American Week

Nothing like a good book and a good glass of wine, especially when its -20 outside and the fire is roaring inside. Everybody knows this first wine - I've seen it in most Canadian provinces and it's widely available in the US. That means they make tons of it, so how good can such a big production wine be? The J. Lohr, Seven Oaks, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007, Paso Robles has loads of vanilla on the nose. Medium-full bodied, soft, ripe, toasty coconut (?american oak barrels anyone), almost creamy in texture. Much softer than the typical Australian (example: Penfold's) ripper. Blueberry-blackberry mix of fruit. An obvious style but delicious nonetheless, a good analogy would be "comfort food" - no haute cuisine but yummy. 13.5% alcohol - bravo for keeping the EtOH level down! Rating: Good wine, I can't give it a "wow" as it's a little too simple. $20, worth the price.
Now to a much smaller California producer - Joel Gott. His 815 Cabernet Sauvignon, California is a nice dark colour. Nose of fruit compote with something gamey hiding, maybe even sweaty socks. It's not corked, though. Medium bodied but in a lean style, with rhubarb, green pepper and initially a touch of sour candy. Needs food. The next day it seems to thicken up a little, dark plums and black tea make an appearance. An "OK" wine, not a go-to effort. $18 USD.
While shopping for the usual suspects at Costco (1kg bags of chocolate chips and 4kg filet mignons...) I went to pick up 24 cans of mango juice, bringing me by the wine section. Normally I scoot right by this section as the stuff they sell in supermarkets here is what we call "dep" wine - the worst plonk tankered in and bottled (or boxed) in Quebec, then sold for way too much (it's $5 wine but sold for 2-3 times as much). However, there was a big table with about 8 kinds of wine on it, all with similar labels, "Julia" and people were snapping them up. And it was priced from $10-$50. I've never seen a "dep" wine for $50, so this must be something different...turns out these guys zip around the world and buy "small lots" of bulk wine that they think is of high quality, they ship it up here and bottle it locally, giving them the right to sell it outside of our booze monoply, the SAQ. They say they cut out the middlemen and therefore a "$50 bottle can be sold for $25". Right, this story is getting too long....
I picked up the $24, $20 and $14 bottles Cellier 26, 24 and 22, they are all labelled as "new world wine" and "product of the USA" and, suspiciously, ALL are labelled as having 13.9% alcohol (are they all blended from different bulk lots??). No indication of varietal or vintage on the labels.
Lets taste. The Julia, Cellier 26 has a stewed plum nose. Medium red colour, already bricky. Medium bodied with an overwhelming taste of fermenting plums. Almost rotting fruit. It's best asset is a compote-like finish. This is awkward - it tastes like something went seriously wrong with their bulk transport or local bottling; or it was sitting in limbo in some warehouse for too long. They say on the label you can keep this wine for 10 years. Yikes. It's already worn out. What a waste of $24. Booooo.
The Cellier 24 is darker and has a better nose - more complex with some exotic spices...but in the background, there's that stewed plum thing again. Much cleaner palate than the Cellier 26, good acidity, crisp attack. Also medium bodied. Flavours are grape and blackcurrant hard candy. I'll rate this as an "OK" wine, way overpriced at $20. I'm terrified to try the Cellier 22. Thank the Gods I didn't buy their $50 bottle.
OK, good idea guys, but get the funky transport, bottling or blending problem solved.
On that note, Cheers!!

All Italian

Italian week. The above three went head to head. Two are from a Sicilian winery, Calatrasi. Their Terre di Ginestra, Nero d'Avola, 2006 had a cranberry shortbread nose with an easy drinking, medium bodied profile. Sharp and focused but followed up by some warmth and spice, it offers red berries. Good food wine. "OK" overall, not good value for $20. A step up was their "651", Nero d'Avola and Syrah, 2006. Dark wine. Raspberry nose. Medium-full bodied with moderate and well integrated tannins, blackcurrants, spicy, very old world style. Good wine. Still, not good value for $29. Third up was the Villa Cafaggio, Chianti Classico Riserva, 2005. Truffles on the nose. Medium bodied, raw meat, iodine, earth, dried cherries. Crisp and clean though, don't think this is a "dirty" wine. Classic Chianti, good wine and great with food. It was a gift, so can't tell you how much it goes for in Canada; it retails for $20-25 in the US, which is about right.
Later in the week tried a "Gambero Rosso" two glass wine (their scoring scale is one to three glasses), the Poderi del Nespoli, Prugneto, Sangiovese di Romagna, 2007. What the hell does all that mean, you may ask. Well, a poderi is basically a "farm", Prugneto is the vineyard name, and sangiovese di Romagna is the grape type. It refers to the clones of sangiovese grown in the region of Romagna; these clones are generally considered poorer cousins of the noble Tuscan sangiovese used in Chianti and super-Tuscan reds. So, I had mixed expectations - and ended up with mixed feelings about this one. Medium red in colour, sweet whiff of plums, light to medium bodied, nice fruit (cherries and plums). Initial sweet attack but this dries out as it goes down. Juicy finish. Not bad, quaffable. I guess you can say "simple label, simple wine". BTW, you gotta love the simplicity of the label! $14 is too much for this weekday wine.
Cheers!!

Partners In Crime

Ah, this weeks sampling of vino. Good or bad? Lets start with the good. Head to head went the Spanish giant Torres, Grand Coronas, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2005 with the Italian minnow Lamborghini, Trescone, Umbria, 2004. Yup, that Lamborghini - except it's the daughter of the maestro carmaker who runs this winery, not the (now dead) carmaker himself. This was an interesting comparison because it was like six of one, half a dozen of another. The Lambo yielded a nose of pretty floral notes over (not unpleasant) unripened cheese. Medium bodied, elegant, balanced, smooth with cranberries and plums and hints of tobacco. An excellent white meat wine, it went well with a post Christmas turkey scoff (I love turkey dinners!!). Good wine, $19. The Torres was slightly darker and deeper than the Lambo. Plummy nose, medium-full bodied, also well balanced. Mild black fruit supported by smooth, already mature tannins. 30 second finish. Good wine, $19 also.
Right, lets get the Port out of the way, because that's where it belongs. Messias is a minor Port House with a spotty track record, so I shouldn't have been too surprised. Their 2004 LBV is supposedly the "Late Bottled Vintage" style - wine from a poor or relatively poor year is casked in wood for about 4 years instead of the 2 years that wine from a good (a so called "Vintage") year to smooth it out more. The wine is then bottled and sold for immediate consumption. This one is a very sweet style, initially rough and non-descript - it actually tasted like what it is, a cheap fortified wine. The next day it softened, became a little richer with some figgy raisin notes, but still too sweet and rough around the edges. "OK" wine. $16 - I said it was cheap!! Would not buy again.
Alkoomi's 2007 Shiraz from Frankland River in Western Australia is, well I might as well say it right away, not a very good wine. I was very disappointed, as the local Ontario wine critic gave it 4.5 stars out of 5. What the f$@#%!! is wrong with this guy? His palate is driving me nuts. This is light coloured, dusty nose (NO fruit), light to medium bodied, sour cherries, cranberries with a little green veggie action going on. Short finish. This stuff is a struggle to drink. Waste of money at $15. This is a $5.95 wine.
Speaking of cheap wines, the Toronto Life Magazine released their top 10 wine value list recently. I'll report on them as I pick them up and force myself to drink them. First up is the respectable Spanish winery from Yecla, Bodegas Castano. I like these guys and I like visiting this region. Very hot and unpretentious. Their La Casona 2007 Monastrell Old Vines comes conveniently screwcapped. Medium depth on the colour chart. Cherry pie nose. Spicy, soft, good acidity, very quaffable but candied fruit is a drawback. Reasonable finish. "OK" wine (hey, it made the cheapo top 10 list, not the best of the year) and at $8.95 it's reasonably priced. But I won't be buying any more.
Cheers!!

Syrah - Old or New?

This tasting pair up was a disaster. I had a couple of Syrah's that cost about the same, so I thought we'd blind them and see if we preferred Italian style or Californian. It took all of half a second of smelling each to know this was a mismatch. The Coppola, Diamond Collection, Green Label, "Syrah-Shiraz", 2007 smelt of sweet cranberries with a whiff of bubblegum. Medium colour. On the palate it was sugary with an overwhelming Dr. Pepper flavour. Not that there's anything wrong with Dr. Pepper, but I don't want it in a $24 wine. Robbery. This smells and tastes cheap - one notch above home made. Crap wine. If you have any, take it to a college party and leave it in the corner - someone will drink it!
On the other hand, the Tennimenti Luigi D'Alessandro, Cortone, Syrah 2004 had the same medium colour as the Green Label, but a much more interesting nose of Christmas cake. On the palate it was medium bodied and had this total Christmas cake with marzipan thing going on, but with a nice leathery finish. Crisp and bright. Good old style syrah. $23, not exactly good value but not a rip off either.
OK, Mr. movie director Coppola. Shame on you for foisting the Green Label plonk on us for $24. But I know you can do better (your 7 year old Black Label Claret we had last year was yummy). So how does his Diamond Collection, Blue Label, Merlot, 2007 stack up? Nice dark colour with a nose of creamy milk chocolate and cherries. It's looking better already. Medium bodied, a smooth operator, more milky chocolate - perhaps covering dried montmorency cherries. Almost plush with a silky texture. Nothing complex here, just a good, easy sipper. Pricey at $25.
Keeping in California, the Gnarly Head, Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, 2007 comes in flashy packaging, including graphic artwork on the screwcap. Surprisingly light coloured for a head pruned old vine vineyard (head pruned old vines are usually low yielding, meaning they should yield a concentrated wine). The nose and flavour profile is all strawberry Sun-Rype dried fruit bar. Plush, intense, very concentrated, almost sweet tasting fruit. It hovers just above that chasm of fake candy, but the "real fruit" flavours hang tough. "OK" wine, the $15 price is probably also OK if you like the almost sweet style.
Cheers!!

Last Wines of 2009

The new vintage of Clos de los Siete available at the moment is the 2007. This Argentine wine is made from a sort of co-op (with seven [siete] rich partners!) supervised by Michel Rolland, so one expects a ripe, dense, heavily extracted wine. Opaque in the glass, it has a ripe crushed blackcurrant nose. Full bodied, moderately tannic, it has a savoury profile, a little dirty, with figs and some cassis hiding in the background. More subtle than previous vintages, it's not as big as I expected. Yummy though. Good wine. $24. Head to head, it is surpassed easily by the Pascual Toso, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007. Absolutely gorgeous, heady nose. Toffee, raspberry, oak, cassis, but with a nice herbacious edge. Full bodied. Rich and expressive. Wow. $20. Word of caution, though - a second bottle was good, but not as impressive, so there may be some bottle variation.



Arboleda translates as "grove", so I guess this Chilean winery has lots of trees. Their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is classic - one sniff and you know you're dealing with a good Chilean cab. The nose is strong cassis mixed with gamey notes. Full bodied, fruit driven, the very essence of cassis, a little chewy, chocolate and spice notes keep it interesting. A sipping cab, good wine, worth the $19.
(Wine Spectator 88 pts).


The Argentine Chakana, Wiphala, Malbec-Syrah, 2008 is a dark purple, intense, bright fruit driven (plums) wine. Cherries on the nose. Medium bodied, a very drinkable but simple fruit bomb. Good value at $16.






It wasn't all South American wines - this one is from Australia. The Innocent Bystander, Shiraz-Viognier, Victoria, 2006 is dark in the glass, but not inky black. Nose of stewed plum compote. Soft, lush, jammy black black fruit. Hedonistic, it slides down like luxurious grape juice, but falls flat fast. Pleasant enough and a good sipper, but very generic. Koko factor: "nice wine, but nothing distinctive about it."
24 hours later a little beef stock showed up, but still too much like fancy grape-ade to be interesting. Definitively not worth the $24. Nice label though.

Cheers, and I hope everyone had a Happy New Year!!

Cahors - Back on Track?

Cahors is an appellation in the south of France that fell onto hard times this century. It made strong, tannic, unforgiving "black" (deeply coloured) wines made from malbec, which had largely been given up by Bordeaux. Perhaps things are changing for the better, as I sampled two good wines recently, one cheap and the other relativley expensive.
The Chateau Famaey, Cuvee X, 2003 comes from a low yield (2000kg or so/acre) vineyard that uses no chemicals and is made of malbec (95%) and tannat (5%). This could be the best Cahors I have ever tasted. Dark but not opaque. Nose shows dark chocolate, violets and fresh spring mossy notes. On the palate, it's full bodied, rich warm and soft. Fruit is a mix of pomegranates and raisins. Hits all the right notes without being in your face overblown. Tannins are smoothly integrated. Wow. Take that, Bordeaux! $36. BTW, don't waste this wine on pizza!


On the lower end of the scale is the Chateau de Gaudou, Tradition, 2005. This is 80% malbec with a splash of merlot and tannat. This is black. Very interesting nose of exotic spices and dark plums. Full bodied, firm, tannic, dense, wet stone, sharp black fruit. A little rustic. Needs time. Good wine, well worth the $15.






Jacob's Creek is one of those mega wineries from Australia that makes millions of cases per year. They don't get much respect from the snobs, but their South Australia sourced Reserve Shiraz has been surprisingly good for a number of years. The latest version available here is the 2006. It's primary flavour is eucalyptus - lots of it. Peppery with firm, ripe, black fruit and a rather intense blackcurrant finish. The tannins are well hidden in the background. Tastes exactly the same 24 hours later. It's a good wine, but definitely not as good as past vintages. A little too minty for me. $19.
Cheers, and Merry Christmas everyone!!

Strange, Bad and Terrible

Strange - this South African "joke" - the Goats do Roam Wine Company makes tongue-in-cheek fun of the "Cotes du Rhone" appellation in France. This is supposedly one of their best wines, so it is called Goat-Roti (if you don't get it, it stands for Cote-Rotie, one of the premier northern Rhone syrah-based wine appellations. The best Cote-Rotie's go for hundreds of dollars. What I find strange about this wine is that for twenty bucks they think they can compete. This 2004 vintage clocks in at 15% alcohol - and is possibly the lightest 15% wine I have ever tasted. Light berry nose. Medium density, medium bodied, juicy black fruit with dried currants, a little pepper and little else. Fades fast. Tastes unoaked. If you do buy it, decant and wait - the next day some richer dark plum flavours come out. Still, disappointing. Koko factor: "the most uninteresting wine of the week" (as you can see from the photo above, that week was in the summer!). Final rating: OK wine.
One of the prominent Ontario wine critics gave the Pilliteri Estates, 2008 Cabernet-Merlot, Niagara wine a four star rating (out of five). Well, if it cost $2 like two buck chuck, I can see where they are coming from. But it doesn't, it costs $13. Not much, true, but you can buy a nice steak for that money. And I don't believe in rating wines like that...I don't care how much it costs, crap is crap and good is good. OK, so this one has a pretty perfumed, floral nose but it is tainted by candy notes. Light to medium bodied, somewhat sweet but in a cough drop hard candy style, rhubarb and a few strawberries. No green cab franc notes (it's 48% cab franc). No oak (I mention this because they state on the label "the oak balances the body and length of the wine beautifully". Choke....). I wanted to like this Canadian wine, but in the end it is too fake and candyish. Not really enjoyable.
But it is better than the RH Philips, Syrah, 2007 from California. These guys used to make good wine, but appear to have gone down the tubes (I've noticed their "Toasted Head" brand has also gotten worse). They probably buy inferior grapes to ferment (or horror, cheap bulk wine to bottle) and slap their recognized label on it, then laugh all the way to the bank. Horrible fake bubble gum nose on this one - you know, the one that lots of home-made kit wines have. If you hold your nose and don't smell it as you drink it, it is palatable. If you like Welch's grape juice. Soft attack, fake fruit, finishes with candy. Crap wine, waste of $14. Will NEVER buy this brand again. Oh, and very strange - I often freeze wines I don't finish, as it actually preserves them well (just put them in a lukewarm water bath when you want to revive them). This one wouldn't freeze, it stayed liquid. Oh oh...what the hell do they put in it??? Antifreeze?? (and yes, I know ethanol is an "anti-freeze" due to its lower than water freezing point, but in my freezer, most wines less than 15% EtOH will soldify).
Cheers.

Good Stuff

Right on time for the holidays come three winners. Two from the other side of the Atlantic, the third from the other side of the Pacific.
The Spaniard Alejandro Fernandez makes pretty much good wine year in, year out, in the appellation of Ribera del Duero (the same river that flows to the ocean through Portugal as the Douro, famous as the home of Port). Pesquera is one of his vineyards. The Tinto, 2004 has an absolutely gorgeous pungent nose - smoke, mushrooms, earth and moss with hints of dried montmorency cherries. Take a sip - wow! Full bodied, deep, dense but gentle and smooth. Concentrated, meat, ripe dark plums and cedar. Long 30 second finish. $29, note that the vintage available at the SAQ is now 2006. Boy, I love good Spanish wine. BTW, at the recent "private import" tasting salon in Montreal, I had a tasting of the Balbas, Reserva, Rioja, 2001. It is apparently available at the SAQ Signature stores for $45. Expensive, but this was one of the best wines I have tasted in 2009...
From Australia comes the Magpie Estate, The Sack, Barossa Shiraz, 2005. Medium priced and well worth it at $21, it is a burly, full bodied wine. Creamy texture, cola (but not sweet), toffee, coconut - yet the brambly black fruits shine through. Yum. A word of warning though - drink it all up, it thins out by the next day.
Cheers!!

F

Minty Twins

Pillar Box is an Australian Winery that takes its name from the old style postal boxes...note the black slit on the label that corresponds to the slot that you put letters through. What that has to do with wine beats me. Anyways, we blindly tried two of their offerings, the premium black labeled Reserve (50% shiraz, 42% cab, 8% merlot) 2006 and the the mid priced Red labeled 100% shiraz, 2006. It was easy to tell them apart - the Reserve was just more intense than the Red.
The Red comes in at 15% alcohol. Shy nose with a faint whiff of ageing raw meat. Medium full bodied, it has loads of cooked fruit compote - mostly cherry. Firm. Finishes with camphor and eucalyptus, these minty flavours last about 30 seconds. Interesting wine, but awkward and will find few fans. This is tough to match to food. It's "OK", would not buy again ($18).
The Reserve is hot at 16% alcohol. Way too hot. Much nicer, more aromatic nose than the Red with some plums. Full bodied, it hits you with menthol and eucalyptus full bore. Very weird, because this is very unbalanced - the mintiness hides everything else, except the high alcohol. The mint just goes on and on - it's overpowering, meaning it has a huge finish (too bad it's not one you want to savour). Dense wine. Forget about it with food. The next day, after leaving it open for 24 hours and then decanting, and then chilling it down to 12 degrees, it becomes somewhat enjoyable. If you don't have this wine, don't buy it. If you do, put it away for 10 years and hope the mint blows off. $25.
Cheers!!

Turkey?

GSM. Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre. The classic Rhone varietals. The Aussies have hijacked the blend and call it simply "GSM". OK, lets try one out. The Turkey Flat, Butchers Block, Barossa, 2006 is actually SGM, but what the hell. Sniffing intially reveals little, but give it time and faint blackcurrant aromas show. Medium bodied, spicy with sour cherries...not bad you might think, but it they actually taste like those cheap chalky pill sherbet type candies. This is not good. Long finish, but the wrong kind. The tartness makes it hard to match with food, but who knows, maybe try it with turkey. It is not a very enjoyable sipper. Way overpriced at $24. "OK" wine. If you have any, put it away for 5 years and hope the tartness mellows.Bodegas Lurton, Gran Lurton, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendoza, 2005. Boy, these French Lurton brothers are sure full of themselves. "Gran" Lurton? They're that good? On the nose this wine shows black fruit with hints of mint. Medium bodied, round, supple mouthfeel, almost velvety. Silky, easy going tannins coat your teeth. Well balanced. Fruit driven with black and red currants. A very approachable cabernet, well made. Not a knockout, but good wine and OK for the price ($20). Lose the "gran" moniker, guys.
Robert Parker, 91 points. $16. Duh. Buy. The Spanish Las Rocas, Garnacha, 2006 is pure Grenache with a sniff of sweet dried strawberries. Medium-full bodied, pure juicy ripe black fruit drives this wine with a follow-up moderate finish. Generous and enough to keep you interested, but this is no 91 point wine. For 91 points I should be saying "wow" right away, and with this wine I don't. It is a good buy for sixteen bones, though.

Cheers!!

Redemption?

If you look closely at the label on the left, it looks suspiciously like the one I blogged about last week...so you may be wondering, what the heck am I drinking that crap for again? Well, my friendly consultant at the booze shop caught my arm on the way out of his store and said - "You gotta try this stuff. It's the staff favourite". I laughed hard, explaining I had already spat it out in disgust the week before. But on closer inspection, this particular wine is 100% malbec, whereas the previous was a mix of malbec and tempranillo. OK, I'll give the folks who make Fuzion Alta Reserva 2008 another chance...to see if this line of wines is universally bad or if the blend is a one-off effort designed to offload some badly made wine. Faint hints of candy on the nose blows off after a while leaving not much to sniff. The palate is light, dried fruit preserves. It seems to thicken up a bit by the next day but is pretty uninteresting. However, this is actually drinkable, miles better than the Malbec-Tempranillo blend, an "OK" everyday plonk. $10. You get what you pay for here.
We tasted the Fuzion head-to-head blind with the Argento, Reserva Malbec, also from Mendoza and also from the 2008 vintage. Another weak nose, this one has hints of plums. Light, spicy, redcurrants is the taste profile. Not much body, plus it fades fast as it leaves the mouth. Again, nothing wrong with it, it's just not very interesting. Another"OK" wine, it beats out the Fuzion by a hair. $13. You can buy better for the price.
How is California Merlot doing? It's been a while, so we uncorked a couple to try. The Clos du Bois, Sonoma Reserve, Merlot, 2006 is from the Alexander Valley. Medium coloured with a nose of chocolate covered strawberries. Medium bodied, supple, candied maraschino cherries, with some spiciness adding a little complexity. This is "OK", more enjoyable than the two malbecs described above, but worth about half of it's $20 price tag.
The Toasted Head, North Coast, Merlot, 2006 is light-medium ruby coloured with a straightforward nose of red fruit and just hints of oak (if you wait long enough). Medium bodied, bright, sharp, sour cherries and subtle hits of vanilla. A simple, "OK" wine. You hardly notice the effects of "toasting" the heads (ends) of the barrels this wine is named for. Disppointing for $20. Ho-hum. Nice label though:
Cheers!!

Canadian Cedar

Can Canadian wines age? Very good question, there is little track record here. Several years ago we visited the Cedar Creek Winery in the Okanagan Valley of BC and were impressed with their Platinum Reserve series of wines. I brought several bottles back with me and thought it was time to check their development. The 2002 Merlot has a nice opaque purple colour. It is initially closed but after a 2 hour decant, plums mixed with cranberries come out. On the palate, in this stage of its development, I could mistake this wine for a Bordeaux (? is this a compliment - depends on your point of view). Well balanced, spritely and crunchy, beets and cranberries with a tart apple acidity thing going on. Overall more on the green side than fruity. So how's it ageing? It's lost its initial fruit driven mellow hedonistic side that was evident 3 years ago. But it's showing enough that it's worth waiting to see what happens in another few years. The verdict is still in the air... For value, this is a tough sell at $40.
Right. Now for a look at a marketing phenomenom. The best selling red wine in Ontario and a best seller in several other provinces is an Argentine wine simply known as "Fuzion". It costs about 8 bucks and when I last tried it a few years ago was actually quite drinkable. It looks like it was so successful that they decided to bottle a "premium" version for 3 bucks more. I thought I would compare this nicely packaged wine to a classic Argentine mid-priced wine to see how it stacked up. Well it took all of one second to realize this was a mismatch. The Fuzion, Alta, Malbec-Tempranillo, Reserva, 2008 is a dud. See-through wine in the glass. It smells like dubble bubble. One taste and I quickly spat it out. Cheap candy and gum. Totally fake wine. How do they get away with this? How dare they put "alta" (translation: "high") and "reserva" on the label? Who buys it? I returned it and got my money back. They can market this crap to someone else. Shame on you, famiglia Zuccardi.
OK, how's the other wine? Pretty good it turns out. The Bianchi, Malbec, 2007 is from San Rafael, about 200km south of Mendoza city. Dense purple colour, raw beef nose. A rustic full bodied wine - the tannins rough up the mouth a little bit. Pomegranate fruit. I have no problem drinking this or paying $17 for it.

Cheers!!

Aging Huts

Can Australian wines age well? Many worry that they may not age as well as European wines with a long track record for cellaring (except for the really high end stuff like Penfold's Grange). I had some mid priced Aussie juice from the same vineyard from three different years - 1998, 2002 and 2007 - so I rousted up 3 other tasters and we gave the wines a whirl.
The producer is Richard Hamilton and the wines are made from Cabernet Sauvignon from the "Hut Block", so called because the vines grow around a long-standing grape pickers hut. These wines had a remarkably similar style despite the vintage differences, but 3 of the 4 tasters were able to correctly identify them. The 1998 still had a nice blackcurrant nose leading to a medium full bodied wine with nice fruit still evident. This is aging well and still has a few years left in it, although it is a lot mellower than it was in 2000 (it was a "big" wine back then). The 2002 is a little earthier as well as having more intense fruit, and adding some crisp green pepper flavours. The 2007 is much like the 2002, just "fresher". All in all, hats off to the producer for keeping the wine true to style, and making it age-worthy for at least the medium term. Good wines, worth the $19 (interestingly, the retail price has stayed the same through the years as well...). I just wonder why they keep redesigning the labels...I think the oldest one is the classiest. This wine now comes with a screwtop.
Speaking of closures, the next wine we tried has an interesting "cork". It's soft plastic that you "peel" off (see the picture), leaving a rubber like re-useable stopper. Very neat, I like the simplicity (easier to open than a screwtop, and easily re-sealable). Too bad the wine was not very good. The Leese-Fitch, California Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 looks classy - but it is wine without terroir - reading the label, there's no clue as to what part of California the grapes came from (there are allusions to both Sonoma and NAPA on it, but I doubt the wine actually comes from either of these appelations). Stewed plums on the nose. On the palate, a lean style, here come the fermenting plum flavours (the kind you would spit out if you bit into one). Then the wine just dies off. No complexity here. No hint of time spent in a barrel. "OK" wine, way overpriced at $18.

Cheers!!

Lotus, Ique and Vacque...

This has to be one of the most original bottle labels I have come across....a very striking mix of local features and people in B&W spanning the circumference of the bottle (click on the photo to better see it) . Unfortunately the winery it comes from has a crappy little shack of a tasting room that is sooo ugly and tackily signposted that most people are probably afraid to stop by. Too bad. These guys, Lotusland, make tiny batches of varietals such as Ortega, Zweigelt, Cabernet and Pinot Noir in the Fraser Valley of BC where new wineries pop up every year. I was impressed with their Pinot Noir, 2002, probably because it uses dollops of oak to add some meat to the wine. Beautiful oaky nose - you PN purists will NOT like this wine as the soft, warm oak overpowers the palate. Chewy, but there is some bright fruit. Pretty long (oaky) finish. I like this - it's "good", and damn good for a red sourced from Fraser Valley fruit. $22. Stop in and have a taste next time you drive by.



Vacqueras is a village appelation in the Cotes-du-Rhone. The Montirius, Le Clos, 2004 is a 50-50 mix of Grenache and Syrah that is organically farmed. Initially quite closed - all minerally and graphite, it needs a good decant for a few hours to freshen up. It retains the lean, tannic frame but some nice brambly fruit shows up, laced with an iodine like tinge. Nice 30 second finish, this was a good foil for a turkey leg and portobello mushroom stuffing. Good wine. $22, worth the admission price if you like this old world style.

Enrique Foster of Mendoza dabbles only in Malbec. The Ique, 2007, is a black wine with blackcurrant and pomegranate nose. Medium bodied, classic malbec - more of the same fruit follows on the palate plus a little raw meat. No oak evident. Nice long finish. Good food wine, also went very well with turkey. Gobble gobble. $20.
Cheers!!

Moving Up

When you move up from $15 to $25 a bottle, you expect a lot more out of your wine. I like it when it makes me say "wow"...
Robert Parker gave the Chateau Saint-Roch, Chimeres, 2006 an outstanding score for a wine from the southeast area of France - 92 points. So when I saw it for $25, I picked a bottle up to take for dinner at my sister in law's, she loves French wines and hates new world stuff. This is a black wine, full bodied and austere in style. Graphite, tobacco, not much fruit showing, it's a Bordeaux mimic. Needs time. I'd call it "good", maybe in 5 years or so it'll open up, so don't buy it unless you can lay it down for a while.

On to the new world. The Jackson Triggs, Okanagan Estate, Proprieters Grand Reserve, Shiraz, 2006 apparently was awarded Silver, best in class, at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London and Double Gold, Best of Nation, at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. So for $28 I thought this may be a "wow". Let this one decant for a while - initially it has a candy like nose that thankfully blows off to red berries. It's vibrant, spicy, medium bodied with cherries and redcurrants and a bit of white pepper. A bit light for a shiraz in my opinion. There is a short blast of tannins that quickly fade off. Out of it's league compared with good Aussie and Argentine shiraz. Good, but not worth the $28 (would be an interesting buy at maybe $18).

I had high hopes for the McLaren Vale Australian Gemtree, Uncut Shiraz, 2007. The 2006 was phenomenal for the money - $25. The 2007 is simply not as good, although I still like it and think it's worth considering for the price. Warm, toasty, toffee nose. Soft and caressing mouthfeel, not complex, not a palate wacker, lots of deep red fruit, it's a smooth sipper. It's definitley more my style than the Triggs.

OK, I digress from the $25 wines to talk about yet another $15 winner. This one's from Chile - the Undurraga, Sibaris, Carmenere, Reserva Especial, 2007. Opaque black, this is concentrated stuff. Full bodied, rich style. Very spicy, black olives (the canned pitted kind, not kalamata), boiled beetroot - it could easily pass for merlot (which the Chileans thought this grape type was for years...). No oak evident. New world in-your-face-style..."good" wine for those who like the style, overbearing for those who don't.

Cheers.....

Chileans

Continuing with the fifteen buck theme are a Chilean family - the Santa Carolina Barrica Selection series. I guess they age these in some sort of barrel, probably a large (old) one at that ("Barrica" roughly translates to the Bordeaux style barrel, but the term can be used more generically). They come in at $14.95 each. Their Carmenere, 2006 has an intense cassis nose. The palate is more disappointing - it is a medium bodied, non-descript fruit driven wine showing raspberries and cranberries. An OK wine.
Better is the Petit Verdot, 2006. Dates and blackberries greet a sniff. Vibrant, intense blackcurrant taste, almost tart. Very nice. A good wine.
Best of the bunch is the Syrah, 2006. The leathery nose is promising. Medium-full bodied with juicy blackberries and smooth tannins in the background. Kind of mid-way between an old world/new world syrah. Good wine, a winner for this price...
Cheers!!

15 Buck Stuff Continued....

Might as well continue with the fifteen buck wines...I had high hopes for the Portuguese Crasto, Douro, 2007. Made from Port grape varietals it comes from a winery that placed an "old vines" wine on the top 100 list for the Wine Spectator last year. Looks like they blew all their good grapes on that wine...this one is just not very good. Medium bodied, sharp, crisp, almost tart red fruit. A little soapy. No finish. Very average. An "OK" wine, should cost half of the $15 it cost.
The next wine is highway robbery. Unusual for this winery - Rutini Wines, Trumpeter, Reserve Tempranillo, 2007 is the culprit in question. Perhaps it is because they are trying to make tempranillo in a place they shouldn't - in Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina? Anyway, this is thin, tart, almost sour - cranberries at best, sour hard candy at worst. So much so it makes you salivate (to protect your mouth, not in anticipation of anything good by golly!!). No pleasure in this. Reserve they say? Crap wine I say. Should be reserved for cleaning your sink. Stay away, not even worth 5 bucks never mind fifteen.

Unfortunately the parade of losers continues. This one is usually good, so another oddity here. Symington's Altano, Douro, 2007
has that initial cheap candy smell that I hate, later some cherries join in. On the palate you initially get a huge blast of white pepper. Medium bodied but almost lean. Cherry fruit but again too candyish. An "OK" wine. This is worlds apart from the Setencostas we had last week, it's only saving grace is that it costs 2 bucks less at $13.









Cheers!! Lets hope we taste something better soon...

Fifteen Buck shootout

$15 is an interesting price point for a wine. Less than that, and usually (with some notable exceptions) you get crap. More than that, you expect (but may not get) good stuff. So $15 is a "respectable" starting point for shopping.
I picked up three wines at fifteen a pop and we had them one night after another, so I got to compare them.
#3: The Spanish Montgo, Monastrell-Shiraz, 2004, Yecla has a nice deep burgundy colour. Medium bodied, spicy, a little beef stock mixed in with dark red gum drops and Welch's grape juice. Easy drinking but ultimatley too candyish to be a top notch wine. Tries hard though...it's OK.
#2: From Chile Tarapaca makes a wine from a single vineyard, La Cuesta, a blend of Cab Sauvignon and Syrah. The 2007 has a very strong berry nose, primarily elderberries. This is worth the $15 price alone. Medium-full bodied, intense fruit, very new world style. Red berries and cherries on the palate. The tannins are present but easy to handle. Good wine.
#1: From Portugul comes the winner - Quinta das Sentencostas, Alenquer, 2007. No musty old Portuguese plonk here. This is crisp, fruity (blueberry-blackberry), classy with a long finish. Well done. Good stuff.

Fall is here now - damn!! The leaves are nice but winters coming now...no more long lazy days out on the balcony sipping vino. Like this one. The Argentyine Navarro Correas, Gran Reserva, Malbec 2005 is worth the extra 5 bucks compared to the above three efforts. This could be the smoothest malbec I have every had the pleasure of tasting. Fresh beef and raspberry nose. Juicy redcurrants and pomegranate. There are tannins, but they're very silky. This is such a far cry from French malbec from Cahors.
$20 and they can still put this stuff in NEW French oak casks for 18 months...Wow.

Cheers!!

King of the Hill

The Vina Cobos, Bramare, Lujan de Cuyo, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 sets the record for me - it states 14.9% alcohol on the front label but there's an added on sticker on the back that states "16.7% alcohol by volume". This has been plastered on by the LCBO, which tests each of the wines it sells for content (to make sure no-one is posioning the good(?) citizens of Ontario with turpentine or Polonium or something else). Wow. That's high for a wine. King of the Hill. So high the winery doesn't want to advertise it, so they go with "14.9"...kinda like the 99 cent theory.
Yea, but what does it taste like? Pretty darn good it turns out. This is my kind of stuff. Full bodied palate wacker. Rich almost port-like (no kidding!!) in intensity but dry. Cedar, tar, bitter chocolate, prunes, caribbean fruit cake. Long finish. WOW. $39 but you know what, try and find French wine this good for this price.

Right, and now for something completely different. Remo Farina's Montecorna, Valpolicella Ripasso, 2004. Sour cherry nose, medium bodied and very spicy, almost tart. Great acidity for cutting through fatty smoky ribs. Cranberry and Dr. Pepper flavour profile. Good wine. Can't remember, but I think it cost about $20. BTW, Ripasso is a technique where the Venetians take the lees from an Amarone fermentation and referment simpler Valpolicella with this crap, this strengthens the flavour and boosts the alcohol content of the final product. Why not? it's like recycling.

Oooh-hooo...now for a real treat. You gotta love having a cellar (even if it is a garage). I bought this baby for $19.99 back in 1989 in Philadelphia. You can't find it retail anymore. The Burmester, Vintage Port, 1985 has turned maroon translucent. Slight toffee nose. Syrupy, warm mouth coating texture, very supple and hedonistic feeling. The tannins have smoothed right out (this stuff would have been fire water back in '89). Far from cloying, it is luciously sweet with figs and raisin flavours. Just sit back and slowly devour it....Wow. So, all you lurkers out there, go buy some vintage port from a recent vintage and sit on it for 20 years. You won't be disappointed.
Now here's a rarity - wine from Brazil. I thank Eric for finding this and bringing it to try. The Miolo, Quinta do Seival, Castas Portuguesas, 2005 is more than a novelty. Nice dark purple colour. Not much on the nose. Very old world taste - stewed plums with some earthy portobello mushroom undertones. Medium bodied, some meaty tannins. This is close to being good...a little overpriced at $21 perhaps...you can buy similar wine from the former Brazilian colonialist overlords (ie. Portugal) for cheaper.








Cheers from the last grasshoppers of the summer!!

Bush Wine of the Week

OK, just because one is in the middle of nowhere is no reason not to be able to enjoy a good glass of wine. Or, in this case, a plastic cup!
Thankfully the wine industry is packaging more and more of it's offerings in so-called "eco-friendly" boxes, tetrapacks, aluminum containers and plastic bottles that make a sojourn in the "bush" more palatable. So I picked up a few to try out...
I'll rate them simply on a 0-10 scale, as I didn't take detailed tasting notes and, to tell you the truth, wine simply tastes better in the bush, so I don't want to mislead anyone who is used to my normal ratings.
OK, lets start with the crap. The Bistro Mundo series is a mundane string of mostly non-vintage, non-varietal labelled wines shipped in large containers to Quebec and then "bottled" here in tetra-paks. The Argentine effort is marginally better than the Spanish and gets a 4/10. The Spanish gets 3/10. Stay away from this series of wines, far away. There's much better ways to spend your $10 than this plonk. By the way, that's "Bens" DEET in the other container on the barrel lid...its for repelling mosquitoes and blackflies...don't even think of drinking that!!
Right, still on the crap side of the scale is the cutely named and "organic" Ciao, Sangiovese, Italy, no vintage. Tolerable, it gets a 5/10. Disappointing considering that for the same price, Farnese and Citra, amongst others, bottles much better Sangiovese. $12.70 for a litre.
Now its getting interesting. The purple packaged Three Thieves, Bandit, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 is generically from California. It has a silver "most wanted" logo stamped onto it's label. Well, its definitely not most wanted, but it is drinkable. Actually tasted suprisingly OK. 6/10. $10.95.
Not much seperates the next two wines. The Turning Leaf, Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 is from the California Gallo line of wines. This is actually good wine, 7/10. The bargain of the week at only $9.95, again for a litre (all these eco-packages seem to be a litre - they say that the ligher overall package (wine and box/plastic bottle) weighs so much less than the glass bottle full of wine that the money they save on transport is passed on to us as 250 cc more wine...yada yada yada...
Now this stuff marks the transition - this is "proper" wine but in the new packaging. The Banrock Station, Shiraz, 2007 from Australia is good. A pleasure in the wilderness. 8/10. $13.75.

And now, the winner, by a landslide....BUSHWINE OF THE WEEK!!! Silver Leaf, Shiraz, 2007 from SE Australia. Full bodied, plush, oaky - a blunt instrument maybe, but reminds me of civilization. Boy, I could almost be back at home sitting in an easy chair sippin' this stuff. 9/10. $14.
Cheers!!!