Cassini Cellars offer some pleasant surprises

Cassini Cellars at the 2010 Banée
Cassini Cellar's Adrian Capeneata at the 2010 SOWA Banée

It was an unlikely encounter. Stacey and I were honoured to be invited to the South Okanagan Wine Association (SOWA) Banée and dinner last April. For us it was one of the year's great pleasures. Heck, anytime we're in the Okanagan mixing it up with wine people it's a pleasure.

After a hectic dinner, morning wine tour and unbelievable lunch with great company, we were asked to do a "speed dating" session with 17 wineries! That's right, five minutes with each winery and sampling, spitting as we go. There were many folks we knew serving, and several we just met. One was Adrian from Cassini Cellars (looking very dapper and proud in the photo above).

The tasting was too frantic for us to really realize the quality of everyone we met. For this reason we are extremely lucky to have had some samples sent to us by Cassini this month. We've rolled a few of them out with our wine loving pals, and we've all been very impressed by the quality of everything we've poured.

What strikes you right away is how ambitious Cassini have been right out of the gate. They barely opened their tasting room last year. But the varietals include meritage blends, a Syrah, Merlot and Pinot Noir, as well as a white blend (Mamma Mia, French Couture) and a highly respectable Chardonnay that received high marks from Stacey's father (the biggest Chardonnay snob we know).

We've been tweeting out our notes as we pour the Cassini wines @BCWineLover. I can say with confidence that we'll be purchasing Cassini in the future, and will mark it as a destination in our next trip to the Golden Mile bench.

Kudos, Adrian! We didn't know what to expect when we began pouring your wine, but it has been a true pleasure for us over the holiday season.

– post by Mike

Author

  • Mike Klassen

    Mike is a communications and public affairs professional in addition to being a BC wine industry booster. He and his wife Stacey launched the BC Wine Lover brand in 2007 to share stories about their experiences with people, places and wines on their BC wine country travels. In 2015, Mike was hired as Executive Director of the BC Wine Appellation Task Group, and undertook a comprehensive industry-wide consultation involving hundreds of stakeholders to reform regulations governing wine-making in B.C. The resulting recommendations were overwhelmingly endorsed through a plebiscite, and are leading to the creation of new sub-appellations in the province. In addition to his blog, Mike’s articles on BC wine have been featured in Huffington Post, Vancity Buzz (now Daily Hive), and Vancouver Sun. Mike now works for BC Care Providers Association as Vice President, Communications and Stakeholder Relations, and continues to be engaged on the future of Canada’s wine industry.