Well, back again for more 2001 bottles of hooch ... I think I'm stuck in 2001 because I am re-arranging my wine cellar and I'm transferring data from my current software system (Cellar!) to CellarTracker - so I don't want to get too involved with the movement of the cellar until the transfer is done ... anyway that's just a little about what's going on here, I'll keep you posted. Anyway back to the wine. Last night I tried another '01 wine from France, this time a Vins du Pays from J &; F Lurton's Domaine des Salices. This Syrah was an interesting wine, though I only made it through one glass because the more it sat the smokier, the woodsier and the more tannin dryness it left on the tongue. The nose was smoky, mushroomy with dried raspberry and cedar ... it also had a fun little minty quality about 30 minutes in. The taste kept the smoky, added earthy and cranberry notes along with dried cherry, cedar-vanilla notes and gentle spice ... but then between 30-45 minutes in the glass the subtle changes that were happening became more pronounced and intensified turning more woodsy than fruity quickly (even the dried fruit seemed to disappear); the wine got gritty and just started drying out the tongue. I probably missed the sweet-spot of this wine by about 3 years. Oh, well, it's all a learning experience.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Cave de Rasteau 2001 Rasteau - Cotes du Rhone Villages (France)
My obsession with 2001 wines, or should I say experiment, finally continues. After a weekend in Kitchener at the Wine & Food Show, where there was enough wine poured to choke a horse. I had brought 3 bottles of 2001 wine along with me for those quiet evening back in the room, but it seems that I either got back to the room too late or enough wine had been consumed for one evening - or both (see the late dinner at Bauer Kitchen). So all the bottles of 2001 made it back home, and it is here that I will begin again to drink and experiment with them. This Rasteau proved to be a lovely find a decade later. The nose is rich with cedar, cinnamon, dried blackberry and dried cranberry with hints of vanilla that seemed to drift in and out of the olfactories. The palate was nicely spiced with creme de cassis that rolled around in the middle and that touch of vanilla (from the nose) found its way onto the palate. The finish was a pleasing combination of dried raspberries and black licroice that took awhile to develop in the mouth but then lingered for quite a spell.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wines at the Bauer Kitchen (Italy, South Africa, BC, California)
My 2001 vintage experiment was put on hold for a night as a small group of friends headed out to a Kitchener-Waterloo restaurant called Bauer Kitchen (187 King Street South, Waterloo) where sommelier Jake Richards toured us through a number of interesting wines from a diverse array of places: Italy, South Africa, Japan (by way of Toronto), California and back to Canada (British Columbia to be exact).
Jake started us off with a lovely Prosecco from Contarini called Val-Secco because, according to Jake's information, when they re-drew the lines of the Prosecco region (in Italy) this winery fell just short of the line - so, not being able to call themselves Prosecco they took the first few letters of Valdobbiadene (a classic Prosecco region) and the "secco" to form their proprietary name. What a delicious bottle of bubbly this is, full of fruit, persistent bubbles and lemon candy sweet with balancing acid notes. A great starter to the evening, we could have happily drank this the rest of the evening, but Jake had more in-store. Like a South Africa white blend from Sequillo, their 2008 white had us guessing the blend: Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and possibly some Chardonnay (?) - creamy vanilla, exotically grassy with some real intrigue in the mouth and a lovely long finish.
Next up was a palate cleansing Sake from Izumi of the North, a sake house located in, of all places, Toronto, Ontario,Canada - we drank the Nama Cho cold, and it refreshed and cleansed the palate for the reds that were to follow.
With a smile Jake brought over a very black bottle and started to pour, only once all the glasses were filled and we had taken our first taste and universally agreed on the "fine-ness" of the wine did he reveal it as a 2009 Syrah from Black Hills winery in British Columbia - nice blackberry, cassis and raspberry aromas with white pepper, blackberry, and mocha on the palate ... after tasting this you can see why you'd believe the rumour Jake was willing to start: that BC wineries are ripping out their Pinot Noir vines to replace with Syrah ... it's quite plausible and maybe even the right thing to do. Finally, and surprisingly, the last wine was my least favourite of the evening: Caymus 2008 Zinfandel ... many of my readers know my love for Zin but this one seemed a little out of whack, there was plum and chocolate notes but you could also sense the alcohol heat on both the nose and palate (15.2%) and this made the wine seem unbalanced ... I suspect another couple years in bottle might rectify that situation. All in all a fantastic wine tasting and the meal presented to us was equal to the task. Thanks to Jake and the wonderful staff at the Bauer Kitchen for a fantastic evening.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Eugenio Collavini 2001 Merlot - Isonzo del Fruiuli (Italy)
Over the next few days I will be sipping and sampling wines from the 2001 vintages from around the world ... there's no conspiracy as to why I am drinking wines of this certain age, I was just messing around in the cellar the other day and thought maybe I should be drinking up my seemingly vast collection of 2001 wines (make room for the newer stuff). So over the next three days you'll see more reviews of wines from over a decade ago. Tonight's candidate in the category is a wine from Italy's Friuli region, a Merlot - not usually a grape many consider a traditional Italian grape, but they do mess around with the international varieties. This was an interesting wine and one I wish I had more than one bottle of; after a decade in bottle it proved to have a wonderful mouthfeel and smoothness to it. Dried red fruit and blueberry lead the charge here, with a touch of some cedary notes, there also seemed to be quite a bit of spice (probably from the wood) in the early going. But after an hour it settled down and became a wine you could sit and sip on for most of the night - which is what I did ... let's hope the other wines from a decade ago hold up just as well.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
An old Zin and an older Cab (California)
A frank talking Saturday evening deserves some serious wine ... and we had just that, in both ways. I won't delve into the conversation but I will tell you about the two wines. The first was a Cline 2007 Sonoma County Zinfandel, an absolute beauty that is in the prime of her drinkabilty. Lush plum, black cherry, and chocolate - rich and decadent, the plum screams through the whole wine from start to finish adding in layers of flavour as it goes. The next was a bit of an older wine that was starting to crest but still good in its own way. The L de Lyeth 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon started off a little tough, or should I say thin, but that would be expected after the Zinfandel's lushness - but as the night wore on and the conversation grew more serious it started to come into its own and now in hindsight seemed a more serious wine to take the evening in with. It was smooth with blackberry and black cherry taking the lead and a touch of herbal creeping in from the rim (if you know what I mean). Both wines made a serious evening more palatable and were worth talking about, here anyway.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Chateau Haut-Monplaisir 2004 Cahors (France)
Funny, but true story ... early this morning I walked into my wine cellar, knowing we were having steak for dinner I wanted to grab something big. My hand was guided by fate (sure, let's call it that) to a lone bottle in a box ... a French wine from the Cahors region ... known in the past for big, ballsy and tannic wines that need meat or time, made from the Malbec grape. Let's step back in time a moment ... long before there was Argentinean Malbec there were the wines of Cahors - the traditional home of Malbec. I then headed out for an Argentine tasting in Toronto. And why today? Because, unbeknownst to me, it is World Malbec Day. On this day you are suppose to celebrate the Malbec wines from Argentina ... well it seems that I am celebrating with the proper grape, but I've gone old school. Alright maybe not so funny as it was fateful and interesting that I had done that without realizing it. Anyway, this wine turned out to be really old school Malbec with lots of leathery, earthy and brambly notes and huge drying tannins ... the steak helped tame those tannins but the wines was still quite aggressive ... says something about those smooth lush Argentine wines - they are much more approachable and much sooner, this one could still use a few years to mellow.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Juan Gil 2005 Silver Label Monastrell (Spain)
I told you I'd be having the same wine tonight, but from a different year - and what a difference a year makes ... where last night's wine had many dried fruit qualities this one was all fresh fruit, big tannins and lots of spice. Right from the get go you could tell this wine was big, the black fruit was massive: blackberry and spiced black cherries led the charge, with a hint of licorice and allspice on the nose. The palate brought all that to the table and more: black pepper seasoning every sip, there was all that dark fruit and spice notes wrapped up in some pretty hefty tannins. This wine was a heck of a lot more robust and spicy than last night's effort, and as the wine sat in the glass, instead of drying out, it seemed to develop more and more dark fruit character and a certain kind of juiciness, tempered by the pepper and spice. Be interesting to see what the wine is like in a year when it reaches the age of its 2004 counterpart ... but right now this is one ballsy and beautiful wine.
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