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The LCBO’s latest batch of New Zealand wines includes plenty of top-notch sauvignon blancs, which account for 70 per cent of the country’s output, plus a few other pleasant surprises. Here, the best wines of the bunch.
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I will not be buying champagne for my New Year’s celebration. You can’t beat French bubbly for ostentatious luxury, but for great value and taste, my money is on Ontario sparkling wine at half the price. Niagara and Prince Edward County share the same climate, limestone-based soils and grape varieties as the Champagne region of northern France, so the conditions are ideal for homegrown bubbly. What Ontario lacks are the old vineyards and multiple generations of winemaking experience. However, a crew of talented Canadian winemakers, including French-trained Jean-Pierre Colas of 13th Street and Frédéric Picard of Huff Estates, are now making non-vintage bruts and sparkling rosés using a classic French technique known as méthode champenoise. These bottles are on LCBO shelves now, along with a few longer-aged, vintage-dated bubblies. I tasted two dozen of them and was exceedingly impressed by their taut, mineral-driven elegance. Here, my picks for ringing in the New Year like a locavore.
Zenato 2009 Rosso $11.25 | Veneto, Italy | 89 points Read the rest of this entry »
The hills of Veneto in the vicinity of Verona are home to fresh, light valpolicella on one hand and powerhouse amarone on the other, with all manner of blends and tweaks in between. This wine is one such experiment, from a mid-size family company making very modern, polished wines near the shores of Lake Garda. It’s a very effective and careful blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and corvina, the main local grape of the region—and it’s a stupendous value.
I recently spent an evening with my cousin pouring over-the-hill wine down the sink, about 10 bottles in all. We tasted each one first. The New World reds were cooked into a raisiny, composty glop. The higher-acid Euro and Canadian wines, including a cheap 1981 Bordeaux, were dried out. I pronounced them all deceased. The cull cleared my cousin’s wine rack of special occasion bottles she’d been given over the years. Being sentimental, she couldn’t bear to drink them, even though most were under $20 and never meant to age. There is no sure-fire formula for selecting age-worthy wines. However, buying more expensive and concentrated wines will help—the more full bodied a wine, the longer it will keep. That means cabernet sauvignon and its Bordeaux-style blends, syrah and its Rhône family and many native varieties from Italy, Spain and Portugal are good bets. Your job is to be adventurous and willing to open them. Wine is made to be enjoyed, not hoarded.
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Fashion is fickle, even in wine. There are occasional stampedes toward trendy brands: Argentina’s Fuzion and Australia’s Yellow Tail went the oenological equivalent of viral. And then there are deeper changes in taste over time. Two such seismic shifts have occurred over the last few years. The first is an acceptance of blends. The word is freighted with negativity because the cheapest wines are often thrown-together blends. However, some of Europe’s best wines have always been blends, and vintners elsewhere are starting to craft new fusions. The second change is a taste for lesser-known appellations. Languedoc in France and Sicily in Italy are challenging the market supremacy of overpriced wines from Bordeaux and Tuscany. In the New World, regions like Paso Robles in California and Leyda in Chile are taking on icons like Napa Valley and Maipo—and the newcomers are often more affordable. I’ve sifted through the LCBO’s massive fall infusion for the best of both trends.
Henry Of Pelham 2010 Reserve Baco Noir $24.95 | Ontario | 90 points
For the next two weeks, the LCBO and Vintages are rolling out an Ontario wine promotion—punctuated on the 29th with an event called Taste Ontario—which provides a great window onto the advances being made with Ontario riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet franc. But one of my favourites remains this good ol’ Ontario baco noir, which is especially rich and fulsome in the hot 2010 vintage.
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Gamay is often known as the grape that makes lowly beaujolais nouveau, the gassy juice that’s sold only weeks after the grapes are picked. However, top-notch gamay can be silky, fruity and rich, yet light—the perfect red for late-summer evenings. The best ones in the world come from 10 cru villages strung out along the slopes of Beaujolais, where 99 per cent of the vineyards are devoted to gamay. The 2009 and 2010 vintages from these appellations are excellent, and the LCBO has released some great buys under $20 at Vintages. Here in Ontario, winemakers plant gamay because it ripens early and ought to be a winner in our short growing season. In a tasting of gamays from Beaujolais, Niagara and Prince Edward County, however, I found our local editions were thin and joyless by comparison, likely due to cooler temperatures. The trick to buying good Ontario gamay, then, is finding a hot vintage; luckily, 2010 was warm and long, and it’s on LCBO shelves now. Here are my favourites, from France to Niagara.
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(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
There’s nothing quite like the crack of a crisp riesling on a bright spring evening. That bolt of vibrant, citrusy acidity, followed by a flood of peach, pear, honey and wildflowers. But wait, what’s that odd scent—is it flint? Or diesel fuel? Riesling disciples use the term “petrol” to describe its unusual aroma. Although I would argue for the grape’s virtues—as a versatile food wine and as the world’s best cellaring white—riesling has never gained a mainstream following. Not just because of its idiosyncratic bouquet, but because attempts to mass-produce it on the cheap have often resulted in limpid, overly sweet wines. Recently, however, better rieslings have made in-roads on wine lists across the city, thanks in large part to the excellent bottles produced here in Ontario. The LCBO also carries many refreshing, off-dry examples in the over-$15 range that make superb patio sippers and offer extraordinary value—just check out the point-to-price ratios on the following bottles.
Trius 2010 Red $21.95 | Niagara Peninsula | 89 points Read the rest of this entry »
If you want to celebrate Canada Day with a homegrown wine, this Ontario red is the ticket. It’s from the best red vintage to date in Niagara. Trius winemaker Craig MacDonald has figured out how to best express the lighter side of merlot- and cabernet-based Ontario reds—an arena where many winemakers still try to extract brute force from grapes that just don’t have it in them.
Vineland Estates 2009 St. Urban Riesling$19.95 | Niagara Escarpment | 90 points
The Ontario Wine Awards were announced in Niagara-on-the-Lake last weekend, and this classic Niagara riesling scooped a gold medal in the semi-dry riesling category, topping 23 others. Stocks are dwindling at Vintages, but the Vineland 2009 riesling that’s more widely available at the LCBO makes a great backup—after all, it did take gold in the dry riesling category.
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Bründlmayer 2010 Kamptaler Terrassen Grüner Veltliner$19.95 | Kamptal, Austria | 90 points Read the rest of this entry »
While The Donald was cutting the ribbon downstairs, Austria’s wine marketers were christening the Trump International Tower with its first public wine tasting—and a great show it was, especially when it came to Austria’s signature grüner veltliner, a food-friendly white grape. This one, from a leading producer, is one of the few currently available at Vintages.
Wolf Blass 2009 Grey Label Shiraz Cabernet $34.95 | Robe Mount Benson, Australia | 90 points Read the rest of this entry »
This new shiraz-cabernet blend is a racier replacement for the individual Grey Label shiraz and cabernet bottles that were the pick of the LCBO general list for many years. It comes from a cooler region of South Australia.
The People’s 2010 Pinot Noir $16.95 | Central Otago, New Zealand | 89 points Read the rest of this entry »
I’m often skeptical of the quality of kitschy “populist” wines, but this is a solid, newly arrived pinot noir from the most talked-about region of New Zealand, where the average price for pinot noir is about twice as high. (The companion white People’s pinot gris, however, is not recommended.)
Allegrini Corte Giara 2009 Valpolicella Ripasso$16.95 | Veneto, Italy | 90 points
The warm, ripe 2009 vintage and the fruit-enriching ripasso re-fermentation technique fits right in with the polished winemaking style of the Allegrini family.
The taste: This is a very generous, easy-drinking red with fresh, ripe sour cherry jam flavours and nuances of leather, smoke and mocha. It’s medium-full bodied, smooth and a bit sweet, and all balanced by classic sour-edged acidity. The ripe sour cherry percolates long on the finish.
How to drink It: It doesn’t need aging, but it should hold its vitality for three years. Chill it lightly, let it aerate in a decanter for about 30 minutes and serve with creamy meat and pasta dishes.
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