Wine Reviews

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When I received the invitation to attend a Penfolds Re-corking Clinic in San Francisco hosted by Chief Winemaker Peter Gago, my first thought was, “cool, I get to taste a bunch of old vintages of Grange (Australia’s most famous and collectable wine whose current release commands $425+ per bottle).” But shortly after arriving, I realized that the clinic was going to be about so much more (although I did get to taste a bunch of old vintages of Grange).

The concept of the re-corking clinic is simple yet brilliant, and the ultimate in post-sales client service and public relations. Started in Australia in 1991, the clinics, lead by Penfolds’ senior winemaking team, have since hit the road to offer the service in various parts of the world. The purpose of the clinic is simple. Natural cork deteriorates over time (the average life being 20 to 25 years), and many of Penfolds wines, Grange in particular, have shown their longevity to be beyond that. What better service to offer your longstanding clients than to have a senior winemaker assess, and if necessary, open, taste, top-up, re-cork, re-capsule, and certify your wine on the spot? The only requirement is that the wine must be at least 15 years old (and a Penfolds product of course).

I had the good fortune to shadow Edwin Young, an ICU pediatric physician and quintessential southern gentleman, from North Carolina. Young is a generous bon vivant and avid collector of Penfolds Grange who clearly enjoys sharing as much as he enjoys consuming great wine and food. He brought six bottles of Grange to the clinic — 1989, ‘88, ‘86, ‘82, ‘81, and 1977, the oldest vintage in his cellar.

Are there any wines that match well with chocolate?

Some things just sound like they should go together: beer and pretzels, tequila and lime juice, me and Penelope Cruz. Truth is; many unions that look good on paper are a train wreck waiting to happen, and chocolate and wine a perfect example.

Over the centuries, chocolate’s relationship with wine has become sort of an affinity cliché (almost on par with how supposedly great a match wine is with cheese). Both chocolate and cheese are palate-coating eatables with a variety of personalities that can wreak havoc on a liquid partner.

Chocolate’s thick sweetness is its own personal landmine that sits between you and a decent wine pairing. The trick is to pick juice that at least offers a comparable level of sweetness, density and, if possible, mocha in its flavour profile.

If your confectionary selection is dark (with a bittersweet or semisweet sensibility) think red wines made with Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (from the New World). A rich Pinot Noir would also work, as would a late bottled vintage or aged tawny port.

Lighter Pinot Noir and Merlot make a nice match with milkier chocolate, as do sticky dessert whites and fragrant, middle-of-the-road German Rieslings. Since I’m a bubbly fanatic from way back, I don’t mind how drier sparkling wines play with chocolate (especially when it’s white). That said; the fresh fruit of a slightly sweeter Asti style from Italy is really a better companion.

It took the French some 200 years of trial and error to discover which grape varieties did best in which regional soils and macroclimates. This painstaking exercise in pragmatism was given regulatory status as the appellation system, AOC. In 2005, a mere 17 years after the amendment of Ontario’s Wine Content Act prohibiting labrusca varieties from table wine, the VQA announced that the Niagara Peninsula had been divided into two major regional appellations: Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Escarpment. These were further divided into 10 sub-appellations to reflect the local climate and soil structures.

At a time when the consumer is still confused as to the meaning of VQA — given the amount of Cellared in Canada off-shore blends that proliferate on LCBO shelves — it may seem premature. But I believe it’s the right thing to do to start the research. According to J. L. Groulx, the winemaker at Stratus (who hails from the Loire Valley), the task of defining terroirs is a lengthy business. "I don't think we'll be finished in 200 years anyway," he says. Since the active life of the average winemaker is 35 vintages, it’s going to take six generations of vintners before we really know what’s going on in the vineyards of Niagara. If you don’t plan on living that long, you can get a foretaste of what these sub-apps mean by comparing the Rieslings of Short Hills Bench on the Escarpment with those of Four Mile Creek on the Niagara plain. Riesling is the best variety to use as a control grape since its flavours, as a single unblended variety, are dependent on what happens in the vineyard rather than how it is treated in the cellar. Usually, Riesling is made in stainless steel so there is no wood influence.

Forget yoga class — driving through Niagara is the kind of Zen experience that both relaxes and energizes. A recent visit found my husband and I exploring the many restaurants, shops and wineries we happened to pass. It was at the Upper Canada Cheese Company that we heard of something very neat happening in Niagara. Two wineries had actually started producing and selling their own grape seed oil. Not nearly as well known or extensively used in North America as its viscous brethren produced from olives, peanuts and canola, oil pressed from the seeds of grapes has been popular in Europe for at least 500 years.

The story of Ontario grape seed oil actually begins 11 years ago when Joseph Pohorly (owner and winemaker at Joseph’s Estate Wines) decided that there was perhaps a better way to deal with all of the pomace left over from the winemaking process than carting it off to the dump. He got the ball rolling by devising a way to turn that waste into a delicious product. The years that followed saw him exploring the best method of extracting the tiny bit of oil stored in each seed. He purchased the necessary equipment, and by 2002, was producing and selling grape seed oil on site. Stratus Winery recently followed suit with its own version. Southbrook Winery, too, toyed with the idea. Owner Bill Redelmeier collaborated with Vinifera for Life co-founder Mark Walpole last year to create a very small test-batch of unfiltered oil. “It was incredibly flavourful, really pungent,” says Redelmeier. “It tasted like a cross between olive oil and sesame seed oil.”

I like drinking on the cutting edge. What’s going to be the next big grape trend?

I’ve rubbed my crystal ball and, believe it or not, when it comes to red fruit it predicts that Shiraz/Syrah (a grape so nice they named it twice) will shine in 2010. I know what you’re thinking — what’s so hip about a grape that’s been used and abused by Down Under winemakers for the last twenty years? Well, here’s the deal: The wines from the southern (which blend with Syrah) and northern (where Syrah is king) Rhône Valley have been the only things close to cool coming out of France in recent memory and consumers should finally take notice early in the New Year.

Also, great price-fighting versions of S/S from Chile, Argentina and South Africa will be invading your local liquor stores in the coming months and that will set the stage for the grape’s second act.

There’s a revolution happening in Spain. Actually, it’s been raging for well over a decade, if not two. Old ways and ideas are being tried, judged heretical and executed. A new religion based on quality and character is driving out the old, the tired, the bland. Where quantity ruled, quality is usurping. Fresh, distinct and individual are the new sacred verses. Though it’s not an ecclesiastical upheaval per se, it is altering (pardon the pun) the nature of one of Spain’s most revered consumables.

Wine, you say? Been there, done that. Spain nailed (ahem) the wine thing eons ago. It’s the nectar of another fruit: a juice that is treated with the same reverence, the same intense passion and, in fact, the same degree of experimentation and technical ingenuity lavished on the country’s finest vintages. We’re talking extra virgin olive oil — the new Spanish doubloon. 

Spain’s 2.3 million hectares of olive groves (encompassing some 350 million individual trees) were first planted during the time of the Phoenicians who landed in the country around 1050 BCE. Today, over 1,700 producers press about 90 million kilograms of olives per harvest year. The bulk of production lies in the southern areas with the region of Andalucía accounting for almost half of the total output.

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