A Mixed Bag from Bubbly to Malbec to Dessert (France / Argentina / Ontario / Australia)

I have been a little lax about updating this blog because we re building a new website and I keep hoping we can move all blogs to one location ... But the change over is moving at the speed of IT, and anyone who has worked with an IT department knows exactly what that means.  Subsequently I have not posted anything here thinking that I would just have to move it or it would not get swept up in the move ... but since we find ourselves behind schedule I thought I best keep going with my wine finds ... this one goes back to a dinner party we attended in early January - with a friend who is as passionate about wine as she is for making great food, not sure which one comes first in her book:

We kicked things off with a hybrid of our own doing:  a Chateau des Charmes Sparkling Brut and a dash of Tawse 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine, on it's own the Icewine had strawberry, cherry and hints of spice, not too sweet, with nice balancing acidity.  Combined they made one hell of an impressive aperitif.  There was also another bottle of bubbly on the table that night, but alas I did not take note of what it was.

Our friend is a huge fan of Malbec, and I thought I grab one from the homeland and one from the adopted land (France and Argentina) - both wines had a fair bit of age on them.  The Argentinean was a Altos 2002 Las Hormigas, and it was head-snappingly atrocious in both smell and flavour ... granted, maybe it was a little too long in the tooth, but I can't believe that plastic cork helped in any way.  The French version was a Chateau de Gaudou 2005 Cahors Tradition, and it showed amazingly well with plum, spice and pepper notes on the nose; palate was well-balanced with black raspberry and a lovely cedar finish ... now it also wasn't all Malbec (80%), it also had some Merlot (15%) and Tannat in there as well (5%).

Final wine of the night was Lillypilly Estate 2002 Noble Blend, I thought it was lovely for its age: caramel, apricot, lemon, baked pineapple, and after a while develops marmalade notes, these all appeared on the nose; palate showed off honey-apricot with some lively acidity, creamy mid, and a floral-vanilla finish ... alas I was the only one who really enjoyed this ... but then sometimes my inner wine-geek takes over.

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Family and Five Bottles of Wine (Ontario / France / California / Australia)

It's always fun to gather family around the table, it's even more fun to ply them with alcohol and find out just what you can get people to try ... now it's not like I was pouring strange wines, in fact this might possibly one of the best array of wines I have poured for a group in a long time, starting with the Collin Bourisset 2011 Brouilly 'Les Terres Bleues', something new to hit the LCBO shelves here in Ontario.  This is a lovely wine from the Beaujolais region of France and one I just couldn't wait to try again.  I put a touch of a chill on this bottle and it just sang from the glass with lovely ripe cherry with a hint of white pepper on the finish and the freshness of acidity to keep it lively on the tongue.  I could have had two more bottles myself, but instead we moved on.  The EastDell 2010 Gamay Noir was a perfect follow up to the Collin Bourisset - a little more darker in the cherry department; my full review can be found here (video and written review).  Moving on ... for dinner of fresh pulled pork and some left over ribs from our feast a couple nights before at Ravine Vineyard, I pulled the cork on a Villa Mt Eden 2008 Antique Vines Zinfandel ... what a pure Zinfandel delight this is - there was smoky plum, hints of cocoa, dried cherry and red licorice, touches of spice, all melding together and pairing so well with the pulled pork and ribs; yum.

After dinner you had your choice of sweeties:  2008 Chateau des Charmes Cabernet Franc Icewine (opened specifically for my mother-in-law who has a sweet-tooth that makes mine look like a minor itch) and an Australian Tawny Port-style wine from Dutschke called Old Codger (which three people partook of) ... The Codger is a wine I've had in my cellar for quite some time and has no date on it: spiced orange and cherry on the nose with a smoother than expected mouthfeel of dried cherry and spice along with the 18.8% alcohol heat ... it was a cool night (6 Celsius) so the warmth of this liquid was quite welcome.  As for the Icewine, mother polished off a good 3/4 of the bottle, which was just simply a lovely version:  strawberry, raspberry and cherry mingling together with a honeyed sweetness and near perfect acidity to keep it from being cloyingly sweet, there was just enough left in the bottle for me to get a little taste and make this note.  Congrats to the Chateau on this beauty - if I were to score it (which it turns out I never did on my website, I'd give it 4.5 stars)

It is my understanding that everyone had a great time - and ate well - and of course, we drank well too.

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From Beer to Sweet Wine the Holidays Officially Get Underway (Ontario, France, Lebanon)

Tonight there were eight different bottles opened, well nine actually, but one was corked, as friends came over to kick off the holiday season.  The first thing to be cracked was a bottle of beer, we had made a trip to Oast Brewery in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Saturday afternoon and walked away with a 6-pack of beers (two different) to start our evening off for those who wanted suds with their pigskin (total blowouts the 4pm games were).  Those who wanted to start their evening off with wine chose the Colio 2011 CEV Sauvignon Blanc or the Tawse 2011 Quarry Road Riesling (linked to full reviews on my website).  As we plowed our way through appetizers and on to the main course (pot roast, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, roasted cauliflower, and fresh homemade cast-iron skillet bread - all lovingly prepared by my kitchen maven wife); I offered up dinner wines.  Cave Spring 2011 Dolomite Chardonnay (reviewed on site) was the white of choice but it was the next four wines that proved very interesting and the ones I had not tried in quite some time (if ever).  Kicking off with a Chateau Lagrezette 2000 Cahors (France) ... this was old school Cahors Malbec, before they started making them all drink now, a la Argentina, this needed time - and we gave it 12 years - and it still needed an hour in the decanter to mellow and give it that smooth, lush, black fruit quality with barely a hint of those robust tannins it once had in its youth.  Next up a Lailey Vineyard 2007 Niagara Peninsula Pinot Noir (the first bottle we opened was corked, rats!), this proved to be quite a lovely wine that still has plenty of time in front of it.  An hour and a half in decanter could not subdue the tannins and rough around the edges spices, but the fruit was coming out quite nicely and seem to be holding the middle ground defiantly against the tannins and spice on either side.  This one still needs time and I have a few bottles left so I am quite prepared to give it what it needs ... let's see what happens in two years or so ... my guess and hope is that as the tannins subside that rising fruit quality we found tonight will advance further. The surprise of the night was the Chateau Musar 2008 Musar Jeune (Lebanon), this wine had a sweet fruit edge, middle and core and a youthfulness to boot - it was the wine most asked for seconds of, I only had the one bottle open, I'm sure I could have gone through two or three.  Lastly, with the multitude of desserts served I took a flyer on a non-vintage sweetie out of France: Croix-Milhas Maury - Mute Sur Grains, Vin Doux Naturel ... not sure how this one went over as many did not finish their glass - that should tell me something - so I can only speak for myself here: the wine was drier than expected, with a spicy edge to it that might have been a turn off for some ... when you think sweet you rarely think about a spiciness to go along with it.  Then again with all the wines consumed previous, maybe it was just one too many bottles in a fantastic evening of food, wine and friendship.  Thank you all for coming and let's do it all again next year - with different wines of course.

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A Four (?) Bottle Night (British Columbia / California / and more)

Am I getting too old to have a four-bottle night?  Or was it five bottles?  That's tough to say at this point, as I write this 3 days later, but I can tell you they are fun.  Had some friends over for dinner, "and that's where your drinking problem starts," said my sponsor from AA - alright I'm kidding about that - but we did have some friends over for dinner, and I knew I had to step up my A-game for wine for this group.  So what did I grab out of the cellar?  Well we started with a glass of cheer, sparkling of course, a Road 13 2008 Home Vineyard Sparkling Chenin Blanc from the Golden Mile, British Columbia (Southern part of the Okanagan Valley).  The grapes for this wine come from the 44-year-old vines of Chenin that grow on the property.  The wine was lovely, fruity and exotic with just a hint of sweetness that comes along with a nice bubbly - but always with a dry finish.  Went down so light and easy, great starter wine.  

We then had two bottles of Chateau des Charmes wines from right here in Ontario, a 2006 Riesling (whose review will appear in my Taste it Again column next week) and a 2011 Rose (which will appear in my Newsletter in the next couple of weeks).  

Dinner was pulled pork, baked beans, cole slaw ... BBQ fare ... so the only thing I could think of was Zinfandel:  Cedarville 2005 El Dorado Zinfandel.  This was a very elegant Zin, complex and delicious with plum and white pepper, spiced and dried berries along with an element of fresh cherry - it was not only great with dinner but a wonderful sipping wine for after too.  The final straw of the evening was the bottle of Frazitta  Zibibbo, a Marsala style wine sweet with apricot and honey character that has a slight oxidative quality - but is really a wonderful sipper.  Well, that'll do it - five bottles down (well we did not finish the sweetie) ... and I'm still standing ... and that is always a good thing.

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Bubbles, Two Reds, and Aussie Port (Australia)

It seems we had an Australian evening chez moi, mate.  My buddy from the night before decided to stay over, sleeping-in from the party hard style of wine drinking we did the night before, and we moved into holiday Monday the same way we ended holiday Sunday, with wine.  

Kicked off the day by tasting through some 30+ wines I had sitting around for review.  One of those wines was a Yellow Tail wine called Bubbles, which is coming back into the Ontario market with a new kind of closure. In truth this is not a wine that is going to take the world by storm like some of the previous Yellow Tail offering, and it is not going to change the drinking habits of Champagne lovers - but what is will do is make bubbly more accessible and more pleasurable for a lot of people not looking for the breadiness found in Champagne and replacing it with fresh, crisp and lively fruit along with enough sweetness to make it a wine that's easy going down and easy to party with every single night - because bubbly is not just for special occasions.

After a bite to eat to clear up all that wine from the palate, we threw in a movie (District 9) and opened a bottle of Peter Lehmann 2008 Layers, a peppery black fruit number with lovely cassis and spice notes throughout ... the tail end of the bottle paired well enough with the burgers we BBQed before the rains came.  Dinner's entertainment was the movie Taken with Liam Neeson (if you haven't seen this revenge flick it is well worth it) and mid-way through a Thorn-Clark 2005 Terra-Barossa Cuvee was opened.  The cuvee was a blend of Shiraz, Petit Verdot, Cab Sauv and Cab Franc and mixed together to make a sweet and succulent fruity blend that concocts licorice, coffee, mocha, and vanilla cream into all that fruit.

After dinner, IronMan (one and two) were the movies served alongside a Dutschke "Old Codger" Fine Old Tawny Port from South Australia, a nutty, cherry and caramel sweetie that had just enough spice to make it interesting ... It was a day where two guys, without their wives, watched guy movies and drank guy wines, all we needed was the cigars (but my wife would kill me if we smoked 'em in the house).

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BBQ Night Zin and Dessert Time Late Harvest (California / Ontario)

A full house for a BBQ on the back deck: burgers, dogs, salads, chips, the only thing missing were the baked beans and potato salad - but hey, you can't have everything.  I pulled out a 7 year old Zinfandel from Ravenswood (Ravenswood 2004 Vintners Blend Zinfandel) and was blown away by the dark fruit: plum, black cherry and hints of vanilla along with an element of spice that still existed in this wine - it still tasted young and fresh ... plus there was a bit of chocolate on the finish.

Speaking of chocolate the peanut butter chocolate fudge cake that my wife made was a huge hit and I paired it with a 2008 Pillitteri Select Late Harvest Gewurztraminer (a bit of a curious oddity wine) which was spicy and floral with nice balancing acidity ... another hit.  A tasty dinner was had by all ... I'm sure the drinks played a key part in everyone's enjoyment.

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Wines from the Weekend and Beyond (Ontario)

For those of you who think I have not been drinking over the weekend, or even over the last few days, shame on you, I've just been posting reviews on a variety of other blogs like:

Taste it Again ...

Hillebrand 2005 Trius Red

Lost & Found ...

The Ice House 2006 Northern Ice Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine

Mountain Road Wine Company 2006 Reserve Chardonnay

So there.

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Riesling – Pinot Noir – Cabernet Sauvignon - & a ’59 Monbazillac (Germany / Ontario / France)

Sunday night dinner … Invited over by some friends for an exquisite dinner that included osso bucco and a lemon pie that was, well, out of the ordinary and yet oh so tasty.  Also got my first taste of steamed whole artichokes – that was quite the treat.  The evening started with a bottle of Weingut Dr. Nagler 2002 Rudesheim Auslese from the Rheingau region of Germany.  The initial feeling was that maybe it was a little too sweet to start the evening, but true eonophiles prevailed here: the chance to try any old wine beats out what is proper everytime.  The wine was stunningly delicious with a slight petrol note along with honeyed apples on the nose.  The palate was very sippable, to the point of being dangerously so, honeyed apricots and mac apple – the bottle was gone long before the last of the appetizers.

Next course was a hot pear soup, or at least that’s what I think we were having; as always I am more focused on the wine and this time it was something more recent, a Tawse 2007 Pinot Noir, Niagara Peninsula, from Ontario.  Sour cherry, cranberry with a slight spice and good mouth cleansing acidity.  Both the soup and the wine were delicious.

I had brought along a bottle of Southbrook 2001 Triomphe Cabernet Sauvignon, which I told my host to do what he wished with.  He decided to forego one of his chosen bottles for serving the Southbrook with the main course.  He decanted it for about an hour and a half before giving me the honour of pouring it.  The nose had that telltale green pepper note but there was also dark raspberry, spiced cedar and I found the tannins to still be quite robust … very nice.  But this was not the oldest wine poured.  Not to be outdone my host (the one in charge of the wine anyway) had one more surprise up his sleeve.

Out came a bottle of brownish liquid, my host said it was the last of a case he bought in 1961.  The wine was a G. Cros 1959 Clos Fontindoule Monbazillac … the wine had a rather sherried nose but there was still a little life left in the glass and you could get it if you aerated the wine in your mouth.  Peach sherry came to mind.  This wine was a mere shadow of its former self, but the experience was well worth it and the wine was still quite drinkable … it paired well with the lemon pie giving the lemon flavour something to play off of and made it pop in the mouth.

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A number of wine from around the world at a very special dinner

Best I just tell you to follow this link : http://ontheroadwithgrapeguy.blogspot.com/2010/05/report-from-dinner-at-mazaar-in-windsor.html to find out what I was sipping and savouring this evening.

 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. 

Pillitteri 2008 Sparkling Icewine Cabernet (Ontario)

After two days of driving we’ve arrived in Florida, had dinner with Erica’s (my fiancée) parents and I finally met Grandma.  Seemed only right to toast the occasion with something special – good thing I brought along this Pillitteri Sparkler from home (Ontario).  Not your usual icewine, this one’s got bubbles and it’s red (made with Cabernet Franc); sweet raspberries and strawberries with just enough fizz to keep smiles on faces.  Nothing like welcoming new family with something sweet – the bubbly part was a bonus.

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Frazzitta NV Zibibbo (Italy)

Thought I would end this long evening with something a little sweet and interesting. I have to admit I have never had this type of wine before - it's a "port" from Sicily made from the Muscat of Alexandria grape, hence it is white, known by its traditional nom de plume: Marsala. This wine was sweet and delicious with smells of cinnamon, marmalade and almonds. The aromas followed onto the palate, but over the course of 10 minutes, and plenty of aeration, the cinnamon was reduced to a dull roar and the marmalade and almonds took over. Absolutely delicious with a piece of Lindt 65% Cacao Madgascar dark chocolate.

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.