An "Eye-Cathcing" Red

1801.  N.V. Eye Chart Wines - Red Wine Blend (California)

This was a leftover from Vixen's birthday party last night and I didn't really know anything about it. I'll admit that, with this "eye-catching" label (sorry, I stole the pun from a fact sheet on the wine), I was expecting this to be a basic, brand wine with tons of fruit and residual sugar to catch that non-wine-drinking market and mimic critter wines while leaving the critters off the label. It was much tastier.

Eye Chart is a "second collaboration" between Joel Gott and Dave Phinney, a couple of California winemakers that are known for side projects that involve regions from around the world. From what I can gather, there's a relationship with Trinchero Family Estates as well, Trinchero being the folks behind The Show wines that have done well in the Vancouver market and Phinney founded Orin Swift Cellars, producers of The Prisoner - another popular label.

This project is quite the mixed bag of all things Californian. The Red Wine Blend features Cab Sauv, Petite Sirah, Syrah and Merlot that is sourced from Napa, Sonoma, Lodi and Mendocino. Being a non-vintage wine, the flavour profile should be a consistent one. So, if you like it - it's still big and fruit forward - you should always be able to go back, grab a bottle and not notice much different.

A bit more than many of the critter wines (it rings in at around $20-25 around here), it will be interesting to see if it continues to show up at other parties as we near the holiday season.

Two, Two Landmarks In One

As you'll note if you scroll down the blog through the more recent posts, I've taken some literary licence and jumped over a bunch of bottles that make up this 2001 Bottle quest. I promise you all the "missing" bottles were opened - and finished. I've just decided to try and stay a little more current AND flesh out those missing posts when I get a chance.

Part of the reason for doing so, was that I'd kind of lost track of what number I was at in my tally. A little sleuthing revealed that another landmark in the blog's tally had come and gone without me knowing it. Luckily, my #1800 bottle was befitting of that landmark number but I'm sure I was only so fortuitous because we were celebrating a landmark that night - my little sis, Vixen, was turning (ahem) 39+ (again) and we had a little surprise soirée for the young lass.

Despite the fact that she'd had a the biggest party of her life a couple of months back when she got married, she wanted a big party for her birthday. I told her that she shouldn't look to me because she'd exhausted that account when she "demanded" that we throw her a Jack & Jill shower before the wedding. She was so mopey though that I told her, if no one else threw her a party, I'd have her and Big Trucker over for dinner. Since we'd been talking about the possibility of have her friends, The Guru (as in wine) and Bride of Frank-n-Wine, over as well, she arranged for them to attend when it became apparent that there wasn't going to be any other party.

The only "problem" with the surprise plan was that Vixen was expecting a big dinner and hadn't eaten all day. Luckily, since we have neither the space nor the budget to throw a dinner party for two dozen folks, we were ready to keep a sufficient array of hors d'oeuvres going through the evening. Otherwise, Vixen was going to be a helluva hooched little sister. And, at her age, the morning after recoveries aren't as quick as they used to be. With all the kitchen and hosting duties, I didn't have time to drink all that many wines during the party - despite the large number of corks that were pulled.

In between kitchen and bar duty, overhearing conversations on Botox and everyone telling stories on how close folks had come to giving away the surprise element of the evening, I did manage to return to my glass enough to try these four wines:

1797.  2008 Desert Hills Cabernet Merlot (VQA Okanagan Valley)

A number of Desert Hills wines have been added to The List over the years. Having Burrowing Owl and Black Hills as neighbours on the Black Sage Bench, they see their share of visitors at the winery and that's how we first ran across them all those years ago. This was a bottle brought by one of the party guests though.

I often find Black Hills' big reds to be a tad on the over-ripe side of things - all sorts of huge, dark fruit that I can find to be a bit stewed - but this blend was a little more subdued than their more premium Meritage blend, Mirage. Boo was more than happy to find a little more wine still in the bottle when he went to refill his glass.

1798.  2009 Giesen Marlborough Pinot Noir (Marlborough - New Zealand) 

The Guru brought this Pinot along (from his voluminous collection) and I think he might have discovered Giesen the same way that I did - at the Vancouver International Wine Festival a couple of years back. I think they've gained a bit of a foothold in the local market with their good value entry level wines. I don't get to sit back and sip with The Guru very often but I'm always intrigued to see what wine he brings along whenever we do get the chance. Interesting to see that he earmarked Giesen as well. - particularly since he's quite the pinotphile.

For some unfathomable reason, a lot of Vixen's gifts involved alcohol. Perhaps, in an odd way, she does take after her big bro. I know she was taken with the bottle of Marilyn Merlot that Boo and I gave her. Vixen has long had a jones for Marilyn Monroe. This was a perfect way to indulge two of her Vixen's great loves. I'm hoping she's going to open it when I'm around and can add it to The List.

Just prior to the slide show, gifts and cake, however, I presented Vixen with another special gift - and we immediately popped the cork - plastic though it was. Funny thing was that Vixen knew what it was before she'd even opened the gift bag.

1799.  N.V. Andrès Baby Duck (Canada)

As defined by Urban Dictionary: "cheap wine...younger kids drink it now for recreation. Older folks can't believe it's still around."

You would be correct if you raised your eyebrows, and thought this doesn't seem like a bottle that a supposed wine lover would celebrate with, when you saw a bottle of Baby Duck being added to The List. This particular bottle was given to me by Vixen when I turned (ahem) 39+ as a joke (I think). Surprisingly, we weren't quick to pop the cork. As I kept having to dust the bottle as time passed, I decided I might as well keep it and give it back to Vixen on her birthday.

Not many bottles of Baby Duck are aged for six years before they're opened. So, this is a very special bottle and, I feel, deserves to be on The List - even if it isn't as high falutin' as some other that have been added. I don't think, however, that Baby Duck is supposed to be as tawny coloured as this one was. Isn't it normally pinkish or something like that? In any event, there weren't many takers but Vixen and I toasted each other and then we added some Aperol and Orangiata to make a sort of Spritzer. It wasn't exactly the same as relaxing on a Venetian piazza, but it was tolerable enough that my niece, Stargirl, and her roommate, Five of Seven, each had a glass as well.

Baby Duck. Go figure. I'm just glad that it wasn't my #1800 bottle added to The List. Can you imagine the shame? As fortune would have it, #1800 was a pretty special bottle - but in a different manner from the Baby Duck being "special." Worthy of being a landmark number on The List, I'd say.

1800.  N.V. G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge Brut (Champagne AOC - France)

We were pretty much down to immediate family by the time we popped the cork on the Mumm's. Vixen had brought this, thinking we might toast her b-day during dinner, and who were we to deny her that pleasure? I don't think you need me to tell you that the Cordon Rouge was head-and-shoulders better than the Baby Duck.

As tasty as the Mumm's was - and as fun as the gift opening and the slide show of Vixen's (ahem) years, the biggest screams of the night emanated from the kitchen when Vixen tried on Elzee's shoes - only to discover that they not only fit but that they were Manolo Blaniks. After watching countless seasons of Sex & The City, even I know that this is a big thing for gals that love shoes. Vixen certainly qualifies for that. I don't think, however, that Elzee agreed to loan them out - and I know she definitely wore them home that night.

All the same, Vixen was thrilled with her party and I'm pretty stoked to find out that (even if we didn't know it at the time) we celebrated another landmark number in the Odyssey with a stellar bottle of wine.

I'm going to keep much better track as the last landmark numbers approach so that I can give them their proper due. Now, I just have to find a way that I can keep a promise to stay ahead with my writing the actual blog posts. Given past history, that might not be as easy. Here's hoping.

Desert Hills Gamay Noir

1758.  2009 Desert Hills Gamay (Okanagan Valley VQA)

A big, deep Gamay with plenty of fruit. I don't see headlines too often about BC Gamay. It isn't one of the biggest varietal wines made. But I'm quite a fan for Gamay in the Okanagan and this has long been a fave.

Gaaaaarrrrnacha Day?

Just as I didn't know we were drinking #1700 awhile back, I had no idea (at the time) that I was hitting the seven-eighths mark of this Odyssey when I pulled the cork on this bottle.

Had I known, it might have merited a bit of fanfare.

Oh well, good thing it was International Grenache Day and I'd decided to open a one-of-a-kind bottle (at least for me) that I'd had in the cellar for a bit. Not only that, it was also International Talk Like a Pirate Day - one of my favourite days of the year. So, I rather combined the two into International G'arrrrrrrrnacha Day. What, with Garnacha being the Spanish name for Grenache, it was the perfect way to incorporate "arrrrrrrrrgh" into the evening's wine.

1750.  2005 The Colonial Estate - Alexander Laing Single Vineyard Old Vine Grenache (Barossa Valley - Australia)

Lucky for us, this turned out to be a hidden treasure from the cellar. I couldn't recall where or when I'd picked up the bottle because The Colonial Estate is not a winery that I've seen in our market. It was always possible that the winery had made a one-off appearance at the Vancouver International Wine Festival, but I found a note that this was a wine that Boo and I had picked up a couple of years back when we were visiting his Mom and brother in North Carolina. Considering we can only bring two bottles each back over the border with us (WTF? I know), there must have been something in the wine shop that caught my eye about this one. I see that it did get big points (94) from Parker but I'm not normally a point chaser.

In any event, whatever caught my eye worked because we were greeted by a lovely, boisterous nose that was matched by all sorts of dark, complex fruit on the palate. There was enough going for this wine that it could tempt a pirate to give up his rum.

The Colonial Estate website doesn't give a whole lot of information about the background or heritage of the winery, but the descriptive page for the Alexander Laing Grenache did say that it "owes its existence to the blocks of weather beaten bush vines that survived the vine pull out at the end of the last century." Weather beaten bush vines, sounds rather appropriate for a pirate.

Maybe next year, if the two "international days" co-incide again, I'll look to promote it as International Drink Like a Pirate Day. That could be telling.

In the meantime, with only 250 bottles to go (okay, 251), I may have completed my Odyssey by this time next year AND I may have given up drinking altogether. Then again, it's just as likely that I could be made to walk the plank off the coast of Somalia before then. I certainly hope to still be drinking after I've "concluded" the blog's task. Just let me run into a little more Colonial Estate. Please.

St. Henri Shiraz & Ascending the Iron Throne

It's been many, many years since Boo and I have made our way to the Pacific National Exhibition - Vancouver's throw back back to an old state fair, if you will. But, this year, the PNE brought the Game of Thrones Exhibit to town - and there was no chance that we wouldn't be making our way to take in that baby.

For those that remember, this was like a throw-back to the old Expo86 (and even to a few comparable aspects of the 2010 Olympics) where folks lined up or grabbed tickets hours in advance. There was no Tyrion Lannister Beer & Wine Garden (which isn't that bad of an idea if you ask me) but we did virtually ride to the top of the Ice Wall at Castle Black, see all sorts of costumes and props and take a quick sit in the Iron Throne.

The weather at the fair wasn't the greatest for our day; so, we didn't stroll the fairways for too long outside of our time at the GOT show but, of course, we did get our share of mini-donuts and we took in the BBQ cook-off. As the latter was hardly a BYO event, we grabbed a doggie bag (or in our case, a "big biggie-bag") and made our way home to finish off the Q with a big red worthy of tossing back while ruling from the Iron Throne.

1728.  2005 Penfold's St. Henri Shiraz (South Australia)

Of course, a true king may have quaffed back a bottle of Penfold's Grange but our tenure on the throne was rather short-lived. Accordingly, as mere vassals, we contented ourselves with the St. Henri Shiraz - a mighty fine drop on its own, if you don't mind. A multi-district blend, this Shiraz combines fruit from seven South Australian districts (Barossa, Eden, Clare, McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek, Robe and Bordertown) and is fleshed out further with a bit of Cab Sauv from Coonawarra and Barossa.

According to the winery website, the wine is a bit of a counterpoint to Grange in that it doesn't see any new oak, leaving  it somewhat richer and fruitier - although the website also refers to 2005 as being a "dark horse vintage."

Well, if nothing else, Games of Thrones relies on the dark horse to come through - if only because so many of the lead characters get killed. I have no doubt that the St. Henri's would be a welcome addition to any wedding - red or otherwise.

Cabernet Day, Eh?

So, the last Thursday in August arrived and so did International Cabernet Day.

Not that we ever need an excuse to determine which bottle to open but it seemed appropriate to open a Sonoma Valley Cab to show a little solidarity for the Napa/Sonoma/San Fran region after it experienced that 6.1 earthquake last weekend.

1726.  2005 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma Country - California)

So, edging toward the century mark in Canadian dollars, this isn't your standard weeknight bottle - at least not my standard weeknight bottle.  It's just that we don't have many (if any) entry level Napa or Sonoma Cab's lying around our home. Luckily, that just meant we got to enjoy a bit of a splurge.

The label might call this a Cab Sauv but Cinq Cépages is actually a full Bordeaux blend or Meritage. The "Cinq" in the name is, of course, French for "five" and the wine is a blend of the five varieties that are standardly drawn from to make a Bordeaux-styled red wine. The blend is predominantly Cab Sauv though - with Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec merely playing supporting roles here.

There's a good reason why Napa and Sonoma Cabs have the reputation that they do. With a bit of age behind it, the bottle was showing a good degree of integration. It still had a nice bouquet, with dark fruit that was clearly present but not over the top, and there was a good balance with a strong backbone of tannin.

The wine wasn't overpowering in the least (as a good percentage of Cabs from the region can be) and it paired deliciously with the chorizo we grilled for dinner. Granted, the Caesar salad didn't exactly embellish the wine's finer points but that just meant we could finish off the salad without wine and keep our glasses full for the balance of the evening - if only it were that easy to keep our glasses full for an evening with only one bottle of wine.

These international wine varietal days are kind of hokey but, hey, if they give me a "reason" to pull the cork on beauties like this, bring 'em on.

Blue Mountain Reserve Pinot Gris

1725.  2008 Blue Mountain Reserve Pinot Gris (Okanagan Valley)

I was a little concerned about the age of this wine - seeing as how it was a 2008 Pinot Gris. I wouldn't normally age any Pinot Gris this long but sometimes a bottle can get hidden away. All we could do now is check it out. The worst thing that could happen is that we have to dump it.

Luckily, no dumping was necessary. The wine had weathered the storm.  It wasn't exactly the brightest of fruit but there was still plenty of lively acidity remaining. It's nice to see that even BC whites can handle a bit of age on them. I think I'll try to stick to drinking the whites in a more au courant fashion however - although there may be some exceptions on select Chardonnays and/or Rieslings.

Raised in Concrete Pinot

1724.  2011 Haywire Canyonview Vineyard Pinot Noir (Okanagan Valley VQA)

"Raised in Concrete" - the new tag line.

I don't know if it was the concrete egg or just a good vintage but the wine was darned tasty.

Spinifex and Fireworks

Photo from huffingtonpost.ca 

Normally, that fireworks photo would have been one of our own and I wouldn't have lifted if from Huffington Post, but as you'll see with the post, my bloglife is a little out of skew nowadays - and desperate times call for desperate measures.

I'm what we'll call "hazardously behind" in my postings. I haven't lost count of the wines we've polished off, we just seem to drink them faster than I'm able to blog about them. So, I'm going to do a little jumping over some wines - while hitting a few memorable wines - with the idea of staying more current AND then catching up with the earlier posts as time permits.

As the day we pull the cork on my 2001st bottle starts seeming a whole lot closer at hand, I'm hoping to keep better tabs on the number of the bottles as we open them. I really had no idea that Boo and I were enjoying a landmark bottle #1700 as we were sipping away.  We might have made more of an event for it had I known.

Luckily, it turned out to be a memorable bottle and a fun evening in any event - although Boo opted to call it a night after the wine.

1700.  2004 Spinifex Esprit (Barossa Valley - Australia)

Spinifex is a relatively new winery to set up shop in the Barossa. It's owners, Peter Schell and Magali Gely, started the winey in 2001. In doing so, however, they decided to pay respect to Magali's French roots. Their website notes that Magali's parents were vignerons in the south-west of France and that Peter has worked six vintages throughout France over the last decade. The pair work primarily with Rhône grapes that have traditionally been successful in both the Mediterranean and in Australia.

Spinifex chooses to make wines that are predominantly blends and Esprit fits right into that scheme. With 36% Grenache, 34% Shiraz, 20% Mataro (Mourvèdre), they've constructed that Barossan take on the Rhône blend - the well known GSM - but they've ramped up the Rhône by adding a 10% touch of Cinsault.

Although it might take me awhile to actually get around to writing the post, Boo and I had a thoroughly enjoyable Châteauneuf-du-Pape last night and, while this Esprit is primarily the same take on grapes involved, it had bigger fruit but was equally tasty.

I figure we're lucky that Marquis Wines has carried a few Spinifex wines over the years because they don't make an awful lot of wine. A Robert Parker reference on this vintage of Esprit said that only 330 cases were made. I don't even think the winery is big enough to have its own cellar door. When Boo and I were in Barossa a couple of years back, we didn't see the winery itself but we did taste a couple of their wines at the Artisans of the Barossa - a cooperative tasting room for a group of "small batch, sub-regional" winemakers. I'm more than happy to grab a bottle or two by whichever method we can run across them.

So, I figure opening #1700 is worthy of the fireworks display at the top of the post on its own; however, the evening was the third night of this year's Celebration of Light fireworks display. Boo decided against fighting the crowds downtown to watch Japan's entry but I ventured down to Mr. D's.

I figure the photo above would have approximated what we'd have seen from his apartment. After all, it is of the evening's show. However, we didn't even stick around to watch the fireworks. Since it was the Saturday night of Vancouver's Pride weekend, Mr. D. proposed a visit to one of the local watering holes and he figured we wouldn't be able to take in both the fireworks and the bar as the line-up to get into Pumpjack would have been down the block by the time the last firework rocket had been launched. We decided to see if we could enjoy some fireworks of an even more intimate nature and just head straight off to the pub. Running into Will and Harry and a few other boys was a great start.

Unfortunately, from the blog's point of view, there wasn't another bottle of wine to be had. Funny, but I hardly think that a leather bar is going to be the best place to find a bottle of wine. But we did see a firework or two - particularly Mr. D. I think I might just leave that photo to your imagination though. No need to post it and detract from the wine at hand.

So, with 1700 bottles down, I've got my work laid out for me to try and get all my posts in order by the time number 2001 rolls around. Best get to it.

A Pride Picnic

During the first so many years following Boo's move to Vancouver, we used to try and fit in as many picnics as we could. Indeed, I think we'd termed that first summer as the "Summer of A Hundred Picnics." Now, that was more a metaphoric goal than a realistic and attainable one. All the same, we used to fit in far more picnics than we do nowadays. If we've managed to fit in more than two over the course of a summer, we consider the year to be a modest success.

Here it is the end of July and this is the first picnic we've managed to pull off. We just thought it'd be nice to sit Seawall-side and watch the world go by as the West End gears up for Pride weekend.

1699.  2003 Domaine Font de Michelle - Cuvée Etienne Connet (Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC - Rhône - France)

Seeing as how it's a rare-ish occasion and we're kicking into "party-mode" (at least for old folks like us), a bit of a splurge into the Rhône seemed like a good idea - particularly since it's Pride and I always get a kick out the fact that my sis, Vixen, coined the phrase Châteuneuf-du-Poof. Poofs and Pride: has to be a natural fit. Right?

I don't recall how we came about this bottle. Domaine Font de Michelle isn't one that I'm familiar with, nor is it one that I recall as being a regular sight on local shelves. Being an '03, it's been hanging around in our cellar for awhile though. High time it saw the light of day.

Maybe it was the picnic location that helped bring out the tastiness in this bottle but I think I should be on the lookout for another from this producer because this one was a winner. The winery website says that their C-d-P is Grenache-dominant and the wine was a full-bodied hit of rich, dark fruit.

Needless to say, the bottle disappeared far too quickly.  Guess we need to plan more picnics if the end result is that all our wines are going to taste this good.