Hello YummyGrapers! It's a few days after Labour Day and it's so gloomy and cold outside. :(
I think after a little time off during these last few months, it's good to start the new season with some bubbly. A toast to the fabulous summer of 2010!
I really enjoyed this sparkler from the Loire region of France. It's made with the same method as to make Champagne, only using the Chenin Blanc grape variety. It's like Champagne but cheaper! Remember, you can't call just any sparkling wine Champagne. The wine has to actually come from the region of Champagne. This is a great value sparkling wine.
Tasting note from the latest Vintages magazine distributed by the LCBO:
"This is classic and assertive chenin blanc, with notes of wool, hay, citrus oils and baked pear. Its intense personality requires you to be a devotee of the variety, but if you are, this is so deliciously satisfying, it's not to be missed. Score - 90. (Wine & Spirits, April 2009)"
While this wine isn't going to have you thinking about the complexity of aromas and flavours, it will get any party started. It's a fun wine. With it's minerality and zest, it can be used as an aperitif or with Thai and Asian dishes. I served this wine beside baked chicken with avocado and mango salsa. Yum!
What is Vouvray? (voo-vray) A region in the Loire Valley of France. A white wine from this region is still or sparkling, made from the Chenin Blanc grape variety.
Yummy yummy! I really loved this wine. The bubbles were small and well integrated. That's what you want in a Champagne - small and persistent bubbles. The finish just lingered on my tongue well after I swallowed this fine bubbly. If you want to splurge on something special, then grab this bottle of Taittinger ... and share it with me. :)
Tasting note from the LCBO Vintages magazine:
"Taittinger Brut Réserve is a [blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir] from 40 different vineyards and matured to perfection. Such a high proportion of Chardonnay is seldom found among the great Champagnes. This crisp and elegant Champagne is beautiful choice, with baked red apple, toasty, spicy, citrus, peach skin flavours ... (Kim Tan, www.sceneadvisor.com, Dec. 29, 2009)"
After a great workout on the ice and nicely centered scratch spin, I decided to reward myself. I went to the Summerhill Tasting Tower to see what was on the menu tonight. To my delight they had some new wines to taste!
Milton Vineyard Te Arai Vineyard Chenin Blanc 2007 (new zealand) $21.95
A wonderful expression of this grape variety. I just love the Chenin Blanc grape. You see many wines coming out of South Africa but New Zlealand has some great wines made from this variety also. This is one of them. It was delicious. I was introduced to this wine producer at the New Zealand Wine Fair last year. They make some fantastic wines from Pinot Noir to Chardonnay to Viognier. On the website, it says that this wine is certified organic. This means that the everything from the growing, processing and bottling of the wine was made using non-toxic/chemical methods. A white wine with great vibrant fruit and good acidity, it'll be a hit at your next spring soirée.
Finca Sobreno Crianza 2006 (spain) $17.95
I really enjoyed this wine this evening. It was much better than I expected only because a product consultant at my local LCBO had me try this wine last week from a bottle that had something horribly with it. Bleh. It was awful. It was a good exercise to try a corked wine. When I tried this wine tonight, I loved it. There was nothing corked about it. It was smooth with an enjoyable finish. I loved the aroma. Having been aged in older casks of American oak for seven months, it had a really fragrant nose of black fruit and cedar. This wine comes from the Toro region of Spain. It's made with the grape variety Tinta do Toro, which is another way of saying Tempranillo.
After trying some wines this past weekend at the iYellow Wine School, I'll hold up my glass to the above statement! I couldn't think of a more perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon than to attend a wine class. The class is 1.5 hours so it's not a huge time commitment and it's a great way to get your Saturday evening started. The wine class is held at Reds Bistro & Wine Bar, located in downtown Toronto in the financial district. Guests were greeted with a glass of sparkling wine and taken to the classroom. Each table was setup with tasting glasses, pens and other materials needed. Looking around the cozy room, people were socializing with one another before the start of the class.
The instructor for the class was Taylor Thompson, the sommelier at Reds Bistro. He kept things light, fresh and had the audience engaged throughout the class by getting interaction from the students. He discussed the history of wine production in South Africa, the climate, the "terroir", the production methods and the grape varieties. Each person received a neat booklet that discusses South African wines with beautiful pictures. I left the class wanting now to visit South Africa ...especially after that amazing Pinotage I tried! Googling (funny how I'm using google as a verb!) pictures of South African wine regions showed me how beautiful South Africa is. The foods that were paired with the wines were delicious. They were prepared by the Reds sous chef Amira Becarevic. Nothing like gourmet food with your wine tasting!
What's great about the iYellow Wine School classes is that they're really geared towards each type of wine lover from the person who is just starting to learn about wine to the person who is a more experienced wine connoisseur. There's always something new to learn. Another perk of attending a class is that after the session finished, we were able to order a glass of anything we liked at half price. This came in handy after class was over and students were mingling with one another. I loved this after-school activity! In total, there were 8 wines that were tasted during the session (not including the post-class half-priced glass). Good wine, good food and good company...what's not to love.
At the end, people were encouraged to do a blind smell test of 5 out of the 8 wines tried during the class. If you could get all 5 right only by smell alone then you won a bottle of wine. I won a bottle for answering a question in class. I won the Bellingham shiraz Viognier 2007. The question was a) What French region has the blend Shiraz/Viognier and b) Why is the Viognier grape blended with the Shiraz?
2) Franschhoek Cellar Chenin Blanc 2008 $18.95
I really enjoyed this wine on its own. It's unoaked and light with aromas of pear and apple, good acidity with a nice warm finish.
3) Durbanville Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2008 $11.95
This wine paired nicely with the nicoise salad. Where I enjoyed the Chenin on its own, I enjoyed this wine more with the food. It's so interesting to see the play between the wine and the food.
Food Pairing: Tuna Nicoise Salad
4) Goats do Roam 2007 $12.95
This is a lighter example of a South African wine with lots of red fruit and good tannin.
8) Deemersfontein Pinotage 2008
Yummy! This wine is "very like animal". There is so much going on. It's smokey with notes of chocolate, coffee and maple. It's delicious. It's a "Chocolate Coffee Pinotage" according to the producer's website. What do you know, I like all those things! Too bad you can't buy this wine at the liquor store. It is available through a wine agent here in Toronto: http://www.azureau.com
Food Pairing: Smoked Venison and Red Currant
Some things that I learned in class:
a) South African wines have a distinct (in most, pleasant) aroma of forest floor or moss due to the unique soil and geography of the region.
b) Thick legs of a wine (the film that is left on the glass as you swirl your wine around) that fall slowly is a good indication that the wine is from a warmer climate.
c) Viognier is often added to Shiraz (Syrah) to soften the Shiraz as well as to add a nice perfume to the red wine. Viognier is a white grape with lower acidity and it ripens earlier than Shiraz. Shiraz on its own can sometimes be very overpowering so with a small percentage of Viognier, it now becomes smoother.
If I had to choose 2 wines that really stood out for myself, they would be:
1) Franschhoek Cellar Chenin Blanc 2009
2) Deemersfontein Pinotage 2008
I had such a great time and will be definitely checking out more classes! The educational portion was great as was hanging out after and talking with fellow classmates. This class let me try delicious wines at various price points because as you know, price does not allows dictate quality. Anyone interested in coming with me to the next one?
Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work! By work I mean that hard task of tasting and writing about wine. Doesn't really sound like work to me. Although, I have been very liberal in how often I've been posting. I had every intention of posting regularly but what can you do, life got in the way. My New Year resolution is to post more often (I know, I know...you've heard this before) and to finally start those video blogs on my YouTube channel! I also want to start charting my own wine collection, which I'll gladly share with you. I need to keep track of what I actually have and when certain wines will be at their peak for drinking. I had a 2004 Chardonnay last week from Thirty Bench (Beamsville, Ontario). It was a lovely wine but definitely on it's way out the door since I waited a too long to drink it! It would have been superb a year or two ago. If I had a chart, I would have known this rather than letting it sit in my rack, ignored. I'm also reading some really great books that I'd like to share with you in future posts. Of course they're wine related.
I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season filled with good cheer and good wine. I was fortunate to take a last minute trip to San Francisco which included day trips to both Sonoma and Napa. It was indeed a wonderful Christmas! My husband decided to surprise me with this trip because he knew how much I wanted to go! With a phonecall to work telling me to come home and pack, we were flying the very next morning at 7am. Who knew the airport could be such crazy house at five in the morning. We had a wonderful time and drank lots of fabulous wine. I'm currently working on some posts about the trip. It's taking some time to go through all the pictures and tasting notes I made. See? I'm committed to traveling the earth, high and low, to bring you the findings of my on-going wine research. How dedicated am I! In the meantime, here are two wines that I've recently tried and enjoyed:
Bougrier Vouvray 2008 (Loire Valley, France) $14.95
I love Chenin Blanc and having been to the Loire Valley, I love the things that come out of the region. Although this isn't on my list of favourite Vouvray's, this wine, for the money is pretty good. It's a medium dry wine (there is a bit of residual sugar) that's easy on both the palate and wallet. Aromas of peach, citrus and pear are offered from this wine. You can certainly enjoy it with chicken or spicey south Asian dishes. Hooray for Vovray!
Gerard Bertrand Grand Terroir Montpeyroux 2007 (Midi, France) $17.95
This is a good wine for good value. Hailing from southern France, it scored a silver medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2009. This wine is the one on the right in the picture. I know that I've mentioned this before, but I love wines from the south of France. I couldn't find too much information from the producer about the actual grape varieties and percentages used but since it's from the southern Rhone, it's most likely a blend of the traditional varieties such as Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre or Cinsault grapes. Yum yum!
