Tag Archives: Australia

KP Duty – Kosher For Passover Wines

April 4, 2012

http://blogs.canada.com/2012/04/04/kp-duty-kosher-for-passover-wines/

 

Lent? Forget about it. 12-day cleanses? Whatever. Try cooking with and having to eat nothing but Matzo, eggs and oil for eight days. To a Jew, Matzo is irresistible, consumed with über, hoover fervor and it leads to an awful syndrome. Matzo Belly.

(1998) Dry Bones cartoon: Passover, Pessach, Pesah, Holiday, Shuldig, Yom Kippur, over eating, over weight, dieting

Once a year due diligence calls so the apron goes on. Passover cooking is a science and an art unto itself. It is my form of penitence, tortuous, a culinary desert, horrific like a Fear Factor episode. Charred eggs, Haroseth, Chopped Liver, Kugel, Farfel Stuffing and desserts made with Cake Meal and Matzo Meal. My worst nightmare!

Recommending wines that are Kosher for Passover used to be similarly daunting but the field has certainly improved. Here five choices to get you through four cups, four questions, gamey gefilte and that wafer thin bread that tastes like forty year-old crackers. Be sure to click on the LCBO inventory links because the wines are only available in limited quantities and in specific stores.

 

ADAR DE ELVIWINES CAVA BRUT KP  (56737, $15.95) and its touch of residual sweetness will aid in the transition from a no beer, no scotch cocktail hour through to the traditional boiled potatoes and salt water. Why not go sparkling for Pesach?

HAFNER GRÜNER VELTLINER KP 2009 (157511, $12.95) is a newbie as far as Kosher for Passover is concerned. Touch of honey and upper level acidity is the key to this food and wallet-friendly Austrian white.

FIVE STONES SAUVIGNON BLANC KPM 2010 (218065, $23.95) may also be Mevushal but this Aussie SB is dry and worth the extra bucks. Beckett’s Flat is the producer of this aromatic beauty.

ELLA VALLEY VINEYARDS EVER RED KP 2007 (687897, $23.95) delivers the goods when the brisket comes to the Seder table. Ella Valley is Israel’s most consistent Kosher producer at a level most can afford. Their straight Merlot is their best but costs $10 more than this Bordeaux Blend.

GALIL MOUNTAIN YIRON KP 2006 (95075, $33.95) is the clear winner in VINTAGES Kosher choices for 2012. Tannins resolved, fruit still shining like the Galilee sun, Cabernet and Merlot lifted by the addition of Syrah.

 

 

 

Good to Go!

Hunger Games and Blind Wine Tasting

Monday, March 19, 2012    

 

Quince Bistro, 2110 Yonge Street, Toronto 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I play the hunger game all day in anticipation of the big night. Eating little, saving myself for what the chef will throw at me. “Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death.” Five courses and 10 wines later the thrill of victory is sweet. Chef Peter Tompkins takes the group on a Mediterranean wanderlust road trip with stops in no less than five European nations. Our leader generously gifts eight of the ten wines from his cellar. All in all, five continents and 10 countries are represented. A theme runs through the lot and the game is on. We speculate on the grapes, the country of origin and the producer.

Canapés

  • salt and cod fritters, lemon aioli
  • herb and gruyère cheese profiteroles
  • mushroom and goat cheese arangini

Tarlant Brut Zero NV Champagne races out of the gate, unabashedly revealing all. Brioche, apple skin, lemon meringue and Pomello. She’s easy to like, maybe too easy. “My, my my. Once bitten…twice shy.”   87

 

Grilled Portuguese Cornbread, chicken liver pâté, pickled apples

Henry of Pelham Cabernet-Merlot 1998 brings the house down. I think it droit de la Gironde. Who would believe a 14-year old Niagara Bordeaux blend and its milk chocolate, oak domination would not only survive but thrive? From Ontario’s long-growing, patio summer.  Best tomatoes too.  89

Viña Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon Casa Real 1997 may wander off over the Chilean hill yet shows continence in a continent away, IGT way. Soft, curvy, lovely. Where tobacco, spices and rich vanilla once fused fusible fruit, there now exists a quiet calm. Good show though.  88

 

Crispy Braised Lamb Shoulder, du puy lentils, lamb jus, mint salsa verde

Odem Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 from the folks who bring us Alfasi out of the Golan revelates in its own way. Oz-like in constitution (Margaret River comes to mind), the vernal persistence is admirable. There is a feeling of disjointedness for some. A summons to Israeli wine guy Rogov (86) to taste again and show some new love.  88

Cathedral Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (328567, $14.95) the non-ringer, South African VINTAGES essential electrifies blind. I reckon oak/fruit bomb Argentine Cab, a la Michel Rolland but wrong again. Alcohol is very present, green mint and eucalyptus dominate and dark chocolate lingers on. Like Lindsay Lohan.  86

 

Grilled New York Strip Loin, celeriac purée, potato rösti, haricots vert, assorted mushroom sauce

Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1996, the last of Robert’s great wines. Everything changed in 1997  and “…history, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.” Wex waxes on about “a Tel Aviv Cab” but that roadster was seen flying down Dizengoff in the last flight.  This Napicon has reached high tide and is now a pig in shit, cool, uncoiling  in the mud. AZ announces he is “hanging up his wine shingles.” We have come to the crossroads of the evening and all is good.  93

Château Léoville Barton 1999 is unequivocably the best value, never mind the vintage, in classified growth Bordeaux that some extra cash can buy. Now I’ve done it! MG notes “lead on the right”, as in the right (wrong) hand side of an Aussie road. Common to the Mondavi, a bretty, farmyardy character no longer dominates as a red hot mama. Now smokey berries and if there was thought of fruit not waiting for tannins to evolve, think again. Will rank with the best of ’99. WOTN for most.  94

 

Assorted Cheese Plate, toasts and chutney, piave, delice de bourgogne, 5-year aged perron cheddar

Antinori Guado al Tasso 1999 is closed down and phasing dumb. Pencil shavings fill the glass but no fruit, herbs or spices. Sink smell too, metallurgic and iodine. I’ve had the 2000 twice recently and both examples were expressive, blood thirsty Tuscan specimens. Could this ’99 be years behind its window with fruit lurking in mountain shadows? I find myself walking away in high dudgeon.  NR

Clarendon Hills Hickinbotham Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 noses funky pork and seafood, gamboge and gammon. Phantom palate of d’Agen plum, prune, fig and raisin. Pitchy black ink, an operatic meteor shower on a moonless sky. MS says “a sipping wine, with cheese, a fireplace and a boar stew.” To me, crazy Mclaren Vale Cabernet, perverse to look at, deadly to consume.  91

Alois Kracher Scheurebe TBA #4 Zwischen den Seen 2004 is dessert all on its own. Fanta orange, quince (of course), marmalade and honey. Lazer acidity by way of AM, sweet and syrupy. Could imagine pouring it on Austrian Palatschinken.  92

 

 

Good to go!

Seeing Red on a Green Day

 

Friday March 16, 2012

 

http://blogs.canada.com/2012/03/16/seeing-red-on-a-green-day/

 

A link to the March 17, 2012 VINTAGES release:

http://www.vintages.com/circular/circ_main.shtml

 

If only it were just the reds of Spain falling mainly on these VINTAGES pages. Kudos to our very own Friendly Wine Giant David Lawrason for calling out the LCBO by noting that something is amiss in the land of the monopoly. The catalogue does indeed look like a Food and Drink issue, minus Lucy and Nancy’s journalistic integrity. Perhaps it’s the social responsibility stance that drives the heavy food component but this is the business of wine promotion and selling. So the question begs. Who’s penning this plane crash with no survivors? Poor Bob Homme must be rolling in his grave. That said, four big picks for Pattys everywhere.

 

Bodega del Abad Dom Bueno Crianza 2001 (244699, $14.95) the red is my 2nd Abad reco and Godello abides. My favourite Wine Ponce exclaims “…most $15 wines are not built to last, but this red still has the good stuff.” From Bierzo, a Mencia munificent spice box of aromas and flavours, savoury, herbal, smoothed out by its age. Great IVR* I say.  mjg 88

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Filippo Le Lucere Brunello di Montalcino 2006 (146175, $49.95) is the better of the two ISD Brunelli. Suckling (95) calls it “…refined and gorgeous.” Sanderson of WS (93) says “…dense and tannic, with a long spicy finish.” Kyle Phillips-IWR (2 stars) writes “…it’s an austere wine, in a traditional key, and very young.” Biggest shout out comes by way of Jonathan of the Grape Life (97), “…excellent finesse. Balanced fruit, acidity, tannins…rather moreish.” Entrenches me in that recurring dream, the one inside Enotecca La Fortezza, tasting through an endless sea of Brunelli.

Lucere Brunello 2006

 

St. Hallett Blackwell Shiraz 2009 (535104, $29.95) bests Barossa at this price point and on that limb for matter, anywhere in the land of Oz. From lands Ebenezer, Seppeltsfield and Greenock, receives extended elevage (20 months) in American Oak and shows off like a multi-coloured bruise. A favourite of Aussie writers from Perth to Sydney. RJ (96), JH (96), GW (94), JL (94), KG (93) and Sarah the Wine Detective, “…well-defined and bright, it’s a thoroughly modern Barossa bruiser!”

Hallet Blackwell Shiraz 2009

 

 

Other Wines Of Note:

Opus One 2008 (158063, $364.95) is what? 

Quintarelli Valpolicella Superiore 2002 (986117, $79.95) price is spot on

Concha Y Toro Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (315176, $79.95) tag has burst through the roof. I paid $42 for the 2001!

 

 

 

IVR* – Vintage Direct Intrigue-to-Value Ratio

 

 

 

 

Good to go!

VINTAGES, Wines and Valentines

One sparkling, one white and one red because “I ain’t seen my baby since the night before last.” All three are VINTAGES releases, readily available and shot through the heart.

The Sparkling

LOUIS BOUILLOT PERLE D’IVOIRE BRUT BLANC DE BLANCS (48801, $18.95) is Crémant de Bourgogne as understudy but it rolls out all the necessary attributes (yeast, toast, brioche) of quality méthode champenoise for a driblet of damage.  Discussing the two side by side is admittedly like comparing apples to oranges yet this Blanc de Blancs sniffs les deux. It should be noted that Paul and Stevie both appeared at the Grammy’s last night (though not together). The Perle D’ivoire goes together with strawberries “in perfect harmony.”   mjg 90

Find it at VINTAGES

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White

ROSEWOOD NATALIE’S SÜSSRESERVE RIESLING 2009 (258806, $14.95) is down $3 from the ’08, magnetic and resonant of a winemaker’s passion. Crafted with the Deutsches technique of adding reserved, unfermented Riesling juice (must) back before bottling. Candy-coated (technically off-dry), bushy-tailed, brimming with many scents citrus, backed up by a grove of apples and peaches. Pour this and you just might fish your wish.  mjg 88

Find it at VINTAGES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Red

SISTER’S RUN SHIRAZ 2009 (222018, $15.95) screams value from big, bruising Barossa. A family run, higher altitude SV (Cavalry Hill) and a subsidiary of the Dandelion commonwealth. Coddled like a quail’s egg by Canadian critics, including Stimmel (90) who notes “…smoky charcoal, mint, cedar and mocha aromas are suffusive.” Grape Guy MP’s (****+) rating eschews restraint and he gushes “big fruit, big flavour, big fun.” Pop and Pour out of Alberta (where the Sister is $20) notes “allspice, dried meat and gingerbread.” NA in the US but in the UK WOW says this “rich and powerful wine wears its 14% alcohol on its sleeve.” Twisted maybe, but “what do you want to do with your life? I wanna rock!”  mjg 88

Find it at VINTAGES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good to go!

VINTAGES CLASSICS FEBRUARY 2012

A link to the release:

http://www.vintages.com/classics/cc_main.shtml

Flip Book:

http://www.vintages.com/classics/111025/index.shtml

PDF:

http://www.vintages.com/classics/cc_111025pdf_en.shtml

From penal colony to world wine power, Australia has crossed many a bridge in its compendious 250 years. Now something is amiss. VINTAGES flitted “First Families” back on April 30th, “Aussie Somewhereness” on January 21st but now the gesture resembles a flipped bird towards the LDU. Four wines represented. Four? Two years ago there were 36. So why has VINTAGES abandoned the cobbers? Are the arbiters disgusted by rows of reductive tinctures languishing on shelves like tin soldiers in a hobby shop? Consider this. Speculative investment into an already strong Aussie dollar has soared since the beginning of the year, with the downside heaving a negative impact on sectors such as manufacturing, tourism and yes, wine exports. VINTAGES stopped buying Oz because consumers are transparent in their quest for value and IVR* from Chile, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand and South Africa. Fault not the winemakers from the hot continent. The economic lot handed to them beats down their competitive spirit. Looking back 10 years that is almost hard to believe. OK, a fair crack of the whip for a true blue battler charitably down $12 from ’07.

MITOLO REIVER SHIRAZ 2008 (41145, $43) is a Barossan dinki-di with all the bramble, savoury earth and pho spice one can imagine. Sure, the compressed berries and sharp twang will go to town like a sour, hard candy and render one full as a goog. Fair suck of the sav, mate. Cry me a reiver and re-acquaint your mind with flavour. HS-WS (94), LPB-RP (93), JO (93) and JH (95) are followers. Will drink beautifully in five to seven.

IVR* – Vintage Direct Intrigue-to-Value Ratio

CVR** – Vintage Direct Curiosity-to-Value Ratio

Good to Go!