Two WInes - Two Different Results (Ontario / Washington)

Due to an interesting scheduling conflict (and that's all I'm going to say about that) my wife and I celebrated our anniversary two days early ... and of course wine was a big part of that celebration.  We started with an afternoon toast with lunch (homemade fish tacos grilled up on our new panini grill), our toast to one year could only be with one wine, the one we got engaged with: Chateau des Charmes 2005 Rosé Brut ... a wine that so far is getting better with age.

Wine two was a major disappointment and, typically, was one I had so been looking forward to trying, a bottle of 2005 Eroica from the combined efforts of Chateau Ste. Michelle and Dr. Loosen, grown in Washington State.  I have tried this wine at trade tastings in the past and have been blown away by its freshness and delightful flavour; but this was one nasty bottle of wine that lacked everything I loved about the previous ones I have tried.  The nose seemed to be alright doling out petrol, stewed pineapple and some hints of apricot ... in the mouth the wine had a buttery (?) sensation with hints of mineral notes.  There was some apple and pineapple flavours with a semi-sweet finish that hinted at apricot and lemon pith.  We had ordered Chinese from our favourite place in St. Catharines (Magnolia), and while the food was good (as usual) the wine disappointed ... next time maybe we'll just go with a second bottle of bubbly.

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Double Shot of Road 13 Wines (British Columbia)

As a freak occurrence I ended up with a number of bottles of Road 13 wine (formerly Golden Mile Cellars) and tonight, with friends in attendance on this holiday Monday I opened a couple of those bottles.  The first to be opened was on the deck and turned out to be the beauty of the batch: 2010 Old Vines Chenin Blanc.  This was just the cat's ass (if you'll excuse the language) with aromas that filled the air the moment I poured it (even outside you could smell the tropical fruit plain as day coming from the glass), this wine had what I like to call "sniff-all-day-edness" to it.  The palate was just as inviting loading on those sweet tropical fruit flavours of pineapple and hint of mango, yet also with some restarined mineral notes and citrus flair, especially on the finish where grapefruit and lemon pith intermingled to keep that sweet fruit at bay and bring out all the lovely enjoyment of the wine.  It was on this high that we then opened the 2010 Rosé, a primarily Gamay Noir based pink wine to go with the pork dish for dinner ... alas, it could not stand the scrutiny of the crowd won over by the Chenin's charms, nice but nothing spectacular; maybe we should have started with the rosé.

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JL Wolf 2006 Villa Wolf Rose ... (Germany)

Yikes ... here we are on a Thursday night looking for something to pair with a little fish dish and I come across something in the cellar that I suspect I might have held too long, but might be an interesting compliment:  JL Wolf 2006 Villa Wolf Pinot Noir Rose ... I remember liking this when I bought it and kept looking forward to a good summer occasion upon which to open it ... this seemed it. The capsule came off revealing a plastic cork and it went downhill from there.  The wine was oxidized and off tasting, I passed it to my wife, thinking maybe I am just being sensitive to the plastic closer and letting my predisposition get the better of me.  She was on the phone at the time of glass presentation, but paused in the midst of her conversation to take a sip, made "the face", passed it back and made a thumbs down gesture.  I guess it wasn't just me.  We settled on a Creekside 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Ontario as alternative, and it is still a beauty of a wine.

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Cono Sur 2010 Reserva Carmenere Rosé (Chile)

A buddy came over in the afternoon to help with some much needed fixing up in the backyard (you know, man type work, not planting and such); afterward we started pulling some corks to see what floated our boat.  We started with an Ontario Gewurztraminer that was slightly oxidized, I was surprised by that because it was still quite young.  So that went down the sink.  Next an Organized Crime 2009 Fume Blanc that proved to be very delicious ... we finished that bottle within a couple of hours.  I figured, as we started making some dinner, that we would move into the reds, but instead my buddy thought a nice rosé would go with the chicken dish he pulled out of his head from 15 years ago (feta and onion stuffed chicken with a garlic-honey-mustard glaze) ... my job was to find the right rosé.  I found this bottle of Cono Sur 2010 Carmenere Rosé, and what a find it was, it drank more red than pink.  A blend of 85% Carmenere and 15% Syrah it retained qualities from both grapes:  dark strawberries flavour with a hint of spice, very food friendly, but I would not call this one a quaffer ... it was not your typical back-deck-hot-and-sunny-day type rosé; it was a grab-something-with-substance-and-eat-it-along-side type of rosé.  After dinner we watched a few uncensored episodes of the Family Guy ... Geoff, if you're reading this, the words "Tikka Masala" should get you laughing again.

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Boone’s, Cave Spring “G” and Lailey Rosé (Caliornia / Ontario)

Day 2 on the island and for lunch I cracked a couple of bottles of Boone’s orange-pineapple, who’s kidding anyone, these are sweet coolers and are very tasty for mid-afternoon sipping … these one’s taste like orange crush with booze in them.

Pre-Dinner: I popped the cork on a bottle of Estate Gewurztraminer from Cave Spring Cellars (Jordan, Ontario).  This was one of my favourite ’08 Gewurzts and still holds up well today with its fresh as a rose nose and spicy-lychee palate.  Great aperitif.

Dinner was pistachio encrusted cedar plank salmon, originally thought about opening a Riesling, but instead went for the 2009 Rosé from Lailey Vineyard (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario); the strong raspberry nose followed through on the palate with some sour cherry.  The colour was darker than most of the electric pink rosés I’ve seen lately and the acidity powered through the fish cleansing the palate for the next bite … I would have to say a good pairing and all agreed it was a good choice with the fish.

Tomorrow I am hosting an Italian wine tasting with an Italian themed dinner to follow, nine wines will be poured before dinner with another 6 (or more) being poured at dinner – should be a lot of fun.

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Ogier 2008 Cote du Ventoux Rosé (France)

Yesterday I went to a tasting at the LCBO; me and some of my fellow wine writers sampled approximately two dozen wines. When it was all over I wondered into the store and bought two bottles of this rosé from the Rhone Valley ($11.95). Made from a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault this wine has a beautiful salmon colour. The nose is cherry and raspberry, while the palate is fresh cherry with a dry raspberry finish - or so said my notes from the afternoon tasting. This evening before dinner I decided to crack a bottle (well, actually I pulled the cork - cracking is what you do with a screwcap wine), poured myself a glass and sipped on it for a bit. While doing so I made a few notes: "cherry and raspberry on the nose, cherry palate, raspberry and dry on the finish". Seems pretty consistent if you ask me. I love a wine that tastes the same at home as it does in a tasting room.

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Therapy Vineyard 2007 Pink Freud (British Columbia)

Summer's here and the time is right for pink wine. This neat little rosé is a blend of the bleedings of a multitude of red grapes - that means it's free-run juice from these grapes before they have had time to colour when contacted with the skins (all grape juice is white after all - even from red grapes). This wine had a great salmon-strawberry juice colour, the nose was candied strawberry and had the same kind of flavours on the tongue with a long strawberry finish. I remember it being fresher the year it was bought (last year), but even a year on it still had nice fruit and quenched a thirst on this hot summer day.

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Willow Vineyard NV Baci Rosé (Michigan)

Tonight we tried another one of our Michigan wines, a Pinot Noir Rosé, from a very pretty winery, Willow Vineyard. Unfortunately, the wine did not measure up to the winery, a classic case of the wine tasting better at the winery then it did when you get it home. Now I am not saying it was bad, it had a nice earthy-raspberry flavour on the palate but very little on the nose, and was quite dry on the palate - pretty classic for a rosé; but it lacked umph and punch that would have made it stand out.

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