Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

I’ll say it again. I’m a big geek for the cycling stuff… The 2006 TdF kicks off tomorrow morning and I’ll be up early to watch it before going for a ride.

I was REALLY looking forward to seeing the 3-week-long duel between Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso… and even the feisty Alexandre Vinokourov. This morning, to my complete dismay and disappointment, I read that all three had been barred from this year’s race because of blood doping allegations… Jesus! The scandal is HUGE in the cycling world. This is almost big enough to cause a cancellation of the race. The list of names implicated is amazing… You can see the names that have been crossed out. Gah!! It’s devastating!

It’s cycling… can’t everyone just revel in the beauty and enormity of the challenge without cheating?? Obviously not.

I’ll still watch every minute because there are still plenty of great riders left in the race, but whoever wins will certainly have an asterisk beside their name in the history books… They will have won the race in a year which saw 4 of the top 5 competitors out of the race before it even got underway – sad.

In keeping with my summer rosé kick, I picked another Provençal-inspired wine to try tonight after a spectacularly sunny day on the golf course… It’s a tough life, I know. Tonight’s pick is the 2004 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare.

OK, OK… are there any of you out there reading this who still equate a good rosé with the notorious white zinfandel?.. If so, get a grip. A good one is what the folks in Provence drink on the long, hot Meditteranean days. It’s crisp, refreshing, is NOT sweet, has a depth of flavour and matches well with a whole tonne of foods.

This is a fan-freakin-tastic wine… I drank it not too warm/not too cool. It showed, as Bonny Doon promises, “a definite suggestion of aromatic herbs, citrus rind, rosehips and hibiscus” as well as light berry flavours. There is a bit of heat from the 13.5% booze, but it’s far from unpleasant. All in all, it’s a taste of summer that makes you say, “more please”.

Roughly $22 here in BC.

Well, summer is finally here… figuratively and literally. It’s gorgeous here in Vancouver… and warm. I can’t even think of drinking anything other than beer and crisp whites and rosés. Tonight, I’m sipping the 2004 Zaccagnini Verdicchio “Salmagina”. I’ve had this a few times and really like it.

On the nose, there’s subtle mineral and lemon notes… and once you’ve swirled and sipped, there’s all that lemon wrapped up in a coating of honey to make you go “ah… mmmm”. Go pick one up and get out of that Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc rut. ~$22 here in BC.

Check out this ad for the new Sony Bravia TV. That is one of the most amazing commercials I’ve ever seen. Maybe I’m just a sucker for superballs, but that must have been a GAS to make… You can check out a Flickr set that shows the process they went through. Very cool.

The song is also great. It’s “Heartbeats” by José Gonzalez.

OK, so I admit it… I’ve been bad at updating in the last week or so. One reason is that I’ve been super-busy. The other is that it’s not often I find cheap stuff I like (the Paiara and the Frontignac), so I’ve been savouring those while awaiting payments from various clients… don’t get me started on the working for yourself/waiting for cheques thing.

So, while the wine has been much of the same, I’ve been getting a TONNE of new music to listen to while I work away here at the home office in Gastown. Some of what has made up my playlist recently includes The Black Keys – Chulahoma (fantastic, sexy blues rock, in that indie kind of way), Band of Horses – Everything all the Time (just good… really good), The Rakes – Capture/Release (good hyper art-punk that will be great on the iPod while I climb the local mountains on my bike in the next few weeks), The Black Angels – Passover (melodic, psychedelic-inflected rock… kinda’ like the Jesus & Mary Chain), The Duke Spirit – Cuts Across the Land (out Yeah, Yeah Yeahs the Yeah Yeah Yeahs… sexier), Eagles of Death Metal – Death by Sexy (the guys from Queens of the Stone Age team up with friends and do good), Ghostland Observatory – Paparazzi Lightning (great “spectral blend of electronics, drums, guitar and vocals”… good) and Serena Maneesh – Serena Maneesh (chaotically beautiful, dreamlike, ethereal vocals)…

OK, you get the idea. Yes, I’m a music freak. there’s a lot of great stuff out there right now… Go shopping. Get some. Like wine, it’s good for you.

I paid a visit to Kitsilano Wine Cellars last night and Matt from the Wine Detective was working… and that meant trouble for my wallet. Matt’s a good guy who is passionate about the wine. My kinda’ guy. With the weather in Vancouver finally hitting its summer stride, I was in the mood for crisp whites and rosés.

After I had grabbed a bottle of the Craneford Frontignac to go with some sushi, Matt quickly pointed out a few wines, one of which was the 2005 Tormaresca Paiara, an Italian rosé made from Negroamaro grapes… for $11! That’s $11 people! He said it was a really good little wine and I figured that the risk was low for that price and I likey the rosés, so why not?

I opened it tonight while cooking dinner after a hard ride. Man, it IS good. Light strawberry flavours dominate. It’s not complex, but it tastes a lot like summer in a glass. I’ll be drinking more of this in the next few months for sure.

… verging on 4 just for value’s sake.

I’m such a geek. Each year I look forward to the Tour de France more than just about anything else. I get up at 6am everyday just to watch it live on OLN. This year it kicks off in Strasbourg on July 1st and I’m already getting into the swing of things by getting out on my road bike every day that it isn’t raining (OK pouring). It’ll be extra interesting to see who wins it now that Lance Armstrong is retired.

It’s nice to see there are geeks out there with more time on their hands than I have. A bunch of Tour de France fans in the Google Earth Community (GEC) have actually mapped the 2006 route out in Google Earth. Go check it out. Do the 3-d tilt with the mountain routes. Very cool.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to checking out Lolita’s South of the Border Cantina, a cool take on cali-Mex food which opened in th old Random space on Davie St. here in Vancouver. The restaurant was opened by Lisa Gaylie and her brother Jaison. I’m guessing that after managing Bin 942 for 5 years, Lisa knows something about funky and successful restauranteur-ship.

The place is very funky. From the surfboard as a sign, to the interior, the good music and the tattooed waitresses everything about the place says hip in that shabby-chic, taco stand on the beach kinda’ way. Fortunately, the food is as tasty as the staff is cool. We had the guacamole classico with fried tortilla chips, the beef taquito and the fantastic fish tacos. All were great… I’d definitely go back for the fish tacos and there were a few other things I’d like to try as well. The wine list was small, but well-chosen and of course there were the Mexican (and local) beers.

We needed something like this in town. I’ll be hitting Lolita’s regularly over the coming months.

NOTE: I went back and it was just as good… and really, you have to try the fresh raspberry mojitos – awesome.

I proclaim to be something of a Zinfandel junkie. It was the first red wine variety I fell in love with and the love affair has lasted for years and years. During that time I’ve rarely found a Zin from outside of California, where it has become the de facto State grape.

Tonight I wandered into the main liquor store here in Vancouver and lo-and-behold there was actually a Zin from our fair Province – the Inniskillin Bear Cub Vineyards Zinfandel. I had heard about this wine, but hadn’t been able to find it anywhere. I was a bit disappointed to find that it was $30 (CDN), but had to give it a try.

Well, now you’re wondering how the wine is? In a word (or 2), it’s actually bloody good. It really compares favourably with a few California Zins I’ve recently had in this price range. It carries a bit of heat (having 14% booze), but backs it up with full, ripe dark berry and cherry fruit and a good tannic backbone.

2003 was a very warm summer here in BC and obviously the grapes had time to ripen. There are none of the unripe flavours I had anticipated on opening this wine. A pleasant surpise indeed.