I have been thinking quite a bit lately about certain producers I have met through the course of my recent travels. Every wine region has its stars and while it’s quite rare to have a bad visit or negative experience, some visits simply turn on the lights. Sometimes there comes along a winemaker and a place with a special kind of light. Last September I found such an experience on a windswept limestone ridge in Valpolicella. Massimago.
Windswept white limestone vineyard at Massimago
Words of advice. “Lasciate la vostre ansia e le scarpe al cancello.” Massimago is the dream of Camilla Rossi Chauvenet, in Mezzane di Sotto found in Valpolicella’s Mezzane Valley. “A little heaven in the north part of Italy.” Massimago, from the Latin “Maximum Agium,” the maximum benefit. Camilla considers Mezzane as the most secret and wild of Valpolicella and her family’s land has belonged to the Cracco Family (on the maternal side) since 1883. In 2003 she began to transform the company into its modern-day renaissance.
Now (and I believe since 2014, officially) organic though that has always been the philosophy, the new generation believes in the Eminem credo, one shot equals one opportunity. Young guardian and creator of Massimago Camilla Rossi Chauvenet’s roots are never forgotten, emotion and creativity define identity and complexity will lead to longevity. On her website Camilla writes, “Massimago and I are tightly holding our hands, step by step, sooner or later we shall arrive, but please do not hurry us, time in nature is slow and unstoppable.” Truth.
Lasciate la vostre ansia e le scarpe al cancello
There are 28 hectares of vineyards, olive trees and woods. The soils are a nominative palette of limestone, marl and clay. Traditional varieties (corvina, corvine and rondinella) cultivated in Pergola are transformed into wines assembled from only estate grapes. A wine relais experience on site confirms Massimago as a Veronese wine experience hotel. As noted in Italian above there is but one rule. “Leave your anxiety and your shoes at the gate.”
On that September day I paid a visit and sat down to taste seven Massimago wines with John Szabo M.S., Joshua Corea, Annette Bruley, Jules Garton, José Luis Fernández, Lauren Hall and Nick Chajoglou. I could hardly contain my enthusiasm and these wines changed everything I thought I knew about Valpolicella. Così grande, così perfetto. I saw the light.
Magò is Camilla Rossi Chauvenet’s Charmat Method, 100 per cent corvina blush sparkler and another Massimago wine born of dreams and initiative. We climb to the top of the exposed white limestone ridge to sample this unmitigated refreshing fizz, light, aromatic and ethereal. To say it does wonders for grape, method and place would be the correct way to explain the situation. Magò sees 10 hours of maceration and eight months of lees aging. Though intentionally sweet (10.4 g/L RS) it is expertly balanced by acidity and even more so by exceptionally dry, limestone-conditioned extract. This is the key and the kicker, that and elevation, on a windswept, exposed geological place of wonder. The setting and presentation notwithstanding this is an impressive effort from the simplest of technologies at the hands of the soft-spoken and the kind. So yes, do enjoy this with “an elegant dress, the magic of waiting and the taste of freedom.” Or whatever romantic notion you prefer to call your own. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted September 2016
Few reference points can prepare you for Massimago’s style of Valpolicella so simply use this as the ingress. Plucked from vines in the Mezzane Valley in the east part of Verona province, rising from the village of Vago towards Mezzane di Sotto. Camilla Rossi Chauvenet’s precocious blend is the crisp, crunchy, pure as driven white limestone portal into the soils laid out in amphitheatre vineyard grid. Camilla uses only stainless steel tanks here to accentuate a basal clarity brush stroke on her Valpolicella canvas. This from a selection of the grapes that will not enter the Amarone process, the second and third pass harvested bunches. Cherry and silty saline mingle at the interces of limestone. How can you miss the white stone in the naked Valpolicella? You can’t. It’s without make-up, transparent, naked to the world. The wine speaks a natural vernacular and the land is spoken for. If villages-level Bourgogne were made like this all would be well in the world. Lithe, delicate and perfumed. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted September 2016
Godello can hardly contain his enthusiasm for Camilla’s Valpolicella
Profasio establishes new territory for Valpolicella Superiore from Mezzane Valley fruit in a wine over dinner “that lets you talk.” A careful and specific selection of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella (65/30/5) is subjected to “un leggero appassimento,” or a “slight withering” from one month of drying and the rest kept thankfully and respectfully fresh. The child is raised in stainless steel for five months plus one year in 2nd and 3rd passage barrels. This is Valpolicella meant to partner up with dinner for two, replete with secret recipes and crossing glances. “We feel the appassimento method is about levels of aromatics,” tells Camilla Rossi Chauvenet. In such a contrary to Superiore belief we find freshness and anti-jam the goal and as a result, the wine is allowed to tell a story. A script written cursively, crisp and pure, crunchy like the normale with an addendum of aromatic profiling; cherry, leather and red citrus. Profasio is a wine of good temper and vision (and could mean profezia, or prophecy, or perhaps a surname in reference to Dante and the Veronese ebraico’s Almanacco Perpetuo), a Valpolicella into a second level of contemplation, but not too much. The wine causes no worries, no anxiety and shoes are left at the bottom of the mountain. Profasio with its hint of dried momentum is a wine of communication and a new way of communicating. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted September 2016
Yet another new launching point, this time for the much maligned Ripasso category, acquiesced through the fresh urgency of the whimsical Marchesi MariaBella. The fruit is borne of a a much earlier ripening vineyard outside of Massimago, perched only at an insignificant 100m on Argileux soil. This a Ripasso I will wager large you have never tasted before. La Bella Poesia, “is different because its literary destiny has followed a strange path.” To say that a feminine disposition, temperament and engagement fills not just the aromatics but also the texture would be a Valpolicella understatent of this early century. There is virtually no dried fruit on the nose; there is more tension than the two classic Valpolicellas which is both counter-intuitive to terroir and to methodology. Ripasso needs to carry both weight and tension. It needs to have some elegance. It requires acidity and freshness. This walks that very line and it will age gracefully and with beauty. Incidentally to answer the query of whimsy each character on the label represents the democracy of the proletariat. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted September 2016
This is Camilla and Matteo. They will change everything you thought you knew about #valpolicella
If at first the Conte Gastone Amarone seems to be the freshest Amarone ever tasted it will in fact creep up and get upside so don’t be fooled. It is in fact a brooding, sulking, contemplative mess of intense fruit. The assessment is magnified when compared to a barrel sample of 2015 tasted minutes before. With no disrespect to carefully raised and quite specific red fruit the 2011 Amarone punch drunk (16.5 per cent alcohol) love can’t help but overwhelm as is its want and ilk. Here the Massimago conditioning of (65/30/5) corvina, corvinone and rondinella is treated with 100 days of appassimento, 30 months in large botti and smaller French barriques and then 12 further months in bottle. Camilla’s suggestion would be to enjoy her Amarone “brainstorming with friends, feasting on dreams and quiet omnipotence.” While hers is indeed more cerebral and contemplative inducing than most, 2011 is just a beginning and fashioned as a means preparing Valpolicella towards an end that will begin with that fresh maker of a ’15. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted September 2016
“I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me.” @massimago #special #brassinpocket
Massimago Amarone Della Valpolicella 2011, Veneto, Italy (Agent, $109.95, WineAlign)
The packed and punchy Massimago labeled simply Amarone is the stronger one and with deferential ability manages to bring the Conte Gastone into bright, fresh, highlighted, beautiful infrared light. Not that the fruit is any less presumptuous or magnificent but considered side by side here it is really just acidity and tannin that drives the intense machine. The suggestions of “brainstorming, feasting and omnipotence” are more than apropos for a wine of preponderance, indulgence and power. The young wine is rigid and so full of fruit, an impossible combination in Amarone and like the Gastone is just a precurser to what will be coming in Camilla Rossi-Chauvenet’s dreamy Valpolicella future. Drink 2018-2025. Tasted September 2016
Sneak label preview of Camilla’s @massimago pét-nat sparkling. Così grande, così perfetto
Zurlie is Massimago’s newest product, a 100 per cent confondere corvina made in the sur lie Vino Rifermentato In Bottiglia style. The fruit is 100 per cent 2015 and until now, no one in Valpolicella has tried to make sparkling wine in this confounding style. Passes through secondary fermentation with sugar added into the bottle and then a seal under crown cap. Extreme acidity abounds because it’s accomplished sur lie, a wine to clean your mouth at the end of a wine tasting. Delicately raises a perfume almost after the fact from an easy drinking picnic wine stolen straight from the fridge. So much fun and just extreme freshness, in a way cider does but also cannot do. This speaks at the highest level of simple brillance. A four year dream in the making. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted September 2016
When you visit @massimago “lasciate la vostre ansia e le scarpe al cancello” @C_Valpolicella #organic #camilla
It’s only love when #french and #danish friends do dinner @michaelwuertz #herring #foiegras
I do like symmetrical things and prefer the irregular approach to writing and life. Method to madness is all in the perception and only really figured out when you learn to let your emotions run wild. You have to want to believe Godello as a writer knows what he’s talking about but you also need to trust the facts when you find them flooded into the seemingly unconnected mess of musical and multicultural references, veins and streams of consciousness.
Do you remember this commercial?
“You worked too hard and ate too much,
The cheesesteak made you green.
Let your aching head and stomach hear this message from old Speedy.”
Speedy here is voiced by the same guy (Dick Beals) that voiced Davey of “Davey and Goliath” and Ralph Phillips of “Looney Tunes.” Here we move forward, away from the mess and sting and sighs and slings of 2016, past the littering deaths of loved ones and icons, into the future that begins (in wine anyway), with the VINTAGES January 7th release. Forget the Alka Seltzer and listen up.
Drinking sparkling wine in January is a contagious and contiguous must for any self-respecting wine geek but who can afford Champagne after the bank-rolling of the holiday season? Fear not for alternative fizz is coming your way. So are tidy values for chenin blanc, viognier, grüner veltliner, malbec, negroamaro, tannat, graciano, sangiovese, garnacha, cabernet franc and syrah. You can also choose from five splendid blends from Dealu Mare, Valpolicella, Langhorne Creek, and Côtes Du Roussillon Villages. Please visit WineAlign for full reviews of these 17 in VINTAGES January 7th.
Budureasca Feteasca Regala 2015, Doc Dealu Mare, Romania (416800, $11.95, WineAlign)
Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Tautavel Grenache/Syrah/Carignan 2013, Ap Côtes Du Roussillon Villages, Languedoc-Roussillon, France (272575, $18.95, WineAlign)
This may or may not have happened #raveneau #memory #monteedetonnerre
It has never been this difficult to narrow it down. This frenetic, fast and forward moving blur of a year has blistered the patterns of thought so much so that I seriously considered throwing the whole 16 in 16 down the drain and laying it all out there. “Here are the 42 mind-blowing wines of 2016…” and then this wave of clarity came over me like a cloudless afternoon in Chablis. I mean I tasted 50-plus Grand Cru Chablis this year. They could all be on this list.
I meant this just the way I wrote it. The simplicity of wine is a beautiful thing. A vine grows and produces grapes. That fruit is picked and ferments itself with help from yeast it just happens to carry in its luggage. Time passes and wine is made. No one had to invent it. The most basic example of shit happens.
As if to presumptuously bookend 2016 before it even began, that first post was apropos. New year, 16 new VINTAGES releases were not mind-blowing by any stretch of the waxing rhapsodic imagination but white space was filled. Like growing grapes in warm climates where just about anything can complete a phenolic journey, the possibilities are endless. So that I may feel comfortable quoting Godello again and again, multeity is the name of the game.
South Africa continued to occupy Godello for the early part of 2016 and that will never cease and desist. Hosting Andrea Mullineux at Barque Butcher Bar was one of the true highlights of the year. The landscape of South African wine is demarcated by ancient geology and by the geographical diversity of its regions, sub-regions and micro-plots. Varietal placement is the key to success. As I mentioned in previous articles, South African winemakers can grow anything they want, to both their discretion and their whimsy. The choice of what grows best and where will determine the successes of the future.
A new riesling on my radar was released in February. Creekside Estate Riesling Marianne Hill Vineyard 2014, Beamsville Bench, Ontario (443572, $19.95, WineAlign) and it paired beautifully with more foreshadowing than I’d like to admit.
Such a showing of 12 from Langton’s does @Wine_Australia proud. Formidable, exemplary #AussieWine #vintagewineconservatory
The Langton’s Classification: Excellent, outstanding, exceptional could have, would have placed 16 wines on this best of list were the rest of the planet not so adept at making wine. Like Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon Limited Release 2010, Coonawarra, South Australia (466748, $99.95, WineAlign). Such a gathering of Australian wine delivers the preponderance of form, with the incantatory capacity of narrative to bring truth to light and fulness out of pleasure. The mantra repeated with Savouring the new Australia.
The #napavalley mustard is something else @CalifWines_CA #napa #califwine
Vintage to vintage nuance and the common thread of grothiness, or, @GrothWines in essence @TheVine_RobGroh #suzannegroth #napavalley #oakville #cabernetsauvignon
The most pertinent question now in my mind is this. Can European wine keep up with the fictionality of North American reality? Even these wines could not make this list, however great and exceptional they are. Anakota Helena Montana Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, California (181131, $158.95, WineAlign), Forman Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Napa Valley, California (143925, $160.00, WineAlign) and Groth Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1997, Oakville, Napa Valley, California (Agent, $179.95, WineAlign). Sometimes the answer still persists. All in the Primum Familiae Vini. And by the way, The LCBO keeps Kosher.
Much of what I taste is in a lab with no windows. That is because VINTAGES is a mimetic project, which is a few projects too many. We wine trackers and writers are akin to Cricetinae, perpetually running in a wheel or like Sisyphus, forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down. We read the bi-weekly catalogue, pre-taste the newest offerings, make our lists and check them twice. In every batch there are 10-15 wines that stand out, as much about bell curve positioning as absence of singularity. That is why attending varietal-centric events like The dawning of the age of Austrian wine and travelling the world is so important. Not too mention in my dining room In the Campania of Vini Alois.
To name a few excursions, I visited California in February, Vinho Verde in March, Chianti Classico in May, Chablis in July and Valpolicella in September. November in Paris I re-connected with Earth and sky. The take aways were extraordinary and flush with the relish of new discoveries and brand new days. Who can forget Ca’ La Bionda Vigneti Di Ravazzol Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 1997? Italy in the fall reminded me that Franciacorta is the best kept sparkling secret on the planet. November is a sublime time to visit the province of Brescia and the cellars of Franciacorta. Meraviglioso! Meanwhile, Champagne has to be on the list, right? Lallier Cuvée Millésime Grand Cru Brut Champagne 2008, Champagne, France (Agent, $95.00, WineAlign) should be but again, space restrictions and there was this old bubble from the New World. Decisions, decisions.
Which brings me back to Canadian and more parochioally, Ontario wine. The Canadian wine renaissance is attributed to high-end, artisan winemakers like Norman Hardie and Thomas Bachelder. That’s the cool factor. The truth of the matter is that Canadian winemakers have realized and capitalized on the significance and exceptionality of their terroirs in regions such as Niagara, Prince Edward County and the Okanagan Valley. Journalists and buyers from around the globe know it and have begun to spread the Canadian gospel.
And now #cuvee2016 @CCOVIBrockU #vqa @winecountryont #scotiabankconventioncentre
This 16-strong list has much to do with the beg, Drink now or save it for later? I have spent the last 30 years considering wine in some respect. The last 15 much more so. The tries, trials, errors, tricks, and tribulations have taught me one thing. I prefer and receive much more instant gratification from drinking wines young but nothing compares to the insight and the exhilaration of partaking in older wines.
You never forget your first hunk of #kimmeridgian love @BIVBChablis @vinsdebourgogne #chablis #cotedelechet
The year’s greatest distraction came at the hands of Chablis and fair warning, twenty thousand words are coming soon. In 2016 I published three times, Chablis from Dauvissat to Vocoret, Looking for Chablis in Ontario?, Enlightened Chablis of Château De Béru and Paradox in Chablis. Chablis as a varietal concept, as opposed to and unlike anywhere else in the world, seemingly unrelated to chardonnay. How could these extraordinary Chablis not make the list? Domaine Laroche Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots Réserve De L’obédience 2014, Ac Burgundy, France (Agent, WineAlign) and Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots 2014, Ac Burgundy, France (Agent, WineAlign). Perhaps because I will soon publish Grand Cru hyperbole next month? That must be it.
Mirror to classicism, history and tradition. Purity from @valerialosi #querciavalle @chianticlassico #agricolalosi #sangiovese #granselezione #pontiganello
For the first time, I think ever, I gave some love to Rosé in the Days of wine and Rosés. I also fell for new dessert wines and these two tried hard but came up just a wee bit short for the list. Domaine Cauhapé Jurançon Symphonie De Novembre 2012, Southwest, France (470344, $38.95, WineAlign), Losi Querciavalle Vin Santo Del Chianti Classico 2000, Docg Tuscany, Italy (Agent, $95.00, WineAlign).
@grahams_port insanity via @abnermallity #onceinalifetime #piratesonapicnic #piratesv4point0 #sharingiscaring #1948 #finestreserve
Singolarità, qualità, diversità. Grazie di tutto @chianticlassico
In 2016, two words. Chianti Classico. The wines have embarked upon an ascension into their contemporary golden age. Image, perception and finalmente, reality, these are the truths all who feel the soul of Chianti Classico are in search of today. Today and moving forward, explaining to the world that Chianti Classico is not what you thought or think it to be. Colle Bereto Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2011, Docg Tuscany, Italy (Agent, $67.50, WineAlign) was a side-revelation, as were so many others in Three days, eight estates, Chianti Classico and Gran Selezione, The most important red wine from Italy. And in a year when CC is all that seems to matter, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia 2012, Doc Bolgheri Superiore, Tuscany, Italy (722470, $195.50, WineAlign) and Fattoria Dei Barbi Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva 2004, Tuscany, Italy (Agent, $100.00, WineAlign) are but mere mentions in addendum.
David Pelletier, ‘Le Sommelier Fou’ and friends in Vinho Verde
200 yr old vines. 1300m above sea level @vignerietna @somesmartsomm #rosato #vinudilice 2008 #tastethelava #volcanic
I Vigneri Di Salvo Foti Vinudilice 2008, Igt Sicilia Rosè, Sicily, Italy (WineAlign)
So much about this introduction to volcanic Rosato falls under the category and melts into the realm of the impossible. Begin with Vigna Bosco planted to 10,000, (up to) 200 year-old bush-trained (Etnean alberello) vines per hectare in Bronte, Northern Etna. Consider the party goers, endemic alicante, grecanico, minnella and other minor if wholly obscure native varietals. Locate the vineyard at 1,300m above sea level. Tell me it’s not the highest in all of Europe. Go on, tell me. Tended by hand with the help of Ciccio the mule. No refrigeration, yeasts or filtration. Decanting and bottling follow the phases of the moon. Blush has never acted like this, suspended as if put into bottle yesterday, beautifully minutia funky, every detail in laser calm focus. There really is no reference point, not in the south of France or anywhere in Italy to prepare for such an intellection. Vinudilice is nestled in a wood filled with holly oak (quercus ilex or in Sicily, ilice) but in respect for its singularity I would hesitate to categorize or compartmentalize. In fact I would not use the term Rosé, or Orange or natural to realize a need for reason. I would simply taste the lava. Thank you SomeSmartSomm. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted April 2016 @ivigneri@somesmartsomm@WinesOfSicily
Not members Blasted Mechanism. With Chris Wilton and Vasco Croft, Aphros Wines, Vinho Verde
Loureiro of a fashion so rare for Portugal and this region, from a concrete pétillant-naturel style, vinified in stainless steel with wild yeasts and initially no additional sugar, then bottled with 20 grams of natural residual sugar, to alight the single fermentation conclusion. An 11 per cent contrariety of méthode ancestrale dialectic, like a lime-grapefruit cordial housing a dissolving lemon tablet. A bowie cut, boning and dressing of loureiro. This here the whole new way to take the grape, to send it sky-high and bring it down to the rustic roots of glam, sparkling funk. “Like to take a cement fix, be a standing cinema. Dress my friends up just for show, see them as they really are.” Vasco (Andy) Croft walking and his hunky dory pet-nat spinning an original tale of a time and a place, or perhaps a myth, like the rustic deity of the forest riding shotgun to Dionysus and his native war. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted March 2016 #aphroswine@LeSommelierWine
Oldest vines #barossavalley textures in #semillon and #grenache @cirillo1850wine @Wine_Australia #southaustralia #marcocirillo
Cirillo 1850 Ancestor Sémillon 2011, Barossa Valley, South Australia (Agent, $36.00, WineAlign)
A sémillon revelation is found in this Barossa Valley ancient, a wine procured from vines dating back more than 150 years. To discount that prodigious bit of calculated fortuity would be wrong on so many levels. The Cirillo family are guardians of what may be the oldest continuously producing grenache and sémillon vineyards in Australia and by logical extension, the world. Here the combination of dry extract, mineral depth and straight-lined (unsalted) salinity is beyond special. While the Hunter Valley garners the most attention for aging immortal sémillon, this Barossan will likewise escape, somehow, to live another more complicated and mysterious life. I would wait three years for some extract meets tannic sweetness to begin its development and then take it slow for another six to 10. Incredible find here in Ontario from Marco Cirillo. Drink 2019-2029. Tasted May 2016 @Cirillo1850wine@bokkewines@BarossaDirt
Brash Higgins Nero D’avola Amphorae Project 2015, McLaren Vale, South Australia (Winery, $55.00, WineAlign)
The renegade triumvirate of coagulation denotes the shock and awe of this outlier; McLaren Vale, Nero d’Avola and Amphora. Winemaker Brad Hickey and his nickname have taken the troika and created a beautiful monster. A non-oxidative, crunchy, spicy, toasty, chewy and tannic NdA in versicolour, mottled and florid in flavour. There is black and white pepper, cinnamon, zesty orange spritz and a clay influence (plus amphora) to waft one for the ages. The palate flaunts a tapenade of painfully brilliant chalky black olive. The swirl is chocolate and vanilla, mediterranean and meganesian. There should be zero attention paid to the unusual in its concept. This is both a pleasure to taste now and will evolve into something wholly other given enough time. At least 10 years to be sure. Drink 2016-2025. Tasted May 2016 @BrashHiggins@mclaren_vale@TheLivingVine
Rockpile Zinfandel Cemetery Vineyard 2013, Rockpile AVA, Sonoma County, California (Winery, US $47, WineAlign)
Look towards the other arm of Lake Sonoma and let your mind’s eye rest 250 feet higher than Jack’s Cabin Vineyard. The Cemetery plantation is a jagged, craggy outcropping with “a face uneven as a river jag and asperous as the mullein’s flannel.” The Mauritsons are Los Campesinos of Cemetery Vineyard in Rockpile. The rocks below resemble giant headstones along the Rogers Creek fault and you just have to believe all this immensity of geology impacts the vines. It does but don’t ask how or why, just settle into the cimmerian depth of zinfandel touched by black fruit, spice and the akimbo savour of glutamate and amino acid. Three further months in barrel (85 French plus 15 American) accentuates the spice, smoulder and espresso con crema texture. Ripeness of fruit, tannin and acidity are simply stellar out of this dramatic place. “You know us by the way we crawl and you know us by our cemetery gaits.” Drink 2017-2025. Tasted February 2016 @mauritsonwinery@sonomavintners
Though it may long ago have been considered the quintessential one, there may be no other Alsatian gewürztraminer more important than Weinbach’s Cuvée Laurence. The reasons are manyfold but begin and end with memory and legacy. This was daughter and sister Laurence Faller’s prized wine, the wine she put her name to, that defined her gracious winemaking in echo of the estate she worked. Her family has carried the torch and yet her touch is all over this wine. Calm, composed, balanced and ethereal. Laurence is a clear expression of the marly limestone soil beneath the lieu-dit of Altenbourg, located at the base of the great Grand Cru Furstentum vineyard. Where else do you find gewürztraminer of such delicasse, from which classic aromas (rose petal, creamy to boozy-syrupy tropical fruit) and impossible unction combine without ukase? Nowhere. The acidity does not act with impulse. No, it rings, supports and lingers. The extract is intense but out of mind. Exceptional vintage. Drink 2018-2033. Tasted October 2016 #domaineweinbach@AlsaceWines@drinkAlsace@ACT_Alsace@VinsAlsace
Alessandro Palombo is skeptical at first, one eyebrow raised but with the look of possibility on his face. Takes me very little time to acknowledge that this ’79 is very much alive, fruit not predominant (and surely some prune) but neither cooked nor bruised. The brown nose (earth and spice) purports a full concentration of anthocyanins, acidity still full in, dried fraises de bois, black liquorice, dirty leather and worth repeating, still very good acidity. Truffle, forest floor and then black olive tapenade on the palate. This is 70-80 per cent sangiovese with colorino and canaiolo and for 1979 it’s quite incredible. It should not have lasted this long. Antonio says that up to 10 per cent could have been malvasia blanca and trebbiano because at the time it was a field blend, co-planted with the sangiovese, which could explain some of the variegation in the colour. This is a Chianti Classico to lend credence to the idea of using multiple fruit, vegetal and animale descriptors when assessing an old wine. It’s also the reason why you put them away and open them with friends who’s eyes are wide open. Thank you Alessandro for the opportunity and for the connection to your grandfather Alberto. He was a very good winemaker. Drink 2016. Tasted May 2016 @LuiLuiano@chianticlassico
Château De Béru Chablis Clos Béru Monopole 2012, Ac Burgundy, France (Agent, $87.95, WineAlign)
In 2012, less density and iodine matchstick is on display in performance for the historic, south facing vineyard beyond the Château’s walls. From this her eighth vintage in the resurrection of the family’s estate wines, Athénaïs de Béru has assembled fruit from Kimmeridgian limestone in rapport with a vintage of portent and intent towards elegance. The acidity is much more linear (than 2013) and the limestone sensations less metallic. Here the feeling is more of a liquid chalk and the balance is much improved. Also less evolved, bright and a much more amenable of a bitter pith, more citrus (lemon and lime) and not as earthy. Longer finish too. What 2013 lacks this ’12 gains and vice versa. The comparative literature and parenthetical study is duly noted as apples to oranges so the wines are exempt of one another. Neither answer all the questions asked and both express their terroir from their time spent on it. This ’12 story will become clearer in another year or two. Drink 2017-2023. Tasted July 2016 #chateaudebéru@TheLivingVine@vinsdechablis@purechablis
“What is Rioja?” asks Telmo Rodríguez. He notes that Lopez-Heredia still manages small vineyards, Grand Cru and Premier Cru plots, but most Rioja houses are industrial. Their wines age in barrels in 100-150 year old wineries but have no sense of place, of origins, of an amazing vineyard. “I want to be radical. I believe it (Rioja) can be one of the most beautiful places in the world but I told my brothers it needed to go in a very particular direction. My brothers agreed.” So costs went up 35 per cent. They bought no grapes. “If you want to work properly in Spain, you have to be a hero.” You have to work the most difficult vineyards, where production costs are five times that of Grand Vin Bordeaux but the price sells for 10 times less. And so Telmo Rodríguez produces this Gran Reserva, a wine that adheres to a Rioja systematic but does so from a blind-eye turned, high density field-blend planting of tempranillo, garnacha, graciano, muscatel, viura and malvasia. A field blend, unlike Bordeaux but a local village farmed gathering of the best fruit. The 2009 is showing no age but the difference between 2010 Reserva and 2009 Gran Reserva is night and day. This makes the ’10 seem fresh, alive, open, almost simple. Here the variegation is distilled down to laser focus, as if the varieties all become one and most people would simply say tempranillo, but who has ever tasted and been dealt such a tempranillo? This is oozing of a liqueur like no other, rich, viscous, natural and dry-extract sweet. An expression of the best microclimates and their vineyard kin. Wait another five years to allow it to remember and tell its tale. Drink 2022-2034. Tasted September 2016 #Remelluri@TelmoRodriguez_@Noble_Estates
Dominus 1998, Napa Valley, California (212381, $176.95, WineAlign)
When I tasted the 1990 in 2012, hanging on to every thread of oscillation from death to life and back again was exhausting. The 2008 tasted that same year could not have been more life affirming. This ’98 is such a zoetic Dominus beast with an embarrassment of resplendent riches. It is everything 1990 wished it could have been and yet the light-hearted George Hrab geological funk reminds me of that wine. The 1998 trips on a trebuchet and I weep at its aromatic reverie. It is hypnopompic, a state immediately preceding waking up, whiffing the most beautiful Brett there ever was or could ever imagined to be. Volatility in a bubble, circumstantial, lost in a dream. Get lost in the butcher shop, the natural cure here, there, everywhere, curative and comforting. Porcine and rapturous, fruit perfect and entitled, structure supprting every note. If 1998 was both a curious and concerning vintage this wine lays those worries to rest. The fretting may have swayed feelings and been difficult to glide fingers across but the harmonics extend with ease. Finishes with staccato calm, a palpable exhale of breath and silence. Five more years will be like this and five more without threat. Drink 2016-2026. Tasted October 2016 #dominus@rogcowines#ChristianMoueix
Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 2013, Santa Cruz Mountains, California (405332, $191.95, WineAlign)
From a serious drought vintage, dry, warm and demanding, the 2013 Montebello’s Draper perfume is as heady as ever, to such effect that after one whiff this is where daydreaming takes over consciousness. Montebello gets inside the head, with allegory, radio frequency waves and platonic thought, as if inside a cave. An 80 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot (8), Cabernet Franc (7) and Merlot (5) classic, lithe and restrained blend of sheer, utter exceptionality. The balance in 2013 is impeccable but dont be fooled into thinking this is not a big wine. The acidity is dramatic, the tannins fine and demanding and the amount of pure extract whorled and revelling. All in dark red fruit and a coolness through the mid-palate that threads like silk through fine stainless steel fibre. “This goes beyond me, beyond you.” Drink 2018-2030. Tasted May 2016 @RidgeVineyards@rogcowines@CalifWines_CA
Fino, Don P.X. ’86 and ’62 w: @sorgatoBTA @toroalbala @LeSommelierWine Magical, impossible, unchanging. Bucket list to revisit in 150 years #pedroximenez #bodegastoroalbala #montillamoriles #spain
Bodegas Toro Albalá Don P.X. Selección 1967, Do Montilla Moriles, Spain (491647, $199.95, WineAlign)
You know it’s a good month when you are afforded the opportunity to taste two Montilla-Moriles Pedro Ximenez oldies, first the Alvear Solera 1927 in Paris and now this Selección 1967 bottled in November of 2016. The vintage-dated PX are produced from sun-dried grapes fermented for two months to eight or nine per cent alcohol, at which point a distillate made from the same PX pressings is added to bring the wine up to 17 per cent. First in concrete vats and then a transfer into 50-150 year old American oak barrels. Only 630 bottles were filled in a PX of awakening and hope that finished at an indiscernible 17 per cent alcohol. Some dessert wines can be cloying Popskull but Bodegas Toro Albalá delivers yet another impossible and crazy dessert wine of heavy fuel, impeccable balance in the face of Lugduname breaching sweetness and aromas sin fronteras. The gamut glides through roasted nuts and dried fruits, from almonds and Van Gogh Museum memories of their abundant flowers plus pomegranate, apricot, peach, nectarine, damson plum and pistachio. So much pistachio!! In between there is orange marmalade, quince jelly and prune preserve. Plenty of acidity extends and narrows into a sharp, pointed tang. No matter how many times you try to empty the glass there is always more wine. Always another sip. Is it viscosity, a truco del ojo or trampantojo? Is there some kind of wizardry at play? Then finally, well, actually never, a finish with no end, or a pause in a never-ending 49 year-old (and counting) story. So where is the beginning? 1967. Drink 2016-2040. Tasted November 2016 @toroalbala@sorgatoBTA@MontillaMoriles@LeSommelierWine
Schramsberg Sparkling J. Schram 50th Anniversary Late disgorged 1999, Napa Valley, California (Winery $175 US, WineAlign)
In celebration of Schramsberg’s golden anniversary, 50 years after Jack and Jamie Davies revived the historic Schramsberg estate for the purpose of making the nation’s first chardonnay and pinot noir based, bottle-fermented sparkling wines. A North Coast (57 per cent Napa, 25 Mendocino, 15 Monterey and 13 Sonoma) blend of 74 per cent chardonnay and 26 pinot noir. Seventeen years have come to ginger, cumin, coriander and galangal in laminous, oxidative ingenuity, wholly arid in kicking up the aromatic dust. Flavours of pressed lemon, bitter brioche and then tannin, yes tannin. From a protracted year, picked as late as October 19th, disgorged in August of 2014 at a dosage of (very necessary) 11.5 g/L RS. Blessed with high natural acidity of 9.8 tA. How can I not concur with Hugh Davies. “What we’re really showing here is Napa Valley Chardonnay.” Drink 2016-2031. Tasted February 2016 @Schramsberg@TheVine_RobGroh
Down by the river with #raveneau #grandcru #blanchot #chablis @lafolieauxerre #2009 #francoisraveneau #thankful
Domaine François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot 2009, Burgundy, France (WineAlign)
It would be misleading to address Raveneau’s Blanchot as chardonnay even as we know it as such because Raveneau produces wines as unique as door keys. They are so inimitable and each will only open the gate to its own unique perception. Blanchot is the southernmost of the seven Chablis Grand Cru climats and blankets the southeastern side of Les Clos. The Raveneau narration does not convey the notion of manifest feeling but instead splits the axiomatic atom of the climat. A sip and you are inside the Blanchot, gliding and passing through rock as if you are the ethereal and the wine is the solid foundation of thought, pathos and avowal. There are aromas that combine citrus and umami with a sweetness that can’t be denied or defined. The wine is just a child, complex, shy and yet unable to express both its meaning and power. But you try to get inside its head, stumbling over kimmeridgian rock replete with the smithereen-crushed shells of ancient fossils. This is a calm young Blanchot and you melt away while under its spell. Three more years should render its hidden meaning. Drink 2019-2034. Tasted July 2016
A great pleasure and exercize in humility to taste with #vincentdauvissat in his cellar @BIVBChablis #humanity #chablis
Domaine René et Vincent Dauvissat Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2001, Burgundy, France (WineAlign)
Tasted from a bottle opened five days prior which is nothing really for a wine that can age easily for 30 years. It resides in a perfect state. Vincent concedes “over 20 there is nothing to be gained” and yet the still terrifically raging acidity would suggest this 15 year-old specimen is only halfway there. The texture is nothing if not persuasive. In 1931 Vincent’s father began this journey. Here 70 years later is a wine so perfectly intact, the lemon-waxy aspect almost on the edge of the hive. But not quite because of the taut bracing and tight embracing. There is a chew to this and Dauvissat shrugs. “What’s to say?” Nothing but a great piece of his history and his father’s legacy. If this wine is a sentimental tribute to a childhood village, it is never uncomplicated. Drink 2016-2031. Tasted July 2016
Catena Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae Malbec 2011, Mendoza, Argentina (Agent, $325.00, WineAlign)
In this extremely specific malbec from a diagnosed block of the Adrianna Vineyard we are graced with the micro-science of wine. And if you feel that using the name of an aerobic bacteria in the nomenclature is an odd choice, consider the mind of Dr. Laura Catena and her biological approach to viticulture. If we can understand and differentiate the microbes in the soil we can make better wine. It’s as simple as that. When wine is broken down to the biological level it becomes something entirely different and this is the road travelled by the Mundus Bacillus. Catena’s usage of 70 parcel pits per hectare has unearthed this single parcel within the vineyard, again completely different and the pinpointed microbial discussion initiates right here. The soil stakes a claim for this malbec only, certainly not in any way that tends to funk but surely as an impresario of soil. Talk about eugenics in the MBT because that science is compelling and can be related to in this wine. It can offer keys towards improving genetic quality of the vinous population. Here we are faced with rich and dusty, a mean streak of malbec intensity made elegant by earthly microbes. This section draws parallels to the (chardonnay) White Bones soil from which there transfers an excess of dry extract and tannin. Patience please for a malbec that will be long lived. Drink 2019-2027. Tasted November 2016
Were that it were so simple. You nailed it chef #duckconfit @chabrolto #dougpenfold
It’s Friday!! Brevity like you’ve never seen is here with more VINTAGES December 10th picks. Time to bagschool, be on one’s beanwater, get frisky, live a little, enjoy the weekend. This week’s earlier posts explored the new and the local.
You will notice more than a 50 per cent share in favour of white wines. That’s what I like to drink, more often than not and nothing opens the palate for dinner like a crisp, dry white. That and sparkling wine. Trust me, you need more white wine in your life. It will bring balance and happiness. We now move into the comfort zone of the old world with 14 recommendations.
Quinta Das Setencostas Alenquer 2012, Doc Portugal (50930, $13.95, WineAlign)
Fear not dear Ontario wine consumer. Neither advertisement nor earworm jingle will be implanted inside your head, nor a benediction to invoke the virtues of Solaia or Sassicaia neither. There will be no mention of the X-word but like it or not, it has begun. The VINTAGES machine got going this past Saturday with its first big buying time of year roll-out on October 29th. For 11 months a year the $30-$3,000 category appeals to one per cent of the wine buying population but increases to perhaps five when the bells begin to ring. By my count there are 15 (or so) October 29th release big guns now on shelves, half of which are reviewed right here.
Domaine De Pignan Châteauneuf Du Pape 2013, Ac Rhône, France (473678, $36.95, WineAlign)
In 1989 Frédéric Charvin began to work his family’s vineyard, like Louis and René Pécoul, Pécoul François and Pécoul Antoine before him. His Domain goes back 160 years and the average age of Pignan’s vines are 60 years, three of them are a hundred years old. Subtle for Châteauneuf Du Pape (if that can even be such a thing) with mineral mourvedre and soild syrah funk streaking through the grenache. The other varieties add up to 11 per cent and we should not discount their blending capabilities, for structure and for balance. Equanimity is the name of the game in this esteemed section of the southern Rhône Valley and kudos to Pignan for bringing reason and reserve to the table. The potential here is 10 plus years and yet plenty of value and pleasure will be afforded along the way. Drink 2018-2025. Tasted October 2016 #domainedepignan@terroirtoronto@VINSRHONE
Zuccardi Zeta 2012, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina (163725, $39.95, WineAlign)
Zeta is a vital and conspicuous malbec-dominated bottling from careful fruit selection for Jose and Sebastian Zuccardi. The fruit is chosen from specific lots out of La Consulta and triggered by catalyst cabernet sauvignon grown in the Gualtallary Vineyards. These two locales rank with Mendoza’s best and the effects of such ripe extracted fruit in combinative if combative cohorts is one of depth, layering and extreme warmth. The alcohol and acidity on top of massive fruit extraction is beholden to nothing. This one stands firm, confident, tall and with great conceit. It is a force to be reckoned with. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted October 2016 @SebaZuccardi@ZuccardiWines@FamiliaZuccardi@winesofarg@ArgentinaWineCA
Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay 2014, Napa Valley, California (26682, $47.95, WineAlign)
Though richly aromatic and textured this is the first Private Reserve in many years to act with this kind of beautiful reserve. The barrel aging is less engaging than the previous, lets say, 17 years and so fruit is smartly in play. A bite of crisp apple while whiffing the early baking scents of pie is the conjuring in revelrous demure. Here a minor hypnosis from a delicious Beringer that will only improve with a year or two in bottle. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted October 2016 @beringervyds@NapaVintners@CalifWines_CA
Gallo Signature Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, Napa Valley, California (394197, $50.95, WineAlign)
The three-R guarantee of ripe, rich and robust from winemaker Gina Gallo accompanies the Signature Series cabernet sauvignon. Hue and structure addendum are provided by a combined five per cent petit verdot and petite sirah. William Hill is the primary source of fruit from Vaca foothills, rocky, thin and nutrient-deprived Silverado benchland soils. Monte Rosso and a few bucket loads of petite sirah from the Louis Martini Thomann Station Vineyard round out the accumulation. The parched vintage is responsible for this parged cabernet, juicy by Cassis and stereotypical blackberry but managed to further warmth with dried black fig and a barque char on brisket straight from the smoker. The naturally-flavoured bovine-bresaola charcuterie crust is so very Napa Valley hillside issue so ageability is yet another Gallo guarantee. Drink 2018-2025. Tasted October 2016 @GalloFamily@Winegirl23@NapaVintners@CalifWines_CA
Fattoria Dei Barbi Brunello Di Montalcino 2010, Tuscany, Italy (928028, $53.95, WineAlign)
Quite approachable for the normally firm and hands off in its youth Barbi. Always with a foot firmly rooted in the past and yet the house seems to be slowly waltzing into the modernity of the future. This has hallmark roses and cherries under leathery hides but also a beautifully bright and dynamic luminescence. It also carries a silky texture that should have it pause less than the habitual five years to fully shine. So, a newer and earlier gifting Sangiovese and that’s quite alright. Drink 2017-2023. Tasted January 2016 @FattoriaBarbi@ConsBrunello@Noble_Estates
Though it may long ago have been considered the quintessential one, there may be no other Alsatian gewürztraminer more important than Weinbach’s Cuvée Laurence. The reasons are manyfold but begin and end with memory and legacy. This was daughter and sister Laurence Faller’s prized wine, the wine she put her name to, that defined her gracious winemaking in echo of the estate she worked. Her family has carried the torch and yet her touch is all over this wine. Calm, composed, balanced and ethereal. Laurence is a clear expression of the marly limestone soil beneath the lieu-dit of Altenbourg, located at the base of the great Grand Cru Furstentum vineyard. Where else do you find gewürztraminer of such delicasse, from which classic aromas (rose petal, creamy to boozy-syrupy tropical fruit) and impossible unction combine without ukase? Nowhere. The acidity does not act with impulse. No, it rings, supports and lingers. The extract is intense but out of mind. Exceptional vintage. Drink 2018-2033. Tasted October 2016 #domaineweinbach@AlsaceWines@drinkAlsace@ACT_Alsace@VinsAlsace
Stony Hill Chardonnay 2010, Napa Valley, California (444471, $71.00, WineAlign)
Time has been kind to this Napa Valley chardonnay, with the score drawn up in fruit and wood fully settled and into calm denoument. The hard bite into green apple crossed with butterscotch candy is no sugary afterthought and the elastic viscocity perfectly in tune with the waning acidity. If middle age is a thing for Napa Valley chardonnay then here you have it. The length has yet to find the door. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted October 2016 @StonyHillWine@NapaVintners@CalifWines_CA
The firmness of the vintage uncouples and engages the eyes open wide with a Quintarelli presented so taut and so tense. Just the thought of how long it will take for this Valpolicella to not only open up but develop into secondary life is frightening. There are aromas here I can’t or don’t presently recall. Currants, fennel, tobacco, cedar, tar, roses. Or maybe I do. The figs and dried plums are there but either so faint or conjured up from memory of how things ought to be. This Quinterelli is designed as it needs to be. Young, unapproachable, deferential and miles away from nowhere. It may become one of the longer lived. Drink 2020-2035. Tasted September 2016 #Quintarelli@LiffordON
While life is a blur there is always wine. In the past month the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, Chablis and three VINTAGES releases have seen me taste through more than 800 glasses of wine. This is something I do often in a four-week stretch but this, this was something other. It was intense.
During the same stretch I completed my tasting notes on 50 Chianti Classico (including 18 Gran Selezione) and those ruminating thoughts will be published in the coming weeks. Tomorrow I head down to Niagara for the sixth annual International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration, or as it is affectionately hash-tagged, #i4c16. Just in case I didn’t have enough tasting notes to transcribe, edify, pop-culture aggrandize, indoctrinate and embellish, well, get ready for 100 more.
For now there is the upcoming July 23rd VINTAGES release and 15 wines I recommend with Godello certainty. Now if I could just get off this grid.
Sutherland Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Wo Elgin, South Africa (203877, $14.95, WineAlign)
A pungent, insistently perfumed cooler clime sauvignon blanc from a big, need to be picked quick crop. Spice, grapefruit, agave and yellow flowers and with more texture than its Thelema ’14 cousin. Fleshy, tropical, juicy, ripe and spirited. Classic Elgin cool savour running linear like a beam through the joist of structure. High quality fruit ready for all comers. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted September 2015 and July 2016 @ThelemaWines@WOSA_ZA@WOSACanada
Castillo De Almansa Old Vines Selection 2010, Almansa, Spain (586719, $16.95, WineAlign)
Rich and concentrated, nicely balanced between roping fruit and ripping acidity. Has real firepower but enough sense to remain calm at the right moments. Plenty of verve, concentration and development from old vines and the stuffing to stand up to blessed char off the grill. Terrific summer BBQ red. Will also work for winter stew. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted July 2016 @BodegasPiqueras@almansaturismo@DionysusWines
Vinedos Y Bodegas Pablo Menguante Garnacha Selección 2012, Cariñena, Spain (313833, $16.95, WineAlign)
Two years on and with more oak this is a very different animal than the subdued ’14, integrated but on the other side of the aromosphere. The oak is dominant, vanilla and cocoa are the great waft in what is ostensibly pitch perfect fruit, in bottle on the dark side of the moon. Coconut, vanilla extract and cinnamon. The wood brings layered and sheathed character. Very plush and notes Jorge, “if you come to Cariñena to experience Garnacha, this wine will allow you to discover the wonders of American oak.” The deep fruit and earth melded into and by the barrel makes for a very pleasurable drop. The ’08 released into the Ontario market in November 2014 lends credence to the ageability of this Garnacha. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted October 2015 and July 2016 @GranViu@VinosCarinena@DoCarinena@Vinexxperts
Quails’ Gate Gewürztraminer 2014, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, British Columbia (354480, $17.95, WineAlign)
The ripest Quail’s Gate gewürztraminer ever may be some kind of anomic desert hyperbole but wow is this fleshy, extracted and beautiful. Spicy too, with a minor citrus pith and almost into slight effervescence. Fun with gewürztraminer. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted July 2016 @Quails_Gate@hobbsandco@AMH_hobbsandco
Santa Rita Medalla Real Syrah 2012, Limarí Valley, Chile (443523, $17.95, WineAlign)
From the northerly clime of the Limari this is seductively floral syrah with an edge of peppery spice. It just feels balanced on the nose and silky sweet in mouthfeel. Pushes characterization towards incomplex tautology. Linger with it long enough and the fine tannins will rear and bring everything back to earth. Cue the value jingle. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted July 2016 @SantaRitaEst@WinesofChile@DrinkChile@ImportWineMAFWM@MarkAnthonyWine
The lower bowl of this Tawse-Redstone plot is the shiny one, as in happy scintillant of riesling proportions. A year on the attitude persists, in lime and honey, acacia and beeswax. Terrific tartness and direct enjoyable deposit. Enough mineral to satisfy a calcaire lover’s soul. @RedstoneWines@Tawse_Winery@DanielatTawse
From my earlier note of May 2015:
So much lime and liquid chalk make for desired and dreamy texture. The lime slides like a slick of oil into the full flavours, spiked by peach and white plum liqueur. Terrific 20 Mile value. Drink 2015-2019.
From my earlier note of May 2014:
This inaugural Riesling foray from atop the Twenty Mile Bench out of the Limestone Vineyard is a sister to the Tawse exploration from same. The comparisons end right there. Paul Pender’s take is kinetic, frenetic and electric. Redstone winemaker Rene Van Ede tends to and lends from a reconnaissance that heralds Mosel. His first, fixed take is off-dry (in obvious ubiquity) with circular acidity. The co-agitation is early picked at low brix, with realized high residual sugar (36.4 g/L) and low alcohol (10 per cent). Toothsome, with a ying/yang, lemon/lime, push/pull. The case load is formidable for a first go ’round (1000 plus) yet paddled through limestone acreage with effortless strokes.
Lovely Ripasso liqueur with pretty red fruit and compressed earthy accents. Resides on the correct side of tart and the exemplary aspect of sweet, fine-grained tannin. Accomplishes Ripasso intimacy by doing so at a mimetic remove. Lingers like a perfect pastille. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted July 2016 @AllegriniWine@C_Valpolicella@RegioneVeneto
William Fèvre Champs Royaux Chablis 2014, Ac Burgundy, France (461640, $24.95, WineAlign)
The Champs Royaux is Chablis drawn from a selection of Fèvre’s better grower contracts and five to 10 per cent is aged in old oak, the rest in stainless steel. It is a generalized but oh too important expression from kimmeridgian soil, hedged and qualified from all over Chablis. Takes all the hills, valleys, les clos and slope/aspect dimensions into account. It is textbook Chablis, a guarantee of quality, especially out of the cracker 2014 vintage. The fruit is ripe and the acidity a study in Chablis exactitude. The balance may be the best this cuvée has ever shown. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted July 2016 @williamfevre_@WoodmanWS@BIVBChablis@purechablis
Roger & Didier Raimbault Sancerre 2014, Ac Loire Valley, France (82255, $26.95, WineAlign)
This white scintillant by Raimbault from Sancerre is laid out with clear instruction, like Rimbaud through Van Morrison, in precisely what sauvignon blanc needs to impress from the Loire. The beseeching immanent, insulated implosion of fruit, searing mineral and tannin multiplying within a bubble. This is tres fort fricative stuff, tart without any excess tang, notes all important and leading to a grand result. Pungency does not enter the vocabulary but the mouthful of stones is palpable and sonant. Raimbault’s 2014 offered up a sense of wonder, “showed me ways and means and motions. showed me what it’s like to be. Gave me days of deep devotions, showed me things I cannot see.” Essential sauvignon blanc with poise, precision and mandatory feel. Sincere Sancerre tore down a la Rimbaud. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted July 2016
Château Des Charmes St. David’s Bench Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2012, VQA St. David’s Bench, Niagara On The Lake, Ontario (453415, $27.95, WineAlign)
I’d put my money down on a French woman to work magic from cabernet franc grown on the warm, generous and giving St. David’s Bench. Lo and behold here is Amélie Boury with such fruit of spot on varietal countenance, magnified by the exhort of 2012. The gifts of that vintage could have been clouded with oak smothers but that case is not presented nor was it predicted. Boury certainly makes use of the barrel but its presence is textural, with mellow spice and for la longeur. This will develop efficiently and with grace, from this current anglaise stage into something modern Loire Valley en croute. It will accrue its culture and its character over seven to 10 years. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted July 2016 @MBosc
Bachelder Hautes Côtes De Beaune 2013, Ac Burgundy, France (445247, $27.95, WineAlign)
My sweet Beaune from Thomas Bachelder, as in sweet on the spontaneous haute ideal, not the cloying of residual imbalance. From a winemaker who lets his wines narrate themselves. Exemplary by George (well, Thomas) of a Beaune perfume with an underlay of acidity and tannin. No bitters here, nor astringent behaviour, nor harassment, which is nice. My sweet Beaune. Hm, my Beaune. Hm, my Beaune. Though a touch firm at present, a year ahead will see it come closer to hallelujah harmony. Drink 2017-2020. Tasted July 2016 @Bachelder_wines@BourgogneWines@vinsdebourgogne@LiffordON
Remarkable sangiovese so fleshy and forthright, modern and of an extreme brightness of being. There is an underlying Greve truth be told in moderation, tradition and historical meets varietal significance but it’s a new oration. This means that the structure is both sound and hermetically sealed. The lightness of volatility is a reminder of the past but it treads so delicately you just know this is a shining star pointing the way to the future. A brilliant “normale” without the the new slang of Gran Selezione but in many respects it may as well be. Drink 2018-2025. Tasted July 2016 @Querciabella@chianticlassico@rogcowines
Fisticuffs Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Napa Valley, California (457507, $49.95, WineAlign)
From Pavi Wines comes this study in hedonistic Napa Valley balance from out of a top-notch vintage. Ripe fruit and oak spice dance a simple cabernet sauvignon language with rope-a-dope drupe, right-handed acidity and a solid tannic left. A peremptory wine but its message is an assertion rather than a persuasion. Not a heavyweight by any means but behold the high-strung, svelte and agile middleweight. Possessive of the stuffing and the stamina to go a full fifteen rounds. Drink 2018-2022. Tasted July 2016
A near perfect vintage after a mild winter was presented to shape this ripe gathering of increased extraction. Though the previous years pale in comparison, there can be no mistaking the load of impression. The causation supplied by extreme coastal vineyards with dramatic altitude stretches and elongates the fruit and so it is hard to get to know the oak. The bite is toothsome into great green apple, perfectly ripened grapefruit and a far eastern note of Indonesian sasak (snake) fruit. The materials and the handling are as one, from purchased coastal fruit to winemaker Dave Keatley’s acquiescent dispensation. Delicate fortitude from Sonoma. Where else before but here can chardonnay sire and develop such a family? Drink 2016-2022. Tasted July 2016 @FlowersWinery@rogcowines@sonomavintners
Two Hands Samantha’s Garden Shiraz 2013, Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia (67355, $71.95, WineAlign)
This is simply gorgeous shiraz from the Clare Valley. A wine of balance, precision and focus. It seems the wood regimen has been relaxed in welcoming retreat. On a rare occasion when a garden of flowers can bloom through despite so much fruit and an equal tempering by wood, well that is a joyous thing. The texture is woven from pure silk and the quality of the ganache painted with the finest brush. This never over soaks, runs roughshod or lays down the hammer. It is a fine-tuned shiraz of the highest esteem. Drink 2018-2030. Tasted July 2016 @twohandswine@bwwines@Wine_Australia
“The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.” (Miguel de Cervantes)
“Vanity is the healthiest thing in life.” (Karl Lagerfeld)
“How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?” (Jeremiah 4:14)
“When you have a lot of success you don’t need vanity any more.” (Amelie Nothomb)
The headline reads as a current VINTAGES vanity plate. Nothing shouts VANITY like the bi-weekly VINTAGES releases, that is unless you can read between the lines, seek out anti-narcissistic wines made with honesty, from and for success. The LCBO is full of itself, as it should be, because billions of dollars of revenue for the monopoly and the province is a favourite sin. The consumer can protect themselves by knowing themselves, their personal tastes and which wines will see to personal success.
The Judgement of Paris happened 40 years ago. VINTAGES celebrates seven players that not only participated but were granted instant celebrity. Now 40 years later, VINTAGES puts the legends back in the spotlight. I tasted all seven wines. Were I afforded sackfuls of cash I would gladly indulge in their collective vanity.
For full reviews on all the Judgement of Paris wines, please visit me at WineAlign
It is indeed healthy to be a winemaker, distributor, agent or retailer of self-assurance, to believe in a body of work or portfolio, to know that it represents quality and to flaunt it for the world to relish in its revelry. It is equally healthy to know humility, to create with impunity in knowing the confidence of fashion has resulted in the singularity of accomplishment. All the better when verecundity is found in a wine made by a big house.
Eight current releases speak to success, beyond vanity. My notes.
Casal De Ventozela Loureiro Vinho Verde 2014, Portugal (445098, $14.95, WineAlign)
Loureiro from Villa Verde, grippy and mineral as it should be, marked by citrus, herbs and the slightest spark of CO2. This must have been prime, perfect in fact, in the wheelhouse even…six months ago. Still refreshing and yet savoury, nearly, though one step away from complex for the grape and a sense of place, from point A to B. Drink 2016. Tasted May 2016 #casaldeventozela@LeSommelierWine@vinhosverdes@VinhoVerdeCA@wines_portugal@winesportugalCA
The Rafael is an honest, purposed product culled from what such endemic grapes together with wood will combine for perfectly typical effect. Here the package is respectfully lithe and speaks of what Valpolicella may once have righteously been, should still and can eminently be. Fresh, wound tart, amenable and easy to love. Yes, please. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted May 2016 @Tommasiwine@UNIVINS@C_Valpolicella
Benmarco Malbec 2013, Unfined And Unfiltered, Uco Valley, Argentina (657601, $17.95, WineAlign)
Clearly ripe and ripping like so many malbec brethren and sistren but at 3,000 feet of Vistaflores altitude the Benmarco delivers an extra level of ratcheted intensity, especially at $18. Extreme aromatics, of black, blue and boysenberry fruit are bigger than the oak, the soil and the malbec genre. This is the best Benmarco since the formidable 2002, a wine that still drinks well today. Drink 2016-2028. Tasted May 2016 @sbalbowines@ProfileWineGrp@winesofarg@ArgentinaWineCA
Most righteous Rioja, dusty and leathery but fresh, vibrant and alive. Terrifically rich palate, full of strawberry, liquorice and pastis. Acidity is all over the fruit, enveloping and then a short pause ensues, followed by the caressing tannins. There is more than a Crianza mouthful of wine in here. Wait one or two and then watch this turn over and over for the next 10 years. Drink 2017-2026. Tasted May 2016 #Tobia@_La_Rioja@RiojaWine_ES
A Chianti Classico with a foot in two worlds, the traditional (Greve) and the modern. The tart red berries are sour to nose and to taste but it’s the kind of sour that reels you in and gets you too beg for more. The level of clean, fresh lees is very 2013, something that Chianti Classico needs more of. Dry extract and tannin are spot on for the overall intent. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted May 2016 #Viticcio@chianticlassico@MajesticWineInc
Big mouth strikes again, with phenolic ripeness set against stinging nettle greens from out of the warmth in 2012 Niagara. “Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking.” Plums turning into prunes and back again, of fruit not sure if its coming in or heading out the door. Hanging in like Morrissey at a Smiths reunion concert. Drink 2016-2018. Tasted May 2016 @MegalomaniacJHC
Heitz Chardonnay 2014, Napa Valley, California (205500, $49.95, WineAlign)
When the Napa Valley name Heitz is mentioned it is Cabernet Sauvignon that comes to most minds, 99 per cent of the time. Chardonnay is a Heitz thing, dating back to 1961. The 2014 rendition is the iron fist-velvet glove version of classic Napa Valley (usually reserved for Cabernet Sauvignon allusion). This is quite a rich and variegated Chardonnay full of typically warm Napa sunshine but it’s also a study in barrel restraint and judgement. The flavours are loaded with citrus, compressed and taut. Wound tighter than a wire around a boat winch, this just needs some time to settle in. Drink 2018-2021. Tasted May 2016 #Heitz@NapaVintners@CalifWines_CA
Judgement of Paris Chardonnay
Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 2013, Santa Cruz Mountains, California (405332, $191.95, WineAlign)
From a serious drought vintage, dry, warm and demanding, the 2013 Montebello’s Draper perfume is as heady as ever, to such effect that after one whiff this is where daydreaming takes over consciousness. Montebello gets inside the head, with allegory, radio frequency waves and platonic thought, as if inside a cave. An 80 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot (8), Cabernet Franc (7) and Merlot (5) classic, lithe and restrained blend of sheer, utter exceptionality. The balance in 2013 is impeccable but dont be fooled into thinking this is not a big wine. The acidity is dramatic, the tannins fine and demanding and the amount of pure extract whorled and revelling. All in dark red fruit and a coolness through the mid-palate that threads like silk through fine stainless steel fibre. “This goes beyond me, beyond you.” Drink 2018-2030. Tasted May 2016 @RidgeVineyards@rogcowines@CalifWines_CA
They diverge and divulge so much @FattoriaBarbi @Noble_Estates @mrkcstr Raffaela Guidi Federzoni #brunellodimontalcino #2004 #vignadelfiore #riserva
As we head into the March break, here is a little something to think about in advance of next weekend’s VINTAGES March 19th Italian themed release. The offer is substantial and it comes on the heels of last week’s brilliant display of Sangiovese Grosso at the Art Gallery of Ontario for the recent coming of Benvenuto Brunello 2016.
Two of my favourite actors (Lee Marvin and Jeff Bridges) played pivotal roles in John Frankenheimer’s adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s famous play. The Iceman Cometh is set in 1912 America with hard characters who live a pipe dream in their collective search for political and religious salvation. In one way or another they seek the sentimental reminiscences of their glory days and form a covenant to return to them tomorrow. The Iceman represents a sort of messiah meets grim reaper, killing the fantasy of the “tomorrow movement,” offering not salvation, but death.
So what does this have anything to do with Italian wine? Pretty much absolutely nothing, except for the plain and simple analysis about the Italians on offer for March 19. I recommend some beauties so don’t think that the death or the apocalypse of Italian wine is upon us. In fact, the greater category is booming, selling more product in Ontario and Canada as a whole then it ever has. Last month’s Vancouver International Wine Festival laid testament to the fact.
No, it’s just that so many of the reds and whites in the themed release walk a straight, boring and predictable path right down the middle of the road. Italy’s vast pool of talent would love to send us the best of the best, at $15, $50 and $150, if only the monopoly would receive. And so my friends, today I choose to consider the LCBO as the Iceman, all in good fun, of course. Who takes me seriously anyway? Certainly not me, fool as I am.
Here we have six stars from the VINTAGES release and six ethereal Brunelli still ringing in my ears and singing in my mouth. Sangiovese with the uncanny and impossible ability to linger for four days. There were many more worth mentioning because when you are holed up in a room full of Brunello, life is perfectly grand.
Where for art thou Brunello?
La Fiorita Brunello di Montalcino
La Fiorita Brunello Di Montalcino 2009, Tuscany, Italy (Agent, $65.00, WineAlign)
La Fiorita’s 2009 normale is a special bottle of Brunello from a best of all worlds vintage. It exhibits the charms and shares the gifts of a posit tug between firmness and elegance. At this seven-year stage it evidences the first signs of secondary character, with spices dissolved in mulled liqueur and a new fathom of depth perceived. The measure of intensity is not one of dank, darkness or even pitch but rather profundity. The translation reads as both Sangiovese chapter and verse. Excellent 2009 example just beginning to drink as it should. Drink 2016-2023. Tasted March 2016 @vadoapiedi
Col D’orcia Poggio Al Vento Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva 2008, Tuscany, Italy (0965525,$129.00, WineAlign)
Only 8,000 bottles were made of Col D’Orcia’s always formidable and classically structured Brunello. Elegance offers a glimpse of hopeful emergence even while its firmness is still fully intact. The added determination and epic struggles of the vintage translate to a singular Sangiovese type of funk from a vineyard, like so many other south-facing Montalcino slopes, of what may just be the greatest physical involuntariness in the world. The fruit and texture are delicate, of a veritable Tuscan gastronomy, pure vernacular and of a leathery lightness of brogan being. The youth in this Brunello is palpable, nearly awkward but certainly not backward. It is progressing as it should, lentamente, lentamente. Three more years minimum is needed to coax it out of its coriaceous hide. Drink 2019-2028. Tasted March 2016
Fattoria Dei Barbi Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva 2004, Tuscany, Italy (Agent, $100.00, WineAlign)
The Riserva contains no single vineyard (Vigna del Fiore) fruit and is composed of a selection dictated by different vineyard qualities, not necessarily all on equal footing and all brought in to be vinified separately. As per the directive, an average of three years is spent in oak, followed by a transfer into stainless tank. The aim is a traditional, classic, typical, true masculine expression of Sangiovese Grosso. With the firm intent kept in mind, the 2004 is unstirring, closed, macho and fist clenched, even after all these years. An hour later it extends an outstretched finger or two of kept fruit and bred in the bone funk in your direction, but no more. This Riserva is gripped by a fine dust and even finer, senescent and patrician grains of tannin equal in quantity to the stars in the sky. If 2004 is not one of Barbi’s better to greater vintages for Riserva the constellations will have to be re-drawn. To me this represents a foregone conclusion to purchase, further cellar briefly and open when the skies are blue. Drink 2018-2029. Tasted March 2016 @FattoriaBarbi@Noble_Estates
Fattoria Dei Barbi Brunello Di Montalcino Vigna del Fiore 2004, Tuscany, Italy (Agent 93609, $100.00, WineAlign)
The Vigna del Fiore single-vineyard designate Sangiovese tells an engraved, emblematic and heraldic Montalcino story. First made in 1981, the infamous Barbi Grosso was originally crafted as a celebration for Francesca Colombini’s 50th birthday. Previous to that inaugural release the grapes from the most southeastern part of the property were used in the blend of the Brunello Riserva. Inferential importance exists within the context of familial connectivity in this Blue label Barbi. Ancestral lineage matters, as does the nurturing femininity of the undertaking. Spends its first, early developing year in older French barriques, followed by two years in traditional, regionally employed (700L) traditional Slavonian oak. If the 2004 (or subsequent vintages) are perceived as expressive of an international style, chalk that up to effete but so much vineyard and next stage, secondary through tertiary evolution agrees to confound. The ’04 lays in soft exude with the wise smell of its original, naturally curated state, of cherries, roses and earth. Today the texture floats in the optimum buoyant air above a contiguously circled round globe, begs for and speaks of aged Tuscan cheese, like Brillo Pecorino DiVino or Toscano Stagionato. The next few years will be the best. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted March 2016
La Mannella Brunello Di Montalcino 2010, Docg Tuscany, Italy (279083, $47.95, WineAlign)
Tasted alongside La Mannella’s 2010 Riserva this seems tame, elegant and baby-faced in comparison but it is no shrinking Sangiovese Grosso violet. No, sir. Assessed on its own it is in itself a wholly complex and beastly thing. The tonality is stratospheric, with a distant, amplified and magnified set of cherry to leather parameters. Very floral and blessed by holy drops of liquor. All that said, this 2010 Brunello of basic and modest means can be approached in the here and now provided a good decanting is strictly followed. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted March 2016 @LaMannella@Nicholaspearce_
Oh #brunello where art thou? You are here @PodereLeRipi listening to the vines @agotoronto #benvenutobrunello #brunellodimontalcino #50thanniversary #italiantradeagency
Podere Le Ripe Lupie Sirene Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva 2009, Tuscany, Italy
A classy and classic, traditionally-styled, pure and ripe Sangiovese. Cherries, leather, sweet liqueur and anise confer in perfume. What a revelation, with late spice and a chocolate-laced finish. Lovely and really fine. The right stuff and though on the sweet side, that should dissipate with five to eight years in bottle. Drink 2017-2024. Tasted March 2016 @PodereLeRIpi
Lovely dry, dusty, musty and prickling Sardignian, properly Grenache rustic and approaching a level of divine. Cannonau of chew, leather, carbon fruit sketch, arid and rehydrated in residual freshness endowment. Get behind all $18 of this honest weighted red and put your char on. Drink 2016-2020. Tasted March 2016 @AntichiPoderi
Terredora Di Paolo Loggia Della Serra Greco Di Tufo 2014, Docg Campania, Italy (983197, $19.95, WineAlign)
Herbal is the understatement, saline the connecting cable, texture the conduit for extreme unction. Cumulatively intellectual qualities that endow this Greco di Tufo with more sumptuousness than it had achieved in recent times. Aromatic wealth comes by way of citrus preserved, pressed and layered. The overall impression is warmth, stress without breakdown and excessive personality. Still somehow its strikes as endemic, ancient, weird and wonderful. Drink 2016-2019. Tasted March 2016 @Terredorawines@HalpernWine@Reg_Campania
Il Molino Di Grace Il Margone Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2010, Tuscany, Italy (435115, $39.95, WineAlign)
In a VINTAGES feature of more MOR Italy then should be rolled out in one media tasting, at least here we have multiple semblance of personality. Not quite sure we’ll call to celebration $40 of dynamism but there are inherent deep invested Sangiovese characteristics nonetheless. Tight angles, rigid corners and a Brunello-Sangiovese-like liqueur. Grosso in as much as CCR can be, with some dedicated rusticity and tannins still in action. Dries out nicely on the finish. Put some away for a 2020 rainy day. Drink 2018-2024. Tasted March 2016 @Ilmolinodigrace@chianticlassico
Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Di Montalcino
Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Di Montalcino 2008, Brunello Di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy (431718, $56.95, WineAlign)
A vintage perceived as tough, difficult, demanding and volatile is just now entering the zone of changing perceptions. It has taken all this time to realize its abilities. Longevity for one. Beauty behind the mask, the other. Concentration is not so much ripeness and richness but of deeper meaning than that. Nothing here sits on the surface. Peel away a layer of orange, spice bark and bulb husk to taste from the inner fruit. From the core. “There is fire, there is life, there is passion, fever and fury.” That is Brunello. The tannins persist with near nastiness but there is so much to look forward too. Wait two more years. Drink 2018-2028. Tasted March 2016 @news_donatella@ConsBrunello@LeSommelierWine
Giuseppe Quintarelli Rosso Ca’ Del Merlo 2007, Igt Veneto, Italy (722470, $99.95, WineAlign)
Rich Ca’ del Merlo from Quintarelli heeded with volatility and consumption. Veneto of war and peace, light, bracing, angular, seeping, steeping, macerated, tea leave studded and tannic for further thought. In this 2007 it is hard to not get caught up in the amalgamation’s bright sweep. Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Croatina and Sangiovese, like reading Tolstoy, all together “alive, and very much so.” Will live for quite some time, but wait two years before embarking on the journey. Drink 2018-2030. Tasted March 2016 @RegioneVeneto@LiffordON
Takes the purity of 2011, furthers the integration and mimics the precision, then pumps up the volume. Takes a breath and then, with soluble efficiency it refines the intricately woven lines a few steps furtrher, if that is even possible. I will say that the tannins are a bit tougher in ’12, with a tight string wound depressively around the fruit’s long and elegant tendrils. Fruit is the determinate factor, pure, blossoming and fragrant. It adds up to a consensus of one thought, that this vintage is yet another legend in the making, a fine and linear Ornellaia that should travel 30 plus years, perhaps longer. What liqueur, such botanicals and endless valleys passing through fertile hills. Drink 2019-2045. Tasted November 2015 @Ornellaia@AuthenticWineON@AuthenticWine
Take this, #quinoa – With today’s post, “New year, 16 new Vintages releases” #beefshortribs
Inter alia, the winter holiday break is behind us and it is time to get down to business. Time to resume the empirical and experiential search for honest wine. Wines that satisfy at some necessary atomic level, avoid oaky embarrassment and hopefully fulfill basic human needs.
What we seek are bottles fashioned from grapes that are lucky to have been handed a benevolent evolutionary line, miraculously fortuitous in their ancestry, through categorical mutation and genetic modification. Varietal luck, pop and circumstance. That’s what we’re after.
The first VINTAGES release of 2016 makes an adjustment to previous editions with no less than a dozen really solid efforts below the $21.95 line to make Messrs. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon proud. You too can save on quality wine this January. Read on to avoid getting lost in aught where unwanted wines are cast into a dull, scattered void.
A return to entry-level glory out of a great vintage for this basic QbA with the acidity to thrive and the tannin to jive. Love the fruit mingling with mineral and the weight even when aridity is the key. A tropical note hits both the nose and the palate. What complexity for $15. Really. Best in many years with a beautifully bitter finish. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @RobLingenfelder@HHDImports_Wine@germanwineca
Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc 2015, Wo Western Cape, South Africa (675421, $14.95, WineAlign)
Properly, distinctly, effortlessly Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc. Of tang and here in 2015, more heft than many though in retention of aridity and super salinity. Has real verve and presence. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @MulderboschV@WOSACanada@WOSA_ZA@AbconWine
Wakefield Estate Chardonnay 2014, Clare Valley/Adelaide Hills, South Australia (711556, $14.95, WineAlign)
Rich and reductive with some Co2 and piercing acidity. Solid Chardonnay that needs a year or two to settle. Last tasted December 2015 @Taylors_Wines@ProfileWineGrp
Rich and dense, temperate in accessibility, splitting the Chardonnay mile. Works barrels with threadbare, throwback constituency and takes a comfortable trip down varietal, memory lane like predecessors in old world California. All in the name of proper and restraint. The palate is rich yet delicate. Good work. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted blind at WWAC15, August 2015
Nice tidy little Valpolicella here. Enough richness marked by tension to make it a real drop. A bit flushed with thickness though the tang in food-gifting acidity and arid tannin is again, very real. Solid stuff. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @Cant_Valpantena@MajesticWineInc@RegioneVeneto
Honoro Vera Garnacha 2013, Calatayud, Spain (432997, $15.95, WineAlign)
Though playing a key of dusty and volatile minor, here Calatayud Garnacha from Bodega Atteca’s 60 year-old vines does its traditional duty in forthright varietal and regional honesty. Reinvents no wheels or identity with ripe fruit, early enough picked for preserving acidity and palate tension. The aridity and tang on the finish perform yeoman’s work in lieu of tannin. Drink now and for another year or two, preferably with cocina tradicional Aragonesa. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @docalatayud@ProfileWineGrp
Sister’s Run Bethlehem Block Cabernet Sauvignon 2012, Barossa Valley, South Australia, Australia (360636, $15.95, WineAlign)
Very ripe, nearly, dangerously young and volatile, yet so very sweet smelling. Plums, cherries, Cassis, a hint of graphite and the wood from American stars ‘n bars. Good acidity burgeoning about with minor, kneeling, equitable tannin. Has a salty caramel taste that will require similar fare; a mole sauce would work. Good length on this varietal wonder. “All you have is memories of happiness, lingering on.” A shining light in the Sister’s Run stable. “Maybe the star of Bethlehem, wasn’t a star at all.” Drink 2015-2019. Tasted December 2015
Here the no lo so of Italian white grape varieties, this Coda di Volpe, the fox vine “Alopecis,” a.ka. “tail of the fox,” with natural history recording creds to Pliny the Elder. A Campania concert of grape tannin and sea mineral melded together as one. A varietal happenstance where land meets the sea in a beautiful bond. This low-cost specimen is a friendship gift from Italy, with ripe fruit and even stronger feelings of subterranean impart, from fringe stone through the ambient abstraction of Roman mythology. Like a river Styx running through carrying the bravery of Herculean salinity. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @DonnaChiara@Reg_Campania@TheCaseForWine
Coda di Volpe and Moscato
Penthouse Pinot Noir 2013, Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia (432864, $16.95, WineAlign)
The berries, cherries and plums are a vivid smelling bunch with a cumulative tone occupying airspace at the border of mercurial. A silent request asked of this undomesticated (with 10 per cent whole cluster bunches in the wild ferment) Pinot Noir is “when are you gonna come down, when are you going to land.” With time, the extreme brightness turns to density, of rustic earth and silky encrustation. Its answer sings to the tune of “you can’t plant me in your penthouse, I’m going back to my plough.” Walks well beyond the yellow brick road of the Adelaide Hills and the varietal, to a place in OZ occupied by the curious and the songline follower. There is a lot of Pinosity is this $17 wine. The mid-glass transformation is a true plus. A heel click finish would have really sealed the deal. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted November 2015 @Nicholaspearce_@AHWineRegion
Terra D’uro Finca La Rana Toro 2011, Do Toro, Spain (424135, $17.00, WineAlign)
Terminable Toro, firm to juicy, earthy to mulled plum and liquorice fruity. Acidity rips in the short term and whatever tannin was gifted is quite resolved. Early 2016, in the dead of a northern hemisphere winter is the right time to settle in with a braise and Toro at five years of age. Very solid. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @VinodeToro
Gustave Lorentz Réserve Riesling 2014, Ac Alsace, France (641639, $18.95, WineAlign)
Bergheim terroir in a nutshell to the result marked by the essential, distilled down to this very base and necessary example of what dry Riesling just has to be. Along with Trimbach and in this price range brought to this market, the act is exemplary and export defining as citizens of the genre. From flint to citrus and back by way of ripe fruit. With weight and such a dry, to the point finish “and a crackling in the air.” What it is. Drink 2015-2021. Tasted December 2015 @GustaveLorentz@AmethystWineInc@AlsaceWines@VinsAlsace@drinkAlsace
Pupillo Cyane Moscato 2010, Igt Sicilia, Italy (156430, $18.95, WineAlign)
Wholly Sicilian metallurgy of a character absorption in ode to Alsatian Muscat. That and the weight of the sun bearing down on sugaring fruit. With eyes closed picture this heading into a 20-year honeyed and mineral territory, with ground nuts and fresh cracked pepper foil. Oxidative but just on that dangerous edge so that it can continue to develop for years without losing sight of the prize. Drink 2015-2025. Tasted December 2015 @loyalimportsltd@WinesOfSicily
Familia Zuccardi Cuvée Especial Blanc De Blancs, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina (435438, $19.95, WineAlign)
Bready, heady and lees elegant from years of yeasty rest towards an end marked by lactic sour mixed into lemon citrus. The tightest wire-wind of Chardonnay tonic with bitters running here and there. The nearly five years on the lees has made the texture thick and the mousse replete with bubbles popping left, right and centre. Much in the way of complexity for Blanc de Blancs from Argentina blessed with lots of altitude. You’ve not not likely been blown away by South American bubbles as you will be by this Mendozan, from Tupungato to Llullaillaco. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted December 2015 @FamiliaZuccardi@SebaZuccardi@ZuccardiWines@DionysusWines
Gundlach Bundschu Mountain Cuvée 2012, Sonoma County, California, USA (397521, $19.95, WineAlign)
The fruit is ripe, there can be no argument there and the treatment is careful, calculated, restrained even. Exit stage left blend, running all the way. Sneaky, deft, stealthy, cat-like in behaviour. Always landing on all fours. Like a pink anthropomorphic mountain lion sporting an upturned collar, shirt cuffs and a string tie. Red blend with a great desire to be a stage actor, available to please all kinds of folks. “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” Sweet finish. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted December 2015 @gunbunwine@LeSommelierWine@sonomavintners
Domaine Saint Roch Vacqueyras 2014, Ac Rhône, France (437194, $21.95, WineAlign)
Some heat in the nose and even more spice with balance achieved by a lively to energetic, creeping up on frenetic palate. Earth crusts play in to the fray as much as the fruit, the posit tug working with one another in equal and opposing directions. The wine lingers on with grace in magical persistence. A pinch of dusty espresso and wishful fennel marks the back end. The reality check to imagine and realize a real Vacqueyras. Great value. Drink 2016-2021. Tasted December 2015 @VacqueyrasWines@VINSRHONE@RhoneWine
Foris Pinot Noir 2012, Rogue Valley, Oregon, USA (937128, $24.95, WineAlign)
A deft and reeling charmer, easy to drink and well-priced. Dark red fruit of the black cherry realm occupied by the ripe and fashionable Pinot Noir. That it so successfully woos with that kind of Oregon fruit to this kind of advantage in the absence of available underground salinity and tension is a Rogue Valley win. At 13.9 per cent it creeps comfortably under the hot radar gun and many will enjoy the uncomplicated style. Recommended for those who like it fun and unencumbered. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted December 2015 @Foriswine@SouthernORWine@Oregon_Wine
A satisfying and handsomely rustic biodynamic Sangiovese-led IGT blend with lead, graphite, dusty cherry and plenty of hide to leather antiquity. The firm vintage has evolved to this copacetic point, the expatriate meets endemic union no longer obtuse or extreme. This has settled really nicely, thanks to what was and lingers as solid acidity and once grippy tannin. Life from energy persists and though I would imagine there will be some who think it common or non-descript, there can be no denying the solid winemaking and balance struck. The older oak barrels have done their job, even if the fruit was a bit on the riper side of the rows. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted December 2015 @Caiarossa@3050imports
Should you be counting and despite the number of wines you will read about below, I have to tell you honestly that I was a highly competent mathematics student through high school. Distractions including but not restricted to cooking, music, words, pop culture, sports and ancient works of antiquity paved new roads but I can still count to ten. This list goes up to eleven because I could not in good conscience leave Thomas Bachelder’s pulchritudinous NSG out in the first day of June cold.
So I tasted again and have updated my note on La Petite Charmotte 2011, a beneficient Bourgogne that hit LCBO shelves this past weekend. The Bachelder project turns water into wine in three countries. By now you know all about the trinité-terroir schematic as I’ve written about Thomas and Mary many times. The fact that VINTAGES happens to now be releasing the 2011 LPC, predecessor to the already tasted and reviewed 2012, the “single-vineyard NSG hugged up on a northern slope,” is of consequence because it’s a memorable, cellar-worthy wine from a really stunning vintage.
The other top 10 all happen to be reds, save for one exiguous white Burgundy. France and Italy (a.k.a. Old World) dominate the remainder, except for a lone, paradigmatic Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and a refreshing McLaren Vale Shiraz. Get out there folks, spoken one more time in guiltless refrain. Here are your tasting notes.
From left to right: La Ferme Du Mont Première Côte Côtes Du Rhône 2012, Altivitis Ventoux 2011, Corino Dolcetto d’Alba 2013, Errazuriz Aconcagua Alto Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 and Maison Roche De Bellene Vieilles Vignes Bourgogne Chardonnay 2012
La Ferme Du Mont Première Côte Côtes Du Rhône 2012, Ac Rhône, France (251645, $14.95, WineAlign)
A different sort of CdR works from this unfiltered red, on the side of winemaking that summons modern Rosso Sangiovese Grosso. That’s caused by the concentration of cherry liqueur, dried roses and a greater aromatic feeling of potpourri. Yet there is also fresh raspberry and at the other end of the spectrum, cured meat. With a touch of Brett it recalls Grosso in deeper, more expensive terms. The middle palate is a touch hollow, but at $15 beggars need not be choosers and so much pepper marks the austere finish. Add it up and the two words that come to mind are simply complexity and value. Drink 2015-2019. Tasted May 2015 @Eurovintage@VINSRHONE
Altivitis Ventoux 2011, Ac Rhône, France (414359, $17.95, WineAlign)
Prodigious Ventoux for a pittance considering the stuffing and the Mencia-esque (think Pittacum) deep, dark, black cherry and purple berry dressing. Rich and actually structured with equal and opposing tannins. That said, it never sheds its high-toned, carbonic youthfulness and the aromas are peppered by five spice, mandarin and hoisin. Something about this also reminds of Cru Beaujolais, but like an immature, yet volatile tank sample of Brouilly. But it’s more new world than that, so I wouldn’t construe all this as complexity, or balance for that matter, but instead, distraction. It’s certainly worth a look, with near, value-driven greatness due to righteous acidity, in a modern, semi-distinct representation of the region. If you like to keep it dark and sorcerer powerful, go gothic with this Ventoux. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted May 2015 @AOCVentoux
Three from the Rhône Valley at VINTAGES May 30, 2015
Three district aromas emanate; fresh carbon-stoned fruit, cheese and earth. Plums and liquorice on the palate. More cheese. High acidity with gramercy to punctuality, dimension and peak performance prickling. A minutiae of tannin ekes out an ageing component. Could go both ways bitter finish. Better than most Dolcetto. Drink 2015-2017. Tasted May 2015 @danieliwines@vinidelpiemonte
Presence and exceptional poise define the role played by this Cabernet Sauvignon. The character portraiture is so very Chilean. Florals oscillate in waves of vanilla, along with currants and tobacco. Dig in some Aconcagua earth and bell pepper, melded into and lost in an ol’ tenebrous, cimmerian buttermilk sky. Lush, rich and piqued by cracked pepper, anise and the dusty redundancy of liquorice root. Legitimately oaky but that is entirely OK. Drink 2015-2020. Tasted May 2015 @errazurizwines@Dandurandwines@DrinkChile
Maison Roche De Bellene Vieilles Vignes Bourgogne Chardonnay 2012, Burgundy, France (299867, $20.95, WineAlign)
So stylish for entry-level Burgundy, ascertained and finessed by a light yet steady approach. Creamy texture stands out, above freshness and the under subtle tone of buttery oak. I don’t find it at all toasty but more of a slow, low temperature, moisture deprivation in the whirl of a dehydrator. Enter the forest through the gates of this Bourgogne on the route to Meursault. Drink 2015-2018. Tasted May 2015 @RochedeBellene@Nicholaspearce_
From left to right: Famille Perrin Les Christins Vacqueyras 2012, Serafino Shiraz 2012, Pierre Amadieu Romane Machotte Gigondas 2012, Badia A Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva 2009, Bachelder La Petite Charmotte Nuits Saint Georges 2011 and Monte Faustino Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 2008
Famille Perrin Les Christins Vacqueyras 2012, Ac Rhône, France (973453, $23.95, WineAlign)
I tasted this Vacqueyras back in the fall of 2014 but did not write a formal tasting note. Six months in bottle has done it some serious, generous justice, in the aromatic simulacrum of balance. Settling has tempered what heat there may have been in extreme youth, humouring and buttressing the lamina of red fruit to stand alone, in avoidance of an impasse in jam. This has class in all months, seasons and at every level of education. It is both student and T.A., dug in to study and to mentor younger Vacqueyras in search of such structure and wisdom. Spice and smoke throw signals of added coil, only to relent to the drupe and resolve for involution. Times also allow for pretty florals beholden to garrigue. Chalk and grain give the tannin elasticity. Exemplary and necessary Vac with an inconsequential asking price. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted May 2015 @Beaucastel@ChartonHobbs@VINSRHONE
Serafino Shiraz 2012, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia (407718, $28.95, WineAlign)
A richly textured, solidly structured and surprisingly believable, relatively tame, low alcohol (14 per cent) McLaren Vale Shiraz. The flowers are strewn across the aromatic entry, relenting to cedar and ripe berries. What a sincere inhalation of beautiful. Classic bones to carry a sense of place, constructed with heady serenity and savour faire. Shiraz of a tall order, to please many camps, from finesse to power, for instant pleasure and in attraction of the cellar junky. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted May 2015 @SerafinoVino@mclaren_vale
Pierre Amadieu Romane Machotte Gigondas 2012, Rhône Valley, France (973453, $27.95, WineAlign)
Show me an off vintage of the Romane Machotte Gigondas and I’ll throw in the proverbial tasting towel. This Amadieu can never disappoint. The ’12 offers spicy, smoky, piquant accents over top big red fruit. Much reduced yet non-reductive freshness abounds, set upon a valance of liquorice and dried flowers. The stuffing is packed and brimming, the herbs and verdancy sacrosanct with just the right kind of sting. Has savour but I would stop short of calling it savoury. It’s raspy but not rapacious. The Grenache-Syrah blend bides and lingers, long as the road that links Romane and Machotte. Drink 2016-2022. Tasted May 2015 @Amadieu_G
This is a very understated, creeping, impossibly concentrated Chianti Classico Riserva. Positively vital, as classic as classic gets while not once reverting to the kind of rusticity that refuses adaptation, ignores permutation or refutes progress. The cleanest fruit is scented by the dulcet appraisal of truffle and porcini. The pitch is just about perfect, the acidity ideal and the balance struck between fruit, barrel and age. Earth grounds the entire ordeal, rendering it peaceful and pleasurable, the possibilities playing out enjoyable and endless. The organic ’09 can be poured right now and the legs will take this down roads as long as the SP408 to Traversa and Gaiole in Chianti. Drink 2015-2029. Tasted May 2015 @coltibuono@HalpernWine@chianticlassico
Bachelder La Petite Charmotte Nuits Saint Georges 2011, Ac Burgundy, France (357228, $49.95, WineAlign)
The spice notes reign in May, 2015. A smoulder stick of limestone wicks through the red, earthy fruit. Petite only in grace and largesse, in longevity this stretches from Nuits-Saint-Georges to roads leading in all directions. Careful, delicate and yet profoundly, powerfully restrained, not to be ignored Pinot Noir. Drink 2018-2025.
From my earlier note of November 2013:
Is so floral, mineral, intense and hypnotic it might be dubbed the Serpent Charmer. Iron and wine indeed, the iron of Nuits, the perfume of Beaune. This provocative bottling represents the third year of production, is conspicuous in Anis de Flavigny and an underlying gate. If montagnes is the harming one, this is the charming one. These are all from the same barrels, so what really affects the wines the most? Land and hand.
Monte Faustino Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 2008, Doc Veneto, Italy (327122, $56.95, WineAlign)
You know it’s big, hot and full-bodied. But oh if this isn’t the epitome of how Amarone can woo, thrill and hypnotize. The fig-date-palm-dried fruit feeling proliferates within an anise liqueur base. The caked, cracking and arid earth flakes, chips and cuts with a mustard of spices. The smooth and velvety mouthfeel has variegated chalk and grain. Such a promiscuous Valpolicella that fleshes and swells as it swirls. Intense, rich and yet neither overpowers nor climbs over the top. Drink 2018-2028. Tasted May 2015 @RegioneVeneto
Godello 