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Lawrason On Wine

Good to the Last Drop

Posted on July 2, 2008

After a two-year run, during which I have enjoyed being back in the role of weekly wine commentator, this will be the last post of Lawrason on Wine. The editors are presently re-evaluating the content of torontolife.com, but my work will happily continue monthly in the print edition of Toronto Life, and I am now neck-deep in tasting the entire LCBO general list and Vintages Essentials for the Toronto Life Eating and Drinking Guide (coming in October). As well, we are discussing an exciting new Web-based project scheduled for release this autumn. So, while this is my final blog post, it is by no means an end—just a pause. Meanwhile, I will do my best to keep you up to date on local wine news and events, and post some reviews on my own site, davidlawrason.com. See you there, and enjoy your summer. PS: it’s time to drink rosé, and you can see my picks in the August issue of Toronto Life. Cheers!

Rivers Run Through It: Vintages’ June 21 Release

Posted on June 25, 2008

The trumped-up theme for Vintages’ June 21 release is Europe’s Wine Rivers: Great Finds From Legendary Riverside Vineyards. South-facing riverside sites can deliver extra quality in northern Europe; they benefit from the increased heat of the better exposure. But winemakers, not riverbank exposure, are responsible for quality. There are some good wines in this selection, but hardly anything legendary. The real theme is Some Decent Wines We Put Together From Europe at About $20 So That We Could Spend Lots of Money on This Glossy Spread in the Catalogue. Here are 10 of the better buys from the Rivers selection, plus other noteworthy wines from elsewhere in the catalogue:

Niagara Auction Previews: The 2007 Reds

Posted on June 17, 2008

The colour was deep and the fruit was ripe among 10 Niagara reds showcased in the first public tasting of heavyweights from the 2007 vintage. These excellent wines were decanted during a barrel auction as part of the lucrative Niagara Wine Weekend and Auction, which netted a substantial amount for the SickKids Foundation and St. Catharines General Hospital. Over 1,000 people paid $1,000 each to attend the second annual afternoon garden party and gala black-tie dinner in The Commons in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Ontario wine’s prime time

Posted on June 11, 2008

June has become the month for grand wine events in Ontario, timed to kick off the summer touring season. And this is sure to be a good year to go wine tripping: local wineries are strutting some fine bottlings from the 2007 vintage—the best in recent memory (see Toronto Life’s July issue)—although some styles will not be released for a few months, like the barrel-aged whites and reds. To help you plan your trip, here is a quick primer on some of the best events in the days ahead.

The LCBO’s blockbuster $10 deals

Posted on June 2, 2008

After tasting virtually the entire LCBO general list in preparation for the annual Toronto Life Eating & Drinking guide, I know it’s rare to find a great value wine for less than $10. This year’s tasting process is just getting underway, and while you may be sipping wines on the deck or dock this June and July, I’m tasting dozens of wines daily and want nothing more than a cleansing ale by shift’s end. (I ask no pity because I know none is forthcoming.) The upside to all this is having an up-to-date repertoire of the best bargains at the LCBO.

Now is New Zealand’s moment

Posted on May 23, 2008

In Ontario, the momentum of New Zealand wines reaches a crescendo on May 24, when Vintages releases 28 labels from the Pacific’s tiny, perfect wine isles. There is no official count in progress, but this is one of the largest Vintages theme releases in memory, and chock full of exciting wines. It follows hard on the heels of the ever-popular New Zealand wine fair—held at the Design Exchange last week—where a tasting highlighted the new generation of such richer reds as syrah, malbec and tempranillo, and proved that the region is not a one-trick, cool-climate sauvignon blanc pony.

Blooming Whites

Posted on May 12, 2008

If you have never dedicated your wine budget to exploring the world’s aromatic whites, I suggest that now might be an opportune moment—when May is blossoming with fragrance, and some terrific bottles are selling for a song. The June issue of Toronto Life features reviews of 10 great aromatic whites from some of the world’s more obscure wine regions. Several others were tasted in researching the article, so I’ve reviewed them here. Plus, I’ve added a few classic selections from Germany and Niagara also released at Vintages on May 10.

Cheers to Santé

Posted on May 6, 2008

The 10th annual Santé: Toronto International Wine Festival kicks off Monday, May 5, with a week-long tasting menu of winemaker dinners, special events and seminars in venues throughout Yorkville. California and Australia are this year’s headliners. Here is the roster of major events, complete with some of the wines and wineries worth investigating. For more details and tickets, check out the festival’s Web site, www.santewinefestival.net.

California comes to Canada

Posted on April 28, 2008

The California Wine Fair rolls into the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Monday, April 28, brimming with bottles that, by and large, cannot be found on the shelves of the LCBO. Of the 69 wines assembled for the fair’s preview media tasting last month, only 20 are currently available at Vintages or the LCBO. This doesn’t mean the LCBO is ignoring California: a big promo swings into gear in early May that introduces several new brands to the general list; and on Saturday, Vintages will be offering up a couple of dozen new releases as well. But the fair showcases so many, many more—a huge reservoir of wine either being sold direct to restaurateurs via the below-the-radar consignment program, or wines that want to be here and might just find a niche if they create a buzz at the fair. With so many wines and so little time, the grapevine goes electric. Why must all the big wine presentations in our city be so restrictive, so pressured, and in such chaos? And why must the pourers spend most of their time apologizing that we can’t actually buy the wine they are serving?

Nova Scotia’s New Eden

Posted on April 17, 2008

Nova Scotia might soon be a remarkable source of high-quality, expensive sparkling wine—the Champagne of North America.

Vintages’ April 12 Release: The Top 10

Posted on April 11, 2008

Vintages stores will be releasing dozens of new wines this Saturday. I have been able to taste most of them in advance along with other wine writers, a twice-monthly ritual that sees a couple dozen people sandwiched into a small white “lab” to work their way through almost 100 bottles. Some taste them all; some hit on a few big names. I am increasingly looking for quality above all else. The older one gets the more appropriate maxim “life is too short to drink (or taste and write about) bad wine.”

The Great One Gets Better

Posted on April 4, 2008

When Wayne Gretzky launched his Niagara wines last summer, I was not impressed. Priced under $15, the wines were not awful but average, and why buy average when there are good bottles for the same price? I had higher expectations given Number 99’s reputation for doing things well, and the whole exercise seemed steeped in marketing opportunism. I was not wrong on this, nor were those who created the brand: the Wayne Gretzky label has become the hottest seller among Ontario VQA wines on the LCBO general list.

California Greening

Posted on March 28, 2008

My column in the May issue of Toronto Life (on newsstands April 10) examines the burgeoning “green” wine movement, with observations and reviews based on tastings at the international Return to Terroir event in February, and Vintages’ organics release on March 29. Since then, I have compiled even more notes on the wine world’s most pressing trend. Much of the information and inspiration has come out of California, where “green” is becoming an industry-wide mantra. Grape growers are taking the lead in environmental practices and turning the heads of those in other sectors of California’s massive agricultural industry. Two insiders have told me that a stunning 55 per cent of Californian wine producers have now registered for a new program that allows for self-assessment of sustainable agriculture practices.

Matching with Malivoire

Posted on March 19, 2008

On a cold, snowy winter day (what else is new?) recently, I attended a wine tasting designed to be enjoyed as most of us actually drink wine—that is, with food. In the end, this meal was hardly average; it was served in the back of a tiny, fragrant bistro called Gamelle, where the tasters met with Niagara winemaker Martin Malivoire. We worked and played through 10 recent releases that were uncorked with a non-stop selection of small plates, sipping and nibbling in no particular order, unless a certain match made choirs sing and seduced us into tasting again.

B.C.’s Osoyoos-Larose Mid-Term Report

Posted on March 12, 2008

Vintages’ March 15 release features 1,000 cases of the 2004 vintage of B.C.’s storied Osoyoos-Larose, the Franco-Canadian joint venture rooted in the desert soils of the southern Okanagan. It is very good—88 points—but not excellent wine. At a reasonable $39.95, any serious B.C. and/or Bordeaux wine enthusiast can afford to decide for themselves, but a recent trade tasting of several vintages of Osoyoos-Larose at the Rosewater Supper Club in Toronto has not yet convinced me that a new Médoc is being minted in the Okanagan. Its creators argue they are not trying to recreate Bordeaux, but there is no question it is fashioned from the Bordeaux template, from the blend of the same five grape varieties to the winemaking staff to the techniques they have imported.

David Lawrason

David Lawrason

David Lawrason has worked full time as one of Canada's leading, independent wine writers and educators for over 20 years. He was the founder of Wine Access magazine and Globe and Mail wine columnist for 13 years before becoming resident wine guy at Toronto Life, where he pens a monthly column and writes an exhaustive review of LCBO general listings for the annual Food and Wine Guide. As a wine educator he has taught sommelier programs at George Brown, Humber and Niagara Colleges, and has run popular public courses in Toronto since 1988. He has visited every major wine major producing country in the world, while focusing recently on the booming Canadian wine scene, as founder of the Canadian Wine Awards program, and Canadian wine columnist for Wine Access.

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