Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Somewhereness 2013: Introduction
Ask winegrowers, winemakers, sommeliers, wine merchants or wine writers to define terroir and you’ll get different but overlapping answers. For some, it’s the soil – the geology – period. For others, it’s that plus the vineyard’s topography, the lay of the land. Still others add climate – sunniness, degree days, rainfall – to the mix. A few will say it’s the interaction between all these factors and the people who work the land and make the wine.
I suspect this last definition – the land, its lay and the climate as expressed through the vintner’s art – is close to what six of Ontario’s better wineries had in mind when they banded together to form the Somewhereness group. One of its members, Norm Hardie, defines the concept of somewhereness as “not terroir but more … a place that you’re happy in, where you’re bien dans ta peau.”
The Somewhereness website is a little more specific about what the concept means to its members: place (bordering Lake Ontario), soil (clay and limestone), quality (a dedication to making premium wines) and stewardship (caring for the land, which has led to an increasing reliance on organic and biodynamic farming). And though they don’t specifically list it, they do refer to climate: “the coolest fine wine region on Earth.”
After holding annual events in various rest-of-Canada cities, Somewhereness recently premiered in Quebec at a well-attended presentation and tasting for wine media and trade types held at Montreal’s SAT. Here’s hoping the positive reception leads to wider availability of the group’s wares in local restaurants and on the SAQ’s shelves (while a few of the wines are available at the monopoly, most are private imports).
All 12 current Somewhereness members were present (13th Street, Bachelder Niagara, Cave Spring, Charles Baker, Flat Rock, Hidden Bench, Hinterland, Malivoire, Norman Hardie, Southbrook, Stratus and Tawse). I managed to visit eight tables before the end and will post my notes over the next week or two. First up, the wines of the group’s founder, Charles Baker.
Salon des vins d’importation privée: 2013 edition
The sixth and biggest ever edition of Raspipav‘s Salon des vins d’importation privée, the city’s most enjoyable wine show, is taking place this Saturday and Sunday, November 2 and 3. The venue is the Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal. The doors are open from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday. (A separate session from noon to 6 p.m. on Monday is limited to in-the-business types.) $15 gets you admission, a tasting glass and a few coupons you use to pay for the wines you taste. Additional coupons are available for purchase, though in practice few booths charge for tastes if they see you’re serious about wine appreciation.
Around 80 visiting winemakers will be on hand to present their products. More than 1,000 wines, none of them available at the SAQ, will be poured. What’s more, for the first time ever, you’ll be able to purchase wines by the bottle instead of the usual case (you pay at the salon; delivery by courrier is a few weeks later).
A number of events with winemakers are planned before, during and after the salon. Six I know about are: a winemakers’ dinner at Les Trois Petits Bouchons on Thursday; Raspipav’s own La Paulée and oenopole’s more intimate four-course dinner at Nora Gray with Catherine Breton, Filippo Masseti. Thomas Pico and Ferdinando Principiano both on Friday; the concluding Vins, Vignerons et Vinyl bash at SAT’s FoodLab on Monday, featuring DJs, a bevy of big name local chefs and wines from Vinnovation, La QV, oenopole and Bambara; and Planvin’s tasting of Renard wines led by winemaker Bayard Fox and accompanied by hors d’oeuvres at Casa Bianca and La QV’s dinner with Morgane Fleury and Jean Roger Groult at Restaurant Les Affamés on Tuesday.
oenopole’s Greek spring workshop (1/6)
A group of wine and food geeks, several of them writers or bloggers, were recently invited to oenopole world headquarters for a second wine and food workshop, titled printemps grec. The wines this time around were entirely Greek but the food most definitely wasn’t, the idea being to see how Greek wines work with non-Greek dishes. Guest chef Noam Arieh Gedalof, formerly of The French Laundry and Kaizen, turned out a succession of beautiful small plates, a feat made all the more impressive by the HQ’s complete lack of a kitchen.
While waiting for the tasting proper to being, we were offered glasses of a sparkler.
Amalia Brut, Méthode traditionnelle, Domaine Tselepos ($23.00, 11901103)
Formerly available only on a private-import basis, this 100% Moschofilero traditional method sparkler will go on sale at the SAQ on September 26 and not a moment too soon. 12% ABV.
Light straw-yellow with fine persistent bubbles. Fleet yet present on the palate, pure and quite dry. The fruit tends to lemon and is accompanied by a crystalline minerality and a telltale hint of Moschofilero’s floral aromatics. The acidity and effervescence keep things lively. The clean finish brings a faint saline note. Can hold its own against any cava or crémant at the price point. (Buy again? Can’t wait.)
The first dish was a lightly dressed salad of mixed greens, planed root vegetables and herbs.
Mantinia 2012, Moschofilero, Domaine Tselepos ($17.85, 11097485)
100% Moschofilero. The grapes are macerated eight hours at 10ºC, then pneumatically pressed. Fermentation with selected yeasts and in stainless steel vats is at 12ºC and lasts 20 days with regular stirring. 12% ABV.
Lightly fragrant nose – grapey and floral (honeysuckle?) with white mineral notes – evocative of Muscat and Gewurztramner. Dry and bright in the mouth with an appealing tautness. The fruit is citrusy (lemon, white grapefruit) and, again, the finish is clean and faintly salt-crystally. Straightforward and fresh, this makes an excellent aperitif but also has enough heft to go with food. (Buy again? Yes.)
> The wine’s acidity handled the vinaigrette with aplomb. The root vegetables brought out the wine’s minerality, the bitter radicchio its sweetness and fruit. The fresh mint leaf achieved a surprising synergy. Theo Diamantis mentioned that the first local non-Greek restaurant to put the wine on its list was Toqué!, where chef Normand Laprise paired it with wild asparagus, a combination I intend to put to the test now that local asparagus season is upon us.
And speaking of printemps grec wine and food pairings, oenopole and SAT Foodlab are joining forces this evening for a Nuit greque au Labo culinaire with four visiting winemakers. If last year’s event is anything to go by, it should be epic.
The Nature of Wine
McGill University’s Centre for Personal And Cultural Enrichment (PACE) has been holding a series of soirées around specific food topics and moderated by writers Sarah Musgrave (Gazette, En Route, etc.) and Maeve Haldane (Hour, Gazette, etc.). The idea is to bring together local experts for a casual evening of conversation to get the real stories behind current trends and issues. The next one, The Nature of Wine: A Hands-on Session to Drinking With Meaning, is happening tomorrow and will focus on the recent upsurge in interest in natural, biodynamic and organic wine (and what those terms even mean). It should be fun: a small gathering led by Theo Diamantis (agent, oenopole) and Etheliya Hananova (sommelier, Lawrence) and including a tasting of three natural wines.
- Where: Gus, 38 Beaubien East
- When: Monday, March 18, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
- Cost: $39 ($29 for a second person). There’s also reportedly a 10% discount if you email or call the PACE coordinator directly: Alex Megelas alex.megelas@mcgill.ca, 514-398-3627.
Bourdymania
Word has been a little slow in getting out, but, assuming he’s no longer snowbound at the Paris airport, Jura winemaker Jean-François Bourdy is in town and La QV has organized a few events around the visit.
From now through Saturday, Bocata wine bar in Old Montreal is serving glasses of Bourdy’s 1951 Château-Chalon, a vin jaune, paired with old Comté cheese for $40 a shot. Yes, that’s pricey, but bear in mind that a 620 ml bottle of the wine retails for a cool $559.
On Thursday, March 14, the bar at Toqué! is pairing three Bourdy wines with three small dishes designed expressly to accompany them. There are two seatings, the first at 6 p.m. and the second at 7:45 p.m., and only 12 places per time slot. For details, including the number to call for reservations, see here.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Bourdy will be in Quebec City for the Salon des vins de Québec.
And on Monday, March 18, the winemaker will be part of the Erin vs. Erin event at Nouveau Palais. The $30 fixed menu includes a lamb main course. Red, white and bubbly Bourdy wines will be flowing and the Pheasant’s Tears Seperavi from Georgia will be a by-the-glass option for the lamb. Two seatings: 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Reservations required.
Symbiose’s Jura event at Bocata
Old Montreal wine bar Bocata has been holding a series of Thursday evening wine and food events in collaboration with various agencies. On January 23, the agency was Symbiose and the theme was the Jura. A friend from Besançon, just outside the Jura, and I made reservations.
With its stone walls, low, rough-beamed wood ceilings, fireplace, bookcases, warm lighting and seating for 30 or 40, the space is cosy, romantic and refreshingly unslick. The regular menu leans toward Spain and southern France, but ours was a Jurassic prix fixe: four courses for $40 or five for $45, wines included. We went the latter route.
The starter was a beautifully presented oyster on the half shell covered with a mince of sour apple and fennel, a credible match for the Côtes-du-Jura 2010, Naturé, Domaine Berthet-Bondet ($29.77, Symbiose, 6 bottles/case). Naturé, one of Savagnin‘s former aliases, is now used exclusively to refer to unoxidized Savagnins. This one had a nose of straw, brine and preserved lemon with a musky Sauvignon-like cat pee note. In the mouth, it was rich and round on the surface but had plenty of underlying acidity and a long, rainwatery finish.
The Côtes-du-Jura 2011, Rubis, Domaine Berthet-Bondet (NLA) is a blend of Trousseau (60%), Poulsard (30%) and Pinot Noir (10%). True to its name, the wine is a limpid pale red. With coaxing, the stern, faintly bretty nose of shale and burned match gave up scents of crushed raspberries (fruit and leaves). Light-bodied, minerally and tart, it had a silky texture, shy fruit and not much depth. The finish brought a surprising note of orange peel. What the wine needed was food to perk it up, and this it got in an earthy bowl of Puy lentils flavoured with smoky Morteau sausage.
Next, a dish – actually a shallow bowl – of mussels and scallops, the latter cut into mussel-size pieces, in a curry-scented carrot soup/sauce/purée: an excellent match for the L’Étoile 2008, Domaine de Montbourgeau, which had wowed the MWG in November 2011. (The 2010 is currently available at the SAQ ($21.55, 11557541).) Made from Chardonnay and possibly a little co-planted Savagnin, it spends around 18 months in 230-litre oak barrels and 600-litre demi muids. A middleweight that flowed smoothly on the palate, this had a classic, complex nose of browning apple, marzipan, hazelnuts, corn silage and dried pine needles. The lightly oxidized fruit was brightened by acidity and did a slow-fade on the long finish. A complete wine, lacking nothing.
By this point, we had become seriously impressed with the food – not just the execution, which was flawless, but also the clear knowledge of how to pair dishes with Jura wines. How many local chefs appreciate curry’s affinity for oxidized Jura whites, let alone use the spice with such an elegant hand? We asked the waiter to transmit our compliments to the chef. Before long, he stopped at our table: young, Limousin native Benjamin Léonard, who, it turns out, did a stint at Arbois’s top restaurant (two Michelin stars), Jean-Paul Jeunet.
The next wine was the Arbois-Pupillin 2009, Les Vianderies, Domaine de la Renardière ($29.84, Symbiose, 12 bottles/case), a small-production, old-vine Chardonnay cuvée. Fermentation and maturation last 18 months and take place in 500-litre tonneaux. This had a wafting nose of lemon, hawthorn and chalk with a hint of smoke and ash. On the palate, it was dry, fresh and pure – very chalky and citrusy – a lovely wine whose only weak point seemed its fleeting finish. Still, it made a fine pairing for the most accomplished dish of the evening: a moist, meltingly tender round of turkey breast stuffed with foie gras, cooked sous vide, served in a foamy vin jaune sauce and garnished with hedgehog mushrooms and a few tiny nuggets of sautéed foie gras.
Lastly, accompanied by an 18-month Comté, came a 2005 Château Chalon, Domaine Berthet-Bondet (NLA). Aromatically dazzling: walnut, curry powder, dried corn, almond, even a little banana peel. Delicate, minerally, subtly oxidized in the mouth. Rich but dry in a Fino-like way, with fine but sustained acidity. Not as deep or rich as some yet elegant and beautiful all the same.
To say we were satisfied would be the understatement of the century. The QPR was off the charts; we would have considered it a bargain to have paid $45 for the food alone. This may have been a case of the planets aligning – a Jura-trained chef egged on by a Jura-enamoured agent and given free rein to concoct a Jura-inspired tasting menu to accompany a series of fine Jura wines – but the overall quality was so high, I doubt it was only that. Both my friend and I plan to return to check out the regular menu.
Two more Bocata wine events – both even more affordable than the Jura tasting – are planned for February: Rézin and Beaujolais on the 21st and oenopole and Greek terroirs on the 28th. And it looks like there may soon be some interesting local developments on the Jura front. Stay tuned for details.
Sausage love
Forget those overpriced Valentine meals prepared by bored chefs and served by jaded waiters in stuffy restaurants. On February 14, sausage lovers, wine lovers and just plain lovers will be heading to the Nouveau Palais for a hit of Pork Futures goodness (sweet or spicy love sausage sandwiches with fries and coleslaw) and glass after drinkable glass of — what else? — San Valentino wines poured by oenopole.
The third annual St. Valentine’s Sausage Party
Thursday, February 14, 2013
17:30 to midnight (or until they run out of sausages)
Nouveau Palais
281 Bernard St. West, Montreal
Salon des vins d’importation privée: 2012 edition
The dates have been announced for this year’s private import wine expo, the Salon des vins d’importation privée. This is always the best wine show of the year – less crowded and unwieldy than the Grande dégustation de Montréal, filled with more interesting wines, populated by friendlier winemakers and agents, attracting a higher proportion of wine geeks and a lower proportion of tipplers.
The Montreal dates are Saturday, November 3, from noon to 8 p.m., and Sunday, November 4, from noon to 7 p.m. The venue is the Marché Bonsecours.
The Quebec City date is Tuesday, November 6, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the place is the Espaces Dalhousie.
Admission is $15. Coupons exchangeable for tastes can also be purchased, though not every booth requires them.
For more information, see the RASPIPAV site: raspipav.com
Wednesday evening apéro at La QV
For the last couple of summers, La QV’s Wednesday evening apéros have made midweeks something to look forward to. The most recent iteration – the last until mid-September – featured smoked Sockeye salmon and a vibrant Vouvray sec.
Vouvray 2010, Sec, Domaine François Pinon ($25.00, La QV)
100% Chenin Blanc (the estate has been converting to organic agriculture since 2003 and expected to certified organic in 2011). Fermented with native yeasts and minimal intervention. Filtered before bottling in order to minimize the use of sulphur. 13% ABV.
Pale gold with a green cast. Complex nose of grass, honey, spice, wax and a whack of minerals. Medium-bodied and totally dry, with a slightly waxy texture. A mouthful of pure, clean fruit and quartzy chalk charged by citrusy acidity (not surprising to read that Riesling is Pinon’s favourite non-Loire grape). Admirably broad and long. Made a fine pairing for salad of diced smoked salmon, watercress and sliced new potatoes garnished with lemony crème fraîche. Unfortunately, La QV appears to be sold out though bottles are sure to be found on the wine lists of the many local restaurants that snapped up cases. The 2010 “Silex Noir” Vouvray, a demi-sec and reportedly the cuvée that Pinon most enjoys drinking, is still available on a private import basis ($25.50, 6 bottles/case).
Brett happens 
Fall 2012 Cellier release: listing
with one comment
My copy of the fall issue of the SAQ’s Cellier magazine arrived today. As none of the other wine geeks I’ve spoken to have received their copies, as none of the local wine boards have any discussion of it or the associated releases, as the staff at the SAQ Sélection outlet I called seemed clueless about the releases and as SAQ.com currently has no mention of them, I’ve typed up the list of wines involved. You’ll find it after the jump.
The dates of the two Sélection releases are September 13 and 27. The Signature release is on September 20. (I cannot fathom why the dates are kept secret until a week or two before the first release, which greatly complicates the planning of Cellier tastings. The editorial staff must know the dates many weeks if not months in advance. Would it kill them to share that information with us? Announcing the dates and maybe the themes – not the wines – a month or so out might even create some sorely lacking buzz around the releases.)
The main theme is 2009 red Bordeaux. There’s also a handful of purportedly oyster-friendly whites, four non-Bordeaux reds for cellaring, a mini-vertical and a couple of big bottles.
Upmarket Bordeaux being fantastically overpriced, the Sélection releases focus mainly on lesser appellations; there are lots of cru bourgeois wines, Médocs and Haut-Médocs, Pomerol satellites, etc.
The alcohol levels are startlingly high. (In the list, I’ve boldfaced the 14%, 14.5% and 15% wines.) It’s telling that the only Bordeaux under 13% is also the only old wine in the bunch (the 1990 Château Les Ormes Sorbet). Yes, 2009 was a very ripe vintage but there’s obviously something else going on here (Parkerization? New Worldization? Global warming? All of the above?). Interestingly, none of the pricey Signature wines clock in at more than 13.5%.
The Mo’ Wine Group usually holds a tasting in conjunction with each Cellier release. This time around, I’m not sure. While it’s true that the group should probably be tasting more Bordeaux, on first glance I’m finding it hard to muster much enthusiasm for this lineup. Unfortunately, that’s beginning to seem like a trend: Cellier releases used to generate a lot of enthusiasm online and in the stores. These days, not so much.
UPDATE (2012-08-30): The “Bravo Bordeaux” listing is finally available on SAQ.com. Going by comments online and off (here, for example), I’m not the only person who finds it lacking.
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Written by carswell
August 23, 2012 at 17:31
Posted in Commentary, Events, News
Tagged with Bordeaux, Cellier