Capitel della Crosara Monopolio Montresor Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 1999

So sometime last week I felt that I needed to celebrate absolutely nothing and open a really nice bottle of wine. This has been sitting around in my cellar for a while and recent reading revealed to me that the Amarone's of the late 90's are peaking right about now; so there was no real reason to wait on this one. And boy was that a good choice.

This is a beautiful Amarone with a nose of classic dark and raisiny fruit, but with absolutely amazing intensity. The palate was simply brilliant with cedar, blackberry, plum, dried cherries and berry liqueur. All of these flavours were integrated perfectly with nothing out of balance. This type of integration and consistency is very rare in wine since there is often a hole in the development from the nose, over the palate and down the throat. With this Amarone, however, there was absolutely no break in the development and the flavours kept growing and changing so consistently over the entire experience that it was simply amazing. Plus, the finish was nearly endless, lasting in the mouth for several minutes. This wine was a beautiful and seductive temptress in a dimly lit bar - think Casablanca.

Excellent+

$100

Luis Perez Monastrell 4 D.O. Bullas 2005

Monastrell is a Spanish grape that in this case grows in the Bullas wine region in south eastern Spain near the city of Murcia. For many years wine experts thought that Monastrell was the same grape as Mouvedre. Now, genetic tests have shown the two varieties to be different. So, there is actually little known about Monastrell as a distinct grape since this discovery is pretty new. However, this is a pretty thick skinned grape that is quite dense and flavourful. This particular wine is a Parker favourite (rating at 92 I think), so keep in mind his preference for big, bold and up front wine.

The nose on this 100% Monastrell wine was candied cherry, red licorice and roasted herbed red meat. The palate continued the candied cherry trend and was generally a big fruit blast with a hint of pepper, sourness and fertalizer. This is big and flavourful, but it is also sort of artificial tasting. I much prefer my wines to taste like fresh cherry and not candied cherry. Some may enjoy this, but for me it was distinctly on the upper end of average.

Good

$27 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars

Eroica Riesling 2006

This Riesling from Washington state is a joint project between Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington and Dr. Loosen of the Mosel region in Germany - a superb producer of German Riesling. I am a huge fan of Riesling but I tend to drink Australian Riesling because of the price to quality ratio, so it's always exciting to try one from a new region.

The wine is quite pale, so much so that I wonder if this has been aged in Oak at all. The nose on this was rich tropical fruit with a hint of vanilla. The palate was replete with apple, tropical fruit and vanillan flavours (suggesting oak). This was quite nicely balanced between sweetness and acidity, but I found it perhaps a bit too fruit forward for my tastes. It's quite light and airy in texture, which is great, but I would like more complexity in the finish. This is, nonetheless, quite a tasty quaffer.

Very Good

$35 at BCLDB

David Fulton Petite Sirah 2003

As I've mentioned before, I've always been a fan of petite sirah. It's not what I would classify as my favourite grape, but I appreciate its uniqueness. David Fulton began just as a grape grower who would sell his petite sirah to some pretty high class customers for blending purposes. These days the winery is also producing a top notch petite sirah bottling of their own that shows what this grape is capable of.

The nose was very pruney this time around. When I originally had this wine about six months ago the nose was a lot more toasty. The palate was very chocolatey with dark cherry and prune fruit flavours. Upon initially tasting the wine it seems a bit simple, but then after a couple seconds the mid-palate explodes into intense flavour that develops into a length and very pleasurable finish. This wine is big and intense, but has superb tannin structure and is concentrated and focused, unlike other petite sirahs. This is a BBQ wine from the gods and probably the best petite sirah I've tasted to date.

Excellent
$37 USD (purchased in California)

Vancouver International Wine Festival - Round 3

It seems that life often gets in the way of the most well intentioned of plans. Thus it is that I finally attend to finishing my tasting notes for the Vancouver International Wine Festival. In this final installment of the Wine Fest Series I traverse the world to provide notes on wines from all the (other) global regions of the world. Italy may have been the focus of the festival, but there were certainly many other fantastic entries. So let's go globetrotting...

United States

Domaine Drouhin (Oregon) Pinot Noir 2006: Classic burgundian style with intense new world fruit. Strawberry and earth. Solid, but somewhat simple for the price.
Very Good+ - $60

Domain Drouhin (Oregon) "Laurene" Pinot Noir 2006: Now this is Pinot Noir. Lush, structured, lengthy, intensity of light berry fruits. This was like drinking a Strawberry Rhubarb barnyard poured over minerally earth. This was simply fantastic and shows why Oregon is well on its way to becoming the Burgundy of the New World.
Excellent+ - $75

Ridge Santa Cruz Mountain Estate Chardonnay 2005: This is what New World white should taste like. Explosive nose of hazlenuts and tropical fruits. An absolutely intense palate with similar flavours that develops into an outstanding finish. Even though the flavours were fantastic, what really stood out with this wine was its mouthfeel. It was like drinking liquid cashmere. This was the best white I tasted at the show.
Excellent+ - $55

Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel 2005: This zin had great purity of fruit and while it wasn't quite as in your face as the Lytton springs, I actually preferred it for its softness and texture. Tasty stuff.
Very Good+ - $50

Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel 2005: I've tasted this zin before and was not a huge fan. While I enjoyed this, it was a tad too peppery and briary for me. Blackberry dominates the palate. I like my wines a little more refined and a little less monster. Still, this is great if you like the style.
Very Good - $50

Ridge Santa Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon: Oak and Eucalyptus abound on the nose and palate with this one. The moderate tannins bring the mid-palate into a nice finish that lingers, but I found the flavours a little boring to be honest. Very well made, however.
Very Good - $?

Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon 2004: I'm not sure what I said to get the president of Ridge to pull this from underneath the table, but damn was I happy. The Monte Bello is a renowned Cabernet from Napa, one that was used in the famous Paris Tasting that saw a Californian Cabernet (from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars) beat the best of Bordeaux in a blind tasting. This wine was incredibly smooth and consistent and had a beautiful mocha nose. While the fruit wasn't over the top or overly complex, the simplicity of the blackberry-black current flavours coupled really well with the mocha in a wine that simply had an outstanding structure. Still, I would not pay full price for this - it's just too damned overpriced. Great wine, though.
Excellent - $180


Australia

Majella "The Malleea" 2003: Majella is a fantastic producer from the Coonawara region in Australia that makes beautiful blends. This special blend is their top of the line wine and while it was tasty, I just didn't love it. The nose was heavy on the eucalyptus, which I find prevalent in a lot of Australian Cab Sauv's or Cab based blends. The red and dark berry fruits were mild, but pleasant and the finish was decent. But this didn't blow me away.
Very Good - $90

Peter Lehman "Stonewall" Shiraz 2002: This Shiraz is quite renowned in Australia and I was pretty excited to give this a taste. I have to say, though, that while good the hype has raised the price of this wine a tad too high. Again I tasted mocha-mint and cassis, like many a Cab. And, while I appreciate that this cab was all about structure and balance I must say that I tend to like my wines earthier or brighter.
Very Good - ~$80

Plantagenet "Great Southern" Shiraz 2005: I tend to like Plantagenet, and I also find Western Australian wines to be a unique break from the hordes of Barossa Shiraz's that proliferate the Australian eisle at the local wine stores. This had a nose of cherry which developed into a tasty palate of cherry, plum and pepper. This is good value and very drinkable.
Very Good - $35

Turkey Flat Shiraz 2005: I didn't take too many notes on this one. But this is one of my favourite Australian Shiraz's. Year in and year out these guys producer some great Barossa Shiraz that is a cut well above the norm. I don't have any official tasting notes except that I rated this as:
Excellent - $50

Clonakilla "Hilltops" Shiraz 2005: This Rhone style wine is made by a producer obsessed with all things Rhone. Clonakilla has led a mini-revolution in Rhone style wines in Australia and has solidified their reputation with their Shiraz-Viognier (made in the Cote-Rotie style). This shiraz, however, is half the price of that and a fantastic briary, rustic in your face syrah. This is great stuff. What can I say, I love "syrah".
Excellent - $35 (at festival store), $45 (at Kits Wine Cellar)

Greenock Creek "Alice's Block" Shiraz 2005: I don't usually agree with Robert Parker, but this wine, which for the last four years has received ratings between 96 and 98 from Robert Parker lives up to the hype he creates. This has absolutely outstanding purity in the fruit and a very warm dark and red berry palate. What makes this special is that it has a nearly perfect structural development with the berry flavours developing evenly and consistently from the initial sip well into a couple minutes after the final gulp. This is the kind of Shiraz I want to drink all the time.
Excellent+ - $80


Chile

Albis 2004: I didn't get to many Chilean wineries this year, but I am glad I gave this wine a try. This is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Carmenere. The nose was rather barnyardy and earthy while the palate was alive with fruit and mocha flavours. This wine consists of what I like to call silky tanins. Very Very tasty.
Excellent - $? (probably over $50)


Portugal

Cortes de Cime Chamine Vinho Tinto Alentejano: Wow, that's a long name. Ok, this baby was the best value wine at the show and is readily available in BCL stores. What else can you ask for? This wine is interestingly made from the Spanish grape Tempranillo, which I believe is also native to certain regions of Portugal, although it goes by another name that I forget. The nose was quite interesting blackberry with a tinge of earth. The palate is best described as eating a piece of toast layered with blackberry jam while sipping on a well brewed coffee. This is great if you like jammy wines.
Excellent - $19!!

Quinta Do Crasto Touriga Nacionale 2005: First off, I have to mention that somehow I stupidly forgot to make notes on the new release of Crasto's Old Vines Douro, which I remember was in need of a bit of age but was showing great potential. This wine, however, is one of Crasto's high end jobbies and was absoltely brilliant. The nose was insanely fruit forward, but what got me with this wine was the palate which was full of mushroomy, earthy fruit that blew me away with its uniqueness. I love Portuguese wines and they are unfarily way way too under the radar.
Excellent - $75

Quinta Do Crasto Maria Theresa 2005: This came close to being wine of the show for me. Boasting utterly complex fruit and a finese and elegance rarely seen in wine the Maria Theresa single vineyard Douro had incredible structure, complexity and length. I also inexplicably picked up a bottle of this in the summer for $60 off on some strange manager's special at a nearby BCL store (I guess no one buys Portugese wine). This is worth the money, even at full price.
Excellent+ - $120


French Wine

Coudoulet Beaucastel 2005: Gamey fruit that is simple but tannic. Didn't love this, but was ok.
Very Good - $? (around $35?)

Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape 2005: This is one of those legendary wines from the Rhone Valley and also from an outstanding vintage. This was closed and tight. This needs serious time and it was hard for me to assess its qualities at such a young age for such a complex wine. It was dense as hell, though.
Excellent - $90


So this year's wine festival was an overwhelming event at which I tasted over 100 wines and wrote notes for about half of those (the wines I liked most). This is a whirlwind experience for those who haven't gone before, but it is well worth the effort. These events give you the opportunity to learn about wine, improve your palate, taste wines side by wide, and chat with some winemakers and other folks in the wine biz. It was a great experience, but a tiring one - evidenced by how long it took me to get all the tasting notes up. So, until next year!

And that's all she wrote.

Marquis Wine Cellars New Product Tasting

This Saturday Marquis held a tasting of several of their new products and I attended in order to provide all you readers with a summary of what I thought of some of their new stuff. Most of the wines tasted were under $30 and I had about 20 different wines, although I am only posting reviews of wines I think were decent.

As anyone from BC knows, finding a good wine under $30, and especially under $20 can be a serious task. This tasting continued to show that it is hard to get complexity and purity of flavour at the below $20 range, but that there are some decent options. Let's see what made the cut. All wines are available at Marquis.

Whites

Qupé Bien Nacido Cuvée 2006: Qupé is always a reliable producer from Central California and this effort is no different. It has a fair amount of toasty-nutty flavours coupled with some nice orchard fruit and low acidity. It's a bit manipulated for my tasted, but this is a decent effort at a pretty good price.

Very Good - $29

Alphonse Mellot Sancerre "La Moussiere" 2006: Quite excellent. Peachy grassy tones with an excellent crisp acidic core. This will go well with food and will be excellent on a hot day. Very refreshing.

Very Good+ - $35

Grosset Watervale Riesling 2006: The nose on this Australian Riseling was a bit weird - I even picked up some notes of rubber. But, the palate had a nice core of citrus fruits and a decent length finish. What was special about this dry Riesling, though, was its superb structure and amazing acidity. This was very crisp, well built, and well integrated. The strange nose brings the rating down a notch, though.

Very Good - $37

Reds

Chateau La Gravette Minervois 2005: This is good value wine, but only if you like pepper. A simple but inoffensive nose leads into a very peppery palate, which while a tad over peppery, was still very natural tasting. It's hard to get a wine this cheap that doesn't taste overextracted or funky. So, while not my style I think many will enjoy this.

Good+ - $16

Laura Hartwig Cabernet Sauvignon 2005: This winery hails from Chile and is well known for producing quality value wines. This is no exception and is a fantastic wine at the price. Classic Chillean flavours of cassis and blackberry with a solid oak core - but not overly oaky. This is definitely not over-extracted, but of course still somewhat simple. Compared to the plonk out there at this price point I am pretty darn impressed.

Very Good+ - $19

Westrey Wine Co. "Justice Vineyards" Pinot Noir 2006: I've been wanting to taste a Westery wine (an Oregon Pinot producer) for quite some time so I was pretty excited to get this liquid in la bouche. I was a bit disappointed. This had pretty strong blackberry flavours and slight strawberry flavours, but overall the fruit was dominated by tannins. I think this wine was really just far too young and so it lacked the depth and complexity I was hoping for. The structure seemed pretty decent, but I didn't love what I was tasting. So, while I think this will get better with age, I don't think it is my style of Pinot. It has promise, though, and I would still love to try other wines from this winery.

Very Good - $38

So those are my picks from the tasting. I wish more stores in Vancouver would put on proper tastings like this: they really magically do lead to more sales and more customer loyalty. Maybe one day the local wine business will get its act together. Until then we'll have to rely on these occasional events at the couple decent stores in the city.

The Rhone Gang "Hold Up" no. 6

Today's post brings us quite a unique wine, and one that I am happy to say hails from the Rhone Valley in France, which as I've mentioned before is probably my favourite wine region. The first interesting detail with this wine is that it is put together by some of the Rhone’s top producers, including the likes of Louis Barruol (from Château St. Cosme) and Frederic Chaudière (from Château Pesquié) who collectively go by the name “The Rhone Gangsters”. The second, and quite surprising point of interest, is that this wine is a blend of Pinot Noir and Grenache! I didn’t think I’d ever see these two grapes together, especially in a Rhone wine. But there you have it.

The Hold Up no. 6 is light but bright with a good acidic core and smooth tannins. The palate brings forth some really nice sour cherry flavours (probably from the Grenache) and a hint of strawberry (there’s the Pinot). Underneath the fruit are some pretty tones of earth, rocks and flowers. This will go great with lighter meats and cheeses and is also a heck of a lot of fun to drink. This is an exceptional wine, and quite under the radar right now. Plus, at this price point, this stuff is worth buying by the case. I just hope there's some left when I can afford to buy a few bottles.

Excellent

$27 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars