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Jamie Drummond Gets Canadian @ JKWB April 9
One of the city's top wine restaurants naturally has one of the city's top sommeliers: Jamie Drummond. Originally from Scotland, Drummond has been active on the Toronto wine scene for many years, having worked at the Granite Club before joining Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar about five years ago. He's also a huge supporter of Canadian wines - and nobody's better at tracking down the good stuff than Jamie.
The office was packed, every surface heaped with papers. I sat on a backless chair: "Is this some new kind of ergonomic typing chair?" I asked. "No, it's broken," said Jamie. "The back fell off a few weeks ago."
The focus at JKWB is clearly on the front of the house.
There are always Canadian wines on the list at JKWB (which changes daily) and its sister restaurant at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art opposite the ROM features only Niagara wines.
Some people are still leery about buying Canadian wines, especially at higher price points, and a few curmudgeons refuse even to try it. I wondered if Drummond encountered resistance: "We’ve been in business for several years and we have a very trusting clientele. We have a good reputation for food and wine matching, so if it’s on the list, we have no problem selling it."
One example of a pricey Niagara success was the Vintner’s Private Reserve 2002 Merlot from Peninsula Ridge: "I was selling that at $36 per glass. I got three cases of it and sold through it all, by the glass. I gave Jancis Robinson some when she was here and she loved it."
If you'd like to try some, the winery is offering it at $99.95 per bottle, the highest price by far that I've even seen on an Ontario red.
It would be nice to get more BC wines here but Jamie says that interprovincial commerce laws make it difficult for anyone other than the really big players to get their wines into Ontario. "We have free trade with the States, but we don’t have it between the provinces!" said Drummond. And Ontario wines can run into problems shipping anywhere other than free-market Alberta.
At the Montreal en Lumiere Festival in February, which brings in chefs from all over the world and at which Toronto was the featured city this year, Jamie Kennedy hosted two evenings at Le Jolifou restaurant. "Jamie wanted to go one step further," said Drummond. "He took over the kitchen and I took over the front of the house. We wanted to showcase Ontario wines. And the trouble we had to go through to bring them into Quebec was unbelievable! I started planning six months ahead, and even with that, I couldn’t get all the wines I really wanted to show there."
Nevertheless, Drummond said that members of the Montreal foodie community who attended the sold-out evenings enjoyed it. "They have a very particular palate – the Quebec palate is so much different from the Ontario palate. In the SAQ, the majority of wines tend to be leaner – pinot noirs, gamay – and they really appreciated the [Ontario] wines we did manage to get. They loved the wines we served in fact. Exposing them to wines they can't normally try and seeing their response was actually one of the most rewarding experiences in my professional life."
Why it's enough to bring a tear to your eye... as was my tasting of one of Jamie's current hot picks from Niagara:
Though best known for their excellent rsieslings and chardonnays, Cave Spring has turned out a superb red in this new release that takes a couple of French grapes (cab franc, cab sauv) and dries them out in the Italian ripasso style (used to make rich amarones, for example) with striking results.
2005 La Penna (available at the winery, $34.95)
Bright light ruby colour and a knockout nose with tons of dark red fruit with a very slightly cooked quality - almost Italian. The palate takes you right back to Niagara: light, fresh and vibrant. Even though tannins and acidity are both still high, it's quite elegant. Cassis and raspberry fruit and a nice finish with another hint of stewed fruit or raisin. Lovely now, but this could age several years and should get even more interesting. 90 points.
Jamie Drummond regularly creates podcasts of interviews with winemakers.
Check them out on the JKWB website.
Taittinger Dinner @ The Albany Club. March 31
Canadian agents Pacific Wines organized a terrific champagne dinner hosted by Taittinger's charming export director Ambroise Bobtcheff.
Originally from Alsace, which he pronouces with a "z", Ambroise travels the world promoting Taittinger's champagnes. He visited Montreal last week, Toronto on Monday and Tuesday, and has continued on to Calgary and Vancouver.
Ambroise provided background information on Taittinger, as well as a summary of each of the wines. He asked me about tasting notes devoted to champagne and why there weren't more of them. My theory, which I cemented after my Champagne visit in October, is that the trouble is it's pretty much all good: the Champagne AOC is so rigorous that very few poor or so-so quality champagnes make it to market. Thus buyers don't really need that much guidance. In France and England it's possible to find supermarket and retailer branded blends of champagnes at prices under $20, and some of these can be less than stellar. But here in Canada, with our relatively low consumption levels, we tend to get the higher quality product.
Taittinger is of course one of the Grandes Marques of Champagne, so it's no surprise that the wines were excellent. Read about my visit there. For these tasting notes, I include the food pairings too, all of which worked very well. All champagnes are by Taittinger. The Brut Reserve is currently available at Vintages, contact Jason at Pacific Wines in Toronto for information about availability of the others.
Blanc de Blancs, Comtes De Champagne 1998 ($160)
Served at the reception
Very pale, delicate on the nose. Beautifully smooth and youthful on the palate. Acidity is good, there's some honey and brioche as well as some vanilla. The only sign of "vintage" seemed to be a bit of nuttiness and a hint of wet leaves. Great lingering finish with more honey and brioche and other notes giving complexity. Smooth and elegant, this will last for years to come. 95 points
Brut Réserve ($59)
Camembert Cappuccino with Hazelnut and Grapes
My general rule is "serve your best first", but after only one glass of the amazing Comtes, this "house" blend seemed a bit of a shock. However my palate recalibrated quickly enough and the food pairing was superb. Bigger, more aggressive bubbles in this one and great acidity. The acidity and fairly bold fruit, including some citrus, matched well with the creamy and delicious soup (which contained no coffee that I could taste...). This is a lively champagne with a good finish. 89/90 points.
Prelude Brut ($82.95)
Warm Pan Seared Jumbo Digby Scallops with Ontario Speck Bacon & Chervil Butter Sauce
The grapes are all from the “100%” (Grand Cru) vineyards so even though it's non-vintage, the higher quality shines through. Very fresh and light nose with some interesting secondary notes. Very bubbly on the palate, which has a fresh and elegant feel and lots of fruit. Flavours of butter and brioche are also present and the finish is great. 94 points. This is Ambroise's favourite.
Brut Millesime 2002 ($73)
Baked Choice Veal Tenderloin with Herb Crust, Pinot Noir & Porcini Cream
Fairly delicate nose with a little bit of fruitiness. Smooth and elegant on the palate, it worked beautifully with the herb crust - though I wondered if it might seem fruitier on its own. Nice and full on the palate, good bubbles, nice finish with some nice citrus. 90 points.
Prestige Rosé ($72.95)
Flourless Bitter Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Stewed Morello Cherries
Ambroise told us they cannot supply enough of this to meet demand because of the rosé boom. This one has a fairly bold reddish-pink colour and a very good nose with red fruit. It's a real mouth-filler too, with good bubbles and lots of rich red fruit, including cherries and berries. It worked superbly with the chocolate, becoming even richer and fruitier against the dark chocolate, and with a great finish. I tend to prefer paler and more delicate rosés, but this is a knockout. Ambroise said that this rosé doesn't rely on "skin contact" for the colour, but includes a small amount of pinot noir wine. 92 points.
Two Buck Chuck @ Thunderbird Motel, Savannah. March 22
As I learned in Atlanta, this California marketing phenomenon is still around.
Launched by the California-based Trader Joe's supermarket chain in 2001, the Charles Shaw Blend wines went on sale for the unbelievable price of $1.99 as the Bronco wine company took advantage of the huge glut of wine grapes at the turn of the century.
Before setting out to beautiful Savannah, picking up some snacks at a supermarket seemed like a good idea and the nearest supermarket was Trader Joe's - a name I recognized from the wine press. In addition to "sweet lemons", which looked like orange coloured lemons and tasted like sour/bitter oranges, Trader Joe's had a large stack of "Charles Shaw Blend" wines at the end of the wine aisles. Seeing the price ($2.49), I realized it was Two Buck Chuck and had to get some. Although the store wasn't too busy, half a dozen people grabbed bottles as perhaps two people browsed the two aisles of other wines. Price for a case: $29.88.
Charles Shaw Blend Merlot 2005. $2.49
After opening the real cork and pouring, there's a nice medium ruby colour and a moderately fruity - and slightly candied - nose. Very smooth on the palate. No evident tannins and moderate to low acidity, indeterminate red fruit and again a candied quality. Extremely easy drinking. No complexity and a forgettable finish. Put a "1" in front of the price, though, and mix it in with product at the LCBO or The Wine Rack, and not many would think it a rip-off. Quite impressive for the price.
Gotta get some? Nearest location is Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and there are five other stores in metro Detroit. Wine prices vary from state to state, but you can be sure it will be the cheapest one on the shelves.
Don Melchor @ the Royal York. March 6
With its wine-friendly Mediterranean climate – mild wet winters, hot dry summers – Chile’s Maipo Valley has another thing going for it: “Stony, poor soil with a low level of nutrients,” said winemaker Enrique Tirado, “in other words, perfect.”
The Don Melchor wines come from the Puente Alto Vineyard – at 650m above sea level, the elevation makes it one of the coolest parts of the hot valley. Daytime summer temperatures in the upper 20s drop to 10 or even lower at night, which gives the right kind of stress to the vines.
Backed by the financial muscle of Concha y Toro, Chile’s largest wine producer (21 million cases per year), the high-end Don Melchor marque benefits from state of the art winemaking facilities and enough staff to hand-sort the berries at harvest. The obsessive dedication of Tirado is the final touch: he is constantly experimenting with blends and analyzing the results. Tirado has worked out exactly which blocks in the 114 hectare property produce the best grapes, as well as the maximum amount of cabernet franc to put in the blend: “it rounds out the tannins, but if the percentage is above 6%, it thins the wine too much,” said Tirado.
Tirado talked about the weather in each of the years – more rain in this one, less rain in that one, a cooler spring here, a hotter summer there – but I felt that there really wasn’t the kind of vintage variation we’d see in Niagara or France. When I asked him about this, Tirado agreed that although there was a narrow band of variation in the climate, pretty much every year is a good year in the Maipo. Therefore, I hold to my view that unless you have a hypersensitive palate, the vintage year in the certain areas of Chile, California and Australia blessed with entirely predictably perfect weather is not that important. What is important in the case of a fine cab from those areas is who makes it, how rigorously does he or she cull the grapes to get the best, and how old is it? The excellent Don Melchor tasting was a good opportunity to see the evolution of a wine over the years, and this is a wine that's made to age.
Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 1997
Deep ruby colour, rich but lean nose of dark red fruit, including cassis with secondary notes of iodine. Very dry on the palate and not very fruity but super smooth. Great acidity and powdery tannins. Nice lingering finish of the same muted red fruit. 90 points.
Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Ripe dark red fruit on the nose of this one, which seemed to me the most Bordeaux in style, with very evident secondary notes of iodine and pencil lead. Smooth on the palate, the softer tannins of an older wine that, like a good Bordeaux, retains lots of acidity. Again, not over fruity on the palate and a terrific long finish. Returning to taste this after 15 minutes or so, I noted that it “evolves beautifully in the glass” and was even silkier and smoother. 92 points.
Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Super rich nose of ripe dark red fruit and a pleasant undertone of milk chocolate. Great fresh acidity on this younger model and lots of juicy red fruit on the palate. Cedar notes from the oak more evident too and the tannins are grippy. Great finish of cherry and cassis fruit mixing nicely with the secondary notes. This is great now, but will continue to improve. 93 points
Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Boldest nose yet on the youngest: lots of rich red fruit, chocolate, cassis and cherry. This one feels very New World. Big mouthful of nicely balanced fruit and a bit of vanilla and other oaky notes. Tannins and acidity obvious and there’s a great fruity finish. This one definitely needs to age to reach its full potential. Consensus among the writers was that this was the best and the winemaker feels that the 05 will turn out to be a great vintage. 92 points.
Want to get some? The 2004 will be released at Vintages on March 29 at $59.95 and the 2005 will follow later this year, though the price has not yet been determined. Other vintages can be ordered directly through the agent,
Select Wines.
Grappa @ LCBO Summerhill February 25
Order of Canada recipient Tony Aspler organized a tasting of grappa with an interesting twist: a series differentiated by the grapes used. In other words, "cabernet" grappa, "prosecco" grappa, etc.
Grappa is a double distilled brandy made from the pomace, or residue (mainly skins), left over after winemaking. In France, the same process is used to make marc. Alcohol levels are high - usually 38%, but they can go above 60% - and it is generally served as a digestif (digestivo) after a big dinner. It's usually clear, though a few grappas are barrel-aged and these can look like whiskies.
Aspler visited Bottega, the world's largest producer of grappa, located about 50km from Venice. The Bottega family had been in the wine and grappa business for generations, but in the 1980s, Sandro and Stefano Bottega implemented a new distillation system that made for lower-alcohol and finer tasting grappa. "Sandro Bottega is the original Energizer Bunny," Tony told us, noting that not only has he introduced new distilling methods and dozens of styles, he also designs a vast range of bottles.
Fascinating grappa facts: it takes around 10kg of grape skins to make 1L of grappa, though only 8kg if the skins are from amarone. The post-distillation product will be around 70% alcohol, so it must be watered down.
The Taste
We tried a number of different grappas but, apart from the "Moscato", made from the very flavourful and aromatic muscat grape, it was frankly impossible to discern any characteristics of the grapes. Tony also says you should NOT swirl a glass of grappa "because the alcohol is so strong it will anaesthetize your nose." It should be noted that the Bottega grappas were generally very smooth and were all very much grappas: only by tasting them side-by-side can the flavour differences be teased out. The grappas cost around $50 a bottle and are available through Noble Estates Wines & Spirits.
Grappa di Moscato - pleasantly grapey nose, this is the only one I thought possibly characteristic of its grape. Slightly sweet on the palate, grapey notes.
Grappa di Cabernet - less sweet, less fragrant, darker notes.
Grappa di Brunello di Montalchino - faintly fruity nose, smooth on the palate, some vanilla.
Grappa di Greco di Tufo - very similar to the brunello, but a spicy note.
Grappa di Falanghina - very dry and smooth, again with some spice notes.
Grappa di Primitivo Principi Aldobrandini - very powerful, with darker notes.
Grappa di Nero d'Avola - lightly fruity, hint of spice, and "very pleasant". This one was my favourite.
Alexander Platinum Grappa - arrgghhh! Freaky mirrored bottle and freakish 60% alcohol. Pure firewater, no discernable flavours. This one costs more too: $69.95. "Who would drink this and when?" I asked the gathered company. Responses were varied, but I liked "Italian women on their wedding night".
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Visit his website for more details on Tony Aspler's visit to Bottega.
Read about Bottaga's history here.
Get even more information about grappa on Wikipedia.
January 31 @ The Fine Wine Reserve
The latest release of BC heavyweight Osoyoos Larose (a Bordeaux blend , mainly cabernet sauvignon and merlot) coincided with the latest release of its French "parent", Chateau Gruaud Larose. It seemed like an ideal opportunity for a challenge.
I invited a number of writers and sommeliers to the Fine Wine Reserve and we tasted the wines blind. Both wines are from 2004, neither are really ready to drink yet, both are good. The Osoyoos-Larose, the product of a joint venture between Vincor and the company that owns Gruaud Larose, sells for $40 and the Gruaud sells for $60.
Our challenge was to guess which wine was the Bordeaux and I am pleased to report that half the tasters picked BC's Osoyoos-Larose. Words like “rich” and “suave” were thrown around. Winemaker Pascal Madevon, who will be in town on the 20th to promote the latest release, should be proud.
Here are my tasting notes (I did guess correctly).
Wine #1 [Gruaud Larose]
Medium ruby colour. Young looking. Bold nose of fresh dark red fruit, including blackberries and black cherries. Secondary woody notes and even some lavender/herbal notes. Smooth on palate. Acidity and tannins both high. Not over fruity in the middle, but nice confluence of flavours, including “woody cherries” (huh?). Needs to age more. 90 points.
Wine #2 [Osoyoos-Larose]
Medium ruby colour, but darker and with a hint of orange at the rim. Quite different nose of darker, more extracted red fruit. Slight mushroom note. Acidity high and tannins very high. Slightly rough on the palate, but a great line of rich red fruit. Shorter finish than the first, but a great hint of mint appears. Definitely needs to age more. 89 points.
January 31 @ The Fine Wine Reserve
CBC Radio wine commentator Konrad Ejbich brought along a nice surprise to the tasting. He produced a completely covered and taped up bottle, which became “Wine #5” . It was edging towards brick coloured and, to be honest, it smelled like sewage. "I don’t know about the nose on number five," the sommelier next to me said ruefully. Konrad told us we weren’t understanding old wine.
Getting past the nose – which would’ve been easier had we decanted – yielded a very pleasant surprise on the palate. The wine was very smooth and rich, with a complex array of flavours, mainly secondary notes, and there was still some fruit. After tasting it, the nose became more bearable. It tasted fine and expensive and nobody could guess what it was.
It turned out to be Inniskillin Cabernet Franc from 1991, the $9.95 price tag still on it. According to the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator, that’s just $13.44 in today’s dollars.
While the nose was definitely problematic, decanting and strong cheese would surely help. But this pleasant surprise also bolstered two theories I subscribe to: 1) sit on the right inexpensive red for 10-15 years and it’ll turn into a fine wine and 2) cab franc really is Ontario’s best bet for reds.
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