One of the bigger local tastings of the year occured a couple months back, in conjunction with the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival when a host of wine-types gathered at The Vancouver Club for a grand tasting of a 10 year vertical (’97-’07) of Mission Hill’s Bordeaux-inspired Oculus.

From BC’s grandest, flagship winery - the Oculus is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, although the percentage and order of each vary from year to year.  Always well-crafted, I’ve had the chance to try all the vintages over the years, but perpetually upon release- hence consistently way too wound up, with mouth-puckering tannins that can only offer tiny hints of how lovely the wine will be after years of aging.  I’ve always been able to sense the quality, that these wines are being positioned to stand up to their global brethren, but I’ve never had the opportunity to try them once they’re past their awkward puberty stage and have come into a finesse and confidence of their own.  Yes, we’re still talking about wine here…

I was stoked to attend this tasting, but when it’s Wine Fest time you always have to sacrifice some events in favour of others.  I had to miss the thing.

Fortunately, Wine Press Northwest Managing Editor Eric Degerman attended and was able to put together a nice little video giving a slight sense of how the thing went: