Best Canadian wine alternatives to American classics

All right, Morgan, you're filling in on a great day. This is the whole reason why I said yes to guest co-hosting. Yeah, we got wine with us. With American wines and spirits being pulled from shelves across the country, there is no better time to try out wines that are made right here at home. That's right. If you love bottles from south of the border, today wine expert Renée Sfrazza is going to show us some alternatives to consider that will once allow us to say, Bye American and Bye Canadian. I love this new series. That's great. Let's get started. Yes. And Renée, great to see you as always. Great to see you as always. You know, I am a big lover of Canadian wines, so I am so excited about this as well. Should we just like dive right on in? Let's do it. Amazing. So you guys have heard of New York State Riesling, right? From the Finger Lakes. You know, the reason why Riesling does so well there is because it has rocky soils, there's steep slopes where the grape can just be sun-soaked and it's near water. All of these are great reasons why Riesling does so well in Kelowna as well. So this is a BC Riesling. One of my absolute favorites is the Tantalus Old Vine Riesling. Old vines will tell you how long it's actually been there. Cheers. Have a taste. You can. So you get these nice rocky glacial soils, these steep slopes right on Lake Okanagan. It's brilliant. It's dry. It's refreshing. Really nice. That's lovely. I like wine. I'm a red wine girl, but I would drink this. All right. Just a pro tip here. Pace yourself. Oh, right. I'm like, let's get to the next. All right. What's up next here? What are we saying bye American to? You know, Washington is known for making some stellar chardonnays. Chardonnay is a grape that's planted all around the world, but in the right soils and a cool climate, you get a very finesse-driven chardonnay, which is why we're going to Niagara next. Niagara is a premier region for chardonnay. I'm going to get you guys to just dive on into that for me. We actually host the Cool Climate Chardonnay Festival in Niagara. So this is a region that's all in. The wine that I brought is one of my favorites. This is Hidden Benches Chardonnay. It's organic. It's unfiltered. It's from the Beamsville Bench VQA. Now, chardonnay does great on that Beamsville Bench VQA area. It's really higher sloped. It's close to the water. What do you guys think? That's that second sip because it's that good. I know I said pace myself, but this is way too much fun. I brought good wines. You know, it's really hard. It's really quite lovely. It's got a really nice kind of sweet note to it. Right? Yeah. But still very light. Texture, finesse, fruit characteristics. Yeah. Yes. So I get very excited whenever anybody talks about Pinot Noir. It is my absolute favorite wine, and I'm very picky. That's fine. So am I. Okay, good. I'll shift over here. We have some Oregon Pinot Noir that I'm sure you've known. So Oregon makes premier Pinot Noirs because it has this soil called calcareous soil. And if you love wine, that word comes up a lot. Calcareous soil is basically marine-derived soil and has sedimentary rock into it. Same in Burgundy. But we're saying goodbye to that. We're saying bye to that. And hello to Prince Edward County Pinot Noirs. This is the Claussen Chase Churchside Vineyard Pinot Noir. Now, it has a great region for this because this is a finicky grape. Give that a try, by the way. You're going to get a lot of aromatic intensity, lots of delicateness and finesse. It's on a limestone bedrock. It's by the Bay of Quinte. I can see you're smiling. I'm just 10 out of 10. No, 10 out of 10. I usually do Niagara when it comes to Pinot Noir. So I love Prince Edward County. I'm going to look into that. Prince Edward County is great. It's actually kind of warmer than Niagara at different points in the season. You get this really intense humidity there. And it's great for making these Pinots, especially with the soil that we have. Now, I'm going to switch places with you guys. Sorry. And we're going to go over here for our last one. And I'm sure you can guess it's going to be an American Cabernet Sauvignon. Now, if you like American cabs, you have to go to the Okanagan because we have Mission Hills Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon here. And cabs love gravelly soil. They love sitting in the sun. They like great diurnal shift, which is hot days, cool nights. That's what makes a great cab. Isn't that powerful? Yeah, it really is. It's bold. I'm really impressed. Like every single one you have chosen is fantastic. That's because we make fantastic wines. Right, absolutely. And, I mean, this is just a great moment for the entire country's wine industry to shine. It truly, truly is. And I actually have a special addition to the day. So let me grab your Cabernet glasses back from you because, you know, American wines are not really known for having a premier sparkling region. Okay. But we are in Canada. We are known for making some premier sparkling wines out in Nova Scotia. The winery itself is called Benjamin Bridge. I'm just going to place this right over here. This is an amazing winery. Go dive right on in there. It is a uniquely Canadian blend that blends Chardonnay, Avidis Vinifera, European Grape, and Lac de Blanc, which is a hybrid grape. Isn't that amazing? Really good. So I've never had wine from Nova Scotia before. So the reason why this wine is so awesome is actually because of the Bay of Fundy. You cannot find the Bay of Fundy anywhere else. And you know it has that huge shift in terms of tidal waves, tidal waters. That brings air in and out like a giant lung, which really makes for this cool, mineral, salty, amazing wines. All right. Well, listen, to your point, Morgan, these are all amazing. Salt. And, yes, you know what? A great reason to buy Canadian. We've shown you several examples here, Renee. Thank you so much this morning. You're welcome. Appreciate it.