Every so often, I look at the wines featured on the endcaps at Lunardi’s. Most of them, of course, are Chardonnay, and therefore of no interest to us, but sometimes they have something which meets two important criteria:

• It looks interesting
• It’s being sold at a substantial discount to claimed retail

On Sunday, I found a couple of wines which met those criteria, though we’ve only drunk one so far — the 2002 Clos LaChance Central Coast Syrah. They wanted $8.99 for it, instead of a retail of $16.99 (or the winery’s suggested $18). It’s well worth the $8.99, so we bought a couple of more bottles, and might pick up more if they’re still in stock when we next visit.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written up a wine, but tonight’s was worth remembering. It’s Tinhorn Creek 2003 Pinot Noir, which I picked up at the Calgary Airport last week. I’d had the 2004 at dinner at the Fairmont in Banff Springs, and really enjoyed it; the 2003 is just as good. And for $17 versus $48 at the Fairmont (both in Canadian dollars), it’s quite the value!

I suspect that it’ll be difficult to get this wine here in the US; I guess we’ll have to take a trip to the Okanagan Valley again….