Pinot On The Brain

It has been a good week of tasting with several winemakers stopping by our new digs.  I was honored to have my dear friend Catherine Faller from the great Domaine Weinbach stop in for a tasting of their 2005 lineup.  The wines are as remarkably charming as the three wonderful women behind them.  I am planning a tasting of these wines soon so we will keep you posted.  As Friday approached my corkscrew hand was getting twitchy because our friend Terry David Mulligan was in town and planning to visit for a tasting before his acting gig later Friday night. I love tasting with Terry because he shares my affliction for wine and is always game to taste.  As my partner Chris went to retrieve Terry I scrambled to set up our first Blind Canadian Taste Off :EAST vs WEST  “Niagara vs Okanagan”.  The true litmus test for any wine is in the taste...let’s get it on.



Flight #1 Blind “Canada: Niagara vs Okanagan”

1. 2006 Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir Okanagan BC $45.75
2. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario $49.50

The wines were brown bagged and then pre-poured twenty minutes before Chris and Terry arrived.  I hassled the guys to saddle up to the tasting bar as soon as they arrived.  Terry is immediately shouting out countries and vintages and I don’t think he has even touched his glass yet.  My goal in this tasting is a simple one: To determine which wine is “best”.  Not best in some numerical system or sense of rarity but simply which is more complex, more exciting, a better wine in the glass. I think sometimes people forget wines are meant to be drank. 

So our tasters take to tasting.  Five minutes later I re-ask the question: "Which wine do you prefer?"  With no hestitation both answer number 2.  I pull off the paper bag and reveal  the 2004 Le Clos Jordanne ‘Le Clos Jordanne Vineyard’ Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario.  Terry is frantically pulling money from his pocket to ensure that this news doesn’t get out to his BC homeys as I am sure he would like to return to his home in the Okanagan without being lynched.  We are just getting started.




Flight #2   Blind  “Canada vs France”

3. 2005 Vincent Girardin Bourgogne Cuvee Saint Vincent France $28.50
4. 2004 Michel Gros Nuits St. George 1er Cru Burgundy France $90.00
5. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne Jordanne Vineyard Pinot Noir Niagara Ontario $49.50
6. 2004 Le Clos Jordanne  Le Grande Clos Niagara Ontario $81.50

Now that we are tasting and talking Canadian Pinot Noir we can’t stop there. Our tasters don’t know it but they but they are off to France.

I pour the guys the 2005 Vincent Girardin Burgundy which is a great value and a good benchmark example to use as a reference point for this next flight.  I have placed the winner from round one into the mix.

Again I ask the question of which do they prefer?  

Terry is torn between between #4 and #6.  Chris immediately identifies Michel Gros’s wine, and notices the earthy mushroom character of the Ontario Pinots. There is no clear winner but the Clos Jordanne Grand Clos holds it own.  This flight is intended to be what I call “a fair fight”.  I have selected the wines to demonstrate that the Canadian wines can hold there own with very good Burgundy examples.  I have done this in France repeatedly and the French believe it, or they would not invest in a Pinot project here.  I had a local sommelier recently say he has never had a good Canadian red I guess he doesn’t taste much.    




Flight #3  “French Connection”

Now that we have pitted two acclaimed Canadian Pinot Noirs together in the first flight, then pitted Canada verses France in round #2 , I wanted to present a great bottle of Burgundy with a Canada- France spin.  The wine is the 2002 Domaine de la Vougeriae Gevrey Chambertin Bel Air Premier Cru.  This was made by our good friend and fellow Canuck Pascal Marchand in France at the Boisset families’ top estate.  The Boisset family coincidentally are the French side of the partnership behind the Le Clos Jordanne wines.  

Everyone is enraptured as the wine is warming in our glasses as I just pulled it from the cellar.  Terry can’t keep it in and shouts “I love it”.  

Nicely said.  The aromas are delicate mix of violets and exotic spices... charmingly beautiful.  Another good day at the office.



David

A little taste of Italy.

Producer:  Fratelli Urciuolo

Wine:  Greco di Tufo

Region:  Campania, Italy

It is 12:15 Tuesday following the long weekend.  The three of us here at 100, huddled over the keyboards knocking off the e-mails like some sick computer batting practice that never ends.  Wine makes things better... especially computer things.  I reach into the sub-zero arsenal below me and wait to be moved.  I see the a familiar yellow label.  It has been a little while since I tasted this and I have been meaning to revisit it once the dust settled in the store.  The wine is imported by one of the most gentle and charming people you could imagine, her name is Marina Di Napoli.  It is actually a wine from her cousin’s family estate in Campania Italy, (think the shin of the boot).  The grape is Greco di Tufo. 

The wine hits the glass with a brilliant, limpid, gold hue.  I can smell it’s floral pungent, lilac aromas as it hits the glass. It is like a botanical garden in the glass.  Computer work has just gotten better.  This little gem is pleasantly dry with flavors of buckwheat honey, yellow apples and quince.  This is why we shouldn’t just rely on the common pronounceable varieties like sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Not only is this Greco di Tufo delicious it is a history lesson of sorts.  Traditional grapes grown by a family that cares as much about every grape  as they do every family member.  You will taste their passion the moment you pull the cork.