Quest for Value

Michael Vaughan
Friday, December 19, 2008

Life is sometimes stranger than fiction. I don’t remember how many wine fans have commented about the light, sometimes watery, character of some brands of Italian Pinot Grigio. It’s extremely popular, one brand happens to be the #1 selling white wine in Vintages! Carrying the torch was a gift pack blue magnum of D’Aquino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie (49650) at $28.95. It appears on page 10 of the LCBO 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. We were supposed to be tasted in the LCBO lab on October 10th but it didn’t show up.

Earlier this week, the Toronto Star let the cat out of the bag: those beautiful big blue magnums had been pulled off the shelves because some of the bottles sold at various LCBO outlets turned out to be filled with water. It would seem that the stainless steel filing lines and/or tank at the winery were filled with a cleansing water solution that inadvertently ended up in the bottles. This meant that an undetermined number of cases were filled with this solution vs. wine. Unfortunately, the lot numbers did not indicate the time of bottling meaning that it was impossible to determine which cases were sound.

Germany
Moving on the my continuing quest to find great seasonal values, let me shine the light on Germany, which produces easy-to-drink, user-friendly wines perfect for the festive season. For connoisseurs, from the Pfalz comes a ** (out of three stars) Recommended Best Buy Lingenfelder  2007 Riesling Kabinett  Freinsheimer Musikantenbuckel (87593) at $18.95. A total of 199 cases were released in Vintages on November 22, 2008 and there is still stock on the shelves. Pale straw in colour, the nose is very attractive with slightly spicy, honeyed, ripe melon fruit. On the palate it is very stylish with delicious, slightly honeyed, just off dry, tangy, medium to medium-light bodied, gently juicy, ripe melon flavours and a lingering crisp finish. With only 10.5% alcohol it is delicious just by itself.

Proving that German wines don’t have to be expensive to be tasty is a very pleasant, everyday white that goes for only $10.50 - Baden 2007 Gewurztraminer (336735). It is estate bottled by Badischer Winzerkeller, which is one of Germany’s largest coops with a membership of some 25,000 small independent winegrowers. It rated *+ (out of three stars) and is Recommended. It is very bright light yellowi n  colour with a spicy, honeyed, baked lemon-melon nose with some faint hints of ginger. The taste is very pleasant which is just off-dry and light bodied with spicy, ripe lemon-melon-apricot flavours followed up by a crisp clean finish. It shows good versatility. Try with appetizers, baked ham, poultry or just by itself. It will also go well with spicy Thai cuisine and has a convenient screwcap closure.

Ontario Best Buys
Whites Dry & Sweet
While 2007 is acclaimed by some critics as being the “greatest ever”, Riesling was a bit problematic because of extreme heat resulting in an occasional lack of phenolic ripeness. In general, have preferred the 2006 vintage. The least expensive Chateau des Charmes 2006 Rieling is their VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake white label. It has a classic, slightly turpy, dry, mineral-driven nose. It is very dry, medium-light bodied with schisty, ripe lemon flavours followed up a very crisp, mouth-watering finish. A real refresher that would marry with appetizers, cream soups and, especially, seafood. Unlike the sweeter Baden Gewurztraminer, this white is more of a food wine and less of a by-itself sipper. It rated *+ (out of three stars) Recommended status and is available on the LCBO General List (61499) at only $12.45.

Another destination white is the just-released estate bottles black label Chateau des Charmes 2007 Aligote  (284950) a VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake which is also available on the General List at $13.45. It has dry, bright, very slightly nutty, ripe lemon-melon flavours with a crisp finish. This would be a fine match for oysters and other seafood dishes.ripe lemon-melon flavours with a crisp finish. This would be a fine match for oysters and other seafood dishes. It rated *+ (out of three stars) Recommended status.

The gold medal winning Chateau des Charmes 2006 Late Harvest Riesling (432930) at $19.95 per half bottle is one of the best value dessert wines in Canada. Some 224 cases were released in Vintages on September 27, 2008 and it is still widely available at the LCBO. When I tasted it, I gave it my highest *** rating. The nose is lovely with honeyed, sweet, lemon-tinged, Seville orange marmalade notes. On the palate it is sweet but balanced with vibrant, intense, albeit harmonious, Seville orange marmalade, fresh melon and ripe lemon flavours along with a lingering citrus-tinged finish. For the price it doesn’t get much better than this!

Chilean Bargain
I recently sat down and blind tasted Santa Alicia 2007 Chardonnay Reserve (414474) with my friend Pooch Pucilowski who runs the annual California State Fair judging in Sacramento. Coming from the Maipo Valley, it was extremely tasty but it didn't have the typical characteristics that one normally associates with Chardonnay. It has a refreshing, white peach-melon nose. Dry, bright and tangy on the palate, the very lively, peachy, Anjour pear flavours seem to be somewhat Sauvignon Blanc inspired. There is a pleasant nuance of vanilla on the lifted bright finish. A real crowd-pleased at a very reasonable price of only $10.95. It rated *+/** (out of three stars) Recommended-Best Buy status.

Wine Value Awards &
A historical feature from Toronto Life Magazine
The Roots of Vintages - How it all Began

Michael Vaughan
Friday, December 12, 2008

I was cleaning out some old magazines when I came across a pile of pieces I wrote for Toronto Life Magazine. One of the titles was "The day the LCBO found 1200 bottles of superb wine hidden under a pile of straw in Argentina." Ah yes, it was exactly 30 years ago that General George Kitching, the then LCBO equivalent to today's CEO Andy Brandt, personally took his two best tasters to visit more than five dozen European shippers to ultimately select 150 rarities on the spot for Ontario consumers. The ever-proactive Kitching traveled elsewhere, including South America and South Africa, in search of the best. The results were, certainly for the time, quite incredible. They were housed and put on sale in a non-descript second floor "Rare Wines & Spirits Shop" at the LCBO Queen's Quay headquarters on 43 Freeland Street. And so was the birth of today's Vintages.

Of course, times have changed. Bollinger 1961 Champagne Brut R.D., for instance, is no longer a mere $16.45 (to see the original March 1974 article click here). While prices have certainly gone up, it is a fact that consumers now have a much wider selection - Vintages when combined with the Classics, now offers thousands of wines in the course of a single year.

Unfortunately, also gone are the times when the LCBO's top tasters hit the wine trail in search of obscure rarities, which so obviously excited General Kitching. Instead, agents and producers alike stand in line hoping to receive the blessing of Vintages listings - all too reminiscent of groveling orphans begging for "more gruel please, sir." Those who can afford it are now part of the "Essentials" program (98 items), for which they pay a LCBO fee for their "continuous" listings be they great or just mediocre.

Today, most if not all of the current proactive wine discovery work is being done by a handful of agents. They scour the world for those special buys, which are usually destined for their private (i.e. restaurant) clients. This is the consequence of draconian LCBO rules that prevent private agents from selling less than a case to any entity.

As any astute buyer knows, one has to act quickly to take advantage of great buys. How many times have I heard complaints that the LCBO has waited six months, a year or even longer before moving on wines being held at their request with no deposit? This combined with the occasional dramatically reduced size of order has made Vintages "the buyer of last choice" among many quality producers. Also, by not being on the spot, Vintages often fails to get the best deals for its customers - meaning us! There is no question that by forcing us to buy a one case minimum from agents (as well as out-of-province Canadian wine producers), the LCBO has stifled choice and reduced their revenues, as non-LCBO store sales are much more cost effective.

Montalto 2007 Pinot Grigio (73148 • GL) at $9.95 is one of those Italian whites that seems to be flying under everyone’s radar. It scored an impressive **. I first tasted it last summer and was extremely impressed. Here at last is an Italian Pinot Grigio with lots of supple fruit flavours. The succulent melon-pear-lemon-apple fruit on the nose is perfectly balanced by gently juicy, crisp notes on the palate. A versatile crowd-pleaser, it comes with a convenient screwcap. Try it with poutry, seafood, almost anything.

Drostdy-Hof 2007 Merlot (345371 • GL) at $9.90 (the lot LB109D08 appears on the back label). Delicious - a downright ** bargain. This well priced, South African bargain is dry and well-balanced with lots of gently juicy, plummy, ripe cherry flavours and a lingering, very faintly smoky, tangy, mocha- chocolate finish.

Also from South Africa’s is Nederburg 2007 Winemaster's Reserve Shiraz (527457 • GL) at $10.95. I just tasted this new vintage and was amazed by its balance and fresh, plummy, ripe cherry-driven flavours. It comes from the Western Cape and scored an amazing **/**+.

From Argentina is another great **/**+ value Pascual Toso 2007 Malbec (35170 • GL) at $12.95. It has a deep intense purple colour and attractive, spicy, juicy, plummy, black cherry nose. On the palate it has dry, fairly juicy, spicy, clove tinged, ripe cherry flavours with a lingering, crisp, very pleasant, faintly bitter finish.

Great Champagne is always appreciated and one of my favourites has been moved from Vintages to the General List. Lanson Black Label Brut Champagne (41889 • GL) at $49.95 - with 10 bonus AirMiles until January 3 - is consistent best buy with crisp, effervescent, ripe, apple-lemon-citrus flavours along with a lingering, gently toasty finish. It is rated **+/***.

From the Vintages Holiday Gifts Catalogue the best buy is the ever-reliable sparkling duo from Spain – Codorniu Cava Gift Pack Pinot Noir Brut & Raventos Reserva Brut (6379 • V) originally at $33.95, now reduced to an incredible $24.95 as of Friday, December 19th. The latter has a light pink colour with dry, well-balanced, gently plummy flavours with fine effervescence. The latter is dry, crisp and light bodied with ripe lemon finish.

If you are looking for stand-alone, bargain bubbly, try Codorniu Brut Classico (6262 • GL) at $12.10 with 5 bonus airmiles. It’s dry, complex and quite well structured with slightly nutty, ripe lemon flavours with a lingering finish. Excellent value - rated **.