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September 13th Vintages Release
It's Friday, September 12th and some 131 new listings are being placed on Vintages shelves. This includes 16 In-Store Discoveries, which, unfortunately, do not appear in the Vintages Catalogue. These are arbitrarily allocated by Vintages head office to up to 30 stores who are authorized to carry ISDs. Store managers and consultants have no input in determining what they might get. In Toronto, they are usually found in Queens Quay, Summerhill and Bayview Village. Here is the list where they might appear. At one time wine writers were permitted to taste and report on these wines, but no longer. We have been forbidden to assess these items. They are still put out for LCBO consultants, but writers must stay away. The unfinished bottles are poured down the sink. According to Vintages management, the reason that writers must not taste ISDs relate to LCBO inconvenience resulting customer orders. The Vintages claim that “they sell too quickly” just doesn't reflect reality. Quantities are often small but many of my readers will not buy without having me pretaste and assess the wine. Here is the list: Spirits: Dessert Wine: White Table Wine: ALEGORIA TARDIO 2005 (Navarro Correas) SAUVIGNON BLANC 2007 (Schubert Wines) GRUNER VELTLINER HEFEABZUG TROCKEN 2006 (Nikolaihof Wachau) POUILLY FUME 2005 (Chateau De Tracy) CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE BLANC 2006 (Chateau la Nerthe) Red Table Wine: RESERVE PINOT NOIR 2005 (Rodney Strong) ZINFANDEL 2002 (Saviez Vineyards) GE ORGANIC WINE 2003 (Vinedos Emiliana) GERHARD GRENACHE 2005 (Glaymond Wines) POMMARD CLOS DES URSULINES 2005 (Domaine du Pavillon) BEAUNE SAVIGNY-LAVIERES 2005 (Domaine Tollot-Beaut) BODEGAS FONTANA QUERCUS 2004 I wish I could say that the importers really cared about the sale of these wines, but most do not. From the few I have tasted, I can highly recommend the gently toasty Lailey 2006 Old Vines Chardonnay at $30.15, which is the best Chard I have tasted from this relatively new (it opened in 2000) Niagara on the Lake winery. Winemaker Derek Barnett produced less than 300 cases and the 178 bottles at Vintages are the last that remain. Another outstanding selection is the pricier, albeit refined, ripe pear-driven Chateau la Nerthe 2006 Chateauneuf-du-Pape at $62.95. If I have a chance to taste any of these ISDs I will give you an update.
On the second floor of Reds Bistro on Tuesday, September 9th at 11:30 am we did a comparative tasting of six pairs of wines. Starting with the white Yattarna Chardonnay (2002 vs. 2005), Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz (1990 vs. 2005), St. Henri Shiraz (1991 vs. 2004), RWT Shiraz (1998 vs. 2005), Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon (1990 vs. 2005) and Grange (1990 vs. 2003). We also had the Penfolds Eden Valley 2007 Riesling, three vintages of Magill Estate Shiraz (2005, 2002 and 2001) and finished up with a glorious taste of 1967 Bin 7 Cabernet Shiraz . The latter was remarkably delicious and was still very lively with medium bodied, smooth albeit complex, very gently spicy, faintly sweaty, ripe plum and black cherry puree flavours with a lingering, subtle, sandalwood-cedar finish. Sadly my scribblings cannot really convey how the flavours, blessed with their blush of maturity, were intermingled so as to produce even more than the named parts.
The 2005 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz was just terrific with 94-96 points. Seductive, fairly rich and harmonious with very faintly earthy, complex, ripe plum, dark chocolate and faintly spicy, dried red cherry nuances. There was just a wisp of smoke and mocha-chocolate on the finish. Moving on to the St. Henri Shiraz, again I preferred the 1991 (93/94 points) to the 2004 (89/90 points). The 2004 St. Henri Shiraz was a bit peppery at first, but well structured with good extract and plummy, ripe red and black cherry flavours. It will be appearing in the November Classics Catalogue (510875) at $64. The 1991 St. Henri Shiraz was very classy with mineral-tinged, fairly harmonious, plummy, mocha-tinged flavours along with hints of dried strawberry and herbs de Provence. It finished very bright with pleasantly acidic, crancherry notes. The 2005 RTW Shiraz is 100% Barossa and only uses French oak (70% new). I scored it 94/95 with its surprisingly juicy and accessible with plummy, ripe black cherry flavours. I preferred it to the 1998 RTW Shiraz, which I scored 90 points. It seemed to have some slightly bitter, herbal notes and dusty plum and dried cherry flavours. Peter Gago emphasized that it was the last time 100% new oak was used.
As for the 1990 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, I rated it 95 with its complex, sandalwood-driven, dried plummy-red cherry flavours with herbs de Provence and faintly bitter mocha-chocolate notes on the lingering finish.
By contrast, the 1990 Grange was still extraordinarily youthful with its much deeper, more intense purple colour. The latter did not waiver an inch after 30 hours – narry a hint of aging! The nose was initially a bit more compressed with plumy, dried ripe cherry fruit. It opened up nicely with some ripe, Bordeaux-like, cassis-plum-cherry fruit. It had a lovely veneer of age - solid, intense and yet harmonious on the palate with ripe plums and red and black cherry flavours with a long, lingering, fairly rich, mocha-based, sandalwood-elderberry finish. A truly great wine.  The purpose of this tasting also demonstrated how well these wines, certainly those made in great years, can stand up. It supports the great value of the free Penfolds recorking clinic, which applies to all wines over 15 years of age. A great asset for all collectors is the new sixth edition of The Rewards of Patience, which will be hitting the stores in the near future. This 358-page book chronicles the vast array and depth of the Penfolds portfolio with revised tasting notes on each and every vintage. It is invaluable for collectors and, despite my cynicism for such self-aggrandizing efforts, is a great service to wine lovers everywhere. To see how some of these great wines have evolved over the decades is very valuable. Whether I agree with the evaluations or not, the credibility of the tasters who have tried to do their best is really all that matters.
The only shortcoming is the absence of a user-friendly listing on which pages each of the different wines can be found.
A TIFF Celebration
For the past couple of years I have celebrated the Toronto International Film Festival by featuring the best buys portable wines – as in getting it into the theatre while watching a film. My tastings focused on anything that could be hidden in a popcorn bag from tetra pacs to cans and even pouches. The results although useful, were not all that inspiring. So this year I have decided to celebrate Ontario wines.
For growers, “a good year” means a big crop. Unfortunately, big yields and quality do not always go hand in hand. In fact, the converse is usually true – the bigger the yield, the more diluted the wine's structure and flavours. Despite it's reputation for being a challenging year, many 2006 whites turned out to be surprisingly good. Why? Because of low crop yields. It is also important to keep in mind that they were harvested before the flavour-diluting late September rains. Contrary to what some have suggested, many 2006 Rieslings have outperformed the 2007s. When it comes to reds, the 2006 was much more challenging. This is especially true of Pinot Noir. I have yet to taste a stellar example that is worth buying. As far as the reds are concerned, 2007 should be much better than 2006. Of course, there are always exceptions. If you happen to be in the Niagara region, here are a few fine buys you can pick up today. Note that they will also be coming to Vintages stores as of next Friday for the Saturday, September 13th release.
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Today's Vintages best buy red is actually a repeat that appeared earlier this year. Those who missed (including myself) the sold out $225 Torbreck wine dinner at Barberians on Thursday night, can still buy the delicious, ready-to-drink, 
Earlier today, I had a chance to meet Torbreck winemaker 
Earlier in the week I tasted with another Australian icon, 
Starting with the 
By the way, for those who missed it, I have to mention my Recommended/Best Buy from the Adelaide Hills. 
Here are some additional notes on the other reds presented. I now know why Bin 389 is Australia’s #1 cellared wine - older vintages are drinking beautifully. The 
Both vintages of Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon showed beautifully. The 
Finally, there was the grand icon Grange. Here I did something different and took remnants home with me in my small ISO glasses. I wanted to see how the 1990 and 2003 would stand up after 30 hours. The 
Postscript. At lunch we were served a terrific Yellow Fin Tuna Tartar with pineapple, hearts of palm, chili, sesame and soy. It was called Ahi Poke was truly exceptional, especially with the fresh, dry, crisp, ripe lemon-melon-lime flavours of with the 
The highly lauded 2007s are just starting to surface and many are going to be worth drinking. However, before blindly accepting all the marketing hoopla, I have to warn readers that not all wines turned into Oscar winners. Every year, just like film festivals, have their share of turkeys. In particular, it seems that in 2007 with all the heat and stress, some grapes such as Riesling were not consistently stellar.
The new 
Another very tasty item from the Niagara Peninsula is 
One of the best buys tasted from Prince Edward county is 
In terms of reds, I was pleased to see that Hillebrand winemaker Darryl Brooker has done a fine job with 
Those wanting to discover what's cooking in Ontario should consider attending Sunday's Feast of Fields at Everdale Organic Farm & Environmental Learning Centre - 6th Line, Hillsburgh, Ontario from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. For direction 
As for my wine of the week, let me recommend the Best Buy