Wine Club - Bonus Tasting

We just finished our 3rd six month session of Wine Club, so this Thursday was time for the bonus tasting. Our Wine Club format is as follows – there are 11 members in Wine Club and each month everyone pays $25. We meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month and I pre-buy a case of wine for the tasting. We split the 12th bottle of the case between everyone and each person then takes home a bottle. We will usually pick-up a second bottle that is made by a different producer to split as a comparison to the first bottle. The price point usually ranges between $13-25 a bottle so usually at the end of a six month session there is some money left over for a bonus tasting.

"Two expensive wines"

For the bonus tasting we don’t take home any bottles, so usually the wines we are trying are at a much higher price point.

This tasting we looked at two higher end Italian wines. Below is the LCBO and Wine Spectator information for both wines -

LCBO Information -

TIGNANELLO

VINTAGES 986786
750 mL bottle

Price: $ 99.95
Wine, Red Wine,
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Tuscany, Italy
By: Marchese Antinori
Release Date: Oct 11, 2008

Description - Consistently one of the most sought-after wines, this is a must for any cellar. 'Tig' is considered one of the best Italian wines, racking up numerous awards and accolades with each and every vintage. This rich and spicy blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc is loaded with blackberry, coffee, tar and truffle aromas. It should be cellared for 2-10 years, or decant it for at least two hours and match it with beef Wellington or a roasted lamb with a wild mushroom risotto.

QUINTARELLI VALPOLICELLA CLASSICO SUPERIORE 2000

VINTAGES 986117
750 mL bottle

Price: $ 89.95

Wine, Red Wine,

12.6% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : D

Made in: Veneto, Italy

By: Quintarelli Guiseppe

Release Date: Feb 28, 2009

Description - 'The Quintarelli family, led by the great Giuseppe, sends a strong message of continuity for the legendary Valpolicella area. The wines do the rest...' (Gambero Rosso Italian Wines, 2008) Opulent, velvety and brimming with ripe red berry fruit, this wine aptly showcases Quintarelli's winemaking mastery. Quintarelli is without question one of the greatest winemakers still practising his art.

The Wine Spectator

ANTINORI Toscana Tignanello 2005

Pretty and fresh aromas of flowers, berry and licorice. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a solid core of fruit. Very pretty and balanced. Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best after 2011. 26,250 cases made. –JS Rating - 92

GIUSEPPE QUINTARELLI Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2000

This has plum jam, cardamom and mineral on the nose, with a hint of cedar. Medium-bodied, with spicy plum and prune flavors, a very fine texture and a tight, spicy finish. Delicious. Drink now. 750 cases made. –JC Rating – 88

As you can see at $100 and $90 for each bottle these are well above our usual price point. The question is did they stand up to that extra price point?

I was feeling a little guilty about opening the Tignanello (‘Tig’) as it contain Cabernet Sauvignon. I have a rule that I don’t like to open quality Cabs. until at least 5 and preferably 6 years after the date on the bottle. I find that extra time smoothes out the wine and makes it much better than it was. I poured out the Tig about an hour and half before we had it as I was hoping that the exposure to air would soften the wine. I didn’t have the same issues with the Quintarelli as it was a 2000 vs. 2005 that the Tig was.

The Quintarelli was much thinner in colour density then the Tig and the Quintarelli was leaning more to a brownish red where as the Tig was deep ruby-purple in colour. The nose on the Quintarelli was heavy with plum and cherry with a touch of a floral note in the background. The Tig had a huge nose of oak, vanilla, berry and a woody aroma which I couldn’t pin down.

Tasting the wines was fun as they were both very different from each other. The Quintarelli was a medium bodied, incredibly smooth and easy drinking wine with a lovely cherry and white pepper flavor running throughout the wine. The Tignanello was a huge monster of a wine; big and bold. The tannin was a touch astringent and this wine could definitely use a couple more years of aging, but you could easily see the potential to this wine. The Tig with a nice prime rib roast would be stunning. Even though both wines were very different they were both excellent in their own ways.

Would I buy either of these two wines again at their price points; yes and no? At a $90 price point, I would have a hard time buying the Quintarelli again; it was excellent but for $90 I could get a good Amarone for around $60 and a pretty good Valpolicella for around $25 which that combo would be a much better value. That is probably the biggest problem I have with it is that Valpolicella usually runs in the $15 to $30 range so $90 is a big leap. I think a big part of that $90 price is that there were only 750 cases made so it is fairly scarce.

The Tig at a $100 is certainly a wine that I would want to pick-up a bottle and lay it down on the rack for 3-4 years and try again.

Cheers!

Mark

Happy Birthday Sara!

Kathy and I were at my parents for dinner on Friday to celebrate Sara’s (my sister) Birthday. The menu for the evening was Dad’s lasagna, garlic bread and Caesar salad. If you have been reading the blog for awhile this isn’t the first time that menu has popped up at my parents’ house. My father is a great cook and does a ton of different wonderful meals but lasagna and Caesar salad would have to be his signature dish and happens to be both my wife’s and my sister’s favourite. Since tonight was to celebrate Sara’s Birthday, lasagna it is.

We started with the Caesar salad and garlic bread and paired it with a bottle of the 2006 Louis Jadot “Bourgogne” Chardonnay. Great pairing but I have covered this wine and food combo so many times on the blog if I write about it one more time you’ll think Louis Jadot is paying me or I’m a member of the Romaine Lettuce Farmer’s Association!

"Black labels with gold or white lettering are hard to get good photos of!"

To pair up with the lasagna, I brought a bottle of 2006 Zenato Valpolicella Ripassa. This wine was a recommendation of Diane Braemer, a LCBO Product Consultant at the Upper Gage and Fennell LCBO. Diane has done a wonderful job of stocking the store’s Vintages section with very good wines and the store, for its size, has a great selection. Diane has also been very helpful in getting in wines for me for Wine Club.

Even though I feel that the LCBO should be privatized to better serve Ontario consumers, I certainly can’t deny that there are some very talented and knowledgeable people who work at the LCBO and Diane easily fits into this category. Kinda of a “hate the game not the player” sort of situation.

The nose on this wine was big, no swirling of the glass needed to nose this wine! Raspberry, chocolate and peat moss aromas jumped from the glass and had me drooling in anticipation of tasting it.

Unfortunately, the wine wasn’t quite up to my expectations I got from the nose. It was slightly off balance with the acidity a touch too high and the tannin a touch to low, nice fruit and a great finish. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice wine and it did go well with the lasagna but it didn’t live up to the stunning nose. This was a big wine and at times was a bit too much for the lasagna, I will try this wine again but would like to try it with a roast or a NY strip steak.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

Zenato Valpolicella Superiore Ripassa
Vintages# 479766
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 24.95
Wine, Red Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: Veneto, Italy
By: Azienda Vinicola Zenato
Release Date: Oct 11, 2008

Description - Founded in 1960 by Sergio Zenato, the winery's philosophy is to celebrate the region's traditions coupled with an unquenchable desire to surpass everything they have done before. The Ripassa consistently delivers on that philosophy with its aromas of blackberry, plum purée, smoke and cocoa. The palate is dry with plenty of fruit flavours, hints of licorice, ripe tannins and even more cocoa. A great match for pecorino cheese, roast beef, or pasta with meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce.

Thanks to my parents for hosting the dinner and Happy Birthday Sara!

Cheers!

Mark

Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso

On Sunday my parents had Kathy and I over for dinner. My father, John was making Lasagna or as we joking call it La-John-ya. I volunteered to bring over a bottle to go with dinner. Since it was Italian, I decided to grab a bottle of Italian wine from the rack and grabbed a bottle of Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso. The first time I tried this wine was at wine club -

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/05/wine-club-10th-meeting.html

At Wine Club we tried it against a wonderful Amarone that was about 3x its price and against the Amarone it wasn’t very noticeable.

This wine surprised me with how good it was with dinner. Dad made a side Caesar to go with the Lasagna. I expected the wine to be a decent match with the Lasagna but was impressed by how well it went with the Caesar too! I will be grabbing a couple more bottles of this wine as it is a good value for money.

Cheers!

Mark

Wine Club 10th Meeting

For the latest meeting of Wine Club, we took look at a couple of wines from Northern Italy – a Valpolicella and an Amarone. Both wines are grown in the Veneto region of Italy. The Veneto region is in the top north-eastern corner of Italy.

"And in this corner, weighing in at 15% alcohol..."

Both wines also are made from the same grapes – Covina is the predominant grape with some Rondinella and Molinara grapes mixed in to round out the wine. The big difference is how the grapes are treated after harvesting. The grapes used for Amarone are dried out on straw mats; this concentrates the sugars in the grapes. This process is called rasinate (to dry and shrivel) in Italian. Where as Valpolicella the grapes are processed in the more common way. There is a wine in between the two called ripasso Valpolicella which is made by adding the pomace left over from pressing of the Amarone.

Here is the LCBO information on the two wines that were picked –

LCBO Information – Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso

Stock Number – 910430
Volume - 750mL
Price: $ $ 19.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Veneto, Italy
Sugar Content : 1
By: Tomassi
Release Date: May 10, 2008

Description - This new addition to our Essentials Collection from the acclaimed Veneto producer, Tommasi, features a deep ruby-purple colour and aromas of plum, mushroom, cinnamon, leather and tomato leaf. It has an accessible New World nose and a very elegant, flavourful European-wine palate. Dry, smooth and juicy, it is nicely balanced with a zippy acidity and supportive tannins. An excellent partner for meat and vegetable lasagna or roast pork in a reduction sauce.

LCBO Information – Remo Farina Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico Monte Fante 1998

Stock Number – 63636
Volume – 2x750mL
Price: $ 62.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Veneto, Italy
By: F.Lli Farina.
Release Date: Apr 12, 2008

Description - This exceptional single-vineyard Amarone displays all the strengths of Remo Farina's regular bottling, which is frequently in our stores, but taken to an even more elevated level. The fruit is hand selected from the drying mats to ensure supreme quality of the finished wine. The resulting product is rich, ripe, round and deeply delicious. This 10-year-old is just hitting its stride, especially if served with a robust braised beef dish, but it will also reward 2-4 more years in a cellar.

As you can see there is quite a price difference in the two wines. Amarone tends to be a higher priced wine due to the rasinate process; as this process concentrates the sugar by drying out the grapes, you get much less juice left over and therefore it is more expensive to make.

The Remo Farina Amarone was the star of the show. A number of Wine Club members gushed over how good this wine was. The wine was described in a number of ways but chocolate aroma and taste was very common, as well as cherry.

I brought in a collection of cheeses and Italian cold cuts. Both wines worked well with the range of cheese though I wasn’t keen on the taste of the Amarone with the Blue Cheese. The Valpolicella wasn’t big enough to stand up to all the different cheeses and meats and occasionally was getting lost against a couple of the cheeses.

It was fun trying two wines made from the same grapes but processed differently. You could taste the common elements between the two wines but the Amarone was a much bigger, full-bodied wine. Sort of like a light beer vs. a regular beer. Both wines were very enjoyable for their price points, though it is almost unfair to compare a wine against a wine that is more than 3 times its price.

Cheers!

Mark.