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Emerging from Obscurity
Be it Sherry or Semillon
A new take on historical favourites

Sherry, Sherry baby - can you come out tonight? Even if the subject wasn’t the elixir from Jerez, Frankie Valli (born Francis Stephen Castelluccio) and the Four Seasons had a great song way back in 1962. Unfortunately, Sherry has been locked in the closet much too long. Worse yet, Sherry parties seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur - I haven’t attended one for years, or is that decades?

Aside from an occasional ultra dry Tio Pepe Fino, which is still hanging in there, dry Sherry pre-prandials and sweet desert Olorosos have almost disappeared. It’s become so bad in France, for instance, that an extremely popular restaurant in Bordeaux called Tapas (the Spanish word for appetizers) doesn’t offer a single glass.

Here at home, all of this might not have happened if Ontario hadn’t started producing cheap knock-off “Sherry”. As the cheapest alcoholic hit available at the LCBO, it quickly became the brown bag beverage of choice for some of the down and out street people. It’s a hard image to shed, especially when 14 Ontario “Sherries” are still on the general list.

Given Sherry’s tasty diversity and honourable past, this is a shame. Depending on the style, it can make a great refreshing opener whetting the appetite or a sweet, end-of-meal closer. To make this point, César Saldaña the Secretary General of the Jerez Consejo Regulador, will lead a tasting/seminar of the different styles of Sherry on Tuesday, November 12 (7:00 pm) at the Intercontinental Hotel ($40). Also, attendees will be given seven special Sherry glasses to take home after the event. To reserve call 416-967-2862.

Fortunately, you need not fret because you can go to Casa Barcelona (2980 Bloor Street West) where owner Eduardo Riviezzi has amassed an enormous selection of thirty-plus Sherries by the glass. For a mere $10 you can organize your own mini-tasting from three different producers. Moreover, the tapas on hand are extremely tasty and reasonably priced.

Moving on, November’s Vintages release is by far the biggest of the year. Of today’s 96 items, I have two best buy whites. Neither come from current fashionable varieties. The first is Semillon, a grape that usually doesn’t make one want to get up to sing and dance. Some erroneously think that this is an ugly duckling when compared to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. But not so. Today’s release highlight at only $18.95 shows what a gorgeous swan Semillon can be.

Originating in Australia’s Hunter Valley region in New South Wales Lindemans 1996 Bin 8855 Hunter River Semillon has a deep yellow colour and a very intense, complex, honeyed, ripe lemon-lime purée nose with creme brulee notes. It shows wonderful structure and complexity on the palate with toasty, ripe lemon flavours and excellent lime acidity, which promises even further evolution. It is amazing to think that with only 11% alcohol, it is capable of living for another decade. Only 600 bottles are available, so you will have to move quickly to get this winner.

From Sicily, don’t miss Planeta 2001 La Segreta Bianco at only $15.50. This delicious blend of 60% Grecanico, 20% Chardonnay, 10 % Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Viognier has a forward, rather rich, fruit driven nose with honeyed, floral, ripe apricot notes. On the palate look for harmonious, dry but accessible, gently honeyed, ripe apricot flavours with a very fine, lingering, unoaked finish.

Of the groaning board of reds offered, two of my three best buys are under $20. The first is a rather brilliant Pinot Noir at a modest $21.95. Made from estate grown Okanagan Valley grapes Blue Mountain 2000 Pinot Noir has a powerful 13.6% alcohol. The nose has classy, spicy, vibrant, dried red cherry with some red currant notes. It is medium bodied, fairly solid and nicely structured on the palate with lingering, tangy, dried red cherry flavours - a real achievement that is better than many pricier Côte de Beaune.

Another winner, this time from Spain’s rapidly rising stellar region of Somontano is Bodega Pirineos 2000 Merlot-Cabernet 2000 at $17.75. It has a deep intense purple red colour and a truly exciting, gently cedary, vanilla stick nose with lots of black cherry, ruby grapefruit and pomegranate notes. The taste is bright, intense and well structured with tangy, cedary, ripe plum and cooked black cherry flavours. It shows well now but can still evolve over next 18-24 months.

Finally, you won’t find better Bordeaux value than

Coming up: Tickets still remain for the Vintages Auction Gala taking place this Wednesday, November 6^th starting at 7:00 pm at the Royal Ontario Museum. The list of some 58 auction wines will be sampled is on my web site. Tickets are $265 each - call 1-800-266-4764. The actual auction takes place next weekend, two sessions on Saturday (starting 10 am) and one Sunday starting at 2 pm at the Design Exchange. An astounding 1326 lots are being presented (over 7.000 wines). Catalogues are $10 or can be downloaded for free in a PDF format from my web site.

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November 2002 InStore Discovery

Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2004
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