Compared with places in Europe that have been making it for centuries, Canada is still in its infancy. 810.Some major forces converged in the past few decades to improve the quality of Canadian wine. The 1988 Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and the removal of protective laws favoring domestic wineries forced Canada to compete directly with American wineries. The most recent push for quality came with the creation of the Vintners Quality Alliance that set quality standards for Canadian wine. Ontario created VQA standards in 1988; British Columbia followed suit in 1990; and then VQA Canada was established in 1999. Almost all exported wine is VQA certified. 811.Recent improvements to Canadian wine stirred demand from other countries. In 2004, CAN$16 million worth of Canadian wine was exported; up from just CAN$6 million five years earlier. The most important export market by far is the United States, but Asia also buys a fair amount of Canadian wine. 812.When buying wine from Canada, make sure it is labeled VQA. It is the only way you can be sure it is made from 100 percent Canadiangrown