Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

I picked this wine up a while back and recently cracked it open. Did I like it? Yep… a lot. This wine is a gorgeous Pinot Noir from the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits in Burgundy.

The nose shows ripe berry and cherry fruit as well as 5-spice and cranberry tartness. A juicy sip gives up a bunch of ripe berry fruit, gorgeous layers of vanilla, cherry, licorice spice, minerality and a finish that lasts into the minutes. Wow. I loved this wine.

As an aside, it made a heck of a food-wine match with grilled salmon. Red wine and fish do work… especially if the fish is a fattier type (like salmon). Yum.

If you feel like a really tasty bottle of PInot and have an Old World bent, try it. Heck, even if you’re a New World fan, this wine tosses enough fruit against the tongue to keep you happy as well. It’s bloody good.

~$60 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

Haha. I guess I’m still waiting for the payoff…. and I’m pretty easy. Just give me really good wine.

Read the article (Vinography.com)

Wine review as haiku:

Aussie Cabernet
Sexy currant goodness, yum
Long juicy finish.

‘Nuff said

$25 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

Y’all know I’m a fan of bubbly wines… from great Champagnes to a nice Cava. So, when I visited Kitsilano Wine Cellars tonight and Kirk suggested this wine, I grabbed it. A new bubbly to try out? I was all over it.

We don’t get a lot of wines from the Czech Republic here in Vancouver, but I’ve heard great things, especially about the reds. The fact that this is a traditional Champagne method bubbly and that it’s made from a pretty unique varietal (Grüner Veltliner) that’s very popular in Austria (it’s their most widely planted grape) made it that much more of a surprise.

You know what I had it with? A burrito… and yep, it was a tasty match – try it some time. Apart from what it matches with (I’m thinking a lot), let’s get to what it was like. The nose is very complex for the price. It’s got honey, almond, apple, apricot and some citrus going on. A sip gives up bloody tasty toasty almond and lemony-apricot flavours with an edge that is very slightly sweet.

This is very tasty stuff for the money folks. Buy it and drink more bubbly. It’s good for the soul.

~$16 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

If you’re in the Penticton area on May 3rd, you might want to make plans to be at the Township 7 winery. They’re going to have a Barrel Blending Bash. Here are the deets:

Make Township 7′s next blockbuster
Saturday, May 3, 2008
1:00pm – 4:00pm
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery
1450 McMillan (Naramata Road access)
Penticton, BC

Here’s your chance to flaunt your organoleptic skills
Join wine maker Bradley Cooper at the winery to taste and blend some serious red barrels samples in an attempt to create the next great wine to come from our cellars.

It’s a great way to take part in the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival. You’ll have an opportunity to see how blending can be the answer when good constituents combine to create something magnificent.

There will be three sessions at 1, 2 and 3 pm. Each session is limited to 10 participants. Email, phone to book.

You can register or get more details from their Facebook page for the event.

Big pillowy drifting flakes fill the sky here in Vancouver tonight. Winter may technically be over, but someone forgot to tell the Big Guy up there… I was just starting to get into the idea of road cycling a few times a week and now I’m looking out on white streets. Spring turned into Winter in a matter of hours. I really need to move somewhere warmer. What happened to global warming dammit?

OK, so what better thing to do tonight than write up a great red wine (OK, I could think of a few things)… We drank this the night before I left Italy and it was one of the better wines I had while was there. I bought it on a suggestion from Paolo at the Banco de Vino in Pollenzo. God bless him.

What else can I say, but holy crap? This wine was pretty much everything I want in a Barbaresco (or a wine, for that matter). The nose was all berries, cherry liqueur, violets and tar. The flavours were amazing – open berry fruit, with the sexy cherry liqueur and an insanely long finish that led to the next sip (and with this, how long could I wait, really?). This wine is the shit, frankly. It just drank so well. I’m sure it could age, but wow… I want to drink it every night.

If you can find it, give it a go. I’d be surprised if you don’t love it.

~ 30 Euros, if you can find it.

OK, let’s take a little break from my catch-up on the Italian trip. I’ve been home for just over a week and have had a few good bottles, so let’s get one off my list.

I was out for a bit tonight and had some Thai leftovers at home, so I dropped into Marquis Wine Cellars here in Vancouver looking for a Gewurztraminer or a Riesling. Both just go so damn well with Thai. I spent so damn much money on wine in Piedmont that I’m on a bit of a value search right now. This wine, at $20, fit right into that slot.

There’s not a lot going on with the nose – a bit of lime zest and mineral – but it really gives it up when you take a sip. A big dose of puckering acidity surrounds the lemon-lime, honey and some sucking-on-a-stone minerality to finish it all up.

It’s really a bloody tasty drop for the dough. I know I have all your sympathy when I say that it’s nice to have a straight-forward and tasty white after all the complex and tasty reds I had in Italy. This wine fit that bill nicely.

Now really, if you don’t like Riesling, give your head a shake. Go out, grab some Thai take-out and a bottle of this and just try to tell me it doesn’t taste great.

$20 at Marquis Wine Cellars.

Day 4 in the Langhe was another beautiful one… it was ~25 degrees Celsius. Day 3 had excited my wine buds a bit much and I was dealing with the effects of too much of the region’s wine the night before.

After a bit of a slow start, we hopped into our rented Lancia Ypsilon and headed towards the town of Neive for a quick lunch. From there, we negotiated the twists and turns of the road to the Marchesi di Gresy winery for a tour and tasting.

We were greeted by Matilde, who gave us the full tour – the cantina, the offices, the new banquet facility and the vineyards – and spoke English. It’s a beautiful winery, located in a steeply sloping natural ampitheater of vines – gorgeous spot.

After the tour, we headed into the tasting room to go through their wines. I’ve had a couple of them in the past in Vancouver, but it was fantastic to be able to sit in the winery and taste pretty much their full range. Here’s what we had:

• 2007 Langhe Sauvignon Blanc - a total surprise. This wine was fantastic (especially for 11 euros). It had all the SB crispness along with tropical fruit and gooseberry (4-4.5).
• 2001 Grésy Chardonnay – nice, round and ripe, if not a bit too much oak. It had a long finish showing tropical fruit and vanilla (4).
• 1999 Grésy Chardonnay – this was even better than the 2001. It had herbs (rosemary) and mineral along with some nice fruit (4.5).
• 2006 Monte Aribaldo Dolcetto d’Alba – bright candied-cherry fruit and peppery tannins on the finish (4).
• 2004 Merlot da Solo – very nice wine. Good structure and nice elegant dark cherry flavours (4).
• 2004 Monte Colombo Barbera d’Asti, DOC - tasty! Immense ripe dark fruit with a long, round finish. Gorgeous (4.5).
• 2003 Camp Gros Martinenga Barbaresco – now we’re talkin’. Wow. Gorgeous floral notes and cherry liqueur on the nose. Amazingly intense flavours of that cherry liqueur with a loooooooong finish that lasted minutes (4.5).
• 1987 Gaiun Martinenga Barbaresco – yes, you read that correctly. 1987. This was one of the real treats of my trip. It had been opened the night before and was absolutely perfect when I tasted it. The nose was all felt tip marker, leather, tar and cherry liqueur. It had fantastic round fruit in the mouth and a finish that went forever. I was lucky enough to enjoy glass of this wine (4.5 – 5).
• 2004 L’Altro Muscat – this was a cool way to finish up. It had really interesting diesel-like fuel on the nose at first. A sip showed a bunch of beautiful apricot and honey flavours. Yum (4 – 4.5).

I really enjoyed the visit here. Matilde was fantastic – and not to mention BUSY – she was fielding calls and handling other visitors to the winery. Everyone else there had taken off to VinItaly for the week. If you’re in the area, give them a call and visit the winery. It’s a great place.

From there, we headed into the town of Barbaresco. It was a Wednesday… and let’s just say that Wednesday is NOT the day to drop by Barbaresco. The town was closed. All that was missing was the occasional tumbleweed caterwauling down the streets. We did manage to find one cantina open, but their wines were nothing to write home (or blog) about.

On our little walk around the town, we strolled by Gaja. It was at that point I was kicking myself for not setting up a tour there. If you’ve never heard of Gaja, you should know that for the last decade or so, he’s pretty much been the shit of Italian wine.

His does things his way, he’s innovated the way in which wines of the region are made and his wines have achieved cult-like status worldwide. They sell for hundreds of dollars per bottle. I’ve never been lucky enough to taste any of his juice, and I guess I missed a golden opportunity.

Oh well… after that we drove out of town and by chance stopped by Azienda Agricola di Angelo Rocca. His daughter gave us a warm greeting and took us all around the winery. It’s a pretty snazzy place with graphics and design help from a local artist.

Fortunately, their wines were snazzy as well. We tasted a few and I took a bottle of their 2005 Barbaresco, “Brich Ronchi” with me when we left.

One thing that stood out during the day was the difference between Barolo and Barbaresco. They are made from essentially the same grapes using the same methods, but taste quite different. This is due to the clay soil (high in pH) in the Barolo area and the sandier soil (therefore higher in acidity) in the Barbaresco region. You really can taste the difference of the place.

That was it for the wineries for the day. We headed back to Bra and found a tasty pizza joint for dinner. As a side note, I found it kinda’ funny – pizza is NOT a northern Italian food, but everywhere we went, they outnumbered all other restaurants.

While I sit here in the ‘burbs green with envy over Sean and Rachel’s much deserved adventures in the food and wine that is Italy, I decided to open this one to channel some semblance of the wonder of Italian wine.

Fazi Battaglia makes some interesting wines that I had the opportunity to sample during the Vancouver festival, however this Verdicchio was not one of them. I had developed a real taste for the Italian whites over the course of the festival, so when I saw this I had to give it a go.

A dark yellow straw in the glass, you can certainly pick up oak on the first swirl with toasty vanilla and some light citrus and savoury spice (sage?). A few delicious “Friday time to relax” sips bring baked apple, some grass and a bit of honeycomb. The finish is more vanilla and toast with some nice herb notes to top it off.

All in all this a nice bottle of wine that paired superbly with a light crab dip. Cheers to VinItaly guys!

$26.99 at LDB stores here in BC.

I’m getting a bit behind here, but thankfully I’ve taken good notes. Day 3 in the Langhe was the best yet. We woke up to brilliant sunshine, which made the beauty of the region really stand out.

We headed out to our 10am appointment with Barbara Levi-Cavaglione at Damilano, near the town of Barolo. Barbara gave us a tour of their new winery building and took us into their modern boardroom where she poured us everything in their line-up (and taking pity on my lack of Italian, she spoke to us in very good English).

Here’s what we tasted:

• 2007 Damilano Langhe Arneis DOC – very dry, not fruity like many Arneis we tasted over the last week. It would be a good wine with fish (3.5).
• 2007 Damilano Dolcetto d’Alba DOC – tonnes of pepper from the people’s wine of the Langhe… a bit young, but tasty (3.5).
• 2006 Barbera d’Alba DOC – Lots of pepper, bell pepper and dark cherry (3.5).
• 2004 Barbera d’Alba DOC Lablu – Beautiful nose of big cherry fruit and pepper. Yum (4).
• 2005 Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC – It had just been opened, so it came across as very tight and closed. After a while in the glass, it showed really nice cherry fruit (4).
• 2004 Barolo DOCG Lecinquevigne – Now we’re talking. This wine had that fantastic cherry fruit and rose petal on the nose… Yum! Barbara actually gave us each a magnum of this to take home. Loved that (4.5)!
• 2004 Barolo DOCG Liste – This is an amazing bottle of wine. I tasted it at the Vancouver Wine Fest and loved it… Being at its winery made it even better The nose was amazing, with some prune to the edge of the cherry liqueur and tar, with an amazing finish. Wow (4.5).
• 2003 Barolo DOCG Liste – Barbara poured this as an example of wine from the very hot 2003 vintage. It may not have the complexity of the 2004, but it’s ripe fruit made it very tasty in that cherry brandy kind of way (4.5).
• 2004 Barolo DOCG Cannubi – This wine’s grapes come from what have been described as the Grand Cru of Barolo’s vineyards. It’s a complex and structured bit of juice, folks. I’d love to have this wine at home in 7 – 15 years (4.5).

We actually sat with Barbara for well over an hour and even met one of the 4 cousins that own the winery, Margherita. When we left, it was after noon and time to head into the village of Barolo to find a place to eat.

As we drove in, Rachel spotted a couple she knew from Amelia in Umbria, Guglielmo and Rita. We sat down next to them in the sun outside the Enoteca della Posta di Barolo and had a delicious lunch of veal tartare, eggplant and a really tasty plate of pasta with porcini mushrooms and sausage. Of course there was wine. We had a local 2005 Bovio Langhe Nebbiolo Annunziata DOC which was simple and tasty…. and went perfectly with the company and the food.

Next up was what proved to be a highlight of the trip. We headed out to see Flavio Roddolo at his cantina (winery) near Monforte d’Alba. Rachel had visited him a month or so ago and had fallen in love with what he is about – growing the grapes and making the wine in a simple way. No new barriques, no fancy micro-oxygenization… he lets the grapes and soil do the talking.

I really liked Flavio. He was generous with both his time and his wine. We received a full tour of the winery, his new cantina and the small cellar from the 1700′s, where he ages his wine in older oak casks. It was great hearing Rachel and him speaking Italian and to see Flavio open up as both the words and the wine flowed.

He grew up at the winery and actually disliked the business until he was into his teens. It was then that he grew to love the place and the wines his family was making. In 1993 Flavio decided to start bottling his own wine instead of selling it off to other producers.

Today, it’s just Flavio and the grapes on the property and he is considered one of the rising stars of the region. He does it all there – vineyard maintenance, wine-making and tasting room duties. He has a group that comes each year to help him pick the grapes, but other than that it’s a one-man show. It’s Flavio and his considerable skill at making the grapes speak through his wine.

We first tasted the 2007 wines from their stainless steel tanks… He said it was a great vintage and from what we tasted, the wines show incredible promise. We had his Dolcetto d’Alba, his Langhe Rosso (made from a small parcel of Cabernet Sauvignon grown on his property), the Barbera d’Alba, the Nebbiolo d’Alba and his Barolo… wow.

He then took us back down into his new cantina and pulled samples of the wines from the oak casks. We tasted the Langhe Rosso and the Barolo. It was pretty amazing to see how the oak softened the youthful wine.

It was then, with our education of his new wines complete, that we headed into his tasting room to try his current bottlings. Here’s what we tasted:

• 2006 Dolcetto d’Alba – purple and intense;
• 2005 Dolcetto d’Alba Superiore – deep, dark, tannic and delicious. Its edges were softer and the flavours more full than the regular Dolcetto. It’s a fantastic wine;
• 2004 Barbera d’Alba – peppery, dark and beautiful;
• 2004 Nebbiolo d’Alba – wow, I loved this wine… and it’s a favourite of Flavio. It had beautiful pure cherry and leathery flavours of the earth;
• 2003 Barolo – what else can I say but, “Wow”? I wanted to roll around in this wine. It took the Nebbiolo and added levels of earthy and liqueur-like complexity to its flavours. Fantastic.

As we were leaving with our wine (how can you not buy some of his beautiful juice?), Flavio also gave us a bottle of his 2002 Barolo, saying that it would prove that even in off years, a good wine could be made. Coming from him, I believe it.

From Flavio’s, we headed to a 4pm appointment at Azienda Agricola Teobaldo Cappellano. Wow, this guy is a character (and I mean that in a good way). He does things his way and does them incredibly well. For a bit of a summary of what he’s about, visit The Rare Wine Co. for an article on him and the winery. They point out that, “in 1983 he banished all journalists from his cellar, unless they agreed to review his wines without scores. (He sees ratings as divisive among growers.) And he could be the only person today producing a Barolo from ungrafted vines.”

While there, we tasted 2 wines from the barrel, his 2004 Barolo Rupestris and the 2004 Barolo Franco. In keeping with his views, I won’t put a number on them. Let’s stick with outstanding. Considering that his total case production is fewer than 800 cases per year, it was quite an honour to taste these from the barrel. If you can find one (unfortunately, I doubt it), grab it… it’s true old-style Barolo. I love the quote from The Mystique of Barolo, “Making Barolo is hedonism, it is art. Wine is hedonism. But wine, too, needs identity: I need to be able to say ‘This is Barolo…’‘” It is.

We were so excited about that day, we picked up some steak on the way back to Bra and started in on some wine. We opened a 1999 Pio Cesare Barolo and an amazing 1999 Paolo Conterno Barolo, Ginestra Vineyard. I’ll review both of these wines sometime soon.