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The following nine “Nouveau” wines will be available at more than 400 LCBO stores across Ontario at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, November 15, 2001. GENERAL
LIST France Duboeuf
Gamay Nouveau $9.45 (1,100 cases) Italy Ontario VINTAGES
STORES AND VINTAGES SECTIONS France Italy Wines highlighted
in yellow have performed well with reasonable consistency in previous
years. Getting
the scoop on the upcoming 2001 releases Beaujolais Nouveau Primer The only event I have been informed of is the Beaujolais Nouveau 50th anniversary wine and cheese tasting being organized by The French Chamber of Commerce this Thursday, November 15th at 6:00 pm. Unlike last year, no wines from non-Beaujolais areas will be shown! In other words, only 3 wines will be featured. It is being held at the Ontario Club, 30 Wellington Street West, 5th floor and tickets cost $30 plus GST. Call 416-205-9820 or Click Here. 1. Beaujolais Nouveau is always released the third Thursday of
November, regardless of the start of the harvest. 2. The
region of Beaujolais is 34 miles long from north to south and 7 to 9 miles wide.
There are nearly 4,000 grape growers who make their living in this
picturesque region just north of France's largest city, Lyon. 3. All
the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand.
These are the only vineyards, along with Champagne, where hand harvesting
is mandatory. 4. Gamay
is the only grape permitted for Beaujolais.
While certain California wineries may label their wine "Gamay
Beaujolais" this is not the same grape variety as what is grown in France,
and is quite different in taste and growing habits. 5. Beaujolais
Nouveau cannot be made from grapes grown in the 10 crus (great growths) of
Beaujolais - only from grapes coming from the appellations of Beaujolais and
Beaujolais-Villages. 6. Beaujolais
Nouveau owes its easy drinkability to a winemaking process called carbonic
maceration - also called whole berry fermentation.
This technique preserves the fresh, fruity quality of the wine, without
extracting bitter tannins from the grape skins. 7. Beaujolais
Nouveau is meant to be drunk young - in average vintages it should be consumed
by the following May after its release. However,
in excellent vintages (such as 2000) the wine can live much longer and can be
enjoyed until the next harvest rolls around. 8. Serve
Beaujolais Nouveau slightly cool, at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit - the wine is
more refreshing and its forward fruit more apparent than if you serve it at room
temperature. 9. Approximately
1/3 of the entire crop of the Beaujolais region is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau. tastersdiary.com I received a distraught call from a reader
who bought a few bottles of Malivoire
2000 Gewürztraminer on the advice of
a Toronto wine columnist. This was
the “star” of the November 3rd Vintages release.
The reader wanted to know what I thought, as I have been a big booster of
Malivoire. It’s tricky answering a question like this.
There’s different strokes for different folks.
If one happens to like a certain wine, then that’s all that really
matters and I’m eager to defend the right of individual to enjoy whatever wine
they want. This issue becomes a tad more muddied when a
qualitative judgment is made by a fellow columnist. Again I believe that the writer has to write the way he or
she sees it. Look at theatre
reviews - the difference between
the Globe & Mail’s Kate Taylor
review of Picasso at the Lapin Agile
(one and one-half stars out of five stars) and Richard
Ouzounian (five stars out of five stars) at The Star. And so it is with wine.
Getting back to the Gewürztraminer in question, it seems that few
dwelled on the writer’s very first line:
It would be hard to dream up a wine less marketable.
Perhaps this says it all. Certainly,
I wouldn’t recommend this wine because in the four times that I have tasted it
(twice in a blind competition last August), it simply doesn’t have the
characteristics to make it “a star”! Of course, my own review can always be
pooh-poohed by naysayers. However,
one doesn’t become an wine reviewer over
night. The late Andrew Sharp plumbed the depths of my palate with a series of
rigorous tasting tests (passed by only a handful of local devotees).
In addition, I have had the good fortune to acquire a wealth of knowledge
as a founding director of the Society of Wine Educators 25 years ago at
California’s Davis campus along with continuous exposure at international
judgings. Naturally, it all boils down to whether you
the reader and whether you like or dislike the wine in question.
Here’s my tasting note from the current November issue of Vintage
Assessments: Am I alone in being disappointed with this
new release? Not at all.
Here is the current wine review of David
Lawrason, former Globe & Mail columnist and editor of Wine Access Magazine: Malivoire
2000 Gewürztraminer: Rated: 75
points out of 100 What
really gets my goat is the unabashed way the LCBO quotes anything that might
support the sale of any product.
In this case, they used a 1998 review to hype the 2000 vintage.
In fact, this 2000 is totally different and, in my opinion, isn’t as
good as the 1998 (released at $22.95 on February 4, 2000)!
Here’s what the LCBO
Vintages Catalogue had to say: The
1998 vintage of this wine was named by Wine
Access as the Top White Wine in
Ontario and Best Gewurztraminer in Canada. (Wine Access, Oct. 2000) In 2000,
thanks to an almost perfect autumn, the hand-harvested grapes were late-picked
and destemmed before going through light crushing. The winery suggests serving
this wine with traditional Alsatian dishes like smoked meats or onion tarts or
with a white meat pizza or Münster cheese. A few years ago I questioned why I was quoted
in the Vintages Catalogue without the courtesy of prior permission. I
received a written LCBO apology and was tersely informed that “it wouldn’t
happen again.” And it hasn’t
– Vintages/Classics have not quoted me since!
Was I surprised that the director of Vintages cancelled his subscription
to my newsletter. Not really! Who
says the LCBO is ostrich-free? The bottom line is that the reader has to
know the experience and likes and dislikes of the reviewer.
For those of you disappointed with the Gewürztraminer, you have the
option of returning it to the LCBO for full refund - even if it has been opened
and tasted. And if you enjoy this
wine then by all means, stick with the reviewer. Last
week’s feature erroneously suggested that
the 1998 Baron’arques
would be available at the Vin
de Pays d’Oc Fair that took place last Tuesday.
Well imagine my surprise when attending the event, I visited the table
and found the Baron’arques signage but no wine.
Apparently none was sent. Ironically
nobody seemed overly concerned about its absence, except me!
This was a serious oversight - especially as this wine was presented at
an advance media preview tasting organized by Sopexa.
It is unfortunate that no one let the media know that it would not be
presented at the Fair. Let me offer
my apologies to those of you who looked in vain. Restaurant
wise, last Thursday I explored internationally
styled, formal “Tastes of Mexico” menu at the
Royal York’s new Epic Restaurant. Visiting
executive chef Philippe Mouton Depardieu
from The
Fairmont Acapulco Princess was showing his able classic French roots.
It’s very decent cuisine with mains in the $28-$35 range.
I particularly enjoyed a tender, flavourful, pan-seared Gulf of Mexico
red snapper filete. The Mexican
wine list is no detour - Cetto 1999 Petit Sirah is an adequate, soft,
fruity quaffer (*/*+) released last month in Vintages at $9.30.
It goes for $32 at the restaurant. Unfortunately
this special menu seems to be no more than a token tip of the toque towards the
real thing. I was also surprised
that there’s nothing on the Epic website that tells us anything about this two
week Mexican menu which continues until November 17th.
Call 416-860-6949 or see http://epicrestaurant.com/ Coming Up: The lowdown on Mission Hill (is Oculus worth the tab?), notes from the Sonoma Wine Fair, discovering Austrian Grüner Veltliner at Canoe, Bruce Tyrell’s new wines unveiled at Biffs, breakfast with Beringer’s winemaker Ed Sbragia and much more.
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Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada
2004 |
