Friday for a change

As we didn’t get together with Mick and Amy last Saturday and this Saturday wasn’t looking like we’d be able to get together either, we all decided to grab a bite on Friday. The four of us hit Montfort’s for dinner.

"Chocolatey Goodness!"

After dinner we decided to visit the grocery store, pick-up a dessert and then head back to Mick and Amy’s for some wine and dessert. The ladies picked out a LaRocca Chocolate Truffle Royale for dessert. Mick and I retired down to his cellar to find a wine to go with it. There is no LCBO information for this wine as Mick picked this up in the US.

"Something different!"

After looking over a number of bottles, we came across a 2000 Newton Claret and settled on it as our choice.

Here is what the Wine Spectator had to say about –

Newton Claret Napa Valley 2000, Rating 87, Price $20.

Well-balanced, with spicy herb, dill, currant and cedar flavors of moderate depth and complexity. Drink now through 2006. 7,300 cases made. –JL

"Sediment"

Uncorking the bottle there was a fair amount of sediment. Mick decanted the bottle and after the dessert was served up poured out glasses for everyone.

Here is the 4 person review of the wine –

2000 Newton Claret Napa Valley

Nose – Mushroom, Green Pepper, Leather, and Berry.

Taste – The wine came across as very vegetal and green, I’m going to guess and say that Cabernet Franc is in this wine at a high percentage. Balance seemed off - high tannin and high heat (even though the alcohol was only 13.9%), low acidity and not much fruit left. The wine struck us as being very French style of wine, but without the nice balance that good French wines have. Looking at the Wine Spectator review, we may have left this wine down a little too long. In spite of the issues above, the wine did go down nicely with the cake and grew on us towards the end.

Ratings – Mick – 84, Mark – 85, Kathy – 86, Amy 83, Overall – 84.5

Cheers!

Mark

Wine Club – 11th Meeting

This past Thursday, Wine Club met and we sampled three different wines from Alsace. The three wines on tap were a Pinot Gris, a Riesling and a Gewürztraminer. I had tried the Pinot Gris before –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/03/saturday-night-my-turn.html

but the Riesling and the Gewürztraminer were new to me.

"The Alsace Three"

I had a preconceived notion of how I expected to enjoy the wine; Pinot Gris would be the favourite, Riesling second and the Gewürztraminer last. I’m not a fan of Gewürztraminer. I usually find that a Gewürztraminer smells wonderful with big aromas of lychee and floral notes that remind me of an ice-wine. Tasting it is where Gewürztraminer usually breaks down for me, due to the aroma I’m is expecting a sweet wine and instead get a dry wine with a bitter taste on the mid-palate which usually kills the enjoyment for me.

Here is the LCBO information on the wines –

LCBO Information – Willm Riesling Réserve

Stock Number – 11452
Volume - 750mL
Price: $ 16.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Alsace, France
Sugar Content : D
By: A. Willm
Release Date: May 10, 2008
Description - This is a classic dry Alsatian Riesling that offers fresh fruit aromas of lime juice with peach and mineral notes. It's medium-bodied with a racy and crisp/fruity palate and a very long finish. It would be an excellent match for grilled tuna steaks, Alsatian onion tart or mild pork sausage.

LCBO Information – Pierre Sparr Gewurztraminer Réserve 2005

Stock Number – 747600
Volume – 750mL
Price: $ 18.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Alsace, France
Sugar Content : 2
By: Pierre Sparr Et Ses Fils S.A.
Release Date: Mar 29, 2008

Description - A great intro to Alsatian Gewurz because the classic grapefruit, rose petal and lychee aromas are all present, but in a light, pleasing style. As a result, this is an excellent aperitif wine, or enjoy it with lighter-flavoured seafood dishes.

LCBO Information – Pierre Sparr Pinot Gris Réserve 2005

Stock Number – 983395
Volume - 750mL
Price: $ 18.65 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Alsace, France
Sugar Content : MD
By: Pierre Sparr Et Ses Fils S.A.
Release Date: Feb 16, 2008

Description - This Pinot Gris delivers layers of peach, melon and nut aromas that replay beautifully on the palate. This full-bodied wine shows good intensity and balance and will make a delicious match for pan-seared scallops in garlic and butter.

Harold, one the Wine club members brought in a selection of cheese from a specialty cheese shop in Dundas. So not only did we have new wines to try but new cheeses to try as well.

Pouring out the three wines the first noticeable difference between them was the colour, the Pinot Gris and the Gewürztraminer were a light gold-amber colour whereas the Riesling was a pale straw colour.

Nosing the wine, the Gewürztraminer was what I expected with huge lychee and a floral bouquet, the Pinot Gris had a good aroma of peach and a slight nuttiness to it and Riesling was more subdued with a citrus hint to it.

I tried the Riesling first and was shocked at how sharp it was and then I realized it was a dry Riesling. I have been drinking more sweet and semi-sweet Riesling recently so I wasn’t expecting the dryness. I took another sip and this time it was better, good acidity and subtle fruit.

The next candidate was the Pinot Gris, and I was a bit disappointed with it. I was remembering that I really enjoyed this wine the last time I had it and was expecting more from it. It wasn’t bad but after the precision of the Riesling this wine felt a little sloppy on the mouth-feel.

Lastly, was the Gewürztraminer. I took a sip expecting the worst and was very pleasantly surprised, nice fruit, a bit of spiciness to it and no bitter taste to be found. ‘Wow, this is pretty good’ I thought to myself as I reached for another sip. A very nice wine.

The first cheese I tried was a goat cheese with cracked peppercorns. The Gewürztraminer came shining through with this cheese and was an amazing pairing. The Pinot Gris not so much and the Riesling was ok. The Pinot Gris was nice with a soft mild cheese from Quebec and the Riesling was a great pairing with a couple of the hard cheeses. The Gewürztraminer was probably the wine that worked with the most amount of cheeses.

I asked people which of the wines they preferred and it results were a real mixed bag with no clear winner. The only thing everyone had in common was they all enjoyed the wines.

So in the end, the Gewürztraminer was my favorite, the Riesling was second and the Pinot Gris was last. So much for my expectations! The nice thing was all of the wines were good, so even the Pinot Gris in last place would be a recommended buy for me.

Cheers!

Mark.

Saturday Night – Father’s Day Dinner

This Saturday night we had a change of venue from Mick and Amy’s or our place, as Kathy and I were at her parent’s house for a Father’s Day dinner. Grilled Beef Tenderloin was on tap for the main course and her Dad is a big fan of Australian Shiraz, so we brought a couple of bottles of 2003 Yalumba “Y” Series Shiraz.

We first tried this wine about 3 years ago when it was released and really enjoyed it. We ended up picking up two cases of it as it was a very good price at about $13 a bottle. I still have about 9 or so bottles left.

"Does it still have that magic?"

I hadn’t tried it in awhile and was curious to see how or if the wine had developed. Here is the current LCBO information on the wine, but please note this is probably the 2006 version and not the 2003 covered here in the blog –

LCBO Infromation - Yalumba Y Series Shiraz
LCBO# 624494
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 14.05
Wine, Red Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Made in: South Australia, Australia
By: Negociants International

Tasting Note - Deep violet colour; blueberry, plum and currant aromas with a hint of anise; fresh, juicy palate with chocolate notes.

Serving Suggestion - Grilled bison burgers, lamb or firm cheese

My In-laws, Glenn and Karen had out done themselves on the dinner. The beef tenderloin was BBQ’d to perfection and the sides of baked potatoes, mixed green salad, corn on the cob, and fresh bread were a great compliment to the beef.

On first blush of the wine, the nose had big notes of black currant, and a berry I couldn’t place. On tasting the wine, good fruit on the tongue with a faint hint of pepper and a fairly good month-feel, it was a little out of balance but still quite good. It was a pretty good match with the meal but at times disappeared against the food.

Coming back to this wine after not trying it for so long, gave me a fresh perspective on why I liked this wine in the first place – it was more like a Merlot than a Shiraz. As I have said earlier on the blog, I’m not a huge fan of Australian Shiraz. I usually find them too big and really dislike the burning sensation they usually leave on the back of my throat.

So if you are looking for a nice, easy drinking red at a very reasonable price, the Yalumba “Y” series Shiraz is a good choice. If you are looking for a big, bold Australian Shiraz then you will probably want to pass on this wine.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – a Surprise, a Request, and an Old Friend (part 3)

Part 2 to this article can be found here –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/06/saturday-night-surprise-request-and-old_10.html

For dessert Amy had picked up an apple spiced cake. For the pairing we said goodbye to an old friend for the last time – 1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal.

"A perfect finish to the evening!"

LCBO Information – Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal VQA

LCBO# 395228
375 mL bottle
Price: $ 19.95
Wine, Dessert Wine,
10.8% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 16
This is a VQA wine
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Henry Of Pelham Family Est. Winery

Tasting Note - Bright yellow gold colour; aromas of honey, ripe peach, fig and apricot; sweet with ripe fruit flavour; well-balanced by crisp lemon acidity; rich and luscious without being too cloying.

Serving Suggestion - Serve chilled, a good introduction to dessert wines; fruit flan.

Note – the year listed above is probably 2004-2006 and not the 1995 this blog is about.

"You will be missed!"

The 1995 Late Harvest Vidal from Henry of Pelham will easily go down as one of our top 5 wines of all time. It was one of the first late harvest/ice wines that we tried and is the standard I judge all late harvest wines by. Every year after the 1995 vintage from 1996 to 2003 we have tried the Henry of Pelham late harvests but none have been as good as the 1995.

About 4 years ago I was in looking at wine in my local LCBO and there was this lone bottle of the 1995 sitting on the shelf mixed in with current year (2002 I think?). I picked it up and couldn’t believe it was there, as it had been 7 or so years since it had been initially release. I wondered if the wine was even still good, not having any idea how well or poorly late harvest wines age. I almost put it back and then thought for $20, what the heck.

That following weekend we tried the wine and it was as good if not better than I remembered it to be. Amy absolutely fell in love with this wine and for the next six months every time I broke out a dessert wine I got the same question – “Is it a 95 Henry of Pelham?”

"Is that port?"

About a year later Amy went out to Henry of Pelham and managed to pick up the very last case of 1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal in existence. When she came back both Kathy and I were amazed that she had gotten this as we both figured it was long sold out. We split the case with her and Mick.

Which brings us back to this Saturday, Amy decided to break out the very last bottle of 1995 late harvest. Upon opening the bottle and pouring it out I was shocked at how dark the colour had become. It was very amber and not too far off the colour of Tawny port. I couldn’t detect any off smells so I hoped we were still good.

Here is the 4 person review of the wine –

1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal

Nose – Lychee still present but much of the fragrant and powerful aromas I remembered with this wine had faded over time.

Taste – Heavenly, still tastes relatively fresh, sweet but not too sweet, pear, peach, petrol elements to it.

Ratings – Mick – 91, Mark – 95, Kathy – 90, Amy 95, Overall – 92.75

Interesting note – of the 12 bottles Amy picked up, two were a little past their prime but the other 10 were great.

The wine went extremely well with Apple Spice cake but I found in the end I was happy just slowly sipping it on its own and remembering all the good times that I had enjoyed this wine with friends and family.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – a Surprise, a Request, and an Old Friend (part 2)

Part 1 to this article can be found here –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/06/saturday-night-surprise-request-and-old.html

The main course for our Saturday night dinner was Pasta Puttanesca and it was paired with a 2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulcia.

"The Base Sauce"

"The Completed Sauce"

"Dinner is served!"

LCBO Information – Salcheto Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano 2003

Vintages #685180

750 mL bottle

Price: $ 28.95

Wine, Red Wine,

13.5% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : XD

Made in: Tuscany, Italy

By: Salcheto

Release Date: May 24, 2008

Tasting Note - The estate's 2003 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (100% Prugnolo Gentile) is generous and opulent on the palate where it offers plenty of spiced red fruit, licorice and smoke notes along with a generous, engaging personality. It shows terrific balance as well as finessed tannins for the vintage and should drink well now and over the next decade. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018. Score - 90. (Antonio Galloni, www.erobertparker.com, June 2007)

Before I get back to the wine, let me first say that Mick did an incredible job on the Pasta Puttanesca. The pasta was cooked to perfection, the sauce had a wonderful flavor to it, and adding the sausage to it was a masterful stroke.

"Right side label"

"Left side label"

2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano

Nose – Green pepper, dark chocolate, dark berry and smoky.

Taste – Without food : Green vegetable, herb, leather, little fruit.

Taste – With food : It complimented the Pasta Puttanesca nicely, not a perfect pairing but still good. Thoughts on foods that it would pair well with – Oil based pasta sauce, Seafood or fish with a Pesto sauce, and I surprisingly enough actually think Cabbage rolls would make a good pairing for this wine.

Ratings – Mick – 88, Mark – 86, Kathy – 88, Amy 82, Overall – 86

If this wine was rated strictly on aroma it would be a 97-100. I loved the nose on this wine. Amy said after nosing the wine “This is how a wine should smell”. Maybe that got my expectations for the tasting too high as I found myself disappointed after taking my first sip. The wine was a little green as if the grapes were picked slightly too soon. The balance on the wine was terrific, I have found acidity on the limited number of Italian wines I’ve tried too high, that wasn’t an issue with this wine. The finish was good too. I’m glad I have two more bottles of this on the rack, as I’m really looking forward to trying this wine in a couple of years and seeing how it develops.

Part III next.

Saturday Night – a Surprise, a Request, and an Old Friend (part 1)

Mick was gracious enough to volunteer to make Pasta Puttanesca for the main course for Saturday night’s dinner. I felt this would be great pairing for the 2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulcia.

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-is-vino-nobile-di-montepulciano.html

"A Surprise"

He also wanted to try something else new, so for the appetizer, he broke out a new dish and a new wine. Beef taquitos was his choice as the new starter. The taquitos were made from steak marinated in lime juice and Tequila (grilled and sliced) and topped with a mixture of diced tomatoes, onions, jalapeño peppers and cilantro, with an option of feta, sour cream and mild taco sauce. All of these tasty ingredients were bundled in flat bread wraps.

"Distinct!"

Mick’s choice of wine pairing was a 2005 Selby Zinfandel which he picked up last November on a wine run to NY state. The wine was around $19 US ($32-33 Cdn.).

For the wine tasting tonight, we decided to get a bit more formal with the process and all four people contributed opinions and thoughts on the wine..

2005 Selby “Sonoma County” Zinfadel ($19 US)

Nose : aromas of cedar, cherry and a lovely warm earthy scent to it.

Taste : candied sour cherry on opening and follow quickly by deep smokey flavor and smooth finish. Mouth-feel is slightly out of balance as the tannin seems to slightly lacking. With the taquitos you would occasionly get a odd off flavour from the wine but it was still a decent match. More spice in the dish probably would have help this pairing.

Ratings – Mick – 88, Mark – 86, Kathy – 83, Amy 75, Overall – 83

Mick didn’t think the 83 rating was fair and was upset at Amy being the ‘Russian judge’ with her 75 rating. He made the comment “You guys are crazy, this Zinfandel is so distinct!”. To which I responded, “Yeah, Quebec is also distinct, that doesn’t make it good…”

To be fair, I liked the wine and as Mick suggested it was distinct and “distinct” in a good way.

Stay tuned for Part II

Baron De Hoen Pinot Gris Sonnenglanz

This past Friday was unbelievably hot and with my kitchen out partially out of order due to the renovations going on, my wife, Kathy suggested that we get in some Chinese take-out for dinner. This sounded great as I really didn’t want to BBQ in the heat. Upon bringing the food home, it was decided that we’d have a bottle of wine to go with it.

Chinese food is a pain in the ass to pair as it has such a wide range of flavours – sweet, spicy, sour, salty. Trying to find a wine that can handle it is always interesting. The best match I have found so far is a semi-sweet Riesling.

I remembered that I had a bottle of Pinot Gris in the small fridge in the basement and decided to give it a shot. The Pinot Gris was a 2004 Baron de Hoen “Sonnenglanz” Pinot Gris from Alsace. I bought this at the LCBO some time ago for around $27. The LCBO no longer has stock or even lists this wine on their website. The Wine Spectator hasn’t reviewed it ether.

I gave the wine a quick nose and was getting floral and fruit notes off of it but found I couldn’t be more precise than that. Trying a sip of the wine I found it had nice fruit on the tongue, good acidity and a mild bitter taste on the finish. The bitterness reminded me of Gewürztraminer as it usually has that bitter finish to it. It wasn’t as bitter as a Gewürztraminer and got me thinking this wine could almost be described as “Gewürztraminer light”.

With the food it wasn’t a bad match but occasionally I got a touch of sharpness with it. The semi-sweet Riesling is still a better match for Chinese cuisine.

To conclude, not a bad wine but even if the LCBO did have stock, I wouldn’t be rushing out to get another bottle of it.

Cheers!

Mark

What is vino Nobile di Montepulciano?

This blog experience is getting more enjoyable as time goes on. I started writing it to keep track of the food and wine pairings that I have tried for my own reference. Mainly, so when I do a dish months later, I can go back and look at what wine I had with it. It was also a fun place to vent my frustrations with the LCBO and wine buying in the province of Ontario.

Recently, I have been getting something new on the blog – user feedback. This is great; Natalie Maclean left a comment a few weeks ago –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/05/natalie-maclean-visits-blog.html

And now Jonathan Foley stopped by and had this to say –

Hey Mark -
Love your blog. It's always great hearing the opinion of others (especially for wines I haven't tried!) Any experience pairing vino Nobile di Montepulciano? I just picked up a case of the 2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from the LCBO (685180) and I want to try the first one soon to gauge it. Thanks!

My first thought was ‘Cool, someone out there stopping by and leaving a comment’. My second thought was ‘Doh, Italian wine’. This last year I have been exploring French wines to broaden my horizons and break out of my California comfort zone. So Italian wines are an area that I've not had a lot of experience with but it is always fun to try new wines…

I’ll be brutally honest and say that after reading your post my first question was – “what exactly is ‘vino Nobile di Montepulciano’?” So the first place I hit was the LCBO and got the full information on the wine -

SALCHETO VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO 2003

VINTAGES 685180
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 28.95
Wine, Red Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Tuscany, Italy
By: Salcheto
Release Date: May 24, 2008

Tasting Note - The estate's 2003 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (100% Prugnolo Gentile) is generous and opulent on the palate where it offers plenty of spiced red fruit, licorice and smoke notes along with a generous, engaging personality. It shows terrific balance as well as finessed tannins for the vintage and should drink well now and over the next decade. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018. Score - 90. (Antonio Galloni, www.erobertparker.com, June 2007)

Sounds great, nice write up by Robert Parker’s website, a 90 rating and an affordable price tag of under $30 but I still have no clue to what this wine is.

The one thing that did catch my eye was “100% Prugnolo Gentile” - yes we have a clue, Watson! Next step was a Google search on “Prugnolo Gentile” which lead me to –

http://winegeeks.com/grapes/311

And found this on the Winegeeks website –

Prugnolo Gentile

One of many synonyms of Sangiovese, this one being the local name used in the town of Montepulciano. The great wines of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano can be some of the better examples of Sangiovese in the world and can take well to extensive bottle aging.

At this point the lights go on, bells go off and a glimmer of hope in this pairing quest begins – Sangiovese! Now I know what the wine is, pairing becomes much simpler now. I always think of Sangiovese as the Merlot of the Italian wine world, as I find it is a very diverse wine in what you can pair it with - pastas, stews, grilled meats to name a few.

Next step was to hit Natalie Maclean’s website - http://www.nataliemaclean.com/index.asp to use her food and wine pairing utility and there were a ton of items to pair it with.

I checked the LCBO stock levels and was delighted to find my local LCBO in Ancaster had 30+ bottles in stock. I e-mailed my lovely wife and asked her to pick-up three bottles of it (she works in the same plaza as the LCBO) as I’m always up for trying a new wine. My kitchen is under renovations currently but Mick is hosting this week, so I will give him a call and see if he is interested in trying the wine this weekend.

Mick does a great Pasta Puttanesca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttanesca) and hopefully I can badger him into making it this weekend as I think it would be a great pairing for this wine. If so, there will be a blog entry on this pairing early next week.

Cheers!

Mark