Grilled chicken, tztatziki, cherry tomato, caper, basil
As a Canadian today’s self-imposed question and self-reflective contemplation is unavoidably this. What to do on Canada Day? Some will do what they do every day by stopping once, possibly twice at a Tim Horton’s drive-thru. They will also #TextLikeaCanadian. Others will do very little. As hard-working folks they will have deserved the rest.
Related – Working wines for the Canada Day weekend
The sedulous people I know best will have spent many waking hours thinking about the wines they will open, share, taste and flat-out consume on Dominion Day. Last week I joined the WineAlign team to judge at #NWAC15. We plodded through nearly 1,500 entries at the annual, just, equitable and severely necessary WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. Canadian wines showed well. Really well.
Though he may be the pioneer, the leader, THE Ontario guy, Shawn McCormick, also known as Uncork Ontario, a.k.a. #ONWineChat is more than qualified to lead a charge for wine speak, talk and direction on #HappyCanadaDay. Anyone who knows is sure to follow Shawn to keep track of what is happening in Ontario and around the country.
Three years ago I had this to say:
“What’s in a name? So many expressions define our national day of unity. Today we simply say Canada Day but let us not forget Le jour de la confédération, Dominion Day and La fête du Canada. The country united may see its wine regions separated by thousands of Kilometres but thanks to Bill C-311, they are now inching closer than ever. Let’s see wines from both provinces sharing the same table this weekend. “A bottle of red, a bottle of white, ” perhaps a bottle of rosé for Canada Day.”
Related – Trending Ontario and B.C wines for Canada Day
Again in 2015 the angels of the Canadian wine diaspora declared another celebration of the wine extolling #CanadianWineDay (or #CdnWineDay). June 28 on Twitter marks the anniversary of Bill C-311 and furthers #CanadianWineCulture. The LCBO does their part be bringing wines together from across the nation. Just a few days ago the VINTAGES June 27th release saw some offers that more than qualified to service Canadian wine consumers on this 148th anniversary of the dominion. You could not go wrong by opening any of these five.
From left to right: 13th Street Merlot 2012, Southbrook Triomphe Cabernet Franc 2013, Sperling Vineyards Gewurztraminer 2013, Culmina Hypothesis 2012 and Queylus Reserve Du Domaine Merlot Cabernet Franc 2010
13th Street Cabernet/Merlot 2012, VQA Creek Shores, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (56598, $19.95, WineAlign)
The 13th Street Cabernet-Merlot was and persists as such a smart buy it clearly is deserving of another go. Clean and gleaned of generous oak, this is a blur of Bordeaux ability and yet a promise of Creek Shores for expatriate greatness, in a vein akin the Lincoln Lakeshore. The integrity and layering are complete, from clay baked berries on the correct side of ripeness, with chewy flavours and nibs of chocolate. A joy to sip, a tender result after “waiting for that feeling to come.” Drink 2015-2020. Tasted June 2015 @13thStreetWines @Noble_Estates
Southbrook Triomphe Cabernet Franc 2013, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (275958, $21.95, WineAlign)
Six months have amplified the current, running in a direct aromatic-flavour line from strawberry to black currant. Such healthy up front fruit with nary a moment of humidity shines while the wine remains just grounded enough to call it Niagara.
From my earlier note of December 2014:
Still organic through and through, despite only a small portion of estate fruit contributing to the overall design of the Triomphe Cabernet Franc ’13. Contracted growers fuel and fulfill the Southbrook ideology, to seek purity in healthy berries. The red fruit here shines on with Daliesque impunity. Its agglomeration makes a juicy, gregarious offer to sip. The vanilla-lavender streak brings elegance, more so than in ’12, along with an elevated sense of savour and really compounded red, red fruit. A natural sweetness and long finish are easy on the gustatory senses. Will be available at VINTAGES in February 2015, when the ’12 runs dry.
Last tasted June 2015 @SouthbrookWine @AnnSperling
Sperling Vineyards Gewurztraminer 2013, Kelowna, VQA British Columbia (242958, $21.95, WineAlign)
The Sperling Gewürztraminer vines are pushing 30 years, an appointment that offers anything but foist for a variety in need of experience to counter tropical foible. The 2013 climbs to aridity from out of gravel grit and upwards, as if aboard an invisible beanstalk. The rough mineral nudge and creamy kernel conjoin and emulsify, creating a gorgeous texture, stabilizing and articulating the high oil content by the omnipresent and enzymatic Sperling citrus. The role of aromatic grapefruit and pomello is like copper ions in the oxidation of ascorbic acid. Gewürztraminer has the problematic ability to rapidly change in physical character, to oxidize and go nut-brown in lack of orchestration. This ’13 is not to tropical but its accents are spiced far out east. It hints at south asian fruits yet always returns to its citrus and stone roots, rocks and reggae. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted June 2015 @SperlingVyds
Culmina Hypothesis 2012, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia (414243, $39.95, WineAlign)
Irrefutably west coast red with a warm shroud of (70 per cent new) French oak. Deep, dark and handsome, well-dressed and coiffed to the salon’s hilt. Merlot (57 per cent) drives the varietal Cadillac, with Cabernet Sauvignon (24) and Cabernet Franc (19) sharing the shotgun seat. This is marked by all sorts of decadent chocolate and coffee from bittersweet to naturally bitter beans. The tannins are fierce but somehow tenderly sweet, in embrace of the cocoa kernels and the black raspberry fruit. They make friends to encourage a long and fruitful relationship. After the chocolate, carry the chocolate, same as it ever was. In the end the fruit succeeds, pushes through the wood, delves into great depth with a long future ahead. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted June 2015 @CulminaWinery
Queylus Merlot/Cabernet Franc Reserve Du Domaine 2010, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (406462, $39.95, WineAlign)
Winemaker Thomas Bachelder refers to the work of Alain Sutre, a consulting Bordeaux winemaker who identified specific grape varieties, clones and rootstocks appropriate to different soils. This early output of a Domaine Queylus Merlot/Cabernet Franc was profoundly influenced by Mr. Sutre’s terroir matching ability. The Queylus lands of the Neudorf farm and the Lincoln Lakeshore have a sense of Bordeaux like no other locale in Ontario. This ’10 exhibits classic dusty plugged in aromatics tagged by a zesty, orange rind grind into the earthy plush. Berry fruit and refined tannins make for a pure, instant impression that will pay it forward in expression, for five to seven years. Relying ponderously on Merlot, that might just be the balancing, tempering and rendering needed to quell the sharp Cabernet Franc, to mingle warmth with cool, to raise the temperature up into a comfort zone, to set the alcohol gauge at 13 per cent. The ripeness and ardor are a Merlot discussion, saved for another day. At the end of the day, these varieties from those clay soils, blended with Bachelder acumen, cement, stamp, seal and deliver. Drink 2015-2022. Tasted June 2015 @QueylusVin @Bachelder_wines @LiffordON
Good to go!
Godello 