As we all know, the winter of 2024 was devastating for BC Okanagan vineyards, wiping many out completely. Some wineries, like Hester Creek Estate Winery, ventured south to Washington state to provide them with grapes so that they could produce wine for 2024 for us all to enjoy. The Hester Creek Riesling and Rosé Noir 2024 grapes were sourced from the Ancient Lakes AVA of the Columbia Valley. The Rosé wine was made with 100% Pinot Noir grapes.
Riesling and Rosé wines are also recommended to be paired with spicy dishes. Riesling wines, especially if they are slightly off-dry counteracts the burning sensation from chili peppers or spices, softening the heat and making it more pleasant, has racy acidity, which helps cut through rich, oily, or creamy textures (common in spicy dishes), and is lower in alcohol which does not make the spiciness in the dish even more spicy. Rosé wines have fruitiness (typically red fruits) and freshness which complements bold, spicy flavours, plus crisp acidity to cut through the rich, oily, or creamy textures in these dishes.
To check these assertions, besides tasting these wines on their own, I am pairing them with Fiery Chicken Arrabbiata from Sous Chef by Cardinal™. I’ve tried the other dishes by Cardinal Meats and have been impressed by their quality. In particular, I paired their Chicken Tikka Masala, Szechuan Braised Beef, and Marsala Braised Chicken with BC and Ontario wines. You can read about those food and wine pairings at this link. Let me first tell you about the wines and then discuss the pairings.
My Wine Tasting Notes
Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Riesling 2024 (BC $24.99)
Appearance: This wine has a medium-plus intensity, bright lemon-green colour in the glass.
Nose: Medium intensity aromas of juicy tropical fruits, and hints of lime, apricot or peach, and orange with swirling. No change to the aromas after decanting.
Palate: Dry, medium body with medium-plus to pronounced flavours of oranges, tropical fruit, pineapple in particular, peach and citrus. Mouth filling but lean mouthfeel with a strong acidic backbone. Some pepperiness and bramble leaf bitterness. The wine is rounder after decanting, but loses some of the orange flavour.
Finish: Medium-plus length finishing with tropical fruit flavours, some bramble leaf and pepperiness that gets stronger on the finish. With some swirling, you also get oranges on the finish. After decanting, I picked up some peach flavour on the finish.
Overall, a very bright, fresh wine with tropical fruit flavours. No need to decant.
Rating: 
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Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Riesling 2024 shines with a medium-plus lemon-green hue and has inviting aromas of tropical fruit, lime, peach, and a touch of orange. On the palate, this dry, medium-bodied Riesling delivers pronounced flavours of pineapple, orange, and stone fruit, balanced by a lean texture and firm acidity. Swirling introduces bramble leaf bitterness and pepperiness, while decanting softens the wine’s profile, rounding the texture but slightly lowering the orange notes. The finish is medium-plus in length, with tropical fruit, bramble, and pepper spice flavours. With swirling revealing some orange and after decanting, a hint of peach.
Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Rosé Noir 2024 (BC $27.99)
Appearance: A medium intensity, clear, bright wild rose-orange petal colour.
Nose: Light to medium-minus intensity aromas of fresh strawberries primarily and other red fruits to a lesser extent. No change to the aromas after decanting.
Palate: This wine is dry, medium body with a lean mouthfeel. Higher acidity and faint tannins. Medium-plus to pronounced flavours of strawberries mainly, other red fruits, with some bitterness toward the finish. The wine overall has a steely mouthfeel. You get a light acidic prickle on your tongue from this wine. No changes to the palate after decanting.
Finish: A medium-plus length finishing with strawberry flavours and touches of pepperiness and bitterness. A mix of lightly drying tannins and puckering acidity on the finish. No changes to the finish after decanting.
A lighter rosé wine with strong acidity and tart red fruit flavours. No need to decant.
Rating: Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Rosé Noir 2024 offers a clear, bright appearance with a medium intensity wild rose-orange hue in the glass. The nose is subtle, with light aromas of fresh strawberries and hints of other red fruits, showing no change after decanting. On the palate, this dry, medium-bodied rosé delivers pronounced strawberry flavours alongside red fruit accents, carried by high acidity and a lean, steely mouthfeel. Faint tannins, a touch of bitterness, and an acidic prickle add structure and tension. The finish is medium-plus, showing strawberry, pepper, and bitterness, supported by lightly drying tannins and puckering acidity. Decanting did not affect the wine’s character.
My Wine and Food Pairing Notes
The package of the Fiery Chicken Arrabbiata was slightly different from the other dishes I received to review. The other packages came with a separate package of rice. This dish was just the Chicken Arrabbiata. It did not mention on the package to add rice or pasta with the dish. I cooked some penne pasta as Chicken Arrabbiata is traditionally eaten with pasta. The pasta does a good job of lowering the spiciness of this dish. I first tried this dish without the pasta so that I could get the full flavour and spice profile. The chicken came in nice bite-sized chunks. It has a deep tomato flavour, with a very hot, chili spice and black pepper component. I could see red pepper flakes in the sauce along with some flakes of herbs. I am guessing that it is oregano or parsley. No sweetness. Parsley is commonly used with this dish and I had just pulled some parsley from my garden, so I chopped up a few small sprigs and added it to the dish before heating it up to eat. As I mentioned, the pasta lowered the spiciness about by 50%, which is good if you cannot handle much spice in your food. If you cannot handle spicy dishes, I do not recommend buying this dish. Cardinal Meats has several other non-spicy dishes that are better for you.
The salad ingredients were all from my garden, but not part of my tasting notes.
The Riesling wine pairing was excellent. The Riesling offered refreshing fruit flavours and acidity to balance out the flavour and pepperiness of the sauce. It brought the heat down a notch, but was still peppery at the end.
Likewise, the Rosé wine was a very nice pairing. The red fruitiness of the wine plus its acidity balanced out the sauce flavours and spiciness. You cannot go wrong with using either wine with this spicy dish, or probably other spicy dishes you may cook at home.
Where Can I Buy These Wines and the Fiery Chicken Arrabbiata?
Both wines can be purchased at their winery’s website:
- Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Riesling 2024
- Hester Creek Estate Winery Columbia Valley Collection Rosé Noir 2024
The Fiery Chicken Arrabbiata is available through Sobeys, Walmart, and Costco stores.
