Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

Hi folks! Long time no post. I’ve been off holidaying and doing other summer-like activities. There were beaches, water, swimsuits and wine… oh yes, there was wine – lots and lots of wine. I’ll write a catch-up post on that later.

This post has something I don’t often do – negatively review a wine. Most of the time, I take a relatively educated guess and come up pretty darn happy. Sometimes though, I take a recommendation and don’t really find it up to snuff… like this one.

It’s 100% Tempranillo that tastes like it was stewed with a lot of grape stems and oak chips (no barrels here, I’m thinkin’). It’s lightly fruity with an unsatisfying, bitter edge and a short finish. It’s OK for the money, but there are others I’d go to before buying this again in a pinch.

All in all, I’d give it a pass.

$14 in private wine shops in Vancouver.

I’m off to a non-internet island for the next week, so I thought I’d toss another post up here. Have a great week folks and go drink some wine!

Spicy Asian food and Gewurztraminer… do it. It’s one of those food pairings that just work.

Tonight we had this bottle with some spicy curry and it just took a wine with some oomph to stand up. God bless a good Gewurz.

It’s got fantastic spicy lychee, citrus, rose petal, figs and sumptuous tropical fruit. The flavours are an explosion of Mandarin orange, lemony citrus peel, peach and lychee with a floral edge. Very interesting and totally satisfying. The layers of flavours led into a finish that lasted a minute.

It might have been me and the food we had with it, but I think this is a great bottle for the money.

$22.99 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

A while back, I wrote up the 2005 as being a GREAT value white for Summer… well, the 2006 carries on with that (and much-improved packaging).

I’ve gone through a tonne of this one in the past while and we just bought 5 more bottles to take to Savary Island with us over the next week (plus a bunch of other wines, of course!).

For $16 (here in BC), you get a crisp scwhwack of lemon, mineral and melon flavours – great with food or some company on the beach (or patio). It’s just a fantastic deal.

It may not be to everyone’s liking (Ryan!), but if you’re a fan of Sauvignon Blanc I can pretty much guarantee you’ll like it.

$15.99 at LDB stores here in BC.

For the past while, Rachel’s been working like a fiend teaching, lecturing, marking and writing… so when it all wrapped up, the first thing we felt like doing was celebrating… and when I think “celebrate” no liquid matches that like Champagne.

I made a trip into Kitsilano Wine Cellars (they usually have a pretty rocking selection of bubbly) and was faced with a lot of choices. I almost went with the Henri Billiot I had at New Year’s, but I wanted to try something new.

It’s a classic Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) . I did really like it, but it just didn’t do it for me on the level some Champagnes I’ve had have done. I guess I prefer a bubbly made with more of the classic Chardonnay/Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier blend.

Its nose was beautiful – pear, lemon, mineral, toast and almond. Its flavours were an explosion of toasty, nutty pear with a finish that went on forever. All in all, a fantastic wine.

$76 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

This is going to take a bit of time while I decide what I’m going to do with this great new URL.

This is a deep, dark and sexy wine that also happens to be a great value.

The blend of 70% Negroamaro, 15% Sangiovese, 10% Malvasia Nera di Lecle (sp?) & 5% Malvasia Nera di Brindisi makes for an earthy, yet bloody tasty drop. Its nose is full of licorice, black cherry prune and dusty earth. The flavours back that all up – throwing down lots of black cherry, silky licorice spice with an earthy edge to the long finish that actually builds for a minute after a sip.

The 14% booze gives the wine a bit of a hot edge, but doesn’t take over from the great flavours. I should also tell ya’ that this is a bit of an Old World gem – it’s tannic and earthy, but is a “grower”. With some air (I’d recommend an hour), it opens up and gives it up. Great stuff for the money.

$20 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

Check it out folks. Funny stuff – Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV paid a visit to Conan earlier this week and taught him a bit about the flavours of wine, Wine Library TV style.

Watch the clip.

I like Viognier (pronounced vee-ohn-yay for you folks who don’t know what the heck it is). There. I’ve said it. It’s a grape I drink fairly often, and almost always enjoy. I won’t go into the varietal factoids. Let’s just say French… and now all over, but done particularly well in California and Australia.

Good ones (and this is pretty damn good for the money) have a light, minerally, lemon and fruit nose, followed up by peach, apricot, orange peel and lemony citrus wrapped up in a mineral-laced finish. This wine was a bit hot (14% booze), but delivered on pretty much all the Viognier requirements and did it in a way that didn’t fall back on the flabby-bodied sluttiness that some of Cline’s wines sometimes rely on. It had a nice crispness to its finish that makes it a very food-friendly wine.

I liked it and will definitely pick it up again soon. Give it a try.

$17.99 here in BC.

(verging on 4)

I had this last week on a visit to my Mom’s place with my good friend, Mike. We picked it up at a LDB store for a thrifty $14.99. With my summer fixation on rosés still in a healthy place, I figured that at that price I had to give it a go.

It’s a blend of 80% Tempranillo and 20% Grenache from the vineyards of the Rioja Alta that is fermented in stainless steel tanks. This helps the wine keep its crisp and fruity, yet dry style. It’s a fantastic summer wine.

The nose shows light cherry, strawberry and cranberry fruit, with a light floral edge… and that’s what the wine serves up in its flavours as well.

In an upcoming issue, the Wine Dictator gives it a healthy 87 points. They got it right – I really liked this wine. I’ll definitely be grabbing it again sometime soon.

$14.99 in LDB stores here in BC.