Villa Antinori & The Super Tuscans

Mr. D. was over in the afternoon as Boo and he putzed around, so we twisted his arm to stay for dinner and catch a movie. Unfortunately for him, nothing too special - just frozen lasagna and a cheese plate. I was supposed to pick up the salad home on the way home from work, but I guess I was in such a hurry to open another bottle that I forgot.

As for the movie, much to Boo's dismay, Mr. D. picked Harry Potter over the new Star Trek DVD. I don't think Boo will ever understand how anyone could choose anything other than Star Trek, but I guess it CAN happen.

Whether tonight's wine is magical enough to channel Dumbledore is questionable, but there certainly is a bit of a tale to go with it.

325. 2005 Villa Antinori Toscana (IGT Toscana - Italy)

There have been a couple of Super Tuscans to make The List already but I haven't really made any reference to the story behind the wine. Seeing as how Antinori was one of the innovators that basically forced the Italian wine industry to re-invent their appellation system, maybe this is a good time to do so.

A bit of history first, the Antinori family has been in the winemaking profession for 26 generations, dating back to 1385 when Giovanni di Piero Antinori registered with the Florentine Guild of Winemakers. They established a history of a wine family and empire that grew to include some of the most prestigious estates in Tuscany - and they have since expanded into Piedmont, Southern Italy and even California.

As for the Super Tuscan, it is basically a wine of Tuscan origin that features grapes that are not indigenous to Tuscany and would not, therefore, qualify, under Tuscan DOC standards, in the production of Chianti - Tuscany's most famous wine. Those international grapes - primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah/Shiraz - were used by innovative Tuscan winemakers to blend with the traditional Sangiovese grape to make, what they felt was, a more rounded and flavourful wine. The Italian wine industry had to respond when these Super Tuscans, despite being labelled as Vino di Tavola or table wine, created more buzz and started to sell for values far in excess of the sanctioned Chiantis.

By creating a whole new category of IGT wines (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) or wines that are typical of a specific region, the new designation allowed these, often premium, wines to be sold under a more appropriate quality level. The Super Tuscans still don't qualify as Chianti, but at least the wine industry didn't have to deal with table wines being sold for over $100 a bottle.

Antinori was in the forefront of the development of the Super Tuscan. They started blending Bourdeaux varietals into their Chiantis back in 1924. They currently produce two of the biggest names in the category - Tignanello and Solaia. Arguably, it was the international interest in the 1971 Tig that forced the Italian wine industry to introduce the far-reaching changes in their rules that resulted in the IGT designation.

This Toscana isn't meant to be spoken of in the same company of Tignanello and Solaia, but it is indicative of how the Super Tuscan concept is now found at all levels of the Tuscan wine scene. The 2005 is a representative blend found in a couple vintages of this wine - 55% Sangiovese, 25% Cab Sauv, 15% Merlot and 5% Syrah - and the Villa Antinori wines are all estate-grown and vinified.

Not being a regular drinker of or a huge fan of Chianti, I can appreciate how the blending of the additional grapes fills out the often lighter flavour profile of Sangiovese. I'm not sure that I'd run back to the Toscana too quickly at $25 a bottle though.

Desert Hills Gamay Noir

As I'm posting this wine, I can't locate a photo that I'd usually have taken to accompany the breezy prose. When popping the cork, I remember wondering if we'd maybe had a bottle of this vintage previously. Could be I just figured I didn't need a picture because it was already on The List.

Oh well, we haven't had it before, so you'll just have to imagine a "split-level" label with black, gold and copper - and a tree and a bird. Pretty descriptive, eh. Then again, you could go all the way back to one of the early posts and wine #29 to see another label from the same winery.

324. 2007 Desert Hills Estate Winery Gamay (VQA Okanagan Valley)

Desert Hills is one of those wineries that first gained a bit of prominence - not necessarily because of their wines but - because of its location. It certainly didn't hurt a fledgling winery to be an immediate neighbour of two of the province's most sought after vintners. Both Burrowing Owl and Black Hills are mere minutes away on Black Sage Road and, if you're in the vicinity, it only makes sense to drop by and see what's brewing. It's hard not to conclude that it was a worthwhile effort.

I know that was our experience when we first happened on Desert Hills while making a pilgrimage to Burrowing Owl.

From our first visit, we understood that Desert Hills was a very hands-on, family operated winery. The folks running the tasting room were as friendly as you'll ever meet and they kept introducing us to so-and-so's little girl or mentioning the other brother that was off doing such-and-such. I also remember that one of the Toor brothers (I'm not sure which one) was so proud of his Cabernet that he guaranteed that we'd like the bottle or he'd refund our money.

That was many bottles ago.

For most, Desert Hills is best known for its love of producing big, lusty reds. The Gamay is the lightest of their red wines and it might be my favourite of their wines. I like the fact that I don't need a big hunk of protein to tame every sip. This is still a Gamay that offers up more ooomph than most though.

If memory serves this was an early favourite of Lady Di's (that's Lady Di of the blog and not the Royal one - although the princess might have liked this wine as well).

Worthy of a New Carafe

As a bit of a Christmas present (splurge) for ourselves, Boo and I picked up a decanter that I've loved since I first saw it at the Riedel exhibit at last year's Playhouse Wine Festival. Hand-blown, with a black stripe running along one side, it's more a piece of art than a carafe. The niggling, little problem that prevented us from buying it earlier was always the cost. Then, lo and behold, of all places, we found it at Costco - with a substantially reduced ticket on it.

I wanted to wait until we were going to open a big wine that would be "worthy" of decanting in it. Since it was time to make a small extra payment on our mortgage, I figured we deserved a bit of treat.

323. 1999 Tahbilk Reserve Shiraz (Nagambie Lakes - Australia)

We've had this bottle for a couple of years and I didn't really know what to expect. Tahbilk is neither a winery that I commonly see up here, nor one that I particularly know anything about. I do recall that we originally bought the wine after having a bottle of Tahbilk Marsanne when dining out with Beamer and The Divine Miss M. At the time, none of knew what Marsanne was, but we liked it and I figured that the winery was worth an extra shot.

Having surprised myself - after the fact - with a couple of recent bottles, I actually looked up this bottle before popping the cork. I almost didn't open it because of what I read - primarily that both the winery and Aussie writer, James Halliday, said that the bottle likely has another decade, or more, of good years to go. I took a chance anyhow.

It was completely worthy of the Riedel! It was everything that I love in Australian Shiraz - great dark fruit, well-balanced tannins and acid and a brilliant nose - but it was nicely refined and far from over the top. This bottle had a bonus kick to it - a wonderful finish just went on and on. I don't know how much more it would have improved with more years, but I couldn't get enough. Unfortunately, it'll have to be enough for some time. At $65, it will have to remain a special occasion night.

However, beyond serving up a delightful bottle, the winery is really interesting as well. It's located in the Nagambie Lakes district in central Victoria state, about 120 km North of Melbourne. Not a district that I think I've heard of before and I certainly don't generally think of Victoria winemaking when it comes to Shiraz.

The winery dates back to 1860 and it still produces a flagship Shiraz that is made exclusively from vines that were planted back in that initial year. This Reserve is made from fruit grown in blocks where the vines were planting in 1927, 1933 and 1936. Old Vines by any standard, but a relative youngster compared to the 1860 wine.

Tahbilk is known for its distinct wines and the winery posits that part of the reason is that Nagambie Lakes is the only winemaking region in Australia where its climate is "dramatically influenced by inland water mass." The vineyard features river flats, permanent backwaters and creeks. In 2005, the winery also introduced a Wetlands & Wildlife Preserve and has been noted with an Australian National Trust classification.

There were a number of other informative facts about the winery, but I think I'll leave it on the note that Tahbilk is also one of Australia's First Families of Wine - a group of "twelve iconic, family-owned wineries that came together with a strong commitment to promote Australian wine both at home and abroad.

I hope to run across a lot more Tahbilk in the days and years to come. In fact, should we ever get another chance to visit Merlot Boy down under, I'd like to check into a little side trip.

Tangled Vines

The last time that I added a Tangled Vines wine to The List, I was disappointed because I didn't think the bottle was in the best of conditions and I wasn't able to gush exuberantly in the manner that I would have liked and hoped to.

Not so this time. Their second bottle on The List is a keeper.

322. 2008 Tangled Vines Three Blancs (VQA Okanagan)

This was a fairly new release for the winery and I saw them (for the first time, I think) in one of the VQA shops that I make it into every so often. Seeing it, I thought I'd give it whirl since the "No buy Leash" had been loosened a touch.

This vintage is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer (the latter replacing the Muscat of the '07 blending). I was rather pleasantly surprised to find that the wine was a touch off-dry. I seem to remember that winemaker, Craig McKenzie, is a big fan of bright acidity on his wines. There was still enough acidity to set off the sweet, but that hint of sweet allowed us to add a bit of spice to the evening's dinner.

I don't know the breakdown of the varietal percentages, but I'm pretty sure that I'm noticing more Pinot Blanc/Pinot Gris blends being tried by BC winemakers. There might just be something to that.

We'll look forward to trying Three Blancs again, if only because (as the label says) "Blancs have more fun."

Nichol Syrah

321. 2003 Nichol Vineyard Syrah Reservare (Naramata - Okanagan)

This is the fifth bottle that we've opened and added to The List from Nichol - and our second Syrah (the first was the 2000 back at #93). So, considering the fact that I'm still well behind on my posts, I'm not going to go into anything further about the winery at this time or about Nichol's history and approach with Syrah. It is probably worth mentioning, however, that this vintage won a silver medal at the Northwest Wine Summit - one of the more prestigious wine competitions that a number of BC wineries enter.

I will also say that starting this blog has motivated me to pull more bottles out of the boxes in the closet. It's nice to finally start to open a number of these bottles that we bought some years ago - particularly since a great number of them are BC bottles and, on the whole, they're holding up just fine.

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?