Aye Alice ... Tis Whisky

   I used to think that scotch whisky drinkers were a bunch of old men sitting around in big leather chairs smoking cigars, sipping scotch out of expensive crystal glasses, chortling over bad jokes and talking about the stock market. Lately, I've noticed that drinking scotch has become much more mainstream. A younger crowd is diving into the scotch whisky market with enthusiasm and they're not drinking their father's scotch. They are looking for a better scotch and have done their homework on the Scottish distilled malted barley business.

  One of the easiest ways one can start learning about whiskies or increase their knowledge about scotch whisky is to attend a whisky tasting like I recently did in the lovely village of Carp at a local cafe called Alice's. One of my fellow somellier's, Dustin was hosting a scotch whisky tasting at the cafe.
  The best part of attending a whisky tasting is that you get to sample a good selection of whiskies without having to max out your credit card at the LCBO. Only to discover that you only like one or two of the whiskies and the rest of the bottles sit in the back of your cupboard with those extra Thanksgiving napkins with the cartoon turkeys on them.

So Dustin's plan was to start us off with a mild 17 year old single malt scotch called Glencoyne which is made just north of Glasgow. It has a relatively low peat content so our tastebuds would not be overwhelmed with the first glass. The whisky is aged in sherry casks and some of that sweet sherry comes to life when a touch of water is added.
 
The next scotch was an 18 year old single malt from the famous Glenfiddich distillery in the heart of the Highlands. Smooth and layered with a slight sweetness and spice from the Oloroso sherry casks that the whisky has been aged in.

We moved on to a 10 year old single malt called Springbank which is from the Campbeltown area. A nice little scotch with a hint of peat at the end.
From there we tried a Taliskers scotch  from the Island region which is on the west coast of Scotland. I found this scotch to be a little sharp on it's own and it seemed to have better flavour with a touch of water.

 We ended the night with 2 scotchs and an incredible little dessert called bacon shortbread cookie with chocolate drizzle. Yes, that's right ... bacon. At first  it sounded like a weird baking accident but that little cookie was so good it had everyone asking for seconds.
  The Bowmore 18 year old single malt from Islay definitely had some peat going on but it had a really nice caramel flavour to it.
  The final scotch was a 9 year old single malt called Port Charlotte PC9 from Islay. If you like that peat flavour in your scotch this is the whisky for you. One person aptly described the initial taste as "crunchy".

Not bad for an evening of laughter, discussion and I increased my knowledge about Scotland and scotch. I tried six whiskies for a decent price and now I know which one I will buy the next time I have friends over.

Cheers !

Thanksgiving Wines

Yes !! It's that time again. Gobble, gobble

Golden turkey, real cranberries (not the canned stuff), mashed potatoes with gravy drizzled on top and stuffing, ... glorious stuffing. Finish the meal off with pumpkin pie or butter tarts and I can already feel my pants stretching to the next size. Wrap the whole evening up with some exceptional wines and you've got yourself one of those memorable Thanksgiving celebrations.
People frequently ask me to suggest wines for holiday meals and one of the most common questions is "What's kind of wine goes with turkey?" That's a good question but try not to zone in on just the turkey part. Think more about the entire meal that's being served. Sure, you're the one cooking the turkey and it's the centre piece of the meal but your sister is bringing turnip casserole, your mother is doing her sweet potatoes, your brother is providing appetizers and Aunt Martha is bringing that green jello salad with the floaty things inside that looks like a space creature from a 1940s sci-fi movie. Add in the mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy and you've got a lot of different flavours, spices and textures on your palate.
Most of the dishes involve cooking with butter or fat in some form so you'll need a crisp wine to help cut through the fat. Also, there's a plethora of herbs and spices in each dish which can quickly overpower a light weight wine.

Here's my picks for Thanksgiving.

Errazuriz Estate Reserva - Sauvignon Blanc (2011), Valle de Aconcagua, Chile

Like most Sauvignon Blancs this light yellow with a tinge of green wine has good acidity (6.1g/l) which gives it a nice crisp finish capable of handling the richness of a turkey dinner. Aromas of tropical fruit and Bartlet pears stands out with some leafy tomato and grassy-ness (is that a word?) in the background. A medium bodied white wine.
Price - under $13 - LCBO




Finca El Origen - Chardonnay (2010), Mendoza Argentina

An Argentinian chardonnay with a nice balance of crispness and fruit with a smooth finish. Aromas of peaches and vanilla with a creamy texture and citrus flavours.
Price - under $11 - LCBO







Some other suggestions for turkey time.

For those people who like red with their turkey.
Creekside Estate - Pinot Noir (2006) - Niagara Ontario (under $25 at the LCBO)
Alamos - Malbec  (2010) - Mendoza Argentina (under $14 at the LCBO)

And if you're having pumpkin pie, you've got to try this dessert / wine combination. The creaminess of pumpkin pie with the sweetness and spritz of a Moscato is unbelievable.

McWilliam's Hanwood Estate Moscato (under $14 at he LCBO)

National Capital Craft Beer Festival - August 2012

  I don't normally don't post reviews on beer but I was particularly interested in the National Capital Craft Beer Festival because it's about a surging niche beer market that is getting a firm foothold within an industry that has been long dominated by a handful of big beer companies...... and also I like beer. 
  In these days of slick advertising, fancy packaging and catchy jingles, it's nice to talk to people who are more interested in the content of their product rather than colour changing cans, huge advertising campaigns or tea and fruit infused beers. I went to the festival with one objective in mind. I wanted to try some unique beers created by individuals who have a real passion for their craft and to talk to them about how they make these unique tasting beers.
 With beer cup in hand, a sheet full of beer tickets and a feeling of being slightly parched, I started my quest around the venue searching for some special beers to quench my thirst.
 First of all, kudos to the organizers of the craft beer festival. They had setup the venue so that all of the beer and food tents were around the perimeter of the park with picnic tables in the centre so if you wanted to stop and take a break or have some food you weren't clogging up the areas in front of the tents. It made navigating all of the beer and food areas easy and organized. Well done !

My first stop was at Broadhead Brewing Company (www.broadheadbeer.com) which is located on Auriga Drive in Nepean. Their business has been growing so well that they have had to expand operations into a larger footprint to accommodate more equipment. Business is obviously good. I tried their Longshot White Wheat Ale which was very nice. Some cloudiness and a subtle spice with a refreshing citrus crispness to it. A nice start to the day.

 That beer went down fast so it was time to move on to the next tent reminding myself to "stop and enjoy" each beer rather than throwing it back like a teenager at his prom. The next tent was Beaus All Natural Brewing Company (www.beaus.ca/) which is located on Terry Fox Drive in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. I was intrigued by there Weiss O'Lantern Pumpkinweiss white ale which turned out to be an excellent choice. The Pumpkinweiss had an nice orange hue with a smooth creamy finish and it tasted like pumpkin, cloves and citrus. Excellent !

I took a break to enjoy some live music in the main tent and then shuffled over to the Hogsback Brewing Company (hogsback.ca) which is located here in Ottawa. I decided to stick with the wheat ales so I sampled their Sunofa Beach Kristal Wheat beer. A bright clear and crisp beer with some citrus flavours and not too hoppy on the finish. All in all a very good beer.

 
Other stops along the way included the Flying Monkeys with their mildly hoppy wheat beer called Stereovision, Muskoka Breweries which had a great cream ale and the Clocktower Pub was pouring a nice smooth Blonde beer with some mild hoppiness to it. Alas, I was down to my last beer tickets so I ventured over to the Ashton Brewing Company (ashtonbrewpub.ca/) to sample their Ashton Cream ale which lived up to it's name. A bright golden colour with a smooth and not too hoppy creamy finish. A nice way to end the National Capital Craft Beer Festival.

I fully plan on attending next years festival but I'm definitely bringing some friends along to enjoy the food, music, sunshine and of course the beer.

Cheers ! 


  

Wine Tastings - DIY - Bordeaux

    I've always wanted to do this style of wine tasting since I began my pursuit of being a Sommelier and I honestly admit that I have a wee-bit of wine envy for the Bordeaux producers from France. They get to blend the great noble grapes of the Bordeaux region into a classic vintage with it's distinctive aromas and flavours. Imagine sitting at a table full of bottles containing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc (plus possibly others) and blending them together in endless combinations searching for that magical Bordeaux formula that sets your chateau apart from everyone else. What a life !!
    My "Build your own Bordeaux" wine tasting featured both a red and white Bordeaux styles using red wines from Ontario and white wines from Australia. Each participant was given a sheet with the percentages of wine to be put into each type of Bordeaux. The red wines featured Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from Pelee Island Ontario which is on a similar geographic latitude to the Bordeaux region in France. Each person was given a mixing formula for a Classic or Chateau Bordeaux, a right bank Bordeaux and a left bank Bordeaux along with a tasting glass and three 1 ounce cups to measure the wine portions. For the white Bordeaux, a Semillon and a Sauvignon Blanc from Australia was used to create their personally blended white Bordeaux. I encouraged everyone to assess the aromas and flavours of each wine before blending them together. After blending the wines together, did they like it ? If they didn't, try adding more of what you like to see how much it changes. It's amazing to see how a small amount of Cabernet Franc can really change the flavour of a Bordeaux. A word of advice, use dinner plates under the tasting glass as some people are a little messy when it comes to pouring. It's a real hands on, chemistry type of wine tasting but it's lots of fun.

Here's some examples of the formulas we used to make Bordeaux blends. Since there are no Bordeaux police and the chateaus use their own mix of the essential grapes that make up their Bordeaux, you are free to let your imagination run wild !

Bordeaux Red

Classic Bordeaux - 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc
Left Bank Bordeaux - 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc
Right Bank Bordeaux - 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 70% Merlot

Red wines used for our tasting
Pelee Island Cabernet Sauvignon from Pelee Island Ontario
Pelee Island Merlot from Pelee Island Ontario
Pelee Island VQA Cabernet Franc from Pelee Island Ontario

Bordeaux White

Semillon - between 70% to 90%
Sauvignon Blanc - between 30% to 10%

White wines used for our tasting
2006 St Hallett Semillon from Barossa, South Australia, Australia
2011 Lindemans Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc from Australia

Cheers !

Done and Done !... maybe

It's all over. Elvis has left the building, completed, finito, done,   ..... or is it ?

The last several weeks have been intense to say the least, blind tastings, creating a wine list for an Ottawa restaurant and a service exam which involved pairing menu selections with a suitable wine, opening a bottle of  wine in front customers and pouring the wine without dribbling it all over the table like a dog marking his territory. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement but I did manage to complete the wine obstacle course without too much collateral damage and my dignity relatively intact.

 I have officially completed the Sommelier program and received my Sommelier pin which means that

A - I  have no real reason to sample a half dozen wines on a Tuesday night
and
B - "Studying for a wine exam" is no longer an excuse when you're hungover

 Now that I have completed the Sommelier program, the one question people have been asking me repeatedly is " So what are you going to do now that you're a Sommelier?" Well that's a really good question and .... I really don't have an answer yet. What I do know is that I've only scratched the surface of oenology and now the responsibility of making sure that my wine knowledge is current belongs to me so I will have to be diligent in my learning which means ... Yes, you guessed it!!.... more wine.
 So where does my wine research go from here you ask? This blog will certainly continue on with some changes, enhancements and additions. I plan to do more research on wines and add detailed information when a wine is reviewed. Also, I'll be providing some of the wineries notes about how the wine was made and their tasting notes if available plus there will be some winery travel information as well. Wine and food pairings will also be major part of this blog as I will endeavour to suggest some good wine pairings across a variety of dishes. I'll attempt to blend all of this information together with some humour and wit without being pretentious or boring or sounding like an idiot.

Here's my picks for this week.

Bogle Cabernet Sauvignon - 2009 - Lodi / Clarksburg California

Really impressed with this Cabernet Sauvignon. It had predominant flavours of cherry, black pepper and cassis with some nice (not harsh) tannins which gives it that full bodied Cabernet feeling. The wine is aged for 14 months in American oak which brings out that pepper flavour on the finish.
Unfortunately this wine is only available in the US
This Cabernet Sauvignon can be served with everything from a nice plate of aged cheeses to pepper steak. It's fully bodied, rich with flavours and at an affordable price (in the US). My only regret is that I didn't try their Pinot Noir or Zinfandel.






The Original Smoking Loon Chardonnay  - 2010 - California

Like the Donovan song lyrics, "They call me mellow yellow". A bright straw coloured Chardonnay with aromas of peach, pear and creme brulee. It's smooth and oaky with flavours of vanilla, citrus and tangerine. The wine is aged sur lie on the yeast to extract more flavours and stored in french oak to bring out the vanilla and creme brulee components. The vintner blended 79% Chardonnay grapes with 15% Chenin Blanc and 5% Viognier to give this wine a mellow component you wouldn't get in a 100% Chardonnay wine. Nicely done.
Unfortunately this wine is only available in the US
I tried this wine with BBQ shrimp and Maryland crab cakes which have a little zing to them and it proved to be an excellent choice. A nice contrast.

Heading for the final turn

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or gone into rehab. I'm on the final push towards the finish line which is the last course to completing my Sommelier program and it's a little intense. Creating a wine list for a local restaurant is not an easy task. Finding the wines that pair well with the menu, associated wine agents, building the wine list and inventory all wrapped up in a short time frame and I'm starting to sweat like a teenager on a first date with a huge pimple on my nose. Now don't get me wrong, it's really interesting doing the research by "pouring" through different wines, researching the restaurant, sampling menu items and assembling a unique reasonably priced wine list for the restaurant. Luckily I'm not doing this on my own. I have two very enthusiastic classmates working with me on the project which allows each of us to focus on specific tasks and do quality work without worrying about missing content.

 How difficult is it, you ask? Next time you're in a restaurant take a few minutes to go through the menu and try pairing the wines on the wine list with some of the appetizers or main courses. Don't cheat and take the easy ones like steak with Cabernet Sauvignon or pork chops with Pinot Noir. Try something that's a little different like oysters or a pasta dish with grilled sausage. Is the sausage spicy? Is the pasta sauce tomato, oil or cream based? All of these flavour factors combine to give you a unique mouth feel and taste that needs the right wine to compliment the food. It's all about balancing the food flavours with the wine aroma and taste. Now try pairing your wine selection with one of the appetizers or starters. Does it pair or do you need to select a different wine. It's not as easy as it looks and it often requires a lot of sampling.

Here's my picks for this week

 Sledgehammer Zinfandel - 2008 - Napa Valley

A bright ruby red Zin with aromas of blackberry, smoke and sweet spice. This big bold wine is aged in Hungarian and French oak which gives it the sweet spice flavour. Like the Clos du Bois Zinfandel, the Sledgehammer vintner also adds Petit Syrah (8%) for an extra bit of punch and colour. An excellent zinfandel for just sipping with friends or it can be paired with hearty dishes like big juicy BBQ hamburgers with all the toppings or your favourite pizza
Price - under $18 at LCBO
I like this wine because it's big and bold but not overpowering for a Zinfandel. At 13.5% ABV the wine doesn't leave you with that hot sensation after one sip. Smooth with some spice.

Good and Bad Wines

 People ask me why I only write about good wines and don't mention the ones that are stinkers or dogs and believe me there are more than a couple bad ones on the market. There's a couple reasons why I don't like to talk about wines that are not "up to par".
 First, my appraisal or review of wines is not the definitive word on what is good or bad. Everyone has different tastes and expectations from a wine. You have the final word on whether you will purchase that product again or recommend it to a friend.
  Second, I always refer back to some good advice my mother gave me when I was a wee lad growing up. She said. "If you haven't got anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all".

 So if I'm not going to tell you which ones are bad wines, how do you know when you've selected a "dog of a wine"? How does one know what is a good or bad wine. Well... you could take the Sommelier course and become more knowledgeable about wine or I can give you a few tell tale signs of a bad wine.

• Wine should be balanced. It should not be too acidic or fruity, not too tannic or flabby and certainly not too sweet or too dry. Think of the wine sitting on a scale. If your white wine is too fruity the scale starts to tip in one direction and that's all you taste. You need another aspect of the wine to come forward like acidity (crispness) and tip the scale back in balance.
• The aroma of the wine should be layered and not dominated by one smell. Every time you take a sip and your nose goes into the glass, you should smell different aromas and not just one.
• The taste should linger but not hang around forever like that annoying college buddy who comes over for "a beer" and doesn't leave till the next morning.

Keep these signs in mind when you try next wine wine and see if you can tell if it's good, bad or somewhere in between.

Here's my pick for this week.

Castillo de Monseran - Granacha - Carinena Spain - 2010

What a nice surprise! I bought this wine on sale for $7.95 so I wasn't expecting a lot but this medium bodied Granacha really delivered the goods. Aromas of blackberry and dark fruits with some vanilla in the background. This ruby red Granacha which is related to his french cousin Grenache has a nice fruit flavour of blackberry and some dark chocolate.
Price under $9 (LCBO)
 I like this wine because it's an easy drinking wine an pairs well with beef ribs or some hard cheeses.



Cheers !!

2011 Holiday Wine Picks

It's the holiday season !!!

Which means someone's emailing you a weird video of a dog in a Santa hat on a toboggan, you're digging through the closet to find that ugly Christmas sweater to wear at the neighbours party and of course it's time to go over your holiday party checklist.

So lets go through it.

Cleaned yourself up and plucked those nasty hairs from your ears - Check
Put on a fresh coat of deodorant - Check
A little splash of cologne in case the deodorant fails - Check
Snappy outfit that came from this decade - Check
Party gift for the host - Check
A wine that says you walked into the LCBO, spent less than 60 seconds looking and finally decided on a mainstream selection because you really don't know what's good and will probably feel like a schmuck when you see what the neighbour has plunked down next to your wine - Unfortunately... Check

This time of year means lots of parties, turkey dinners, some belt loosening, appetizers, desserts, more belt loosening and a good supply of wines for each occasion. To avoid becoming that social outcast due to your wine selections, I've put together my annual list of wines for the holiday season. These are reasonably priced wines that won't have you pawning some of the kids gifts to fund for your wine budget. These vinos are a little off the beaten path but sure to be crowd pleasers. You might even find the host trying to squirrel away your wine selection for themselves.

Let's start with sparkling wines. These effervescent wines are good for year end celebrations or with some soft cheeses like goat or brie (some even like it with potato chips). A nice alternative to the more traditional champagne.
Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava Sparkling (Spain) - $14.55 (LCBO)

Grapefruit and citrus flavours in a nice bright sparkling wine done in the traditional champagne method
JipJip Rock Sparkling Shiraz (Australia) - $17.55 (LCBO)

A different style of sparkling wine using the Shiraz grape. Not your usual sparkling wine.

White wine can be a good multi purpose wine as it goes well with most seafood like shrimp and a lot of appetizers as well as turkey. Keep a good variety of whites like Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Chardonnay on hand for tree decorating parties and turkey dinners.

Cave Springs Riesling VQA 2009 (Niagara, Ontario) - $13.95 (LCBO) 
This Riesling rates consistently high and pairs well with turkey and seasoned dressing

Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough NZ) - $13.95 (LCBO)

Very Aromatic and typical of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. This wine really needs to be chilled in order to enjoy it's crispness. Excellent with appetizers like shrimp or goat cheese.

Red wines from the lighter Pinot Noir and Gamay varieties through to the fuller bodied Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz's which can be used for main dishes like pork and tourtieres plus some sharp cheese plates.
Montecillo Crianza 2005 (Rioja Spain) -$14.95 (LCBO)
Dark, rich with a smooth tannic finish
Red Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon  2008 (Washington USA) $14.55 (LCBO)

Nice balance of fruit and smooth tannins in this dark ruby red Cab.

Dessert and Fortified wines are nice post dinner treats or with cheese plates.

Jackson Triggs Proprieters Grand Reserve Cabernet Franc Icewine (Niagara) $24.95 (LCBO)
Really impressive Cabernet Franc icewine. Great with sweet desserts

Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port 2002 (Portugal) $16.95 (LCBO)
If you like port. This is a really nice port at a great price.

Enjoy the Holiday Season with friends and family.

Cheers and Happy Holidays from markuncorked !!! 

Wine Tastings - DIY

For the last couple of years I have been hosting a wine tasting party at my brothers cottage during one of our yearly family get togethers. Between golf, eating and drinking wine we manage to squeeze in a couple of hours where I do a blind tasting.

 We usually gather around the coffee table, put out some wine glasses, pens and sheets of paper (to write down our thoughts), a few different cheeses (who doesn’t like cheese) and then go through each of the wines studying colour, aroma, taste, mouthfeel and a food pairing.  The fun and laughter starts when some individuals who have secret aspirations of becoming a chef describe extravagant full course meals to be enjoyed with the wine. There's a lot of "au gratins and red wine reductions" phrases thrown around.

Now you have to know that at our age we have sampled a lot of wines over the years...really… a lot of wines... so I have to be very selective of the wines that I put into the tasting so that they are not easily guessed. I also try to make a point about wine when I do the tasting. For example, last year I did a blind tasting of 3 chardonnays. I picked a Inox chardonnay, a regular oak aged chardonnay and a barrel fermented, sur lies and oak aged chardonnay for the tasting. As predicted, everyone guessed the first 2 wines as either a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Viognier or Torrontes. It wasn’t until we got to the last wine with it’s heavily oaked flavours that people began associating it with Chardonnay. 

The point I was trying to make was that even though it was the same grape, the vinification process plays a major role in how the wine turns out. Don’t think that all Chardonnays or Shiraz/Syrahs or Cabernet Sauvignons will taste the same.

Here’s some examples of wines I have selected for blind tastings or try your own variation. You don’t have to be a wine expert to experience the difference.

Primitivo and a Zinfandel. Same grape DNA but two totally different wines.

Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc blends from Niagara/BC and a french Bordeaux. Compare old world versus new world wines

Ice Wine and Sauterne. Demonstrate different harvest methods to get a sweet wine. Combine this with a food pairing of desserts. Yum !

Similarities – Different Shirazs from the Barrossa valley or Gewurtztraminers from Ontario – similar wines from the same region but try different vineyards to see how the vintner puts his own special brand on the wine.

Food pairing – Pick an appetizer and wine to go with it. The fun starts when you mix and match wines with different appetizers.  Trust me, you don’t need dinner after this one.

The combinations are endless so don’t be shy about trying different wines. The whole point is to explore wines and have fun.

Here’s my picks for this week.


Enzo Vincenzo - Valpolicella Ripasso - 2008 - Veneto Italy

Don't you like the way the name rolls off your tongue and I'm not even Italian. The 3 grape blend that goes into the famous Valpolicella red, Ripasso and Amarone wines is remarkable in flavours and aroma. This particular dark ruby red Ripasso from the Veneto region in northern Italy has aromas of dark fruit, raspberry and some spice. A nice balance of fruit, acidity and tannins with flavours of cherry, dark fruits and some earthiness to it. It also has a nice crisp finish. 
Price - under $15 at the LCBO
I like this wine because it pairs well with most Italian pasta and pizza dishes without the big bold and sometimes overpowering flavours of an Amarone. 




Errazuriz Estate Reserva Chardonnay - 2010 - Valle de Aconcagua Chile

This 100% Chardonnay is mostly fermented in stainless steel tanks with 12% reserved for fermenting in french oak barrels. The final blends yields a wine that is nicely balanced between fruit and acidity. The oak brings flavours of vanilla to the melon and tropical flavours of the grape. 
Price - under $12 at the LCBO
I like this wine because it combines a crisp tropical flavours with some smoothness on the finish. Another good value Chardonnay from Chile. 






Cheers !

Friends Picks

This may be hard to believe but with so much variety of wines, sherries, ports, etc on the market, it's sometimes difficult to find one that I want to write about on my blog. It's easy to go for the low hanging fruit of a mass produced Aussie or Chilean red wine but I promised myself that I would really try to find exceptional wines at a good value. There's no sense in reviewing an incredible Bordeaux if it's financially repugnant to most of my readers or a mass produced Australian Shiraz that virtually everyone has tried. I spend a lot of my time in the LCBO looking for special wines that I think would appeal to most of the wine drinking population and at a good value.
Occasionally, one of my friends asks me to try a wine that they recently purchased or brought back from another country. So as a change of pace, this weeks blog is not about the wine I selected. It's about wines referred to me by a friend .... and no ... it's not about me being too cheap to buy wine this week.

 A friend down the street invited me to a bonfire in his backyard a couple of weeks ago. Dave has a penchant for good wine like myself is always looking for that great undiscovered wine. He was raving about a Shiraz that he had recently purchased and liked it so much that he bought an entire case. Dave declared that this would be the wine of the summer for 2011 and he may be right. Dave you definitely picked a winner!

Dave's pick is a 2009 Shiraz called Dandelion Vineyards Lionheart of the Barossa.

 The Shiraz is definitely fruit forward with flavours of blackberry with some spice and dark chocolate. I was expecting those big bold Aussie tannin's but these were more rounded and refined. Not the grippy texture I'm used to and it was a welcome surprise. It's a dark red wine with a bit of a purple hue around the water line. An impressive Shiraz from the Barossa region of Australia. This full bodied Shiraz has a 14% alcohol level which means the long fruit finish doesn't leave you with a hot sensation like some powerful Shiraz's. The vintner used a combination of new (25%) and old french oak which explains some of the more refined tannin levels. They also racked the wine without any filtration or fining agents to preserve the complexity of the wine.

Total Acidity - 6.4g/l
Residual sugar - 2.1 g/l
Ph - 3.48

I tried to find this in the LCBO or Vintages but unfortunately there is no listing for it at this time.







The second recommendation is from my old high school buddy Paul who recently made a trip to the central coast region of California with his wife to visit friends and a few vineyards in the Paso Robles area. Before I start talking about the port, I have to give Paul credit for his diligence and out of pocket expense in bringing this port back to Canada. The airline made him jump through some hoops in order to get the additional "luggage" through customs and on the plane. In this case perseverance paid off nicely.

Paul's pick is a Zinfandel Port from Alapay Cellars, Paso Robles California

 I'm a bit of a Zinfandel fan so when I saw him bring out a bottle of Zinfandel port, I knew it was going to be a special evening. As luck would have it, my wife had prepared a blueberry cheesecake for dessert which paired nicely with the port.
 From the aroma and first taste you could easily tell that this port was from the Zinfandel family. Dark fruit, sweet spice and a slight peppery taste gave the port a rich full bodied flavour that was not too hot considering it had 19.5% alcohol. The finish was long and smooth with raspberry and spice on the palate. Well done Paul !

This port is only available through US shipping or in the Paso Robles area of California.

There you have it. If you have a wine you'd like me to try, send me an email and I'll review it.  If I like it as much as you do, I'll put it down as your recommendation on my blog.

Cheers !!