Missed Resolutions

I think I may have to make a resolution that, in 2010, I'm going to look up a bit more on the wines I'm about to open - rather than check them out after they're empty and the taste has long lost that lingering feeling.

For the second night in a row, I'm thinking I make an "ooops" by not going to the net before reaching for the corkscrew. When I grabbed this bottle, I couldn't remember anything special about it and I simply thought it would fit the dinner plans.

And then I find out why I bought it in the first place...

320. 2004 Bodegas Beronia Rioja Reserva (D.O. Rioja - Spain)

I'd completely forgotten that I ran out to specifically pick up a bottle because this was voted the Best in Show for the 2010 Vancouver Magazine Best Value Wine Awards. Out of the 800 wines reviewed by the panel of judges that included a large cross section of the city's best-known names in wine, the Beronia topped the Best Medium Red category and was then chosen best of the bunch.

Rather than really working our way through the wine and trying to identify the strengths that were pointed out by the judges, Boo and I simply sat back sipping on it while plonked in front of the TV. Instead of looking for the unabashedly Old World style to the wine and the complex flavours of "plums, raspberries, vanilla, coconut," we just sipped away - without thinking that anything really jumped out us as strikingly good.

I may just be too much of a New World kind of guy, but I preferred the other two Spanish wines I was introduced to last month - the Can Blau at Tyrant's and the Sabor Real at the neighbours' progressive dinner.

I'm learning more about the flavours of Tempranillo (matched with Mazuelo and Graciano in this bottle), but it's not quite displacing my Barossa Shiraz yet.

I wonder if I subconsciously would have needed to like it that much more had I found the magazine website or made a note about the wine before we opened it?

Tri-Centennial Notes & a New Task

I've got to admit that, at times, I look at the number of wines that have made it to The List and I wonder what the heck I've gotten myself into. It's going to take awhile to hit 2001 Bottles. Ain't it?!

With all the holiday festivities, hitting the 300 mark sort of snuck up on me. However, I guess it was rather fitting that we opened #300 at our Christmas Dinner. I just didn't fully realize it at the time. I knew we were close but I wasn't aware of the actual bottle at the time. Hence, we didn't have any fanfare or celebratory photo.

I took a bit of a look back over The List to see just what we've been drinking and it's no surprise that we've opened way more local BC bottles than we have of any other region. We popped 125 BC corks, with the next closest region being Australia at 43. We've finished off bottles from 15 countries so far and the others that have seen ten or more are Italy (33 - which is a bit of a surprise to me), France (25), Spain (14 - thanks in part to the Tyrant's fondness for new wave Spain), US (14 as well, with 11 of those coming from California), and Argentina (12).

Of the 300 bottles, 171 have been red, 98 white, 9 sparkling, 7 rose, 6 fruit, 5 dessert or icewine and 4 fortified.

We drink a lot of blended wines, but out of the straight varietal wines we've shared, the most visited grapes have been Shiraz (26), Merlot (18), Pinot Noir (13), Cab Sauv (12) and Malbec (8) among the reds, with the most quaffed whites being Riesling (19), Pinot Gris (18), Chardonnay (10 - a bit of a surprise for us since we don't usually reach for a Chardy), Sauvignon Blanc (9) and Viognier (6).

With this recap being at hand, I came across an intriguing website the other day for the Wine Century Club. To become a member, all (he snickers as he writes "all") you have to do is drink 100 different varietals during your wine adventures. The website states that only 3% of the people that download a checklist actually send back a completed application. Having taken a look at their checklist, we've obviously hit a lot of the more popular - and most available - varietals, but I couldn't help thinking that, following a reading of their list, I've never heard of a number of the grapes listed.

It might be quite the task - but definitely a fun one to take on. The one saving grace is that the requirements allow you to count a varietal when it is included in a blend. I wonder if it would even be possible to drink 100 grapes as strict varietal wines. How often can you expect to come across a wine made of 100% Macabeo or Muller Thurgau?

I'm only going to count varietals that have appeared in wines on the List, but I was able to count approximately 65 varietals already. The remaining 35 will no doubt be a lot tougher to locate. With 1701 more bottles to add to The List though, I figure we should be able to accomplish the challenge.

Looks like 2010 should be a good year for a glass of wine or two.

Garden of Stones

319. 2006 Jacob's Creek Steingarten Riesling (Barossa - Australia)

This is yet another bottle where I found out a lot more about it than I knew before - but after we'd opened and finished it. I was quite surprised to find out that Jacob's Creek is one of the largest wine producers in the world. However, that may just play a bit of a role in why I can't say that we drink much of their wine.

I found at least a couple of articles on the web that referred to the fact that many wine writers tend to either simply ignore or to lump Jacob's Creek wines with other "brand wines" - like [yellow tail]. One of those making the comment was John Halliday and he also says he thinks those writers underestimate the quality of the wine produced by Jacob's Creek. He gives the winery, as a whole, a rating of five stars - his highest.

He also gives the Steingarten Riesling a stellar rating. The last five vintages have received scores of 90 points or more. The 2006 is the current vintage and was scored at 94. He also commented that it could cellar successfully until 2016. Maybe we opened it a bit early. I won't worry too much about it though. I tend to like my Rieslings on the fresh side (as opposed to the aged wines showing hints of gasoline and the like).

This bottle was definitely on the crisp side with tons of citrus. While I can appreciate the minerality and big lime, I tend to gravitate more to Germany and Alsace - or to BC - where there might be a bit more emphasis on subtler stone fruit and maybe even a touch of residual sugar.

Although this is a premium wine for Jacob's Creek and "Steingarten" refers to a particular, higher altitude, vineyard that was planted by the winery in the 1960's, this is not a single vineyard wine. Rather, the winery states that the grapes going into the wine are indicative of the flavour profile found with the Steingarten vines and fruit.

If memory serves correctly, I picked this bottle up at the Playhouse Wine Festival last year. So, I certainly thought enough of it at that point. Then again, when buying at the Festival, I generally reach for bottles that can't be found in Vancouver at other times of the year. At $36 though, I think I'd have to think about grabbing another bottle if I found it.

Fat Ass Five

Boo and I might have spent New Year's Day, yesterday, in a rather non-traditional way - shopping for carpets - but there is a tradition in Vancouver that can knock you back substantially more than a hefty Visa bill.

The Fat Ass Fifty.

It's a run that meanders through the streets of Vancouver every New Year's Day. The "Fifty" refers to the kilometres being run. I'm not quite sure what the "Fat Ass" refers to, because you won't find many of those aforementioned body parts on any of the runners taking part.

As you might have gathered, neither Boo nor I partook in the run. This'd be a life-long non-starter for Boo. On the other hand, I did consider it - to the point of packing my running gear on New Year's Eve. A particularly nasty rain storm and a late New Year's Eve put the kaibosh on that run - but that was also over a decade and maybe 30 pounds ago.

We've been receiving some rather extraordinary e-mails lately from Merlot Boy, down under. Seems that, after he finished his visit to our fair shores back in September, he's gone on the wagon and stepped up his own running and training - resulting in a loss of 25 pounds. Personally, I'm not sure I've ever heard of an Aussie that doesn't drink - at least not for three months straight, but he swears by it. He's so hyped by all this that he's gearing up for another half marathon and toying with the idea of his first full marathon.

Now, I can hardly give up drinking - this goal of 2001 bottles is taking long enough as it is - but being buoyed by Merlot Boy's success, I did go for a bit of a jog (not exactly going fast enough to call it a run nowadays). I'll call it the Fat Ass Five. It might have been a bit off on the "five" part. I went somewhat further than 5 km but I know it wasn't 5 miles. I know, however, that I got the "Fat Ass" part pretty much down pat.

318. 2005 Blasted Church Merlot (VQA Okanagan)

To toast Merlot Boy's success and to celebrate my first run of this Olympic year, we pulled the cork on one of the wines that Boo and I served at our anniversary reception a couple summers back. I keep thinking that I'll do a post about the wines that we chose, but it won't happen with this wine. I think there might be one or two left that aren't on The List yet.

I was glad to see that the wine had held up for another year. Four years is hardly a long cellar life, but it wasn't that long ago that you wouldn't even think of laying a BC wine down in a cellar. Plus, there was still plenty of life left to the Blasted Church.

Just like there are still plenty of miles - hopefully - left to both Merlot Boy's and my running.

New Year. New Debt.

I don't know if it was one of Boo's resolutions for 2010, but he's certainly started the new year off by making his best contribution towards spending the country's way out of the recession.

While at the dinner party last night, Axel made the "mistake" (at least it was one for my pocketbook) of saying that he and the English Doc were heading down to a "close out sale" of one of the Oriental carpet shops in Gastown. For a carpet queen like Boo, that's like a new dealer in town offering introductory new prices to a crack addict.

As you can see, he wears his carpets with pride and this one is a beauty. It's just that this is the first time we've picked up a fine Persian silk at Vancouver prices. We'd been lucky enough to pick up some incredible rugs while visiting Miss Jaq in the UAE, but those rugs were at much nicer prices (even after duty and all).

Suffice it to say that he's not allowed to complain about me buying any new wines for some time to come. The "No Buy Leash" has been noticeably loosened.

317. 2002 Renwood Old Vine Zinfandel (Amador County - California)

Now, normally the silk carpets and vicinity are no wine zones - to the extent that they occasionally get rolled up if we know that guests intend to fully indulge in vino veritas. Just the thought of trying to remove a stain from a Qum or a Kashan is the stuff of nightmares. And pity the poor person that caused the spill!

We risked the photo though - just to show how we spent January 1 this year (and I supposed I really do mean "spent").

The bottle labelling describes this wine as "Ripe & Fleshy, Sexy & So Sophisticated." I'm not sure whether that was referring to the wine or to how Boo felt wrapped in his new baby - but I won't take that image any further.

I remember hearing that there's a group of California wineries that produce bang up Zin's and they all start with the letter "R." My guess is that Renwood must be one of them, because as over the top as the labelling might have been, it was a very tasty wine. Not exactly inexpensive - $37 when we bought it a few years ago - but full bodied and full of ripe black fruit. I always hope for a little something extravagant with a bottle of that price and I think this delivered.

(No doubt, this is a good example of the BC tax system when it comes to importing wine. I see that the 2005 vintage of this wine is listed on the winery website at $18US. It's currently listed with the BCLD at $32. I know the Canadian dollar was suffering a few years back but how can there be such a difference in price? Crazy! No wonder our household drinks so little US wine - particularly if Boo wants to buy another carpet down the road.)

But, after all, a new silk carpet has to be an occasion for a nice bottle.

That, and the fact that we needed something with a bit of personality to match up with our more traditional New Year's Day activity. Being the good Southern boy that he is, Boo is always one for his black-eyed peas and cornbread come January 1 and the new year's dinner table. There was a bit of a bite to this year's batch, so the spiciness of the wine wasn't completely out of sync.

A new carpet, Southern vittles, a fine wine and a loosened "leash," what more can a guy ask for to start a new year?

Happy New Year!

If I were twenty years younger and this outlet was Facebook - rather than a wine blog -I'd likely be recounting a wild New Year's Eve party with a thousand other revellers at a big circuit dance party. Been there. Done that. As a rule, it takes far too long today to recover from the more-than-likely hangover.

I'm still not quite to the point of watching Dick Clark (or I guess it's Ryan Seacrest nowadays) on TV - with the time zone differential so we can watch midnight at 9pm PST - and head off to bed. For the last so many years, we've generally put together a gang of friends and had a dinner party.

This year, we were lucky when Tyrant offered to host the dinner. The idea was to keep things toned down and make it a "simple" potluck with each person bringing along a ready-made course. So much for the simplicity of the dishes! From wild mushroom soup, through duck breast salad, to individual beef wellington's with foie gras and duxelles, this was a mighty fine potluck.

I'm very happy to report that the wines were also plentiful and delicious. The evening provided a nice addition of very enjoyable wines to The List.

307. 2007 Prunotto Moscato D'Asti (DOCG Moscato D'Asti - Piedmont - Italy)

We opened the evening with a glass of sweetness to off-set the heat of the spiced olives, chipotle-infused goat cheese and spot prawn bruschetta hors d'oeuvres that were presented.

I've posted Prunotto previously, but I've only seen their red wines available in BC - and there aren't many of those to be found. The ones that can be found are usually accompanied by higher price tags. At $24, I think this is a lovely start to saying goodbye to the year.

Mr. D. was delayed in joining us in that he was only scheduled to return to town from an unexpected jaunt to the snowy Prairies that are Saskatchewan. His flight was delayed - how unexpected - in Calgary. We stalled a bit with a couple more wines to give him time to arrive.

308. 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay (South Australia)

309. 2008 Arrowleaf Solstice Gewurztraminer (VQA Okanagan)

Arrowleaf isn't a winery that I gravitate to but I was surprised by the Gewurz. I was even more surprised when I found out that it was one of the younger guests that brought the wine and he said that Gewurz is his favourite varietal. I don't run across to many people that say that.

Eventually, we had to sit down to the first course - with or without Mr. D.

310. 2001 Kettle Valley Foxtrot Pinot Noir (Naramata - Okanagan)

We anticipated that the earthiness of the Pinot would match up with the wild mushroom soup that Axel and the English Doc brought and, by George, it did. Luckily for me, Mr. D. still hadn't arrived. It was our first red and I'd over-poured a bit on the glasses and was short one glass. Normally that empty would have had to be mine, but, although he didn't realize it, the ever-gracious Mr. D. donated his glass to me. We did save him soup though.

This bottle was pulled from Tyrant's cellar and I was quite intrigued. Boo and I have previously had a bottle of Foxtrot Vineyards Pinot Noir while dining in Whistler and it was recommended to us as one of BC's new premium producers. It's a new winery though - only having started up in 2007. We're thinking that the old owners of the vineyard used to sell their grapes to Kettle Valley and they, in turn, identified this wine with a single vineyard designation. No wonder the new owners looked to capitalize on the Foxtrot name.

Mr. D finally arrived and started working on his duck salad, but that was going to take a bit of time. So, we forced ourselves to take a bit of a break and work on another bottle.

311. 2006 CedarCreek Estate Select Meritage (VQA Okanagan)

A traditional Bordeaux blend, using the five standard varietals. This vintage saw a higher percentage of Merlot to Cab Sauv (51% to 36%), with the balance made up of Cab Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

312. 2004 Black Hills Nota Bene (Black Sage Road - Okanagan)

Next up was another BC Meritage blend that Mr. D offered up with his duck. If I'd been a smarter boy, I'd have saved a bit of the CedarCreek to compare to the Nota Bene. But, I wasn't. The salad course was rather delayed and the CedarCreek just kept going down too easily. Unlike the CedarCreek, Nota Bene is known more for its being anchored by Cab Sauv (46% with this vintage), which is then followed by Merlot (38%). The remaining 18% is straight Cab Franc. Considering the cult status of this wine in BC, it was a treat to share it for the evening.

313. 2001 Langmeil Fifth Wave Grenache (Barossa Valley - Australia)

314. 1993 Rosemount Estate Balmoral (McLaren Vale - Australia)

The next two wines just kept cranking up the standard for the evening. Langmeil is a favourite producer of mine but we generally know them for their Syrah. This was an interesting departure.

The Balmoral is a flagship wine for Rosemount. One of Australia's big names in wine, James Halliday, rated this vintage a 94 and he said that it should best be opened by 2005, but we found it to still be completely memorable.

Both of these wines deserve individual posts of their own but time and space here dictate that I'll just say that both wines just felt like the next step to happiness.

Tyrant's Beef Wellington was as good as it can get at a potluck dinner. The taste alone was superb but when you throw in his Julia Child impersonation as he was wrapping the pastry - priceless. The pictures of the Tyrant Julia would have added an interesting twist to this posting, but he wasn't sporting a wine glass in those shots and they weren't necessarily as flattering as he contorted his face for the full effect. Meryl and Ackroyd would both have been proud.

We had just enough time to settle a bit and sort out our New Year's finery of hats, beads and noisemakers. At the stroke of midnight, we popped the cork and enjoyed some of the street sounds from the balcony while making some noise of our own. We also noticed that the Olympic rings in Coal Harbour gave us a show of changing colours to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic year.

315. Moet et Chandon Brut Imperial (AOC Champagne - France)

Another stroke of luck for us is that Tyrant had some Moet left over from his Winter Solstice soiree. Naturally, I'd grabbed a sip the other week, but I didn't think I'd done the bottle enough justice to add it to The List. No such problem tonight.

The only problem was not spilling a drop while dancing away to Cher and Lady Gaga.

316. 2005 Mission Hill S.L.C. Riesling Icewine (VQA - Okanagan)

There was one last bottle that we had to give its due though. Elzee had brought along an Icewine to go along with (as Tyrant terms it) her world famous lemon tart.

It also was as good as ever - both the tart and the Icewine.

There wasn't much room or desire to dive into the cheese course though. Most of the cheese came home with Boo and I since Tyrant was still nursing more than enough leftovers from the Solstice party to keep a household of mice happy. He didn't need to add to that cache.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening of great food, wonderful wines and good friends. What a way to end one year and start another. Here's hoping that 2010 is full of such moments.

Pirrimmima

306. 2006 Pirramimma Stock's Hill Chardonnay (McLaren Vale - Australia)

This is the second Pirramimma wine that been added to The List and it's interesting since, if no other reason, I've always thought of the winery for their red wines. Turns out that Chardonnay is the most planted white varietal in the estate vineyards. That may be why it made its way up here to Vancouver.

The Stock's Hill name on the label refers to the vineyard where the grapes are grown and it is the most elevated vineyard on the estate. As mentioned in the previous Pirramimma posting, McLaren Vale is located about 40km south of Adelaide in South Australia. As such, it's not exactly a cool climate region (by Canadian standards), but the elevation of the vineyard and the fact that Pirramimma doesn't oak its Chardonnay lends itself to a fruity, yet restrained, wine.

This is the sort of Chardonnay that I don't mind drinking at all.

Pretty Much Gone

This will be a quick post for a couple of reasons, but primarily for the fact that either the bottle had seen better days or it was just rather unpalatable. I'm leaning towards the former.

305. 2005 Peller Estates Private Reserve Merlot (VQA Okanagan)

I don't think the wine was fully corked; however, it was well on its way to nasty. I'm pretty sure that the bottle was left behind from a party some time ago. (Whoa, I remember days when there would never have been any booze left over after a party - unless it was a half finished beer bottle that someone had forgotten or abandoned. Times do change.)

I kind of figure that the bottle was left behind by someone else because I don't remember having bought anything from Peller Estates. I buy a lot of BC wine, but they aren't a winery that tends to show up on my radar. Maybe it's because I still associate Peller with the old volume, Calona "value" wines like their bestseller Baby Duck. They've come a long way since those days (although Baby Duck still has a following), but they haven't managed to get me to cross the wine store aisle.

That is interesting fact since I do have a "jones" for Sandhill wines and Peller owns Sandhill and Sandhill's winemaker, Howard Soon, is still intimately involved with Peller itself. This is why I think this particular bottle was just off.

Perhaps I'll wipe the slate clean come the new year and give them another chance.

Like Wine? Love, Actually.

I hadn't had my seasonal fix of "Love Actually" yet this year and Boo wasn't all that interested in watching it again. The movie just doesn't have that annual pull as a seasonal classic for him. So, I put out the call to the neighbours to see if there'd be any takers to make a bit of a night of it. Both Baby Mama and GatuBela were ready, willing and able to sit back with popcorn and wine glass in hand.

Danchuk had never seen the flick before, but he was game to check it out with the chicks as well. And it wasn't even just the wine that drew him in since he brought along the beer. But, you know that, since I'm recording it here, there was wine...

303. 2006 Wild Goose Gewurztraminer (VQA Okanagan)

This wasn't exactly chosen as a popcorn wine. (I've actually heard that sparkling wines are a natural fit with that.) But, I did think it would go along with the evening's pre-movie course of butter chicken and aloo gobi. Plus, it was handy since it was one of the Christmas dinner wines that I'd left behind on the counter the other night. It went fine with the popcorn as well though.

When it comes to Gewurztraminer and BC, there are a lot of people that will immediately turn to Wild Goose. We don't tend to drink too much Gewurz, but I think I could be coaxed into a more regular glass if either the varietal and/or Wild Goose continues to go down as nicely as this did.

We were pretty much finished that bottle when, lo and behold - thanks to the miracle of baby monitors - even Arty400 made a surprise visit. Arty400 - or RD4 for short (not sure if he's a distant relative of R2D2 or not) - didn't have much interest in the movie but he is always good for a nice glass of wine.

He and Baby Mama brought along our second bottle for the night:

304. 2007 Delas Saint-Esprit Cotes-du-Rhone (AOC Cotes-du-Rhone - France)

RD4 had been tipped off to this wine as a nice bottle at a good price and, like me, he's an easy mark for Syrah-based wines. This one is 75% Syrah and 25% Grenache. Turns out that his source's enjoyment of this wine is mirrored by others. Indeed, none other than Robert Parker, one of the biggest names in the wine-writing (and wine-scoring) business, has given this wine 90 points (which is well up there for an $18 French wine) and declared that the 2007 vintage was a great one for the Rhone.

I hadn't heard those comments about 2007 Rhone wines until I looked up this bottle. I'll have to keep an eye out for some more to give them a try. I'm not sure that this one killed it for me but a couple of Chateauneauf-du-Poofs would always be welcome at our table. Banner year or not.

As for the movie, I'm glad that, unlike Danchuk, I'd already seen the movie. The commentary was endless - and vicious to boot. You'd have thought we were watching it with deadlines to send in a scathing review. "That's just so unrealistic." "My least favourite part of the movie." "How stupid is that."

At least RD4 liked the fact that Billy Bob Thornton was cast as the US President. Might have been the only thing he liked - other than the wine.

People, it's a light-hearted Christmas romantic comedy. I might need to limit my movie choices with this crowd to more serious fare like Star Trek or Julie and Julia when we try this out next time.

Or serve even more wine before the movie starts.

Taking Stock on Boxing Day

Well, our "Twelve Wines of Christmas" may be all finished and wrapped now, but I know there's still plenty of wine to be enjoyed before all the seasonal treats are similarly completed. Case in point, it may be Boxing Day - and, hence, the time for packing up the season - but here we are opening up and bringing out a little something more to celebrate with.

302. 2006 Laughing Stock Vineyards Pinot Pinot (Naramata Bench - Okanagan)

Laughing Stock wines can be both difficult to find and a tad on the higher end of the pricing scale, but I do like to try and get my hands on their Pinot Pinot. Around the $20 mark, it's still within my budget and I really enjoy their blending of two of the white varietals that might be best suited for our province - Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc.

The winery's owners (and winemaker), David and Cynthia Enns, both had pasts in financial management and I love how their background whimsically shows in many aspects of their marketing. The bottle design cleverly incorporates information about the wine inside and shows the closing market values of a number of stocks on the vintage date.

The Pinot Pinot is part of the winery's Small Cap Program which, according to their website, allows them to "explore smaller market plays" with varietals that they don't necessarily fit into their primary wines. There were only 170 cases of the 2006 vintage and they saw a blend of 75% Gris and 25% Blanc. The Pinot Gris saw some fermentation in second-fill oak barrels and the Pinot Blanc saw stainless steel the whole way - thereby allowing for a fullness from the Gris and additional acidity and fruit from the Blanc.

I'm sold. I'll be sure to invest in another couple bottles if I can find them.