Merlots from Canada - What a drop

Hi. This is Wayne Mansfield with an update to Merlot A Day. Sorry I've been away for a while, but I've actually been away for five weeks. And over the next few episodes, I'll update you with the merlots I've been drinking from all over the world. We spent two and a bit weeks in the UK. Some fabulous merlots, but unfortunately not from the UK.

So I'll come back in a later episode and tell you the fabulous Chilean and other South American merlots I was tasting there. Then I spent some time in Canada, and we're going to talk in this session about three merlots that I tasted when I was in Canada. And then a couple of weeks on the Zuiderdam cruise ship and the wines that they had to share. So today I'm going to talk about three particular merlots. Lauren, who's putting together this video, will have behind me also the vineyard tours notes, how the wine is put together and why that's special. But three particular ones.

So the first one was called Sterling Merlot. And I'm a steak and merlot person. My best steak ever in my whole life, and that's not exaggeration, was at Whistler resort, the Westin Inn. It was absolutely fabulous. And it came with a local merlot, a Canadian merlot from the Sterling estate. So its merlot is just superb. In terms of cost, I'm not really sure, because we were in a five-star hotel, so they were charging outrageously for it.

But it's probably a $25 a bottle, really great taste, and I would give it, if it was possible, five glasses out of five on our scale. It was great value, amazing drinking, and very moorish. So that's the first one. And then on our trip we went a bit further down the track, and we went to Jasper's Creek, which is part of the Rocky Mountains. And there, with the evening meal we tried Cedar's Creek Merlot. It was superb.

Again, we don't hear much about Canada, because their wineries are very small and they produce, you know, five to ten thousand dozen bottles. So they're not exported anywhere of any extent in the world. But if you go to Canada, I'd recommend Cedar's Creek Merlot. It's a great drop. Again, pretty close to top. I would think it's probably $35 a bottle, but a great drink. And then in Banff at the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel, which is just, just superb, we had with our evening meal a wine called La Frenz Merlot. Now I don't think it was a Canadian one with a name like La Frenz.

But it could have been, because as you know, French Canada, they have great wines as well. So the notes that Lauren had put up with this video will say where that comes from. But again, a superb merlot. But this one was nudging about $50 a bottle. So on the value stakes, probably not as good as the Sterling, but certainly a fabulous drink. So there's three more to my Merlot A Day, as I go around the world trying to sample every merlot that there is in the world. I can tell you it's a fabulous journey, and thanks for sharing it.