Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

So, it had to be done – today was the last day at the day job. I needed the ‘me’ time and extra time to ride/run/etc. that working for myself allows. I’m old enough and know myself well enough at this point in life that a regimented 9 – 5 desk job seems to not be in my destiny. I enjoy work… and even working extremely hard, but I’d rather be making the effort when it has to be done than in those ‘office hours’. ‘Nuff said.

What this means: I’ll either be posting a bunch more often or a whole lot less. Most likely somewhere in between. Hell, I may even have the chance to finally tweak the look of this site. Realistically, it’s more likely that I’ll take a trip to find more wines.

Tonight I’m going to see a good friend off to Calgary and later, there may be a bottle of E & E Sparkling Shiraz popped to celebrate my return to working in my jammies.

Yesterday was my birthday and a friend of mine, Mike, brought over this bottle as a b-day treat.

You know I’m a Zin guy and this one is a good one… very good. It took a while to open up and show its true self, but once it did, my mouth was filled with full-on blackberry with a touch of cedar and plum on the finish along with silky tannins. On the nose, the fruit shows though with a bit of licorice.

Happy Birthday to me!

$46.90 here in BC.

Mmmmm-hmmm… this is good. This is one of the wines I tasted by chance at the Vancouver Wine Fest. Bloody good.

It’s from the Valle San Antonio-Leyda in Chile… Is it just me, or have I been loving a bunch of Chilean wines lately?.. A trip could be in order.

As with most Chards, it’s very important to drink this one near room temperature. I did. It’s full of tropical fruit and has a a full, healthy body… Mango, pineapple, orange, honey, almond, a warm minerally edge and a finish that lasts for at least a minute. This is a special Chardonnay.

Good wine makes me happy and right now I’m a very happy boy indeed.

$38 here in BC as a specialty order. 3,580 cases made.

(… verging on 4.5)

One of my favourite albums of 2003 was “Fever to Tell” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’s taken a while, but I just got my hands on their follow-up “Show Your Bones“. In a word: fantastic.

It’s more varied and definitely shows some musical maturity… It’s less about trying to prove their scenester status and more about just good songs. “Gold Lion” is to be the first single (and lead off track) and just leads to one good song after another. The album, as one review I read said, “explodes into colour”.

I’ve got a weakness for cool chicks with attitude and nobody tosses it around with more aplomb than Karen O. She’s the finishing touch on what is a very good band and a really good album.

Get it. Listen. Repeat.

Out on March 28th.

Wow. That’s all I need to say. Wow.

Give this one an hour or so of air in a decanter and it turns into the booze equivalent of an espresso with a raspberry tart dropped in it. The nose is so powerful and different – espresso, leather, smoke, pepper and ripe dark berries.

I could drink this all the time. So unique and SO tasty. ~$25 here in BC.

(… verging on 4.5)

I shared this New Zealand Chardonnay with a friend on the weekend while it, as a white wine, was doing its duty: quenching our wine thirst while the red(s) breathed.

I had tasted it at the Vancouver Wine Fest and had been pleasantly surprised. Served near room temperature, it is a great NZ Chardonnay. Ripe fruit – pineapple, mango and melon – last long into the lengthy, honey-tinged finish. Tasty as all get-go. $26.90 here in BC.

I’ll definitely drink some of this in the coming warmer months (if I can find it in a speciality wine shop).

OK, so the 2006 Vancouver International Wine Fest has come and gone… I’ve gotta say – even though my liver is slightly larger and my breath smelled like Cabernet for days – that it was a blast.

The focus of this year’s fest was France. One end of the enormous tasting room was devoted to sections divided into France’s different wine regions… Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Loire, the Rhone, etc. So many fantastic wines I could have just spent 2 days tasting around there.

I didn’t though. I managed to make my way around pretty much the whole shebang. I tasted wines from Argentina to Uruguay… from Napa to Barossa and almost everything in between.

Some of my absolute faves were wines such as (with no tasting notes and in no particular order – there are too many):

• AUSTRALIA:
  • E & E Black Pepper Sparkling Shiraz
  • 2002 E & E Black Pepper Shiraz
  • 2002 St. Hallett’s Old Block Shiraz
  • 2002 Hill-Smith Mesh Riesling
  • 2003 Peter Lehmann The Futures Shiraz
  • 2001 Peter Lehmann Eight Songs Shiraz

• BORDEAUX:
  • 2002 Château D’Issan Margaux
  • 2001 Château Lagrange St. Julien
  • 2000 Château Bel-Orme Tronquoy Lalande
  • 2003 Château Preuillac

• CHAMPAGNE:
  • the 1996 Deutz Cuvée William Brut
  • the 1996 Grand Cru Cramant from Nicolas Feuillatte
  • the 1996 Brut Millesime from Champagne de Venoge

• CHILE:
  • 2003 Amayna Pinot Noir
  • 2003 Amayna Chardonnay
  • 2002 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2000 Errazuriz Don Maximiano Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2004 Errazuriz Single Vineyard Carmenère (now in LDB stores!!)
  • Valdivieso Caballo Loco #7

• ITALY:
  • 2001 Antinori Tignanello Toscana
  • 2001 Antinori Solaia Toscana
  • 2000 Fontanafredda Barolo
  • 2001 Fontanafredda Barbaresco Coste Rubin
  • 2001 Frescobaldi Lamaione Toscana
  • 1998 Masi Vaio Amarone
  • 2001 Fontanafredda Barbaresco Coste Rubin

• NEW ZEALAND:
  • 2003 Nautilus Chardonnay
  • 2005 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc
  • 2005 Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc

• USA:
  • 2001 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages
  • 2001 Chimney Rock Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2001 Chimney Rock Reserve Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2003 Saintsbury Brown Ranch Pinot Noir
  • 2003 Seghesio Old Vines Zinfandel
  • 2003 Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills Pinot Noir

… Now this list could go on and on, but unfortunatley my notes only are so legible and the memory got a little fuzzy. I’m also leaving out some great ones here such as South Africa’s 2002 Rust en Vrede Shiraz, Burgundy’s 2003 Michel Laroche Chablis Grand Cru, all the great German Rieslings and many others. This is the list for now. I may add to it in the next day or so.

I am going to write a post very soon about my pouring fun with the folks from Quinta do Vale Dona Maria, Quinta do Vallado and Signorello Vineyards – all of whom have some GREAT wines… and the party afterwards. Damn all this work getting in the way of blogging.

MMMMMM…. This is one sexy wine. All dark and full-bodied and sultry and stuff. I enjoyed this with my good friend Mike. We both loved it.

It’s definitely a bit more structured than its Live Oak brother, which I TOTALLY LOVED… meant for a bit more ageing. The nose is full of cedar-y scents… pretty closed in. In the mouth, it definitely hits you full-on. There’s rhubarb, briar, pepper and blackberry with a good long finish topped off with a healhy dose of fine tannins. Bloody tasty. It made my mouth do somersaults… and happy ones at that.

Zinfandel… it’s good for you and the world as a whole. Buy Cline they’ll be happy and you’ll feel better about the world – $42.95 here in taxed-to-hell BC.

I had someone send me a request for a reciprocal link this week, but in the tonne of email I get (mostly work related), I managed to delete it before I could reply…

If it was YOU, don’t think I’m being snotty and please re-send the email. I’ll add you in a jiffy.

OK, before the utter disappointment of the Hess Cab, I had this one… The French focus of the Wine Fest got me thinking about French wines in a big way again. There were some stunners.

Every year after the Fest, the Government Liquor Store out at 41st & Cambie (the largest LDB store in our lovely Province) gets a shipment of all the specialty bottles that didn’t sell at the Festival’s on-site store. I went out there Tuesday night hoping to find some of the wines I’d really liked, but hadn’t picked up at the Fest. Alas, they hadn’t arrived yet…

I went and perused their selection of Bordeaux anyway. The festival had reminded me how full of coffee and black currant some of the drinkable young Bordeaux could be. I grabbed this bottle because of a small write-up on the display from Robert Parker ( I know… I know).

It’s GOOD. Yummy in that espresso nose kind of way. Nice finish. It’s not a SERIOUS Bordeaux, but at $29 CDN, you can’t expect it to be a Marguax.

I searched for a picture online, but all I could find were pics of Château de Lascaux, a wine from Languedoc. It may be a fine wine, but let’s not get them confused while I’m on my little Fest-induced Bordeau kick.