Wow! Has it been over a week since my last post? I have to say that I have not been into wine very much this week. Last Sunday I attended the Vintages Bordeaux Tasting at the Four Seasons Hotel here in downtown Toronto. I tried so many wines in the course of 3 hours that my teeth hurt (I’m really not kidding). My mouth looked like it was right out of the Middle Ages! Remember folks, whenever going to a wine tasting event, make sure you spit! I’m happy I did at this one. I would have been under the table with the spittoons and they wouldn’t have been for wine. This weekend I’m off to the Niagara IceWine Festival. I can’t wait. Lots to report on that one I’m sure. Maybe I’ll FINALLY get to some video blogging.

On to some tasting notes for the week. I have two fabulous pics:

Tawse Quarry Road Chardonnay 2007, $35.20
I really enjoy the wines from Tawse. It’s a cute winery located in Vineland, Ontario. They’re really well known for Chardonnay and Pinot but I enjoy all the wines that they make. I know this wine isn’t cheap but it is delicious. For those that are ABC (anything-but-chardonnay), give this Chard a try. It’s quite elegant and not too heavy on the oak. You’ll find that you’re suddenly a new kind of ABC…all-about-chardonnay. I know. Corney joke.
www.tawsewinery.ca

Luigi Bosca Reserva Syrah, $14.95
Yummy! For a wine just under $15, this is definitely a “must buy”. This wine comes to us from the foothills of the Andes in Argentina. Lots of chocolate, blackberry and blueberry. There’s so much going on both on the nose and on the palate for a wine this inexpensive.

Remember that this weekend is the final weekend for the Niagara IceWine Festival! Maybe I’ll see you there. 🙂

http://www.icewinefestival.com

At the tasting bar today, I tried two yummy wines that won’t hurt your wallet!

Paso Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 $19.95
Yum yum yum! For just under $20, this wine has earned a place into my wine rack. Hot days and cool nights make this wine bold but balanced. There is lots of fruit and a smooth finish. A win-win in my books. Too bad some of those movie stars couldn’t be the same! So, in honour of the Golden Globe awards this evening, may each star be as bold and balanced with a good finish.

A video about the region and this winery:
www.pasocreek.com/aboutvideo.html

Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles Saumur Blanc 2008 $12.95
 All I can see is wow! For this price, this wine is fantastic. I went out and bought a few bottles because I don’t think that they’ll last long on the shelves.
A great Chenin Blanc from the Lorie Valley in France. I love the Loire. It’s such a beautiful place from vineyards and grand castles to caves carved out into the limestone hills. You won’t be disapointed by this wine and if you are, well, no one is perfect.
🙂

On a side note, Vintages is hosting a “Wine 101” event at the Arcadian Court in downtown Toronto on Tuesday February 9th. This is a nice venue, having been there myself a few times. The cost is $55 per person and includes not only a Champagne reception, but a tasting of over 30 wines from around the globe. For more information:

www.vintages.com/events/wine101_event.html

I’ve been introduced to a new site to add to my ever expanding toolkit of wine arsenal.

www.winealign.com

This is a site dedicated to our favourite juice brought to us by our yeasty friends…wait, did I just say that?
You can look up wines, check out new releases, read reviews, post a review or make a wine tasting list for yourself. I love the virtual cellar feature to track your personal wine collection. I think I’ll use this particular feature a lot since I’ve lost touch with my own collection. I’m sure my  bottles feel like I don’t know them anymore. There’s also a mobile access component which is perfect for all of us who are mobile-junkies.
The site is clean and really easy to use. I’ve just signed myself up!

“WineAlign was designed by wine consumers, – not wine sellers – who want logical, practical and objective wine buying advice.”

 It is free to join but to gain access to the premium services such as critics reviews, new releases and the mobile access, you do need to have a paid subscription. When you sign up for an account, you will receive free access to all these services for two months. It’s great that this kind of site exists for those of us who live in Ontario since it deals with the wines at the LCBO. The site is planning on expanding to other provinces in Canada. I myself am in the software industry so I know how expensive developing a product can be and how much time and effort it takes. I’m sure that the value of the site for each person will really have to depend on how much they’ll use it. A wise man once asked, “If you don’t use it, will you lose it?”

I really can’t wait for this upcoming event on Saturday December 5th. Filled with birthday cupcakes, food and music, this will be a really great party. It’s not only celebration but an educational tasting as well. With over 20 wines to try, the evening will showcase the talents of the South Africa terroir and the people behind the wine. This is the last iYellow social wine event of 2009 and it will be a good one! Happy 350th of making wine South Africa!

More information on South African wines:
www.wine.co.za
www.southafricanwinesociety.com
www.wineanorak.com/southafricanwine.htm

iYellow Wine Club & Wines of South Africa invite you to…

****************************************************************
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
****************************************************************

Let’s Celebrate South Africa’s 350th Year of Making Wine
with a Bash!

WHEN:
Saturday December 5th
8:00pm – 10:30pm

WHERE:
Reds Wine Bar
77 Adelaide Street West

Birthday Party Includes:
>10 Wine Stations and 20 Wines
> Delicious Birthday Cupcakes
>South African Birthday Sounds
& Much Much More!

RSVP Today $30

http://www.iyellowwineclub.com/2009/11/happy-birthday-south-africa.html

I’ve finally recovered from Hallowe’en. You know what’s not spooky – wine! Well, depends on what kind of wine we’re talking about. There have been some wines that made me want to scream in fright. Maybe next year I’ll celebrate October 31st dressed up as a grape. Or better yet, a French oak barrel. 🙂

Here are some nice picks that I’ve recently had. Hopefully they’ll provide you with a ghoulish delight!

Beronia Reserva 2005 $17.95
From Rioja, Spain, this wine will warm you up in these cooler months. This is a great quality wine for the money. It has all those typical flavours and aromas that are associated with Rioja wines like black fruit, vanilla, mocha and spice. Made from the Tempranillo grape (a native grape variety of Spain), this wine has seen some extra aging (the word Reserva indicates that the wine has seen a specific amount of aging).
Enjoy this wine for a few more years! It’s got a lot of life and love to give.

Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir 2007 $27.95
Wow! This is my favourite wine of the week. It’s just delicious. This is a Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast, California. It’s like drinking silk…if silk were a liquid. It has wonderful aromas of red berries and spice. The flavour is full with that great earthy taste that is often associated with fine wines from Burgundy. This wine is simply easy to drink (could be a dangerous thing!) and has a very nice finish. It is a bit on the high side for price, but it’s well worth the money. Normally I find a lot of California Pinots to be too fruity. This one is more my style. It’s a great balance between earth and fruit.

Domaine De Nerleux Brut Crémant de Loire $18.95
I just love Crémants. They’re sparkling wines from France made in the Champagne style (which is also known as the traditional method). Because this wine isn’t from Champagne, it can’t be called Champagne. This one comes from the Loire region of France. This wine is great as an aperitif. It’s quite dry (the word Brut means dry) with good fruit and very bubbly. Champagne taste on a Crémant budget! Great value.

Simi Chardonnay 2008 $19.95
This wine comes from the Sonoma region of California. It’s an easy going wine that’s ready to drink now. It’s a nice California Chardonnay for just under $20.

Event Alert!
The Gourmet Food & Wine Expo is coming up in a few weeks here in Toronto. It’s always a lot of fun. Sadly, I won’t be pouring wines this year. I’ll be on the floor tasting! 🙂
For more information: http://www.foodandwineexpo.ca

Purchase VIP tickets with the iYellow Wine Club and save money on the VIP evening:
http://www.iyellowwineclub.com/2009/10/gfwe-iyellow-vip-green-room.html

This year, the wines of Portugal will be featured. See you there!

Another great wine event is coming up brought to you by the Toronto-based iYellow Wine Club.

Are you ready to get Knotty?!
I know I am!

This event is ThursdaySseptember 10th, 2009 at the Thrush Holmes Empire gallery on Queen St. West.

The winemaker will also be at the event and as usual, lots of great wine and music to shake your money-shaker to.

http://www.iyellowwineclub.com

See you there!

I was in the bookstore a few days ago and wandered into my favourite section – wine! I was looking for something new and shiny, something that would go well with my ever increasing collection of wine-related books. I picked up a copy of Billy’s Best Bottles. I’ve heard about this book around other “winos” (aka. wine lovers) and how valuable it is to have around. It’s updated yearly and is written mainly for those of us who live here in Ontario. This book is packed with information. It has nice pictures of the bottles and describes the regions that these wines are from. This book isn’t inexpensive at about $20 a copy. But it does have a lot to offer and it is a kind of “investment”. There are over 200 wines listed and most are under $20 and many are under $12. Whether you agree with his picks or not, there is something for everyone. It’s super friendly to read and doesn’t use fancy wine jargon so it won’t scare some people away. It’s well-organized and full of useful information. I purchased a copy myself! I think it’ll be a great resource when navigating my way through the wine store and for doing investigative research into value wines.

http://www.billysbestbottles.com/billys-best-bottles-book/

I love this quote on the book cover: “A terribly useful and friendly wine book for the ‘ordinary Joe’.

or an ‘ordinary Mary’ – added by me. =)

I’ve started a small list of wines that doesn’t have your bank account screaming “insufficient funds” (well, you’ll need at least $15 in your account for this list). These wines can be easily enjoyed every night of the week. Save your crowd-pleasing wines for a more special occasion rather than Tuesday night pizza night (as Steve Thurlow would say). Walking through the liquor store, you can easily find wines that aren’t very expensive, but it’s a bit harder to uncover the ones that will also give you an enjoyable tasting experience.

This list is just a start and I’ll try to update it as I make my way through the ocean of wines to try! These are wines that I’ve tasted and have enjoyed for the small amount of money that they cost. Some more than others but wine is all about personal taste. I found that the selections below offer a bit more complexity in this price category.

For those in Ontario, some of these may be General List at the LCBO (meaning that they will most likely have them in stock all year) and others may be in Vintages (meaning that they will only be in stock for a short while, but may come back again the next year). If you like a wine, pay attention to the region that it’s from. From that, you can start experimenting with other producers from that same region. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Southern France. You can usually find great value and taste in wines labeled “Cotes du Rhone, Cotes du Rhone Villages and Cotes du Roussllion-Villages”. Wines from Chile are also great value for the most part. Chile has near-perfect conditions for grape growing and their wine industry is only getting bigger and better.

Red Wine
Caliterra Cabernet Sauvignon (Chile) $10.95
Chateau de Jau (France) $14.95
Chateau Bel Air (France) $11.95
Pey la Tour (France) $14.75
Calvet Medoc (France) $13.95
Sibling Rivalry Red VQA (Canada) $13.95
Paroles De Femme Cotes Du Rhone (France) $15.00

White Wine
Concha Y Toro Winemaker’s Lot No.11 Riesling (Chile) $14.95
Lacheteau Les Loges Vouvray (France) $14.95
J. Bouchon Sauvignon Blanc (Chile) $10.95
Chateau De Quincay Sauvignon (France) $13.95
Mouton Cadet Blanc (France) $13.25
Hillebrand Artist Series Unoaked Chardonnay (Ontario) $10.95
Hillebrand Artist Series Sauvignon Blanc (Ontario) $11.95

This week I had the fortune to try some great Spanish wines. These wines, for the most part, really offer a lot to the consumer for the money.

Red Wine
Bodegas Lan Reserva 2004 Rijoa $23.95

Love it! This wine is from a region called Rioja.
Rioja is probably the most famous wine region in Spain (although other regions are now making their mark).

This wine is silky smooth (kind of how the Zohan likes his hair) with flavours of black plum, violet, licorice and a hint of smoke (this is actually just another way of saying that a wine has been aged in wood). This Lan Reserva has a really nice finish on top of all the other nice things going on. A great buy…actually, a must buy! This wine made #52 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines (if you pay attention to these types of rating systems). This wine is mostly made of a grape variety called Tempranillo (a native grape of Spain, one that makes full-bodied wines). What does the word Reserva mean on a wine bottle? It depends where it’s from. In some countries, it really has no “legal” meaning but for Spanish wines, it means that the wine has been aged for a minimum period of time (by law). The main age labels are Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. These are just labeling terms given to wines to designate how much aging in wood and bottle they have received. Wines with a “Gran Reserva” label have been aged the longest before being released.

LCBO Vintages #42929
http://www.vibrantrioja.com

White Wine
Pazo Pondal Leira Albarino 2007 $18.95

This wine was recommended to me by a product consultant at the local wine store (LCBO for us in Ontario) and I must say, I’m very happy that he did. I wanted to bring something to a small gathering that was unusual and that would show the diversity of the Spanish wine industry. This wine is from a region in northwest Spain called Rias Biaxas. The Albarino grape can thrive in this part of the country where the climate is cooler. This prevents the grapes from ripening too much and becoming flabby. They maintain their crispness.

This wine has some nice acidity that makes your mouth water. Just don’t drool on the linens. It was very crisp and had a flavours of citrus, pear and maybe some other stone fruit like peach. The finish was quite long so I was enjoying it well after it left my mouth (if you’re still tasting the wine for a period of time after you’ve swallowed it, then it’s a sign of a good-quality wine). I didn’t have anything to eat with this wine since I drank it as an aperitif (does bread count?). I think this wine would go well with scallops or calamari. Serve it chilled but not too cold or you’ll lose the aromas and flavours. I kept this one in the fridge all day at the office but took it out over an hour before drinking.

LCBO Vintages #115816
http://www.riasbaixaswines.com/explore/Region.php

Here is a list of some restaurants in Toronto that allow you to bring your own wine:

• Table 17: No corkage fee Sunday and Monday (BYOB Sunday and Monday only). 782 Queen St. E. (at Saulter St.), 416-519-1851.

• Paese: No corkage fee Sunday to Friday for first bottle; regular charge $25. 3827 Bathurst St. (at Wilson), 416-631-6585.

• Cava: No corkage fee Sunday, regular charge $30. 1560 Yonge St. (at Heath St. E.), 416-979-9918

• Centro: No corkage fee Monday to Wednesday; regular charge $35. 2472 Yonge St. (at Castlefield Ave.), 416-483-2211.

• Nota Bene: No corkage fee after 9 p.m.; regular charge $40. 180 Queen St. W. (at Simcoe St.), 416-977-6400.

• Crush Wine Bar: Corkage $1 on Mondays; regular charge $25. 455 King St. W. (at Spadina), 416-977-1234.

• Lee: Corkage $1 Monday to Wednesday; regular charge $30. 603 King St. W. (at Portland St.), 416-504-7867.

• Madeline’s: Corkage $1 Monday to Wednesday; regular charge $30. 601 King St. W. (at Portland St.), 416-603-2205.

• Starfish: Corkage $20. 100 Adelaide St. E. (at Jarvis St.), 416-366-7827.

• Gamelle: Corkage $25. 468 College St. (at Markham St.), 416-923-6254.

• Vertical: Corkage $25. 100 King St. W. (at Bay), First Canadian Place, 416-214-2252.

• Splendido: Corkage $30. 88 Harbord St. (at Spadina), 416-929-7788.

Some of the above are Susur owned restaurants. I still think that for some of these places, $25-$30 to bring your own bottle is a bit expensive. It’s not really that much an incentive to bring your own if it won’t cost you that much more to just buy a bottle there. Mind you, after knowing the cost of some wines at the store and then seeing them for 3 times the price in the restaurant, maybe it’s worth it. The free to $1 corkage sounds great. Call me thrifty but it’s a recession!

🙂

This list is courtesy of Toronto Life online:
www.torontolife.com