August 25, 2019
Pizza for dinner. Home-made thin crust with Oyama chorizo. Didn’t want a “special” wine that would shout “hey, I’m better than pizza” or something too plonk-y and brash. Happened upon a reasonably priced bottle of Vajda (which, to be fair, hits the stratosphere in some varietals). And wow. What a spectacular pair. All the heft and strength you need with tomato sauce but none of the rough edges. Deeply evocative of Barbera, fruity, currant and red berry top notes with a muscular, sinewy finish that sips wonderfully then crushes it at the dinner table. The oak is milder than an Irish backstop.
The last time we bought this wine (post here, March 2017), a 2013 vintage, we had a similar reaction: Superb with food, why don’t we drink this all the time?
Same day we corked this beauty a friend sent me a wonderful label, shown below, which pretty much nails it: We want to drink good wine with food. We don’t want it to fuck up the taste of our cheeseburger. Note to Robert P: We want to drink wine with food. How about a 10 point system that starts at 86 and rates wine with food?
Price: $34 at BC Liquor.
Market Liquidity: Love at first bite.
Posted in Barbera, Italy, Red Wine, Uncategorized |
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August 24, 2019
From the cellar: Well we loved this wine in 2014, post here, and we loved this wine in 2018, post here, and now we arrive in 2019, seven years down the road, nearing the end of our half case, and it is nothing but joy and pure, undiluted pleasure. It seems pointless to go on and on about Ridge, as we have on this blog for a decade, but here we go again, going on and on about Ridge. Too bad it remains stratospherically out of reach for the everyday drinker.
Price: $28 US in 2014.
Market Liquidity: A little bit of heaven. Correction: A lot of heaven.
Posted in From the Cellar, Uncategorized, USA: California, Zinfandel |
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August 23, 2019
Great to return to a wine you loved and find you still love it. Pretty much everything we liked and wrote about from a cellared bottle here, from a vintage a few years back, still stands. Coconut, chocolate, cherry, delectable through and through. Luscious and then some. Score. At the end of the bottle you will feel like you’ve bench pressed 220.
Do you know you can score this for $30 in a private wine store? Then get 10% off if you buy six? And be paying less for a miraculous red than an everyday BC white? It’s a miracle. It’s a shame, but it’s a miracle. Oh Margaret River, marry me.
Price: See above.
Market Liquidity: Yes, it is a miracle.
Posted in Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Wine, Uncategorized |
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August 23, 2019
We simply couldn’t abide this heavy, too sweet and cloying red blend which scored 89 from Anthony Gismondi (something of an MH acolyte) and 91 by Christopher Waters. It is certainly drinkable, ok, yes, it’s smooth like marshmallow, but it is decidedly not pleasant, not in a heavy, funky southern Rhone way or a light, perfumed, Burgundy way. There is fruit, lottsa fruit, and a silky-on-the-palate texture with an OK finish but we found it lacked the complexity, woody notes and interest the reviews found laudable.
Price: $27 at Save-On.
Market Liquidity: To each their own.
Posted in Blend, British Columbia, Red Wine, Uncategorized |
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August 13, 2019
From the wilds of Navarra. I guess.
Raspberry bomb. Thwack. Think Don Martin Mad Magazine spladap, shtoink, bukkida bakkida, ba-bomb. Raspberry bomb. Headstrong to the point of unpleasant.
OK: I’m sure this is a lovely wine, much loved by many. Old vines. Even-handed medium body. Soupcon of oak. Little shake of pepper on the palate. Quite sweet (maybe a little too sweet). But omigosh is it not our cup of tea; it’s headstrong fruit like a medicinal ruse, very linear, not much to rave about other than the price.
Price: An extremely reasonable $20 at Everything Wine.
Market Liquidity: Pwang, splitch, dadunk.
Posted in Grenache, Red Wine, Spain, Uncategorized |
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August 8, 2019
From a July post after nearly a month in Italy we raved about Friulano, a sort of Sauvignon hybrid positively perfect with antipasti and, in Italy’s south, more on the money than not. But alas our socialized liquor board failed the consumer; yet again. It’s what I call a “dry run” when you can’t find what you’re looking for in BC but find it in abundance anywhere else (outside Canada). We found a straggler, the Villa Locatelli, much reviewed by Gismondi but totally a non-starter for us, not even in the curiosity category. We decided not to post.
“..a non-starter for us…”
Then a fellow wine geek, sensing my desperation, sourced the Rocca Bernarda at EW. What a revelation. Hearty, husky, a red wine in white wine’s clothing, next to the Locatelli, the former like a badminton player, the RB like a rugby forward.
Regular old wine descriptors aren’t particularly useful with Friulano–especially if you’ve never drunk it. It needs some regular language (citrus and stone fruit), it needs some exotica (apricot kernels and toasted clove), it needs some standard bearers like melon, and then it needs to be rated on mouth feel. It should have a texture somewhere between the greenest virgin olive oil and pear nectar. As with our July note, if you can hit it out of the park, like the Bastianich Plus, you are up in the majors; but if you don’t, this is an inconsequential varietal.
Price: Gifted but $30 at Everything Wine in the oddbins.
Market Liquidity: Grand but not grandiose.
Posted in Friulano, Italy, Uncategorized, White wine |
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August 8, 2019
Gismondi recommended the 2017. I’d never knowingly drunk a white Meritage so we took the plunge (although anyone drunk on Graves, as I was between bottles of Corvo and Frascati in the 1980s, or living in Australia, as I did for a bit in the 80s as well, has drunk this blend which should, under no circumstances, be called Meritage. But there you go…). We made no effort; I found with ease the 2014 so that was the base comparison. And, yes, surprising. Full body, creamy, lots of luscious butterscotchy, tangerine and lemon blossom notes with just the absolute perfect note of oak. Did we like it? I think we were so surprised that we didn’t not like it we ended up liking it more than it deserves. And it deserves another tasting, another vintage.
We love us some good Sem Sauv Bl (preferably Australian) and have waxed poetic many times on the No 41 Ecole here or here e.g., and nearly wet our pants with the Buty. So if you think of Washington as gangbusters this is good but it’s Carlos Sainz in BC to the Lewis Hamilton down south. Gismondi says the best wine they bottle at Time. I can say one thing for certain: Unless gifted, probably the only wine we’ll ever drink from Time.
Price: $25 at Save On (but less if you get a mixed batch of six).
Market Liquidity: Formula 3.
Posted in Blend, British Columbia, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Uncategorized, White wine |
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August 7, 2019
First, the 92 points are from James Suckling. Not sure why, but I’m never on the same page as Suckling (or, put another way, “who cares about the points?”). So that wasn’t the draw. But the price was a draw; $28 reduced to $24. Yes and yes. And in the end, a lovely purchase. Medium for a Cab Sauv, it wasn’t even really majestic with red meat in that Ridge Caymus Jordan way, that left jab right hook in the style of the California heavyweights. And at 13.5%, how wonderful to be so wonderful. Dark fruits/fruitcake fruits, charcoal chocolate, and then some tannins to make you pucker. A great sipper.
Price: $24 at Everything Wine. (By the way, their Malbec reviewed here was a non-starter for us.)
Market Liquidity: Value, verbatim.
Posted in Argentina, Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Wine, Uncategorized |
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August 7, 2019
A mostly Pinot Gris with a Jamie Oliver sized dab of Gewürztraminer, this is astonishingly good value. In BC, the sparklers generally go, in this order, bats piss to Prosecco to Australian and European bubbles to OVERPRICED BC faux-champers then onto the real McCoy. And here, in a lovely pocket to compete with Cava, is a drinkable and exceptionally food friendly bubbly.
There are flaws, I mean let’s be clear. The bubbles are madcap; they are Seth Rogen laughing at a Between Two Ferns episode with Whoopi Goldberg storming off The View: they fly in all directions, too many, too fast, and explode on the palate like Pop Rocks. The finish is not long enough and attractive with no staying power. But then let’s take a breath and review: Two bottles of this or one of Stellar’s Jay? I mean let’s be social, go two. A sort of minor revelation and a great way to liven up some tapas.
Price: $20 at the vineyard, hard to find in general.
Market Liquidity: Day drinking anyone?
Posted in Blend, British Columbia, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Uncategorized, White wine |
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August 7, 2019
It’s been seven years since we’ve posted on the Nichol Syrah (!) which, seven years ago (2009 vintage), was something of a lovely treat. The Nichol old vines are now, I guess, really old. We were anticipating the current offering to have some wow, some heavy authenticity, but were quickly disabused of that notion. In 2012 we wrote “a most fine red” but for the current vintage on the shelves it’s an OK Syrah, a “most usual red” if you will, spicy, fruity, a tad too light without being lively, heavy on the cherry juice, and not overtly food friendly. The acid tends toward aggressive and not in a pleasant fashion, not even for those who gravitate (as is the trend) toward top heavy acidity. Still, not much more on the pocketbook than so many years back, so that’s a plus.
Price: $33 at private wine stores.
Market Liquidity: Hope springs eternal. Just not always in the Okanagan.
Posted in British Columbia, Red Wine, Shiraz, Uncategorized |
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