4 Bottles from 3 Countries (Ontario / New Zealand / Portugal)

An interesting night of wine.  Started with one of my last two bottles of Stoney Ridge's inaugural Sparkling wine from 2005 ... sadly it was corked, you could smell it right off the bat, thankfully the taste was intact for the first few sips so we could see where it would have been - it was still fresh and lively with acidity, sadly the flavour was consumed with cork notes within minutes.

Next up was a bottle of Angels Gate 2005 Old Vines Chardonnay - the tasting of this wine is documented here - so there is little more to say about it.  Next up was a bottle of Marisco 2010 Marlborough Pinot Noir, which I tried last on November 14 - little has changed with this wine, it is still delicious and I expect it to get more so in the next few years, if I can just leave some bottles alone and stop showing them off.  The real surprise of the night was a bottle of Ferreira 1999 Late Bottled Vintage Port.  Now I know people say that LBV Port does not age nor does it change and needs to be drunk within a few years of purchase, but I disagree ... I think this bottle is still as delicious as the day I bought it, maybe even more so, it is smooth and delicious with chocolate and cherry's galore along with great spice and herbs on the finish.  A surprise and a real treat.

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com website ...catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.

Domaines Bour 1999 Domaine de Grangeneuve Cuvee Vieilles Vignes (France)

I always wondered why my parents put me into a French Immersion program at school when I was young, the teasing from the English language-learning students was relentless and made us all feel quite ostracized from the rest of 'les etudiants'.  Today I understand what people are saying in French, but when it comes to speaking it I am well out of practice ... so I have often wondered why my parents put me through those formative years of hell.  Until today.  I am looking at a bottle of 12 year old French wine, that I pulled out from my cellar, and the back label is written completely in French, and because of that education of years gone by I can understand 95% of what is written.  It's a blend of Syrah and Grenache "a parts egales" (in equal parts); and the wine is made from "nos plus vieilles vignes (plus de 30 ans)" (our oldest vines, over 30 years old).  There are other parts of the label I understand but now 12 years later the descriptors are a little off: ["Les aromes evoquent les fruits murs et les epices" (Aromas recall ripe fruits and spices); "En bouche ... harmonieux, plein et rond" (in the mouth ... harmonious, full and round)].  All except for "Potential de vieillissement de 7 a 10 ans" (aging potential of 7-10 years) ... they weren't far off.  This wine got lost in the cellar and only now did I find it and say to myself "Je ferais mieux de boire celui-ci maintenant" (I had better drink this one now).  

There is no doubt from the very first smell that this wine is an old one: dried leaves, forest floor, age and rot are all smells in the glass - but rot in a good way, not in an I-live-by-the-dump kinda way.  Flavours are far from fresh, see above for some of the descriptors, but there are still some tannins and acidity in this wine that give it a certain freshness on the palate, without being fruity.  Over the course of a few hours the wine smoothed and became even sippable with a lingering dried tobacco leaf/cigar finish.  You have to understand old wine to like this one, and it was mighty likeable if you like old wine - that may sound like pretzel logic but it sounds much better than my French does.  As for my French Immersion formative years - I guess I should thnak my parents after all this time, your foresight helped me to read French wine bottles, and in this profession that a much needed skill.

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com website ...catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.

Happy Birthday Raiding of the Cellar (Australia / France / USA)

I attended a 60th birthday party last night and it was a riches of old wines that materialized out of the old man's cellar.  The youngest wine was 11 years old, the oldest 21.  Kicking things off was a 1999 Cape Mentelle 'Trinder Vineyard' Cabernet-Merlot from Western Australia; lots of leather, dried fruit, tobacco, anise, and forest floor notes throughout ... smooth across the tongue, not a lot of life left in it but I wouldn't be dumping it down the toilet anytime soon either.  Another Cape Mentelle proved to be equally up to the task of still be drinkably good, the 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon, with its dried red berries taste and cherry Fruit Roll-up smells, a touch foresty but still very nice to sip on.  Neither wine stayed in the glass long because there was always another set to be opened.

Leaving Australia we set sail for the Old World with a bottle of 1995 Chateau Clarke from Bordeaux, dried berries and dried leaves, it was time to drink this one and drink it we did - happily.  The oldest wine materialized, a 1990 Chateau Cruzeau - not a well known house from Bordeaux but one that made a very good wine in 1990.  Surprisingly alive with red fruit, a touch of red berries and soft leather notes.  Quite possibly the most interesting wine of the night ... Until the American showed up.

The final cork to pop, that I was present for anyway, was a Ridge 1994 Geyserville, a blend of 68% Zinfandel, 20% Carignan, 8% Petite Sirah and 4% Mataro, 16 years old and the fruit still showed through, though it was definitely all dried, raspberry and cherry with some semblance of tannins (though not intrusive) and a hint of sweetness - I meant to look at the alcohol content but missed my opportunity.  Finally, as mother nature began to dump snow on the land, we decided it was time to leave, just as a bottle of Vouvray was on deck.  But as in baseball the on deck batter never gets up to the plate (or the glass in this case) once the game is pronounced over.

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com website ... catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.

South Africa Wine Up the Ying Yang (South Africa)

Tonight, I attended the South Africa Wine Society's (SAWS) annual holiday dinner, food was decent, the people I met were fun and entertaining, but not as entertaining as their keynote speaker (who happened to be me) ... As a wine writer I was very interested in the wines being poured.  As I admitted in my address, on the whole I am not a huge fan of South African wine, I have liked quite a few, but many others have left me very cold with a bitter taste in my mouth.  So tonight I wanted to see what the SAWS drinks: do they bring in and sample only the best?  Turns out it was a very Graham Beck-centric evening, but their cellar was raided for some real gems.  

We opened with a selection of Graham Beck LCBO general list wines that will soon be de-listed ... what a crime because the 2009 Chardonay/Viognier blend is absolutely delightful - now granted, not for a cold fall evening, but a real pleasure for hot days in summer, I hope this one comes back.  Next we toasted the evening with a Graham Beck Non-Vintage Brut, the nose was loaded with toasted almond biscotti while the palate had the lightly sweet flavour of almond biscotti, all it was missing was the crunch.  Next up, the dinner wines both from 2002: Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir and Graham Beck The Joshua.  The Pinot was downright nasty:  too old, no fruit, lousy smell - I took a sip just to see if nose and palate did not match-up, but they did ... "waiter, more water".  The Joshua was a totally different story. A Shiraz/Viognier blend that was sublime:  white pepper and cassis on the nose was followed by pepper, cassis, a hint of tar and some burnt toffee notes that replayed in the mouth as it lingered there ... yum (best wine of the evening - if I wasn't speaking I could see myself getting loopy on this one).  

Finally, a Graham Beck 1999 Blanc de Blancs; first bottle was corked and even after I pointed it out to the table many continued to drink it and love it, forewarned is forearmed, but some people just don't understand - of course glassware would have made a difference but I hold out little hope that a banquet hall with invest in good glasses.  A fresh glass was poured for me and it really was a beautiful wine, smells of Dulce de Leche on toast with a palate that proved to be quite nutty with hazelnuts and some baked apple.  Lovely.  

Thanks to the South Africa Wine Society for having me tonight, I had a great time, I hope they did too.  To see pictures of the evening might I suggest heading over to my friend Andy McCraw's website, he's the official photographer of the SAWS, though I think he has doctered the pictures of me to make me look bigger.

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com website ... catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard 1999 Bobcat Blend (California)

Now this was a real surprise. At one point I owned 3 bottles of this wine,. The first one I drank in April of 2006, the next in August of 2007 - the note on the last bottle said hold another year ... seems I'm a little late, as two years have now gone by. Upon opening the wine was a little shy in the glass, giving up forest floor notes and not much else; but with a little coaxing, the right glass and some aeration fruit began to emerge, not fresh fruit, dried fruit - but, twas fruit. Figs, dried blueberry and cranberry rounded out the forest floor notes on the nose. The mouth is where this wine really shows its age, but also shows it's complexity: dried leaves, dried fruit, barrel notes of cinnamon and spice with touches of dried herbs. There's a nice seam of acidity here that seems to hold the wine up nicely in the mouth and very little tannin, but still there is some tannin ... this wine was a real surprise, ten years old and still holding up well. Lovely, in an that old wine kinda way.

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com website ...
catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario
sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.

Paoletti Winery 1999 Merlot (California)

Not often are you going to find a Merlot of this quality and this age on the shelf for twelve-bucks, but find it I did. This was the last bottle of wine I was to enjoy in Michigan, and one of the ones I had been looking forward to most, with a bit of trepidation, apprehension and excitement. Thankfully my excitable parts were not disappointed. The nose was loaded with fruit: blueberry and blackberry, along with other great smells: smoked meat, licorice and spice. The flavours in the glass also didn’t disappoint and proved to be even more complex then expected. At first they seemed simplistic with cassis and blackberry, then a smoky character emerged. A little later in the sipping of this wine the entry turned chocolaty before going spicy and smoky then ending with that spiced smoked meat found on the nose on the finish. Very nice - went well with the last supper of broasted chicken and bbq’ed ribs

Check out the OntarioWineReview.com main website ...
catch up with the latest news and reviews from Ontario
sign-up for the free biweekly newsletter and much more.