Mer Soleil "Silver" Chardonnay 2006

Mer Soleil, Caymus' chardonnay project in the Santa Lucia Highlands, has been making superb wines for some time now. The Mer Soleil regular "gold" bottling is an oak-aged chardonnay that, while opulent, is also balanced and elegant. The "silver" - new in the BC market - is their unoaked chardonnay and is certainly also made with balance in mind.

The nose on this chard has nuts, caramel, butter, peaches and cream, pineapple, and banana sundae like you would expect from many California chardonnays. The palate continues the ripe and rich fruit with peach, pineapple, and coconut / pina colada. However, even with all the flavour this has great balance and fresh acidity. Texturally leaner and sharper on the palate than the oaked chard, this also makes the "silver" even more food friendly and perhaps more suitable for a hot day. While in California chardonnay abounds, quality balanced chardonnays are a bit harder to find. And, while if I were in the US I could recommend quite a few other very good chards at this price point, this is perhaps the best (or close to) California Chardonnay in BC for $35. As such, I highly recommend it for new world chard fans.

Very Good+
$35 at BCLDB

Movia Ribolla 2005

Unheard of grape varieties often find their way into wine geek nerd speak as those of us who drink and taste large amounts of wine often end up with somewhat jaded palates. Strange varieties can often challenge those palates in a new way. However, I also find that sometimes wine geeks can over-hype varieties that really aren't that interesting and underplay the classics. Luckily, however, this 'Ribolla' based wine from Movia is a pristine example of how indigenous varieties can produce absolutely stellar and singular wine when made well.

I was pointed to Movia by Sean of Vinifico who noted in his post that Movia has been family owned since 1820 and straddles the Italian and Slovenian border near the Friuli region of Italy. Furthermore, this winery has been biodynamic for the last 20 years.

The colour on this was quite interesting: golden yellow with hints of orange. The nose shows this wine's singularity with an impressive bevy of melon (honey dew and cantaloupe I would guess), quince, lemon rind and floral honey. The palate is extremely dry and shows stone, mineral, wood, earth, bitter citrus rind, bark and cardamom. I don't usually go for such a huge list of discriptors, but I wanted to try and impart how unique this wine really is - it does not fit into any standard flavour profile that you would expect from an Italian white. All these interesting flavours are layered on a more traditional backbone of vanilla and lavender. Amazingly, this paired tremendously well with Indian cuisine. Any wine geek who feels jaded with their recent tastings really owes it to themselves to seek out this Ribolla from Movia - it will wake up any tired palate.

Very Good+ to Excellent
$37 at Kits Wine Cellar

Au Bon Climat Mt. Carmel Vineyard Chardonnay 2001

I picked this up about a year or so ago from Marquis on sale. You don't often run into California chard with this much age on it in BC, and certainly not at the price I paid. Further, Au Bon Climat is one of the best producers in the Santa Barbara region - all in all hard to pass up. That said, I was somewhat disappointed with this otherwise tasty wine.

The wine poured a dark golden yellow, like gold foil. It was also starting to brown at the edges - a sign of age. Nevertheless, the nose was big and full not suggesting tiredness: pineapple, vanilla marshmallow, kiwi, and creme brulée. The palate had awesome fullness and vitality, especially for 8 years on the bottle. I got plenty of creme brulée and banana cream pie. Although the flavours were rich and full, I found this wine a bit hot and thus imbalanced with respect to alcohol. And, even with the new world creamy goodness, this was not showing the kind of complexity I would expect for great chards after 8 years in the bottle.

Very Good+
~$30 on sale at Marquis

Gonzalez Byass 'Matusalem' Oloroso Sherry VORS (30 years)

I've written positively about Byass' VORS sherries before, but this Oloroso goes far beyond anything else I've tasted from Byass. Pouring a sticky thick brown like caramelized sugar, this 20.5% ABV concoction had an astounding level of depth and complexity. On the nose I got nuts, sage, brown sugar, marjoram, date, and figs (both dried and fresh). The palate was huge, sweet, balanced, and very intense: wood, smoke, figs, peat, cigar, and sage notes made this almost a cross between sherry and scotch and unlike any wine I've had before. In fact, when you pair this with fried tapas, chorizo, dates, and hard spanish cheeses you will realize this is perhaps one of the finest Olorosos, indeed sherries, you could have.

Excellent+
$35 for 375ml at BCLDB

Palacio de Fefinanes Albarino 2007

I've tried a few albarinos before, often appreciating their easy drinking but not so much their lack of complexity. I think I just never got into the good stuff. This particular albarino comes to Vancouver from one of its most respected producers in Spain, thanks to Marquis Wine Cellars' John Clerides, who never fails to find some of the most unique and good value wines all across the world.

The nose on this had lemon, lime, and grapefruit not unlike a riesling. The palate was very impressive, with stone, apple, and lime predominating. The mid-palate held a full body and clean acidity. Somewhat like a cross between pinot blanc and riesling, I loved the cleanliness, the full body, and the superb food friendliness. Its very slightly off-dry character made it perfect for pairing with chorizo. I could imagine this wine perfectly paired with a chorizo mussel dish. Great stuff and the best Albarino I've yet had.

Very Good+ to Excellent and Highly Recommended
$30 at Marquis

Grosset Semillion / Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Grosset is so consistent in creating fresh, lively, and complete wines that they have become my favourite producer of white wine from Australia, from their rieslings to this excellent Bordeaux style white blend.

The perfumed nose on this blend was floral and filled with rich dense notes of nectarine and pear. The palate had lime and pear up front, a crisp and clean mid-palate and notes of nectarine and sour apricot on the finish. This was thicker than expected, which I suspect was brought to the wine by the Semillion. And, while this is certainly a cut wine, it is also expansive: a wonderful blend of acidity and fat that still dials back its opulence compare to, say, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Very Good+
$30 at Marquis

Petaluma Shiraz 2006

I have generally enjoyed the wines from Petaluma, being particularly impressed by their Coonawara red blend. This shiraz is certainly not your typical Aussie fruit bomb. The nose on this shiraz from the Adelaide Hills had cassis, chocolate and eucalyptus, almost like some California Cabernets. The palate picked up many notes from the nose, including eucalyptus and chocolate, adding a secondary line of woodyness.

This was well rounded and extremely smooth drinking with very fine, almost undetectable tannins. With moderate sweetness and a good flavour package this wine is very solid, and while its not going to send you into the stratosphere, it will be a great sipper and pleasant with many types of food: everything a simple and tasty wine needs.

Very Good
$35 at BCLDB

Gonzalez Byass 'Apostoles' Palo Cortado (30 years)

And now for something completely different, or at least moderately so. I don't get the occasion to write about Sherry too often, mostly because there is a dearth of selection in the BC market. However, a few impressive high end aged sherries have recently started to trickle through the morass of government controlled liquor distribution, occasioning an opportunity I hope to continue to take advantage of in the future.

Palo Cortado is a rare type of sherry that sits between Amontillado and Oloroso in sweetness level, making it off-dry, but still moderately sweet. This particular Palo Cortado had brown sugar, caramel and baking spice on the classic oxydized nose. The palate was full and complete with apple, fig and caramel. Big up front, this also had great layering and is a wonderful pairing with rich cheeses. However, it doesn't match Fino or Manzanilla in their beautiful ability to pair with cured meats and tapas. Nonetheless, this was much more complex and certainly would gain depth and balance with more age. 20% ABV.

Very Good (I suspect higher with more bottle age)
$35/375ml at BCLDB or Kits Wine Cellar

Dry Stack Cellars Marie's Block Syrah 2006

From the Bennett Valley - the newest Sonoma AVA - this syrah is very big and very bold. A measly 300 cases of this supremely dense blackish purple darker than concord grape juice wine was produced. While this style of wine is going a bit out of fashion, I still highly respect winemakers that can pull off a ballsy New World syrah without making it syrupy, overly sweet, or one dimensional. This is just such a wine.

With a rich meaty nose, the toffee and stewed black fruits complimented the chocolate, cherry, and coffee aromas that made this smell like a Willy Wonka experiment gone right. The palate was somewhat sweet up front, but very dry in the back end, with proper tannic grip. This is quite alcoholic and extracted, but its concentration is superb and it sits on the good side of the cusp of overdone wine. This is in almost every way a bruiser (albeit with just enough of a soft heart to garner our sympathies), and is clearly an American wine made for high fat American food.

Very Good+
$38 at North Berkeley Wine Merchants

B.R. Cohn Olive Hill Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

B.R. Cohn doesn't get a lot of press. Sitting in the relatively unpopulated southern Sonoma Valley, Cohn quietly makes stellar Cabernet and outstanding olive oil, both for reasonable prices. Luckily for me when I first came to San Francisco K&L had a huge selection of vintage bottles of Cohn's estate cab, which is one of the most refined in Sonoma in my opinion.

The nose on this beautiful Cabernet was rich and redolent of licorice, plum and dried figs. There was a tremendous depth of aroma here and an intensity suggestive of thick tar. The palate really got into the secondary and tertiary flavours, with tar, tobacco, and cigar box rolling over each other as the palate developed. Still, this had a distinctly warm-climate approach with a lot of fruit concentration and depth of fig, plum and dried black cherries. Amazingly, while many wines might simply be described as herbal, here I could cleanly detect distinct herbs such as thyme and sage. The mid-palate was also undergirded by a touch of earth. This is a stellar Cabernet and at a price that belies its complexity.

Excellent to Excellent+
$40 at K&L

Terra Valentine Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Spring Mountain is one of the 'prestige' AVAs in Napa Valley. It's rare to find a Cabernet from here that costs less than $50. Mostly, that prestige is well earned, especially for those who appreciate big tannic cabs replete with sun and intensity. Enter Terra Valentine, a lesser known producer who has started to make strides towards some very promising wines at very inviting prices.

The colour of this wine could might best be described as utterly blackened juice. The mountain fruit is in clear evidence with the massive nose of brambly cassis, alcohol, twizzlers, and mocha. The palate is filled with flavour, but avoids going over the top. Frankly I was expecting a lot less balance than what came forth. But be prepared, this is supremely new world: caramel toffees, black currant jam and vanilla make this unctuous and hedonistic. With a strong and built mid-palate, the wine also does not dissapoint with its tremendous and lengthy finish. My only real complaint (and one that lowers the rating one notch) is that this is a bit 'hot', or overly alcoholic, which I imagine would dissipate with decanting. Say what you will, this is a great price for a very high quality cab that exhibits true Spring Mountain characteristics.


Very Good+
$33 at K&L

Jacques Puffeney Trousseau Arbois Cuvee Les Berangeres 2005

You don't see a lot of Arbois wines around, which is a shame if this bottle is any indication. Given, Puffeney is acknowledged as the top producer of the region, but still, there is something special going on here. Arbois is a relatively large appellation located in the Jura region of eastern France. The red wines of the region are made from Pinot Noir and Poulsard grapes.

This is both a singular and an absolutely compelling wine. With a nose of earthy and minerally berry fruit, this is elegant and yet forward with a touch of licorice. The palate had awesome tart earth and loamy elements, with heavy minerality and yet juicy fruit that you don't see as much in true old world wines. With a combination of beautiful flavour and fundamental elegance, this wine will appease most any jaded palate. 13.5% abv.


Excellent and Highly Recommended.
$30 at K&L

Mer Soleil Chardonnay 2006

Made by Caymus and produced with fruit from the Santa Lucia Highlands, which are just east of the Monterey Peninsula, this Chardonnay is all about showing what California style can do. Not only was the colour an absolutely stunning rich golden hue, but the nose was expressive with big tropical fruit like pineapple and coconut, coupled with minerals and toasted caramel. The palate was where this wine really excelled, though. While many California Chards can have an overly buttery texture, or an incredible amount of ripeness that often covers over some of the more interesting flavours Chard can produce, this particular wine was incredibly layered - beyond what is normal for the California style.

I found toasted nuts, pinepapple, vanilla, papaya, coconut, and an edge of minerals. But this did not come all at once. Rather, the toasted nuttyness approached at first, turned into a beautifully layered mid-palate of vanilla and tart tropical fruit, and ended with a minerally finish. This is structured with depth, and filled with intensity - and, available in BC. I promise I will get to the last Napa profile.

Excellent and Highly Recommended

$35 at K&L ($45 in BC)

JJ Prum Bernkasteler Badstube Kabinett 2007

Being in California makes one wont to constantly consume California wine. But, I would hate to miss out on the deft life of a German riesling such as this. JJ Prum has a vaunted reputation, but we almost never see them in Canada, so this was a no brainer.

A classic petrol, citrus and mineral nose, on the palate this JJ Prum was much more on the dry side with what seemed to be a very low level of residual sugar, even less than most Kabinetts. Very deep and full, and yet lightly effervescent, expressive and lively. This pulls off what the Germans do so well to a T - expression, depth, and an ephemeral body. Everyone owes it to themselves to drink more German riesling, and this is a great place to start. Great wine.

Excellent
$34 at K&L

Jordan Russian River Chardonnay 2006

This bottle of chardonnay was one of those niggling itches of a wine: one that I had seen sitting around at the wine store back in Vancouver for a long time, always with a touch of curiosity about its contents - not least because a wine critic I greatly respect - Hugh Johnson - seems to think Jordan is up to something good. I think Jordan is essentially a widely available 'high-end' winery favoured very much by restaurants. In any case, the bottle is about $65 in Canada and only $35 down here, so I figured this was my opportunity.

Definitely all California on the nose, with predominant citrus and spice characteristics. Does not smell oaky, though, which is a good thing. Tart on the palate - somewhat steely - and clearly California, but in a restrained spicy citrus style. Very fresh and pleasant, but in the end lacking complexity for the price point. Also, something seems unbalanced about the flavour profile, which had a tinge of metalic weirdness to it. Final analysis: distinctly mediocre at this price point.

Very Good

$35 at K&L

Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc 2004

The wine world isn't exposed to too many white Rhone wines, whether they be from the Rhone itself or from the central Coast of California, which is also producing some very interesting Rhone-style blends. Tablas Creek, being Chateau Beaucastel's dip into California has seen some good press over their red CDP-style blends, but in my opinion it is, very much like Beaucastel itself, the white blend that really stands out.

Here there is an incredibly subtle and complex nose of honey comb, violets, kiwi and other richer fruits. The palate is dry and tart and, unlike many Roussane blends, is not over round or puffed up. This means that the acidity carries the wine through its development in an extremely well-tempered way. The very respectful and elegant mid-palate and finish have a clarity and articulation that is not all that common in these kinds of wines. Very likely one of the best Rhone white blends from California.

Excellent

$34 at K&L

Sbragia Family Vineyard Gamble Ranch Vineyard Chardonnay 2006

I picked this up on the recommendation of Sean over at Vinifico, who informed me that Sbragia was the former winemaker at Beringer who had broken off to set up his own little operation. This was certainly a huge Chardonnay and I actually think Beringer is now more restrained than what is coming out of Sbragia.

Here we have a nose of buttery apple, citrus, banana, and vanilla-hazlenut. The palate is very opulent and certainly in the Beringer Napa style: plump, thick mouthfeel and squarely in the ripe and buttery camp. A very long finish caps this off as a perfect example of the big malolactic-pimped out cali style. If you don't like that, don't drink this. If you do, this is a good example. 15.5% abv.

Very Good to Very Good+

$33 at K&L

McCrea Sirocco 2004

McCrea is a Rhone-style specialist located in Washington state. I have been looking to try something from these guys for a while now and so it was hard to resist giving this a try. In the end, though, I felt this was ultimately not as exciting as many of the other Syrah based projects going on in WA.

A rudy dark purple in the glass. The nose was quite promising, with big brambly, plummy, cherry and earth aromas. Indeed it was very southern Rhone-like. However, the palate brought in such a wallop of sweet fruit that the wine lost its edge. Despite the excellent fruit quality of plum and cherry, this tasted like it was dipped in an oversweetened chocolate sauce that, while imparting smoothness, also caused the wine to lose focus over time. A nice try, but just not worth it. Too bad.

Very Good

$30 at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant

Migration Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2006

It's been a long week. Adjusting to a new school, a new legal and political culture, and life abroad has been tiring. I've been overwhelmed with trying to understand American Constitutional law, which is not only incredibly different from Canada, but relies on a completely different set of political and historical assumptions. For students born and raised in the US, much of this is second nature - but from an outsider's perspective it is both enlightening and frustrating. But, at least I now surely have a glimpse of the untold political assumptions that inform legal systems.

That said, time for some wine. This pinot is made by an off-shoot operation of Duckhorn, one of Napa's best producers. This is the baby brother of the Goldeneye pinot, which, as I have recently discovered, will be poured at Obama's inauguration dinner. This had a big classic california pinot nose of dark roasted strawberry preserves, candy apple, and spice. On the palate I found sweet ripe fruit that was quite up front, and a little chocolate, rich red delicious apple, and a touch of candy-floss on the finish - but don't get it in your mind that this is syrupy or goopy - it's not. I think in the end that this is a nicely made California style Pinot Noir, but my preference is still for Burgundy. Nonetheless, if you like the American style, this is a good example, although perhaps overpriced.

Very Good

$32 at Adronico's

Atalayas de Golban 2004

Another big chunky Ribera del Duero wine from Spain - this area seems pretty reliable for good value fruity and tannic wine with distinct terroir. Here we have a relatively good value wine with a nose of rich red berry fruits, chocolate and earth. The palate, while not stunningly complex, was filled with flavour and had strawberry, cherry, blackberry and toast. A little hot on the back end, this is still a good pairing for big meat dishes.

Very Good
$34 ($24 on sale) at BCLDB