Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

OK, it’s getting to be the time of the year at which wine sites like this start offering up their ideas for your holiday booze purchases. Now the first wine that comes to mind when it’s time to celebrate (or when it’s a Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, etc.) is Champagne… and one of the best bottles I’ve had in the past year is the H. Billiot Brut Réserve Grand Cru à Ambonnay NV.

I revisited this last weekend (thanks Mike!) and am definitely going to pick up another bottle some time soon. If you’re looking for something bubbly and unbelievably tasty, give it a go.

Check out my review from earlier this year.

Sexy stuff!

~ $73 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars. 

The bottle says, “This wine is serious! The name is not.”… and you know what? I like the fun attitude they’re putting out there with a statement like that. This wine really is just plain tasty. It’s a blend of Syrah, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.

What all that adds up to is a juicy and completely unpretentious glassful of sippin’ fun. The colour is a deep and dark red… the nose is a complex bunch of tobacco, dark fruit and licorice. A tip o’ the glass gives up a nice bunch of brambly dark berries, licorice and a long dark chocolate-edged finish.

When you see a bottle like this, you may just dismiss it as a California version of a “critter” wine… but it’s more than that. For the price, it’s fantastic. It’s actually got some complexity and depth.

I like it. This is my new house red. ‘Nuff said.

$17 in LDB stores here in BC.

This blend of 80% Malbec (called Côt noir in Cahors) and 20% Merlot caught me a bit off guard. I didn’t necessarily expect to like it, but man, I do. This is a reasonably-priced red I’ll definitely be buying again.

In the glass, it’s a nice dark red… with a nose that is all coffee-dipped cherries, plum and bit of a floral thing going on. The flavours are rich and deep with that coffee showing up on the edge of dark, cherries plum and a bit of earthiness. This would be great with a nice steak or a hearty wintertime stew. Yum.

Damn good stuff.

$~22 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

If the idea of licking a lemon juice-soaked rock doesn’t turn you on, you still have to try this wine. When people use the word “flinty” to describe a wine, there should be a picture of this bottle included. You can almost taste the soil in which it was grown, and I like that.

I tasted and reviewed the Hartenberger’s Gewurztraminer a while back and had been meaning to try this as well. Matt, at Kitsilano Wine Cellars reminded me about it a couple of weeks ago, so I picked it up.

As usual, I’ll start with the colour… which is a very pale straw yellow. Sticking my nose in the glass gives up a slightly petrol-edged lemon tart with an bit of freshly ground rock – seriously, that’s more appealing than you might think. A sip fills my mouth with fresh lemon, green apple, flinty minerals and a bracing amount of food-friendly acidity. The flavours actually build in your mouth.. growing in intensity for a bit after it tickles your tongue. This is straight-ahead tasty stuff.

Compared to the Balthasar Ress Kabinett I had last week, this is much “drier” and packed with acidity. The Ress had a mouth-filling body to it and a touch of residual sweetness that makes it  wine a lot of people will love. This is more of a wine geek’s wine.

Go ahead and pick some up. Try it with a light fish meal or on its own. You know you need to eat more lightly with the Christmas season heading your way.

~$20 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

This is a SEXY wine… It comes from the very warm 2003 vintage which probably gives it more heft in terms of ripeness and booze (13.8%) than normal. What it adds up to is a seductive and tasty Burgundian Pinot Noir, with loads of flavour.

The colour is a medium-red – typical of the grape. The nose is an earthy mix of red fruit – with a ripe, dark edge, perfume and even some citrus. A sip from a Riedel Burgundy glass had lots of ripe red fruit, cranberry, a touch of brown sugar and a minerally citrus edge.

This is a really tasty wine, folks. I’d drink it again… happily. Yum!

$32.99 at LDB stores here in BC.

I picked this up at Kitsilano Wine Cellars tonight and popped it open when I got home. It’s what I would describe as a “pretty” red wine.. and in this case, that’s a good thing.

When I poured it in a glass it had a nice vibrant medium-red colour. A big ‘ol sniff shows berry, plum, dark cherry and a dusty earthy edge. The words that come to mind as I taste this wine are floral, earthy, delicate, tannin, cherry, berry and plum.

What do I think of this wine? I actually really like it. It’s got layers of Old World flavours, matches really well with cheese and makes my mouth happy – and let’s face it, that’s all that matters.

If you’re starting to learn about Old World wines, you could do much worse than to give this a try.

~$35 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars here in Vancouver.

Sweet Jesus, this is a tasty Riesling. This is one of those wines that get me thinking that I should drink more Riesling.

It’s got a beautiful nose with and edge of that petrol (yes, smelling a touch of diesel fuel is a good thing with Riesling), a bunch of peach, apricot and flinty stone. Taking a sip is a delicious experience – the flavours are all lemon-edged peach, with a long gently acidic apricot finish.

Seriously tasty stuff that would pair with many foods at the drop of a hat. Buy it.

$22.99 at LDB stores here in BC.

Wow… this is a wine I’ve liked every vintage I’ve tasted. The 2004 continues that trend. It’s a serious wine, made from 100% Tempranillo with layers of flavours, 13% booze and tannins that show its best is yet to come.

The colour is a medium-dark red, with a nose that gives up a bunch of dark fruit, licorice, vanilla spice and earth. A sip shows rich dark berry fruit, coffee and that vanilla-edged licorice. the finish is a bit heavy on tannins right now, but that will mellow if you’re smart/lucky enough to sit this down somewhere and have it in a few years.

It’s Old World in all the right ways.

$31 here in BC at LDB stores.

Mmmmmm…. seriously, sometimes I just like a tasty Zin. The price and sexy flavoirs of this one make up for the extra $30 I spent on the Rosenblum a couple of weeks ago.

It’s funny how wine ratings play out… apparently Robert Parker loved the wine saying, “Sexy… Deep, rich… attractive… jammy berry fruit interwoven with… licorice, herbs, smoke and truffles.” On the other hand the Wine Dictator gave it 82 points, writing, “Firm and fairly simple, with mineral, white pepper and dried cherry notes.” It’s all subjective… and I have to say I go towards RP on this one.

It’s a dark, juicy and bloody tasty bit of 15.5% booze with a mouthful of blackberry, light briary rhubarb flavours edged with some dark chocolate and enough tannin to give it a healthy structure. This is a well-made and (considering the high alcohol) well-balanced Zinfandel.

It’s a Friday night wine for me… and it’s just what I needed to end the week on a happy note. It’s not the best Zin I’ve ever had, but it is a helluva’ tasty wine. If you’re a Zin fan, you’ll probably love it too.

Again… Mmmmmm.

$32.90 at LDB stores here in BC.

Earthy, dense, darkly fruity, complex and and velvety are the first words I think of when tasting this wine. I opened it hours ago and the necessary air has brought the wine’s layers to life.

As I mentioned last week, ever since I first had Mastroberardino’s Radici, I’ve been on the lookout for other wines made from the Aglianico grape. I found this at Kitsilano Wine Cellars last week.

Tonight I cooked up a simple pasta with a basil and tomato sauce… and opened this. I’ve gotta say that it actually paired fairly well, though it wasn’t an ideal match – the wine showed its best after the meal with a bit of cheese. The colour is a dark ruby red. The nose shows a schwack of dark red fruit, earth and an edge of what hit me as mellow balsamic and oak. The flavours are a balanced bunch of dark cherry, rhubarb, currants and velvety tannins.

A very nice and balanced wine. Not for you slutty-wines-New World folks, but very tasty.

~$23 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars and LDB stores here in BC.