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Select tasting through years of the Stratus Red and White

Stratus Winery and Vineyard, Niagara on the Lake
PHOTO: STRATUS WINERY

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Imagine this scene. It’s the year 2000 and all of the Stratus single varietal wines have been bottled.  J-L (Jean-Laurent) Groux and partner in wine at the time Peter Gamble are discussing the vintage and the merits of the individual varieties. “Something’s missing,” is the thought. “We can do better.” They decide to pour them out and reconstruct by blending whites into riddles wrapped in mysteries inside enigmas. They did what? They poured out Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewürztraminer, to reform the varieties by fractional assemblage? Crazy but true. History was made.

J-L Groux
Photo: Stratus Winery

J-L Groux is the winemaker at Stratus Vineyards, steward and maître d‘ to Niagara assemblage, the “art of combining several varieties to create a single wine.” The Stratus Red and White wines define that noble practice for Ontario. Groux’s M.O. is to select the best grapes from a single growing season, age them in oak barrels and then combine the SV’s for the purpose of achieving exceptional aromatics, a long aftertaste, vintage consistency and ageability. If any doubt has been cast over the idea of or the success of Groux’s methodology, upon his insistence that “there is no recipe for assemblage, only a goal,” the back-vintage vertical tasting at Le Sélect Bistro answered the multi-variety bell.

Cabernet Franc, Stratus Vineyard
Photo: Stratus Winery

So what has changed in the past 13 years? Most notable is the wisdom, experience and maturity of the vines and the winemaker. The wines and their maker have developed a symbiotic relationship with their environments. The oak barrels are crucial to the refinement of the Stratus signature wines. Cooperage time, though perpetually in oscillation, has generally increased over the years but levels of new oak have decreased. Groux’s declaration that it takes time to get the pyrazine (green character) out of the red grapes (especially Cabernet Sauvignon) indicates that oak must support but never lead. The Stratus Red vintage eversion is testament to a barrel program that is just getting better and better.

Rigorous vineyard management, including adjustments in fruit-thinning and maintaining fundamental, biological order have been key. “The vineyard is way more balanced due to all the hard work we have done,” boasts Groux. In 2010 they discovered it was no longer necessary to over-thin, but to concentrate on maintaining the organic matter needed. “We used to thin by two-thirds. 2010 was the hitching point.” Grape quality has never been better. “All these varieties are now making concentrated wine,” concludes Groux.

Re-thinking specific variety usage has seen a constant progression. Reds that used to rely on a categorical Bordeaux model (the three main grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot) have seen additions of Gamay, Syrah and Tannat over the years. In 2010, the archetype is again Bordeaux, with Petit Verdot in the mix. Malbec can’t be too far behind. My personal preference would be to see the beacon Gamay in grounding support. The grape really ties the room together. Whites once lead by Chardonnay have also angled Bordeaux.  “We discovered in 2008 that Semillon can make great wine in Ontario.” This was a pivotal turning point in the Stratus white evolution.

Gewürztraminer was also eliminated around this time, to ‘thin’ away a level of terpenes and to adjust the flavour profile towards more balance. “People would begin to say I smell Gewürz. Dammit!”  J.L. would say, “that’s not what I want them to smell. I want them to notice complexity. We want when people put their nose in this they say, this is serious.” Going forward, more Chardonnay will join the assemblage, moving towards more complexity, a less dry style.

The Select-Stratus tasting and lunch was hosted by J-L Groux and team: Charles Baker, Ben Nicks, Suzanne Janke and Sarah Walker. Chef Ponzo’s stoic, elegant plates prove that simplicity leads to good design as they ratify the sine qua non of Bistro cuisine.

Stratus Select Line-Up
Photo: Michael Godel

Stratus Red and White Vertical

Tuesday September 24, 2013

Le Sélect Bistro, 432 Wellington Street West  (416) 596-6405

Chef Albert Ponzo, @AlbertPonzo

Stratus White

2010 sends me immediately towards Bordeaux, in neo-marmalade, but also buoyed in perfume and body by 25 percent Viognier. “This variety worked so well in the vineyard in 2010,” notes Groux. Niagara honey and near-botrytis via Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc void of grass, full of vigor. A sharp note, neither metallic nor mineral, but a combination of the two is present in this so very concentrated ’10. Of a warm vintage (self-explanatory) fully picked by October 23. Though loaded with early Spring maple sap, foie gras and appley terpines, its sharp and framed by “tannic” tang and protracted length.  92

2009 is a vintage you will notice a great similitude in that the Sauvignon Blanc and the Semillon number is consistent with ’10. This was a not preconceived plan insists J-L. Here the acidity level is so much higher, not as terpenic and veering citrus. Late picked UV’s on the berries are to thank but still the apples are there along with some pith. The Gewürztraminer glycerin, nutty aftertaste used to be there but now seems to have dissipated. This ’09 comes from a very small crop so the price “makes very little business sense, but you can’t win them all.” With time in the glass it dilates and modulates, becomes tropical, in pineapple and melon. This from 25 brix Sauvignon Blanc and to a lesser extent 23 brix Semillon. More stony and stark than the ’10.  89

2008 is formatively led by Chardonnay and certainly leans Chablis in a cool year. The highly aromatic grapes, at first mute, begin to emerge as the wine warms. This is the prettiest of the three thus far, with more citrus, fine balance and a wine that corroborates  J.L ‘s concept; consistency, long aftertaste and ageability. Achieves all three.  Keep swirling and the tropical notes make a play. Again consistency. This is effortless.  92

2007 has taken seven years to slow down the Gewürztraminer because the tiger army was so prominent back then, even at only 11 per cent of the mix. A “prisoner of the past and my heart’s dark desire,” with extreme efflorescent, ambrosial white flower and medicinal honey scents. The aromas are likely a residual effect of the Gewürztraminer, like jasmine or dried roses, or the floral aroma of some honey.  Even at six years old the Riesling is a distraction. This wine is very, very interesting, but also the hardest to assess. “Dried flowers pressed in pages of faded romance died.”  90

2006 was a “great recovery year,” after the winter damage of ’03, ’04 and ’05. A cool vintage, which required careful picking. The Sauvignon Blanc driven ’06 has the highest melon component, not to mention Boxwood. Yet that rose/floral/honey medicinal note is even stronger. Not over the hill at all and developing a graceful white wine character. Very French with late acidity and verve. Remarkable. Love this one. “This is a style of aged wine where I want to go,” says J-L. Nutty finish.  93

2005 was a deadly vintage (worst frost in Niagara on the Lake) and the only one with smacking aromas from the vineyard floor. “A zoo growing season,” notes Groux, “with grapes hanging high and low.” Chardonnay leads the troops in ’05, in elevated acidity and earthiness from grapes picked “in a different type of environment, near to the earth.” Highly textured and mature, leggy fruit. Though its best years are behind (because the fruit will no longer support the oak), the Groux seven-year ageing goal has easily been reached. The whiff of terroir does blow away and the honey liniment and rose emerges. So much consistency, so rapidly developed.  Amazing. Witness here the winemaking acumen out of an atypical vintage and confounding result.  90

Stratus Red

2010 is a study in restrained, gilt-edged use of only 15 per cent new oak during assemblage, especially with Cabernet Sauvignon in the lead and so prudent considering the extreme warmth of the vintage. Cabernet Franc imparts simple but intense spice.  Red talented, fresh finesse, the oak in support as a James Dean, cherry stained leather jacket. De facto fresh, with just enough trenchant acidity.  92

2009 is a very different and strange Cabernet animal, driven by Franc, its aromatics in spectacular form. Certainly ringing the bell pepper tocsin in a briny, cool climate and licorice carillon. Quite masculine for cool climate, cool vintage assemblage, assisted in kind that way by Tannat and Petit Verdot. “O Ominous Spiritus!” 88

2008 gives J-L reason to quip, “a cool year so therefore Cab Franc is king.” A smear of tarry black fruit is grounded by the dusty character that cool-climate reds so often display. Pepper, currant and more minerals meet metal aromatics. The ’08 Stratus SV’s collectively charm in special ways so there’s little reason not to be taken in by this assemblage. There’s just something about the vintage.  90

2007 puts a twinkle in Groux’s eye. “Still very enjoyable, agreeable and ageable,” he smiles and I note it’s not candied like it may have once been perceived.  A healthy and high 88 per cent dose of new oak but it’s not the encumbrance you might expect. Still quite tight, eking strawberry and plum, and indubitably a unique amalgamation. Will offer up five more years of pleasure.  91

2006 has reached a mellow stage in life, a middle age comfort zone, with no more edgy tannins. J-L is reserved and resolved to say it “has evolved to a nicely aged red wine.” Some sour funk continues to shine in bright acidity, seemingly fresh, though not as mature or concentrated as the others. Some grape leaf here, in a savoury way, like herb and starch stuffed tomato or ground meat in sweet peppers. Complex but not overly chichi.  89

2005 is a wine, according to J-L “you want to keep for a long run.” Laser focus, eagle-eyed cherry bears aloft by lingering acidity and rusticity. The warm vintage and oak aging has elongated the tannin chain. “Its passport for aging,” says Groux. “Can go the distance, we’ll find out in the long run.” That omnipresent dusty mulberry Merlot influence persists, along with black tea, carob, rhubarb and bokser. Herbal, savoury and highly complex.  93

Terrine de Tête et Queue, head to tail, ‘meaty’ pork terrine

Tartare de Saumon, with lemon pearls, caperberries & frisée lettuce

Stratus White 2002
Photo: Michael Godel

Stratus White 2002 performs a demi-sec act which is not such a stretch, considering the late harvest actualities of the Gewürztraminer and the Riesling within.  Could pass for dessert-like, cool-climate French (Jura) though after the chimerical declension it’s still nothing but a Chardonnay-galvanized meritage. Like warm honeycomb buttering steamed crustaceous matter. That Stratus White medicine, in rose potpourri and honey completes the classic scene within the portal.  93

Confit de Canard, duck leg confit with crispy skin, served with vegs from the garden, potatoes au gratin

Joue De Boeuf Bourguignonne, beef cheek braised in red wine, with pork lardons and button mushrooms and a green pea purée

Le Sélect Bistro Duck Confit
Photo: Michael Godel

Stratus Red 2001 from two Cabs, Merlot and Gamay is a juicy, funky and earthy glass of vinous compost. Purple verdigris, verging to black and after all these years. Broods on despite memories of a hot “lady-bug” vintage. The NOL equivalent and coalescence between the French garrigue and the Italian animale. There should be nothing declassified about this black beauty.  91

Mousse au Chocolat, made with French dark chocolate

Assiete de Fromage, a selection of Artisan cheeses from Québec; Riopelle, Le Douanier and Bleu Benedictin

Stratus Special Select Late Harvest Cabernet Franc 2012

Good to go!

Red earth, white wine and September sparkling fire

Photo: ASK-Fotografie/Fotolia.co

as seen on canada.com

The weekend brought us autumn. A certain type of exhaustion creeps in when summer turns over, especially after two weeks of early September, hectic activity. So I sipped my weekend wine, let the ghosts come, allowed them to crash my dreams. It was the least I could do. Then, with a sibilant call, I cast out the spirits rattling like a guttering candle, browsed through some tasting notes and found many a wine reason to usher in the fall.

I did so with perfunctory ease. A bottle of red terroir here, a couple of neo-classical Ontario whites and a revelatory British Columbian sparkler there. Don’t let the sun go down on your wine year just because the mercury is falling. A red Mercurey from Burgundy might be all you need to enjoy the fall. That and some Canadian juice.

Canadian wine pilgrims are living in what is arguably the most exciting time in wine’s history. A time when the greatest wines are fetching the highest prices, where revolutionary activities are taking place in almost every realm of vinous endeavour. During this renaissance new world winemakers have had to re-calibrate their wine linguistics, so Bordeaux became “Meritage,” (Red) Bourgogne became “Pinot Noir” and Champagne became “Sparkling Wine.” The world’s data banks for terms and parlance (wine dictionaries) of examples in context is dwarfed by the collection winemakers all carry around subconsciously in their heads. Thus we have “White Palette” (Jean-Pierre Colas), “Sketches” (Paul Pender) and “Methode Classique” (Jason James). Pilgrim extraordinaire Thomas Bachelder gives us Pinot Noir opposite the iconic Domaine Faiveley’s Bourgogne.

Here are five wines of the lexicographical order to look for this coming weekend and to welcome the fall.

Clockwise from left: 13th Street White Palette, Tawse Sketches of Niagara Riesling 2012, Domaine Faiveley Mercurey 2010, Bachelder Pinot Noir Oregon 2011, and Sumac Ridge Steller’s Jay Methode Classique Brut 2008.

13th Street White Palette 2011 (207340, $15.95) is JP’s who’s who bottle of white grapes, a mad scientist’s blend, the flask filled with Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay Musque. A re-release and much improved with a year’s extra weight, its “got your body right now.” Fortified by a carapace of grape spirits and purposeful in a white meritage sense of community, plus citrus, pith and a far-reaching, right correct absinthian length. You better you bet.  88  @13thStreetWines

Tawse Sketches of Niagara Riesling 2012 (89029, $17.95) s’got quite the tropical warmth for Bench Riesling. When considered in terms of the vintage, this is nearly a Riesling in the service of a Pinot Gris. Very juicy fruit, dry but bursting in fricative verve. Extreme quality, low-cost. Now on tap at Barque Smokehouse.  89  @Tawse_Winery

Domaine Faiveley Mercurey 2010 (341925, $22.95, B.C. 486217, $28.99) is really quite nice TYVM. Dug from the pungent autumnal earth, expressing ripe cherry, cranberry and strawberry. Pure, elegant and charming. When first tasted and without knowing the price I made this note: “If it’s under $25 it’s a very, very good buy – assuming it is.” Sold.  90

Bachelder Pinot Noir Oregon 2011 (333278, $34.95) bleeds Willamette terroir. Punctiliously phenolic from marine sediment and seemingly obvious early-ripening. Provocative in ruby, sugar-sour cranberry meets redolent raspberry. Chalky, tannic and serious. It’s tough on me right now. Come on Thomas, would ya please lighten up? I don’t want to have to wait to drink the first case.  90  @Bachelder_wines

Sumac Ridge Steller’s Jay Methode Classique Brut 2008 (264879, $25.95) makes use of B.C.’s future, the necessary signature white variety Pinot Blanc with assistance from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Very fine lees and yeast aromas are followed by a fantastic jumping and grooving party in the mouth. Tart apples, dry and crisp. Sprightly with 3-D sparkling fire texture. Tertiary maturity has nearly arrived.  91  @SumacRidgeWine

Good to go!

Ancient, state of the art Spanish wine

Barrels of wine are pictured in a cellar PHOTO: A.B.G./FOTOLIA.COM

as seen on canada.com

Argument suggests that the cradle of wine civilization, borne of Levant and of Mesopotamia should rightfully translate to talk of global influence and relevance as emanating from Greece and the Middle East. Not so much. The epicentre lies further west. A commonality shared by the modern romantic, European wine-producing nations is a mojo modus constructed of the most complex declensions. The language of the big three, France, Italy and Spain, inflects in case and number, the benchmark for fine and designed wine.

Spain’s vinous history stretches about as far back as that of its Western European neighbours and though it so often plays kissing cousin, Spanish winemakers do not pussyfoot in producing superannuated yet contemporary wine. My tastings over the previous two years of western (Latin) Europe’s 2009 and 2010 vintages have somewhat and hopefully only temporarily soured my palate for beloved southern Rhônes, especially from the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Up until a year ago I would have put CdP up against any global comparatives for quality and value in the $30-50 range. So many current examples, especially those 2010′s, are hot, over-extracted and completely out of balance. That feeling is also coming out of Piedmont (in particular from a virus of cheap, under $35, traipsing and awkwardly ambling Barolo), but also newly endemic in a hyperbolic convoy of flamboyant and trashy-sexy Tuscan IGT and Brunello. This, sniff, from my first wine love.

PHOTO: Michael Godel Bodegas Beronia, Patria Restaurant, July 18, 2013

Winemakers in Spain (and zooming in more specifically) from Ribera del Duero, Rioja and Montsant are more careful not to fall into modish vinification traps like sugar and spice wood splintering (France) or terroir-void, vinous compost (Italy). They are masters of their wine technique domains, in control of reductive aromas and in deft touch with acidification. Don’t misunderstand me. France and Italy are blessed with brilliant wines and winemakers. Conversely, there are plenty of examples out there these days in high-octane, alcohol elevated, barrel age-leveraging in ultra-modern Spanish wine. There are also wine making superstars. Red and white wine heroes. Matias Calleja, Juan Carlos Vizcarra, Maria Barúa, Luisa Freire and Alvaro Palacios all achieve Iberian nirvana by striking a balance between old and new world, antediluvian and 21st century, all the while making large quantities of commercially successful wine.

Bodegas Beronia talks of their “commitment to quality wine that expresses the personality of theterroir.” Their goal? “A philosophy based on respect for the environment and an ability to adapt to new market trends, maintaining the essence of Rioja.” Matías Calleja defines it: ”We combine art technology with traditional methods of production.”

According to their Ontario agent, Woodman Wines and Spirits, “if anyone embodies the promise and spirit of “The New Spain”, it is Alvaro Palacios.” It has not been much more than 20 years since he took control of the esteemed empire built by his father, Jose Palacios Remondo, but Alvaro Palacios has already become one of Spain’s most famous and well-respected winemakers.

Here are 10 perfect Spanish wines to pour, ponder and debate the popularity vs. quality discussion and to open the door to ancient, state of the art Spanish wine.

From left: Alvaro Palacios Camins del Priorat 2011, Lan Gran Reserva 2005, Bodegas Vizcarra JC Vizcarra 2010, Beronia Crianza 2009, and Beronia Gran Reserva 2006

Alvaro Palacios Camins del Priorat 2011 (216291, $22.95) is composed from 50 per cent Samsó (Carinena), 40 per cent Garnacha and a 10 per cent split between Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. A child of young vines, ready to roll Spanish charmer with a mingling floral nose, in barberry and bursting blueberry. Outlined by notes of pencil and charcoal. Timely acidity helps ease the heavy alcohol with some essential balancing grace. Stealth, arid ride through calcareous rock, deciduous oak and viburnum. There is something historical here, crafted yet serious.  91

Lan Gran Reserva 2005 (928622, $27.95) and its makers may now just be a cog in the Sogrape empire but it continues to do its own thing. Has that evolution I look for in Rioja. The slightest oxidative note, heaps of herbs and the umami of salty clashes with smokey Jamon. Rioja expressive of one love and one heart. Caught bobbing, dancing and wailing right in its wheelhouse, giving everything it’s made of, no holds barred and no questions asked. “Is there a place for the hopeless sinner?” Yes, in a glass of a weathered, leathery and just flat out real as it gets red Rioja.  92  @BodegasLan

Bodegas Vizcarra JC Vizcarra 2010 (214650, $28.95) while 100 per cent Tempranillo could understandably be confused for Bordeaux or Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Wood driven to be sure, shrouded in tobacco, vanilla, coconut and the prevailing, hedonistic attributes of the Left Bank or the Rhône. Bounding in berries and liqueur with a hit of phite. JC works because it comes together by adhering to Tempranillo’s early ripening, Cabernet-like, savoury chain of command. Compliments all around to an under $30 powerful yet beauteous Ribera, all out contempo, flaunting and billowing gorgeous. Wow times ten for flavour, if a bit too much of a good thing.  91 @DrinkRibera

Bodegas Beronia, Patria Restaurant, July 18, 2013

presented by Woodman Wines and Spirits, (416) 767-5114, @WoodmanWines @BodegasBeronia

Beronia Viura 2012 (Coming to VINTAGES January 18th, 2014 – 190801, $14.95) exsufflates super ripe, fresh picked pear and emollient herbiage in pure, angled control. One hundred per cent, quick macerated and cold stabilized Viura of aromatics locked in tight. A pour that leads to a starburst of flavour. Complexity reaches the sea in an underlying tide of salinity.  89

Beronia Tempranillo 2010 (LCBO, 243055, $11.65) is a warm, tempered, six months in Sherry cask-driven “one-half Crianza” but not classified as such. Specifically crafted for the North American market, the oak is the protagonist, while the Tempranillo lies in macerated cherry state. At $12 it’s a no-brainer, crafted by a conscientious and forward-thinking vintner.  86

Beronia Crianza 2009 (Consignment, $16.95, Barque Smokehouse) offers more terroir and less barrel interference, in pursuit of a fruit/tension equilibrium. Redolent as if berries, cherries and plums were on the crush pad, with a touch of modernity as a result of both new and used barrels. Classic style (1970′s) Rioja, a five to seven-year wine.  89

Beronia Gran Reserva 1973 is both the dawn of a first vintage pathfinder and fountain of youth. Fast forward from the pre-disco vintage to ubiquitous 90′s soul-searching structure and know it was clearly there with untested confidence back in the beginning. Earth, Spanish bramble and aged expertly in barrel, you can ”tie a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree” with this genesis of Rioja. Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo and five per cent Viura. Twenty minutes in the glass and still so alive. Old school with the proviso to entertain.  93

Beronia Gran Reserva 1982 is highly evolved, gone milky, breaking down as by proteolytic enzyme. A study in caramel, fruit removed, out of tension, past. A second bottle not tasted was purportedly sound, though not corroborated.  NR

Beronia Gran Reserva 1994 spent 34 months in new and used barrels. The bridge from past to future, definitive for Rioja in every pertinent way. Fragrant in licorice, iron and bigarreau cherry. American oak to see a 2020 future in shag, snuff, tea and forest compost.  94

Beronia Gran Reserva 2006 (VINTAGES, Release date TBD – 940965, $34.95) is so youthful it actually gives me bubble gum and dark black cherry from just a swirl. American vanillin oak and terrible tannins in a frightfully tough to assess wine Calleja says “will maintain this intensity for four to six years.” Oh, and then “will continue to evolve for 20-25 more,” slowly modulating as a result of its natural acidity. Judgment currently reserved though the future looks extremely promising.  92

Good to go!

Ontario wines shine on

Shine {ON} Ontario Wine Map PHOTO: LCBO

as seen on canada.com

After spending the last two days tasting through 150 plus wines as a deputy judge for WineAlign’s World Wine Awards of Canada 2013, a reprieve is in order. Today I shift gears, shut off the global wine valve, return home and focus local.

Fresh on the heels of the National Wine Awards of Canada 2013 results, the #WWAC13 threw a gauntlet of grapes my way; international red blends under $15, up to $25 and up to $50. Same for an amphitheater of white blends. According to fellow panelist David Lawrason, “there was no white grape variety not on this page.” We also tasted, took notes, scored and passed judgement on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Agiorgitiko, Xinomavro, Shiraz/Syrah and Riesling.

A year ago less two weeks this supplicating statement, Ontario wine. Can you feel the love? was posed. This reflexive, rhetorical question was quickly responded to with an emphatic, yes. A year on, I continue to talk with myself, with increasing focus on the wines of Ontario’s three most prominent producing regions, The Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County and Lake Erie North Shore. Self, I preach, Ontario wines continue to shine on. The $64K question is why?

People. Passion. Community. Quality. Climate. Spend a little time in wine country and the first four points explain themselves. Then there is the weather. Mother nature has hurled everything at Ontario’s vines this growing season. Spring frosts, unseasonable cool and wet weather for most of Spring and Summer, tempests, wind damage, torrential rain and flooding. Then an early September spike of intense, humid heat. This will be followed by a twenty-five degree dip in temperature at the end of this week. Despite the mercurial, tsunami fluctuations, Ontario winemakers will make terrific whites and reds in 2013. This is because of the industry’s maturity. Global climate craziness no longer holds a candle to the ability, knowledge, innate understanding and confidence found in Ontario’s wine houses. Going forward, lesser and greater are the terms to consider. Bad vintages are a thing of the past.

For the next 30 days, Ontario’s grape growers and wineries will be receiving some tender, loving, marketing care. The LCBO has rolled out their Shine ON program, an eat and drink local, in-store promotion that runs from September 15 through October 12. A dozen food trucks, representing a wide range of food styles, will be visiting an LCBO location for a special outdoor wine and food sampling. The September 14th, 2013 VINTAGES release features 38 pages of print and photos in discussion with sommeliers, restaurateurs, chefs and international wine critics.

But wait, there’s more. Wine Country Ontario, always the most devout and righteous of Ontario’s wine promoters, is encouraging an experiential twitter colloquy:

Spotlight Toronto champions the campaign in a big way, by way of their extensive 30 Days of Ontario Wine coverage. Wine Country Ontario and VINTAGES will bring the fall celebration to a vinous crescendo when Taste Ontario comes to Ottawa and Toronto, October 7th and 10th. These events mark the largest assembly for sampling Ontario’s wines in one go around.

I have tasted more Ontario wines in the past year than I had combined in all my years previous. Here are six exemplary choices slated for release this coming weekend.

Clockwise from left: The Foreign Affair The Conspiracy 2011, Fielding Estate Pinot Gris 2012, Daniel Lenko Gewurztraminer 2009, Lighthall Vineyard Chardonnay 2010, Bachelder Niagara Chardonnay 2011, and Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Blanc De Blanc 2007

The Foreign Affair The Conspiracy 2011 (149237, $19.95) from ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’, (but I like wine), “kissed, re-passed over and threatening to push boundaries as if it were singing “if I could stick a knife in my heart, suicide right on stage.” This Ilya Senchuk beauty may only be ripasso but I like it. Eases my pain and my brain. Excellent verve and honed of a rock star’s capacity to be loved, with tart, red and black fruit in waves, tar and charcoal. Svelte balance in fruit, alcohol, sweet and sour. This is THE vintage for this wine. Ten plus years lay ahead for a long affair and it will be rewarded with praise in future tastings.”  92  @wineaffair

Fielding Estate Pinot Gris 2012 (251108, $21.95) unlike, or as much as any Niagaran, intimates Alsace. Greasy, well, not greasy but jet propelled, viscous and rich in texture.  Seems to indicate a sweet/nut/salt/stone fruit pit conundrum but never crosses into that dangerous zone where any of these notes might cause interference. Really solid Gris and says a lot about the vintage for this grape. “Will shine on, for everyone.”  89  @FieldingWinery

Daniel Lenko Gewurztraminer 2009 (356832, $24.95) offers obvious, distinct and succinct lychee-induced pleasure. Off-dry with an embolden, mineral tang and good acidity. Early picked yet quite ripe and almost “tannic” for Gewurz. A diamond in the aromatic white wine rough, “blown on the steel breeze.” Sings a long, long song.  90  @daniel_lenko

Lighthall Vineyard Chardonnay 2010 (278226, $25) from A Wine Pentathlon, “has that crazed look in its eye, as does vintner Glenn Symons when he talks about it, knowing full well this Prince Edward County juice is a bursting and rising, rocket launching supernova. Steely like Chablis, sharp and shimmering in defiance to the heat of the vintage, the LVC is a dartle to the collective consciousness of the County. Startling revelation. It’s all about the rocks.”  91  @lighthallvyard

Bachelder Niagara Chardonnay 2011 (302083, $29.95) burrows towards, reaches and fleeces limestone with amplified ramifications. This weather whipped Chardonnay is both Bachelder’s kookiest and most severe. That is succeeds in agminate partying of power and pop is a tribute to savvy winemaking. Though the fruit does not currently ride the breakers, the wine’s length oscillates in waves. Will wait for this one and make an appeal. “Won’t you shine, shine on?”  90 @Bachelder_wines

Henry Of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Carte Blanche Blanc De Blanc 2007 (315200, $44.95) currently resides on the leesy side of the Blanc tracks. Rich, nervy, stoked by putty, pith and tankhouse grit. In toast mode and a full on attack of chalk and limestone. Not the faint-hearted bubbles of yesteryear. Must always take it’s rightful place in discussion of top sparkling wines from Ontario.  90  From my earlier notes: Lock, Stock and Sparkling Wines, “turns the brioche quotient up several notches and is consistent with last month’s note: “combines the exceptional ’07 growing season’s rich fruit with early harvested acidity and extreme patience to result in one serious Ontario sparkling wine. A frothing tonic of citrus zest, baking apples, soda bread, cut grass and creamy grume. Long and true.”  90  @HenryofPelham

Good to go!

Low alcohol wine for the High Holidays

Barque Smokehouse Smoked Chicken Thighs. Serve with Ca’Del Baio, Moscato D’Asti 2011
PHOTO: KEVIN HEWITT AND JILL CHEN/FREESTYLEFARM.CA

as seen on canada.com

A quick bit of Jewish 101. Tomorrow night is a Jew’s big night. There will be a great feast. Apples and honey will grace every table. The big meal will be followed by much sweet indulgence. Rosh Hashanah is marked on the Jewish calendar by the first day of Tishrei, meaning the “head of the year.” This new calendar year beginning is referred to as Yom Hadin, the Day of Judgment, a time to make sincere resolutions for the future. Jews will say, L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem, “may you immediately be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” Rosh Hashanah is a time for renewal, where symbolic pleasantries are shared, exchanged and not surprisingly, Jews make use of food and drink to exercise the festivities.

When it comes to yayin (wine), Shekar, or “strong drink” is not necessarily the obvious, fermented choice. Last November I wrote a rant on the jumboism rampant in so many current wines on the market. “Biblical thought says there was a time when “wine” was simply the juice of pressed fruit, non-fermented, void of alcohol, the “pureblood of the grape.” The post-deluge patriarch (Noah) purportedly discovered that if you let natural yeasts run wild they would turn grape juice and sugar into mocker, “strong drink.” Researches say that ancient barm barely peaked at 12 per cent alcohol by volume.”

Like a pair of brothers in heated debate over ”integrity versus compromise,” choosing wine for the High Holidays is fraught and fought with philosophical and religious intensity. Kosher or conventional? Traditional or modern? Low alcohol or high-octane? Many Jewish tables will be set with Kosher (not Meshuval or, Kosher for Passover) wine. Many will not. For many modern Jews, on holidays not called Passover, Kosher is not a prerequisite when it come to choosing wine. Jews, in general, will daven to that 12 percent abv mark, give or take a percent. When talking wine, the Jew should never be labelled a Mundus Novian. Keep in mind that with all that food going down, heavy-handed winemaking has no place at the Rosh Hashanah banquet.

Related – More from the VINTAGES August 31st, 2013 Release

Then there is the etymology of the expression L’Chaim. At one point the condemned were given wine so that their execution would be less painful. The phrase “to life” was coined to express a sentiment to the contrary. Here are five excellent, low-alcohol wines to look for thisRosh Hashanah, to raise a glass to the new year, to exclaim L’Chaim!

Clockwise from left: Ca’Del Baio, Moscato D’Asti 2012, 13th Street June’s Vineyard Riesling 2011, Jean-Marc Brocard Sainte Claire Vieilles Vignes Chablis 2011, Château Hyot 2010, and Domaine De La Garodière Morgon 2011

Ca’Del Baio, Moscato D’Asti 2012 (Stem Wine Group, $18.99) is so low in alcohol (five per cent) you might think you are drinking cider but fermented apples could never achieve such complexity with such incredibly economical syntactic structure. Slightly sweet and also sparkling, this Moscato makes itself readily accessible to new wine drinkers. I may not be one but how can I not be tempted by its forbidden stone fruits. I’ll drink it with the sups at the RH table. Moscato 101 indeed. On the card at Barque.  90

The food match: Halibut, pan roasted, charred sweet pepper jam, steamed broccoli & heirloom carrots

13th Street June’s Vineyard Riesling 2011 (147512, $19.95) from Niagara’s Creek Shores and built of the classic Alsatian Clone 49 inordinately defines place and time in an agglomerated manner. Maximum floral intensity, zero petrol tolerance and an arid accumulation speak volumes about the appellation. To taste you will note it just barely believes it’s off-dry. Unique and unambiguous, plosive Riesling.  89

The food match: Quinoa Salad, summer corn, peas, cilantro, lime chili vinaigrette

Jean-Marc Brocard Sainte Claire Vieilles Vignes Chablis 2011 (329995, $24.95, SAQ, 2010,11589658, $24.95) marks a return to memories of old vines Brocard I’ve loved before. “The winds of change continue blowing,” so Chablis is sometimes not what it used to be.  This VV is not quite steely but is structured like a good old country ode, with all the correct components. Just a kiss of all things Chablis. Rock, flint, sapid ardor and a racy, new slang, tang thang. As good as it gets from something other than Grand or Premier Cru.  89

The food match: Salmon with tomato & preserved lemon salsa, sautéed baby kale, lemon zest, crushed almonds

Château Hyot 2010 (63537, $16.95) from 70 percent Merlot, 20 Cabernet Franc and 10 Cabernet Sauvignon goes properly and structurally sound into the Côtes de Castillon night. Forty year-old vines capitulate ripe red fruit, tangy accents, zest and just enough bite to keep it lengthy and fresh. A farmer’s Bordeaux, natural in feel, oxygenated low and slow, micro-managed. Solid if prosaic. Kudos to winemaker Amélie Aubert for reigning in the overripe and over extracted tendencies of consultant Michel Rolland.  88

The food match: Smoked Beef Brisket, bbq Jus, rice pilaf, wild and basmati rice, bok choy and ginger

Domaine De La Garodière Morgon 2011 (330126, $17.60, SAQ, 10368204, $18.60) is rich modern Beaujolais but also tight and bound by enough sour acidity to balance the ripe extraction. Hard to believe this clocks in at only 12.5 percent abv. Rock solid Gamay, ready for a fight. Vinous compost with some southern French style Medi-savoury, black olive garrigue. Complex and fortifying.  91

The food match: Duo of Beef: NY Striploin & Braised Beef Cheek, smoked kishka

Good to go!

Looking for love from Labour Day long weekend wines

Klaus Eppele/Fotolia.com PHOTO: KLAUS EPPELE/FOTOLIA.COM

as seen on canada.com

As the final long weekend of the summer approaches, Canadians are stocking up. The fervent feeding frenzy that takes place leading up to Christmas and even more so, New Year’s, is certainly the high selling point for the country’s provincial monopoly liquor stores. Not to be outdone, the Labour Day weekend is close behind when it comes to frantic shopping for beer, wines and spirits.

A bellying-up to the wine trough is in kinetic ambulation, as foodies, excessive imbibers and oenophiles prepare for the last of their warm weather bashes. It’s a good thing the cupboards are not bare: wonderful wines are there for the taking. From the LCBO, to the SAQ, NSLC, NLC,MLM, BCLS and beyond, here are 12 current releases to take you through the 2013 Labour Day long weekend.

From left: Varnier Fannière Grand Cru Brut Champagne, Taittinger Brut Réserve Champagne and Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne

The Bubbles

Varnier Fannière Grand Cru Brut Champagne (340158, $56.95, SAQ, 11528089, $57.00) is that under the radar, not yet discovered and eye-opening kind of bubbles you have been seeking. Made in tiny quantities from Grand Cru vines (4 hectares), attention to fine line and detail is obvious and jolting at the same time. Prominent yeast and biscuit aromas, citrus, ginger and  tropical pineapple combine for a creamy texture. Structured and consistent to the end.  92  @TrialtoON

Taittinger Brut Réserve Champagne (814723, $62.95, SAQ, 10968752, $62.50, BCLS,457713, $64.99, NLC, 13580, $67.38) is so good it blows my mind. Auricomous fizz whisperer procured in as fine a house style as any, laden with spice but not spicy, yeast but not yeasty, citrus but not citrusy. Sea breeze salinity bellowing by blow horn, beckoning oysters to come to the table.  92  @TaittingerUSA

Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne (724559, $91.95, SAQ, 10812942, $93.50, Alberta,8002, $114.99) is expensive, granted, but not to be missed, especially if you are celebrating something special with a better half this weekend. Shiny, happy, strawberry snow-white speaking in a pith lime and ginger pithy foreign tongue. Savour it on the dock, at sunset and toast “to stir your drinks, and sittin’ still.” A pink of exceptional purity and quality, full of “gold and silver shine.”  91  @_Billecart

From left: Calamus Riesling Vinemount Ridge 2011, Creekside Estate Laura’s White 2011, Lailey Chardonnay 2011, Cave Spring Cellars Riesling ‘CSV’ Estate Bottled 2009, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Herrenweg de Turckheim Riesling 2010

The Whites

Calamus Riesling Vinemount Ridge 2011 (158642, $16.95, Manitoba, 14571,$19.99) is spartan and citrus tight so you’ve got to get to know her to unearth her frailties, fears, and subtleties.  Her Riesling character builds after quality time spent ante-spitting or swallowing. Like grape spirits, moving silently through the Vinemount Ridge. Following in the footsteps of Picone, Falls and Quarry Road, this Calamus adds credence to the notion that few Niagara acts are more salutary than making wine from grapes grown on the Vinemount Ridge.  88  @calamuswinery

Creekside Estate Laura’s White 2011 (121764, $18.95) leaves behind the moniker “one of Niagara’s stylish white-blends” and in this vintage powers to great white heights. A crush of blonde berries meets savoury, roasted goose, verging to raspberry, creamier even, like mangosteen. The most tropical Laura to date, yet in a high acid vintage it elevates to expertly balanced sweet and sour confection territory. No public enemy here, Laura will work for many palates and many plates. “Get it, let’s get this party started right.”  88  @CreeksideWine

Lailey Chardonnay 2011 (193482, $19.95, Alberta, 739220, $35.67) is right on brother Derek. This not only joins the right excellent Chardonnay club; it’s the incumbent President. Lifted honeysuckle, honey and bright lemon aromas, the deftest kiss of oak and just a punch of spice. Tingles and lingers.  If ’10 was “almost great,” ’11 is. Mikey likes this very much.  90  @laileywinemakr

Cave Spring Cellars Riesling ‘CSV’ Estate Bottled 2009 (566026, $29.95, NLC, 13510, $29.29) makes its VINTAGES jam debut and at just the right time. Has changed gears and though young to do so, off he goes. Beneficial vitriolic petrol pearl, vital energy flowing but with terrific restraint, “like he’s ridin’ on a motorbike in the strongest winds.” Juicy, boosted and charged by a semi, hemi-powered engine. Brooding for Riesling, adult, empowered.  90  From an earlier note, ”comes from the oldest, lowest-yielding vines at the estate grown on the limestone, Beamsville Bench terrace. A three-month rest on its lees imparts honey on the nose though the palate is dryer than off-dry. Mineral, pop-driven even. A hoovering, wizened Riesling, puckering, turning inward, yet to hydrate. Unique for Escarpment ’09 and will realize a quenching later than most. I for one will put this aside and revisit at the end of the decade, when “golden slumbers fill your eyes.” 89  @CaveSpring

Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Herrenweg de Turckheim Riesling 2010 (31039, $27.95, SAQ, 1083654, $30.25, Alberta, 9175, $55.99, ) may be viscous oily and fuming A16 but it’s also tangy and sacchariferous in an orange fruit quorum of peach, nectarine and tangerine. What’s the mineral? Limestone? Granite? Black Mica? Quite serious but more approachable Alsatian than you might think. Don’t hold for too long.  90  @olivier_dzh

From left: 13th Street Red Palette 2011, Tenuta Di Trecciano Terra Rosa Chianti Colli Senesi Riserva 2009, Settesoli Cartagho Mandrarossa Sicilia 2009 and Fonterutoli Chianti Classico 2010

The Reds

13th Street Red Palette 2011 (249458, $15.95) while always funky, is always game, ready for anything. Many personalities share the bottle and are by no means remarkably complimentary and integrated without regards to master blender Jean Pierre Colas. Tart and bursting in fresh berry/plum/cherry fruit like Chianti, fresh and bouncy like Barbera, coal mining like Xinomavro.  87 @13thStreetWines

Tenuta Di Trecciano Terra Rosa Chianti Colli Senesi Riserva 2009 (344127, $20.95) from south-west of Siena is nearly moving on but charms with wisdom, prune warmth and love. Sangiovese from the mold of an old trattoria cellar, rubbed by leather and roasted game, Tuscananimale and licorice. Cheap and great gracious Chianti for the here and now because the fruit is marching on.  88  @ColliSenesi

Settesoli Cartagho Mandrarossa Sicilia 2009 (346593, $19.95) is certainly modern Nero D’avola though it shows breeding and class at the hands of a winemaker with deep, state-of-the-art equipped pockets.  Resonant warm clime aromas; orange grove, clove, cinnamon, carob, bokser and like 21st century Sicilian Syrah, it’s brooding and tannic too. Serious Nero, if a bit sun-drenched.  89  @CantineSettesol

Fonterutoli Chianti Classico 2010 (977629, $24.95, SAQ, 856484, $25.70) from the timeless oasis of Castellina brings game from the grab of the punt. Modern but wizened, with black cherry, obvious new oak (small French barrels) and gripped by tight tannin. Will be a study in CC for years to come. A wine that rolls with the times from the Elsa River Valley and deserving of a definite place in the cellar. “You ought to be who you be If you’re coming with me.”  90  @chianticlassico

Good to go!

A paradox of wine accents

Soil and birthplace predetermines both wine and language.
PHOTO: JUNGE REBE/FOTOLIA.COM

as seen on canada.com

Wine and language, two very complex organisms, first and foremost predetermined by the land from which they’ve come. Soil and birthplace. Climate is so very important too, in ripening fruit and developing speech. Weather and pedigree. Then there are the clones, genetic variants of a cultivar, or in language, slang and urban/rural diction. Variety and dialect. The study of wine (oenology) is very much like the study of language (linguistics). It’s all in the accents, in articulation and tonality, in aroma, taste and texture.

Related – More from the VINTAGES August 17th, 2013 release

Wine is generally divided into Old and New World styles, old school versus new wave. Though many New World wines have bested Old World stalwarts in blind tastings, are those results more than just a matter of taste? Old World varieties of a common region who have been cohabiting side by side exhibit a wide assortment of accents. New World clones from disparate backgrounds that have been living together for just a few generations show similar accents.

Old World stereoisomer stereotypes suggest that if your wine smells like vanilla, it was likely aged in American oak. Got flint and steel? Chablis. Brioche and yeast? Champagne. All this may be true but the grand wines within a particular growing area like Chablis, Champagne, the Rhône Valley, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Tuscany and Piedmont might share and yet bogart an infinite number of subtleties and dominant traits, each specific to the monopole, villages, indicazione geografica tipica, or appellation of origin. Napa Cabernet, whether from Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena or Howell Mountain, shares a commonality and decreased peculiarity so much more so than counterparts in the communes on the Left Bank in Bordeaux, including Paulliac, St-Estèphe, Pessac-Léognan, Margaux and St. Julien.

New World Chardonnay growing sites produce less delineation as compared to the various lieu-dites in Burgundy. Niagara is beginning to enter into an Old World state of mind, so now winemakers, and by extension wine geeks, are posturing over micro-terroirs; Niagara-on-the-Lake, Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment, St. David’s Bench, Lincoln Lakeshore, etc. While many will disagree, if you consider growing sites as circles within a Venn Diagram, the shared subtleties get buried or muddled within the common areas. The lines may be drawn but the web is tangled.

In Old World locales such as France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal, the sustained adjacency of wine regions ought to carry considerable weight against differences in accents, while in a vast but small growing area like Canada, the relative isolation of wine regions ought to encourage regional intonations. Yet comparatively speaking, there is a great deal of similar speak among Canada’s various cool climate wines. So, the question begs. Has the maturity of Canadian vines and its isolated industries increased or decreased the diversity of dialects?

If you stood with one foot in a Niagara vineyard and the other in Prince Edward County, you might be disappointed to find that the geology, climate and wine accent are nearly indiscernible. A wine patriot might disagree with that statement with reverence or indifference, yet the average wine consumer would be hard pressed to intuit the subtlest of idiosyncrasies. Even in the case of, let’s say, the temperature disparity between a St. David’s Bench vineyard and one from the Queenston Road, as a winemaker, who are you speaking to anyway?

The wine world has attempted the vinous equivalent of heteroglossia, “a blending of world views through language that creates complex unity from a hybrid of utterances.” This heteroglossia is an abstract convenience for the benefit of geographical oenophiles. In the New World (especially), we are dealing with huge generalities. To say that each viticultural area is singularly unique from another is to suggest that one region’s accent starts where another one ends. This is simply not true.

The argument is no longer about good and bad, natural and synthetic, Old and New World. We’re not talking about a Roman Paradox here. In a short period of time it seems we have gone from saying “there’s a remarkably great deal of homogeneity in wine today” to now, “some wines are so over the top they could only be from that place.” A recent California Pinot Noir, heretofore known as “he who shall not be named” laid insult and depression upon a group of tasters. Pushing 16 per cent alcohol by volume and thicker than a McFlurry, this Pinot could not have been from just anywhere. Only the hot California sun and heavy winemaker’s hand could have produced such an utterly undrinkable, faux-chocolate, simulated berry shake.

Special thanks to Bill Bryson, who’s good read “Mother Tongue” was the inspiration for this column. Here are six examples of really fine wine, from the Old and the New World, each expressive of a particular set of accents, out of a specific place.

Clockwise from left: André Blanck Pinot Blanc Rosenberg 2011, Pillitteri Estates Viognier 2011, Daniel Lenko Estate Winery Old Vines Chardonnay 2010, Greenlane Estate Winery Cabernet 2010, Zema Estate Cluny Cabernet Merlot 2008 and Château La Croix De Gay 2009

André Blanck Pinot Blanc Rosenberg 2011 (626606, $14.95) is high on lime citrus and heavy in stones, so much more so than in ’09 and ’10. Green apple in tart tonality, lean and mean.  Much juicier and riper to taste, with the faintest lees note to ground it firmly on Alsatian terrain ferme.  Love this designation. Same vintage release from a year ago.  89  @drinkAlsace

Pillitteri Estates Viognier 2011 (330894, $19.95) from 20+ year old estate vines is really quite pretty. Honeysuckle and white flower aromas with a taste of honey dew, tangy mango fruit, creamy and soft, and  a hint of white pepper.  Will look for it to flesh a bit in a year or so.  88  @Pillitteriwines

Daniel Lenko Estate Winery Old Vines Chardonnay 2010 (352328, $22.95) punches its ticket to Niagara stardom but a toast and punch down period is the requiem to mellow before the fruit can truly and fully be assessed. It’s certainly large, inviting and warm, a cedar cottage with its hearth flaming and crackling. Borrows a page from Quarry Road’s handbook and takes risks, if ambitiously over-seasoning a bissel. The late buttery seafood note is striking and just makes you want to suck back a bucket of claw. Must pay heed to Lenko’s uncompromising winemaking. Were you to ask me what 10 Ontario Chardonnay would I buy, in any vintage, to study, follow the evolution and ultimately learn about cool climate Chardonnay, this Lenko OV 2010 would be a must.  91  @daniel_lenko

Greenlane Estate Winery Cabernet 2010 (winery, $14.95) combines Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon (80/20) fruit in demurred Niagara/Vineland modulation for full, soft and silky effect. Black pepper in a key of fire-roasted sweet capsicum, anise and gun flint are met by the plasticity of black and red berries and cherries.  Deal.  88  @GreenLaneWinery

Zema Estate Cluny Cabernet Merlot 2008 (325910, $26.95) hollers modernity, in oxy-toffee, blueberry pie, eucalyptus and smoldering earth. Bordeaux fettle yet GSM-like in mineral meets lush fruit.  Frantic verve in acidity, crazy actually and certainly no fruit bomb. Almost citrus spiked, punchy and grainy on the finish. Requires patience. Intriguing Coonawarra.  90 @ZemaEstate

Château La Croix De Gay 2009 (192955, $51.95) is flat-out delicious. Grilled meat, licorice, big black fruit, raspberry, Merlot to the max and yet a very affordable Pomerol ’09. At $52 you may not find a better deal. Tannic heft deep as a coal mine, where mineral meets herbal bondage. Very long and true.  92

Good to go!

A midsummer night’s chill red wine

KEW Vineyards, Beamsville, ON
PHOTO: ADAM D’INTINO

as seen on canada.com

Just about this time last summer I suggested to chill red wines for another hot weekend. The recent moderate weather might be considered just cause to negate such a de facto refrain but look ahead to the weekend. Blue skies and a rising mercury are on the horizon.

My 2012 column worked the chill into rich, warm grapes; Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This summer I’m scaling back the stretch and shock factor and returning to the fricative exercise of nipping but certainly not stifling more classic grapes. Gamay Noir can be so thirst quenching and is a natural fit to combat calefaction, along with Pinot Noir and the great Greek Xinomavro. Just a slight frost mind you, like clipped diction, for warm, not hot weather.

Here are four dream wines to chill on a midsummer night, in revelry and in waning light.

Clockwise from top left: Boutari Naoussa 2008, Evening Land Pinot Noir Spanish Springs Vineyard 2011, Quail’s Gate Pinot Noir 2011, and Domaine Des Houdières Fleurie 2011

The grape: Xinomavro

The history: The Boutari Company was established in 1879 in Naoussa. This was the first bottled red VQPRD to enter the Greek market, constituting a landmark for red wines in Greece

The lowdown: Excuse the profanity but, $13? AYFKM?

The food match: Lamb Kebabs, greek oregano pesto marinade, roasted tomato jam

Boutari Naoussa 2008 (23218, $12.95) like other Xinomavro shows that combination of pure fruit and ancient wisdom. Juicy and rustic at the same time, erupting in cherry and a lava flow of hot rocks. There is leather, dry spice and sun-dried fruit. Already bricking like Sangiovese, as if rustic Vino Nobile Rosso. There is simply no earthly reason not to drink this every night for the rest of the summer.  89  @boutari

The grape: Gamay

The history: Fleurie is one of the ten ‘crus’ of Beaujolais that include Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Regnié and St Amour. The Cru are made from Gamay grown on particularly favoured slopes

The lowdown: Incomparable value as compared to cost from a smaller and lesser-known producer (Perrier) at Villages pricing

The food match: Crispy Pig Ear and Pulled Pork Tacos, red onion marmalade, sorrel, maldon salt

Domaine Des Houdières Fleurie 2011 (342725, $16.95) is a calligraphic, violet floral invitation to fall in love with soft and dreamy Gamay. “Though she be but little, she is fierce!” Turns on her heel with a scrupulously phenolic char and licorice sour whip, then comes back again to glide gracefully around the last bend. Just what Fleurie should be, purposeful and simply terrific value for Cru Beaujolais. Waning midsummer excellence.  90  @VinexxCanada

The grape: Pinot Noir

The history: Run by the Stewart family, south of Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley

The lowdown: From grapes grown on volcanic Mount Boucherie bench slopes

The food match: The Beverly Hotel Toronto’s Beef Cheek, chantrelles, charred onion, tomato jam, kennebec fries

Quail’s Gate Pinot Noir 2011 (585760, $26.95) with a flat-out ambrosial aromatic entry bequeaths extremely ripe, fleshy red stone fruit and a hit of java, hold the crema and the splinters. Toss in some cool eucalyptus to that tincture, perhaps, like De Loach Van Der Kamp. Intimates a Sonoman dream in confected perfume unlike any Okanagan predecessor. This is flamboyant stuff for OV, toothsome, and were it from California I might think it OTT but from B.C., not so. Expertly judged fruit/acid balance and such plush texture. Gobs of fruit with just enough grit to keep it real. “The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders at our quaint spirits.” 91  @Quails_Gate

The grape: Pinot Noir

The history: The name Evening Land Vineyards was inspired by the lure of Homer’s ideal garden and is the final chapter of Homer’s Odyssey

The lowdown: This is the second commercial vintage of purchased grapes from the Spanish Springs Vineyards, located only two miles from the Pacific Ocean sheltered behind the coastal range

The food match: California Plum Caprese Salad

Evening Land Pinot Noir Spanish Springs Vineyard 2011 (337147, $46.95, ISD) may just be too glorious to be true. There are blueberries in a savoury key, a citrus and anise accent and chalky grit. At 13 per cent ABV it’s remarkably real, honest and wanting for love. Prodigious floral and strawberry aromas, magnetic and resonant tension, like Nebbiolo in a Piemontese state-of-the-art mind, or like a Grand Cru Greek red, in Duke of Athens character.  Enigmatic Pinot that could never be mistaken for Burgundy and quite frankly might trick many to not know it’s Pinot. “Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.”  93  @elwines

Good to go!

New white wine love for ‘The Savvy’

Sauvignon blanc, a green-skinned grape variety from Bordeaux, France PHOTO: SHCH/FOTOLIA.COM

as seen on canada.com

There’s this grape I want to tell you about. Sometimes there’s a grape. I won’t say a gambler but certainly an opportunist. I’m talking about “The Savvy,” that green-skinned grape variety from Bordeaux, France. Its name may derive from the words “sauvage” and “blanc” but it’s not really a wild one, is it? Well, except for that time it hooked up with Cabernet Franc to produce the offspring Cabernet Sauvignon. It has participated in the proliferation of some wonderful examples in its native Bordeaux, especially when blended with Sémillon. Grown and produced out of the Loire Valley it has shown to be the prototype for his time and place in Sancerre. Then it migrated to Marlborough.

Even if The Savvy has at times been considered a lazy grape, when it found its way to New Zealand, everything changed. The Savvy became the most widely planted varietal and within a couple of short decades cornered the world market; incredible story. How did it happen so fast? West Coast writer Anthony Gismondi made reference to The Savvy’s “aromatic, lip-smacking fresh-tasting flavours” – very true. Meteoric rise, global acceptance and incredible sales numbers, but has the summit been reached? Suddenly it seems that now, not unlike the fate suffered by that other white dude, Chardonnay, the Savvy is losing ground, no longer currently feeling the love. New Zealand both gave it life and, through intense saturation, took it away. It may not seem obvious yet but as a story similar to Australian Shiraz, some noses are turning away from The Savvy.

Enter the Western Hemisphere. The Savvy is very much on the rise in these parts thanks to a profile built on fresh stone fruit, approachable acidity and best of all, a near complete absence of blanched green vegetables. What, no beans, no peas, no asparagus? Thank green goddess goodness. Though wine production techniques have improved dramatically over the past twenty years, there are still many Kiwi, South African and even Loire examples full of “excessively vegetative, bell pepper and canned asparagus notes and the bitter citrus rind flavours.” The Savvys from Ontario, California and Chile as a rule are clean and low on both the grassy and tropical polar ends of the spectrum. In fact, new, New World Sauvignon Blanc is not very Sauvignon Blanc-like at all.  So, thank you Savvy because “there’s a man, sometimes, there’s a man. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced it enough.” The Savvy abides.

From left: Riverview Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Fielding Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Veramonte Ritual Sauvignon Blanc 2011, and Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2011

The history: Sicilian roots, family farm, Niagara-On-The-Lake locale

The lowdown: Biochemist, oenologist and winemaker Angela Kasimos makes use of Niagara’s cool climate for aromatic success.

The food match: Beet and Quinoa Tabouli

Riverview Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2012 (351494, $16.95) resides on the juicy plum fruit side of the Blanc spectrum, not unlike Pinot.  Friendly, hospitable and gracious, like Grillo. Effortless white, with a schwa for a mid-palate, a subtle vowel sound, a colourless murmur.  88 @RiverviewWinery

The history: Curtis and Heidi Fielding have confidently and meticulously built a small empire at Fielding Estate. Every angle, from exterior architecture to indoor design, to vineyard rows, to bottle images, is a study in fine lines and photographic possibility

The lowdown: SB reacts differently on the Beamsville Bench resulting in examples with more citrus and tropical fruit. Winemaker Richie Roberts finesses the you know what out of his grapes and makes no mistake with this warm ’12 vintage

The food match: Grilled Shrimp with Lime Powder and Parsley–Olive Oil Sauce

Fielding Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2012 (131235, $18.95) rolls across the tongue like a diphthong, gliding effortlessly along, with nothing out of sorts or over the top. The zest is in a note of lemon, the tropical nuance in passion fruit. Excellent and wondrous sipper, put in mind of its own astonishment. Serve on its own or with marinated maritime delicacies off the grill.  89 @FieldingWinery  @RichieWine

The history: Viña Veramonte from Chile’s Casablanca Valley

The lowdown: Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is noted for its racy and vibrant style, with bright fruit flavors and balanced acidity. Ritual was created to reach an elegant, yet approachable interpretation of Sauvignon Blanc

The food match: Elote al Echo Parque

Veramonte Ritual Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (328401, $19.95) after five months in French oak opens with a toasty, yet in check char. An SB of a different import entirely, with the acidity surrounding a ball of wet stone both encouraging and suppressing fruit bursts and releases. A bit built like a brick dunny, at times muddy and cranky, but possessive of tons of character. Hooting and hollering Savvy. One might say he lives.  90  @VeramonteWines

The history: Napa pioneer dating back to 1973. Their Sauvignon Blanc is fashioned from grapes throughout the Valley, with a large concentration from estate vineyards in the Rutherford, Calistoga, Carneros and southeastern Napa Valley regions.

The lowdown: This 2011 is the result of one of the coldest, wettest and latest vintages in memory. Whole cluster pressed SB, “Botox for white wine,” to keep the phenolics in check and to help the wine age quickly

The food match: Blueberry Cobb Salad

Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (707224, $39.95) shows off the verve of the vintage in pinging fruit balanced by creamy coconut. The tartness of the fruit still tells beneath the syrup so it certainly straddles a line of both tropical and piercing. The green note is spiced mango and there is a candle nut component. Very long.  92  @CakebreadWines

Good to go!

‘I4C’ a future filled with Chardonnay

Golden globes, Trius Winery at Hillebrand
PHOTO: ESTHER VAN GEEST OF STEVEN ELPHICK & ASSOCIATES

as seen on canada.com

In July of 2011, the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Association held their inaugural event, the celebration, the fourth “C.” On the weekend of July 19-21, 2013 the third Cool Climate Chardonnay conference occupied the greater good of the Niagara Peninsula, cementing a legacy begun two years previous.

Backtrack a few years, when in 2009 Ontario’s Le Clos Jordanne’s ‘Claystone Terrace’ Chardonnay 2005 made by winemaker Thomas Bachelder trumped international competitors in a Montreal grand tasting. A light bulb went on. Fast forward to April 2010 and a group of romantics from 28 Ontario wineries get together to defend a grape. Were they singing “that’s what I like about Chardonnay?” No, but the grape had been down on the rock for so long and the panel felt compelled to come to its defense. To suffer an indignity like “Anything But Chardonnay” was an aggression that could no longer be tolerated. Thus an idea was born, a manifesto drafted and i4C was soon to become a reality.

For such a gathering to succeed there necessitates grand effort, partnership, passion, star power and serious thematic examples. Germination began with those first cool thoughts back in 2010 and the journey has since laid song lines by way of a barmy march of vignerons with rootstock firmly dug in Niagara (Harald Thiel, Angelo Pavan) and those with a second foot tracking terroirsbeyond and abroad (Thomas Bachelder, Francois Morissette). Mix in some of this generation’s best wine-producing and marketing minds; Ron Giesbrecht formerly of Henry of Pelham, now Niagara College, Stephen Gash (Malivoire), Peter Bodnar Rod (13th Street), Del Rollo (Inniskilin, Jackson Triggs, Le Clos Jordanne), Suzanne Janke (Stratus) and Jeff Aubry (Coyote’s Run). The yeoman’s load has been in the multi-tasking hands of those who will work ’till their fingers bleed. Give it up for the cool concierge team; Dorian Andrewes, Trisha Molokach, Elena Galey-Pride, Britnie Bazylewski, Magdalena Kaiser-Smit and an army of volunteers.

Partnered in kind with Wine Country Ontario, the Grape Growers of Ontario and the LCBO, Cool Chardonnay has gone forth and prospered. Success can be directly attributed to community and a profound connection to the fruit of the land. Famous wine folk have come; Matt Kramer of Wine Spectator, Stephen Brook of Decanter, winemakers and vintners wherever cool Chardonnay is grown. Pours have been the best of the best.

For three straight days in 2013 they walked, talked, sung praises in favour of and flat-out got dizzy with Chardonnay. White Oaks Conference Resort and Spa became vinifera central for the visiting cognoscenti, including 1976 Judgment in Paris and Decanter Magazine’s Steven Spurrier,U.K. wine writer Jamie Goode (The Wine Anorak), Master of Wine Christy Canterbury and traveling winemakers from all over; Louis Jadot’s Jacques Lardière, South Africa’s Anthony Hamilton Russell, New Zealand’s Ruud Maasdam and Spain/California’s Marimar Torres.

The Cool Chardonnay weekend-long event is the stuff of dreams. The level of local and global wine excellence on display is sweeping and staggering. The congress acts both as social function and unprecedented academic experience. Most of all, i4c fosters and develops relationships for people within the wine industry and with its fans.

PHOTO: Michael Godel
Brock University CCOVI

 Dizzying was the operative word of the weekend. Each time I had only just digested, assimilated, internalized and committed a group of wines to memory, another gala event and tasting was upon me. Friday morning began with “Global Perspectives on Chardonnay,” a winemaker’s panel discussion at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, moderated in minimalist, less is more fashion by Mr. Spurrier. The colloquium was augmented by a tasting of seven wines attributed to panel members. “The base for all wines should be harmony,” began Spurrier, followed by ”simplicity and clarity are the key points in wine.” Four matter-of-course questions were put to the panel and the dissertations ambled in many directions. Could the room of several hundred not question, “why is this symposium different from all other symposiums?” There was plenty of talk on barrels, clones, rootstock, soil and climate but what about the heart of the matter. How and where does Ontario Chardonnay go forth and prosper? How will exceptional quality translate to financial success? The answer lay buried in the polite, respectful and viniculture responses of the panelists, all of whom chose not to ruffle any wine making philosophy feathers nor to breach the moderator’s benign agenda. There were highlights:

Grape grower Albrecht Seeger:

Thomas Bachelder on behalf of and in support of the eloquent and verbose Jacques Lardière:

The outspoken and candid Francois Morissette:

PHOTO: Michael Godel
Chardonnay at Brock University CCOVI

Friday night at Trius (Hillebrand) in Niagara-on-the-Lake set off under blazing sun only to be swept away in tempest. What began with the promise of seemingly limitless and linear structured wine and food stations turned into weather induced, scrambled chaos. I may never see a group of cooks, servers, winemakers and volunteers work harder to save an event and satiate a crowd as I saw at Trius that night. Their efforts were nothing short of brilliant. It was difficult to focus on tasting but the scene afforded some priceless time spent with Niagara winemakers and Brit Jamie Goode as the event wound down and on the shuttle back to the hotel. Wine tastings rarely afford such personal moments, to talk about something other than phenolics and malolactic fermentation.

PHOTO: Steven Elphick & Associates
Marlize Beyers at of Hidden Bench, Mikael Falkman of Champagne Taittinger and Michael Godel at Trius Wines

Lunch events and tastings on Saturday were held at Stratus, Pillitteri, Hidden Bench and at Southbrook, which I attended. While the first three conducted more formal, seated, panel discussion style luncheons, the scene at Southbrook was more of a walk about, casual nature. Once again this allowed for one-on-one time with some of Niagara’s wine minds. Great time was spent with Shiraz Mottiar of Mailvoire (Moira’s Chardonnay 2010) and Sébastien Jacquey of Le Clos Jordanne (LCJ Chardonnay Claystone Terrace 2010). Special thanks to Bill and Marilyn Redelmeier for their hospitality.

PHOTO: Steven Elphick & Associates
Mother Nature announces a change of plans – at Trius Wines

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre was host to the Saturday gala event. The gamut of Chardonnay flowed freely, including fizz by Cave Spring, Angel’s Gate and Taittinger alongside Tide and Vine oysters. Food stations adorned the lawn and the army of volunteers poured all available Chardonnay well into the night. My ABC moment came early Sunday thanks to Mike Di Caro and a very much alive bottle of ’98 Henry of Pelham Riesling. Sunday concluded with more, you guessed it, Chardonnay at Ravine Vineyard and some terrific eats. Pizza from the outdoor oven, prosciutto by Mario Pingue and great rib-eye hamburgers hot off the grill.

PHOTO: Michael Godel
Chef Vikram Vij at Vineland Research Centre

In excess of 100 unique expressions of Chardonnay were available to taste throughout the weekend. More than half were presented in an experiential way, with a present winemaker or a carefully crafted food pairing. I sampled 72 to be exact. Much as I have thus far avoided the questions, and they have been asked more than once, I am willing to address the demand for ”what were the highlights and what were your favourites?” Apologies in advance to those I either missed or could not properly assess due to the sheer enormity of the weekend. Also to the little ones, the hard-plodding, day-to-day pleasing value Chardonnay. With so many top-tier, global examples from Burgundy, California, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, British Columbia and Ontario on offer, the under $25 set may not have felt the love. Here are notes on 13, guilt-free, bring ‘em on Chardonnay poured at #i4c2013.

Wines were tasted at the following venues:

Brock University Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI)

Trius Winery at Hillebrand (TWH)

Southbrook Vineyards (SV)

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC)

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre Rittenhouse Media Room  (RMR)

Ravine Vineyard (RV)

Southbrook Chardonnay Whimsy! ‘Sirgue’ 2011 (344531, $34.95) may come from the ‘masculine barrels’ but the integration is already seamless, in soft French cream spooned over a grove of ripe lemon dessert. Sister ‘Damy’ (sampled at 5-Star Casa Loma) is certainly ultra-feminine but together they speak of the symbiotic relationship between winemaker (Ann Sperling) and cooperage. Stone-free Chardonnay, “free to ride the breeze.”  90  (TH, SV) @SouthbrookWine

Poplar Grove Reserve Chardonnay 2011 (335760, $34.00) is not so much a more concentrated version of the estate’s normale as a hotter sister. Like her sibling, the reserve does not rely on any one feature but she is classically styled, quaffed, a marble bust made up as maenad. Sappy white and savoury, meloniuos winter fruit, spiced apple butter and cool, steely goodness alights. “Felonious my old friend, So glad that you’re here again.”  90  (TWH, VRIC) @poplargrovewine

Staete Land Chardonnay ‘Josephine’ 2010 (332494, $57.00) is built upon a Marlborough hendiadys, a complex conjunction of rocks and earth. Sharp, focused and broad across the palate. Ruddy specimen this Josephine and simply gorgeous.  90  (VRIC)  @liffordwine

Miguel Torres Chardonnay ‘Cordillera De Los Andes’ 2011 (296624, $18.95) out of the cooler Limari Valley impresses in structure from mountain top to valley floor. Candied lemon peel, spicy bite and a crisp, cool centre make a case for value Chilean Chardonnay of the year. I might go so far as to say the highest quality ever from Chile.  91  (RMR)  @MarimarTorres

Tawse Chardonnay ‘Lenko Vineyard’ 2011 (344796, $44.95) ”from wiser men who’ve been through it all” is the kind of one-off we should all wish to re-visit in 10 years time. The study: Daniel Lenko’s fruit in the hands of winemaker Paul Pender out of a most confounding vintage. That 2011 in terms of Ontario Chardonnay strikes and speaks to me in tongues is no secret, so the Tawse treatment fascinates in ways to make me giddy. Tension and elasticity are present here in super-hyper Beamsville Bench concentration. Apples pile upon apples, in magnetic purée and layered maceration. A full-on body attack and phenolic structure will see this Lenko to a future (five to seven years) in grace and gorgeous line. A Chardonnay to “scheme the schemes, face the face.” Tasted three times.  91  (TH, VRIR, SV)  @Tawse_Winery  @Paul_Pender

Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2011 (931006, $32.95) may just be the most fascinating wine of the weekend. Aromatically it’s so understated and semi-breve spoken the oak-driven note is of the quasihemidemisemiquaver kind. Taste and find it ”is bathed every veyne in swich licour.” Chaucer-esque form, texture and meaning.  91  (VRIC, RV)  @WOSACanada

Pearl Morissette Chardonnay ‘Dix-Neuvième’ 2009 (303644, $40), tragically singular in expression, regardless and in spite of the terroir, mixes metaphors and pulls it off. “Takes arms against a sea of troubles,” by convincing ADHD fruit of an uncertain vintage to settle, play nice and “by opposing, end them.” Now entering the load out zone, this Hamlet cuvée is “the first to come and the last to leave, working for that minimum wage.” A sentimental ballad here to stay, be remembered and to set the stage for all dix-neuvième to come.  92  (TH)  @Pearl Morissette

Domaine Genot-Boulanger Meursault Clos du Cromin 2010 (331660, $59.00) intimates a sunshine daydream future carrying on wistfully in lustful fruit. Longevity will be supported by tight citrus and the wine, long on life, is long on deliverance.  92  (VRIC, VRI)

Bachelder Chardonnay ’Saunders Vineyard’ 2011 (324103, $44.95) takes the baton from Wismer ’10 in a transfer of power, tension and excitement. Clarity of textural fruit is driven by Beamsville Bench clay-silt soil. Highly dependent on yeast chains, sticking, spreading and expanding. Sapid, savoury, buttered stones show negligible encumbrance due to vines that will not carry an excess of new oak.  92  (CCOVI)  @Bachelder_wines

Norman Hardie County Chardonnay Unfiltered 2011 (346049, $35.00) toasted low and slow enervates and implodes to its very core. Then it sparks, revs the engine and climbs to 140 fearlessly and without peer. For those who can withstand the atomic launch, what follows is a reward of the highest quality Berkshire porcine whip, melting in the mouth like adult cotton candy.  Slow simmered apple paste, spiced and cooling reaps moisture and vacuums in the cheeks. Madness in Prince Edward County Chardonnay.  92  (RMR)  @normhardie

Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard 2010 (120311, $90) is a study in Russian River Valley emotional depth, structured belief, reserved compassion and stoic understanding. Yes John Milton, there is intensity of the California sun present yet expertly judged in ripeness, concentration and restraint. Smooth, glabrous, luxuriant and prurient Chardonnay. Sip it, “look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth.”  93  (RMR)

Pearl Morissette Chardonnay ‘Dix-Neuvième’ 2011 ($40) is a child of a hot and dry summer, a stress-free winter slumber and a non-invasive spring awakening.  Sets out lean, tight and mean, but the dry extract invites spicy, stone fruit and an emergence of tropical lushness. Can there be another specimen that so rightfully defines Pearl Morissette, the top of the Bench or NOL in 2011?  93  (CCOVI)

Joseph Drouhin Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot Marquis de Laguiche 2010 (332270, $129.00) is sinfully young to assess, enjoy and evaluate. Stinging nettle, metal and silken, concentrated wildflower honey think mellifluous thoughts. “Him that yon soars on golden wings” sings in gold ingot yellow, in sweet harmony. Milton meets Costello, not quite in its Utopian place but will one day achieve peace, love and understanding.  94  (RMR)

Good to go!