Apothic Red Wine Launch at the Vancouver Art Gallery

That I love the Vancouver Art Gallery is well known. That I love good wine, is also a well-known fact. And that I love well-matched food with amazingly surprisingly inexpensive wine ($15.99 a bottle) should also be very well established. So, I was totally thrilled to have been invited to the Apothic Red wine launch this past week at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I love events held at the Vancouver Art Gallery, I might just add.

I found Apothic an extremely easy-to-drink wine. With 13.1% alcohol, it’s not an overwhelming, “get drunk on 2 glasses” kind of wine. It provides the consumer with a very reasonable, table-side or drink-on-your own kind of wine.

A captivating blend of three distinct grapes, with the dark fruit flavors of Syrah, brambly spice of Zinfandel, and a smooth elegance of Merlot. Apothic Red reveals intense fruit aromas and flavors of rhubarb and black cherry that are complemented by hints of mocha, chocolate, brown spice and vanilla. The plush, velvety mouthfeel and smooth finish round out this intriguing, full-bodied red blend.

There were some very smart elements to this launch. Not only the setting (the Vancouver Art Gallery), the music (DJ Leanne), the MC (Michael Eckford), the food (I forgot who was the caterer, but I MUST find their name), a magician on site (can’t recall his name either) and the actual wine itself. The fact that strong flavours were paired with a red blend was extremely smart. I was particularly thrilled to see DJ Leanne, a DJ whom I love (almost as much as my loved DJ Emiko).

I was very happy to see some of my good friends there, including Keira-Anne Mellis, Dianne Chow, Richard Wolak, Mijune Pak, Chin Chin, Rick Chung, Kelvin Claveria, Yuri Artibise and many more that escape me at the moment. Too many to count, in fact!

And of course, did I mention the food?

The chocolate-covered strawberries was a smart strategy too!

More on the history of Apothic Red

More than 800 years ago, vintners blended and stored their most coveted concoctions in a mysterious place called Apotheca. In late 2005, a Master Winemaker envisioned an epic red wine combining Old World traditions of blending while realizing a markedly New World style. Thus began the path that led his protégé, winemaker Boyd Morrison, to select grapes from California’s bountiful vineyards for this new blended red. Morrison was inspired to blend spicy Zinfandel, with smooth Merlot and lush, dark Syrah to create Apothic Red.

Overall, an extremely enjoyable event. And a really good wine to boot. And here’s where you can buy it.

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