Godello

Synchronicity in three terroirs

Feb18

On Bachelder’s choice of grapes: “The great thing about making Pinot and Chardonnay is they take 16 months so you have to leave them alone, go away and let them be.”
Photo: PAO joke/Fotolia.com

Thomas Bachelder is a quote sprinkler. Like this: “It’s not because you can’t tell something blind that it doesn’t exist.” On Monday, February 10th, the Quebec native courted and mesmerized a room of 50 Ontario Wine Society members, guests and wine writers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty Club. If there is another winemaker’s brain that can dish out dissertations with gifted, hypnotic babble like Bachelder, I’ve yet to hear it. All so unbelievable and believable at the same time. Whatever the former Le Clos Jordanne and Lemelson winemaker is selling, I’m buying.

I would crawl up any staircase, rearrange busy schedules and mobilize the troops to taste the wines of Thomas Bachelder. So, when the call came from OWS President Ken Burford to join Bachelder and partner Mary Delaney for another tasting of the Bachelder Project, mobilize I did.

For a brief history on the Burgundy, Oregon and Niagara terroirist, check out my November 2013 tasting report, with thanks again to Tony Aspler.

The nine-deep tasting focused on the 2011 vintage, with one (2010) exception. While it was not a perfect storm of the entire (15 wine) Bachelder portfolio, it was a pretty damn good attempt. It’s hard to believe that a Canadian citizen who happens to make wine in three countries is forbidden to hoard enough of his own wines to conduct tastings at his leisure. Canadian cross-border restrictions meant Bachelder had to deliver his Oregons to a New York post office box and then carry them across at Fort Erie. Imagine the scenario. Customs officer: “What are the wines for?” Bachelder: “I am the winemaker and they are for a tasting in Toronto and for my cellar.” Beyond absurd. The rest were sourced from SAQ and LCBO stores scattered about the two provinces.

Tasting these '11 @Bachelder_wines for the 2nd, 3rd and in some cases 4th time, I am struck by the feeling I am becoming friends with them

— Michael Godel (@mgodello) February 11, 2014

The serendipity and synchronicity of the three winemaking regions has meant the stars have aligned in Bachelder’s favour. These tastings simply write themselves. The year 2010 was warm in Burgundy, Oregon and Niagara, classic in 2011 and in 2012 warm again. The 2013 vintage looks to be another trifecta classic. “If the wines are all of a similar weight, you can really see each country’s terroir for what it is.”

Ontario Wine Society Bachelder Tasting

“Burgundy is my favourite place to make wine,” admits the flying vintner. ”I’m not ashamed to say that (in a room full of Ontario Wine Society members) it’s exciting to be tasting wines from other places.”

On Pinot Noir: “If you push too hard and try to make that darker Pinot, you lose elegance. You can’t try to make a hot vintage an elegant one. You have to live with it.”

On Niagara: “Are we still prejudiced against Ontario wines? If you are standing in a store with Oregon, Niagara and Burgundy in front of you and $50 in your pocket, what are you going to choose? No one ever passes a $50 Burgundy my way because I look like a nice guy.”

On barrel aging: “It’s not about the oak flavour, it’s about the texture. That’s aging Chardonnay in oak. What’s happening in the barrel is a reduction sauce, a demi-glace, sucking the moisture out of the wine. Humidity leaves the wine and the alcohol stays. It’s a permeability stage, in the fight against residual sugar and low acids, which are poison to balance.”

On his choice of grapes: “The great thing about making Pinot and Chardonnay is they take 16 months so you have to leave them alone, go away and let them be.”

On Stelvin (screwcap) vs cork, he avoids the question and says it’s the bottle with the thick neck he wants, the one that pours with ceremony.

1,500 cases is just about the maximum Bachelder intends to make in each of the three regions. On expansion: “There’s only so much you can do in a person’s cellar without them saying what the hell are you doing here.” These refreshed tasting notes are transcribed in the prescribed order poured by Bachelder and though I’m still not sure of the method behind the line-up’s madness, call me crazy if I wasn’t transfixed.

From left: Chardonnay Classique Niagara 2011, Pinot Noir Oregon 2011, and Chardonnay Oregon 2011

Chardonnay Classique Niagara 2011, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (302083, $29.95, SAQ 11873721, $29.95, WineAlign)

From three blocks, Wismer, Saunders and Wismer-Foxcroft. Has gained fleshy weight and waxy polish in three short months, despite the tightness of the vintage. Juicier now, with zest akin to Clementine. Should this upward trend continue, cool down often and always with this exemplary Niagara Chardonnay. From my earlier November 2013 note: “Lean and mean Niagaran, in a hue and a style that brings Burgundy to mind. Comblanchien layers of limestone salinity, like a villages from Côte de Beaune. Tang, pine forest, Warheads sour candy and just a hint of the barrel but you know it’s there. A simple, Chuck Berry three chord arrangement. “I was anxious to tell her the way I feel,” even if I had no particular place to go.” 90

Pinot Noir Oregon 2011, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA (333278, $34.95, WineAlign)

On a night like this Bachelder’s recently gravelly Oregon Pinot ’11 seems to have shed its tough outer layer. Signals the evolutionary advance with a Parliament Cordell Boogie Mosson space bass note, which then blows quickly away. The wine exudes spirited cherries, Barbarescish tar and duly scented rose. Thomas notes that Burgundy should be the reference point though it does not specifically emulate Chambolle-Musigny. Built of a specific Oregon mindset but with a broad inter-connectivity to Bachelder’s other terroirs, especially considering the 2011 vintage kismet between the mothership convention of Niagara, Oregon and Burgundy. Thomas describes this Pinot as, “just shy of perfect ripeness, but not green, which is a perfect indicator of terroir.” She is perhaps advancing quickly. Is she too beautiful.? From my earlier September 2013 note: “Bleeds Willamette terroir. Punctiliously phenolic from marine sediment and seemingly obvious early-ripening. Provocative in ruby, sugar-sour cranberry meets redolent raspberry. Chalky, tannic and serious. It’s tough on me right now. Come on Thomas, would ya please lighten up? I don’t want to have to wait to drink the first case.” 90

Pernand Vergelesses 1er Cru ‘La Creux De La Net’ 2011, Burgundy, France (SAQ 12089524, $38.50, WineAlign)

A metallurgical slant this time around and iodine, though sweet, like a geologist’s preferred cocktail. The palette is Rothko maroon and in cohorts with what is ascertained by the palate, scheme fruits and hearts both red and black. From my earlier November 2013 note: “Has the sense to be subtle, effortless and akin to Chambolle. Not so much openly ripe fruit but more the flowers that come before. Cherries dabbed by a citrus fragrance, or the spritz of squeezed zest and an unusually smoky musk. Insinuates new world (think Oregon) though it tells a rubble tale of its limestone slope climat.” 90

Pinot Noir Lowrey Vineyard 2011, VQA St. David’s Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (361816, $44.95, WineAlign)

Legerdemain from what must be posited as a parcel capable of proliferating the richest and most structured Niagara Pinot Noir. Remarkable purity out of this magic vineyard, lissome tannins and an unmistakeable blooming rose note here now, fragrant like never before. Yet unknown but very known vineyard, especially if you have also made the acquaintance of Five Rows and Leaning Post. Peerless local Valentine’s Pinot. From my earlier October 2013 note: ”Springs eternal from an ocean of cranberry and an island of spice. The somewhereness of this St. David’s vineyard can’t be denied, and in the hands of Thomas Bachelder the extraordinary happens. I am simply blinded by the light, by the weight and the weightless gravity. By a sweetness that just isn’t sweet, like exotic red fruit that knocks you sideways upside the cerebral cortex. Not to mention an iron madness that “plays that song with the funky break.” 94

Pinot Noir Johnson Vineyard 2011, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA (SAQ, 12065338, $44.25, WineAlign)

Devastating underestimation on my part when first sampled back in November. How could I have been so blind to the depth, density and irresistible pastry chef layering. The Bachelder Chardonnay may be the stuff of demi-glace but the Pinot is so much more a thing of chemistry. A wall of sound, of no moving parts, with no separation and if an astringency was ever there, it has since departed. Since November, this has improved more than any other wine in the room. From my earlier November 2013 note: “Here there wafts an increased “blister in the sun,” more terroir from a tight vintage full of pumped over tannins. An accented aromatic membrane envelops this Johnson, of orange zest and studded rind, in violet tendency, with more flesh. Even if she speaks in Frainc-Comtou dialect when she walks through the door, she walks out distinctly Oregonian singing as a Violent Femme. Pure and clean up front, she builds, then leaves a trail of tangy fruit behind. Tangled web of Pinot. 93

Chardonnay Oregon 2011, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA (273334, $29.95, SAQ, 11845359, $29.95, WineAlign)

Yet another three months later re-taste to show Bachelder’s Oregon terroir may be the most difficult to assess in its infancy. This short slumber has changed everything. Oregon distinction, smell it, commit it to memory and you’ll never forget it. “Picture yourself staring at a loved one in a restaurant,” says Thomas. “Would you be able to pick this out as Chardonnay?” Some ciderish activity, from sedimentary and volcanic soils that used to mingle with ocean waters, give this a sea salt and fossilized lava stillness. More buttery (dare I say, popcorn) goodness than the rest. And restrained tang. And length. Wow. From my earlier November 2013 note: While Burgundian in hopes and dreams, this is very much a $29 Oregon white. No mask, no hidden altruism, simply the right Chardonnay for the right price. Bone dry, orchard driven, high acid, void of harmful terpenes. There is a salinity and piquancy not influenced by PH, perhaps by the ocean, by sandstone, but regardless it’s unique to place, unlike Niagara, Prince Edward County, or for that matter Burgundy.” 91

From left: Chardonnay Saunders Vineyard 2011, Chardonnay Wismer Vineyard 2011, and Bourgogne Chardonnay 2010

Chardonnay Saunders Vineyard 2011, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (324103, $44.95, WineAlign)

Saunders is quiet right now, in cool waiting and in display of the most elegance I’ve encountered from any Bachelder Chard, at anytime, anywhere. Background spice, backing vocals are in the isolated spotlight. This I am keying on as much as any note, in any wine here tonight. Not giving it up as easy as before. Extra swirl time required. Will re-visit in the summer. Right, Thomas? From my earlier July and November 2013 notes: “From Beamsville, right beside 30 bench, has a texture, a depth and a mouth feel in ’11 that bounds and leaps towards the ethereal. A dancing stag, displaying, performing a mating ritual dance. Melons, ripe and fleshy are in this Saunders. “What’s carrying this wine is site, site and site.” A great clay slice of the Beamsville Bench. From my earlier note: ”Takes the baton from Wismer ’10 in a transfer of power, tension and excitement. Clarity of textural fruit is driven by Beamsville Bench clay-silt soil. Highly dependent on yeast chains, sticking, spreading and expanding. Savoury, buttered stones show negligible encumbrance due to vines that will not carry an excess of new oak.” 93

Chardonnay Wismer Vineyard 2011, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (345819, $44.95, SAQ 12089591, $44.95, WineAlign)

Increased richesse and oomph and though I continue to hesitate to admit it, Saunders is the (Jackson Browne) elegant bottling in ’11. Wismer the (Warren Zevon) gregarious, mineral character werewolf of Niagara, what with its a touch of anxiety, fuller texture and “bite down…draw blood!” From my earlier November 2013 note: “From the Wingfield Block within the 20 Mile Bench grand cru vineyard, ’11 Wismer is greener, in apple and sapid behaviour. The tension is palpable, quarryful, querulous, more calciferous. Fruit here is picked at an altitude as high as the lowest part of Flat Rock’s vineyard. Can a spot be pinpointed, anywhere on the peninsula that produces more piercing Chardonnay in 2011 as this Wismer micro-block?” 91

Bourgogne Chardonnay 2010, Burgundy, France (272005, $29.95, WineAlign)

Bathed in medicinal permeate, a white rose mingling with marigold floral tone. Waves the hot flag of the vintage draped like a humid blanket over the wholly palatable, imbued netherweave, mineral tang. Still the omnipresent Bachelder acidity tempers the heat. It’s not oxygen on the nose, it’s more carbonic, oleaginous too, with a solar aromatic, malolactic presentation that gives this Chardonnay soft, stable, holistic age. Qualities unique to Puligny and Mâconnais. 90

Good to go!

Big houses, bigger wines, big-ish prices

Feb10

The earnest call across the country to free my grapes continues though regrettably, stiff resistance stifles the cause.
Photo: ulga/Fotolia.com

If you live in Canada, purchasing wine ties you directly to a monopoly. There are exceptions, though still imperfect ones, like the free market culture of Alberta and the developing tiered system in British Columbia. The earnest call across the country to free my grapes continues though regrettably, stiff resistance stifles the cause.

Manitoba and BC allow direct to consumer inter-provincial wine imports. Consumers can order from out of province and receive direct shipments so long as the wine is 100 per cent Canadian. Nova Scotia has passed enabling legislation that will follow a similar path. If you reside in Quebec or a fortiori, in Ontario, having wine shipped to you remains taboo. The alternate recourse of consignment wines available for purchase through local importers is an irregular option and having to buy by the case designs no compass of mass appeal.

Spend even a fraction of the time I do in trying to seek out the best values, at the best prices and in the categories that cater specifically to personal tastes and you will understand how difficult it is to be satiated in such a constricting climate. I am not the only one seeking out red wines made in the vineyard, through minimalist oak intervention, unhindered by residual sugar, produced by passionate and honest winemakers who are vigilant with the softest of hands.

Who does not want their wine to have mass in it, as in life? Who would reject an elixir drawn from iron-rich earth, boiled through limestone and warmed to a rosy madder? Who can deny the pure joy culled from a wine that might steal the words from the mouths of poets?

In Canada, unearthing such gems requires intestinal fortitude, especially considering the search is mapped out in government-controlled stores. Stock norms do not include wines made from lesser-known grapes, from regions and appellations less frequented. It takes time, effort and most of all, patience. Life can get in the way of the endless and unavailing chase; work that pays, kids, weather, fatigue. Sometimes it just makes sense to abide and even embrace the easier, well-worn path. This is where the bigger wineries step in, toting larger case loads and a middle-of-the-road, radio bathos experience.

There are varietal vicissitudes to ferret out from varieties you might have chosen to avoid. New World Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Zinfandel. Rhône blends. Sangiovese blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. Tempranillo. All these grapes are often mistreated, modernized, smothered in oak and homogenized so that their indigenous origins are blurred into a bar of mass-produced chocolate. Occasionally they are done right by their makers.

In what has been such relentless cold, snow and ice, now into the oppressive dog days of winter, don’t think of drinking commercial wine as copping out. The big houses can be your friend, so loosen up and trust me when I tell you I’ve worked very hard to weed out the chaff and promise only to recommend the whole wheat. Here are seven current releases that made the pecuniary cut.

From left: Mission Hill Reserve Pinot Noir 2011, Clos Du Val Zinfandel 2011, and Robert Mondavi Chardonnay 2011

Mission Hill Reserve Pinot Noir 2011, VQA Okanagan Valley British Columbia (545012, $24.95, WineAlign) From the VINTAGES Feb. 15, 2014 Release

Here’s a juicy plum wine with noticeable warm alcohol that goes subterranean and won’t make you homesick for alien Pinot Noir. Athletic red with a quick first step and nerve, running a west coast offence, scoring points. Char in licorice and a grid-iron, “uptight, uptight” bitter tendency but is a most saucy rendition. Extra point from clean, easy sweet tannins. Good length. Pinot on the radio. Really attractive price puts it at the head of its class. 90 Tasted February 2014 @MissionHillWine

Clos Du Val Zinfandel 2011, Napa Valley California, USA (590216, $24.95, WineAlign) From the VINTAGES Feb. 15, 2014 Release

Every so often a grape variety confounds and astounds, like this pretty in zinc Zinfandel. Almost mute as far as Zin goes, this CdV ”set out on the heels of the unknown.” Times like these normally produce lumbering, high-octane interpretations but this radical face is the Simon and Garfunkel of the variety. Singing with soft harmonies and composed as if by a deft balladeer. Flair comes from Spanish-like modernity – a good thing for Zin. Less bramble, more Ribera. Less reduction, more Montsant. Smooth as silk, reeking in vanilla, raspberry and symptomatic by a kiss of mineral. If but for one hollow mid-verse this would truly sing but that really is no big thing. 90 Tasted February 2014 @ClosDuValNapa

Robert Mondavi Chardonnay 2011, Napa Valley, California, USA (310409, $25.95, WineAlign)

One of the more quintessential, mid-range, rich and opulent Napa Chardonnays that steps out of the lobster butter dish in 2011. Apple-tinged terpenes show their presence, along with tarragon and a bag of just opened good and plenty. Piquant, poignant vintage, peppery and acting cooler than I ever remember it to be. Whether by chance or by choice, this is a welcome direction though I doubt its kind will soon be seen again. 89 Tasted January 2014 @RobertMondavi

From left: Umberto Cesari Liano Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Wairau River Reserve Pinot Noir 2010, Grant Burge The Holy Trinity Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvédre 2011, and Beronia Viñas Viejas 2010

Umberto Cesari Liano Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Igt Rubicone Emilia-Romagna, Italy (225086, $29.95)

Decidedly modern in many ways; oak impart, varietal alliance and braggadocio. The nose speaks highly of unsettled alcohol and alchemy. Big on black cherry and earthy with a welcoming and necessary roasted rare and still kicking game component. The mellow support of Cabernet Sauvignon is kicked upside the head by full throttle, oak-laden Sangiovese. Though hot and bothered, there is a keen sense of acumen on display by the Emilia-Romagna team at Umberto Cesari. 89 Tasted January 2014 @UmbertoCesari

Wairau River Reserve Pinot Noir 2010, Marlborough, New Zealand (361253, $29.95, WineAlign) From the VINTAGES Feb. 15, 2014 Release

Wonderful value in premium Marlborough Pinot Noir. Alluring sylvan aromatics, in a potpourri of violet, rose, plum and strawberry. Sharp, cranberry-pomegranate-cherry fruit flavours, the grain of red fife, and eye-popping acidity. An earthy terroirist, layered and delicious. Warm but not alcohol driven, touched by oak but not shaken and with just one coat of paint. 91 Tasted February 2014 @wairauriver

Grant Burge The Holy Trinity Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvédre 2011, Barossa, South Australia (Agent, 236257, $29.95, WineAlign)

The right Rhône immediacy of the 2011 Barossa vintage gets its hooks right in. Snapping with a direct blow uppercut to the jaw, this Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvédre blend goes right for the jugular with passion, not sugar. It’s a tricky mix, angular yet smooth, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. Terrific charred, meaty flavours mixed with juniper and black raspberry, savoury spice and a chain of tannic length. Will age with metronome precision over a period of 10-15 years. 91 Tasted January 2014 @GrantBurgeWines

Beronia Viñas Viejas 2010, Rioja, Spain (Agent, $30.00, WineAlign)

This 100% Tempranillo is Beronia’s enigma. Sourced from 40-plus year-old vines and housed for 14 months in new French oak. The Van Morrison bottling, if you will. Forget thoughts of a gnarly, tar and brambly red. This one is compliant and inviting. Cherry cheesecake gives it a dessert-like funk, with a baking spice and savoury plum pudding chaser. Vanilla is the unifying factor, the glaze, the icing on the cake, thanks to those new barrels. “You say “France” and I’ll whistle.” This is a pleasure to taste and ready for consumption. 90 Tasted January 2014 @BodegasBeronia

Good to go!

A taste of New Zealand’s Villa Maria

Feb4

Villa Maria Auckland grapevine
Photo: villamaria.co.nz

Villa Maria Production Winemaker Josh Hammond had to be on the verge of exhaustion when he sat down with John Szabo and I at the WineAlign office last week. Hammond was a Montreal stop away from a near coast-to-coast, Canadian jaunt to promote the wines of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir pundit. I will assume that Hammond is usually more animated than he was that afternoon and will hedge my bets he is customarily content to let the wines speak for themselves. After 52 pioneering years, Villa Maria has earned the latitude.

Josh Hammond could pass for the second coming or be the separated at birth doppelgänger to The Who lead vocalist Roger Daltrey. I am very familiar with those kind of piercing blue eyes, having gazed into them repeatedly from my 9th row floors Maple Leaf Gardens seat at the December 16, 1982 iconic band’s “final” concert. Hammond has that Face Dances, You Better You Bet, maturing British glam look, marked by rock-star tussle, salt & pepper hair. Petite too and always behind blue eyes. OK, I hear you. Godello digresses.

PHOTO: Michael Godel
Villa Maria Tasting with Josh Hammond

The 27 year-old wine facilitator’s globe-trotting efforts are in support of an amazing, sustainable journey, aka the vision of Villa Maria founder Sir George Fistonich. Villa Maria is a Kiwi leader in organic grape farming and carbon footprint reduction. Sir George and team are keen to peddle the concept in their literature, employing buzz phrases like, “there is no end point,” “leave something for the next generation” and “overriding business objective.”

Worm farms, vineyard rows wildflowers and snaffling flocks of sheep are all a part of the Villa Maria world. And yet, the discussion and tasting with John, Josh and I virtually ignored the notion of sustainability. No hidden agenda or bad intent was meant to label the Fistonich organic principles as Milquetoast, but this tasting concentrated solely on vintages, terroir diversity and the bottles at the table. Good wine is good wine, no matter the virtuous or commendable maker’s actions.

I got the feeling that Josh cares most about the finished product. Though he’s a child prodigy of the land he now juices to fashion Villa Maria’s large yet manageable output, the peculiarities of the process did not steal the tasting’s limelight. That worked to great effect. We talked about how the 2013 vintage shone on Sauvignon Blanc. We were introduced to the ways of Villa Maria’s unshakable, panoptic Pinot Noir. Here are notes on the six wines tasted.

From left: PRIVATE BIN SAUVIGNON BLANC MARLBOROUGH 2013, CELLAR SELECTION SAUVIGNON BLANC 2012, PRIVATE BIN PINOT NOIR 2011, CELLAR SELECTION PINOT NOIR 2009, and SOUTHERN CLAYS SINGLE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2010

PRIVATE BIN SAUVIGNON BLANC MARLBOROUGH 2013, Marlborough, New Zealand (426601, $16.95, WineAlign)

Ferly opening wine with winemaker Josh Hammond and surely not anticipated. Opulence upon first aromatic gather, pure and spirited from cold fermented, stainless steel treated 50/50 Wairau and Awatere Valley fruit. The latter adds typical herbaceous and inimical character. Plugged in stellar 2013 vintage, yet with grass uncut, low on mow, left to grow. Still, the herbiage is exaggerated so thanks is owed to the lemon, paraffin and lanolin. Juicy, fresh, crisp value SB. 88 Tasted January 2014

CELLAR SELECTION SAUVIGNON BLANC 2012, Marlborough, New Zealand (974527, $21.95, WineAlign)

The 2012 season was not Sauvignon Blanc philanthropic so extended time on lees pays off towards supplemental body and texture. What speaks loudest is the odiousness of capsicum and even more obvious green cubanelle pepper. More green runs amok, in peppercorn, green tea ice cream and lime sherbet. Unique and conspicuous expression. A cooler year so some residual sugar accords the balancing act. Not able to shake that omnipresent layering of all things pepper. 87 Tasted January 2014

PRIVATE BIN EAST COAST GEWÜRZTRAMINER 2012, New Zealand (357509, $14.95, WineAlign)

Grapes sourced from three growing areas; Auckland, Gisborne and Waipara. Warm, aesculapian tonic, with a coursing note like the spiked heat of a drop of venom in neutral alcohol. Ethereal, jazz/R&B Gew, tropical, unctuous but not chewy, angled by wood sealant spice. At this price, in comparison to other North Island renditions, with a good bitterness, it does the variety proud. Gewurztraminer a world away might say I “see your eyes in mine, leave the rest behind.” Though it may hit the ground running, it makes quick work of itself. 87 Tasted January 2014

PRIVATE BIN PINOT NOIR 2011, Marlborough, New Zealand (146548, $21.95, WineAlign)

That Villa Maria can make 80,000 cases of Pinot Noir this proper is nothing short of remarkable. Aged in French oak for 8-10 months. As Pinot like as could be hoped for considering the case amount. Every drop must go through Malolactic fermentation. Winemaker Josh Hammond and crew insist upon it, though it’s nothing but painstaking cellar/lab work. The Pinot character initially shines, with loads of plum and black cherry, but there is a momentary lapse. But, “if you’re standing in the middle, ain’t no way you’re gonna stop.” So, the definitive Marlborough ectodermal line painted through the in door speaks quickly and leaves by the out-door. From a smoking gun, rising like a Zeppelin. Large volume, big production, drinkable in the evening Pinot Noir. 88 Tasted January 2014

CELLAR SELECTION PINOT NOIR 2009, Marlborough, New Zealand (285361, $32.95, WineAlign)

A selection of Villa Maria’s best fruit is siphoned out of 12-month aged, 30 per cent new French oak barrels. Seemingly entering or hinting at an oxidizing, metallurgical time coming soon. The current holding pattern is a beautiful one, behind blue eyes, very floral and prompts thoughts of the same 2009 vintage in Ontario. From a who’s who of Awatere and Wairau Valley vineyards, sites chosen to qualify for the Reserve wines. From ultra-healthy, crop-thinned vines, the Cellar Selection gives a scent of candied flowers and a taste of rosewater molasses. Fine and warming. Keeps me warm, let’s me wear its coat. Could be confused for $50 Sonoma it’s just so pretty, sweet and fruit forward. The time in glass breathes life back upon itself. Flourishes and finishes with a touch of pipe smoke, signalling quality. 91 Tasted January 2014

SOUTHERN CLAYS SINGLE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2010, Marlborough, New Zealand (Agent, $59.95, WineAlign)

From Villa Maria’s Rutherford Vineyard, a gentle north facing slope set upon heavier clays. An SV whose world is a flood…one with the mud.” A heavier style, a jar of clay, yet not overtly varnished by any particular coat. Small berry, dark fruit concentration, in some ways anti-Pinot or rather Pinot of a new religion. The spice is classic Marlborough, vanilla sneaks in and the texture is grainier and loamier than the Cellar Selection. Big, ripe and communicative of a confected sensibility. As far as New Zealand goes, this one floods piously of Adventist Pinot Noir. Leap of faith. 90 Tasted January 2014

Good to go!

In a Pinot Noir province of mind

Jan27

Save for the Oregonian version, Ontario has become the place to produce Pinot Noir out of soils not called Côte de Nuits or Côte de Beaune
Photo: Rilasata/Fotolia.com

a s seen on canada.com

No other grape causes more of a stir, is responsible for more hair to fall and breaks more hearts. It doesn’t play well with others. It refuses to share, to be blended, to give anything less than 100 per cent. For many, there is no other variety. How often does a conversation begin with “what is your favourite wine” and end invidiously with “Burgundy?” End of argument. Nothing more to discuss. While Burgundy certainly persists as the historic locale possessive of the title “when it’s great, it’s the best,” Pinot Noir has flown the coop. The expatriate extraordinaire has migrated about the globe and is no longer always a wannabe facsimile where it’s now grown and bottled.

A bold statement to be sure is coming, now. Save for the Oregonian version, Ontario has become the place to produce Pinot Noir out of soils not called Côte de Nuits or Côte de Beaune. The argument finds root in the climate (cool) and the terroir (ideally suited). The anomaly that is this season’s Polar Vortex notwithstanding, Ontario’s weather is Pinot weather. The thin-skinned variety thrives in Ontario’s typical autumn conditions, maturing evenly and with a phenolic ripeness necessary to fulfill complex tendencies. Soil could not compose itself any better. The huge rock beneath the surface in Prince Edward County screams Pinot Noir, if by way of Burgundy. The Niagara Escarpment and its foothills beg to support Pinot vines. No, really. Go stand in the Lowrey Vineyard on the peninsula. The land beneath your feet will whisper sweet Pinot nothings into your ear.

Arguing the meritorious benefits of grapes and specific sites is an exhausting though compulsory one. I have been a staunch supporter of the need for planting Riesling and Gamay everywhere. Ontario can and will do no wrong with these varieties, whether it be PEC, LENS or any Niagara Peninsula terroir. Chardonnay too, though it produces the greatest wines in the appellations of the Beamsville Bench, Twenty Mile Bench and Vinemount Ridge. The benches likewise work wonders for Cabernet Franc, though many producers make terrific renditions down by the lake.

Pinot Noir requires more site-specific consternation. The learning curve inhabited by our top Pinot producing stars has pinpointed certain neighborhoods that support their clairvoyance and expensive habits. Norman Hardie knows the Pinot innuendo of both Prince Edward County and the Niagara Peninsula. Hardie’s Unfiltered 2012 ”brings to mind indelible Burgundy, enveloped in PEC’s warm ’12 blanket.” Thomas Bachelder makes Pinot in Burgundy, Oregon and Niagara, but it is his Lowrey Vineyard 2011 that blows my mind. “The somewhereness of this St. David’s vineyard can’t be denied, and in the hands of Thomas Bachelder the extraordinary happens.” The micro-terroir studies of Ed Madronich and Jay Johnston is the stuff of quantum eonology. The Summit Block 2011 does “impossible Burgundy,” between a Flat Rock and an escarpment.

So where is the best site for making Pinot Noir in Ontario? Prince Edward County? Twenty Mile Bench? Beamsville Bench? Vinemount Ridge? St. David’s? Has the industry matured to such a level that a Cru system should now be defined? The answer may not be forthcoming today but it’s just around the corner. Pinot needs to be cultivated and fostered so that plots can continue to be identified and qualified. The future of the industry depends on it.

I have recently tasted more than 30 Ontario Pinot Noir. Many are worthy of a second look and more than a dozen a place in my cellar. Here are notes on five more, all deserving of their place in the Pinot sun.

From left: CAVE SPRING PINOT NOIR DOLOMITE 2011, INNISKILLIN MONTAGUE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2011, TAWSE GROWER’S BLEND PINOT NOIR 2010, HIDDEN BENCH ESTATE PINOT NOIR 2010, and 13TH STREET ESSENCE PINOT NOIR 2010

CAVE SPRING PINOT NOIR DOLOMITE 2011, VQA Niagara Escarpment, Ontario (26351, $21.95, WineAlign)

Part Beamsville Bench (70 per cent) and part Twenty Mile Bench (30), this best of both worlds Pinot is full of calcium magnesium carbonate, Jurassic bark. Playful as opposed to angry, this is not so much Snoop Dogg’s Dolomite but more like an animated Futurama. Seduces with a sweet red berry entry and bound by a really fine acid/tannin/fruit balance. Admittedly not overly complex but for the price it shows good structure. As far as Pinot goes, this one is a made for beef or rack of veal. 89 Tasted October 2013 @CaveSpring

INNISKILLIN MONTAGUE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2011, VQA Four Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (997353, $24.95, WineAlign)

Montague is a single-vineyard child of rain and heat. The flux of the growing season translates to a troubled and disjointed youth; musty, earthy and unforgiving. Still this Inniskillin is thick, unctuous, sharp, chewy and while currently situated on the darker side of Pinot, all this will change. Not yet showing what he is, the ’11 will “keep on keepin’ on, like a bird that flew,” and eventually be tangled up in blue. 89 Tasted October 2013 @InniskillinWine

TAWSE GROWER’S BLEND PINOT NOIR 2010, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (130989, $26.95, WineAlign)

The univocal Pender perfume permeates the Tawse stable of Pinot Noir and seems only magnified in the multiple site Grower‘s Blend. Vintage related warmth and inferable incrassation of fruit. Delves into a deep connection to disparate lands possessive of a common goal. As if making wine is “your taste combined with all the years of wasting time.” Graceful Pinot Noir with moments touched by hot rocks, toasted red rice, a gentle smoulder and delicate grains of sand. 90 Tasted October 2013 @Tawse_Winery

HIDDEN BENCH ESTATE PINOT NOIR 2010, VQA Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (winery, $40, WineAlign)

Clean, pure and crisp. As if raspberries covered in Beamsville dirt with an underlying lurk of grain and tannin. Crackling Pinot studded by caper berry and a sheer Mediterranean point of view. From an earlier note: “Takes my previous impressions to a higher plane. Standing correct by calling it a “a vintage relative release” but it’s so much more than “a quaffable, generous fruit sui generis.” Beets turn into plums. Opaque hue reminds of graceful Nebbiolo with a dancer’s legs in aperture. Wins in judicious use of French wood. Tannins persist in the rear-view mirror. Big ’10 that speaks of another level in Beamsville Pinot Noir. “Think about it, there must be higher love.” 91 @HiddenBench @BenchVigneron

13TH STREET ESSENCE PINOT NOIR 2010, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (237222, $44.95, WineAlign)

Only the second coming of The Essence. Lucid, willing and able Pinot Noir from an assemblage of fruit sourced across the region. Atypical in that sense, speaking to a broader range of terroir and to a wider audience. Breadth and depth much like a Côte de Beaune, earthy of serious dirt layered over top a cherry core. Attention now and for five plus years is needed because though to taste it’s currently confounding, time will see more complexity, development and emerging emotion. It will then solicit a cry of ”baby, sweet baby, you’re my drug. Come on and let me taste your stuff.” 91 Tasted October 2013 @13thStreetWines

Good to go!

Deep freeze: Controversies, polar vortex and icewine

Jan17

Extreme Lows, Niagara Peninsula, December 2013 and January 2014
Photo: Weather INnovations Consulting LP (WIN)

The physiological and emotional roller coaster heaped upon grapes and growers these past 55 days has been nothing short of exhilarating, frightening and exhausting. First this monster climatic Dementor known as the Polar Vortex. Along with the demonic weather came the devastation of an ice storm, followed by record low temperatures. More recently, thaw and re-freeze. Consequences and challenges have abounded. Also, a silver lining. Freezing temperatures can kill grape buds on vines unprepared and left to fend for themselves. Those little vine kinder can also just be unlucky enough to grow up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some Niagara growers are reporting heavy losses to Riesling, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay vines. Here are the numbers as reported by Wines In Niagara’s Rick VanSickle.

I spoke with winemaker Paul Pender of Tawse Winery in Vineland, Ontario yesterday. Paul is both unconcerned and not yet ready to make any sort of call on damage to his crops. “It’s still too early to tell,” he notes, “I won’t really head out to assess any potential damage until early March.” While Beamsville vineyards are reportedly hard hit, Pender is confident that his team’s strident and prudent vineyard management will see the vines through.

Balanced pruning means leaving a specific number of buds during the winter on a dormant cane for this year’s crop, the number based on the amount the vine grew the previous season. Tawse’s canes are cut back to two feet, the dead wood removed before winter’s freeze can hit. Buds this season were thinned from 12 to six, giving those tender bits a fighter’s chance to survive. And while Pender will not enter into an unequivocal conversation with respect to the heartiness of his vineyards as a consequence of 100 per cent organic and biodynamic farming, I can hear the surety in his voice and imagine the twinkle in his eye at the thought.

Other growers concern themselves with what may happen inside the many parts of the vine when there are freezes, thaws and re-freezes. Again, Pender is not concerned. Proper pruning should prepare a vine for a harsh winter, whether or not they are protected by a warm blanket of snow. In New York’s Finger Lakes region, Lenn Thompson is reporting “some minor bud damage to vinifera vines, but little to no vine death.” Steve Shaw of Shaw Vineyards on Seneca Lake had this to say. “Yes, this winter is definitely presenting itself in a rather volatile manner. As far as I can tell from checking a number of varieties and many buds, there does not seem to be any catastrophic primary bud kill. There is damage, but not too bad so far. I do not think that with things being this wacky that we can really rest easy until most of the winter has passed.” Brock University’s Cool Climate and Viticulture Institute in St. Catherines helps local growers with much needed information and infrastructure to deal with damaging weather. Their VineAlert program helps protect vineyards during frigid temperatures.

PHOTO: Weather INnovations Consulting LP (WIN)
Icewine Hours 2013

The news is not all bad. According to many icewine makers in Niagara, 2013 will shape up to be what many are forecasting the best ever vintage for the province. Temperatures dipped to the requiem in late December and most picked their shriveled, sugary berries before the new year. That is unprecedented, allowing this season’s icewine to remain high in necessary balancing acidity and well ahead of the fermentation arresting challenges from most years. Wine Country Ontario reported that “early icewine harvest in Wine Country Ontario starts the festival fever.” Look for the most balanced icewines out of 2013. Not to mention the Grape Grower’s of Ontario reporting the province’s grape growers gathered a record 79,756 tonnes of grapes in 2013 valued at nearly $100 million.

The Niagara Icewine Festival encompasses three weekends in January dedicated to the region’s beloved ambrosial elixir, wines that have become the calling card beyond the broader confines of Canadian borders. Icewine has been made since 1981 and in that short span of 33 years, Ontario and B.C. winemakers have challenged, and in many cases lapped their counterparts in Germany and Austria. Canadian icewine is globally renowned, even if it is not the most important wine resource bequeathed upon the rest of the world.

Icewine 101. Simply put, made from grapes that have been left to freeze naturally on the vine. Ontario’s stringent Bolshevik Initial Decrees-like laws insist that icewine must be made from approved grape varieties; the most popular are Vidal Blanc, Riesling and Cabernet Franc. Some small lots include Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Grapes are left on the vine until a sustained temperature of -8°C or lower is reached and then picked from those vines encapsulated in nets to protect them from birds possessive of a sweet tooth.

A national icewine debate is ongoing, inflamed by a recent Macleans Magazine article discussing the ideological differences between the VQA law preventing vine and grape separation before pressing and the Quebec practice of letting the grapes freeze in nets. Quebec growers do this out of necessity for fear of their fruit being smothered by excessive snowfall. Ontario’s old guard vehemently oppose the practice. The irony of VQA Ontario’s website low volume statistic, “with average yields of 500 litres for each acre netted,” is not lost on the curious. Two questions arise. How many grapes in Ontario nets end up in bottles of VQA labelled icewine and how can a culture of Canadian icewine be brought together without some form of compromise and collaboration? Yet again, is togetherness integral to the success of Canadian icewine, or more specifically, Ontario’s industry?

According to Klaus W. Reif of Reif Estate, apparently there are 3,750 berries needed for one bottle of 375ml icewine. Just consider the concentration for a moment, the hand-picked (though not all) labour involved and the specificity of the practice. The sweetest wine known to Canadians can indeed be re-worked as a palindrome for Niagara Ice Wine Festival.

A wet vial is fine nice agar

PHOTO: Michael Godel
Rick James Ice Sculpture, Niagara Icewine Festival

On Friday, January 10th, 2014 I was a most elated guest at the Xerox Icewine Gala: A Bacchus Evening of Icewine and Revelry. For a list of continuing events this weekend and next, here is a link to the festival site. More information here. With kind thanks to Magdalena KaiserSmit and Wine Country Ontario, I had the good fortune to taste a host of Niagara’s finest renditions, along with some very special bottles of sparkling and still wines. Here are notes on six wines sampled at the Fallsview Casino Grand Ballroom last Friday night.

From left: PELLER ESTATES SIGNATURE SERIES ICE CUVÉE, CREEKSIDE ESTATES WINERY SYRAH RESERVE BROKEN PRESS 2010, RAVINE VINEYARD RESERVE RED 2008, PILLITTERI ESTATES CABERNET SAUVIGNON ICEWINE 2011, and VINELAND ESTATES RIESLING VIDAL ICEWINE 2012

PELLER ESTATES SIGNATURE SERIES ICE CUVÉE, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Onatrio (284547, $31.95, WineAlign)

This is Peller’s most versatile fizz, a blend of traditional method Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sweetened by a dosage of Vidal icewine post disgorgement of its lees. The lees has been left to linger in the bottle, in spirit. Sapid, savoury bubbles tingle the senses to the bone and will offer the most comforting and proper pleasures to those discriminating and otherwise. Appealing to a large common denominator, this Peller Sparkling can really do no wrong. 90 Tasted January 2014 @PellerVQA

CREEKSIDE ESTATES WINERY SYRAH RESERVE BROKEN PRESS 2010 (202127, $39.95, WineAlign)

The floral lift from three to four percent Viognier gives notice to bend the brawny, savoury black olive and blistered Ancho fruit into balance. Syrah in a sunshine state but not from concentrate. Would accept a glass of this Brokenpress at any beck and call. “Grab your wine, take me where you been, with the violin time and the moon gettin’ thin.” From my earlier note: “Offers up gorgeous pine and pepper-laced correctness and so much juicy, fresh warmth from a terrific Syrah vintage in Ontario and even more parochial so on the St. David’s Bench. This Queenston Road Vineyard red is winemaker Rob Power’s secret weapon, absolutely freakin’ delicious stuff and the epitome of what Syrah should be like from Niagara. Verve, rigor and yet also flirtatious with expertly judged wood and tannin to re-fresh its spirit and lengthen its life. Love it.” 91 Tasted twice, October 2013 and January 2014 @CreeksideWine

PILLITTERI ESTATES MERLOT FAMILY RESERVE 2002, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (71753, $39.95, WineAlign)

Served from Jeroboam, one of 23 produced and a testament to the precocious, facile touch of then winemaker Sue-Ann Staff. The extreme five litre format has certainly been kind to the hermetic 11-year slumber of this Merlot, as has the above average red Niagara growing season. Charlie pulled out this rare behemoth “for the special occasion” and despite and with thanks to the perfect vintage meets size storm, it has held up with dramatic fortitude. Unmistakably predicated Pillitteri chocolate perfume, brushed violet, mulberry and oven-warmed baking spice. Holding in sustained concentration, the toffee, caramel and umami of wizened, oxidized fruit not yet a twinkle in its soapy sandalwood eye. How could Sun-Ann have known what time-cheating lengths her Merlot would see to? 93 Tasted January 2014 @Pillitteriwines

RAVINE VINEYARD RESERVE RED 2008, St Davids Bench, Niagara Peninsula (20483, $55.00, WineAlign)

This Bordeaux style blend (40 per cent Merlot, 33.3 Cabernet Sauvignon and 26.7 Cabernet Franc) is clothed in a coat of arms all about texture. A drawn and raised relief of dried, candied bramble fruit and charcoal lines of savoury, earthy hickory and herbs. Hearty warmth from a cool vintage, meat on a stick in a glass, charred, roasted and smoking. A spit of gamey goodness. Holding strong but drink now. 90 Tasted January 2014 @RavineVineyard

PILLITTERI ESTATES CABERNET SAUVIGNON ICEWINE 2011, Niagara On The Lake (46557, 375 ml, $60.00, WineAlign)

A most unique and striking rendition, wearer of many hats, confounding and curious. There is a funk about him that stands apart from the rest. Like a really well-aged, superb piece of washed rind cheese, then turning unabashedly sweet, with verve and symphonic tone. An orange sky of an icewine, anti-bittersweet, accented by mace and anise, carob even. “Here is what I know now brother. Here is what I know now sister.” Cabernet Sauvignon, in a vintage equipped with striking acidity, can turn into something to look forward to. One of the more interesting icewines to date. 91 Tasted January 2014 @Pillitteriwines

VINELAND ESTATES RIESLING VIDAL ICEWINE 2012, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (163018, 375 mL, $60.00, WineAlign)

This represents the icewine revolution, for the first time adding 15 percent Vidal juice into the Riesling mix. In 2012, the normally stand alone Riesling needed a shot in the arm, provided by the Vidal, a dose of icewine magic by winemaker Brian Schmidt. Lifted tree fruit blossom and added weight are the result, without hyper-sweet flavours. Riesling is the rock, Vidal the roll as this RV crashes into me. The pit orchard fruit is reduced and recognizable to taste, yet reserved and in phonic harmony. “Sweet like candy to my soul, sweet you rock and sweet you roll.” Brotherly love icewine, full of Schmidt wisdom. 93 Tasted January 2014 @benchwineguy

Good to go!

New year. Try new wines

Jan9

Here are five new releases to get you going in that risk-taking direction
Photo: colors0613/Fotolia.com

More wine predictions have been paraded out in the first week of 2014 than disgraced senators, mayors and potential Olympic men’s hockey team selections. What do they all mean? Will any of them really come true? Will support not continue to the largest brands, produced for the most middle of the road, common denominator consumer?

Tyler Colman polished his crystal ball to determine wine trends for the new year at wine-searcher.com. Jamie Goode insists “it’s going to be a good year for the Balkans and the ancient wine countries and it’s going to be a bad year for many wine writers.” Ron Washam, the Hosemaster of Wine said “I read Dr. Vino’s predictions for 2014, and they were exactly the same as his predictions for 2013.” So he walked on the wild side, noting “I’m pretty sure “Supernatural” wines will catch on.” Chris Losh followed up with his satirical Chris-tal Ball from Just Drinks.

The global community of wine writers, critics and commentators collectively seem to be saying no to the status quo. They are predicting sweeping changes to consumer tastes. They are not wrong, but neither are they right. The largest wine corporations and super-negociants will continue to push their brands built on four or five grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Pinot Grigio and Malbec) because bottles produced from those vineyards planted over the past 15 years with their huge excess of juice have to be sold. That can’t change. By all means, go ahead and march out a full-on pageant of obscure grapes my good-friend Zoltan; Kadarka, Fetească Neagră, Xinomavro, Blaufränkisch, Mavrud, Saperavi, Furmint, Harslevelu, Juhfark, Antao Vaz and Rktsiteli. Serve them at my table, please. It’s just that everyone else will look at you kind of funny.

Then there’s the hush, wink, say-no-more evil of the mega-purchaser model (read between those lines) of bullying the Brettanomyces out of your suppliers. You know who you are, you wine enabling vinous behemoths the equivalent of Sobeys and Walmart.

Today, at 2 p.m. ET the weekly PostMedia Wine Chat will resume. Gurvinder Bhatia, Rod Phillips, Janet Dorozynski and I will discuss the resolve to drink outside your comfort zone. We’re going to put aside what we know, leave the couch and venture forth to grapes, regions and hidden appellations either ignored or perhaps never visited. We’re going to recommend that you do the same. Here are five new releases to get you going in that risk-taking direction.

From left: REYES D’ARAGON BRUT RESERVA CAVA 2010, BODEGAS BERONIA VIURA 2012, CHATEAU JOLYS 2011, and BLUE MOUNTAIN BRUT METHODE TRADITIONELLE

REYES D’ARAGON BRUT RESERVA CAVA 2010, Spain (194803, $14.95, WineAlign)

Offers a rare opportunity for vintage-dated Spanish fizz and from somewhere other than Penedès. From Bodegas Langa and built upon a foundation of Chardonnay (along with Macabeo), this Cava takes a direct route through the village of white grapefruit, returns and replays there again and again. A high road dosage of sweetness lingers over licorice root and the rangy flavours include Manchego and green olive. Good, if not spectacular quality Cava. At $15 you have to appreciate the slightly oxidative bronze patina and refreshing copper minerality. 89 Tasted December 2013

BODEGAS BERONIA VIURA 2012, Rioja, Spain (190801, $14.95, WineAlign)

Great tenacity for such entry-level Rioja vin blanco. What more could you want? Freshness, grape must, tang, just a hit of spice, pepper. From my earlier note: “Exsufflates super ripe, fresh picked pear and emollient herbiage in pure, angled control. One hundred per cent, quick macerated and cold stabilized Viura of aromatics locked in tight. A pour that leads to a starburst of flavour. Complexity reaches the sea in an underlying tide of salinity.” 89 Tasted July and December 2013 @WoodmanWines @BodegasBeronia

CHATEAU JOLYS 2011, Ac Jurançon Sec, Southwest, France (362046, $16.95, WineAlign)

Shake it up with this delicious if slightly unusual, tangy, edgy stuff. Out there and beyond your average French sipper, shaped by lemon curd and zest, tangy grapefruit and lengthened by rubber-legged dancing elasticity. May drive its car under the influence but it’s not warm and fat. Busts ” the move with the quirky jerk.” 88 Tasted December 2013

BOUTARI GRANDE RESERVE 2007, Naoussa, Greece (140111, $16.95, WineAlign)

Once you go Xinomavro, especially with this stupidly good value, you never go back. An inoculate of bright cherry liqueur is beginning to brick but holding steady and strong. Years of seeping have led to this moment of slight prune-ish activity but the old school beauty and charm is nothing short of wonderful. Cherry wood resinous and still markedly tough tannins bring out the bitters but the wine glides smoothly forward into a soft, eloquent finish 90 Tasted December 2013 @boutari @KolonakiGroup

BLUE MOUNTAIN BRUT METHODE TRADITIONELLE, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia (206326, $27.95, WineAlign)

Blue Mountain is the poster child for B.C. bubbles and this forth-righteous, tight to expansive, quintessential cool-climate Okanagan is the stalwart for the genre. The unabashed intensity in citrus acidity, zero dosage style is exactly what it should be. If you have never experienced west coast bubbles, this is the place to start. 90 Tasted December 2013 @BlueMtnWinery

Good to go!

A resolution to drink honest wine

Jan2

What is honest wine? Above all else it is made by the grower who sleeps with the grapes.
Photo: Aleksandr Volkov/Fotolia.com

When the book closed on the Gregorian calendar year for 2012, I made the most basic of wine resolutions for 2013. Drink better wine. That I did. A year on, with thousands more wines tasted and contemplated under my belt, an unconquerable will to seek acts of volition compels me to declare this. Let 2014 be the year to drink honest wine.

If wine were considered as a Roman anagram, the Latin quid est veritas, translated as “what is truth,” should prompt the response, “why, this honest wine.” Try this instead, Est vir qui adest, in other words, “it is this man here.” The winemaker, the vintner, the cooperative, the winery working for the man. It matters not who you are. To be successful in 2014 you must make honest wine.

What is honest wine? Above all else it is made by the grower who sleeps with the grapes. Not literally and not with the fishes, but greatness comes from the farmer who spend more hours walking the rows then the halls of the home. Soul love. By extension or shoulder to shoulder the high-minded winemaker knows “all I have is my love of love and love is not loving.”

Honest wine is juice that conveys the salient facts of a grape’s life. Aromas and flavours emotive of the stages of the fruit’s history, its components; seed, pulp, skin and stem. The greatest wines, judged to make use of the entire fruit for best results, consider the parts as members of the whole.

For a bottle of wine to be on the up and up it must not be disguised by the unnatural ways of artificial intervention nor should it make itself so available as to be obvious. Fruit should reside in the realm of the sequestered and the sacred. The emotional response to sipping on fermented grapes can only be true if the juice offers no precise parameters. A fear of knowing and not knowing is key. Forbidden aromas and flavours are emotive because they are forbidden and they are forbidden because they are emotive.

Real wine elicits all of this and more. I am not alone in hoping for table wines to be stirring, gripping, unsweetened and unencumbered by an excessive coat of oak. My hard-earned dollars should earn the right to be stimulated and provoked to think in ways verging on stream of consciousness.

So welcome to 2014. The year of drinking honest wine. The more you seek it out, the more it will be made. Here are 10 current releases to get you going in the right direction.

From left: DE SOUSA SEASONS RESERVE MERITAGE 2011, QUINTA DAS CAMÉLIAS RESERVA 2010, 13TH STREET MERLOT 2010, and SEVEN FALLS CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2010

DE SOUSA SEASONS RESERVE MERITAGE 2011, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (315911, $14.95, WineAlign)

Aromatically drippy, reductive and heavy-handed in its oak soak but the concentration is really well-judged. Remains loyal and close to its Escarpment origins and walks the ridge point on a plane. Spice cupboard of scents dominate the basic, easy-going fruit. Proper and realistic use of its Bordeaux-derived, Cartesian coordinates. Worth a stroll through its Euclidean space. 87 Tasted December 2013 @DiamondEstates

QUINTA DAS CAMÉLIAS RESERVA 2010, Doc Dão, Portugal (305334, $14.95, WineAlign)

Here comes another sure thing, best buy Portuguese red, this time from the rising star that is the Dão. Paradigmatic local combination of Touriga Nacional, Jaen and Alfrocheiro. Modern but tight, brooding and juicy, approachable yet nearly, severely tannic. A Dão pulled in two directions by monster trucks, holding ground in bonded, erudite fashion, firmly in the middle. All thanks to a terrific combination of dark fruit and gritty, chunky grain. To this Dão I say, “I hope you appreciate the magnitude of your impending good fortune.” 88 Tasted December 2013 @NokhrinWines

13TH STREET MERLOT 2010, VQA Creek Shores, Niagara Peninsula, (270504, $17.95, WineAlign)

“I’m just going to say three words to you baby.” Statu-tory buy. Can’t recommend it enough. What we have here is a really fine vintage for a Creek Shores appellation’s unique bottling. Merlot of shining bifid complexity, despite being a product of deep clay it’s dusty but not kicking up dust. There is palpable fruit but fruit does not lead the way. More so licorice and a lush crush of vinous allotropy. Solid wall of tannin will stand for 5-7 years and then crumble effortlessly, willingly, submissively. Add another notch on the Creek Shores chart for Merlot alongside fellow obvious variety, Cabernet Franc. 89 Tasted December 2013 @13thStreetWines

MAISON ROCHE DE BELLENE CUVÉE RÉSERVE BOURGOGNE 2011, Ac Burgundy, France (299859, $17.95, WineAlign)

In light of its entry-level Bourgogne nature, this boasts a notable if unconventional, charming, candied nose. Pronounced dried cherries and currants are emphatic, categorically atypical of this Pinot Noir. More like Oregon, or even Prince Edward County, in pomegranate and earth. That said, this RDB is not overtly or overly earthy. Sharp yet piercing though only just beneath the surface. A late injection of astringency is expected and keeps this Pinot grounded. Really quite exceptional at $18 by (Canadian) winemaker Matt Chittick. Could this be an indicator of brilliance to come for the ’11s? Looks to be. 89 Tasted December 2013 @RochedeBellene

SEVEN FALLS CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2010, Wahluke Slope, Washington, U.S.A. (360222, $18.95, WineAlign)

A friable feeling from this Chateau Ste. Michelle proposal submits to ripe plum and sourish pomegranate falling effortlessly from their trees. Affable, convenient, well-made Giling Basah, not overly extracted or justified. Mulberry kicked-up Arabica, wet-hulled, reminding of Merlot, or at least as stiff support to a Cabernet blend. Gotta be. Warming, gentle tannins, like Oz, without the jam. 88 Tasted December 2013 @SteMichelle

From left: MALIVOIRE GUILTY MEN CABERNET/MERLOT 2010, CUSUMANO NOÀ 2010, PIERRE AMADIEU LA GRANGELIÈRE VACQUEYRAS 2011, ADARO 2009, and KISTLER PINOT NOIR 2011

MALIVOIRE GUILTY MEN CABERNET/MERLOT 2010, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (186247, $19.95, WineAlign)

A gritty, layered effort, carried forth by transcendental blues. Offers up the strange sensation of a P, B and J sandwich with kudos to (winemaker) Shiraz Mottiar for nut putting chocolate in the peanut butter. “Careful what you ask for, you don’t know ’til you try.” Roasted, semi-confected and counterintuitive in circulatory acidity and juicy madness. Might be Bordeaux blend-inspired but this leans Loire-ish because “back roads never carry you where you want ‘em to.” Speaks loud and clear with a practiced oration of place, in rocks, stones, clay and the aggregate of it all. 88 Tasted December 2013 @MalivoireWine @ShirazMottiar

CUSUMANO NOÀ 2010, Sicily, Italy (109512, $19.95, WineAlign)

A bodacious, Jethro, flaunting display is shown by this Sicilian blend of 40 per cent Nero D’Avola, 30 Cabernet Sauvignon and 30 Merlot. Fig cake, thick as a brick, drizzled over by good quality aged balsamic. Fruit from young-ish (12 year-old) vines coached by the barrel states flatly, “I may make you feel but I can’t make you think.” Splinters the tongue, coats the insides and raises the roof. Leaves the vines behind, soothes the beast by flute and focuses on what comes later, of course. “The elastic retreat rings the close of play as the last wave uncovers the newfangled way.” 88 Tasted December 2013 @SpeckBros

PIERRE AMADIEU LA GRANGELIÈRE VACQUEYRAS 2011, AC, Rhône, France (76398, $19.95, WineAlign)

Merde, if only a whiff, just a whiff, bumps into lush, red berry fruit and is then carried away with the mistral. Really fine cherry and tangy raspberry, bit by the subterranean soil mineral I must have in my Rhône. Oak spoken in Franco-Provençal, Occitan not as profound, intrusive or demanding. Delish Vaq, with a good middle palate and solid grasp on the dry finish, not long, but there in spirit. 90 Tasted December 2013

ADARO 2009, Ribera Del Duero, Spain (345686, $29.95, WineAlign)

This 100% Tempranillo from the Real Sitio de la Ventosilla Estate has that something other. The no sé lo que of Ribera, a liqueur nose that won’t overwhelm the liquor of pressed, squeezed and juiced flowers. Compact in luxurious flavours, like Napa Cabernet Cassis or Kirsch in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. For the price this is so much more interesting than the comparative mythologies of those other terroirs. Beware the wood shavings soaked to the bone. Adult red licorice. 92 Tasted December 2013 @Noble_Estates

KISTLER PINOT NOIR 2011, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County, California (330274, $79.00, WineAlign)

Such a musical display in assemblage, this soundtrack of aptitude and wisdom, bringing together a selection of barrels that form an attitude to tell a Russian River Valley Pinot story. Though Chardonnay is Kistler’s claim to fame, this Pinot rises above so many others. It could be told “you’ll meet them all again on the long journey to the middle.” Nary a barrel intrusion, smokeless and without char, though there is a leathery component. Viscous but not jammy, sharp but not pointed, sweet but never cloying. Absolutely California with warm bands of black cherry, almost plum famous but all in balance. ”It’s all happening.” 93 Tasted December 2013 @TheVine_RobGroh

Good to go!

2013: It was the best of wines

Dec21

15 wine releases $30 and over
Photo: Steve Cukrov/Fotolia.com

The long and wine-ding road of 2013 began with a personal plea for it to be the year of drinking better wine. I wrote about iconic wines at affordable prices and a personal hermeneutic public service announcement, a wine prescription for cold and flu. January rounded out with good reds, twenty-somethings, Robbie Burns, weekday wines and a wine analogy Super Bowl prediction gone bad.

I played pond hockey, chatted about wine and said no to ambient, rich pinks because you gotta be cruel to be wine for Valentine’s. Real wines, more hockey, Oscars, French grapes and a Somewhereness sea of grape-driven humanity occupied my winter thoughts, along with California, The Beamsville Bench, Cuvée 2013 and the zeitgeist of my virgin expert’s tasting with music as its guide. Cool grapes marched on with wines for the Ides, St. Patrick, Passover, Momofuku in Toronto and New York City.

Spring brought 100-km wine, value reds, sunshine, Masters’ colours, a Stanley Cup for house league hockey, Ontario wine events, Peter Franus, wild leeks and Mother’s Day. There was a ‘London Calling’ for Canadian wine, Go Gamay Go, an averted LCBO strike and the Elsie Awards. I delved into the schadenfreude matters of tasting notes, the humanity in real value wine and the Venn Diagrams in a paradox of accents.

The weather warmed, I cooked for 1,300 Ultimate Frisbee players, contemplated the Rolling Stones and struck Semillon in a showcase showdown. Father’s Day, Riesling and the Canada Day long weekend preceded excursions to Fenway Park and the eleemosynary earth in the North Fork of Long Island. This followed by a search for the wine pulse of the Finger Lakes and the indelible stamp of British Columbia‘s Okanagan Valley.

The International Cool Climate Chardonnay conference took Niagara by storm (literally), leading into the August long weekend. I wrote on Sauvignon Blanc, chill red wine, The Great Canadian Wine Challenge, Free My Grapes and the plea for wine to flow across Canadian provinces.

September came, as did Low alcohol wine for the High Holidays. Ontario wines shone on, especially those from Stratus, along with Spanish and Italian reds. I touted the vinous acumen of Canadian wines for Thanksgiving, the wines of Chile, the best from Ontario and presided as guest judge at the WineAlign World Wine Awards of Canada 2013. October ended with Champagne and reasons to pour a glass of wine on Halloween.

Napa Valley came to town, there were private tastings with Ontario winemakers and I made notes on Canadian made apolitical wines. There were gems, Friday bites, Beaujolais Nouveau and more from Italy. At the end of November I wondered if the wine sign of the apocalypse was upon us. Sparkling wines and the unavoidable Christmas picks have brought us to here.

Edward Steinberg once asked Angelo Gaja, “how do you make the best wine?” to which Gaja replied, “with the best grapes.” In tasting notes I extrapolate from that base and simple notion, with an intent to convey the salient facts of the grape’s life, to give life to the agriculture, even if the first two syllables are removed in the process.

Tasting notes can be clerihews, pithy poems that begin with a winemaker’s name, become the reviewer’s purport and more often than not, are penned in four lines. Word play leading the mind to consider wine as anagram, palindrome and lipogram. Writing a tasting note not as a vinous jape, but rather an artfully woven acrostic.

Reviews align like Burma Shave signs on North American highways, spaced one hundred feet apart, connected by their language. Phrases are turned on their heads, causing the notes to be peculiarly unsuccessful in making any decided impact upon the consumer college. So be it.

The musical and other (sometimes) obscure references bring about metaphasis to the tasting notes, an habitual transposition of sounds, connecting smell, flavour and structure to groove, pitch and aesthetic. The best wines produce the greatest emotion and excess of language. Here is a look back at the top 15-$30 and over releases tasted in 2013 and the tasting notes that brought them to light.

15 wine releases $30 and over

From left: RAINOLDI CRESPINO VALTELLINA SUPERIORE 2006, TAWSE CABERNET FRANC LAUNDRY VINEYARD 2010, CHARLES BAKER WINES RIESLING ‘PICONE VINEYARD’ 2011, PETER FRANUS RED WINE 2008, and FEUDI DI SAN GREGORIO TAURASI 2007

RAINOLDI CRESPINO VALTELLINA SUPERIORE 2006, Lombardy, Italy (316331, $31.95, WineAlign)

Composed of 100 per cent Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo) from Lombardy. Grace, flowing ruby robe, striking. Lit by cherries bathing in a silica and gravel mineral bath, tightly wound in a swirling pensieve of real vinous thought. Elevated by cool, altitudinous breezes and gothic, statuesque like a Mantegazza. Northern, alpine and proud. 93 Tasted April 2013 @VinumValtellina From: Top ten wines for May Day

TAWSE CABERNET FRANC LAUNDRY VINEYARD 2010, Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (130997, $31.95, WineAlign)

Assures us of several things. First, 2010 was a gift for making idiot-proof Cab Franc in Niagara, Second, the Lincoln Lakeshore is one of three obvious and essential CF locales in Niagara. Third and most important, properly adjudicated new oak can elevate CF to the upper reaches of the cool-climate troposphere. While not as masculine or bovine like brother Van Bers, Laundry’s got black cherry, tar, coal, herbs and a peaceful, grilling feeling. Essential CF from winemaker Paul Pender. 92 Tasted July 2013 @Tawse_Winery @Paul_Pender From: Alternative wines for the August long weekend

CHARLES BAKER WINES RIESLING ‘PICONE VINEYARD’ 2011, Vinemount Ridge, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (241182, $35.20, WineAlign)

Does not so much pick up where cracking ’09 left off (with no offence meant to the soothing and tuneful ’10) but rather re-writes the Baker book. From the almost famous windswept vineyard atop the Vinemount Ridge, this Picone, from older Riesling plantings is crazy lively. That ’10 is now imbued with rich, oily glück. The ’11 will realize such a future, but much further along and in combination with its inborn tension. Right up there with Baker’s “perfect vintage” 2006. 93 Tasted October 2013 @cbriesling From: Top wines shine at Taste Ontario 2013

PETER FRANUS RED WINE 2008, Red Hills Lake County Red, California ($39.95)

Composed of Syrah (85 per cent), Grenache (10) and Mourvèdre (5) comes from Fore Family Vineyards fruit on the top of 3000 foot Cobb Mountain. A fiery paradox of climate met by altitude works a strange magic on the grapes. It’s no mistral but rather some sort of wine weather occult. This SGM is highly influenced by a very tempest of dramatic temperature changes, from solar radiation to cool, tempering Pacific breezes and at great heights. Exhibits the hills’ red earth, in colour, in fragrance and in rich berry flavour. I’m grateful for this SGM blend, cool and hot at the same time, “almost ablaze still you don’t feel the heat.” 93 Tasted April 2013 @ProfileWineGrp From: The Wine Diaries: Peter Franus

FEUDI DI SAN GREGORIO TAURASI 2007, Campania, Italy ($39.95)

Lush and gorgeous. The most immediately gratifying young Aglianico yet such an infant. Earthbound red berries, perfectly ripe plums, biting tannin and off the charts acidity. Epochal verve of Middle Pleistocene volcanic rocks. Southern Italian equivalent to Southern Rhône reds, offering tremendous value under $50 where Bordeaux and Tuscany pedantically fall short. Should join the ranks of recent great vintages, ’01 and ’04. 93 Tasted January 2013 @FeudiDSGregorio @StemWineGroup From: Iconic wines, affordable prices

From left: CHÂTEAU DES CHARMES EQUULEUS 2010, BACHELDER CHARDONNAY WISMER VINEYARD 2010, CLOSA BATLLET GRATALLOPS 2007, GIROLAMO RUSSO SAN LORENZO 2008, and PALLADINO BAROLO PARAFADA 2008

CHÂTEAU DES CHARMES EQUULEUS 2010, St. David’s Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (319525, $40, SAQ, 11156334, $41.25, WineAlign)

From the Paul Bosc Estate Vineyard is a classically styled blend of 50 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 per cent Cabernet Franc and 25 per cent Merlot, only made in exceptional years. Apropos choice from 25-year old vines (in 2010) from the warmer St. David’s Bench for Cuvée’s 25th show. Poised, balanced and regal yet this mare is temporarily a head-shy, sensitive equine red. Will trot out furlongs of tobacco and meaty aromas from now and through maturity in five plus years. A saddle of round, red fruit will age gracefully. 92 Tasted March 2013 @MBosc From: Top juice flows at Cuvée 25th anniversary

BACHELDER CHARDONNAY WISMER VINEYARD 2010, Twenty Mile Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (345819, $44.95, WineAlign)

So sumptuous, presumptuous and precocious. Ahead of the curve, effortless and full of 20 mile mineral length. The ripe green apple never quits. My earlier note from Top juice flows at Cuvée 25th anniversary from the Twenty Mile (Vineland) Bench is the most righteous, understated charred butterscotch remoulade sauce of dreams. Richly textured and built upon a sneaky, slow and stretched breath of wild yeasts. A creeper, gatherer and traveler of both knowledge and persistence. The journey with Thomas Bachelder as related by partner Mary Delaney, from out of Quebec, by way of Ponzi and Lemelson in Oregon and to Niagara is the stuff of dreams. Tasted twice same night and hypnotized both times. 94 Tasted July 2013 @Bachelder_wines From: Hot weekend wines and cool Chardonnay

CLOSA BATLLET GRATALLOPS 2007, Priorat, Spain (156398, $49.95, WineAlign)

Stupid gorgeous Priorat and though inaccessible to most of us mere mortals, if you were to shell out $50 in November for one wine, this has to be considered. A blend of 65 per cent Cariñena, 22 per cent Garnacha, with a smattering of Syrah and Merlot. Pure purple pitch, an early summer Catalonian garden in bloom, air warm, breeze light. Wow. Blows high priced Napa and over the top Châteauneuf-du-Pape out of the water. The oak is so beautifully integrated. 94 Tasted October 2013 From: Nine big November best buy wines

GIROLAMO RUSSO SAN LORENZO 2008, Sicily, Italy ($59.95)

From agronomist and oenologist Giuseppe Russo lives a Sicilian dream. Composed of Etna’s indigenous Nerello Mascalese with a small percentage of Nerello Cappuccio, this red is a veritable lava flow of molten magma, volcanic igneous solder and opulent Scoria. Pure, unchained fruit, no disguise, striking. 94 Tasted February 2013 @Oenophilia1 From: Real wines, whisky and boys night out

PALLADINO BAROLO PARAFADA 2008, Piedmont, Italy (280412, $68.00, WineAlign)

This just has the look, the look of love. “A look that time can’t erase.” Nebbiolo you can see right through, this impossible light, this impossible life. Tea, tar and roses. A mineral spring, iron-earth field, where the game runs wild. You can relate to this Barolo, love it, relish it now but it will give pleasure for years. Not necessarily 25 but certainly 10-15. “Well, it takes my breath away.” Great vineyard. 94 Tasted October 2013 From: Holiday wine gems hit November shelves

From left: M. CHAPOUTIER LES BÉCASSES CÔTE-RÔTIE 2010, MOËT & CHANDON GRAND VINTAGE BRUT CHAMPAGNE 2004, DOMAINE LONG-DEPAQUIT MOUTONNE GRAND CRU CHABLIS 2011, CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET VIDE BOURSE 1ER CRU 2010, and MASI MAZZANO AMARONE DELLA VALPOLICELLA CLASSICO 2006

M. CHAPOUTIER LES BÉCASSES CÔTE-RÔTIE 2010, Ac Northern Rhône, France (280420, $82.95, WineAlign)

Strictly beautiful Syrah. The offspring of the Côte Rôtie’s two necessary points of view. First, the schist, silt and shingle of the Brune. Second, the silica and limestone of the Blonde. In combination they produce an iron-rust wine of a ferruginous nature, in colour and in aroma. Seeping, exotic Rooibos tea, Provençal tapenade and smouldering flowers send smoke signals clear as day. Smells so rich though it’s full of grace and bathed in ultra-elegance. 94 Tasted October 25, 2013 From: Holiday wine gems hit November shelves

MOËT & CHANDON GRAND VINTAGE BRUT CHAMPAGNE 2004, Ac Champagne, France (69773, $83.95, WineAlign)

May not be the esteemed house and vintage of the century’s love-child but I can’t think of a single reason not to spend a pittance more on a vintage-dated Champagne like this Moët in lieu of a sea of NV alternatives. Granted it’s wound maddeningly tight, spewing still young venom, crazed by pear and citrus concentrate but…trust must be placed in its charms. This Moët is quite refined. Apples tempered in acidity, beloved for its building blocks, it’s really good Champagne. 94 Tasted November 2013 @MoetUSA From: Ten sparkling wines to life

DOMAINE LONG-DEPAQUIT MOUTONNE GRAND CRU CHABLIS 2011, Monopole, Ac, Burgundy, France (46706, $89.95, WineAlign)

From Mathieu Mangenot’s ”Grand Cru” plots, the Monopole holdings in the steep amphitheatre slope of Vaudésir and the gentle rise of Les Preuses. The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine. He spoons piles of flint and chunks of rock. He explains the tin pan elevation of Chablis and Chardonnay squeezed from the bedrock, capturing every last drop of geology, refuse of stars and fossils of the ancient animals. Stoic, metazoic, super Chablis, with tremendous length. How can this Chablis have so much fruit but no apple, no lemon, no pith. “You think things are straight but they’re not what they seem.” Candy for the soul. Novacaine in liquid form. Amazing. 94 Tasted November 2013 From: Twelve days of wine for Christmas

CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET VIDE BOURSE 1ER CRU 2010, Ac Burgundy, France (344887, $101.95, Quebec $85.00, WineAlign)

A mild sylvan reductive stink is neither abstruse nor in fruit obstruction. What we have here is a brass tax in Chardonnay histrionics. Yellow and green tree fruit, wicked wild yeast game and just about as much ruminating, mineral tang as one might desire. Something wicked this way woos my wistful longing for quality white Burgundy. I could imagine drinking this well into my pension days. 95 Tasted November 2013 From: Twelve days of wine for Christmas

MASI MAZZANO AMARONE DELLA VALPOLICELLA CLASSICO 2006, Doc, Veneto, Italy (215764, $99.95, WineAlign)

If a wine clocking in at 16 per cent alcohol by volume can be considered elegant and restrained and if that’s even possible, the Mazzano is the one. Though there is nothing outright prune, dried raisin or fig paste about it, this single-vineyard Amarone is enormously tannic. Any attempt at cracking its hard shell inside of 15-20 years should be thought of as counter-productive. Smells like the aforementioned fruit just picked at maximum ripeness so there is nothing cooked, roasted or overdone here. You simply have to wait for tertiary complexity to see what it will become. I sense great. Near-perfect vintage. 96 Tasted October 2013 From: Holiday wine gems hit November shelves

Good to go!

Top ten wines $30 and under for 2013

Dec17

Finding the needles in the proverbial haystack is no simple assignment so tasting through thousands of wines each year is the necessity to the mother of invention.
Photo: Africa Studio/Fotolia.com

Folks like best of lists and I for one am happy to offer them up. Historical farsightedness can be one of life’s great pleasures so cue the retrospective view.

The $20-30 category brims to overflowing with soft wines, so often heavy, overworked, reeking of new oak and unforgiving in contrivance. That niche can also be occupied by some of the greatest wine values on the planet. Wines that are neither entry-level nor flagship. Wines that define the attitude and intention of their producers.

Finding the needles in the proverbial haystack is no simple assignment so tasting through thousands of wines each year is the necessity to the mother of invention. Looking back, I am pleased to note that Ontario wines proved their worth in this reasonable if not cheap category. That four of the ten represented here were chosen locally is a testament to the quality and the marketability of $25 Niagara whites and reds.

Here are my top ten wines, on the number or below, released and tasted in 2013.

Ten wine releases $30 and under

From left: SOUTHBROOK TRIOMPHE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2010, GREENLANE RIESLING OLD VINES 2011, DOMAINE DU PETIT MÉTRIS LES FOUGERAIES SAVENNIÈRES 2009, DOMAINES SCHLUMBERGER KESSLER PINOT GRIS 2008, and SAN FELICE IL GRIGIO CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2009

SIGALAS SANTORINI ASSYRTIKO 2011, Santorini, Greece (74781, $21.95, WineAlign)

Must be a fairy tale, a Boucles d’or narrative of structure and complexity from the first swirl and sniff. Airy, saline, built of rich, gold guts. Perfectly ripened orchard fruit and fresh-squeezed grapefruit. Taste it and there’s a joyous dance, a kefi bursting inside, like great Champagne but minus the bubbles. 92 Tasted April 2013 @KolonakiGroup From: See the humanity in real value wine

SOUTHBROOK TRIOMPHE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2010, VQA Niagara On The Lake, Ontario (ON, VINTAGES Essential, 193573, $22.95, WineAlign)

Drifts effortlessly along in an extreme brightness and lightness of being. A perfumed exotic beauty that displays definitive Cabernet Sauvignon character. Tea, tobacco, Cassis, vanilla, dark berries, proper acidity, good grip and length. Dictionary entry for the vintage, the Niagara-on-the-Lake appellation and the genre. No other sub-$25 Ontario Cab does the warm vintages (’02. ’05, ’07 and ’10) with this kind of grace and power. From and kudos to winemaker Ann Sperling. 91 Tasted September 2013 @SouthbrookWine From: Good Look Ahead at Canadian Wines For Thanksgiving

GREENLANE RIESLING OLD VINES 2011 ,VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario (351486, $22.95, WineAlign)

Cracks the mineral whip, froths lime into foam and atomizes stone fruit into sweet and sour heaven. Wants to be semi-dry but never quite goes there. Walks a fine line, a tightrope actually. Up there with Charles Baker and Thirty Bench for sheer madness. 91 Tasted July 2013 @GreenLaneWinery From: Alternative wines for the August long weekend

DOMAINE DU PETIT MÉTRIS LES FOUGERAIES SAVENNIÈRES 2009, Ac Loire, France (319855, $23.95, WineAlign)

Screams “I am Chenin Blanc,” in honey on the pedal and maximum mineral metal. Aggressive, pursuing machine ”stealing honey from a swarm of bees.” Petrol stinky, tangy thick, sticky with honey oozing everywhere, in comb and sweet-smelling suckle. Seriously huge and flashy. Will be stunning when it settles down. 92 Tasted April 2013 @Savennieresaoc From: Top ten wines for May Day

DOMAINES SCHLUMBERGER KESSLER PINOT GRIS 2008, Ac Alsace, France (249623, $25.95, WineAlign)

Wants to tell you she’s late harvest but you know better. “You might say you can only fool yourself.” Golden gorgeous, silken pear custard and southern hemisphere, capsicum spiked fruit. Walks on little feat but ultra-marathon runs a sweet to dry crescendoing gamut. 92 Tasted June 2013 @drinkAlsace From: Working wines for the Canada Day long weekend

From left: SAN FELICE IL GRIGIO CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2009, LAN GRAN RESERVA 2005, ROEDERER ESTATE BRUT SPARKLING, MALIVOIRE WINE COMPANY GAMAY ‘COURTNEY’ 2011, and THIRTY BENCH VINEYARDS ‘STEEL POST’ VINEYARD RIESLING 2011

SAN FELICE IL GRIGIO CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2009, Tuscany, Italy (716266, $26.95, SAQ, 703363, $27, WineAlign)

Clocks in at 12.8 per cent abv. Are you following the theme here? This CCR is just so flippin’ foxy and gorgeous to nose. It’s also demanding in iron, dried sanguine char and tough like the label’s Titian-painted medieval knight. CCR stretched out on the rack, Italianate through and through and likely in need of 10 years lay down time. Funkless which, considering the lack of coat and obfuscation, is very, very interesting. 92 Tasted August 2013 From: Fall is the wine time to be with the Tuscan you love

LAN GRAN RESERVA 2005, Rioja, Spain (928622, $27.95, WineAlign)

Its makers may now just be a cog in the Sogrape empire but it continues to do its own thing. Has that evolution I look for in Rioja. The slightest oxidative note, heaps of herbs and the umami of salty clashes with smokey Jamon. Rioja expressive of one love and one heart. Caught bobbing, dancing and wailing right in its wheelhouse, giving everything it’s made of, no holds barred and no questions asked. “Is there a place for the hopeless sinner?” Yes, in a glass of a weathered, leathery and just flat out real as it gets red Rioja. 92 Tasted September 2013 @BodegasLan From: Ancient state of the art Spanish wine

ROEDERER ESTATE BRUT SPARKLING, Anderson Valley, Mendocino, California, (294181, $29.95, WineAlign)

Composed of approximately 60 per cent Chardonnay and 40 Pinot Noir. As close to greatness a house style from California can achieve. Discovers some secrets shared by cool-climate Sparkling wine, first with a delicate floral waft from out of a salmon copper tone. Complex, savoury bubbles, in rhubarb, tarragon and poached pear. Round, really fine, earthly, grounded stuff that spent a minimum two years on the lees. Marked by citrus too, namely pink grapefruit and creamy vanilla from the addition of some oak-aged wine. 91 Tasted November 2013 From: Ten sparkling wine to life

MALIVOIRE WINE COMPANY GAMAY ‘COURTNEY’ 2011, Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario ($29.95, winery only,)

Spent 14 edifying months in French oak and will live adroitly for another five years as a result. So much plum inherent in all its faculties, berries and currants too. The winemaker star of Shiraz Mottiar is rising higher into the cool climate stratosphere with each passing vintage. His wines walk a haute couture runway of class and style. 91 Tasted April 2013 @MalivoireWine @ShirazMottiar From: Come together over wine

THIRTY BENCH VINEYARDS ‘STEEL POST’ VINEYARD RIESLING 2011, Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario ($30, winery only, WineAlign)

From the Andrew Peller stable leans late-harvest or Spätlese, with 18.5 grams per litre of residual sugar. Clean, crisp, precise and near perfect Beamsville Bench expression. Flinty minerality and fantastic whorl by way of winemaker Emma Garner. Equal to if not more of a bomb than the stellar ’09. 93 Tasted March 2013 @ThirtyBench 100 kilometre wine for Spring

Good to go!