Saturday night - the sins of the Zin, part 3

Part I
Part II

Kathy and I were to bring the dessert and wine to go with said dessert as our contribution to the evening’s festivities. Mick mentioned that Amy was still raving about the scones, Devonshire cream and strawberry jam from last weekend, so I decided to repeat last week’s dessert.

"The spread"

I hit the supermarket where I got the raisin tea biscuits last week but they were sold out. I hit next supermarket where I got the Devonshire cream and strawberry jam last week. They had one pack of plain scones in stock which I grabbed. The Devonshire cream brand I picked up last week was sold out, but they had another brand of Devonshire cream in stock so I grabbed that one instead. They still had the strawberry jam in stock so I grabbed a jar of it. I also grabbed a jar of black currant jam as well, just to see what it was like with the scones.

Once getting home from shopping I looked over the wine rack and decided on a bottle 2005 Henry of Pelham Botrytis affected Riesling and put it in the fridge.

"What Canadian wine should be!"

After dinner we broke out the dessert Riesling and poured it out. The wine is nice light golden amber colour in appearance. The nose on the Botrytis affected Riesling is milder than I was expecting but good floral notes are present as are apple and peach. Sipping the wine, I noticed that it had good acidity, sweetness and a refreshing tartness to it. The taste of the wine reminded me strongly of grapefruit with sugar on it.

The Henry of Pelham Botrytis affected Riesling went very nicely with the scones. The strawberry jam was the clear winner of the two jams. The raisin tea biscuits we had last week were better than the plain ones this week, but they were still quite good.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick - 92, Mark - 90, Kathy – 90, Amy - 90, Overall – 90.5

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

Henry of Pelham Botrytis Affected Riesling 2005

Vintages# 534628

375 mL bottle

Price: $ 27.90

Wine, White Wine,

10.0% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : MS

This is a VQA wine

Made in: Ontario, Canada

By: Henry Of Pelham Family Est. Winery

Release Date: Sep 29, 2007

Description - Botrytis cinera is a fungus that is responsible for many of the world's great dessert wines including Sauternes and Hungarian Tokaji. It shrivels the grapes which concentrates the sugars and acids, as well as adding a distinctly 'wild' quality to the wines. Henry of Pelham reserves a small, low-lying block of Riesling in hopes that once every five years they get the warm days, cool nights and foggy mornings needed to create these unique wines. Enjoy this rich, complex wine with a selection of fine artisan cheeses.

There are still good stock levels at a number of LCBO locations, do yourself a favour and pick up a couple of bottles. This is one wine that will only improve as the years go by.

Cheers!

Mark