Saturday Night – What was that 3rd wine we had? – Part 3

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For the main course of the evening Mick did his famous marmalade and Dijon barbequed chicken wings.  He paired the wings with a 2006 Optima “Dry Creek Valley” Zinfandel.

The nose on the wine had a lovely mix of blackberry, cherry, pepper, cedar and leather aromas on it.  Tasting the wine, you are going to get punched in the face with a huge cherry flavour and not much else.  The wine came across as being very dry as it needed more acidity to offset the tannin in it.  The wine was a decent pairing with the chicken wings but we have had better matches.  Overall it was  a solid but very forgettable wine.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick – 86, Mark – 86, Kathy – 86, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.

There was no LCBO information on this wine, so I’m assuming this was a purchase Mick made in the US.  Hopefully he will be trolling the Blog later and add more details for it in the comment section.

For dessert, Amy picked up a wide selection of cupcakes.  They looked great but I had hit that “Not even a wafer thin mint” stage and passed on them.  Kathy though assures me they were excellent and that I missed out big time by passing on them.

Thanks to Mick and Amy for hosting the dinner and I'm already looking to next week.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – What was that 3rd wine we had? – Part 2

For the second course of the evening, Mick did barbequed chicken with pesto served on a corn, black bean, onion and Cilantro salad with a lime/Cilantro dressing.  This was the course he paired with the 2009 Robert Mondavi “To Kalon” Fume Blanc.

The nose on the wine was very aromatic and powerful with fresh watermelon, pineapple, green apple, lychee and tropical fruit aromas.  The nose was very intriguing as it was changing all the time – at the beginning the watermelon aroma was dominate, later it was the pineapple  and towards the end as it warmed up more the green apple was the dominate aroma.  Tasting the wine, honeydew melon flavours jumped out at you.  The wine was nicely structure with good acidity but it also had a nice rounded mouth-feel to it and a linger finish that hung around for ages.  I wasn’t sure about this as a pairing for the food as I thought the sweetness of the corn might throw it for a loop but it ended up being  a great pairing and held its own against a wide range of flavours.  In short a very well-crafted wine that worked very well with all the food flavours.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick – 92, Mark – 91, Kathy – 90, Amy – 90, Overall – 90.75.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

ROBERT MONDAVI TO KALON ESTATE RESERVE FUMÉ BLANC 2009

VINTAGES 147488
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 44.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Constellation Wines U S
Release Date: May 26, 2012
Wine, White Wine
14.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Fume Blanc
Sugar Content: 2 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note  - (includes 2% semillon): Bright, pale yellow-green. Lively, perfumed aromas of ripe grapefruit, flowers and spearmint. Saline and dry in the mouth, with sexy high tones to the grapefruit and wild herb flavors. Dense, savory and aromatic, this bracing sauvignon really stains the palate. Aged entirely in oak, 24% new, but I never would have guessed it. Score - 92. (Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, May/June 2011)

The LCBO still has a number of bottles in stock and I would strongly recommend picking this up if you like Sauvignon Blanc.  I will also caution you to only buy what you are going to drink in the next few months.  We have found that Fume Blanc is a wine that doesn’t improve with age and doesn’t last that long before turning.  This is not a wine you want to keep for years for a ‘special occasion’ this is a wine that you should buy and raise a glass to celebrate the summer of 2012.

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Saturday Night – What was that 3rd wine we had? – Part 1

Kathy and I were doing some shopping in Burlington on Saturday afternoon and decided to visit the LCBO while we were out there.  My lovely wife spotted 3 bottles of 2009 Robert Mondavi “To Kalon” Fume Blanc.  Mick and I have been huge fans of earlier versions of “To Kalon” Fume so I grabbed all three bottles.  We picked up some other wines as well and Kathy sent Amy a text when we got home mentioning our purchases.  It wasn’t long after that Mick called saying he’d heard a rumor about 3 bottles of “To Kalon” which I confirmed.  He added that a bottle of it would be great for a pairing for one of the courses he had planned for the tonight’s dinner.  I said I would happily bring one along. 

The thing I forgot about “To Kalon” is “To Kalon” is Latin for “I’m going to f^%k you up” … as the wine is evil – 14.5% alcohol and it goes down like Kool-Aid.  We weren’t feeling much pain by the time we hit the 3rd bottle of wine for the night.  Amy’s penmanship for the notes on the 3rd bottle of wine was so bad that I’m sure it could be used in a Public Service Announcement - “If your writing is this bad when you're drunk, imagine how dangerous you’d be behind the wheel of a car – Don’t Drink and Drive.”

We had the “To Kalon” with the second course but I will get to that in more detail in Part 2.  Mick started us off with a new barbequed Potato skins recipe and paired this with a 2006 Perrin and Fils. Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

The nose on the wine was dominated by strawberry aromas with eucalyptus and clove aromas in the background.  Tasting the wine, cherry and raspberry flavours jumped out at you with a hint of black pepper sneaking around in the background.  I found the wine a little sharp on its own but with the potatoes skins with their bacon, cheese and creamy BBQ sauce toppings they neutralized the sharpness completely and the wine made an awesome pairing.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick – 88, Mark – 87, Kathy – 87, Amy – 87, Overall – 87.25.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

PERRIN AND FILS LES SINARDS CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE (V)

VINTAGES 926626
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 34.95
Made in: Rhône, France
By: Perrin & Fils
Release Date: Apr 18, 2012
Style: Full-bodied & Smooth
Wine, Red Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Blend - Other
Sugar Content: 4 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Description  - DID YOU KNOW? Some of the grapes for this were sourced at Perrin's great Château de Beaucastel estate. The Perrin family are without question the dominant, and one of the finest, producers in the southern Rhône. FLAVOUR & STYLE: Packed with fine aromas such as blackberry, cranberry, sour cherry and tobacco. FOOD MATCH: Fine Dining: roast leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic.

Mick mentioned that the potato skins were a lot of prep work, I liked them but I’m not sure they were worth the amount of effort he had to put into them.

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Saturday Night – A Casual Dinner for Five – Part 3

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Jan and Chris were going to make dessert to go with the wine they’d brought but Chris had a small chocolate mishap while making the dessert so they brought a very nice selection of Lindt Chocolate to go with the wine.  I had some Raspberry coulis left from last week and decide to whip another batch of the same desserts we had last week.

The desserts were paired with a bottle of 2010 Tawse Cabernet Franc Ice Wine.

The nose on the wine was nice with ripe strawberries and some eucalyptus in the background.  Tasting it you get a mix between candy apple and cherry.  I liked the wine but it came across cloying at time as it was quite sweet and didn’t seem to have enough acidity to offset the sweetness properly.  It was however a good pairing with both the raspberry dessert and all of the chocolate which was impressive as those were two completely different flavours.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick* – 87, Mark – 86, Kathy – 87, Amy – 89, Overall – 87.25.

 

I couldn’t find any LCBO listing for this as I suspect that Chris and Jan picked this up at the winery directly.  As Jan reads the Blog on a regular basis, hopefully she will be nice enough to add a price for it in the comments section (hint, hint).

This wasn’t the fanciest of dinners I’ve ever done but it was nice to sit around and casually enjoy some food and wine with some very good company.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – A Casual Dinner for Five – Part 2

For the main course, Amy had requested lemon cream prosciutto pasta and I paired it with a 2005 Clos du Val Napa Valley Merlot.

The nose on the wine was easy to find as it had big aromas of earth, tar and tomato soup.  Tasting the wine, the main flavour was cocoa with some blackberry floating around in the background.  The wine had a very thin mouth-feel to it as the tannin was very soft.  This was not your typical fruit forward California Merlot and reminded more of something you would get from the right bank of Bordeaux.  It was a good match for the pasta as it picked up the mint and cayenne pepper in the dish.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick* – 86, Mark – 88, Kathy – 88, Amy – 83, Overall – 87.

The LCBO isn’t listing the Merlot so I have included the listing for the Clos du Val Zinfandel instead as I seem to remember the Merlot being in the same price point.

CLOS DU VAL  ZINFANDEL 2009

VINTAGES 590216
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 23.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Clos Du Val Wine Company Ltd.,
Release Date: Feb 18, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
13.9% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Zinfandel
Sweetness Descriptor: D - Dry

Tasting Note - Aromas of blackberry, sweet blueberry, strawberry, smoke and touches of earth make for a very interesting and engaging nose. Dry and fairly full bodied, the palate is well structured with nicely balanced tannins and acidity and a lively mid-palate. More good fruit, including blackberry and strawberry with spice, smoke and herbs and a very flavourful and lengthy finish. (VINTAGES panel, May 2011)

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Saturday Night – A Casual Dinner for Five – Part 1

Mick was away for the weekend as he was down in North Carolina for a meeting with some motorcycle buddies so Kathy and I volunteered to take care of dinner for Amy.   Later in the week we added in Chris and Jan to dinner as well.  The plan was for the five of us to get together and have a nice, casual dinner.  I was going to make a big pot of lemon cream prosciutto pasta and Chris and Jan were going to bring dessert.

I talked to Amy earlier in the day and she was having a rough day… client issues at work and Mick called and said he got in an accident with the bike (he’s fine – thigh and ego bruised and the bike is working but has cosmetic damage) .  So Amy mentioned that she really needed a drink of wine with dinner. 

I was planning on pairing a Merlot with the pasta but I knew that Amy loved Riesling and want to add that to the menu.  I decided to add a simple salad to the menu – baby spinach, red pepper, raspberries and cashews with Kraft Chipotle and Mango dressing.  I paired this with a 2007 Scharzhofberger Kabinett Riesling.

The nose was faint but had a lot going on as aromas of yeast, peach, roses, lilac and petrol could be found.  Tasting the wine, it was dryer tasting than I expected for a Kabinett Riesling with green apple and pear flavours and a creamy taste in the mid-palate.  The structure on the wine was good with lots of acidity and a long lingering finish.  It made a very good pairing with the salad as it was sweet enough to stand up to the raspberries and the sweetness of the mango in the dressing.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick* – 86, Mark – 86, Kathy – 87, Amy – 88, Overall – 86.75.

* As Mick is away, Jan and Chris are doing his rating for him.

Here is the LCBO rating on the wine -

07 SCHARZHOF RIESLING KABINETT (MULLER)

VINTAGES 720201
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 49.00
Made in: Moselle, Germany
By: Markus Muller Wien Export
Release Date: N/A
Wine, White Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Riesling
Sweetness Descriptor: M – Medium

I liked this wine but wasn’t blown away by it.  When I pulled it off the rack, I figured it was a $20-30 Riesling and was kind of shocked when I did the LCBO search and found it was a $50 wine.  It was good but not enough in my mind to justify the price point.

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Saturday Night – Happy Birthday Jan! – Part 4

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Jan brought a bottle of 2009 Reif Estates Vidal Ice-wine to go with dessert.  I made dessert which I haven’t named yet but it is made with the following – two plain digestive cookies with French Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between them, melted white chocolate over top and then fresh raspberries and then topped with a raspberry coulis. 

The nose the on the Reif was milder than I would have expected from an Ice Wine but it had lovely peach, lychee, petrol and nectarine aromas to it.  Tasting the wine you get a caramel apple and butterscotch flavours which linger around for minutes after a sip.  The structure on this Ice-wine was stunning as the racy acidity really helped balance out the sweetness of the wine.  This is a very well-crafted Ice-wine and you could lay this wine down for 20 years and it would still be amazing.  It also was a great pairing with the dessert.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark – 91, Kathy – 91, Amy – 91, Overall – 90.5.

Here is the LCBO information for the wine –

REIF VIDAL ICEWINE 2009

VINTAGES 544791
200 mL bottle
Price: $ 24.95
This is a VQA wine
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Reif Winery Inc.
Release Date: N/A
Wine, Icewine
10.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content: 227 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: S - Sweet

The dessert went over very well, I’m pretty sure my wife licked her plate by how clean it was.

It was a great night (though I am feeling all that wine today) and thanks to Mick for all his help with the meals and to Jan and Chris for the amazing Ice-wine.  Happy Birthday Jan!

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – Happy Birthday Jan! – Part 3

For the main course we had Beef Tenderloin and grilled shrimp with Béarnaise sauce with sides of baby red potatoes and sugar snap peas.  I paired this with a 2001 Robert Mondavi “Napa Valley” Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2004 Altair (Cab blend from Chile).

e have reviewed the Altair before (It had a 90.5 rating which puts it on the Zippy Sauce Top Ten Reds list) so I will get into more depth with the Mondavi.

The Mondavi had a big wonderful nose of cherry, nutmeg, eucalyptus, leather, loam, Porcini mushroom and clove.  Mick absolutely loved the nose on this wine… he wants to figure out how to make this nose into an Air freshener scent so he can be around it 24/7.  Tasting the Mondavi, it starts with cherry, raspberry, cocoa, and finishes with a green pepper taste.  The structure on this wine is perfect; lovely fruit, good acidity, super fine tannin and the alcohol doesn’t come through as overbearing; in short an awesome Cabernet Sauvignon.    It was a good pairing with the food but the Altair was slightly better.   The Mondavi on the other hand was a much better wine on its own than the Altair.  The Altair was much more tannic and that was the main reason it worked slightly better with the food.  I just wish I had another bottle of the Mondavi on the rack but unfortunately it was my last bottle.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 93, Mark – 91, Kathy – 92, Amy – 90, Overall – 91.5

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

ROBERT MONDAVI RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007

VINTAGES 670463
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 139.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Icon Estates
Release Date: Feb 4, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
14.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Description  - James Laube of the Wine Spectator gave this wine a rating of 95, and designated it as a Collectible. (Sept. 30, 2010) .

Tasting Note  - The full-bodied, powerful, pure 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is another outstanding effort revealing notes of spring flowers, toasty oak, creme de cassis, licorice, and graphite. One would have to go back to the 1990, 1991, 2001, or 2002 to find a Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve this impressive. The 2007 should evolve for 20-25 years. Score - 95+. (Robert Parker Jr., erobertparker.com, Dec. 2009)

* Note the LCBO listing is for the 2007 vintage and not the 2001 reviewed here… but Robert Parker did mention it in comparison to the 2001 vintage :)

The 91.5 overall group rating puts this wine firmly on the Zippy Sauce Top Ten Reds.  I will be picking up some of the 2007 as if it is remotely close to the 2001 it is well worth the price.

Mick grilled the Filets and the Shrimp while I made the Bearnaise, Potatoes and Sugar Snap Peas and I would like to thank him for doing an amazing job on grilling both items.

Click here for Part 4

Saturday Night – Happy Birthday Jan! – Part 2

The next course was French Onion Soup with homemade croutons and paired with a Henri of Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc.

I hadn’t done this recipe in a while and was looking forward to it.  Mid-way through finely chopping up eight large onions, I remembered why I hadn’t done this in a long time.  A few years ago I did a very large batch for my annual Tax Season lunch at the firm I work at.  That large batch needed 32 large onions.  By the end of doing that I had tears streaming down my face and worse, the cat which had been hanging out in the kitchen keeping me company looked up at me from the floor and she too had tears streaming down the front of her furry little face.  I felt bad for her and I think that episode made me gun-shy about doing this recipe again.

On the upside, the soup was so damn good it was more than worth the tears this time!

The nose on the Henri of Sancerre was also huge for what I was expecting (seems to be a theme for the night) with a dominate gooseberry aroma with cotton candy and lychee aromas lurking in the background.  As the wine warmed up, cat’s pee, lime and lilac aromas were to be found there as well.  Tasting the wine, there was a lovely and refreshing pink grapefruit flavour to it.  Structure-wise  the wine had good acidity but not as much I was expecting but was very smooth and easy drinking but the finish didn’t linger at all.  It was a great pairing however with the French onion soup. 

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark - 90, Kathy – 89, Amy – 88, Overall – 89.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

HENRI BOURGEOIS LES BARONNES SANCERRE (V)

VINTAGES 542548
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 24.95
Made in: Loire, France
By: Henri Bourgeois
Release Date: Apr 18, 2012
Style: Aromatic & Flavourful
Wine, White Wine
12.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Sugar Content: 4 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Description  - DID YOU KNOW? Sauvignon Blanc is the only grape permitted in Sancerre white wines. Henri Bourgeois winery has been making wines for 10 generations. FLAVOUR & STYLE: Explosive classic Savvy aromas and flavours of gooseberry, grapefruit and fresh herbs, with an exceptionally long finish. FOOD MATCH: Everyday: grilled shrimp skewers. Takeout: sushi. Fine Dining: raw oysters, grilled tuna steaks.

I have two small complaints about this wine – Price and Labeling.  At $25 it is a touch pricier compared to New Zealand and South African counterparts (though it is consistently year after year a great wine so it isn’t too hard to justify the $25 price tag).  For the Labeling, the older bottles used to be in a distinct green label with gold lettering… I could spot it 20 feet away and now they have move to the more modern looking black and white label.  The new labeling looks better/more modern which is a plus but I miss the old labels as it was much easier to find.

Click here for Part 3

Saturday Night – Happy Birthday Jan! – Part 1

This past Saturday night our usual band of four got together with Jan and Chris to celebrate Jan’s Birthday with some good food and wine. We have had a number of dinners with Chris and Jan over the years and I wanted this dinner to special. I want three dishes that were very good and that Mick or myself hadn’t done for them yet. About a week and half ago I went through my recipe book and then discussed the menu with Mick and we put together a nice line-up for the night.

Mick’s Baba Ghanoush which he makes from barbequed Egg Plant and the usual ingredients but also adds sundried tomato was the first course. This was paired with two white sparkling wines - a Roederer Champagne and a Graham Beck Sparkling.

We have reviewed the Roederer before so I will just focus on reviewing the Graham Beck Sparkling.

The nose on the Graham Beck was bigger than I would have expected from a sparkling wine as you certainly didn’t need to swirl your glass to pick up its aromas; aromas of yeast, citrus (lemon/lime) and pink grapefruit. Tasting the wine, the main flavours were lime and vanilla with ripe green apple on the finish. The wine wasn’t quite as dry tasting as I would have liked. The difference in dryness was more obvious when I tried it against the Roederer. I preferred the Roederer over the Graham Beck before trying any of the food. On the other hand that slight sweetness to the wine made it a much better pairing than the Roederer with the Baba Ghanoush. Considering the Graham Beck is less than a third of the cost at $19 a bottle than the Roederer, it did quite well as a comparison bottle.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 84, Amy – 88, Overall – 87.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

GRAHAM BECK BRUT SPARKLING WINE

VINTAGES 593483

750 mL bottle

Price: $ 18.95

Made in: Western Cape, South Africa

By: Graham Beck Wines

Release Date: Mar 17, 2012

Wine, Sparkling Wine, White

12.0% Alcohol/Vol.

Varietal: Sparkling White

Sugar Content: 11 g/L

Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note - (a 54/46 blend of pinot noir and chardonnay) Pale copper-tinged gold. Tangerine, spicy oak and a hint of exotic fruits on the nose. Fruity and harmonious, with a yeasty complexity adding depth to the fairly dense, harmonious middle palate. Comes across as sweeter and fuller than the Blanc de Blancs, but finishes dry and crisp, with a bit more length. No shortage of flavor here. Score - 89. (Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, March/April 2009)

As you can tell by the group rating my wife was a much bigger fan of the Roederer than the Graham Beck. Different strokes for different folks…

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