Report from ... Wrapped Up in the Valley - November 7, 2015

Wrapped up in the Valley is the 20 Valley's pre-holiday event that gets you into the mood for the festive season to come.

23 wineries match wine and food - along with take away recipe cards, so that you can attempt to recreate these delicious delicacies at home.

There is a way to do all 23 wineries, but you'd be run raged and will remember nothing of the wines and foods you've tasted ... trust me I have done it.  

We decided on seven wineries to visit, that we thought the food really tickled our collective fancy - you know the wine is going to be good so you have to go with what sounds good to your belly ... and so here were our thoughts on the places we visited:

First Stop: The Good Earth
where the above was on the menu

and it looked like this ... and tasted delicious;
a perfect place to start a brisk, yet beautiful day (11 degrees)
not a cloud in the sky - till later anyway (RANK 4)

Second Stop: Mike Weir Winery
a 2010 Riesling was paired up with
Phyllo Pastry with Pear, Caramelised & Blue Cheese
- and the view was amazing - (RANK 5)

Third Stop: Tawse Winery
will their "Perfect Meatball" paired with
2012 Cabernet-Merlot (best wine of the day)
The meatball was sadly served cold but it was tasty -
especially if you could use you imagination and a think it hot
(RANK 2)

There's a certain beauty about seeing grapes hanging in the
late fall and I believe it is captured here (at Kacaba)

Fourth Stop: Kacaba Vineyards
my second favourite wine of the day: 2012 Cabernet-Syrah was paired with
Tenderloin with Mini Yorki Pudding and Horseradish Jus by Chef James Cuttriss
- a true meat eaters delight (RANK 3 - tied)

Fifth Stop: Harbour Estates
this often overlooked winery always has something homey (meaning homemade)
and this "Gourmet Chicken Cordon Bleu Paste" paired with a 2014 Riesling
was a real winner - and something you could easily whip up at home (RANK 1)

Always a pleasure to visit Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery
and be greeted by Brix ...

Sixth Stop: Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery
Sue's mom's grilled cheese is always an annual treat,
this year it was topped with a "festive compote" (RANK 3 - tied)

 ... And Brix is always sad to see you go -
I think he deserves a grilled cheese

Last Stop: Creekside Estate
where Nathan Young has created a delicious Pastrami ...

The "Sammie" had a tasty middle, it just needed more middle;
in the words of Clara Peller "Where's the Beef" (RANK 6)

Going? Take a look at the list of winery delights and pick our your potential favourite pairings.

For more wine reviews and related articles go to www.michaelpinkuswinereview.com, while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.

Report from ... Finger Lakes Tasting and WBC15 - August 13-18

View from Ventosa Winery patio

I will talk with many people over the next 3-6 months (or so) about my trip to the Wine Bloggers Conference held in the Finger Lakes, New York – and inevitably I will be asked “How were the wines?”

As New York’s neighbor to the North and admittedly more serious wine producing region, Ontario, we have always looked down on New York wines as being too sweet – as someone said to me as explanation (while at the conference) “they’re burgeoning” – but when I was in the Finger Lakes 10-12 years ago and as recently as 7 years ago they held the ‘burgeoning’ moniker at that time too … how long can a region of this size be ‘burgeoning’?

As the second largest producer by volume of wine in the United States, New York has always been seen as inferior to California, Washington and Oregon (all serious wine producing regions) – New York is not to be taken seriously for wine; how can you take a place seriously that creates wines like Hot Tub Red, and uses grapes to make wine that most of us would use in the making of jam?

Well, I’m not about to tell you that New York has shed the “burgeoning” moniker – many of the wines I tried during the conference were on the way to being good – yes sweet still rules – though dry is starting to sink in and make in-roads more and more.  Among the sweet Rieslings are the dry versions. Atop the florally laced and sweet tasting Gewurztraminers there are the dry versions that really claw back on the rose-petal and sugar for a serious finish.  And the reds are showing potential as well (Cabernet Franc being the most promising), as both drink now and for wines that will require some serious ageing.  I also saw things like Lemberger and Gruner Veltliner being produced, with a moniker all their own “The Next Big Thing”.  Only time will tell if that is the case, but while the Lemberger was dry to sweet and at times more Pinot-esque in its make up; the Gruner tasted sweet and not at all like what the Austrian’s had in mind … there is only so long you can say “it is from New York so it is altogether different” – the tension, acidity and austerity in Gruner is what makes it so refreshing, so until they reduce the residual it’s just another white wine.

After the conference I selected half-a-dozen wineries to visit – with the help of some New York knowledgeable pals – specially selected for making “serious in-roads on the Lakes” and known for taking wine seriously – plus I visited a winery I was floored by at one of the dinners.  Below is a sampling of what I tried, was impressed with and the two-stars of my tasting days.

Best Wines at the Conference:

White ...

Keuka Springs 2014 Gewurztraminer
Dynamite Vineyard

Red ... 

Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards
2012 Cabernet Franc

Sparkling ... 

Lamoreaux Landing
2009 Brut

The Best of the Winery Visits:

Inside Domaine LeSeurre and their line-up of wines

Best Wine:  2012 Barrel Select Cabernet Franc
Simple aromas of black cherry are followed on the palate
by smooth vanilla, cherry, hints of tobacco and all touched
by mocha-cherry on the finish.  Rating: *** ½+

Stop at Ravines where the wines were consistently good.

Anthony Road's best wine was this bottle of
2013 Cabernet Franc / Lemberger
14 months in a mix of French and American oak results in a wine
with a more than ample cherry nose followed by cherry, plum,
red currant, anise, cedar and hints of vanilla on the finish.
Rating: ****

Ventosa is a gorgeous and very big place - great pizza smells inside.

Best Wine: 2011 Lemberger
Winner of the 2015 Governor’s Cup at the New York Wine & Food Classic
3 years in second fill Hungarian oak delivers sour cherry and strawberry
to the palate with some weight and a cedary finish.  Rating: *** ½+

Looking up the path at Lamoreaux Landing

Plenty of great wines, including these two:
2010 Chardonnay and 2011 Cabernet Franc ...
but (aside from the Brut) there was one better

Best Wine: 2012 "76 West"
blend is 45% Cabernet Franc, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot
with the hallmark of an age-able red (5-7 years): blackberry, black cherry,
cedar, vanilla, smoke mid-palate and a black pepper, cedar-smoke and anise finish.
Rating: ****+

Heart & Hands Winery might be one of the most focused
wineries we visited, making wines from two varieties:
Riesling (white) and Pinot Noir (red)
More wineries in the Finger Lakes should be following this example.

Best Wine: 2012 Pinot Noir, Paul's Legacy
the most delicate of the 2012 Pinot from Heart and Hands is also the most juicy:
earthy, cherry and floral with a cranberry/strawberry cocktail on the mid-palate
leading to a fine tannin finish.  Rating: ****+

See the full line-up of wines tried over our 3 day visit click here.

For more wine reviews and related articles go to www.ontariowinereview.com, while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.

Report from ... Get Fresh in the Valley 2015 - April 19, 2015

Being welcomed at The Good Earth Winery
- you just don't get much more spring then this -

On a gorgeous spring day we headed out to take advantage of the 20 Valley's spring wine and food pairing program "Get Fresh in the Valley".  22 wineries pair up food with some of their newest vintages (or what they deem to be something fresh / refreshing for the season).  Each winery also hands out a recipe card so you can replicate the dish at home (if you so desire).  This year we started by picking through the wineries that offered up something that we thought sounded interesting - not based on the wine, but solely on the food (this year's full selection can be found here) - we planned our route and out the door we went.  

Below is our ranking of the seven places we went to, some food commentary (because in all seriousness this event is all about the food) and a note on some of the best wines we tried on the day - be they part of the pairing or not.

Our Seven Wineries Visited - in order or preference

1. Kacaba Vineyards
Rustic Pan seared Crostini topped with Fresh Arugula &
Almond Pesto, pickled red onions & Pingue’s Capicollo

Usually "crostinis" are dry and overwhelm the topping
during these events - but this one had the right amount
of topping to bread ratio and the butter/oil it was
"pan seared" in gave it just the right texture.
The 2014 Rebecca Rose was a nice patio sipper - so we did.

2. Mike Weir Winery
Double Smoked Bacon, Asparagus & Spring Pea Salad with Basil Lemon Crème Fraiche
A little confusion here over the "pellet pasta", as it does not appear
on the recipe card - but we think it was Israeli Couscous

3. Vineland Estates
Smoked Whitefish Taco, Pico de Gallo, Pickled Cucumbers & Crème Fraiche  
Maybe just a little too much smoke on the fish - but overall a solid dish

4. Creekside Estate Winery
Pingue’s Prosciutto on E’spelette Pepper Flatbread  
It might not look like much but Creekside's take on the traditional canape
was a spot on success and tasty too:
"you could finish the whole tray yourself before you knew they were gone"

5. Tawse Winery
Homemade Corn Dogs with Celeriac & Apple Remoulade  
Shocked by the freshness of this Unoaked Chardonnay I failed to take a picture of the
corn dog - but it did offer up a tasty treat and one of only a few hot dishes on the day

6. The Good Earth Food and Wine Company
The Good Earth’s Cold Salad Rolls  
Fresh? Check.  Tasty? Check.  An enjoyable bite.

7. Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery
Bacon Salad
How can you go wrong with bacon? The only draw back was the bitterness of grapefruit
peel that detracted from the finish.

Other Highlights of the Day

Best Wine on the pairing list:  Tawse 2013 Unoaked Chardonnay

Best Wine off pairing list:  Kacaba 2014 Jennifer's Pinot Gris

Food Item Most Likely to Make at Home:  Mike Weir's Spring Pea Salad

For more wine reviews and related articles go to www.ontariowinereview.com, while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.

Report from ... Albana Seminar and Tasting - February 22, 2015

When I told some of my colleagues I was headed to Romagna for a Sangiovese and Albana tasting, I got a lot of flak about the Albana.  Sangiovese, of course, is a grape grown all over Italy, but Albana is very regionally grown, specifically in the Romagna area.  It was the first white wine granted DOCG status (in 1987), and even the seminar leader made note that the status was due to a "very strong lobby."

The history of the grape, could be described, at best, as a checkered one.  Pliny the Elder was the first to critique the grape and he had nothing good to say about it.  In 1303, the first true description of the wines from the Albana grape were recorded, and in the 1700's we find the first references of specificity of wines from the district of Romagna.

Common aspects of Albana are its thick skin, richness of colour and tannins (which makes it quite unique in the realm of white varieties, which are not known for having any tannins at all).  Albana is also good for drying and the production of sweet wines; and while the grape is not strong in aromatics what it does have is quite distinctive - whether that is good or bad was not mentioned to us.

Albana in my opinion, is a misunderstood and misused grape variety that suffers from poor winemaking practices of the past, which in turn helped to give it its poor reputation - in the mid-80's there was a massive movement away from the natural aromatics, alcohol and character of the grape to make it more appealing to a mass market ... and although there is now a movement afoot to restore the grape's primary characteristics the grape is still paying the price for past mismanagement and those bad winemaking decisions.  By managing the quality and focusing on the old vines in the region available to them the hope is to revive this grape, but it will take time.  

From my tastings of the selected wines, the best of them learned how to harness the tannins possible in these wines and embrace the characters particular and peculiar to this grape.

There was a question posed during the seminar about the lack of definitive style between the wines; but I think it's too early in the rebranding process of this variety to pick one style over another - trial and error will dictate where this grape and the wines are headed.

The Wines of Note ...

of the 7 wines tried during the seminar these three had the most appealing qualities:

Aromas: white flowers, unripe pineapple
Palate: there's a pleasant, pseudo-sweetness here
floral, waxy and apple flavours with good acidity (*** 1/2)

Aromas: almond praline, oxidative with deep colour
Palate: pleasant pineapple core, weighty with seeming tannin
notes; with the right food/sauce this would be a killer (*** 1/2+)

An odd little wine that shows weight, tannins, acidity
and drinks like a red with all that it leaves behind;
it does have a pineapple note that is the only indication
that it could be a white.  Peculiar, but welcomely so.
Takes a few sips to fully understand. (*** 1/2+)

For more wine reviews and related articles go to www.ontariowinereview.com, while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.

Report from ... Tasting at Pieve Santa Restituta (Gaja) - February 20, 2015

One of the great things about being in Italy is being so near to some of the greatest wine estates in the world - even better, is being invited to taste at one of them.  This was the case when I was invited to taste the new (and some older) wines with Angelo Gaja's daughter, Gaia Gaja, at the estate in Montalcino (acquired in 1994).

The property is 16 hectares of planted vineyards and 40 hectares of woods and produces only three wines:  Brunello, Rennina and Sugarille (still all Brunellos).  The philosophy is a minimalist approach of less wood so all wines spend 2 years in oak, 2 years in concrete tanks and a year in bottle (on average) before release.  In 2007, the estate holding increased by 9 hectares as a parcel of land to the north in the region of Torrenieri was purchased.

The estate is build around Pieve (church) Santa Restituta, one of the first Christian women martyrs.  Alas she is not as popular a saint as she once was and only 4 churches remain dedicated to remembering her name ... the church was founded in the 4th century A.D.

The Tasting ...

We started our tasting with a snapshot sneak peak at both the 2014 and 2013 vintages, currently works in progress.

2010 Brunello di Montalcino
average annual production: 80,000 bottles
Nose: cherry fruit with lovely simple spice notes
Taste: palate follows the nose fairly closely; fruit is kissed
by touches of cedar and spice - approachable, fresh and ready now (****)

This wine is referred to as a "Baby Brunello" and is the wine made every year,
except in 2002 and 2003 when the estate made nothing at all.

Sugarille ... single vineyard Brunello
average production is 15,000 bottles - but only in good years
oldest vineyards planted (1985) - 5 hectares on limestone and marl
making it very special soil composition for the area

2010 Sugarille, Brunello di Montalcino
Nose: floral, cherry, mineral and other red fruits
Taste: luxurious soft and supple red fruit, gentle spice, sweet tannins,
mineral undertones and a finish that goes on forever; very elegant (**** 1/2)

2006 Sugarille, Brunello di Montalcino
Nose: meaty, earthy and mineral
Taste: pleasant of fruit both red and black with a juicy entry,
nice cedar/oak backing with a mineral-chalkiness; tannins are
definitely present but are not overwhelming

1999 Sugarille, Brunello di Montalcino
label changed to the traditional black/white Gaja in 2000
The Note:  plum, black cherry, nice minerality but it's all in layers;
this wine is at its peak, it's a pure hedonistic pleasure to drink
"Strong, smoky, sweet fruit, long finish." - Gaia
"If you're opening one invite me over." - Grape Guy

Rennina ... a three vineyard blend from all around the property
average production is 20-22,000 bottles - but only in good years

2010 Rennina, Brunello di Montalcino
Nose: earthy, gamey notes abound
Taste: the spice and acidity kick in right away and so do those
tannins, while the fruit joins the fray on the finish (*** 1/2+)

2008 Rennina, Brunello di Montalcino
Nose: floral, meaty and slightly peppery
Taste: a little balsamic slips in on the taste, some floral,
simple cedar, good spice/tannins/acidity mix; elegance and
longevity to spare

1997 Rennina, Brunello di Montalcino
The Note:  this is very Barolo-esque, not surprising considering where the Gaja's
made their mark:  leather, licorice, touch of oak with fruit in the background
with layers of various tertiary flavours sneak in one after the other

For more wine reviews and related articles go to www.ontariowinereview.com, while there sign up for Michael's free bi-weekly newsletter.