Party wine
Côtes du Marmandais 2013, Le vin est une fête, Elian Da Ros ($20.65, 11793211)
A blend of organically farmed Abouriou (40%), Cabernet Franc (40%) and Merlot (20%). Manually harvested. The Merlot and Cabernet were destemmed, macerated for ten to 15 days and gently pressed. The Abouriou clusters were kept whole and vinified using semi-carbonic maceration. All fermentations are with indigenous yeasts. The wine was matured 12 months in old barrels. Unfined and lightly filtered before bottling in December 2014. Sulphur is added only on bottling. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Attractive nose with a pronounced lactic note: cassis, blackberry and a whiff of wildberry yogurt along with faint pencil shaving and red meat notes. Medium-bodied, supple and silky. Fruity yet dry. The fruit is ripe but tart, the tannins raspy but light. There’s plenty of follow-through, with black pepper and slate colouring the long finish. Maybe a little less acidic – and thus a shade less fresh and lively – than the excellent 2012 but still a joy to drink, especially lightly chilled. If Bordeaux made a Beaujolais cru, it might well taste like this. Food pairings for this food-friendly wine? Roast fowl, rabbit stew, grilled pork, portobello burgers, bavette aux échalottes and more. (Buy again? Yep.)
This showed up a couple of weeks ago and stocks are already dwindling. If you’re interested, act fast.
A not quite classic Classico?
Will get back to regular posting as soon as work lets up a little. In the meantime, a sop to quell the clamouring masses.
Soave Classico 2012, Calvarino, Pieropan ($26.30, 741058)
Sustainably farmed Garganega (90%) and Trebbiano di Soave (aka Verdicchio, 10%) from 30- to 60-year-old vines grown in the Calvarino vineyard. The grapes were manually harvested, destemmed and crushed. The free-run juice was fermented separately. Fermented at 16-18°C in glass-lined concrete tanks. Matured on the lees for 12 months in glass-lined concrete tanks. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Enotria.
Subdued nose: yellow apple just beginning to brown, lemon oil, rain on limestone, a hint of marzipan. In the mouth, it’s dry, medium-bodied, as much about extract as flavour. The soto vocce fruit is encased in a quartz matrix while the sleek acidity turns a little lemony as the wine traverses the palate. Bitter almond – or at least a touch of bitterness – colours the long, yellow apple-scented finish. Understated almost to a fault, this reveals more with vigorous chewing and could be passing through a closed phase. Perhaps not the best choice for chicken braised with white wine, rosemary and garlic though probably the best-suited of my neighbourhood SAQ’s newly “improved” (read “category-managed and severely dumbed-down”) offer of Italian whites. Better on its own, at least for now, or maybe with a pristine piece of fine white fish broiled and drizzled with melted butter and a few drops of lemon juice. (Buy again? Maybe. Or look instead for the beginning-to-arrive 2013 vintage.)
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming…
…to bring you the following public service announcement.
Normally I’d wait until all the notes from the MWG’s February tasting were up before posting this one. Why the rush? Because Domaine des Huard’s owner-winemaker, Michel Gendrier, is in town and will be pouring this and other wines at the excellent Le Comptoir charcuteries et vins tomorrow evening (Monday, March 9). And if that weren’t inducement enough, he’ll be joined by fellow Loire winemakers Étienne Courtois and Nicolas Grosbois. For details about this Romo love-in, see here.
Cour-Cheverny 2008, François 1er, Vieilles Vignes, Domaine des Huards ($24.45, 12476452)
Huard’s top-of-the-line dry Cour-Cheverny. 100% Romorantin from organically and biodynamically farmed vines averaging 75 years old. Manually harvested. Two-thirds of the grapes are immediately pressed, one-third are macerated on the skins for 15 hours before pressing. Fermented with indigenous yeasts at between 18 and 20°C. Matured on the lees for five months. Cold-stabilized before bottling in the September following the harvest. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV.
Honey, straw, chalk, dried lemon, browning apple, faint white spices and an even fainter whiff of kerosene. Medium-bodied but with a dense, bordering-on-unctuous texture. Ripe-sweet on entry, the fruit is nicely soured by a surging undercurrent of acidity before slow-fading into the long finish, revealing the mineral substrate and leaving behind a very dry, light astringency and a hint of nuttiness and coriander seed. A lovely, layered, elegant wine deserving of a dry goat cheese or a fine piece of fish (you’ll find a couple of recipe ideas after the jump). Available as a private import, the 2007 was a Loire lover’s must-buy at $32. At under $25, this 2008 is a certifiable bargain. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
MWG February 18th tasting: Noddities
The idea for this eclectic flight? Easy-drinking reds, all new arrivals, made from off-the-beaten-path grape varieties. New + oddity = noddity.
IGT Maremma Toscana 2013, Ciliegiolo, Azienda Il Grillesino ($17.85, 12280695)
100% Ciliegiolo from vines grown in stony clay-limestone soil near the Tuscan coast. The grapes were fermented in temperature-controlled tanks for 15 days. Matured for six months. Sees no oak. Bottled unfiltered in the spring following the vintage. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Mark Anthony Brands.
Spice, cherry, black raspberry, lingonberry, hints of chocolate, caramel and, oddly, “white vinegar” (quoting another taster). Fruity, supple and light though gaining a little weight as it moves through the mouth. Tart acidity keeps things refreshing, lightly raspy tannins add texture and a bit of backbone. Simple but quaffable, especially if served lightly chilled and with food. I wish it were $4 or $5 cheaper. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Valle de la Orortava 2013, 7 Fuentes, Soagranorte ($22.10, 12475425)
A 90-10 blend of Listán Negro and Tintilia (which, despite claims that it’s Grenache, Mourvèdre or Molise’s Tintilia, appears to be none other than the Jura’s Trousseau aka Bastardo) from ungrafted vines between ten and 100 years old grown in various parcels at altitudes ranging from 400 to 650 m on Tenerife. The grapes from each vineyard were vinified separately. Manually harvested in early September. Alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts and manual punch-downs was in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Sixty percent of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation and eight months’ maturation in 5,700-litre concrete tanks while the remainder was matured in 500-litre French oak casks. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: Les vins Alain Bélanger.
The bottle at the tasting was irredeemably bretty, reeking of barnyard. The staff at my neighbourhood SAQ reported the same of the bottle they opened. A bottle enjoyed last weekend was funky at first but clean-smelling after a couple of hours in a carafe. Unusual nose of sandalwood, sawdust and spice with whiffs of doner and plum. Supple, fluid and medium-bodied, ripe and fruit-forward but not a bomb. Very dry, with soft, dusty tannins, glowing acidity and a dark mineral underlay. A faint, alum-like astringency marks the saline finish. Unusual, interesting and, above all, drinkable. Food pairing? Well-done red meat, maybe one of those doners. (Buy again? Yes.)
IGP Ismaros 2010, Maronia, Tsantali ($13.00, 12460354)
100% Mavroudi (aka Mavrud) grown in estate-owned vineyards around Maroneia. Alcoholic fermentation lasts eight to ten days, after which the wine is left on the grape skins for another two or three days. After pressing, it undergoes malolactic fermentation and then is transferred to new 300-litre French oak barrels for eight months’ maturation. 13.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Amphora.
Jammy plum, sweet spice, sawed wood and “cherry Vicks.” Medium- to full-bodied. The big but not lumbering fruit is structured by soft acidity and round tannins. An undercurrent of tar adds an appealing earthiness. Black pepper and vanilla-caramel colour the finish. Broader than it is deep but, at $13, who’s complaining? A bottle I opened a few days before the tasting seemed lighter and less fruit-driven. Either way, it’s a QPR winner. (Buy again? Sure.)
(Flight: 3/5)
MWG February 19th tasting: Mostly Macabeu
IGP Côtes Catalanes 2013, Blanc, Clos du Rouge Gorge ($45.00, private import, NLA)
All or mostly Macabeu (some claim it also contains a dollop of Carignan Blanc) from vines around 80 years old that had been abandoned and were about to be torn out when winemaker Cyril Fahl acquired the vineyard and revivied it using biodynamic methods. Manually harvested. Non-interventionist winemaking with spontaneous fermentation. Matured nine months in neutral 500-litre barrels. Minimally sulphured at bottling, with some carbon dioxide added by way of compensation. 13% ABV. Quebec agent: oenopole.
When young, the wine needs to be carafed hours before serving (one MWG member reports carafing it 24 hours before paring it “memorably” with oysters). After nearly two hours in the carafe, ours had an initially odd nose of “canned tuna” (quoting one of the tasters) that soon evolved into acacia blossom, pear and pineapple water, “pine nuts,” crushed stone and so much more. Complex and layered in the mouth. The ethereal fruit tends to pear, apple, faint citrus. Minerals abound. Acidity shimmers. Saline and bitter notes colour the long finish. A unique, spellbindingly protean wine, more elegant and profound than the Cours Toujours and slower to give up its many secrets. While the paradigm is different from, say, a Meursault’s, this is one of France’s great whites and, as such, it’s a QPR winner at under $50. (Buy again? In future vintages, as many as I can afford and lay my hands on.)
Côtes du Roussillon 2012, Cours Toujours, Domaine du Possible ($32.00, private import, NLA)
The estate farms organically. This is mostly Macabeu with a little Grenache Gris. Manually harvested. Non-interventionist wine-making with spontaneous fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Matured 12 months in used barrels. Bottled unfiltered, unfined and with very little or no added sulphur. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: oenopole.
Initially reticent but evolving nose: dried pineapple, yellow apple, quartz dust, background straw and honeycomb. More fruit-forward than the Clos du Rouge Gorge. A little wilder and more rustic too. Ripe-sweet on the attack; full of crunchy minerals on the mid-palate; turning drier, sourish and saline on the long finish. A here-now joy to drink. (Buy again? For sure.)
(Flight: 2/5)
MWG February 19th tasting: Kung Fu fighting
One evening late last spring, friends and I were downtown and in the mood for good East Asian fare but not for waiting in line. We decided they would drop by Kazu for takeout while I’d hit an SAQ Express for wine. Predictably, the selection of compatible bottles at the store was pitiful. After much dithering, I ended up with a 2012 Kung Fu Girl Riesling and a crémant de Bourgogne. It was our first experience with the KFG and we were not impressed. In fact, I’ve never heard the end of it.
Yet KFG regularly gets rave reviews from local and international critics: “Mid-priced marvel … great job” (Bill Zacharkiw in The Gazette); “91 points … Top 100 Wines … Best Value” (Wine Spectator); “clean, fresh, incredibly pure … rock star effort … 90 points” (Wine Advocate); “flat out delicious … 91 points … Best Buy” (Wine Enthusiast); “shows Riesling’s fun and funky side … 16.75/20 points” (Decanter); etc. Such praise seemed hard to reconcile with our impressions of the 2012.
Obviously a double-blind test was in order. And that was the idea behind this flight.
Okanagan Valley 2012, Riesling, Tantalus ($29.80, 12456726)
100% Riesling from five- to 35-year-old vines grown in several parcels. Fermented in small lots over two months, more or less. Blended and bottled in the spring following harvest. Screwcapped. 15 g/l residual sugar, 10.5 g/l total acidity, 2.85 pH, 12.8% ABV. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Fetching nose of creamy lemon-lime, quartz and flint. Smooth, fluid even rainwatery at first though turning richer as it breathed. Sweet-tart and fruity (“green apple Jolly Rancher” noted one taster) with lots of chalk and a long finish with some petrolly retro-nasal action. The sweetest (bordering on off-sweet) and most overtly Riesling of the three. The weightiest too, though not at the expense of liveliness. The exuberant fruit lasts through the finish while the acidity just zings. Minerals are there if you look for them. Initially winsome but coming across as a little slutty by the end. Several around the table said they’d buy it if, like the other wines in the flight, it were priced in the $20-$22 range. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Nahe 2013, Fröhlich Trocken, Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich ($21.25, 11897159)
In my flu-induced fog, I assumed this, like Schäfer-Fröhlich’s other wines at the SAQ, was a Riesling but it’s actually 100% Rivaner (aka Müller-Thurgau), not that the variety is mentioned anywhere on the bottle or the winery’s website. My bad. The grapes come from several parcels and the wine is made entirely in stainless steel tanks. 7.3 g/l residual sugar, 11% ABV. Quebec agent: Avant-Garde.
A nose more Sauvignon Blanc than Riesling: cat pee with the lime and apple relegated to the background. Definite sulphur aromas too that more or less blew off. In the mouth, it’s light-bodied and as minerally as fruity. While there’s not a lot of depth, a spritzy tingle lends height. The residual sugar is effectively neutralized by the brisk acidity. My initial reaction was meh but the wine grew on me until I quite liked it by the end. Would make a credible aperitif or summer evening deck wine and might accompany Thai food quite well. (Buy again? Sure.)
Washington State 2013, Riesling, Kung Fu Girl, Charles Smith Wines ($20.05, 11629787)
100% Riesling from vines planted in 1998 and now in the new Ancient Lakes AVA bordering the Columbia River. Given a long, cool fermentation. Sees only stainless steel until bottling. Screwcapped. 13 g/l residual sugar, 7.9 g/l total acidity, 3.21 pH, 12% ABV. MSRP: US$12 but can easily be found for $1 or $2 less in the States. Quebec agent: AOC & cie.
Floral, boudoiry nose with pineapple and stone fruit in the background. Off-dry and fruit-forward on the attack but drying and hollowing out as it moves through the mouth. Short on acidity, depth and follow-through. Along with crushed rock, there’s an odd, vaguely chemical edge to the finish – one taster likened it to McDonald’s apple juice. Not awful but nothing to get excited about, especially when you can buy a superior German Riesling for less. Tellingly, this was the only bottle with a glass’s worth of wine remaining in it at the end of the tasting and nobody wanted to take it home. Why do critics constantly rate it so highly? (Buy again? Only if in dire need of a Riesling and nothing better is available.)
(Flight: 1/5)
What goes around comes around
Last year I shared one of expat MWG member Weingolb’s posts (maybe this one) with another MWG member who’d just moved to Toronto. That MWGer liked the featured wine enough that he presented me with a bottle on his most recent visit to Montreal.
Cabernet Franc 2009, Estate, Prince Edward County VQA, Grange of Prince Edward ($17.95 at the winery; available at the LCBO a while back for a jaw-dropping $11.75)
The Estate line is the winery’s entry level range. 100% Cabernet Franc from six-year-old vines grown in the Northfield vineyard. Fermented in stainless steel tanks. Matured 30 months in “seasoned” French oak barrels. (Does seasoned mean they’re used barrels or new barrels made from aged wood? I suspect the latter.) Bottled in August 2012. 13.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Bambara Selection.
Engaging nose of candied strawberry, slate and forest floor. Medium-bodied and quite dry. The first sip brings a surprise: a salty tang along with the ripe cranberry-cherry fruit and mocha overlay. The acidity is bright and fluent while the supple tannins add a light rasp to the bitter chocolatey finish. Very drinkable if oakier than I like (the wood hides the minerals, ferchrissake). Dial back the oak, give the vines a few more years to mature and you could be looking at one of those juicy, sappy, minerally, irresistibly drinkable Cab Francs that the Loire has always held a monopoly on. Somebody send these people a case of David’s Hurluberlu or Breton’s Trinch stat! (Buy again? At $17.95, maybe. At $11.75, for sure.)
Oak aside, this is yet another wine that has me thinking Cabernet Franc is the red Ontario does best.
New wave vin jaune?
While many delicious wines were poured at last Sunday’s Small Secrets x Bar Barbara pop-up, this stood out in more ways than one.
Arbois 2007, Vin Jaune, Domaine André et Mireille Tissot ($77.25/620 ml, 10322581)
100% organically and biodynamically farmed Savagnin from several parcels. (This is the generic bottling. Now in charge of the estate, André and Mireille’s son, Stéphane, has also been making vineyard-designated vins jaunes since 1993 and recently introduced a Château Chalon.) The grapes are manually harvested, pneumatically pressed and fermented in tanks with indigenous yeasts. The resulting wine is transferred to 228-litre barrels for maturation. Contrary to conventional practice, the barrels are not topped up (the wine lost to evaporation is not replaced). A yeast veil soon forms on the surface, protecting and flavouring the wine. After six years, the wine is racked, lightly filtered and bottled in clavelins, squat 620-ml bottles (620 ml said to be the amount left from a litre of wine). No sulphur is added. 15% ABV. Quebec agent: Les vins Alain Bélanger.
Gorgeous outgoing nose. Lightly oxidized yellow plum and apple with hints of limestone, nuts and curry powder. Bone dry yet there’s a sweet fruitiness unlike anything I’ve encountered in a vin jaune and a freshness whose only parallel (in my experience) is found in Gahier’s 2005. Buoyant acidity enlightens the rich bordering on dense texture, while the fruit is faceted by mineral and butterscotch undertones and white and yellow spice overtones that perfume the long, long finish. Wonderfully pure and clean. Is Tissot pointing the way to a more immediately accessible, fruit-driven vin jaune? In any case, even in its infancy, this is delicious on its own and synergistic with aged Comté and walnuts. It also worked well with shards of old Gouda. (Buy again? Oh, yes. In fact, it’s the kind of wine that, if I had the money, I’d buy a dozen bottles of and open one every two or three years to track its evolution over its sure to be decades-long life.)
The Riesling chronicles: Théo v. Muenchberg
Alsace Riesling 2011, Cuvée Théo, Domaine Weinbach ($40.00, 10272552)
100% organically and biodynamically farmed Riesling grown in the Clos des Capucins vineyard. The grapes are manually harvested, gently pressed and fermented and matured in old oak vats with indigenous yeasts. 12.5% ABV. Quebec agent: Séguin & Robillard.
Textbook nose dominated by lemon-lime and green apple with notes of petrol and crushed rock. Powerful yet fresh in the mouth. Dry, as the hint of residual sugar is obliterated by surging acidity. Deep, long and so minerally. Classic but not peaking for another few years. (Buy again? Yes.)
Alsace Riesling 2012, Grand cru Muenchberg, Domaine Ostertag ($57.50, 00739821)
100% organically and biodynamically farmed Riesling from 30- to 60-year-old vines growing in Ostertag’s 1.6 hecatres in the 17-hectare grand cru Muenchberg vineyard. The manually harvested whole clusters are pressed in a pneumatic press. The long fermentation with indigenous yeasts and maturation on the lees take place in stainless steel tanks, the entire process lasting just under 12 months. Underwent malolactic fermentation. 6 g/l residual sugar, 14% ABV. Quebec agent: Rézin.
Shockingly fragrant and floral at first, evocative of the boudoir, but eventually yielding more typical citrus and mineral notes along with a hint of peach/mango. Far more typical on the palate. The fruit is pure and ripe and the texture is remarkable – smoother and silkier than the Weinbach, the acidity as trenchant but better integrated. Indeed, the wine is breathtakingly well balanced, while the multi-dimensionality holds your attention to the very end of the long finish. Even in its youth, a gorgeous wine. That said, the price is shock-inducing: the 2010 went for $49. (Buy again? If feeling flush, yes. Otherwise wait until there’s a 10% off promo.)
Slow mo’ Somló
Located on the east shore of the Neusiedler See in eastern Austria (Burgenland), not far from the Hungarian border, the 55-hectare Meinklang estate is run by Werner and Angela Michlits. (The estate’s name is the German noun Einklang – unison, harmony – prefixed with the first letter of the owners’ family name.) The estate also has a vineyard in Somló on the Hungarian side of the border (you can see pictures of the area, the vineyard and the owner-manager in this short video in German and English with Hungarian subtitles).
The Michlits could be poster kids for the slow food/wine movement. Not only is the estate organic and biodynamic, it is largely self-sufficient, growing the grain for its beer, bread and animal feed, the hops for its beer, the apples and other fruit for its ciders and juices, the beef for weed control, fertilizer, sausages and horns so important in biodynamic farming, and so on. The wine- and beer-making is non-interventionist and uses indigenous yeasts.
Meinklang’s wines have been favourites of the Mo’ Wine Group since our first encounters with them. In fact, Meinklang is among the small group of producers whose wines we buy automatically, even without tasting them first. That was the case last fall with the new-to-us entry-level Somló white. And, true to form, it didn’t disappoint.
Somló 2013, Meinklang ($24.65, private import, 12 bottles/case)
A blend of organically and biodynamically farmed Hárslevelü (50%), Juhfark (20%), Olaszrizling (25%) and Furmint (5%) grown at the base of the Somlo volcano in southwest Hungary, not far from the Austrian border. The region’s balsat is weathered and topped with loess and light sand deposits, producing a fertile soil. Screwcapped. 12% ABV. Quebec agent: La QV.
Peach, pineapple, grass and straw, basalt dust and hints of honey and white flowers. Intense even a little fiery in the mouth. The unctuous texture is shredded to ribbons by razor-sharp acidity. The ripe stone fruit barely holds it own against the crushing minerality. The peppery (white and paprika), savoury (sour and bitter) finish goes on and on. Such presence and character! Lovely as an aperitif but has the wherewithal to stand up to Hungary’s robust cuisine. Why is this not on the SAQ’s shelves? (Buy again? Moot – the 2013 is NLA – but multiples of the 2014 for sure.)
Brett happens 