T’was an unexpected wine soaked Saturday. First, a friend came over for a tasting of 16 wines from Argentina, Spain and Bolivia – yes I did say Bolivia … there’s some impressive wine coming from this South American country, especially from a winery called La Concepcion. We sat down afterward for a bottle of Michel Torino’s 2006 Don David Malbec, which turned out to be marginally corked, no vibrancy to the fruit, odd mouth feel, off smelling – this wine, when I originally tasted it, was just so full of life, I can’t say the same for this bottle. Time to find something else.
Searching a drink now portion of my cellar I located a bottle of Lucky Country 2006 Shiraz, this proved to be a delicious bottle of wine (check out my full review on the What I’m Drinking Tonight blog).
Day turned to evening and my buddy went home. Minutes later I got a call from another friend, “sorry for the last minute invite,” he said, “we’re hosting a wine tasting, wonder if you’d like to come over?” Thankfully it’s a short walk, so I agree. The tasting is being led by Mark Booth (product consultant) and Shiraz Mottiar (winemaker) of Malivoire Wine Company from Niagara, they’re pouring a total of 6 wines for the assembled guests. The first is their Chardonnay Musque “fizz”, a Moscato d’Asti like number that’s sweet and melony, unfortunately the ‘fizz’ gets lost in the large Burgundy-style glass. A vertical tasting of their top tier Moira Chardonnay was then poured, the current release (2007) and a library selection (2005) – both hot year Chardonnays. The ’05 has gone quite nutty on the palate with apple and cinnamon kicking about … the nose proves to be much more fragrant and expressive than the palate. The 2007 Moira Chardonnay has a subtlety to the nose, which you really have to work to get, it finally reveals vanilla, apple and caramel, but all in very subtle amounts. The palate, on the other hand, pops with butter, rich vanilla and peach pit; there’s also a medium-length grapefruit rind finish (full review can be found on my website).
Next up is a sneak peak at the 2008 Courtney Gamay, this is an incredible wine for you Gamay fans – of which I hope there are many, if not please find your way to either Malivoire or 13th Street Winery, both these wineries are showing what can be done with this much maligned grape of Beaujolais here in Ontario. These two wineries have laid to waste the stigma attached to this grape of being sweet candied confectionary wines and turned them into serious offerings … check out the 2007 offering from either winery (Malivoire / 13th Street), and their respective 2008 wines are proving to be more of the same with Malivoire’s 2008 Gamay already garnering five stars from me and the ’08 Courtney and 13th Street ’08 about to receive another couple of 5-star ratings (upcoming newsletter in May – one sneak peak deserve another). If I wasn’t so firmly entrenched in the Cabernet Franc camp, of it being Ontario’s red grape, I might be swayed to switch sides for Gamay.
Also poured was the delicious 2007 Pinot Noir, and the decadent Gewurztraminer Icewine. The night ended with us watching the end of the Senator’s season and saying goodbye to my hosts. Once home I hit the hay pretty quick; even a wine writer gets tired of wine, or is that tired from wine – it’s definitely the latter because tomorrow’s another day and there’s always another bottle to open.
Searching a drink now portion of my cellar I located a bottle of Lucky Country 2006 Shiraz, this proved to be a delicious bottle of wine (check out my full review on the What I’m Drinking Tonight blog).
Day turned to evening and my buddy went home. Minutes later I got a call from another friend, “sorry for the last minute invite,” he said, “we’re hosting a wine tasting, wonder if you’d like to come over?” Thankfully it’s a short walk, so I agree. The tasting is being led by Mark Booth (product consultant) and Shiraz Mottiar (winemaker) of Malivoire Wine Company from Niagara, they’re pouring a total of 6 wines for the assembled guests. The first is their Chardonnay Musque “fizz”, a Moscato d’Asti like number that’s sweet and melony, unfortunately the ‘fizz’ gets lost in the large Burgundy-style glass. A vertical tasting of their top tier Moira Chardonnay was then poured, the current release (2007) and a library selection (2005) – both hot year Chardonnays. The ’05 has gone quite nutty on the palate with apple and cinnamon kicking about … the nose proves to be much more fragrant and expressive than the palate. The 2007 Moira Chardonnay has a subtlety to the nose, which you really have to work to get, it finally reveals vanilla, apple and caramel, but all in very subtle amounts. The palate, on the other hand, pops with butter, rich vanilla and peach pit; there’s also a medium-length grapefruit rind finish (full review can be found on my website).
Next up is a sneak peak at the 2008 Courtney Gamay, this is an incredible wine for you Gamay fans – of which I hope there are many, if not please find your way to either Malivoire or 13th Street Winery, both these wineries are showing what can be done with this much maligned grape of Beaujolais here in Ontario. These two wineries have laid to waste the stigma attached to this grape of being sweet candied confectionary wines and turned them into serious offerings … check out the 2007 offering from either winery (Malivoire / 13th Street), and their respective 2008 wines are proving to be more of the same with Malivoire’s 2008 Gamay already garnering five stars from me and the ’08 Courtney and 13th Street ’08 about to receive another couple of 5-star ratings (upcoming newsletter in May – one sneak peak deserve another). If I wasn’t so firmly entrenched in the Cabernet Franc camp, of it being Ontario’s red grape, I might be swayed to switch sides for Gamay.
Also poured was the delicious 2007 Pinot Noir, and the decadent Gewurztraminer Icewine. The night ended with us watching the end of the Senator’s season and saying goodbye to my hosts. Once home I hit the hay pretty quick; even a wine writer gets tired of wine, or is that tired from wine – it’s definitely the latter because tomorrow’s another day and there’s always another bottle to open.
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