With the baby on the way, it’s been busy around the house - lots of last minute things to do before the little guy arrives, and not much wine drinking going on!  I will post some tasting notes from some bottles from this weekend’s release next week.

If you’ve been reading my tasting notes enough, you have probably noticed that I’m a little partial to Malivoire wines.  I don’t know what it is, but they speak to me.  Well built, excellent quality, decent value, and a great expression of the varietals they produce.  I think the geek in me loves that the winemaker shares the intimate details of how the wine was made both on the label and on the website.  Very cool.  I purchased 4 of these cabernet franc/merlot blends much earlier this year, when the snow was still on the ground.   I managed to last this long without opening one, because I had a sneaky suspicion that I would be in for a treat.  I wasn’t wrong.

The nose here is an intriguing combination of the varietals involved in the blending - I get forest floor, asparagus tips, some tomato-ness, coffee and hints of hot strawberry jam on toast with butter.  Little spice, and floral notes.  Ha now that’s a nose.  Very interesting.  When I take a sip, I get a great velvety feel and a nice mix of savoury herbacious and ripe fruit.  What I notice is the nice structure med tannins, med acidity.  Decent finish, nice minerality here that I wasn’t expecting, but comes to me on the finish.  Tart raspberries and some green-ness I can’t identify, plus some blueberry notes that are really nice.  The blueberry-ness follows through the midpalate, and the finish is blueberry, more tart raspberry, and some spiciness.  Overall, great wine.  Paired great with my marinated bbq’d steak lightly brushed with bbq sauce, steamed broccoli with cheesy white sauce and green beans. 88pts.

While I try to stick to wines available to the general public in Ontario, this is one of the wines I brought back from Oregon earlier this year.  I had a hankerin’ for Oregon pinot last weekend, so I opened a bottle of this.  I still love it, although I think this wine is built for drinking by itself.  Good thing I have one more bottle in the cellar!

One the nose: dark cherry, cola, an interesting cardamom-ish aroma, and some floral notes - like violets!

In the mouth: cherry cola-ish, but not over the top.  Ripe, red cherry and vanilla, with some smokey oak spices.  There is a nice tannic structure here, firm but very forgiving and roundish.  Ripe flavours, nice balance.  Flavours follow through to the finish which is medium in length.  90pts.

Apologies for the delays in posting.  Holy smokes it’s been weeks since I’ve posted!  Baby #1 is on the way, so we’ve been busy making the house ready, and the wine budget has… well, shrunk.  I will resume weekly postings.

I posted some older tasting notes on this one last week, but today I decided to pop one I still had in my cellar.  After experiencing Oregon for a week, my perception of pinot noir has changed drastically.  A few months in the bottle has changed this wine too.  Here are my updating tasting notes:

With a deep brick red colour, the aromas lept at me from my Riedel Sommelier Grand Cru Burgundy glass.  I inhaled vibrant red cherry, baked strawberry, ripe raspberry, vanilla, cinnamon stick and clove.  There is a floral note to this one that smells like the drive through Niagara on the Lake I recently took - the cherry blossoms were all out and the air was perfumed.  That’s what I got here.  This is a beautiful nose!  When I take a sip, the mouthfeel I notice first - viscous and elegant.  Red cherry explodes in my mouth and I notice the great structure here - nice soft tannins and great acidity keeping the whole thing in balance.  The cherry comes with raspberry, strawberry and rhubarb plus just a hint of cracked pepper and a little earthiness that is extremely pleasant.  The finish is long and luxurious, with the cherry and raspberry really speaking to my palate.  When the dark chocolate notes whisper sweet nothings to my palate and bring a little bit of minerality with them, it’s time for a cigarette.  Great effort from Malivoire, I am extremely happy I have one more of these in my cellar and I can’t wait to see the 07s!  92pts

As my wine budget plummets, my postings have been less than regular.  I’ll be updating on a weekly basis now, and filling in with some info on varietals that make up the wines we drink.  Hope folks are getting value out of this page, good luck and sante!

My best impression of the Tasmanian devil.  I was surprised to see a Tasmanian pinot noir on the shelf at the Milton LCBO.  After a quick check with the vintages gal, sounded like something I would like to try.

COCKFIGHTER’S GHOST PREMIUM RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2005
VINTAGES 60947 | 750 mL bottle
Price: $ 29.95

Dark cherry in colour, the nose is full of ripe dark cherries, ripe raspberries, and fresh white mushrooms on the nose. There’s also a little bit of something savoury, almost stem-like. Sharp, ripe tannins, nice acidity. Flavour profile consists of ripe red cherries, raspberries, hint of wild strawberry. Nice finish, sour cherries, white pepper, some clove-ish spicyness, some rapberry and strawberry. There is an interesting gamey characteristics - maybe from the MV6 clone they used in the mix, maybe whole cluster pressing?
Interesting wine, the gamey not on the finish throws me off a little, but not enough to not enjoy it. 88-89pt pinot noir for 30 bones? Not bad.

MARCHESI DI BAROLO BARBARESCO 2004
VINTAGES 60855 | 750 mL bottle
Price: $ 43.95

I’m on a major Nebbiolo kick (thanks Joe). Probably not the best thing to be posting to start a wine blog, since Nebbiolo is not always the most approachable grape.  When I stopped into the new Milton LCBO (by the GO train station) I couldn’t resist picking this one up, as I’ve heard 04 in Piedmont was a good year.

Dark chocolate, black tea, sour cherry and a hint of rose petal on the nose.  Think really, really good dark chocolate.

I take a drink, and I’m thinking some of the barolos I’ve had recently.  I love the structure here, great acidity and the tannins are grippy but sweet.  The aromas follow exactly through to flavour profile - tea first, sour cherry, some dark chocolate and coffee type flavours.  The finish is medium, with tea, sage, some chai kind of notes, sour cherry.  Love it.  Not as complex as a barolo but extremely enjoyable.  Balanced, structured, elegant.  Get to it people.

MAISON CHAMPY PERNAND-VERGELESSES 2005
VINTAGES 8151 | 750 mL bottle
Price: $ 29.70

Another first for me, this was my first white burgundy.  From the Cote de Beaune, in Burgundy, France this represents decent value.  White burgundies are treasured by collectors, and prices are usually reflective.  This particular wine is situated at a nice price point.

Colour: straw gold
On the nose: The first thing I notice here is toast.  Crisp, well done golden brown all over toast.  Then comes some vanilla, a freshly sliced green pepper, lemon pith and poached pear.
On my palate: The toast follows through here, which is really interesting.  Lemon zest follows quickly, then some butterscotch, pear, green apples and poppy seed (maybe more toastyness returning?).  There’s a mineral note that I can’t quite define - I have to get into tasting minerals to figure this stuff out!! Decent finish, lots of butterscotch and poached pear.  Nicely balanced wine, and an affordable price for white burgundy!

2005 Hidden Bench Vieilles Vignes Chardonnay

$40 from the winery

I want to stick to sharing mostly to LCBO offerings which are widely available, but I get down to Niagara a few times a year to taste wines and I want to share.  Hidden Bench is one of those wineries you love to visit - beautiful big tasting room, great wines, beautiful people helping you.  Some friends and I recently spent a morning with Meg in the tasting room, and as much as I like their Terroir Cache Bordeaux-style blend, their chardonnays are fantastic.  The old vines chardonnay is from their Rosomel vineyard.  TNs below.  For 40 dollars, it’s getting up there. 

I took a quick pop and pour of this, and the oakiness was a little out of control so I decanted for about an hour.

colour: bright straw yellow
on the nose: grap-ee citrus aromas, with some tertiary floral notes I can’t quite qualify.
on the palate: elegant, polished attack blossoming into a well balanced fruit - green apple with unripe strawberries, dried cranberry and some lemon rind. The finish is long, carrying the fruity notes through with some good acidity balancing out the creamy vanilla oak tannins. Great mouthfeel.

This one definitely needs a little time to settle down, and will reward folks with patience.  At 40 bones, this isn’t the best value on the market, but it is well balanced, luxurious and full of fruit - just what you want from an oaked chardonnay!