Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

I’ve been hearing a tonne about wines from the Central Otago area of New Zealand… and with the Pinot kick I’ve been on for a while, I figured it was high time to give one a try.

The two factors that had been standing in my way of going to town on a few of them are:

1. They’re tough to find – I’ve only seen a few in town. C’mon wine buyers, get on the wine trend wagon.
2. When I have found them, they tend to be pricey. The cheapest ones run ~$45.

So, after a phenomenally odd career day – another story entirely – I figured tonight was as good a time as any to track down a Central Otago Pinot Noir to try. This was the one I chose.

OK, I’ll get right into it. It’s medium red in colour, has got 14% booze, a nose that is a bit oaky and shows a lot of dark cherry along with some leather and tar (with some fumes from the booze)… and you know what? It has a twist-top. After all the corked bottles I’ve had in the past year, I like that. Traditionalists be damned.

What does it taste like? Well, it is tasty… there’s strawberry, dark cherry, and edge of that tar I already mentioned with some lightly tongue-gripping tannins holding it all together.

It’s a good wine…. just not a blow-me-away wine. Would I buy it again? Probably not, but I’m glad I tried it. This is a great food-friendly sipper – it’s just a bit expensive for what you get in the glass. There are much better wines for less money.

~$40 in private wine shops here in BC.

OK, so this is not related to wine in any way, but I just wanted to link out to this… I don’t buy many greeting cards, but these are what I’ll be buying if/when the mood strikes me: Bald Guy Greeting Cards. Click the cards to read what’s inside. Funny. They’re available at Moulé on West 4th here in Vancouver and over in West Vancouver.

Thanks Uncrate.

I love Aussie wines… and the wines from Jim Barry are consistently tasty. The McRae Wood Shiraz was one my faves the last time Australia was featured at the Vancouver Wine Festival.

When I saw this being cleared out of the local liquor store in my neighborhood, I had to have it. It received 89 points from the Spectator and my previous tastes of Jim Barry wines were superb.

This one is luscious… plain and simple. The nose is a nice mix of blueberry, with sweet spice and a bit of tobacco leaf… then Boom! The first sip is full of juicy blackberry and currant jam that fills your mouth and stays there for ages. So good. The finish has soft oak with some chocolate and mentioned spice with sweet brown sugar that is smooth and supple.

$32.99 at LDB stores here in BC

(on the cusp of 4.5)

So a couple of Brits make a load of cash in the Finance market and decide to take off to France, buy some land and make wine. It sounds like an attractive, familiar story, no? Think Peter Mayle’s “A Good Year“.

You know what? It happens in real life. Some people DO live the dream… AND do it really well. This is an incredibly tasty wine. I opened the bottle and could immediately smell dark cherry cotton candy.

This one is from the Sothern Languedoc region and is 65% Syrah and 35% Grenache >> this is Old World done in a very New World style.

I left the wine for an hour and came back to it. Yep, the cotton candy nose is still there. There’s cotton candy, licorice, dark cassis, smoke and dark chocolate. Those are all there in the luscious flavours as well. … which hang around for a while after a sip. You think the wine sounds good?? Go get a bottle. It’s better than it sounds.

This is a very good bottle of wine.

$34.95 here in BC

OK, so you’re sitting around and all of a sudden it strikes you as a brilliant idea to take a shot of espresso, mix in some ripe raspberry juice, a sprinkle of dark chocolate… and then some water, so it’s not too overpowering. That’s this wine.

In nutshell, the nose and the flavour of this wine are just what I mentioned – spot on. All that is backed up by some nicely structured tannins and a LONG finish.

The wine comes from the Médoc area of France in Bordeaux and is made from vineyards comprised of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc.

Having talked up the wine and having made it sound like a little slice of heaven here on Earth, I will mention that it kinda’ comes apart in the middle – just a touch. There is that taste going on that the flavours are a bit watered down. It gets dusty and a bit minerally (is that a word?). It’s very “Old World” in that respect.

You know what, though? I really like this wine. I love the coffee and bitter chocolate flavours… and I also love the tannins and finish. This is the second time I’ve had it and I would happily have it again. Good stuff.

$30 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars here in Vancouver

(nibbling lasciviously – I love that word – on the edge of 4.5)

According to a recently released British poll by YouGov, many self-professed wine “geeks” are full of **** (and it’s not wine).

“The YouGov poll of 2,396 adults revealed more than two-thirds of people (69 per cent) do not feel they know enough about wine although many attempting to disguise their ignorance by pretending to be experts.” Check out the article.

Just drink wine and try to remember what you like… and if you want to learn more, join a wine club or take a course. For God’s sake, don’t bluff. It’ll catch up with you.

Anthony Bourdain just has his way about him… and that’s a good thing. He guest-blogs over at ruhlman.com. Check it out – hilarious.

Thanks Collin.

If you’ve read any of this site, you know I’m a big fan of Italian wines… especially the reds… so, here’s another one. This wine’s a blend of 50% Merlot, 35% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon – kind of a mini super-Tuscan – and has 13.5% booze. It made Wine Spectator’s Top 100 wines of 2005 on the merit of a 90-point rating.

What’s it like? Good. Really good. Mind you, it’s far too young to drink right now – I know. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta’ do it. I’d say a few more years should sort out its rough and tannic edges.

In the glass, it has gorgeous dark purple, red-tinged colour. The nose shows blackberry, bitter chocolate and licorice with a flinty, mineral edge. A sip shows the dark berry edged with tar and floral notes… all backed up by dense tannins and a LONG finish. It all lives on for a while.

Like I’ve already said, this is a killer wine, but it needs some time hidden away where you won’t be tempted to pop it open. Keep it for a while and you’ll be glad you did.

$39.99 at LDB stores here in BC

What can I say?.. When I picked up this bottle of wine, I really didn’t know what to expect. I know Bradley Cooper, winemaker for Township 7 is a fan of sparkling wine and that this wine has started to pick up something of a cult following among local wine lovers, but BC bubbly has been a bit of a hit-and-miss undertaking for me in recent years.

I picked this up last week and took it out to Graham’s house in the ‘burbs to share with him and his lovely wife, Leah. It’s 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir, and the minute we poured it we knew it was something different in terms of BC sparklers. It had beautifully intense straw yellow colour with loads of lively bubbles.

Well, my fears of another so-so bottle of BC bubbly were quickly dispelled with my first glass of this wine. I stuck my nose into the glass and was met with aromas of toasted almonds laced with honey. It had a yummy buttery feel in the mouth, with crisp citrus and round fruit flavours. The finish was all honey and citrus and that certain je ne sais quoi which makes bubbly so much fun. Put simply, this is a really good bottle of sparkling wine.

Graham thought it was as good if not better than the Gloria Ferrer he reviewed a while back (which the Spectator gave 90). We both thought it had the lush feel of a French Champagne, rather than the crisp acidity of a BC sparkler. It’s just better. In a blind tasting, we agreed that it would difficult to pin this as a bottle of BC bubbly.

Kudos to Bradley and T7 for their work on this one.

$29.95 in wine shops around town (if you can find it before it’s gone)

(edging towards 4.5)

This is one of the wines I had Graham kindly pick up for me yesterday… and wow, I’m glad he gave me that call. This is fantastic stuff.

It’s from the trendy Priorat region of Spain and is a blend of Carignane, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The booze is right at the Priorat-minimum 13.5%.

I decanted this for a while (2 hours) and the nose is a complex mix of herb, pepper, licorice and cherry. The flavours build on that impressively – the pepper and licorice are there… and the almost sweet cherry explodes into life. It has an almost sweet fruit finish that lasts…. and lasts.

The balance of the wine is also very good – there’s no fume-y, over-tannic brute act going on here.

I had some of the wine with a hot Genoa Salami and bell pepper pizza I made, and man, the match was almost perfect. This wine has it all – the verging-on-New-World fruit and the Old World ability to match with food.

Great stuff.

$32.99 at BCLDB stores (unless you get lucky enough to find it marked down to the low $20′s)