Two white wines to resuscitate your sense of a fine summer now past. First, from the Cowichan Valley, where even film director James Cameron has placed his faith in agricultural potential, comes a new pinot gris from a new winery called Blue Grouse. This is not really reminiscent of most Okanagan pinot gris; it is breezy, light on the attack, but with lovely soft melon and lemon notes braced with fine acidity that make it a fantastic first pour of the evening, or an accompaniment to almost any shellfish you can catch, $19. And moving to the Okanagan, where the reinvigorated Red Rooster winery has released its latest gewurztraminer, $18, and it is lovely. Not so much the spicy Alsatian style, but more New World, with generous peach, melon, and apricot notes, wrapped around a nice band of acidity that gives the whole thing balance. We like it really well chilled, and taken on its own, over a conversation about whether Titanic should be taken seriously as a film, or not.
