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  • Date publishedSunday, March 27, 2011

2008 Chateau d'Argan AC Medoc: Review



Opened this Bronze Medal winner on Saturday evening:

CHÂTEAU D'ARGAN 2008 - AC Medoc, Bordeaux, France (#199018) - $16.95


Tasting Note:
Cassis, blackberry and black cherry notes. Some fine tannins remain, could have been aged for 1-2 years, but definitely enjoyable now. Dry, medium-bodied. Very good!


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  • Date publishedWednesday, March 23, 2011

Scheid Vineyards Odd Lot White 2008: Review

Tonight's wine is a 2008 white from Scheid Vineyards. Not really sure how this landed in my cellar, but here goes:

SCHEID VINEYARDS ODD LOT WHITE 2008 - Monterey, California, USA


Review:
Butter, mineral/slate aromas definitely do not forewarn of the sweet flavours to follow. Off-dry style with creamy peach, lime notes. Quite nice, pleasant to drink if you like white wines on the sweeter side. Needed a bit more time to chill prior to opening (look for an update later in an hour or so). Will be having it with masala-fried whiting fish.


  • Date publishedTuesday, March 22, 2011

Spain & Portugal - Rivers of Gold. March 19 Release

This week's Vintages Release has a special feature on wines from Portugal and Spain. As such, I've chosen a few Spanish and Portuguese wines. A few wines from other parts of the world also stood out. Without further ado, here are my top Vintages Wine Picks from this latest release. Enjoy!

Red Wine:
  • ETERNUM VITI 2008 - DO Toro, Spain (#210963) - $18.95
  • FINCA SOBREÑO CRIANZA 2007 - DO Toro, Spain (#040360) - $17.95
  • COLUMBIA CREST GRAND ESTATES MERLOT 2006 - Columbia Valley, Washington, USA (#263418) - $15.95
  • THE WATCHER 2008 - Barossa Valley, South Australia, Australia (#219196) - $19.95
  • SERRADAYRES RESERVA 2008 - DOC Ribatejo, Portugal (#214023) - $14.95
  • ROSSO DEL PIGARO PIGARO 2007 - IGT Rosso Veronese, Veneto, Italy (#203992) - $14.95

White Wine:
  • ADEGA VILA REAL RESERVA BRANCO 2009 - DOC Duoro, Portugal (#218289) - $14.95
  • SIETEFINCAS CHARDONNAY 2010 - Selected Vineyards, Mendoza, Argentina (#222752) - $13.95


  • Date publishedSaturday, March 5, 2011

Argentina, Chile, Northern Italy - March 5th Vintages Release

Here are my picks for the Vintages Release on Saturday, March 5th. If you will be trying any of these, let me know. I'd love to hear your review! Cheers!

Red Wine:
  • TERRE DI RUBINORO VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO 2006 - DOCG, Tuscany, Italy (#206862) - $17.95
  • BODEGAS CALLIA MAGNA SHIRAZ 2008 - Tulum Valley, San Juan, Argentina (#218818) - $15.95
  • PISONI TEROLDEGO 2008 - IGT Vigneti Delle Dolomiti, Alta Adige/Trentino, Italy (#209353) - $14.95
  • ELDERTON FRIENDS VINEYARD SERIES CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2009 - Barossa, South Australia, Australia (#595389) - $17.95
  • CHÂTEAU HYOT 2006 - AC Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, France (#063537) - $14.95
  • DOMAINE DE MATABRUNE BOURGUEIL 2009 - AC, Loire, France (#196865) - $14.95
  • SANTA CAROLINA RESERVA DE FAMILIA CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2008 - Maipo Valley, Chile (#684597) - $15.00

White Wine:
  • AMARAL COOL CLIMATE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2010 - Leyda Valley, Chile (#048025) - $14.95
  • BÉRES TOKAJI SÁRGAMUSKOTÁLY 2008 - Hungary (#200147) - $12.95 (MD)
  • TERENZUOLA VERMENTINO 2009 - DOC Colli di Luni, Liguria, Italy (#205823) - $17.95


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  • Date publishedSunday, February 27, 2011

13th Street Gamay Noir 2008 VQA Niagara Peninsula - Review

Just purchased this last week from the latest Vintages Release (see post from February 19th for my full list picks). Normally I shy away from Gamay's - they taste different, but this one got a good review.

13TH STREET GAMAY NOIR 2008 - VQA Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada (#177824) - $17.95



Tasting Note:
Black cherry, burnt toast, smoke, raspberry and some vanilla aromas. Black cherry, raspberry, menthol flavours. Touch of acidity at mid-length, finishes smooth with some bitterness. Medium-bodied. Some light tannins make it ageable, but definitely ready to drink now. Having this tonight with oven-baked chicken.


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  • Date publishedSunday, February 27, 2011

The Oenophile's Guide to Grape Sex


Wine grapes have been sex-starved for centuries to satisfy our palates.

So keep that stem to yourself, Mr. Merlot. Only viticulturists get to touch the likes of luscious Ruby Cabernet. Otherwise, a wine’s flavour can be dramatically altered when plant nookie occurs naturally in fields from Bordeaux to the Niagara region.

That abstinence has been great for the discriminating oenophile, but not so great for the grape.

It’s been farmed to remain chaste over 8,000 years while filling amphora, flagons and, more recently, crystal stemware with modern vintages pressed from cloned berries not much different from those fermented by ancient civilizations.

The lack of fruity booty action means grapes have become one large, genetically stagnant family — which makes the crop vulnerable to ever-evolving diseases, pests and fungi, says Canadian geneticist Sean Myles.

“If the grapes don’t change and the pathogens do, then it’s an arms race between pathogen and the host,” says Myles, a researcher at Cornell University who’s developed a gene chip that quickly identifies genetic traits in grapes.

Myles would like to see some pulp friction — the breeding of new grapes to find pest- and disease-resistant plants. His gene chip could speed up this experimentation by years, if not decades, to detect hardy, wine-worthy plants.

The problem: Breeding is expensive and time-consuming. It could take 30 years for a new hybrid grape to become commercially available. Many experiments don’t make it to market at all.

Europe is slower to embrace change, but Canada — a newbie in the wine game — is not.

The l’Acadie grape, for instance, is a hardy 20th century cultivar born and bred in Vineland. It turned out that Ontario’s summers were too hot for the grape, but Nova Scotia’s cooler climes were perfect.

“I find in the new world, we tend to be more willing to try things because we’re not burdened by tradition,” says Ed Madronich, chair of the Wine Council of Ontario and president of Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan, Ont.

“We have hybrids where we’ve crossed breeds . . . with (native) labrusca grapes that are winter-resistant and (cultivated) vinifera varieties to create things like baco noir, a big bold red that people love and we can grow here in Niagara.”

Myles led a team of researchers that studied more than 1,000 samples of the domesticated grape Vitis vinifera and its wild relative, sylvestris, from batches in Geneva, N.Y., and Davis, Calif. The team extracted DNA from grape leaves to develop a genetic fingerprint for each vine using more than 5,000 sites in the fruit genome. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January.

What Myles didn’t expect to discover was that 75 per cent of grape cultivars (plants bred for certain characteristics) are directly related as parent, offspring or sibling.

It’s a tight bond that allows vintners to perfect their wines by growing clones, which are genetically identical plants snipped from existing stock. Should natural plant sex unexpectedly occur from winds blowing fertile matter across neighbouring vineyards, it’s not unusual for those offspring to be weeded out.

“Once we have a plant that we like a lot, we don’t want it to have (natural) sex because it will change that plant,” says Gina Haverstock, a Nova Scotia winemaker and Myles’ wife.

“It might change the flavour of the grape, it might change the growth habit, it might change many things.”

Stubborn loyalty to go-to grapes may present problems for growers if chemical insecticides and fungicides are banned — a day many in the industry feel is coming as consumers increasingly demand untainted food and drink.

“A lot of regions are still using varieties that have been vegetatively propagated for hundreds of years,” says Myles, “and that doesn’t really make a lot of sense scientifically but it makes a lot of sense commercially, so it’s a conundrum.

“When it comes to horticulture, grapes are so much more romanticized than any other crop. People don’t realize they are requiring quite a bit of (chemical) spray. Seventy per cent of the fungicide used in the U.S. is used on grapes. (Grapes) need to be treated chemically in order to produce the amounts we demand (for wine).”

Wineries will have to think outside the Tetra Pak should governments outlaw chemical sprays.

Myles says growers have three main options: breed hardier varieties of grapes (his gene chip comes in handy here), go completely organic (a labour-intensive prospect for high-volume commercial businesses, or use genetically modified strains to combat insects and pathogens.


Traditional wine markets have survived one sweeping, deadly scare — barely.

In the 19th century, European vineyards were almost wiped out by the phylloxera louse.

A desperate but successful fix was found in grafting shoots onto American root stalk, which was resistant to the aphid. Yet after that disaster, growers didn’t aggressively continue to diversify.

More recently, that attitude is changing, with research and development picking up in Germany, Italy and France, notes Myles.

In Ontario, the industry tries to keep chemical sprays to a minimum, but sometimes they’re necessary to save crops, Madronich says.

“We know we’d like to reduce sprays. We know that mildew (a rot) is a problem for us and we know there are bugs and insects affecting grape vines, but we tend to find solutions.”

Those solutions can be a blend of chemical, organic and old-fashioned elbow grease, says Madronich.

His Flat Rock Cellars is not an organic operation, but when rot and bugs appear, his 32 hectares of plants are first hand-tended. Leaves are clipped by hand for better air flow to prevent rot taking hold when hot, humid, rainy weather smothers the area. Powdery and downy mildew are two types that might require chemical fungicide, since they can quickly decimate a crop.

Though the grapes aren’t having sex, the mating game is used to deceive a killer pest: the grape berry moth.

Pheromone traps are set away from the plants to lure the male moth to a scent he believes is from a female moth. The trap confuses the unfortunate bug, which lives for about 24 hours, and curtails the need for insecticide.

“We tend not to use insecticide, but if I ever had a really serious insect problem, I would use it because I’m a small business and (an infestation) could ruin my business,” Madronich says.

The largest centres of Canadian winemaking are in British Columbia and southern Ontario. However, Nova Scotia is emerging as a plucky upstart, using l’Acadie blanc wine to bump up its output, says Haverstock, the winemaker at Gaspereau Vineyards near Wolfville, N.S.

Sipping wines with DNA rooted in antiquity is an oenophile’s pleasure — after all, he or she may be drinking much the same thing a Renaissance king enjoyed. But surely there’s room on the wine lover’s palate for newer tastes.

People like Haverstock are banking on it.

Written by Mary Ornsby. Source - TheStar.com


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  • Date publishedWednesday, February 23, 2011

Review: Magnotta Oak Aged Cabernet Sauvignon, Ontario, Canada

Tonight's wine is from Magnotta (Ontario, Canada) - the Oak Aged Cabernet Sauvignon. There was no vintage on the label, so I'm not sure how old it is.



Tasting Note:
Strong raisin and plum aromas follow through on the palate. Very lightly oaked, slightly tannic. Light- to Medium-bodied. Normally, I enjoy wines from Magnotta, but this one I did not really enjoy. This is a light and fruity wine lacking oak depth. The label describing this wine was WAY off the actual flavour profile - perhaps it was aged too long.


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