By Rick VanSickle

CARCROSS, Yukon — There are very few places on the planet, and exactly zero that I would visit, without a) a golf course; and b) wine.

If you're reading this newsletter and have reached the wine section, I know you feel exactly the same way. Travel, golf and wine make for a beautiful thing. We can all be happy anywhere in the world as long we're whacking a ball from A to B and sipping a cool glass of wine when the round is over.

If you search hard enough you will find both golf and wine in the strangest of places.
As a much younger man, I ventured north to the Yukon to attend an alternative school about 100 kilometres south of Whitehorse, Yukon, in the tiny village of Carcross, heavenly set at lake's edge with towering mountains in every direction. Following school I ended up settling for a bit in Whitehorse, the largest Yukon city, and became a cub reporter at the Whitehorse Star daily newspaper.

As a kid I was a junior golfer at the Mississaugua Golf and Country Club, one of the finest tracks in the country, so it was imperative that golf be a part of the Yukon experience even though it was -30C for most of the year with a tiny window of two or three months or so where it was warm enough to get out and play. The only track in the entire Yukon back then was the Annie Lake Golf Course, about 40 minutes outside of Whitehorse.

To call it a golf course is generous. It was really an 18-hole, 4,098-yard, par 66 pasture punctured with gopher holes complete with sand for greens and rubber rain mats for tee boxes. But it was what it was and we would play regularly with our mismatched clubs and bags of balls that disappeared quickly down those rodent holes (no penalty assessed, by the way, for lost balls on the fairway).

During our family vacation this summer to the Yukon, which revolved around a school reunion at the Carcross Community Education Centre, was a chance to revisit the old Annie Lake Golf Course and also conduct a wine education seminar for the alumni of the school, many of whom I hadn't seen for 30 years.

Golf and wine. You can see how it all intertwines no matter where you are.

As we drove our rented RV down the washboard-mottled gravel road to Annie Lake I was expecting real grass greens, grass fairways at the very least, and tee boxes that were more than black rubber-laced mats.

To my amusement, Annie Lake, 30 years later, was EXACTLY the same. A gravel parking lot, empty but for one truck. Tee boxes made from the same mats used in the 70s. Layout the same. Fairways barren, hard and riddled with gopher holes. And greens that weren't greens at all. They were made of sand with a mat nearby to smooth out the sand when you were done putting.

Even the price was the same: $2 on the honour system. Just drop your toonie in the box provided and off you go. The only slight difference was a newly painted sign that read: $2 can buy: a bar of soap, half a beer, a head of lettuce or ... 18 holes of golf!! Please Pay!! Your $2 pays for: student wages, score cards, flags and poles, driving net, T-boxes and more! We Thank You.

What a wonderful surprise. Even with sand greens and gopher holes, golfing in the Yukon was a magical experience set against a backdrop of mountains and certain encounters with all manner of wildlife. And where else in the world can you tee-off at 8 p.m. and get all 18 holes in? Where else in the world do you play winter rules all summer long? And where the heck else on the planet do you shout: "Please sweep the green after you putt out?"

There are now two other beautiful golf courses in the Whitehorse area. Mountain View Golf Club is recognized as Canada's most northern 18-hole championship golf course with grass tee to green. And the newly completed nine-hole course Meadow Lakes Golf and Country Club, nestled in the lush forested hills on the banks of the Yukon River. You can book a tee time as late as 10:30 p.m.

Now, I wasn't expecting much out of wine appreciation session with old school chums who I hadn't seen in decades. The message to them was bring a bottle of wine and we'll discuss each wine over the course of a couple of hours.

I brought a bottle of Jacob's Creek Johann Shiraz Cabernet 2001 ($70 Vintages) that had travelled from the Barossa in Australia, back to Toronto and finally to the Yukon to enjoy with friends.

The rest of the wines that showed up at the tasting spanned the globe — a Processo bubbly from Italy, a Pinot Blanc from Gray Monk in the Okanagan Valley, a lovely rose from France, two or three home brews (one of which was a pleasant surprise made of premium Italian grapes), a "cellared in Canada" wine, which is a blend of Canadian and foreign grapes, one Chilean wine, two Argentinian wines, a blockbuster Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah blend from the Sandhill Small Lots program in the Okanagan and, finally the Jacob's Creek.
One of the many breathtaking views
$2 green fees?
So much wine... so little time!
Jacob's Creek Johann Shiraz
Sandhill Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah

I found it such a blast that if you ask people to simply bring a bottle of their favourite wine, what they are comfortable with, that such a diverse selection of wines, representing many of the world's most famous regions, would turn up to be tasted. Even in the Yukon.

We went through each wine from white, to home brew, to lighter reds and finally the big reds. About 40 people sipped the small samples of wine poured for them and then we discussed each wine. The questions came fast and furious: What is "cellared in Canada?" (Blended wines made from 30% Canadian fruit, and 70% foreign juice). Are screwcaps better than cork? (Yes, in many ways they are). Does the wine glass shape matter? (Yes, it does ... use a wide-mouthed glass for rich red wines, a tulip-shaped glass for crisp whites, something in between for chardonnay and bigger bodied whites and a tall, thin flute for Champagne).

We all learned from the group tasting, including me who has always had a thing against homemade wines but was impressed with the Italian wine Dick Eastmure brought with him. Best of all, it cost well under $10.

Some of the favourites were the Italian sparkler that could take the place of a decent Champagne at half the price, the Carmeneres from Chile were outstanding and represented good value in the rich red category, the Sandhill Cabernet-Syrah blend was a real treat and, finally, the Australian red I brought for the tasting was a big, bold and beautiful wine saturated in thick cherry, blackberry and spicy oak vanilla.

By the time we got around to discussing the Aussie red, however, few people were listening to me. Instead, the wine kicked in, the conversation drifted to anything and everything. The view outside of towering mountains, the smell of fresh, pure air and huskies howling in the distance ... that's what I'll remember whenever I drink those wines again.

Exactly what wine is supposed to do. It brings you back to where you were when you enjoyed it and who was there when you had it.

rickwine@hotmail.com

08/09

 

 

 

 
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