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Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist - Michael Vaughan

Get out your crash helmets
Gallo does it again

(Publishing Date: Saturday November 25, 2000  - Toronto Section)  

It’s that time of year again. And it’s easy to pick out the wine nuts. They’re the ones lined up early Saturday morning in the freezing cold outside the Vintages stores ready to snap up their favourite tipple before it all disappears. And disappear it does much to the chagrin of those who come up empty handed. So rather than wait until next Saturday, here’s the lowdown on the best reds of upcoming release.

What reds they are. Last October, after singing praises to Gallo’s 1996 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, it took less than three hours for every stunning bottle of to disappear! Yes all 375 cases at $59.95 a pop! Thankfully, most LCBO managers rationed customers to 2 or 3 bottles thereby preventing mini riots.

Well get out your crash helmets because Gallo has done it again. And this time it’s even cheaper, almost half the price only $34.90! Now admittedly it isn’t quite as massive, but nevertheless with 14% alcohol Gallo 1996 Frei Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is a beautiful wine to behold with rich, spicy, mouthfilling gently smoky, beetroot and black cherry flavours.  A perfect wine with game and I’m not referring to backgammon. With only 300 cases available make sure you try and get a bottle or two for sheer enjoyment.

Fortunately, it isn’t the only great red of the release. Indeed, one of my highest marks go to the extremely fine, hard-to-get Penfold’s 1996 St. Henri Shiraz at $43.80. This jewel, also with 14% alcohol, exemplifies my favourite South Australian grape variety at its best. It has a very deep intense purple colour and a lovely, expansive, gently smoky, ripe plum purée fruit nose. In the mouth it’s quite enormous and mouthfilling and yet has great harmony - red peppercorn and ripe cherry purée flavours with lingering sandalwood, cedar and minty notes. Only 200 cases of 6 are available meaning that you’ll probably have to camp out overnight for this one.

I am not easily moved by Bordeaux, there’s so much overpriced stuff around that it pains the palate. But here is a sublime gem that must not; let me repeat must not be missed. Indeed, it’s the kind of wine that even I will line up for – 1998 Chateau Roland La Garde! Now this isn’t a name that easily rolls off the tongue. Indeed, I had to dig into my indispensable bedside bible - the 15^th Edition of Cocks - éditions Féret Bordeaux and it’s Wines revised 1998 - $375 - to track this one down. Of course, there it was on page 1890. A lovely litho of Bruno Martin’s charming chateau sitting happily on its impeccable 25 ha 1ères Côtes de Blaye estate.   

How good is it? Well the nose is gorgeous - very spicy, gently cedary, lime and plum purée with sublime French vanilla ice cream notes.  On the palate it shows remarkable depth with cassis and milk chocolate flavours followed up by lively lime notes on a lush lingering finish. And the price? An astonishing $26.60 making it the best Bordeaux buy of the year 2000! With only 150 cases available, better start lining up today!

Fortunately, there are other inexpensive reds to go around. For those on a budget, another release highlight at only $14.90 would be the delicious Quinta do Crasto 1998 Douro Tinto. This Portuguese charmer from the home of Port saw the grapes actually trodden by foot in stone lagares. Perhaps that’s where the extra flavour comes from. Whatever it is, I don’t think I have had a tastier, better-priced, Portuguese red all year. It’s medium-bodied, creamy, gently cedary, ripe cherry flavours go on and on. A glass of this stuff will make any turkey taste better.

Also in this release, I have finally found an Italian Primitivo that sings - Girelli 1998 Primitivo Canaletto at $11.45. This lush, fruity, medium bodied red from Apulia, the heel of Italy, will kick start any festive occasion with its lively, bright flavours, especially your holiday gobbler. Ditto for the zesty, chocolaty, tropical-directed, fruit-infested flavours of Casa Silva 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot at $14.90. Originating in Chile’s Colchagua Valley, this easy-to-drink red is searching for the perfect roast.

Finally, while I was tempted to join the Nouveau/Novello fray last weekend, I waited to reassess the recent year 2000 bounty. Well almost anyway, because in fact a number of wines from the Southern Hemisphere have been floating around here for some time now. But that’s a different type of wine. After all, I have had the good fortune to have been weaned on the real thing – before Beaujolais Nouveau became fashionable and then unfashionable. We would consume jugs of it; of course that was more than three decades ago!

To my palate they should be fresh, slightly tart, crisp, perhaps even thin and faintly petillant with hopefully some bright fruit ranging anywhere from apples/plums to strawberries  (the latter, if you’re lucky). Of course, most of today’s stuff is quite proper - more like a regular Beaujolais because they have carefully stabilized, sanitized and are put through a secondary fermentation by law. But not so for my favourite Nouveau of the release! Praise the Lord for Georges Duboeuf 2000 Gamay Nouveau on the LCBO general list at only $8.95. It comes from the earlier-ripening southern climes of the Rhone’s Ardèche region and is released one month earlier. The result? A delicious quaffer which truly resembles tasty Nouveau of old.