Wine Tasting Event

Attended a charity BC wine and Oyster tasting event this afternoon. Most of the wineries were small BC wineries that I had heard very little of, if anything, wanted to see if there were any new young interesting gems. They offered mainly low end Pinot Gris/Blanc, don't know about the reds, never got that far. I tasted a fair amount for me, so the notes are brief in the main, and anyway I was supposed to be enjoying myself!

Arrowleaf
Pinot Gris 2005 - citrus, high acidity, ok-ish

Chalet Estate
Pinot Grigio 2005 - Gross! Wouldn't have guessed the grape variety for sure
Orange Muscat 2005 - usually used for dessert wines, interesting, drinkable-ish, very floral, off dry, almost sour . . .nah

Cherry Point Vineyards
Pinot Gris 2003 - Sweet (not good), odd after taste

Gehringer Brothers
Pinot Gris Private Reserve 2005 - don't bother
Riesling Private Reserve 2005 - don't bother

Glenugie Winery
Chardonnay 2005 - Gross!

Gray Monk
I usually give them a pass as I find their wine pretty uninspiring, same as Gehringer Brothers, thought I'd give them a chance:
Ehrenfelser Late harvest 2003 - Can't make wine

Herder
?? never heard of these guys, from down by Keremeos, west of Oliver
Chardonnay Twin Beaches 2005 - partial malolactic, some oak, not bad, interesting

Little Straw
New to me. I'll try them to see if there is an interesting gem.
Auxerrois Old Vine 2005 - hot and sickly
Riesling Select Harvest 2004 - perfumy, thin, OK, shame I tried it after the auxerrois

Mission Hill
I usually try and avoid, not because they can make excellent wines, but because I get so fed up with the way they market/misrepreent/confuse you about their wines. In fact the only reason I had these wines was because I thought they were from a new winery . . .
Fork in the Road White 2004 - blend, including Viongier, great nose, fresh fruit on the palate, BY FAR the best wine of the evening - $25 and probably the most expensive eing served.

Rigamarole Red 2005 - blend of Pinot Noir, Merlot and Gamay. the gamay comes through strongest. Well made, interesting wine. The nose, and then again on the palate: POT. We tried it again later in case the bottle we tasted was odd, or our palates were off. We still thought POT, oh yes and raspberries. Liked it.

Silver Sage
Pinot Blanc 2004 - ok
Gewurtztraminer 2005 - ok
The Flame 2004 - a chili pepper in their dessert wine, spicy hot, gimmick

Sumac Ridge
Merlot Private Reserve 2003 - Just 'cause I wanted some red at the end of the evening, I enjoyed it. Even at the end of the evening, you could tell it was better made than most of the whites I'd tried.

Tinhorn Creek
Chardonnay 2005 - ok $15, nothing special

Van Westen
From Naramata, thought I new the ones in that area
Vino Grigio 2005 - good body to it, the best Pinot Gris of the evening
Vivacious 205 - a blend of blanc and gris, OK

Wild Goose
Chardonnay 2005 Mystic River - NO, nose was more reminiscent of Pinot Gris
But then I've found this winery to be exceptionally inconsistent.

Winchester Cellars
The winery is in Sooke, on the Island, but the grapes are from Black Sage (Burrowing Owl neighbourhood)
Chardonnay 2005 Sharp Rock Vineyard - Mixed opinions, fair body and fruit to it, but aftertaste of cardboard . . . and this was after getting him to open another bottle after he had served half a bottle of obviously corked wine.

Summary:
I don't think I've been to a wine tasting where I've been so unimpressed by the wines. Maybe it was the oysters, but I've been to an oyster/wine tasting before. Lots of prosaic at best Pinot Blancs and Gris. So offput, that I didn't even want to try the reds. In genereal the wineries only offered for tasting their cheaper higher volume wines as opposed to private reserve types. Perhaps the demographic at this tasting merited it, but since the event was organised by Liberty Wines, I expected higher quality. Their loss. I won't touch 90% of theses wineries again.

If any BC'er ever reads this, I'm sure they'll have an opinion.