I've had a bad back of late, must be all that snow shoveling I’m doing - makes you wish you'd chosen condo living instead of home ownership; so tonight I needed relief. Looking at my wine racks I saw a long neck bottle calling out to me, it was a 2002, Thomas & Vaughan Cabernet Franc - I thought to myself, "I could use a little TLC from the likes of Dr. Thomas and Dr. Vaughan" - so let's see if they can make this house call memorable. I sunk the corkscrew into the wax top covering the cork and pulled up ... Yikes, plastic cork! That could be trouble. My first smell and taste were plasticy. I dumped my glass and tried again. A nose of spices, leather, cloves, blackberries and allspice - the tannins in the mouth were rich, the flavors were cassis, blueberry skins, a vanilla-cinnamon mixture and fine oak. Pretty impressive ... fifteen minutes later something happened. I had misplaced my glass as I began doing something else and when I came back to it I found juicy, ripe blackberries, a touch of cedar, silky smooth tannins and a touch of cocoa on the finish; the nose had also developed some sweet tobacco. Very impressive … another 25 minutes past. Now I have a real quaffer on my hands - it's smooth, soft, luscious and head-tiltingly good ... seems like I hit the sweet spot on this one, best of all, looks like I have another bottle on the racks. Lost and Found Rating: Treasure.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Thirteenth Street Winery 2002 G. H. Funk Vineyard Cabernet-Merlot
(Found - February 2008)
Here's what happens when you pair a great vintage (2002) with a cult winery known for making great, much sought after wines (13th Street). A few years back I bought this bottle of wine for under $20 - today I looked like a genius for picking up two, though I feel like an idiot for opening it so soon. That's the thing about wine that’s so vexing, when is the perfect time to open it? If you open it too soon or too late there's no way to get the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. This Cab-Merlot has not finished ageing, but it is coming along beautifully. Upon first open the smells were black fruit and licorice, twenty minutes later herbs and pencil shavings joined in the fray. The taste showed great complexity with each passing fifteen minutes ... spices, herbs, anise, nutmeg, a bit chewy through the mid-palate with just a touch of graphite. The tannins can best be described as slightly gritty - smooth through the mouth, but with a dry cocoa-like finish that leaves a little bite behind. If I had another bottle I'd lie down for another two years - maybe more. Lost and Found rating: Treasure … only going to get better.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Jackson-Triggs 2002 Proprietors’ Grand Reserve Meritage
(Found – January 2008)
Sure it’s fun to pick on J-T, and here are just a few of the reasons why … they’re big, they sold-out, they make cellared in Ontario wine by the boat-load and their Olympic wine is the biggest marketing gaf ever in the history of Ontario wine – and that’s saying something (the official wine of the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver is non-VQA). Makes you wonder who is steering the ship. But even with all these snafus you have to admit that when they do get it right they really get it right – and when "they VQA" they do it right. Take this Grand Reserve Meritage from 2002 (gold label) … 6 years from vintage date and it’s still a beauty. Colour and nose are still big and black … and that assessment goes right through to the palate. Tons of black fruit: cassis, blackberries, black raspberries with a touch of cedar and a lovely finish that completes the deal. They may not get it right all the time, they may mess it all up in the marketing department, and you might feel let down that they caved to the mighty American conglomerate (Constellation) … but when the marketing machine lets the wineamakers speak – they can make something spectacular from what they grow right here at home. Lost and Found rating: REAL TREASURE.
Sure it’s fun to pick on J-T, and here are just a few of the reasons why … they’re big, they sold-out, they make cellared in Ontario wine by the boat-load and their Olympic wine is the biggest marketing gaf ever in the history of Ontario wine – and that’s saying something (the official wine of the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver is non-VQA). Makes you wonder who is steering the ship. But even with all these snafus you have to admit that when they do get it right they really get it right – and when "they VQA" they do it right. Take this Grand Reserve Meritage from 2002 (gold label) … 6 years from vintage date and it’s still a beauty. Colour and nose are still big and black … and that assessment goes right through to the palate. Tons of black fruit: cassis, blackberries, black raspberries with a touch of cedar and a lovely finish that completes the deal. They may not get it right all the time, they may mess it all up in the marketing department, and you might feel let down that they caved to the mighty American conglomerate (Constellation) … but when the marketing machine lets the wineamakers speak – they can make something spectacular from what they grow right here at home. Lost and Found rating: REAL TREASURE.
Willow Springs 2003 Vidal
(Found – January 2008)
The lowly Vidal grape … the only good thing that has come to it is the invention of icewine, right? Not so fast folks. Someone once commented to me that they never see the Vidal grape outside of icewine. Vidal, believe it or not, shows up in quite a few wines, but they are mostly house blends or house wines and are more often than not off dry. I located a couple of bottles of this Willow Springs offering and wondered how it has fared over the past few years. Vidal is rarely if ever oaked so from vine to bottle there is probably a 6-month gap (if that) – so this wine would have been bottled in early 2004 … still that’s four years on. What I found in my glass was surprising – the colour had darkened and the smells were melon, lemon and a bit of sweet tangerine … the palate showed a decent amount of sweetness along with hits of cantaloup flesh and honeydew melon rind. In the mouth it felt rounded and still had a bit of acidity, while the finish lingered on the cheeks with some lemony-zing. Surprised? Maybe a little, though I had tried a 2004 Vidal a few months ago that was holding up pretty well too … good to see the lowly Vidal holding its own – this would be something nice to sip on come the summer. Lost and Found rating: MINOR TREASURE.
The lowly Vidal grape … the only good thing that has come to it is the invention of icewine, right? Not so fast folks. Someone once commented to me that they never see the Vidal grape outside of icewine. Vidal, believe it or not, shows up in quite a few wines, but they are mostly house blends or house wines and are more often than not off dry. I located a couple of bottles of this Willow Springs offering and wondered how it has fared over the past few years. Vidal is rarely if ever oaked so from vine to bottle there is probably a 6-month gap (if that) – so this wine would have been bottled in early 2004 … still that’s four years on. What I found in my glass was surprising – the colour had darkened and the smells were melon, lemon and a bit of sweet tangerine … the palate showed a decent amount of sweetness along with hits of cantaloup flesh and honeydew melon rind. In the mouth it felt rounded and still had a bit of acidity, while the finish lingered on the cheeks with some lemony-zing. Surprised? Maybe a little, though I had tried a 2004 Vidal a few months ago that was holding up pretty well too … good to see the lowly Vidal holding its own – this would be something nice to sip on come the summer. Lost and Found rating: MINOR TREASURE.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Creekside Estate Winery 2002 Cabernet
(Found – August 2007)
2002, being the year that its was, it was hard to make a wine that would not have life after a few years in bottle; but what about 5 years on. The winemaking team at Creekside shows that their current hit streak is no fluke – and started a long time ago, they have been making great wines all along. At first the wine showed leathery-dark fruit on the nose - the leathery then blew off and became cedary-dark fruit. The cedar continued into the mouth with some cassis, blackberries, a touch of vanilla, a little cinnamon and nutmeg also thrown in for good measure. Not bad at all especially for a wine that has been under plastic cork all this time, and I have had little luck with aged plastic. I still seem to have one bottle left, I’ll lay it down and we’ll assess it again in 2 years. Lost + Found rating: TREASURE.
2002, being the year that its was, it was hard to make a wine that would not have life after a few years in bottle; but what about 5 years on. The winemaking team at Creekside shows that their current hit streak is no fluke – and started a long time ago, they have been making great wines all along. At first the wine showed leathery-dark fruit on the nose - the leathery then blew off and became cedary-dark fruit. The cedar continued into the mouth with some cassis, blackberries, a touch of vanilla, a little cinnamon and nutmeg also thrown in for good measure. Not bad at all especially for a wine that has been under plastic cork all this time, and I have had little luck with aged plastic. I still seem to have one bottle left, I’ll lay it down and we’ll assess it again in 2 years. Lost + Found rating: TREASURE.
Erie Shore Vineyard 2001 Cabernet Franc-Zweigelt
(Found – January 2008)
I will fully admit that I waited too long with this one … finding it on the shelf in late December I knew it was probably past its prime, but waiting another month to drink it … that I can’t explain. If there is any good news to take away from this bottle is that it was corked, and therefore I never would have gotten the true flavours of the wine even if I tasted it in its prime. Soaking for as long as it did in the faulty cork the flavours and smells were just enhanced … the wine was ripe with wet newspaper and stewed prunes; and the taste was not much better. Looking at the bottle, now with the level of the wine at its shoulders, you could see the glass had become murky and cloudy. The wine itself looked more like a rosee, being almost completely see through. I gave the wine 30 minutes, an hour, then two hours to sit open, just to see if it would develop anything or blow off its stink … it did neither. Too bad, this one had some great potential in its youth and Erie Shore makes some great Franc. Lost + Found Rating: PURE TRASH.
I will fully admit that I waited too long with this one … finding it on the shelf in late December I knew it was probably past its prime, but waiting another month to drink it … that I can’t explain. If there is any good news to take away from this bottle is that it was corked, and therefore I never would have gotten the true flavours of the wine even if I tasted it in its prime. Soaking for as long as it did in the faulty cork the flavours and smells were just enhanced … the wine was ripe with wet newspaper and stewed prunes; and the taste was not much better. Looking at the bottle, now with the level of the wine at its shoulders, you could see the glass had become murky and cloudy. The wine itself looked more like a rosee, being almost completely see through. I gave the wine 30 minutes, an hour, then two hours to sit open, just to see if it would develop anything or blow off its stink … it did neither. Too bad, this one had some great potential in its youth and Erie Shore makes some great Franc. Lost + Found Rating: PURE TRASH.
Kacaba Vineyard 2002 Oak-Aged Gamay
(Found – August 2007)
The grape of Beaujolais in oak you say … mais oui! And quite tastee. A nose of cassis, black cherry, mocha and cedar, with tastes that are just as impressive 5 years on. The cedar had integrated well with the fruit in this bottle and did not over-power or dominate, it settled in nicely with the sour cherry, strawberry, raspberry and a sprinkling of Fry’s powered cocoa. I can’t tell you how truly impressed I was with this one - WOW! Lost + Found Rating: REAL TREASURE.
The grape of Beaujolais in oak you say … mais oui! And quite tastee. A nose of cassis, black cherry, mocha and cedar, with tastes that are just as impressive 5 years on. The cedar had integrated well with the fruit in this bottle and did not over-power or dominate, it settled in nicely with the sour cherry, strawberry, raspberry and a sprinkling of Fry’s powered cocoa. I can’t tell you how truly impressed I was with this one - WOW! Lost + Found Rating: REAL TREASURE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)