Saturday's Wine run...

As I mentioned in the last article, on Saturday, Mick and I ventured down to New York State for a Wine run...

"It's 106 miles to Kenmore, we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's overcast and we are wearing sunglasses... let's roll"

The better halves decided to pass on our Wine run, so Mick and I head down to NY by ourselves. We left at 11:30am, we had a quick lunch at the border and then a longer wait at the border and reach Prime Wines by 2:15pm. It took us longer to get there than we expect but it was raining off and on slowed things down on the roads.

We spent over two hours at Prime Wines. This isn't hard to do as there are so many different wines to see. Heck, I spent fifteen minutes standing at the entrance, with tear of joy streaming down my face, as the Angels sung overhead, while surveying row after glorious row of wine, thinking 'this is what the LCBO should be like'. Prime Wines staff just walked by, nodded, smiled and mumbled 'another poor wine deprived Canadian'.

Our first stop at Prime Wines was their temperature controlled wine room. This room is probably 15' feet across by 40' feet deep and holds an amazing collection of wine. High end wines from all over the globe and not just current releases but aged vintages as well. Here is just some of things I picked up -

• 1999 Joseph Phelps Insignia
• 1999 Robert Mondavi Napa Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2002 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville
• 2001 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Merlot
• 1989 La Tour Blanche Sauternes
• 2003 Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux
• 1999 Oremus 5 Puttonyos Tokaj Aszú

The three I'm most excited about are the 89 La Tour Blanche, the 03 Château Margaux and the Tokaj Aszú. My goal for this year is to become much more familiar with French wines. The 2003 Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux is Château Margaux's second label. Château Margaux is a 1st Growth Bordeaux, their premier label can command a price of over a $1000... so being able to try one of their second labels allows me to experience their wine on a budget.

The Sauternes and the Tokaj are both dessert wines made with grapes that have Botrytis cinerea or Noble rot. Noble rot removes water from the grapes, leaving behind a higher percent of solids, such as sugars, fruit acids and minerals. This results in a more intense, concentrated final product. I have had a couple of Botrytis affected dessert wines made by Henry Pelham that were truly amazing and cannot wait to try these two.

Side note - while I may slag on Niagara VQA Wines, Henry of Pelham is example of a Niagara region winery that does things right - http://www.henryofpelham.com/. In the LCBO, there is currently a Henry of Pelham Botrytis Affected Riesling 2005 (Vintages number - 534628) 375 mL bottle : $ 34.95. This wine is exceptionally good and the LCBO still has good stock levels on it... pick some up before it is gone.

Once I was done in the 'room', I hit the rest of the store. I picked up a odd bottle here and there but the main things were - 1 Case of Kendall Jackson 'Vintner's Reserve' Chardonnay, 1 Case of Joseph Phelps 'Innisfree' Merlot and 3 bottles of Yalumba Antique Tawny.

I covered the Merlot and the Tawny in the last post, so KJ Chardonnay time. KJ Chardonnay is a classic example of why the LCBO needs go away. They have been carrying KJ Chardonnay heavily in the LCBO for years. Even in the smaller LCBO stores, you could usually find KJ Chardonnay. About six months ago stock levels at the LCBO for KJ Chardonnay were much lower than usual, then 3 months ago there was only one store in the province that had stock and now no stores have stock. It is like they just decided to drop the KJ and go with something else. Why? You have built up a loyal following of people who love this wine and carrying year after year and then drop it...

OK, off on a rant there... back to NY, we got out of Prime Wines, with both of our wallets a lot lighter, and were on the road by about 4:30pm. The border wasn't that busy but was slow. We declared the wine and then went inside and paid our duty... ouch, 64% duty hurts. We got home by 6:00pm. So the trip took 6.5 hours which was longer than we want but both of us are happy with what we picked up. The wives, not so much... no more 'unsupervised' trips to NY for Mick and me for awhile :)

Cheers!

Mark