The Crush

Ridge and a Surprise

2011-12-27T21:12:00.007-05:00

Ridge is one of my favourite California wineries. One of the best Cabs I have had came from their Monte Bello vineyard in the Santa Cruz mountains. But they are perhaps better known for a whole slew of single vineyard Zinfandels. To go with these wood-grilled T-bones we opened a 2003 Pagani Ranch Zinfandel.
It is actually 90% zin with the rest petite sirah and alicante bouschet. This is a mature heavy hitter, coming in at a not shy 15.3% alcohol whose heat can be felt on tasting. Shy nose. On the palate there are prunes and dried figs, earthy but still refreshing enough when paired with the big fat smokey T-bones. Nice to see a zin that can age a little. Good wine. $30-40 in the US for a more current vintage.
What on earth is this concoction you may ask? It makes a good story - my youngest brother used to dabble at winemaking in his previous life. He made plum wine from the plum tree in his backyard and pear wine from the pear tree in our parents backyard. The plum wine actually won a medal at a country fair, but I preferred the pear one - it actually tasted of pears, with a clean palate that belayed it's rather amateur upbringing. At one point he decided to try making "port" - from fresh grape concentrate meant for winemaking. To boost sugar content he chaptalized with either maple syrup or mashed bananas (the local depanneur was throwing out a whole bunch of overripe bananas). The must was fortified with cheap Mexican brandy that we had brought home after a trip through the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan. How did it turn out? pretty darn good considering the wines humble beginnings. And the damn stuff got better with time!
On Christmas day I was making gravy for the turkey and stumbled across a bottle in my vinegar and condiment area - it was an old bottle of the "port" with about a glassful of brown liquid in it that I had forgotten about...hmmm....probably vinegar by now I thought. Smells OK though. Should I try it? Why not. A little sip revealed no horrid surprises. A mouthful revealed a treat - this stuff had turned into a fine tawny. Lusciously sweet still, with raisins, figs, treacle pudding...wow! Too bad it was all gone in a matter of minutes. Just got back from a Boxing day dinner at Joe and Lianne's. Always a wine treat - we sampled St Supery Elu, Torres Mas La Plana cab, Luca Nico Malbec, Kacaba Niagara merlot, Caymus special select cab and my favourite, the Paul Hobbs 2006 Napa cab. And then he opened a 1980 Dow and a 1985 Smith Woodhouse. WOW!! Best wine night of the year.
Cheers!!

Rubber Chicken

2011-12-16T23:50:00.006-05:00

Ever try any Long Island wines? Long where you say? North Fork, Long Island, New York state to be exact. This peninsula is surrounded by water (Atlantic on one side, a bay on the other) which moderates the winter chill. Castello di Borghese has the oldest vines in the region, so this winery should show us what the area is capable of. Their 2009 Chardonnay has a Meyer lemon, butter nose. It is vivacious, bright and citrusy with floral accents, driven by really nice acidity. Very clean, medium bodied, so easy to drink. Let it come it come up to 8 - 10 deg. Celsius or so to show off it's flavours. This is pretty good wine. Can't wait to tour the region and see what they can do with their reds as well. $17 at the winery, and worth it.
Dang. Missed it by a year. Happens all the time, I read about a highly rated wine, then when in the wine shop needing a bottle I spot the label but don't remember the vintage that earned the accolade. So I buy it anyway and hope it's the "right" year. The Ruffino, Modus, Toscana is a blend of Sangiovese (50%) and equal parts Cab S. and Merlot (25% each). The 2007 scored a soaring 96 points in the WS, enough for me to keep my eye out for it. Too bad I had picked up a bottle of the 2006. Meaty nose. Very Italian tasting - dirty, smokey, burnt fruit. Wood is well integrated. Complex and harmonius, but you'd better like old world wines if you try this on. Classy wine, good, but at $30, would not buy this vintage again. Gotta keep looking for the 2007!
ps the rubber chicken (the orange thingy in the bread) is a meat thermometer for turkeys...thanks Nancy!
Cheers!

Unfair

2011-12-07T20:24:00.007-05:00

The latest Wine Spectator top 100 list is out...and coming in at #58 is the Bodega Catena Zapata, Malbec, 2009. It is readily available where I live, so naturally I went out to buy some to try. And on reading the WS tasting note, I recommended it to a friend before actually trying it...?mistake or savoir faire?
Well, yes, it is a flashy, new world wine but really, there's not much too it. It did improve with time - it was a lot better the next day, but where in the world was the richness, the plum pudding, the fig paste, the layers of flavour that the experts are talking about? A "good" wine at a stretch, but a top 100 wine should be a "wow". And my buddy, to whom I recommended the wine to sight unseen, was pretty cheesed off. His bottle was "crap" - he and his wife left most of it on the table in the restaurant they were at, he found it so uninspiring. Worse still he berated me in the changing room at hockey as soon as I walked in. Very embarrassing Mr. Molesworth. The only defense you can have is that, with at least 75,000 cases imported into the USA (meaning there were at least a million bottles made), there is a lot of bottle variation. Very disappointing, this could have been a "must buy" at $21 if it came as advertised. Beware.

At least Malbec was vindicated the same weekend - but courtesy of France. The Clos Triguedina, Prince Probus, 2000 from Cahors is also 100% malbec. But what a difference! A beautiful, full bodied, structured, classy wine. Dark but not inky black, this is what Bordeaux should be but often isn't at this price point. Nicely tannic, this would cut right through steak. Muted black fruits, chewy with some licks of vanilla. $30. Wow.
Camembert veggie pizza from the brick oven...mmmm good. Cheers!!

Smokin' Partners

2011-11-27T21:10:00.005-05:00

Mencia is an uncommon grape from the little known (in North America) appellation of Bierzo in Spain. When I saw a review for the Pittacum, Mencia, 2006 in the WS recommending it as a smart buy (coz I like smart buys) scoring 92 pts, I had to give it a whirl. "Toasty, smokey aromas" they said. And since I was smoking a turkey for american thanksgiving (any excuse for a turkey, eh?) I thought it might be a match. Well I didn't get any smokey aromas - more like meaty cherry. On the palate, without decanting, it was rather weak and uneventful. After 2 hours of breathing it opened up to a thicker, medium bodied wine. "Deep, focused black cherry, mineral, licorice and mountain herb" they said. Mmmm. More like cola with slightly stewed black fruit and prunes. I don't disagree with the herb comment but they are definitely in the background. Good wine in the end, chuggable and food friendly, but too forgettable to score 92 points. It is worth the $19 though.

For only $3 more a much more satisfying wine (although not as food friendly) is the Magpie Estate, The Sack, 2005 Barossa Shiraz. This is the real deal - full bodied, opaque, dense, chewy, black fruit compote, hint of menthol. Drink up though, it's on the downside of it's life - you get the feeling the fruit is stewing slowly and losing it's freshness. Close to a "wow" wine, probably was 2 years ago.
Cheers!!
ps here is the smoked beast:

Brash Marketing

2010-05-02T15:35:00.007-04:00

Woaaah...this label is so brash you almost need sunglasses to tone it down. Washington state's The Magnificent Wine Company's labels are all similar to this one, and certainly catch the eye, but is it a marketing hoax or is the wine any good? Well, the Pinot Noir, Columbia Valley 2006 is actually pretty darn good. Stinky old barnyard nose. Light to medium bodied, very smooth, burnt cherry fruit with a herbaceous edge and nice loooong finish. Great sipper. Wow. Not cheap up here at about $30, but if you like pinot, it's worth a whirl.
A different marketing ploy is adding a tag to the wine touting it's media merits - such as with the Delas, St.Esprit, Cotes du Rhone, 2007. The 2005-2007 Rhone vintages have been quite good, even the lower level generic wines are very drinkable. Robert Parker seems to have liked this wine back in 2008 giving it his magical "90" score, and the producer is not shy to show this mark off. The wine is somewhat light in the glass (7/10), and has a quite strong white chalk board nose. Medium bodied, strawberries, pepper and a little spice. It's a pleasant wine, but with no real structure, no appreciable tannins and a poor finish. "OK" wine, not worth seeking out. $18. Lose the tag, guys.

The Elderton, Ode to Lorraine, Barossa, 2006 is surprisingly light in colour (8/10) for a Barossa wine. Medium-full bodied, it is on the elegant side - no big joosy fruit bomb here. Could almost be mistaken for a new style Bordeaux. Balanced with very easy to handle tannins, as it airs out there are hints of caramilk smoothness. Good dinner wine. Not quite a "wow", but close. $40 is a bit steep for this wine.
Cheers!!

More Mendoza

2010-04-10T21:06:00.009-04:00

Continuing my visits to Uco Valley vineyards brings me to Altus, just outside the town of Tupungato (which itself is shadowed by the 22,000 foot Tupungato volcano). Tempranillo? the Argentines do well with French malbec and cabernet, Italian bonarda, so I thought why not Spanish tempranillo?. The Altus, Tempranillo, 2006 comes from a 1200 meter vineyard of 25 year old plants. Unfortunately the bottle I got had a strong sulfur nose (more fart than match-strike). Thankfully it tastes better, but I still left it for the next day as that nose was really off-putting. The next day the sulfur had largely blown off, leaving a meaty, plummy dark full bodied wine that still had a little funkiness going on. It scores as an "OK" wine, but maybe I got a bad bottle. 38 pesos.
Closer to the Uco town of Tunuyan is a beautiful little lodge called Postales del Plata. They even have a little 6 year old 5 acre malbec vineyard on the property, so when you have dinner there, it seems only right to drink their wine. You probably won't see it anywhere else anyway! Their 2007 Malbec has a spiced, floral, blueberry nose. Medium bodied, bright boysenberry and pomegranate, good bite and a fair finish - this is a good boutique wine (5,000 bottles/year) and you can see how a small, well run property can pump out good wine at a fair price in this region. 40 pesos.

Further up north in the Province of Mendoza comes the Altavista, Premium Malbec, 2007. A dark wine with blackberries and blueberries on the nose. Full bodied yet very approachable - slick, smooth, red and blue fruits, no hard edges, well made. Excellent with Bife Chorizo (a monster 3 inch thick grass fed beef steak from the pampas). 44 pesos/half bottle.
I finished this little trip sitting on the sidewalk terrasse in the downtown Mendoza restaurant La Florencia eating the best ribs I have ever had - charcoal grilled, meaty and tasty, and the Argentines put no gloopy syrupy sauce on these babies - they don't need anything else! The wine I was matched with was the Finca La Linda, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008. Only 6/10 for colour (this was the lightest wine of the week) it was a more elegant style of new world wine. Raw beef and crushed blueberry nose, it was medium bodied, spice driven with subtle blackberries. Very smooth and polished, but lacked tannic strength and that robustness I was looking for to chew through the pork ribs. A good lunch wine, though. 38 pesos/half bottle.
Cheers!!

Mendoza

2010-04-01T22:29:00.005-04:00

Ahhh, harvest time. Ripe, sweet, fat malbec grapes. Nothing is better than tasting the grapes in the hot sun gazing at the Andes, and then eating a succulent bife chorizo at an outdoor table either at the winery or at a local restaurant.
Trapiche, seleccion roble, Syrah, 2007 has a warm, slightly oaky nose with some caramel. Medium-full bodied, very accessible, definitely oaked, the fruit is hiding but it sings paired with a juicy steak. Good wine, but not for the "oak monster" haters. 41 pesos/500ml (that's about $12) in the restaurant Winery. Total cost for a great meal, a glass of white Torrontes and the bottle of red wine was $30. That's a wow.
Bodega Giaquinta is just outside Tupungato in the Uco Valley. In local restaurants a few kilometers from the winery I tried their higher end and lower end malbecs. The lower end generic Malbec, 2007 costs 28 pesos, clocks in at 14% alcohol and is dark, opaque purple. Very ripe, almost sweet plums, very fruity, so dense it was close to being a dessert wine. Not the best dinner wine, more of a sipper, but would make a killer house wine for the price. This is way better than most cheap wines available up in Canada. No fakeness here, just an authentic, honest wine.
The most expensive wine in the restaurant was the Giaquinta, FG Malbec Roble 2004 at 58 pesos. Only 3000 bottles of this wine were made, so I don't expect to see this outside Mendoza. Vanilla and cedar nose. Medium bodied, gorgeous wine, smooth and very slick, fantastic blend of oak and blackberry fruit. This could be from Bordeaux (except for the price!). Wow.
Below is the view when you're stuck behind a truck full of grapes heading for the bodega in Lujan....Cheers!!

Southern Prelude

2010-03-23T12:48:00.003-04:00

Montes is one of the largest Chilean wineries. One of its flagship wines was a recent Wine Spectator wine of the year, so when I saw its new releases available I snapped a few up. The Limited Selection, Cabernet-Carmenere, 2008 is medium red in colour. The nose is plums, spice and grape flavoured gum. Medium bodied, relaxed laid back style, low frequency flavours of very ripe plums layered with English custard. The flavours hang in there for a full 30 seconds. The drawback: it’s not very complex. Still, it’s a good wine, and would be good to serve at a dinner party before eating – and at this price ($15) you can splurge on several bottles without breaking the bank.

A clear step up is the Alpha, Carmenere, 2007. Carmenere is becoming the signature grape of Chile. Heavens knows, nobody else grows as much as they do. This one has 8/10 in colour depth. Subtle nose of spice, oak, plum. Medium bodied palate, on the elegant side with a wonderful balance of fruit and oak. Very pretty wine, this does not taste new world at all – if I was tasting this blind I would say its from Rioja or a good Chianti. So much more complex than the Limited Selection. The first sip screamed “wow”, so this is a bargain at $20. Buy it by the case.

Right, lets hop over the Andes a couple of hundred kilometers and check out the signature grape of Argentina, Malbec. La Posta, Angel Palucci Vineyard, 2007 sports nectar, made from 35 year old malbec vines, that scored 90 points in Wine Spectator. It has a funky nose reminiscent of Chinese food – you know, the takeout chicken fried rice etc. Medium bodied, spicy, juicy with boysenberries and pomegranates, with a hoisin sauce bubbling in the background. Smooth wine, silky texture, glides down nice and easy. Good wine, worth the $16.

Cheers!

Fooled

2010-03-11T20:48:00.006-05:00

Ya gotta love blind tastings - takes all the bias out of opinions. Case in point - two Italian wines, one costs 10 bucks, the other $25. Quite the difference, cheapo vs. respectable, no contest? Think again. The Pelissero, Piani, Barbera d'Alba, 2006 is from the northern Piedmont region near the French border and aspires to be respectable. Medium depth maroon colour with a slight already bricky edge. Nose of mixed cassis and truffles. Medium bodied, elegant style, the flavours intensify as you swirl it around your mouth. The fruit is ripe cherry and redcurrants. Sharp and focused, made for food such as veal and pork. It's OK, good even, but grossly overpriced at $25.
Now for the surprise - the Farnese, Casale Vecchio, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, 2008 is from the quite proletariat appelation of Abruzzi to the right of Rome. I have extolled the virtues of these wines for a while now - they are simply unbeatable for value if you like old world wines. The colour of this wine is worth the price of admission alone. Opaque purple - it blackens your tongue and teeth. On the nose there is spice and beef bouillon. Full bodied, take no prisoners palate, this is dense, super-dry and puckering with dusty tannins. Austere and mineral-like (think about licking a slab of granite). Black cherry fruit lingers but in the background. It really needs food - a honking ribsteak would fit the bill. Unbelievable for the money, $10, but stay away if you're a new world wine guy.To support the poor Chileans, rocked by a honker of an earthquake recently, I had to open one of their wines. Did you see the pictures of the damage to the cellars in affected regions? Sstacks, nay, mountains of previously full but now broken bottles that were stored in warehouses. Ugh. At least the vines themselves weren't harmed. The Vina La Rosa, La Capitana, Cachapoal, Shiraz 2008 is truly a shiraz. Dark purple with a rich cassis nose that leaps out of the glass. Fruit bomb deluxe with lush, ripe black plums. Problem is there's no underlying structure or complexity...but then again, it's so easy drinking you just want to keep filling your glass. This is made for quaffing. $17, good wine if you like the style.
Cheers!!

Angels and Visions

2010-03-03T20:34:00.007-05:00

What's better than steaming, freshly roasted coffee beans that are immediately ground and drunk? Two Hands, Angel's Share, Shiraz 2008, that's what. Nice deep dark purple colour with a nose of strawberries, vanilla and toasted coconut. Medium bodied, seductive, luscious style - not a typical Oz sledgehammer. Smooth as silk, delicious and irresistible with almost sweet redcurrant fruit and milk chocolate supported by beautiful soft oak. Wow. For $28 buy a case, if it was $20 I'd buy it all.
A bit cheaper is the Cono Sur, Vision, Syrah 2007 from Chile. Dark purple also, this is a full bodied, dense, chewy concentrated wine, the kind that leaves you with an ugly purple tongue. Almost the opposite of the the Two Hands shiraz, this more austere style very much reminded me of a Rhone syrah rather than a new world shiraz. Black cherry fruit, crunchy green peppers with a little dirt mixed in. Not bad at all, but it's kinda tough to sip and a much better food wine. Overall impression: "Good" wine, good price too - $16.
Another bargain from Chile (boy I hope their recent whopper of an earthquake doesn't affect their wine...and I hope the country and it's people recover well in general) is the Concha y Toro, Trio, Merlot-Carmenere-Cabernet, Rapel Valley, 2008. The Trio series is usually good value but not what you would call "wow" wine, however Mr. Parker gave this one 90 points. Moderately deep colour with a nose of cassis and spice, it is full bodied, silky with good fruit and lovely smooth tannins. Hints of vanilla. Good wine, and bargain of the month at $15, but not quite a "wow".
Cheers!

Altavista, Bosca and the Ghost

2010-02-21T21:59:00.005-05:00

Altavista, Atemporal, Mendoza, 2007 is an assemblage of malbec, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and petit verdot. Opaque purple, this is a ripper. Full bodied and dense, lots going on here, with raisins, plum pudding and dark chocolate. Problem is when the fruit fades there's a background of menthol - but it's a Halls coughdrop kind of menthol, and it's off-putting. The long finish is marred by this same coughdrop. It's still a good, big wine. Decant for one hour to let it settle before drinking. Next day wasn't as impressive, so don't keep it open too long. $20.
A next door neighbour is the Luigi Bosca, Single Vineyard Malbec, Lujan de Cuyo, 2006. The labelling on this bottle is interesting, it is one of the few Argentine wines that pushes "DOC" status on it label. This stands for Denominacion de Origen Controlada, meaning it is guaranteed to come from a specific area and conform to whatever rules the local authorities deem necessary to control the quality of wine from that region. This wine comes from a 70 year old vineyard, and it shows. Deep purple but not opaque. Clean nose of boysenberries and pomegranate. Medium-full bodied, lively and bright with intense, rich red fruits with some licorice and chocolate in the background. Not overbearing at all, very slick and new world in style with a nice, easy smooth mouthfeel. Good wine, well priced at $18, very impressive they can give you wine from a low yielding 70 year vineyard for this little. Left out for 24 hours it loses some brashness and becomes a little more elegant.
Last up this week is an interesting wine. The Ghost Pines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Winemakers Blend, 2006 is sourced from fruit from both NAPA and Sonoma, and is packaged like a marketing exercise. It's not a bad wine though - nice deep burgundy colour with a straightforward nose of blackberry and cherry. Firm, medium-full bodied, mix of raspberries and blackberries. Well made, clean, easy drinking although there are some slightly chewy tannins. Good wine, price point about what it should be for generic California cab - $20. This is what that funky Costco Julia wine should have tasted like....
Cheers!

Frozen Taster

2010-02-14T23:28:00.009-05:00

OK, I couldn't resist - I just had to try the Julia, Cellier 22, NV, "product of USA" wine. I tried not to be biased based on the first two Julia wines I tried, but... anyway, here we go. On the nose - oh, oh - there's a faint, but definite, whiff of bubblegum. Smells fake. The palate is better than the nose. Light to medium bodied, candyish, on the sweet side. Almost cloying (for a supposedly dry red wine). Plum and boysenberry fruit, but a little on the stewed side (again!). No finish. Look, it's an "OK", drinkable $5 party wine, but oh so predictable (and forgettable). And a ripoff at $14. If you have some, put it in the fridge for half an hour, it makes it easier to chug.
On to better things. Citra is one of those bargain producers that actually make good entry level wine, year in year out. It's low end stuff is sold in liter bottles and was a screwcap before it became fashionable. But, if you only had $9 to spend, this was a go to wine. They've just released a higher end version of their Montepulciano d'Abruzzo here, so of course I hunted it down and tried it. It's a 2007 and goes under the moniker Palio. Nice artwork on the label. Good deep colour, floral notes and plums on the nose. Medium bodied, firm, very dry, puckering tannins. Needs food. Sour cherries, a little dirty earthiness. This is so Italian tasting. You want authenticity, a wine that shows some terroir? Look no further. Good wine, well made, a good price at $14.
The next wine I expected very little from - it looked like a generic California cheapo, but the guy in the shop recommended giving it a whirl...
The Benziger Family Winery, Syrah, North Coast, 2004 has a nice dark, almost opaque colour. They got good extraction on this one. Nice cedar and spice nose. Full bodied, supple, rich and bursting with ripe black fruit. Well integrated tannins. Judicious use of toasty oak. Straightforward delicious. Wow, a winner! and totally unexpected. Bargain at $19.

Cheers from the frozen north!!

American Week

2010-02-05T22:19:00.006-05:00

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

2010-01-30T20:03:00.006-05:00

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

2010-01-22T23:29:00.005-05:00

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?

2010-01-15T23:23:00.006-05:00

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

2010-01-08T23:04:00.007-05:00

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?

2009-12-22T19:41:00.008-05:00

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

2009-12-16T21:02:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-06T20:05:00.006-05:00

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

2009-11-29T23:08:00.005-05:00

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?

2009-11-20T21:59:00.006-05:00

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?

2009-11-11T20:44:00.006-05:00

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

2009-11-04T20:11:00.006-05:00

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

2009-10-29T18:13:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-10-18T23:40:00.008-04:00

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

2009-10-10T17:33:00.005-04:00

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

2009-10-01T12:07:00.005-04:00

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....

2009-09-25T23:43:00.007-04:00

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

2009-09-18T23:17:00.006-04:00

$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

2009-09-11T22:23:00.009-04:00

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

2009-08-30T23:15:00.012-04:00

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!!!

Siblings

2009-08-23T22:51:00.005-04:00

The fancy label siblings are from Chile - kind of ostentatious looking...the Terra Noble, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gran Reserva, 2005 is a softie - nice new world blackberry fruit, medium bodied, gentle with no hard tannins. Kinda cheap for a "Gran" Reserva too - only $17. Well, you get what you pay for, right? - it's an OK wine, no better. The twin is the Merlot, Gran Reserva, 2005. Much fruitier nose than the cab with brighter fruit - blueberries and cherries. Also medium bodied and soft. Both these wines are straight forward, the merlot is better at first but with time the cab takes over.
OK, now for the ugly siblings. These wines will be at the bottom of the price list in your wine store (unless you have a Trader Joe's where you can find 2-buck chuck). $7-8 gets you Farnese's Sangiovese or Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The vintage I tasted was 2007, but it doesn't really matter - these guys seem to produce pretty much the same style of wine year in, year out. The Montepulciano is a dark wine (no cheapo see thru stuff here) with pepper, beef stock, plums and cherries. Medium-full bodied, it actually benefits from decanting and tastes better the next day. The sangiovese is also not bad. These are OK wines, you can use them as everyday drinkers, and much better value than the good looking siblings from Chile.
Slow-smoked turkey legs and pork loin...yum. The Joel Gott, Zinfandel, 2003 was overpowered by this lot. It was however a good aperetif wine - zippy, bright raspberry fruit, medium bodied, not a tannin in sight...good drinking zin from a value producer (less than $20). The Mas des Bressades, Cabernet-Syrah, 2004 was up to the challenge. This wine really needs food - it's a full bodied old world style with herb and animal flavours that mask any fruit. The tannins are smoothing out with a little age, but it still needs that fatty meat to shine. Good wine. Cheap too - only $16.

Cheers!!

New Muga

2009-07-07T22:10:00.008-04:00

The usually reliable Muga Rioja has released it's 2005 Reserva in Canada (Spanish reservas spend a minimum of 1 year in barricas and 2 years in the bottle before release, so it comes to you retail with some years under the belt). And it's a good effort, but not as good as their lip smacking 2002. This is classic old school rioja - tastes like it came out of an oak barrel - wait - yes it did!! If you don't like oak in your wine, stay away.
This is a prime example of a full bodied wine that doesn't have to be "big" and bash your palate in order to have lots of flavour. Cedar, vanilla, earth, smoke, subtle black fruit (in the background) and very chewy but not overpowering tannins are what you get. Try laying some down for a few years to see how it evolves. Good wine, worth the $25.
Right, now for the rest. The Tatachilla Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale, 2005 caught me out - when I saw it in the shop, I confused it with the very highly regarded Tatiarra winery, also Australian, so snapped it up as it was on sale. Well, I didn't get what I thought I was getting but it was still pretty darn good. Opaque. Pepper and plum nose. Full bodied, plush style - no lean Cabernet here. Velvety, juicy black fruit and a decent finish. Could handle a steak but better suited as a sipper. A steal at $19.
What the heck is winery called Odjfell doing in Chile? Sounds like it's from Iceland. I hate to say it, but their Armador, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 smells like all those other $15 Chilean reds - pretty generic. But generically pretty good! Nice dark colour. Soft, deep and rich with damson plum fruit, a little meat & tobacco and boiled beetroot. Very smooth sipper, good wine and worth the $15.
OK, I get asked about really cheap wine every now and then, so I bought 6 bottles of less than $10 Italian wine that I'll talk about over the next month or so. The first one I unscrewed was the modern packaged Ogio, Primitivo, 2008. The only other word they put on the label is "Italy", I guess they're after people who want to see that they're buying an imported wine. So what do you get for $8? Well, it's not a wimpy colour. Smells OK too - no cheap bubble gum aromas. It's medium bodied, spicy, plummy and has a nice whack of dusty tannins. It does get a little thin with time and lacks a good finish, though. But hey, you can't go wrong for this price. OK wine.

Cheers!!!

June Roundup

2009-06-29T21:39:00.011-04:00

OK, lets start with a same grape challenge - two BC wines from the same producer but very different styles and one from a lesser known appellation in Argentina. The Domaine de Chaberton is a winery in the little known Fraser Valley, but they actually make their good reds from grapes sourced in the scorching Okanagon. The Fraser Valley is too wet and cool to ripen noble red wine grapes. These two wines get their grapes from the Black Sage bench. The Domaine de Chaberton, Syrah, 2006 is made in an old world style. Leather and grapefruit on the nose. Yes, grapefruit. It's medium bodied with lots of pepper and blackcurrant. Medium length with leathery tannins on the back end. Good wine, but number 3 in this mini-tasting. $30 is too much.
These guys also make the new world style, Canoe Cove, Shiraz, 2004. Sweet smelling with clove/nutmeg aromas. Medium bodied with creamy caramel and cranberries and chocolate - sounds horrible I know, but it's actually nicely balanced. It initally comes across as a "good" wine, but with time it simmers to a "wow". Give it time in a carafe. Number 2 in the tasting, $30 is not cheap but about what you have to pay for really good BC wine. And you get the best wine label that I have seen in a long time!!
Right, now for the winner. This is the third wine I've had from these guys, and they have all impressed in their own way. Who said San Juan in Argentina cannot produce good wine? (well, actually, some twits at SCL in Mendoza did, but this winery proves them either brainless or liars). The Las Moras, Gran Shiraz, 2005 has a beautiful full blown oak and spice nose. Full bodied, the tannins meld seamlessly with the cherries and spice. Great length, this is stunning and impressive wine for $24. Wow.

Alright, now for the banal. First, kudos to the Australian marketing team behind Shot in the Dark, Shiraz-Petit Sirah, 2008. Impressive modern packaging. Too bad what's in the bottle is a pretty generic Aussie shiraz. Medium coloured, medium bodied, some good black berry fruit and some smooth smokey undertones. But one glass is enough. And $15 is too expensive. OK wine.
The Wyndham Estate, Bin 555 Shiraz, 2005 tries to impress with 6 gold "medals" and a silver on the bottle. Very soft, smooth wine with sweet stewed plums, but again, pretty generic. Makes you reach for a second glass but then you wonder why. OK wine, $16 could be spent on something better.

Last up is the Michel Torino, Cuma, Organic Malbec, 2008 from Argentina. 14 bucks gets your nose thinking its one of those intense smelling dried fruit berry bars that they used to sell at Costco. Medium bodied, bright juicy boysenberries with a little rusticity built in. OK wine, not complex but not apologetic at all - and a better buy than those banal Aussie efforts that cost more.

Cheers!!

Simply Super

2009-06-08T21:17:00.007-04:00

I love those wine evenings where everything imbibed is superb - one wow after another...
Lets start with the "Great one" - Wayne Gretzky. I don't know how much he actually has to do with sourcing the grapes and actually making this wine, but his Wayne Gretzky Estates, No. 99, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa valley 2005 is very good. Voluptuous style, creamy, intense with a nice acidic edge. Medium bodied, well integrated tannins. Wow. My only criticism is that the finish is a little short. $40.
The Catena Alta, 2004, Cabernet Sauvignon is from Mendoza. Forest floor nose, lots of mossy stuff going on. Initially it's all about being outside - the complete opposite of Cab intepretation compared with Gretzky's wine. With time, the fruit does finally come out - stewed red and black fruits. Complex stuff. Wow. $48.
We tried the Catena Alta, 2004, Malbec again - it seems we come across this wine every 6 months or so. This bottle was medium bodied, classy, silky, with lots of pomegranate fruit. Wow. Worth decanting for a few hours at least. $48.
The Caymus, Special Selection, 2000 is from California. Capital "E" Expensive at $180 a bottle. Well balanced, top notch new world cabernet sauvignon, this is simply super wine. You can't go wrong opening a bottle of this on special occasions (as long as you can stomach the price as well as this nectar!).
Just when you think you've hit the pinnacle, some joker shows up with a bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc, St. Emilion, 1995 (thanks, Joe!). Showing its age with a nice bricky colour, this has a cassis nose mixed with a little turpentine. Verrrry smooth, the tannins have softened to become enjoyable. Mushrooms and smoke layer over the red fruit. This is the epitomy of old world elegance. This wine is practically unobtainable from retail at the moment, expect to pay over $300/bottle at auction or from a collector.

Cheers!!

Boring

2009-06-04T22:55:00.008-04:00

If Chile and Argentina can do it, why not Uruguay? Never had a Uruguayan (is that spelled correctly??) Merlot before, so snapped this one up when I saw it. The Pisano, Rio de los Pajaros, Reserve, Merlot, 2007 is a nice dark wine, but unfortunately not very exciting. Really closed nose. As for the palate, the word that comes to mind is "flat". It is austere and dense, but not very flavourful - maybe some hard blackberry candy (but not sweet) - and has absolutely NO finish. Got a touch better with time meaning maybe it needs laying down... Judging it now, it's dense and perhaps has potential, but is not very pleasant to drink, I would rate it as an "average" wine. Overpriced at $16.
I had high hopes for the Montes Alpha, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 as I really like a lot of their other wines. This one is not a typical "big" wine from Montes. Dark colour and a red berry nose. Medium full bodied, a little lean, raspberry/blueberry fruit, a little licorice on the back end. Good length. A "good" wine, but in the end pretty generic cabernet sauvignon. Nowhere near as good as their syrah.
I'd have to say not worth the $20.

The Edmeades, Zinfandel, Mendocino county, 2006 is an interesting wine from 50 year old vines. Spicy nose. Flowery, a little sweet, thick, tangy, with a slight alcohol mouth burn (it's 15.5% ethanol). Medium bodied, dried cherries and candy, no oak evident. Tasty but made for Joe Public. Not worth the $22.

Hey there's hope yet.....keep tasting....
Cheers!!

More Moras

2009-05-29T18:12:00.004-04:00

Guess the best of this bunch? Spanish, Argentine or Italian? If you guessed the Chianti, go to the back of the bus. The Campomaggio, Chianti Classico, 2004 is a complete waste of money at $22/bottle. Tastes like it should cost $8. 'Nuff said.
The Albada, Old Vine Garnacha, Calatayud, 2005 is packaged like a new world wine and by gosh tastes like one too. I thought this was a new world malbec! Spicy, medium-full bodied, very generous rich boysenberry fruit but not jammy at all. Drying finish. Old vine grenache? how did they get it to taste like this? It's an OK wine, nothing special, so-so value at $16.
The shocker is the Las Moras, Black Label Shiraz, 2005. This comes from the San Juan province of Argentina, the supposedly poor cousins north of Mendoza. In fact, a couple of years ago I was told by snobby Mendozans to forget about San Juan as a premium source of wine. Well, think again...first sip was...wait for it....wow!! Opaque, full bodied, well integrated oak, silky tannins, rich plum fruit, spice plus dark chocolate. Quite the surprise. They state on the label it was picked in "early February" - this is like harvesting in August in the northern hemishphere, so they must get lots of sunshine. 15 months in new French and American oak. I think I paid about $16 for this wine, so it's a shocker value...I'll be trying anything I see from this winery in the future.
Cheers!!

Really Old World

2009-05-23T16:05:00.012-04:00

I didn't expect to find any wine in Syria, (1) because it's mostly desert and (2) it's a muslim country. However, 10% of the population is Christian (Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic, Maronite...) and therefore does not see alcohol as prohibited. So we bought a couple of bottles of Syrian wine from an Armenian in Aleppo, I thought this will be good for a laugh - but the first one we opened was quite a surprise - a serious wine! We opened it while staying in a bedouin compound next to a ruined castle...quite the setting.
St. Simeon was a 5th century ascetic who tried to escape the world by living on a pillar...apparently it was quite high when he died. This is what's left of it after it's been chipped away by pilgrims for centuries.
The aptly named Cortas, St. Simeon, Cuvee Speciale, NV has a nose of stewed plums. On the palate it is medium bodied, plummy, figgy, rough but surprisingly drinkable. 200 syrian pounds equals $5 so it's a bargain.
After this pleasant surprise, I was quite excited to try this wineries' "premium wine" - the vintage dated Cortas, Nectar, 2006. Alas as I popped the cork it really popped - and started fizzing...this wine hadn't survived the heat!

Anyways, the label doesn't do justice to the citadel of Aleppo, which by the way has never been successfully taken despite many attempts, so here's another view:

OK, back to reality. After getting home and after my stomach settled down, I opened a zin as these are usually easy drinking wines. The Artezin, Zinfandel, 2003 is a blend of regional zins, mostly mendocino county. This one clocks in at 15.5% (as opposed to the Syrian wines that sported a more traditional 12%). Quite pungent with crushed dark berries and a hint of eucalyptus on the nose. Medium weight but with a rough and alcoholic mouthfeel. This is a shame as it has lots of raspberries and blackberries, although a little muted, likely due to the bottle age. Disappointing for the price ($25). Cheers!!

Smokin'

2009-05-02T16:50:00.006-04:00

Smoking ribs the old fashioned way...this needs some serious vino to complement. I found a quite cost effective foil - the Parducci, Petite Sirah, Mendocino County, 2005. Nice dark purple colour. Medium full bodied with evident tannins that are a little harsh - this is not a "soft" wine but it eats the smoky meat right up. Dried fruit flavours, mainly cherries. Quite the mouthful for the price...only $15.00. Good wine, and it's a "carbon neutral" winery to boot.
The 3 Rings, Barossa Shiraz, 2006 is a bit of an enigma. On the back label it states "a donkey could make good wine from these Barossa grapes", so this wine had better be good! It's a creamy textured effort with rich blackberries. At 15% alcohol it comes through a little hot on the finish. Ultimately it's a bit too sweet and kirsch-like. Good if you like the style, overbearing if you don't. $24.

From Portugul comes the D. Fuas, Beiras Reserva, 2001. An impressively dark wine with a clay-like nose. Medium bodied, old world earthy with a green, vegetal flavour profile. A little sour on the back end - sour cherries. Good tannin structure, puckering and needs the meat. First 12% alc/vol wine I've had in a few months - I thought they'd stopped making it! OK wine, priced appropriately at $13.

Cheers!!

Red Diagonal Stripe

2009-04-26T22:10:00.003-04:00

D'Arenberg is a prolific Australian winery that produces many different styles of wine, but they all seem to have that diagonal red stripe on the label and an "inside joke" of a name, often whimsical. We culled 8 of their mid-level wines for a tasting; by mid level I refer to price, which ranges from $Cdn 20-35 for this lot. The favourite wine was the one that got drained the fastest (always the best way to gauge the best wines of a tasting!) - the Bonsai Vine, GSM, 2001 is made from old vines that look like bonsai trees. It's showing it's bottle age with a bricky colour. Smooth, silky, vanillery, full bodied, it has lost a lot of it's fruit but has gained complexity. Wow wine. Would buy this again.
Next was the Galvo Garage, Cab S/ Merlot/Cab Franc/Petit Verdot, 2004. This is a tribute to the "garagiste" movement - new winemakers fermenting new style premium juice in their "garages", forging a name for themselves and then jacking up the price of the wine as it gets "wow" reviews in the press. This one doesn't quite make it...full bodied, tannic, dense fruit, the most complex in this flight but ends up being "just" good juice.
Next bottle to be drained was theTwentyeight Road, Mourvedre, 2004. Full bodied, this one leans towards the earthy, more vegetal side of the flavour spectrum. Good wine.
I thought the Laughing Magpie, Shiraz-Viognier, 2005 was just as good as the twentyeight road. I was surprised by it's dirtiness as I was expecting a perfume lift from the viognier - but it had a definite mushroomy-moss thing going on and was a little hot. Good wine also.
The Footbolt, Shiraz, 2001 is holding up well. This is better than I remember it from the last bottle I had. Medium-full bodied, smooth, peppery and bright with a little earthy undertone - this is not drinking like an 8 year old mid level shiraz. Good wine.
The D'Arrys Original, Shiraz/Grenache, 2005 is one of their workhorse wines. I would have put this one as #7 on the list, but the bottle did get finished #4, so it's a crowd pleaser. Generic, yes, but good.
The High Trellis, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 is young and bright with juicey blackberries and a dusty finish. Nothing special, but good nonetheless.
Bringing up the rear was the Custodian, Grenache, 2005. Light to medium bodied, flowery with violets and cherries. Not my cup of tea, this is "OK" wine.

So, we were impressed overall with the good quality of the wine across many blends/varietals and vintages. Lets start putting away some of their top labels (such as the "Dead Arm" or "Ironstone Pressings") for a future tasting...

Cheers!!

Gin or Wine?

2009-04-22T20:04:00.003-04:00

Easter wines included three from Argentina. Paul Hobbs of California has a Mendoza outfit called Vina Cobos. Their top wines are outstanding. We started the night with one of their mid-level wines, the Felino, Malbec, 2007. This is young and spicy with pomegranates and blueberries. Medium bodied, it makes a good aperetif sipper. The next day it had held up well and went well with lunch. Good wine, classic malbec, a little overpriced at $20.
The Eral Bravo, YBS, 2005 is 60% malbec, 30% Cab. S. and 10% syrah. Nice smelling wine. Mouth puckering and full bodied, the big tannins need time. The fruit is dense Caribbean fruit cake in quality. Good wine, but sit on it for a while. Worth the $25.
And now for something completely different - the Michel Rolland Yacochuya, 2003. Ya gotta love the simplicity on the label - very spartan. This is from the northern Argentine appelation of Salta, where the vineyards are high, close to the Andes. This is a monster of a wine - a cornucopia of flavours whacks your palate. 16.2% alcohol! Hold it in your mouth and it turns....gin-like with juniper berries and high alcohol coming through. I have to say this wine is hard to enjoy right now. Wait. Many Years. The next day it tasted Port-like. $65 - I can't tell you if I think it's worth until I try it in the future.
Cheers!!

Yalumba Night

2009-04-12T21:37:00.007-04:00

Yalumba is reputably the oldest family owned vineyard in Australia. It was founded by a British brewer who emigrated to Oz in the 19th century. We had a few bottles kicking around so decided to give 'em a whirl and see what came out. First up was the Bush Vine Grenache, 2006. "Bush vine" usually means old vines - they grow like bushes (and look like small trees) as they have thick trunks and can "stand" up by themselves - no trellises, wires, poles, etc. needed. This wine is surprisingly light coloured and relatively light bodied - I was expecting a more concentrated wine. It's all about strawberries - both the nose and the palate. A straighforward, fruit driven wine, I rate it as an "OK" effort but it ain't worth the $19. No way.
This was followed by the 2004 Bush Vine Grenache. A little darker in colour, and a little more pungent on the nose. The fruit here leans more towards blueberries and blackberries but the wine is a little astringent - the tannins are out of balance with the fruit. Another "OK" wine.
I think I'll stay away from this bush wine in future vintages.
Next up were some of Yalumba's bigger guns. Mr. Robert Parker rated them both over 90 points. The Signature 2003 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Medium coloured, again not as dense as I expected. Vanilla and blackberry nose, a classy wine with more blackberries on the palate backed up by firm tannins. A little chalky. Not a blockbuster, I was a little disappointed and rated it as "Good". Over-priced at $43.
The Menzies, 2003 is pure Coonawarra Cabernet. The darkest wine of the four, I found it the most tasty. Full bodied with cassis, cedar and spice. But, again, this doesn't hit me and say "wow". So, also not worth the price of admission at $49.
Overall a disappointing wine evening.
Cheers!!

Eggs?

2009-04-10T00:48:00.003-04:00

Eggs? At least I think that it says "Ova" - must do because it stands for Organic Vignerons Australia. Organic wine. What does that mean? that it's better? Actually, no. It just means somebody put the word "organic" on the label. So look for some sort of certification if you are a stickler for these kinds of things - this one for instance states on the label "Australian certified organic", so there must be some kind of agency that goes around checking the vineyards out and making sure they grow their grapes using only "natural" fertilizers with no synthetic pesticides or herbicides as well as making sure they don't add extra sulphites into the wine as they are making it. This extra care may make the cost of making such wine more expensive of course, and this will be ultimately passed onto you as the consumer (at the very least the certifying agency will charge something!). I've even read about wineries that use birds of prey to naturally keep pesky grape eating birds from eating their fruit!
The wine itself must be judged on its own - I don't care if it says organic on the label if it's swill.
This one is pretty good. And turns out it's terrific value as well as it only costs $19. The Ova, Shiraz Cabernet, 2005 is generically from South Australia. Nice dark colour, deep plummy nose. Spicy, crisp, good black plum fruit with hints of oak - not as rich as I like my Aussie wines but nevertheless very good. Maybe they should make more wine "organically"....

Cheers!!

Artful

2009-04-02T00:06:00.008-04:00

Some wines have it all - they taste good, have a good price and look pretty good too - the label, that is. The Bonny Doon, Domaine des Blaguers, Syrah, 2003 is bottled by a California-owned winery in the south of France. This is dark, brooding stuff. All meat and leather nose. Full bodied but soft and smooth with cloves, savoury and earth. Full of character. If you like old world style, this is a "wow". Less than twenty bucks, shudda bought a case... Oh, and check out the cool artwork on the label...not very old world!

Next wine has an very classy label - one of the classiest I have come upon. The picture doesn't do it justice. And the product in the glass is pretty good too - made from grenache planted in the 1890's!! This is the Atteca, Old Vines, 2006 from Spain. Initially it was quite lively with blue/black fruits but after a few hours it closed right down. Dense and structured, there's a lot hiding in there waiting to come. Best to put it away for a few years. Serious and "good" wine, good value at $23.

Now a wine with one of the ugliest labels I've seen in a while - the Casa Silva, Reserva, Carmenere, 2006 from Chile. Dark purple with a classic carmenere nose, intense blueberry bramble. Full bodied with soft, chewy tannins. Fruit driven - rich fieldberry jam flavour but without the jammy texture. With time, a little tobacco appears. Solid wine, good stuff, well priced at $15. Just dump the label, guys!!
A short note on a wow wine - The Saltram, Mamre Brook, Barossa Shiraz 2005 is a winner and very well priced at $24. Classic full bodied Barossa shiraz, I only got a little taste of it (and it had already been open for 24 hours). Unfortunately more got spilled than I managed to scrounge in my glass - look for this one and buy it, I will be.
Cheers - Spring's here!!!

Roundup

2009-03-24T19:06:00.005-04:00

Time for a roundup of wines recently imbibed, both winners and losers. Got lucky as there were twice as many winners as losers. Actually, coming to think of it, if you're careful, it's much easier to pick a good wine than a bad one, even if you're not spending a lot of money.
Right, lets get to it. The best of the bunch was the Bogle, Petit Sirah, 2006. This wine punches way above it's mediocre heritage (not the grape heritage but the wineries!). A "wow" wine and a cannot miss at $20. Almost as good is the Marquis Phillips, Southeast Australia Shiraz, 2007. Dense, full flavoured, very new world style shiraz. Very good and also well worth the $22 entry point. Don't laugh, I've talked about this next wine before - the Yellow Tail, The Reserve, Shiraz, 2007. Make sure you buy the Reserve - it's head and shoulders above their usual crap. Tasty, full bodied and over oaked and I love it. Very good and a bargain at $18. Don't believe me? blind taste it with your favourite aussie shirazes (how do you pluralise shiraz...?) Good wines are the Santa Rita, Medalla Real, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 and the Cousino Macul, Antiguas Reservas, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006. Both cost around $20 and are well made, tasty, serviceable wines that I would gladly quaff. The shocker of the group is the much cheaper Santa Rita, 120, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007. This has a nice mix of black pepper and blackcurrant. Straightforward wine, a very drinkable mid week wine. $10 or less.
And the losers are....first place is the Castillo de Almansa, Reserve, 2005 from Spain. Usually an OK cheap "pick me up anytime" choice, this version is simply not good enough for it's price. $15 gets you a light, peppery, chuggable "OK" wine. Overpriced.
Second place is the Yalumba, South Australia, Y Series, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006. Crap wine, at least this bottle was. Way overpriced at around $18. 'Nuff said.
And, last place is the "G" by Dehesa Gago, Toro, 2006 It LOOKS good - nice package, nice marketing, from a "hot" region (Toro in Spain), but this is not very good wine. Bubblegum nose. Light palate - I thought it might appeal to people who actually like beaujolais nouveau. It was better the next day, but it still gets a crap rating. What a waste of $20.
ps...prices are BC prices.
Cheers!!

Good...and Evil

2009-03-10T14:11:00.005-04:00

There are some good wines being made in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, but they are generally few and far between and overpriced. So it was a pleasure to imbibe the Osoyoos Larose, Petales d'Osoyoos, 2005. This is the "second" wine from a relatively new winery with French owners who are aiming for a "Bordeaux style" of wine - and, boy, looks like they have succeeded. Cassis and vanilla aromas lead into an elegant, complex wine. Medium chewy, the tannins are still a little harsh but manageable. Raspberry is the predominant fruit. A classy wine, gets a "wow" rating. $25.
OK, now for the evil part - I don't know what demon prompted my sister to buy this crap.... it was undrinkable. Pinot Evil, Pinot Noir, NV, Vin de Pays de L'Ile de Beaute is toilet cleaner. It just goes to show how bad pinot noir can get.
This cleaning product displays a prominent "imported" on the front label, but on the back it admits to being bottled in California. Classic tanker crap. I don't care how much it cost, it is too much.

Getting back to more pleasant things. The Wine Spectator rated the Altos Las Hormigas, Colonia Las Liebres, Bonarda, 2007, Mendoza as a best buy. I agree. Bonarda is not a well known grape, you really only see it these days from Argentina. This one is dark and dirty with plums and black chocolate. Medium bodied and a smooth chugger. Good stuff, well worth the $13.

Cheers!!

Uco Magic

2009-02-22T22:58:00.004-05:00

They say it will be the next NAPA valley...the Uco valley in Mendoza, Argentina. There has been a lot of big money invested there in the last 10 years - you get almost unlimited sunshine, copious amounts of Andes meltwater (most of it in a huge aquifier) and high altitude. Two of the newer European bodegas there are also architectural masterpieces - Salentein and O. Fournier. So, lets taste. The O. Fournier, alfa crux, 2002 is a blend with tempranillo the major component. Deep purple colour with a beguiling nose of berries and warm oak - the nose is the best part of this wine! This is a medium-full bodied, slick, racy wine with lush tannins. There is red fruit and blueberries. Wow. Not cheap at $39, but try to get this quality from Bordeaux for the same price....
From Salentein comes their Reserva Malbec, 2006. 14 months in oak. Not quite as deep coloured as the Fournier, this younger wine is closed on the nose. But it's ready to drink. A bright, vibrant, medium bodied wine with raspberry fruit, it's very smooth and goes down well. A good, serious wine. Good value at $18.

Now for a cheap quickie - from Portugal comes the Quinta de Bons-Ventos, Estramadura, 2006. $12 gets you a dirty little wine with redcurrants mixed in with earth, minerals and iodine. Noticeably Portuguese, this is an OK, honest everyday drinker.

Cheers!!

Water Wheelies

2009-02-17T00:38:00.004-05:00

Strange name for a winery, but can't fault the product. The Water Wheel Memsie 2007 is a blend of shiraz, cab s., malbec and petit verdot. 4 of my favourite grapes. And the price is right - $14. This must be one of their entry level wines. It gets you a nice dark coloured wine with a plummy, lightly spiced nose. Not surprisingly, it's fruit driven - but primarily the dried type - cherries mixed with figs ("fig newtons" was Koko's input). Medium-full bodied, nice smooth tannins, good length. A good wine and well priced.
A big notch up is the Water Wheel Shiraz, Bendigo, 2005. This one has been sitting quietly for about a year and it's settled down nicely. Strong oaky nose. Medium-full bodied again but this one is more oak driven with plum fruit and dark chocolate. Very nice mouthfeel, I kept going back for more, the wood is well integrated (not chewy at all). A beauty - very good and worth the $20.
Now, time to nit pick. When I read about this next wine (Domaine Cazes, Alter, 2003), I got sucked in by the review and picked up 3 bottles: "concentrated and firmly structured, deep intense flavours of dark plum, cherry, meat and spice. Plenty of sanguine notes on the finish, with stone and smoke. 90 points." Wine Spectator. I was actually excited to try it - but what a disappointment. This is an everyday table wine (not surprisingly, it's from the Cotes du Roussillon, where lots of table wine is made), I'd rate it as "OK" and nothing special. I won't even describe it, it was so uninspiring. I guess I'll leave the other 2 bottles in a dark corner and try them in a few years. $20 and about $15 over-priced.
A short note on a similar priced wine - the Flecha de los Andes, Gran Malbec, Mendoza, 2006 - this is also $20, is full bodied, intense and good. If you see it, it's worth a try.

Cheers!!

Maturing Rioja

2009-02-08T00:51:00.003-05:00

Wine doesn't have to be cellared a long time in order to "improve". In fact, most wine is made for immediate consumption and it's only the minority that needs long term cellaring in order to reach prime time. However, I am convinced that just laying a bottle down undisturbed in a cool, dark place for about 6 months does indeed improve it's character. For example, I had a bottle of the Baron de Ley, Reserva, Rioja, 2002 about 6 months ago and thought it a competent, good wine but nothing special. So it was a nice surprise that when opening another bottle recently I was met with a "wow" wine. Classic old style Spanish, it offers a cedar, vanilla and cinammon nose. Medium bodied, woody, creamy with smooooth tannins, stewed plums and a little toffee. Koko got a little smoked/cured Serrano "jamon" action on her palate. This stuff turns out to be a bargain at $20.
Another (pleasant) surprise was the Castellani, Sergio, Rosso Veronese 2000. This wine is made in the amarone style by drying the grapes in ventilated crates before fermenting, albeit for a shorter time than real amarone (only 2 months). This drying process raises the flavour profile as well as the alcohol content of the wine. Full bodied, dense, tannic and chewy with leather and mushrooms. A little hot on the finish. Good wine, a fair bit cheaper than amarone, worth the $22.
Cheers!!

Number Ten

2009-02-01T19:55:00.006-05:00

Wine Spectator's "Top 100" list for 2008 came out recently, so when I saw number 10 on the shelves of the BC wine store, I couldn't resist. It was a little over-priced at $35 as the suggested retail was $24USD and it can be had for $19 south of the border. Oh well, gotta pay the BC government the booze taxes to support their medical system... (which in my experience is woefully incompetent, but that's another story).
Okay, so the wine in question is the Seghesio, Sonoma County, Zinfandel, 2007. In the glass it's "see-through", not opaque as I expected. Lean black cherries on the nose (translation: not very aromatic) it is neither jammy nor full blown on the palate; a somewhat restrained zin. But, elegant it isn't. Medium-full bodied, creamy, smooth, very drinkable. The fruit is blackcurrant but there is a tobacco undercurrent. I was surprised to read 15.5% alcohol on the label, it carries the weight well. Long finish. All in all, a "good" wine, but didn't have the "wow" factor for any of the tasters. Not worth $35.
OK, next was an interesting wine. It comes from probably the furthest north winery in the USA, at least on the west coast. In Washington state, about 10 miles south of the Canadian border and due west of the volcanic Mount Baker is the Mount Baker Vineyards and Winery. Their Syrah 2004, Barrel Select, is however sourced from the more southerly Yakima Valley. Nice dark wine with rich plummy nose. Initially tannic, lean and austere, but with nice plum fruit, it needed Rod's famous ribs to smooth it out. What a good rib wine it turned out to be! A good wine, with the price about right ($15 USD). Time to visit the winery for a tasting, I think!!
Oh, and this is what Mt. Baker actually looks like (with J.L. as the model!):

Cheers!!

Value

2009-01-17T16:38:00.002-05:00

OK, time for some value. Chilensis must be Chilean for cheap value as this is one of the best $12 wines around (in Canada; that means you can probably get it for well less than 10 bones in the USA). Their 2006 Carmenere Reserve has a strawberry and pomegranate nose. Medium-full bodied with an explosion of red fruits, primarily redcurrents and dried montmorency cherries (i scarfed a few to confirm...). Silky texture. Nice finish for a cheapo wine. Good stuff, I usually buy a bunch as this wine is consistently reliable vintage to vintage.
Liberty School is Treana's bargain label. Their cab has tailed off recently so I thought I'd try the 2005 Syrah which is labelled "California" but actually comes from Paso Robles. Well this is much better than their cab. Black in the glass, initially beefy but this blows off to fieldberry jam. Plush and rich as it initially fills your mouth...feels like this could be a "wow" wine....but no, it starts to fade fast. It is still really fruit driven and definitely interesting for the price ($18 up here). Good wine.
Cheers!!

Snaky

2009-01-11T21:42:00.005-05:00

Those sneaky (not snaky!) Frenchmen, they're buying vineyards everywhere...California, Argentina, Chile, even Canada (Osoyoos-Larose in the Okanagan). Chateau Beaucastel is an icon in Chateauneuf du Pape, and the owners are partners in a project in the Paso Robles appelation of California called Tablas Creek. They chose the hilly vineyard for its similarities to Châteauneuf du Pape: limestone soils, a favorable climate, and rugged terrain. The partners imported the traditional varietals grown on their C-du-P property, including Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah and Counoise. Their red Esprit du Beaucastel 2005 costs about the same as an entry level C-du-P meaning it isn't cheap, but it's less than half the price of the parent at $42. So, how does it fare? It smells new world - Jammy plums but some minerality. It tastes old world - medium bodied and flavourful without being rich. Lively cherry-raisin-fig flavours with a smoky, pastrami-like finish. Very smooth and ready to go. Good wine, but not worth the relatively high cost.
At half the price, the Argentine Trapiche, Medalla, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 comes in as an oak "monster" - it is aged in 100% new oak and this overpowers everything else. It's hard to discern any fruit. It was much better at 24 hours with some chalky minerals coming out on the nose and the oakiness becoming a little muted (although it remains quite chewy). Good wine, but not for everyone. $20.
Cheers!!

Out of Africa

2009-01-04T22:34:00.010-05:00

Monkey business? Nope, wine is serious!! Not too much available here from Africa, all of it from South Africa so here's a couple to try. The better of the two was the Remhoogte, Estate Wine, 2004, which clocks in at 15% alcohol. Nice dark colour with a rich kirsch-like nose. Dense, full bodied with raspberry fruit, cloves and other dusky spices. Mineral finish. Good wine and very interesting for the price ($27) but I would not go out and buy a case of it.
The Onyx, Darling, Kroon, 2003 came highly recommended but fell a little flat. Slightly medicinal nose, medium bodied, very bright red fruit. A lively wine - pleasant enough to drink that it slips in as a "good" wine but nowhere near as complex as the Remhoogte. About $20, would not buy this vintage again.
A very short note on a wine that really does not deserve writing about - but I will to rant about 2 pet peeves: the Santa Carolina, Reserva de Familia, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 comes in one of those oversize extra-heavy bottles in order to make you think that it's "special", a premium wine that deserves your attention. This is STUPID, it just costs more to ship and means more to recycle. At least I could maybe live with this if the wine was exceptional, but this is plain and simple everyday wine - not flawed, just an average plonk. Which brings me to PP#2 - "reserva de familia" - well they should reserve this for the family because selling it to us for $20 is a crime....may it burn for it's sins!!

Cheers from the cold frozen north!!

The Marquess and Carmen

2008-12-26T17:07:00.007-05:00

Decided to contrast a couple of vintages of Carmen Reserve Syrah with a Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha Syrah (don't worry, we didn't eat the gingerbread cookies with the wine!). The 2002 Carmen had a raspberry-cranberry nose and was medium bodied in the mouth, bursting with raspberry fruit. Bright and intense. Relativley long finish. Good wine, but third place. The Marques 2004 was darker in the glass than the Carmen '02 with a more subtle nose of black fruit; on the palate it was more elegant and refined with blackberries mixed with leather. This wine is short-term aging well, smoothing out - I last had it about a year ago. Good for second place. The 2004 Carmen had a meaty nose and the fullest body of these three. Structured and dense with blackberry, iodine and meat. Long finish. Wow wine and my favourite of the three. All three of these wines are bargains at $20 each.
To finish off the night I popped an oddity (at least for Canadians) - true vintage style Australian port. This one has been in the cellar for 12 years. The Angove's, Premium Vintage Port, 1993 is turning into a tawny style in the bottle. It has become almost translucent brick in colour with a thick, luscious, sweet, caramel-toffee-raisin flavour profile. Good stuff - and a bargain alternative to the ever increasingly expensive "real" Port. Try sticking some Aussie "port" away for 10 years to experiment with.

Cheers!!

Stompin' Good

2008-12-20T20:23:00.002-05:00

"Estampa" is Spanish for "stamp" which translates to "stomp" for all you western cowboys. And stomp on the Aussie pretender this wine does. The Estampa, Gold 2004 from the Colchagua Valley in Chile is a blast from the past - an old Bordeaux style blend of Cab Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Carmenere and Petit Verdot (it's missing the merlot, however). But, Bordeaux in the mouth it's definitely not! Black as the ace of spades in the glass, it has an intense nose of deep dark black fruit. Full bodied, this is a rich style of wine with all sorts of berries and a little tar and licorice for complexity. Velvety tannins. Wow. And all for $18. Get yer assess to the LCBO asap to snap up what's left, cowboy!!!
Ok, I gave the ring-bolt another chance. The last vintage I tried was praised by the critics, I thought it was quite ordinary. So, I gave the 2004 another chance. This wine is cabernet sauvignon from Margaret River in Australia, an area that makes more restrained wines than one expects from Oz. Subtle nose of mulberries. Lean style with blackberries and hint of chocolate. A straight forward cab that really does nothing to distinguish itself. Underwhelming. Overpriced at $20, I think the experiment with this producer stops here.
Cheers!! And for those who celebrate this kind of thing, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Pre Holiday Buzz

2008-12-11T22:40:00.007-05:00

Gearing up for the holidays we've been trying a wide range of wines. First up is the Penfolds, St. Henri Shiraz, 2002. It's been a couple of years since I tasted this vintage. It still has that always deep stained cork that is seen with top Penfold's wines. It's getting a little bricky in colour as it ages. Blackcurrant nose. Full bodied with mouth coating, still-a-little-bit-rough tannins, but not chewy and overblown like a lot of aussie shiraz. This is all balanced by the tart cassis fruit. Long finish. Not cheap at $55 but still a wow!
The Argentine Fabre Montmayou, Reserva, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 has a thin vegetal nose. It is old world style, medium bodied with a vegetal flavour profile - mainly green peppers. This could pass for a Bordeaux. Well made, but not what you would call a pleasant sipper. Try it with meat. Overpriced at $22.

Much more interesting is the Gerard Bertrand, Merlot, Vin de Pays D'Oc, 2004. What a wine from such a generic appelation. Nose is pure rotting meat with raisins and violets. Full bodied, backward, earthy, mushrooms, meat, pencil lead...you get the idea. Long finish. Good wine and an absolute bargain at $15 if you appreciate the style.

At a dinner party we sampled a lot of generic wine from Spain, Australia and Chile that rated from OK to good, nothing really to tell you about except for the cheapest wine of the night - the Cono Sur, Merlot, 2007 is a generic, bottom-of-the-line $10 wine. But boy does it deliver for that price. On the nose it's 50:50 fresh meat (?hamburger) and raisins. Very balanced palate with preserved fruits as the predominant flavour supported by leather and tobacco. Not tannic but still surprisingly chewy body. This could be from Europe.... Good wine, what have you got to lose by trying it?
Cheers!!

Around the World

2008-12-04T22:28:00.002-05:00

Four wines from around the world, who's the winner? Oz takes the cake here. The Gemtree, Uncut Shiraz, McLaren Vale, 2004 is oddly named but a gem of wine. Wine Spectator agrees, giving it 93 points. This is screwcap heaven - one of those bottles that as soon as you open you know it's gonna be good. Gorgeous oaky black fruit nose. Full bodied and balanced with all components firing on all cylinders. Lush tannins, blackberries, vanilla, caramel with a touch of chocolate. Long finish. Wow. Absolute bargain at $28.
A good friend recommended the La Massa, Toscana, 2006. This was also highly regarded by the WS, garnering 92 points. Black as a moonless night, inviting berry nose. Dense and concentrated but not thick or chewy at all. Uncompromising tannins. Graphite, chalk, with bright cassis shining through. Impressive but not as enjoyable as a good neighbouring robust chianti (not as good as the Antinori CC 2001 for example). Good wine, worth the $28 if you like this style.
The local lackey at the wine shop down the street recommended the The Wolftrap, Shiraz, Mourvedre, Viognier 2007 from South Africa. I've had this before, not bad I thought, so give it a whirl. Initially this was a very average, non descript wine, but with a little time and a nice fat salmon steak it perked up a little. Subtle blueberry nose, medium bodied, supple fleshy palate with more blueberry fruit. Surprisingly long finish finish in the end. Good wine for $18 but not good enough for me to buy this vintage again.
Old vine zin. Yea! The Van Ruiten, Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, 2006 is raspberry jam on the nose. Sweet, thick, almost port-like texture but without the tannic backbone. Mixed field berry fruit. Hot finish. A pleasant sipper. Good wine, price is about right at $18.
Cheers!!

Back....

2008-11-28T21:30:00.014-05:00

Okay, I'm baaaack!! Had an exhausting trip to Mendoza to check out the wine and vine. Gorgeous weather, sunny and 85-90F every day. The locals are super nice people as well. This is Hubert, head winemaker at Bodegas Weinert, one of the oldest and biggest bodegas in Mendoza. He asked what I wanted to drink, so naturally I replied..."impress me". Off he loped, bringing back a dusty old bottle. He asked us to guess the grape and year...I got the grape wrong (cab, merlot and malbec blend) but was only off by a year on the vintage - 1994. A dirty but complex nose, this was remarkably fresh on the palate despite it's age. Full throttle and teeth staining with preserved fruit and fungal mix - tannic, but in a good way. Wow. He has only 5,000 bottles of this left (actually, 4,999 now) and figures this would retail for $100-150 if he re-releases it. It won a gold medal in Paris years ago. Wow.
Next up was a 2002 tempranillo, which won't be released; he made it for a private party except the bum didn't pay his bills, so he's stuck with 10,000 bottles of it (labelled and everything). This was super smooth and silky following the '94 blend served first. Good stuff, wish I could buy the lot and sell it up here (the only problem - the wine can't be shipped without re-labelling it, and that would be messy - it's not done often!). Readers, any ideas, let me know....

This guy is cleaning out the tartrates and tannins that have caked onto the aging tonels. Weinert ages all it's wine in wood, the majority old and seasoned.

Here's a new vineyard being planted. This will take 5 years to get into full production. Yields in this desert climate can hit 20,000kg/hectare (just turn on the water taps from a huge underground aquifier under the Mendoza vineyard/farm land and you can grow your yields proportionately; alternatively, you can "starve" them of water and lower your yields to produce concentrated high end wine - all you wineries in countries that are slaves to their weather must be jealous!!!).Okay, what else did we drink down there? Notable favourites were Septima, Septima Dia, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005; Ruca Malin Malbec 2005 & Cabernet Sauvignon 2005; Salentein Syrah Roble 2002; Mendel Malbec 2006; Catena Zapata, Angelica Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004, Lagarde Malbec 2006, Cabernet 2006 & Syrah 2006; and Obra Prima, Malbec reserve, 2005. One word of warning - prices are going up like crazy down there. The bargain but sooo tasty steak (try the bife chorizo, a 20 ounce monster) is now $15 USD instead of $8, and the wine in restaurants has gone up so much that you can no longer just ask for the best bottle in the house - you have to look at the wine list and actually choose based on price:quality. A great meal for three with 2 good bottles of wine still costs only $100 USD total, though!Cheers!!

Five Stars

2008-11-06T00:06:00.004-05:00

Where to start? The Treana, Paso Robles, 2004 has an explosive nose of violets and stewed plums. Full bodied, rich and opulent style. Oaked plums backed by smooth tannins and a touch of licorice. Wow. Treana usually sells for just over $40 in Canada.
Completely opposite is the old world Travaglini, Gattinara, 2003 from northern Italy. This got a "91" in Wine Spectator but we initially wondered why...this old style nebbiolo is see-through in the glass and initially smelt of an old wooden barrel, but became perfumed with lots of time in a decanter. Elegant style but still surprisingly chewy. Can't quite place the fruit. This really evolves and intrigues with a few hours of decanting. Wow? maybe in 5 years or so.... This retails for $30.
The Bodega Monteviejo, Lindaflor, Petite Fleur, Mendoza, 2004 is classic malbec. Full bodied, pomegranates, racy. Chalky. Good stuff, not quite a wow. $26.
One step up is the Altavista, Alto, 2003 which is also from Argentina. Very floral nose. Full bodied but classy with pomegranates and red berries. Smooooth. The flavours change subtly as you swirl it in your mouth. Wow, but make sure you decant it and WAIT. A tad pricy at $60.
Last but certainly not least is a real bruiser - the Tait, Basket Pressed Shiraz, 2001 from the Barossa valley in Australia. Black in the glass with the most aromatic nose of the 5 wines tasted here, it is a rich full bodied wine full of cooked berries, dark plums, tar and licorice. Well integrated tannins. This is from the winery that makes a wine called the "Ballbuster" - this one is certainly in that league. Wow. I don't know the retail of this particular wine, but a quick google yields starting price of $30 in the USA (which means at least $50 in Canada).
Cheers, and I hope you all have a wine night like this soon!!

Three for Three

2008-10-25T16:32:00.005-04:00

We all look for midweek wines that are delicious yet not expensive...no more than twenty bucks should do the trick. Yet, how many times are we disappointed? So, here are three producers with wines that are winners at this price point.
The most anticipated was the Santa Rita, Medalla Real, Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserva Especial, 2005. It got a "91" rating by Wine Spectator and proudly displays it on the neck. This has a mixed berry nose with a little menthol. Zesty, tangy blackcurrants, medium-full bodied, ripe tannins, a little chalky with a moderately long, complex finish. Good wine, not quite "wow" status. $20.
The Killikanoon, The Lackey, Shiraz, 2003 clocks in at 15% alcohol. Nose of plums, leather, cedar. Full bodied, meaty, ballsy but straightforward wine with black fruit. The high alcohol bruises the palate, so it's a little unbalanced. It's also rough on the back end. But, for $16, can't go wrong. Good wine also.
A perennial good value producer is Mas des Bressades. Their 2005 Cabernet-Syrah has a stinky beef and mushroom nose, a little musty (koko factor: "like an old shed"). Medium-full bodied with beetroot, dirt and iodine. The fruit is layered underneath - pomegranates and fresh cranberries. Complex, old world and plain good. $18.
Cheers!!

Truck Crash

2008-10-16T22:40:00.004-04:00

If you're in a shop and you see the two labels above, which intrigues you the most (and subliminally entices you to buy? This is what influences a lot a people in their wine choices. So, I'll join the crowd...the Red Truck, 2005 California Red Wine is definitely more compelling cosmetically. And when I saw it "on sale", from $20 to $13, I had to try it. Big mistake. This is a light bodied, slightly tart, cranberry cocktail. No finish at all. Crap wine.
The Sana Rita, Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserva, 2005 has a stodgy, traditional label but is much better. This is a dark wine with a pure cassis nose. This intense cassis is replayed on the palate with a mouthful of warm blackcurrant jam. If you want to see how cabernet sauvignon mimics blackcurrants, pick up a bottle of this. Good wine, a steal at $14. Not complex enough to earn a "wow" rating.
The Peter Lehmann, 2005 Barossa Shiraz received a 91 rating in the Wine Spectator and proudly shows this off with a small gold label on the bottle. This is medium bodied, much more refined than I expected with no jamminess at all. Not a plush style. It is warm and spicy with dark plums as the predominant fruit. Very nice, but not a "wow" as it should be with such a high peer rating. It is $5 too expensive at $25 (BC price).
Last up is the Penascal, Tempranillo, 2005 from Spain. This got 85 points (or "very good") and a "best buy" rating from that dreaded Wine Spectator. Well, it's got a fake cheap nose but a much cleaner palate with light, candied cherries. A very average wine, I rate it as "OK". No need to buy it at $12 a bottle. It would be an interesting party wine if it cost $5.

Cheers!!

Tanking...

2008-10-06T23:04:00.006-04:00

Stock market crash...looks like the world is coming to an end, huh? So, what to do?...drink more wine, stupid!!! How ironic. Actually, the Life's Strange Twists Wine Co., Irony, Cabernet Sauvignon, NAPA Valley 2004 is affordable for those poor suckers who are now in the poorhouse. It's from NAPA, but reminds me of Bordeaux. Medium bodied with still harsh tannins, this is a muscular not plush style. The fruit is hiding - blackcurrants can be delineated as you swish it around in the mouth. This is a food wine - it would eat up a big fat juicy steak no problem. I like it. Good wine, interesting at $20.
Next up is an offering from the always reliable St. Hallet's winery in Australia. Their Faith, 2004 is bright and focused, kept vibrant by it's acidity. No flab on this one, which actually matched it's consumption site - at the top of Mont 107 in the Foret Ouareau. Good wine, but great hiking wine! About $20.
Last and least, two not very impressive south americans. Twins to boot (fraternal). Little to choose between the two (that's bad condsidering they're completely different grapes) - they are the Trapiche, fut de chene, Malbec 2005 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. Aromatically challenged, medium bodied, nice and dry, light blackberries... this is "OK" wine, no reason to drink it at $14 a bottle. The CS is perhaps better than the malbec (less "watered down" tasting).
Cheers!!

Nutritious Bargains

2008-09-28T18:35:00.005-04:00

I've found a positive bargain - and to boot, the Cline, Syrah, Sonoma County, 2006 must be good for you as it is so fruity it has to be loaded with minerals and vitamins! (ha ha). More realistically, it is so extracted that it at least must be loaded with antioxidants. Nice dense colour. Explosive blueberry/boysenberry nose. Straightforward fruit bomb palate plus some added spiciness (?nutmeg) and pepper. All for $13. This is good wine and a bargain.
Next up - a couple of Chileans. The Santa Alicia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gran Reserva de los Andes, 2003 is deep in colour with a pure cassis nose and palate (and just about nothing else!). Powerful and rich style. Good. Not disappointing for $20.
The Terra Andina, Altos, Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 is also from the Maipo valley. This one has a more cherry profile, is not quite as full bodied as the Santa Alicia but the fruit feels (tastes!) slightly more complex. Another good wine worth the money ($19). Cheers!!

The Soloist

2008-09-21T12:48:00.004-04:00

What a way to drown - in such nectar as this! This poor hornet was so tempted by the incredible nose on this wine that it almost drowned. Don't worry, I rescued the poor soul, he dried off his wings and loopily flew off to tell his buddies in the nest about this strange powerful new food source...
The Coriole, The Soloist, single vineyard shiraz, 2004 is from the McLaren Vale in Australia. It is opaque purple in the glass with a very strong blackberry nose (with a floral lift). This is a dense, full bodied effort made in a luscious style, full of fruit (blueberries are the most predominant flavour). Mmmm. Wow. Not cheap at $30 but worth it.
Check out the sediment left in the last glass...this stuff is obviously not filtered before bottling.

Now, for an update. Thanks to a petite sirah lover who commented on my last post, I have learned that DNA testing has confirmed that this grape is indeed an offspring of syrah, although it's history remains quite contorted. Anyway, kudos to Jo Diaz (www.psiloveyou.org) for the update....
Cheers!!

Little Brother?

2008-09-15T13:47:00.005-04:00

You'd think that the grape Petite Sirah is related to Syrah, perhaps a smaller "brother" or offspring. It actually has quite a mysterious heritage. It is uncommonly seen as a varietal bottling, especially in the old world where it has been used for blending. Today it's seen mostly from wineries in the new world, especially California and oddly enough, Brazil and Mexico. Just to add to the name confusion, some wineries spell the grape "Petite Syrah" which may actually be a different species!
Enough rambling, lets taste.
I found 3 bottles of Petite Sirah and one Petite Syrah. The best two by far were from California - the Eos, Reserve Petite Sirah, Paso Robles, 2001 clocks in at 15.5% alcohol. But, like some heavy hitter zinfandels, it hides all this booze in fruit. This has an aromatic cherry-like nose followed by intense cherry and bramble fruit on the palate. Dense and full bodied with very easy going tannins, this is impressive. Wow. $30 and worth it.
Rosenblum, Petite Sirah, Heritage Clones, 2006 is a much younger wine. Surprisingly, the nose is more subtle than the Eos and shows floral notes. On the palate this is another dense, intense wine with blackberries, creamy chocolate and oranges. More tannic than the Eos but still easy going. Wow. Also worth the money at $28.
The other two wines are Australian in origin (Hopwood Petite Syrah 2004 and DeBortoli Petite Sirah 2006) and are not really worth talking about - don't buy them as they are not very good, rated as "OK".
So, if you see bottle of old vine Petite Sirah from a reputable producer, I'd say give your taste buds a whirl....an interesting alternative to new world fruit bombs made from Zinfandel.
Cheers!! (oh, and this is how I felt the next morning.....)

Bullcrap

2008-09-10T16:05:00.003-04:00

I smell a rat...aka crap wine. The usually reliable "cheap" wine Torres, Sangre de Toro, 2006 has tumbled to the depths. The bubble gum, candy-like nose warned immediately that this was going to be a painful bottle to drink. Good colour but it's a lightweight, tastes of fake raspberry/cherry melted popsicle. Ugly. Crap, save the $13 and buy some fruit juice instead.
Jacob's Creek is one of Australia's success stories (in a business sense...). They make literally tons of wine, most is pretty pedestrian. However, their Reserve Shiraz sometimes is a winner, as it was in 2004 (90 points, Wine Spectator). Well, take the 2006 edition off that list please. It's dark enough in the glass but it smells like a freshly sanitized bathroom. Medium bodied, generic shiraz, a little earthy-dirty with OK plum fruit showing. This is certainly not your typical aussie fruit bomb reserve shiraz. And it winces when paired with food. An "OK" wine, use the $20 for something tastier.
Now for something a lot better - the small, family owned Hendry winery makes some nice wines. Their Block 7 Napa Valley Zinfandel 2004 so is pungent even the cork itself smells nice. Fresh baked bumbleberry pie... This is a fruit bomb - raspberries and redcurrants, but they stay nice and fresh glass after glass. Solid wine. Not for matching with serious food but I could drink it all night long. "Good", but it's a tad too expensive at $30 (bought in the USA).
Cheers!!
r

Mexico?

2008-09-04T23:44:00.006-04:00

Yup, they make wine in Mexico. I've actually driven by the only place I've seen wine from down there - in Baja, near the Pacific, although I didn't drop in for a tasting at the time. It's quite cool on the Pacific side up in the northern part of the peninsula, with the breeze coming off the ocean, quite the opposite of the hot, desert-like sea of Cortez side. Anyway, this was the most expensive Mexican wine I've had - the L.A. Cetto, Cabernet Sauvignon, Private Reserve, 2004, ringing in at $22. The nose is hiding somewhere (Carlo, did you find it yet?). Light in colour - you can see through it - this is made in an elegant, european style. Redcurrants, elderberries, a little simple at first but feels more complex with time. Not a sipper. It got three "OK's" and one "good", so in summary, not worth the money.
The starter wine was a great sipper - the Perez Cruz, Reserva, Limited Edition, Carmenere 2004. Chile makes richer wines than Mexico! Deep opaque purple with a rich plum compote nose. Full bodied fruit bomb, quite plummy. The koko factor: "a dusting of cocoa appears". Nice chewy finish. Borders on wow...worth the $26.
The "piece de resistance" was another bottle of Depardieu's Confiance (2003) - this remains one of my favourite wines and still rates a wow.
The Peter Lehman, The Futures, Shiraz, 2004 came with big expectations - it has been highly regarded in the wine press. Faint blackberry nose, it is a black wine. Tannic, it is almost harsh. The blackberry fruit is there, though. Closed, tight - needs time. It rates a "good" right now but will get better. $30.

Cheers!!

Hodgepodge

2008-08-25T21:11:00.003-04:00

Bit of this, bit of that. The Ridge, Three Valleys, Sonoma County, 2004 is a mostly zinfandel blend from vineyards located in 3 Sonoma valleys (go figure!). Ya gotta love the way these guys label their wines - NO nonsense. Nice nose. Bright bright fruit - red berries, mostly raspberry with a little chocolate. Medium bodied, smooth, plush, an easy drinking rich sipper. Good stuff, not as interesting as Ridge's higher end bottlings, but remember these guys just don't sell bad wine!! Worth the experiment at around $25/bottle.
The Chateau du Grand Moueys, Premiere cotes de Bordeaux, 2005 is from that fantastic Bordeaux vintage. This is a prime example of what happens in a great year - small otherwise overlooked properties make very good wine. Blueberry, blackberry, cloves and pears (?pears) on the nose. Full bodied, tannic, cassis, iodine - this needs food. Good. An excellent cheap Bordeaux at $18, buy a case.
Oh well, there's always a stinker in the bunch, eh? This is the modern packaged Wild Rock, Merlot-Cab Franc-Malbec, Hawkes Bay, NZ, 2005. Shy nose. Medium bodied, some black fruit and sage but completely uninteresting. An "OK" wine. Waste of money at $18.
Cheers!!

Too Much To Chew!

2008-08-18T22:48:00.004-04:00

Whew. When you attend a 3 day party with about a hundred guests you end up drinking a LOT of different wines. Some were pretty darned good. I made quick notes on only a few of them as many I got only a brief taste of (including an always good Chateau Musar, a stupendous Burgundy - I have to find out what it was (I forgot!), a really good classic Rioja and a nice recent example of La Volte from Tuscany).
The Terrazas de Los Andes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendoza 2006 had a subtle nose but was a nice mouthful of blueberries and blackberries. A fairly serious entry level Cab, it's worth the $15.
Stepping it up a notch was the Altano, Reserva, Douro 2004 - vanilla and cedar nose leading into a woodsy palate with cherry fruit. Nice, well integrated tannins and a good finish. This made from traditional Port grapes and is good wine! Fair value at $25.
Next in line is the Penfolds, Bin 389, 2004. Nice cedar, vanilla and blackberry nose. Chewy oak mouth coating tannins but (?paradoxically) it goes down nice and smooth. Simply delicious, this borders on that "wow" feeling. Worth putting a few away at $35.
Now for the big guns. The Hardys, Eileen Hardy Shiraz, 1998 is hard to find and a quick search finds that it now retails for about a hundred bucks. You get a black, completely opaque monster with a big nose of mint and black fruit. Thick and unctuous palate, the black fruit is still there with menthol, nutmeg and tar. Wow.
Chateau Palmer, Margaux, 1999 will currently set you back at least a couple of hundred bucks if you tried to find it today. Good luck. It smells of very pungent musty blueberries. Full bodied, meaty, graphite, black coffee hide the cassis. Nice long finish. Would like to try this in 10 years. Wow.
Thanks to everyone who allowed me to share these last couple of days!!
Cheers!!

Malbec Battle

2008-08-12T00:26:00.007-04:00

I've never had Malbec from France and Argentina head to head. Always meant to, but as you know....too much wine, too little time. I have to say after visiting both Cahors and Mendoza, as to which is the nicer (and more exciting) place to visit, the latter wins hands down. So, who makes the better wine? Cahors is perhaps the last stronghold of Malbec-making in Europe, Mendoza is the new star region for this varietal. We chose 3 wines, one a premium wine from Argentina that made the "top 100" list for the Wine Spectator in 2007, one from Cahors that received a "95" rating from this same magazine, and a 13 year old bottle of Cahors I found skulking about in my "cellar". This was a blind tasting. The old Cahors, the Chateau LaGrezette, 1995, was easy to pick out. Meat and mushrooms on the nose and a brick colour in the glass. Medium bodied, elegant, sour cherry, camphor...a good meat wine (it was sampled with a "cowboy" grill of lamb, steak, sausage and chicken). "Good".
I couldn't tell which was which for the other two samples. Turns out the wine most preferred was the Argentinian - the Bodega Catena Zapata, Catena Alta, Malbec, 2004. An explosion of vanilla milk chocolate on the nose, this was the silkiest, softest wine of the three. Unctuous, creamy, this goes on and on. It was definitely better than another bottle of the same sampled a few months ago (?perhaps a longer decanting helped it, but I think it was bottle variation). Wow. Pricey at $60, but if you want to sample what this grape is capable of, ante up.
The Le Cedre, Cahors, 2004 was labelled a "monstrous" malbec by the Wine Spectator. It showed loads of cherries on the nose but was also a bit medicinal. Lots of red fruit on the palate - cranberries, pomegranate, boysenberries. There was a hit of white pepper on the back palate. Quite tannic, we were probably drinking this one too early. Wow, lots to chew on here for $49, but sorry to have to say it, Argentina "officially" beats France for Malbec.
Cheers!!

Solid

2008-08-04T23:32:00.004-04:00

It's rare that you can sample 5 consecutive bottles of wine in the $10-20 range and be impressed. Well, impressed I was with this lot. All were quite good and each was distinctive - no hum-drum repetitiveness here. I'll take two examples. First, the Viu Manent, Reserva, Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from Chile gave cassis, cloves and cardamom on the nose. It was medium bodied, silky in texture with black cherries balanced by an underlying dirty, earthy backbone. It was like I was tasting the fruit mixed with the dirt it grew in (terroir!!). Quite complex for the price, it made me step back and say "wow, how can they do this for $14"??? One note of caution - this was the third bottle of this particular wine that I've tried, and the first two were average ("OK") wines...so, either there's bottle variation or a couple of months of rest works wonders with it.
I bought the Zenato, Merlot delle Venezie, 2003 a couple of years ago and promptly lost it in the "cellar". So, why not pop it was my reaction when I stumbled on it last week. I would never have guessed this as merlot in a blind tasting - Italian, yes, but probably Sangiovese I thought. Dirty nose - earth, rotten leaves, wood. Complex. Medium bodied palate, with chocolate and cedar overpowering the red fruit. Nice tannic feel to it. Good. Worth seeking out. $20.
I think these wines were saying "welcome home" to me!
Cheers!!

Rot Wein

2008-07-28T20:37:00.007-04:00

It seems to be difficult to find good red wine in Bavaria - I drank a lot of very good "dunkel weiss bier" (dark wheat beer) but had bad luck with the "rot wein" (red wine) - it was pretty rotten!! The best I could find in the area we were in (Garmisch) was the Dominio del Ugarte, Rioja, 2001 - this was a run of the mill "good" rioja that stood head and shoulders above anything else we tried, especially the "local" German/Austrian reds. It was so much better than the other options that our group cleaned the restaurant out of it's stock. Some restaurants had only ONE choice of red wine, and this was often undrinkable. Really undrinkable...
Oh well, when in Rome...
Further north in Scotland the best beverage sampled also turned out to be beer - this was the Black Sheep Ale, brewed in Masham, Yorkshire. Interesting though was the policy of rotating wines on sale at the big grocery shops such as Tesco, Asda or Morrisons - often you can get "bulk" but drinkable wines such as those pictured below at half price, as little as 3 pounds (that's 6 bucks for us with the current exchange rate). That's something we NEVER would get in our wine monopoly states of Quebec and Ontario. Best of these wines I tasted while in the UK? The rather pedestrian named Lindemans, Winemakers Release, Shiraz-Cabernet, 2007 - it tasted like it was just bottled from a barrel, although the nice toasty oak more likely came from wood chips as this one was priced (on sale) at a measly 4 pounds. A crowd pleasing style, but that's great value.
Anyways, it 's now back to some serious wine tasting (I hope) in Canada!
Cheers!!

No Contest

2008-07-10T22:47:00.007-04:00

I really thought I would have a contest on my hands with these two South Americans. I have had some very good Carmen wines, especially their reserve series and I usually find them very good values also. Oops. The Chilean Carmen, Merlot, Reserve, 2005 shows raspberries and menthol on the nose. It is surprisingly light bodied - can hold up to chicken but nothing more strongly flavoured. Lots of red berry fruit but no real tannic or acidic backbone. Fun to drink as a lunch wine maybe, but it only merits an "OK" rating. Waste of money at $18.
The out and out winner in this little comparison is the Argentine O. Fournier, Beta Crux, Valle de Uco, 2003. Quite aromatic, I get baked cherry pie. Tons of character in this one - bing cherries, dates, spices - I get cardammon. Unctuous, almost thick with very smooth tannins. Wow. Much better than when I had it in Argentina last year. A steal at $20. Buy a few.
And now for the Dumbo marketing award of the year - our local wine-selling monopoly insists on hiding interesting information on bottle labels printed by the bodega because, get this, there is no French translation on it. You pay an employee to put an obscuring label over the info and then have to peel the damn thing off in the store to know what grapes you're buying....Stupidest thing I've ever seen a store do - if anything, it would STOP me from buying it rather than encourage me.

Cheers!!

Role Reversal

2008-07-07T23:30:00.004-04:00

Two wines, one 14.5% alcohol and the other 13.5%...which is from California and which from France? Well, I guessed right but for the wrong reasons. The 14.5er as it turns out is from a satellite appellation in Bordeaux (what the !*&#!@! is with this kind of alcohol level from here?). The Chateau Haut Colombier, Premiere Cotes de Blaye, 2005 is from that super Bordeaux vintage - a lot of minor chateaux made good stuff that year. A nice dark stained cork, it comes out opaque in the glass. On the nose it's antiseptic mixed with black fruit, but not in an unpleasant way! This is full bodied and structured - the acids keep it lively in the mouth, there are tart blackberries and the tannins are teeth coating. A good wine, and a good example of "cheap" Bordeaux at $18.
On the other hand, the R.H. Philips, Toasted Head, Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, 2003 clocks in at an unassuming 13.5%. But it's unmistakably new world in style - as soon as you open it you can smell the pungent oak wafting out - and it doesn't disappoint if you like the "oak monster" - they char the ends of the barrels (the "heads") as well as the sides to deliver this kind of flavour. There's also cherries and blackberries hiding behind all the toasty oak. However, if you leave the glass for a while and come back to it, it falls a little flat...reminds me of a soft drink - better drink it soon after opening. So, this is a delicious wine (if you like the style), but drink it sooner rather than later once the bottle is open. I rate it "good", and reasonably priced for what it is (one dimensional tasty juice) at $20.
Cheers!!

Good Earth

2008-06-29T22:04:00.003-04:00

The Juan Gil, Jumilla Red Wine, 2005 is made from 100% monastrell from 40 year old vines. Jumilla is in the eastern part of Spain, below Valencia and is hot and arid. This wine shows some good earthy texture, nice and thick and dirty. Medium red colour, it stinks of stewed plums. On the palate it is medium-full bodied but viscous, with spice and plums. Medium length finish. 24 hours later it actually improves, the plums stand out more and the finish lengthens. Well made, feels like you're drinking the dirt it's made from. A good wine, but pricey for what it is at $23...
Cheers!!

More Malbec!

2008-06-26T23:35:00.004-04:00

The Ben Marco, Malbec, 2002 from Mendoza is made by Susana Balbo, one of the most accomplished winemakers in Argentina. She added 12% bonarda to this malbec and has produced an ageworthy wine. It has improved considerably since I last tried it about a year ago. This is an "aroma-bomb" with loads of warm caramel coated blackberries. On the palate it is spicy, there are red fruits (pomegranate) as well as some cassis. Medium-full bodied, all is kept sharp by an acidic backbone. Wow. And in the $20 range to boot. I think 2002 was a good vintage in Mendoza (unlike the horrific rainy 2008 season they had!).
PS Koko found a good malbec link from the NY Times if you want another opinion about this grape....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/dining/reviews/11wine.html

cheers!!

Big Apple

2008-06-24T23:29:00.004-04:00

Myself and four beautiful women in a spiffy Italian wine bar/restaurant called Stuzzichini (on Broadway and 21st)...not too bad I'm thinking. After an OK Barbera, I spot a Petit Verdot on the all-Italian wine list...very unusual to see this bottled as a varietal in Italy, so as a lover of PV, I quickly order a bottle. The Casale del Giglio, Petit Verdot, 2005 is from Lazio, the region around Rome. This is another surprise because the area produces primarily white plonk in the sub $10-a-bottle range and very little red of any significance. So, this could have been a disaster order (although the sommelier thought he might have sold out of it, always a good sign), but thankfully we got a winner. Crushed blueberries on the nose, this is full bodied with a velvet covering and supersoft tannins. Lots of black fruit and violets, it's drinking very well right now. Good stuff. Not bad for $48 a bottle in a wine bar - if you see it, and are in the mood for something different, try it.
Then we retired to our favourite unpretentious little wine bar, Turks and Frogs on 11th in the Village. They have a compact but quality selection of wines. We put the new vintage of Dreyer, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, 2005 head to head against the Chateau Vieux Riviere, Lalande de Pomerol, 2001. Cab vs. Merlot, New world vs. old world. The Dreyer smells like creamy butterscotch, the L de P like smoked plums. Edge to Dreyer. The Dreyer tastes like blackcurrant, lychees and baked pears. The L de P tastes like boiled beetroot and plums with a little dirt thrown in, and has a thick glycerine mouthfeel. Both are full bodied. Tie. The Dreyer has a longer finish. Overall, both wines hit close to the "wow" factor, but the Dreyer wins the head-to-head as favourite of the night. Oh, cost wise the Dreyer was $12/glass and the L de P $14.
Cheers!!

Class versus Crass

2008-06-20T21:21:00.006-04:00

I knew I wouldn't find this wine in Canada but I lucked out to find it in a pretty sheik little restaurant called Herbsaint in New Orleans. As soon as I saw the Familia Cassone, Obra Prima, Malbec Reserva 2003 on the wine list I ordered it. Wow. Purple, opaque with a complex nose of red fruit and lychees. Silky, racy and elegant, with classic pomegranate and a long finish, this is impressive. Perfect foil for duck gumbo followed by prime ribsteak. At $42 (on the wine list, meaning you should be able to get it retail for about half that) this put a 2005 Chambolle Musigny ($120) and a 2004 Cote Rotie ($160) that my Western Canadian friends ordered to absolute shame. For those of you not acquainted to Argentine Malbec, I urge you to search out examples like this.

Now onto something completely different. I usually like zinfandel but this one turned out a little disappointing. The unusually named Klinker Brick, Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, 2005 showed a little pepper and currant on the nose, but unfortunately it tastes a little too much like cough syrup to be really enjoyable. Simple to boot. Big alcohol at 15.5%. A crass waste of money at $23 a pop. Yuck.

Cheers!!

Hope You Like It!

2008-06-09T22:11:00.003-04:00

On sale! woo hoo!! I had a good experience with Hope's Ripper Shiraz last year, so when I saw their "no-name" shiraz and "cracker" cabernet on sale at 25% off, I filled the basket up. The Shiraz, 2005 is from the east coast of Australia. It's purple, smells of sweet thick fruit and tastes like blueberry compote followed by cherries. Very soft tannins hide in the background. A simple fruit blast, zero complexity. A straightforward fun drinking wine, good for what it is. OK value for the on sale $15 pricetag.
On a different tack is the Cracker, Cabernet, 2004, from Western Australia (the juice is trucked over to the east coast for fermentation - cold soaking for 4 days...) . More brickish, much more elegant nose with cedar and pine notes. Medium-full bodied with chewy cassis, nice medium long finish. This is quite different from the shiraz, I prefer it given a glass of both. Also good, and good value at $16 on sale.
Cheers!!

Burger Fare?

2008-06-05T19:59:00.005-04:00

Three anticipated wines to try...with gourmet burgers! Actually, most of the wine was scarfed before the food was ready, so palates were sharp. The best? The Heathfield Ridge, Jennifer, Padthaway Shiraz, 1999 has an explosive, gorgeous nose of rich cedar and creamy blackcurrants. Full bodied, plush, oaky, very soft tannins, blackberry fruit. It's only fault - it fades quite fast. Sneaks in as a "wow" wine. Pricey at $38, so not explosive enough to buy more.
Next were two wines that were were Italian and much more subtle than the Heathfield. The Villa Donoratico, Bolghera, 2004 snatched a "91" from the wine spectator but I rate it less interesting. Subtle nose of blackberries, cherries and baked beans. Medium bodied and silky smooth, some tar, licorice. Very slick, a good wine but not worth the $29.
The Dorigo, Montselapade, 2001 didn't stand much of a chance given the lukewarm reception to the Donoratico. Shy nose again, medium bodied, it was an elegant wine showing a little anise and burnt cherries. Good but also disappointing for $39.
PS: The Italians were better matched to the burgers than the shiraz which is better as a sipper.
Cheers!!

Winners,,,and Losers

2008-05-28T23:59:00.008-04:00

After a week of wine in British Columbia there were some memorable winners....and, of course, some losers.
I'll start with the winners - and you'd be happy to see that, even in BC, you can get some half decent wine under $25. The best of the lot was the Vasse Felix, Adams Road Shiraz, 2004 from Margaret River in Western Australia. Simply a classy, tasty shiraz, lots of chewy fruit and oak but with an elegance not often seen in shiraz at this price point. I thought this one cost over $30 for sure but it clocks in at $24.99. Wow.
Next was a close tie. The biggest surprise was the Yellow Tail Reserve Shiraz, 2006. This is no yellow tail joke wine - a crowd pleaser, yes, but plush, smooth and very sippable. Some would say it's over-oaked, but I love it. Wow. And $20 to boot.
The Carmen Reserve Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 I've found before in Ontario, and it's just as good in BC. Full bodied and more meaty than the Yellow Tail. Another "wow" wine, and worth the $22 (It cost $20 in Ontario, so not too much of a mark-up. More commonly the mark-ups are atrocious, such as the Liberty School cab, this is down to $16.95 in Ontario but comes in at $22 in BC).
Bringing up the rear for the best-of-the week wines is the Saint Cosme, Cotes du Rhone, 2006. Full bodied, with meat, leather and smoke with red cherry fruit. I rate it as a "good" wine, not as impressive as the previous three, but if you like old world style, this is right up there baby!
Now, the thankless task is to talk about the bottom of the barrel...stay away from these wines. The Don Miguel Gascon, Syrah, 2005 from Argentina is actually not that bad, but it is so over priced at $17 I don't recommend it. Tastes like a $9 French vin de pays, medium bodied, light spice, leathery background. Very average, an "OK" wine. The JP Chenet, Founders Reserve, Merlot-Cab, 2006 is from the Pays D'Oc, but is very new world in style - 14% alcohol, fruit driven (but the fruit is candy like - yuck), almost jammy. "OK", but why buy it? $13, so at least you don't waste too much money. Tied for last place is the Wolf Blass, Yellow Label, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006. Crap wine, I won't talk any more about it, the worst value at $18. Equally crappy but cheaper at $14 is the Simonsig, Cabernet Sauvignon - Shiraz, 2005 from Stellenbosch in South Africa. Fake candy tasting. Yuck. Crap wine.
Cheers!!

Hodgepodge

2008-05-21T20:00:00.008-04:00

Eclectic wine weekend. Lots of stuff going on, but I'll review 4 wines (the ones I was compus mentus enough to take some tasting notes!!). First up is the a monster wine Bodegas Catena Zapata, Alta, Malbec 2004 - #23 on the Wine Spectator top 100 list for 2007, it garnered 93 points. Ooops. I think we got a bad bottle here - not bad meaning corked or "off", but bad in the "bottle variation" sense. This is something that no-one talks about but I believe is a problem that arises more often than not. How do you assure every tank/vat/barrel is uniform? especially in big run wines. Anyways, I digress. Don't get me wrong, this is still a good wine. Subtle cranberry nose. Deep, elegant and silky with redcurrant fruit and a slightly tart finish. But not a blockbuster. And this bottle wasn't worth the $50 it cost.
Right, this one I had really high hopes for. An early 90's vintage I had was incredible. The Rosenblum, Richard Sauret Vineyard, Zinfandel, 2005 clocks in at 15.6% alchohol. Woaaah. On the nose: intense, strawberries. On the palate, it is rich, thick and unctuous. Red fruit and tobacco. This is smooth and the high alcohol is well hidden. It's only flaw - a short finish. This squeaks in as a "wow" for me, but others didn't like the style. Cost me $30 in New York.
Right, now for the horror story (not you, Sean!). This stuff was absolute crap. The Hunyady, Kekfrankos, Kethely 2004 was almost pink, very light and tasted like weak cherry juice. Couldn't even stand up to Cheerios. Sink plumbing cleaner. Get your money back at $18.50 a bottle. Funny, because I know the Hungarians can make good wine...(remember that tasting day near Lake Balaton, guys?).

Can't end like that, right? So, to salvage some pride for Eastern Europe, here comes the oddly named Cluster, Mavrud and Rubin (no, I've never heard of these grapes either), 2003 from Domaine Boyar in Bulgaria. Nose: Nice with cherry and cedar. Medium bodied, it is initially tart but then watermelon and some fig comes through. A little rustic, way overpriced at $27 a pop, but at least I can say it is a "good" wine.

Cheers!!

Good Stuff

2008-05-14T20:42:00.006-04:00

Whaddya need after an intense session of chopping firewood? Beer? I don't think so!!! Gimme some Torbreck, Woodcutter's Shiraz, Barossa Valley, 2006. Plums and other dark fruit with hints of with cardammon. This is a big, plush fruit bomb, it warms the mouth with goodness. Jammy. The problem: no complexity at all. Hedonistic I suppose but a little too one dimensional. It's good, but not worth the $26.
How about a little bottle age with one of these fruit driven Aussie jobs? Well, the Wynn's, Coonawarra Estate, Shiraz, 2001 fits the bill. Black, black, black in the glass. Cassis, but restrained, on the nose. Licorice notes. In the mouth, it's dry and tannic...not jammy at this stage in its' development, but there's lots of black fruit left - intense brambles and blackberries. The finish is moderately long. So, it's good, but didn't hit the "wow" factor. Worth the $20 for this vintage. Pity it's the last of 6 bottles I bought....I would like to try it in another couple of years.
Cheers!!

In The Ring

2008-05-11T22:57:00.004-04:00

The best of both worlds...for the old world, in the turkey corner, is the Chateau de la Gardine, Chateauneuf-du-pape, 2001. Anise and leather nose. Licorice, dried dates (thanks, koko!) and cherries massage the taste buds. A medium bodied, very elegant wine, great with food. The tannins are drying without food, so this one could be put away longer. Wow. Wines from this region are not cheap, they start at $25 in our neck of the woods, but compared to Bordeaux or Burgundy they can be a relative bargain. Note to self: time to start buying more Chateauneuf-du-Pape!
Next up, for the new world, in the dancing kiddies corner, is the Concha y Toro, Marques de Casa Concha, Merlot, Pneumo, 2005. A brilliant follow-up to the scrumptious 2004 vintage, this one is a worthy wine also. Fantastic nose of dark berries, pears, chocolate and cedar. Full bodied, rich and opulent. A fruit bomb of the best kind, backed up by vanilla and cedar. The tannins are a little rough but are manageable. Wow. My kind of wine. An absolute steal at $20 if you like big brawny new world wines.
So, who wins? We do!!

Less Impressive...

2008-05-08T20:28:00.007-04:00

Another Aussie winery that wimps out with time!! I've seen this with Rosemount, Wolf-Blass and other producers. Too bad, they're either adjusting to consumer taste or laughing all the way to the bank...to my detriment.
I tasted the Pirramimma, Petit Verdot, McLaren Vale, 1999 last year (see archives, February 2007) and was "wowed" by it. So, when our local newspaper wine critic informed me that it was available in Quebec in the 2003 vintage and recommended it, I sauntered down to the shop in the spring sunshine and bought a couple of bottles of the new vintage. Well, as soon as I pulled the cork, I knew this wine was in trouble. A pink stained cork told me that this wine was not gonna be as "big" as the '99 (take a look at the black cork from the February archives). The nose remains its strong point - complex with blackberries and, er, um, Chinese food (you know, the good stuff, not that take out crap). It's only medium bodied on the palate with the blackberries reappearing , but there's not a lot of depth here. Definitely not a bruiser, this one is more of an elegant style...would actually have guessed it was a cab.
24 hours later that beautiful nose mutes a little, but the palate steps it up a notch - cedar and vanilla now share the fruit, which has become a little sour.
The verdict: It's a good wine, but miles behind the '99. Not gonna buy any more of this vintage at $26 a pop.
Cheers!!

Southern Hemisphere

2008-05-04T17:58:00.006-04:00

This is kind of unfair, comparing these two wines from the Southern Hemisphere, one from Africa and the other from South America. One trounces the other, but it's unfair because there is a significant price and age difference.
So what, here goes. The South African Graham Beck, Coastal Cellars, Shiraz, 2002 verifies its 5 years in bottle by giving of a musty nose, but when that blows off there is black fruit and oak. Full bodied with smoke, leather, wood and plums it finishes with sweet glycerin. Very smooth tannins. This is good stuff, I thought it was closer to a French Rhone than a typical new world shiraz. Worth the $20.
The Argentinian Rutini, Trumpeter, Malbec 2006 has an awkward nose of pine mixed with berries. The next day it had more of a candy bubblegum nose, not very pleasant. Medium bodied, spicy, raspberry jam (the koko factor: "boring jam"). Pleasant but light tannins add a little bit of structre. The next day, it tasted like a generic light red wine. This is a disappointing vintage, usually the Trumpeter malbec is a good wine. Poor value at $14 a pop.
Next up will have to be an Aussie wine to keep thinks southern...
Cheers!!

Ugly

2008-04-29T21:33:00.005-04:00

OK, this is the ugliest "cork" that I've ever seen. Gimme a scewtop instead!!
The wine this plastic abomination sealed was the Mazzei, Poggio alla Badiola, Toscana, 2003. Coriander seeds on the nose, the palate screams "I am Italian"....boysenberries, iodine, meat, chewy tannins...a very nice mouthful. This is so much better than the Spanish wine with the fancy packaging on my last post. A "Good" wine, well worth the $16 or so it cost. Try it out, if you like old school Italian, you'll like this.
Cheers!!

Guessing

2008-04-27T23:51:00.005-04:00

When you walk into a wine shop without a pre-determined shopping list, you end up doing a lot of guessing...hopefully educated guessing!! You look at the region, the producer, the varietal, the label for ageing and tasting notes...and hopefully get something good, especially if it's expensive.
Today's wine (Emina, Ribera del Duero, 2003) is from an area in Spain that I generally like. The label looks like they spend some money on marketing and says that it is aged in a mixture of French and American oak for 12 months. On the nose it is promising with black fruit and smoky bacon notes. So far, so good. Unfortunately, once in the mouth it is surprisingly light - especially for that hot 2003 growing season - but initially lively. The liveliness doesn't last, though, the fruit finishes dull, like an overripe almost rotting black plum. This wine couldn't even stand up to a pork chop. And the next day it was almost undrinkable. This is an "OK" wine, don't waste your Saturday night with it. Definitely not worth the $20 it cost.
Oh well, at least this little critter enjoyed it - he fell in about 10 seconds after I took the picture - don't worry, I rescued him before he drowned, wouldn't want to drown him in this plonk...
Cheers!!

Palate Shock

2008-04-21T23:45:00.003-04:00

My mouth took a beating on Saturday night with one heavyweight wine after another. It started with a Lebanese effort, the Chateau Kekfraya, Compte de M, 2001. Intense cassis nose with exotic spice, this is a bright fruit bomb that is so intense it "prickles" the mouth. The tannins are easygoing and there is a seam of tobacco to add some complexity. A "good" wine. No value judgement on this wine, I don't know how much it cost, so I can't tell you if I'd buy another at the going price.
Next up was the Rosemount Estate, Mountain Blue, Shiraz/Cabernet, Mudgee, 2001. I had this wine last year and thought it was a "wow". This time around, I got berries, dark chocolate and a hint of beef bouillon on the nose. Full bodied, a balanced wine with black fruit and meat. I rated this bottle as "good", was less impressed than last year. No value judgment either.
Two wines of different vintages from the same vineyard went head to head next. The wine in question was the Miguel Torres, Manso de Velasco, Viejas Vinas. The 1998 was a dirty, beefy, brawny wine with only hints of dark black fruit. Tasted very old world even though it was from Chile. It manages a "good" rating. The 2004 was, as expected, fresher with a bit of a candied nose. Spicy, violets with some beefy notes on the palate. "Good". I prefer my wines in between these styles, so, for a lark, I did the unthinkable - I blended them myself in the glass. The result was not too bad!! Anyways, these wines both cost about $40 a bottle, you can find better value elsewhere.
Last up and drunk with dinner were two Spanish wines. I'll talk about the one I drank most, the Vina Pedrosa, Ribero del Duero, Reserva, 2001. Very much in the old Spanish style, this was my favourite wine of the night. A nose of vanilla, oak and fruit that goes on and on. Full bodied, a good blend of oak and fruit on the palate also. A good wine also, so nothing tonight hit the "wow" level.
Cheers!!

Dry...

2008-04-16T22:11:00.009-04:00

No posts for a month because, well, I've drunk NO wine for a month. Why, you might ask? If you want to lose weight and go on the wagon, go to Uganda. As you might guess, wine is not a staple over there. In fact, it is pretty hard to find outside of Kampala - you can get it in the fancier restaurants but it is usually terribly overpriced South African plonk (for example, an $8 - in Canada - bottle of Obikawa listed for over $40 at the Nile Safari resort). And I refuse to buy wine that is marked up like that. At least the beer there is good (especially Nile Special from Jinja). By the way, that picture above is in Africa - on Mount Stanley at 16,000 feet. This is the highest peak in the Rwenzori Mountains, the only glaciated true mountain range in Africa (also known as the Mountains of the Moon). If you're interested, check out: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/212349/mt-stanley.html
Anyway, I digress. To ease my rusty palate back into action we cracked a few bottles of Malbec from Argentina. The Nieto Sentiner, Reserva, Malbec, 2005 is from Mendoza. Crushed violets on the nose, it is bright and acidic with fresh pomegranate fruit on the palate. Lively and medium bodied, it cut through a fatty steak easily. A good wine, worth the $14.
I tried the Bodegas del Fin del Mundo, Reserva, Malbec, Patagonia, 2004 last year and found it a dense brooding wine but the fruit was hiding. Well, the fruit has now come out to play - chunky black berries - this remains an intense, highly extracted wine for the price - a measly $13 a bottle. A good wine, and a steal. Buy it all. Cheers!!.

Purple Gold

2008-03-20T20:52:00.004-04:00

There's gold in them thar hills...purple gold, that is!! In the shadow of the Andes, they're making some pretty darn good wine. Finca Flichman usually does it at an incredible price point. Most of their wines over $10 that I've tried have been at least good, and even their $7-8 wines are OK and sometimes good. The only exception was their "Gestos" Syrah 2006 that I tried last month which was put to shame by tonight's wine. The Finca Flichman, Paisaje de Barrancas, 2002 is from Barrancas of course, about 20 miles from the city of Mendoza. It is a blend of Syrah, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon and a bloody good one at that. Dark purple in the glass, nice cherry pie nose, this is full bodied and tannic (but the tannins are seamlessly integrated). The malbec predominates with pomegranates on the palate, with hints of violet. Deep with fruit, a rich wine but not in a lush style - more old world style than I expected. Great with food (pretty much anything that used to walk). Good finish too. Wow. And only $17 a pop. Glad I bought a case!!
And the view from the vineyard is not bad either.
Cheers!!

Solid Citizens

2008-03-16T23:19:00.005-04:00

Some producers just seem to make good juice year after year. Some do it for reasonable prices as well. These two wines are such specimens, a pair of solid citizens from Chile. The better of the two is the Montes Alpha, Cabernet Sauvignon, Colchagua, 2005. Black and impenentrable, this is a prime example of ripe new world Chilean Cab. Full bodied, soft, thick mouthfeel with flavours of ripe black plums and hints of caramel chocolate and espresso. A lingering finish rounds it off. Not complex enough for a "wow" rating, this is still very good juice. Worth trying at $23 and if you like it, stock up (Carlo - I think you'd like this).
The second wine is from a real bargain producer...William Cole Vineyards, Albamar, Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Curico, 2004. This is drier and less lush than the Montes - with some vegetal notes (tart green pepper) thrown in. Finish is short. A solid "good" wine and a bargain at $15.
I would buy any wine made by these producers blind - I've yet to be disappointed.
Cheers!!

Gritty

2008-03-12T23:36:00.003-04:00

AT LAST!! I can taste again. 2003 was a hot hot year in Europe, so it must have been blistering in Murcia in Spain (this is normally a hot, arid region - I've sweated it out driving around vineyards there in the past) where tonight's wine comes from. The Casa de la Ermita, Crianza, Jumilla, 2003 spent 9 months in "new oak". Now, this could mean big oak vats or the smaller, expensive barriques (or if they're cheating, new planks or staves shoved into old barrels or, horror of horrors, oak chips). Lets give them the benefit of the doubt, but there's no clue to the new oak on the nose or palate of this wine. It is dark in the glass with chalk and plums on the nose. Smooth and medium bodied, but with a grittiness to it, this one has notes of meat, beetroot and black fruit. A dirty wine, very old school. I kind of like it, I rate it as "good". Is it worth the $18? Well, put it this way, I don't intend to buy any more of this vintage.
Cheers!!

Golden Rant....

2008-03-06T23:32:00.006-05:00

Should be back in the saddle soon, but I've been knocked out by the flu. Can't taste a damn thing yet, never mind appreciate some fine nectar.
I'll tell you about a wine I tried last week - the Wolf Blass, Gold Label, Shiraz, 2002. I'm generally a fan of Wolf Blass' high end wines, but their "regular" bottlings have become almost undrinkable. So, it was with great surprise to learn that in Australia, the "Gold Label" line-up is not really considered premium wine - it can be bought for $19.99 as compared to the definitely upmarket "Grey Label" at $34.99. So, someone over here is making a lot of money as the gold label is marked up to 30 bucks (!?*$#!!) compared with an unchanged 35 for the grey label. Wierd.
Anyway, getting back to the wine - nice deep colour. Smoked meat and cherries on the nose. Very silky, smooth and balanced mouthfeel with nicely integrated oak. Nice black cherry fruit and a pretty long finish. The verdict: "wow", a winner in this vintage but the price gouging still pisses me off. I can just hear the marketing guys at the LCBO - "hey, it's not too far off the grey label...lets price it a little lower, sell tons and laugh all the way to the bank..."
Oh, I'm not making this up - a quick search reveals that US retail for gold/grey label shiraz is the same as in Oz - $20/$35...
Cheers!!

Old School

2008-03-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

Nothing like curling up to a good book and a glass of wine (or two...) on a wintery night (-24!!). Got to compare two smaller scale Bordeaux wines, both from the Haut Medoc. The Chateau Senejac, Cru Bourgeois Superiore, 2003 is from an OK vintage year, and is made from 35 year old vines with a real mix of Bordeaux grapes. Parker scored it in the hight 80's. It has a nice dark colour and, if allowed to breathe, a quite pleasant nose of ink and graphite. Medium-full bodied, it is somewhat lean and austere with dry tannins with the fruit hiding (if there at all). Lots of pencil lead, though. Perhaps a little too young, but it's nice to go old school again. "Good". Like most Bordeaux, it really struggles for value...was on sale for $29. If I thought it would bloom into something special, at that price I would buy a case because it's hard to get good Bordeaux cheap these days.
Now, I have a bone to pick with the Vintages consultant at the LCBO who reviewed the next wine. His tasting note for the Fort Medoc, Haut Medoc, 2000 is from left field. "good depth of fleshy fruit" "very long and persistant on the finish" This guy is a professional?? maybe a pro salesman, because he reeled me in with his description. This is a middling, OK at best wine, specifically without any real fruit (except for some ugly apple cider notes according to my drinking companion that I didn't manage to fathom) and with a decidedly POOR finish. It just disappears as it goes down. Oh well, what can you expect from Bordeaux for $18, I suppose. I just wish the sales guys were honest.

Cheers!!

Shopping

2008-02-22T22:23:00.005-05:00

Don't you love shopping when the new releases come in? I do, but I dread the bill at the end. This was made a little better this month as Vintages had a wee sale, I guess to clear some of their warehouse space for spring arrivals. Hey, if it's any good, 20% off is nothing to sneeze at (although 50% off would bring it in line with the civilized world).
Soooo, what to open? This is important, because if the first few that get sampled are any good, I can go back and stock up before they're cleared out.
I felt like a big wine, so I went for the Aussie Cab. I was hoping that the Leconfield, Coonawarra, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 was better than earlier vintages which have been hit and miss. It's a shame, because the Coonawarra terroir is known for favouring Cabernet Sauvignon. This one opens with an initial whiff of chalk but cassis and hints of cedar quickly waft up. On the palate, this is classic Cab - cassis that bathes your mouth, even becomes a little tart on the finish just like my mom's good blackberry pie (that hasn't been sweetened too much!!). There are dusty tannins to back it up as well. This is no one-dimensional fruit bomb. All in all, a "good" wine, but it needs some time as it feels a little awkward right now. So, throw it in the cellar for a couple of years or decant it for a couple of hours. Price is OK for what it is, on sale for $24.
Cheers!!

Deep Freeze

2008-02-21T23:46:00.005-05:00

What's that vino doing in the freezer, you ask? I learned this little trick a while ago, although it went against my intuition. They tell us that you've got to store wine at a constant temperature in order to let it age gracefully without spoiling. However, what we're doing here is just keeping it the way it was for a few days or weeks in stasis....this is great if you are only having a glass or two and won't drink the rest for a while. And it works, it's as good as it was when you re-cork it and stick it in the freezer! To revive it, just bathe it in lukewarm water for half an hour or so - bingo, ready to drink.
Tonight's wine has one of those silly labeling-marketing statements on it's label..."winemaker's choice". Well, if I was a winemaker, I'd want to put this moniker on a better juice. The Vina Casablanca, El Bosque, Winemaker's choice, Syrah, 2005 has a shy nose followed by a medium bodied spicy, bright wine with blackcurrants mixed with bit of beefiness. Nothing wrong with it, but it's a somewhat lightweight syrah, rating just "OK". Not worth the $16.

Cheers!!

Plain Jane

2008-02-18T00:54:00.004-05:00

Pretty boring wine week. The Geyser Peak, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley 2002 (from California) I thought might be good - their reserve wines are usually pretty good. This one starts out OK - classic cab blackberries with rough tannins, pretty full bodied and a moderately long finish. Blinded I might have called it "old world" (??is that an insult or a compliment!). The more time it spent airing out, the more the yummy blackberry fruit became apparent. By the next day it was actually quite nice. A "good" wine, drink it with meat. No reason to buy any more at $20 a pop.
The Olsen, Merlot, Margaret River, 2004 did the opposite. Much fleshier than the Geyser at first (it tasted rather like a Chilean Red) it became weedier and more vegetal with glass time. After 4 hours it actually became unpleasant. Overall, I guess it's "OK", absolutely no reason to buy any more at $18.
Ho-hum. Time for a good wine night sometime soon....
Cheers!!

Shyraz?

2008-02-10T20:26:00.001-05:00

Tried 3 wines while out in BC last week. Turns out they are all from the same grape - Shyraz!! I got the name from a typo on the back label of one of the wines (the Argentine one), but it's actually not a bad moniker given the shiraz/syrah conundrum.
So, lets start with the Argentine - the Finca Flichman, Gestos, 2006 "Shyraz" was a bit of a disappointment. They blend shiraz from two zones, the higher Tupungato (a newer viticultural region in Mendoza) and the lower, more established Barrancas region. It's a young violet purple colour. The nose was initially off-putting - candyish bubblegum. Oh oh, I thought, but it blows off with time. Bright damson plums, slightly gritty mouthfeel, medium bodied - a simple, "OK" wine and disappointing. Way overpriced at $18.

I whipped across the border into Washington state one day to snowboard the 40 fresh centimetres of snow at Mt. Baker. On the way home I popped into a little shop for some coffee and saw a bottle of the Jacob's Creek, Reserve Shiraz, 2004 on the shelf. Yes, the one that got a "91" in the Wine Spectator. The price tag read $9.99. Worth picking up? Duh!! This sells for $19 in Quebec and $21 in BC. So, one hour later it was breathing in front of me along with some chili. Cassis on the nose, pure fruit palate supported by seamless tannins and a touch of black pepper. Medium-full bodied. No hint of complexity from barrel aging (something I like) limits it to a "good" rating, don't see how it got a "91", unless there's some bottle variation (which wouldn't surprise me - they make a crapload of this stuff). Well worth $10, but not $21.

Ok, last up is the best of the three. The Bridlewood, Syrah, Central Coast, 2004 is from California. By far the most complex of these wines, it has plums on the nose, a slick, smooth mouthfeel, black fruit with meat and leather notes. Interesting that they chose to call it "syrah", I think they were aiming for Rhone style rather than new world This is good stuff. Priced OK at $18...if I could get it for $9.99, I'd buy a trunk full!
Cheers!!