Vinifico! The Original Vancouver Wine Blog

A video run-down of our latest wine… turns out it’s a field blend of Petite Syrah, 8% Syrah, 4% Grenache and 2% Viognier vines, all of which are around 85 years old.

$34.99 USD on Maui.

Here I am in Maui sipping away – another badly-framed video:

~$16 USD here on Maui.

Wow. What else can you say when you taste this wine? I would actually mistake it for a Nebbiolo-based Piemontese wine… It’s just that hard to pin down. I first tasted it at Vancouver’s Salt Tasting Room a while back and had been looking for it since.

It’s a field blend of Syrah, Sangiovese, Mourvèdre, Barbera, Carignane, Petite Sirah and Viognier, among other varietals. After harvest, winemaker Sean Thackrey lets the grapes sit and “rest” at least 24 hours outside his home. Then after crush, he transfers the juice to ferment in open vats under the eucalyptus trees that surround the winery.

Thackrey doesn’t keep track of the exact percentage that ends up in each blend so it’s different from year to year. No fancy schmancy modern science-driven techniques going on here. He got his education from what he says is the world’s largest collection of ancient wine scripts and lets his palate guide the final mix. The man is a character – something his wines have in spades.

The nose is really unique, especially for a California wine. There’s tar, powerful dark cherry and a bit of citrus edged by Thackrey’s signature note of eucalyptus. A curious sip gives up tar-edged cherry fruit along with a full-bodied mouth-feel and a finish that actually builds before it starts to fade a minute later.

I could drink this all the time and when you can find it, it’s quite the value. I was lucky enough to come across it at K & L Wine Merchants on my recent trip to San Francisco for the 2009 ZAP Festival.

$22.99 USD at K & L Wine Merchants in San Francisco.

This one came about by accident. I had just read Sean’s tweet (@vinifico) about the “Wine Century Club,” – the quest to taste said number of varietals, popped into the local liquor store and saw this on the sell-off rack. I asked the consultant and he said “it’s pretty much a wine geek kind of wine.” Well… it fit so I picked one up and I’m glad I did.

Apparently, Apremont is made in Savoie from the local Jacquere grape. It’s a pretty good find if you ask me. Subtle lime and pear with a bit of straw/grass with a few sniffs and swirls, it’s dry and stony on the palate with some more crisp tart green apple toward more mineral on the finish.

Interesting in a word, a really old world, rustic find. A different little wine that’s a pretty good value right now. I’d buy it again to have with some nice mild cheese and sliced green apples.

$16.99 at LDB stores here in BC.

Brad Cooper dropped by my office last week and left me some wine to taste for the site. This is the first to hit my glass.

I’ve always been a fan of the Township 7 wines. Unlike many BC wineries these days, they tend to offer real value for your money. Their wines compete dollar for dollar with pretty much any others in their price range – from anywhere in the world.

The 2007 Chardonnay, which is aged in French and American oak barrels, offers up a beautiful nose of roasted hazelnut, pineapple-tinged tropical fruit and a crisp citrus edge. The flavours are very Burgundian – the lightly nutty tropical fruit is backed up by a very crisp green apple and lemony flinty mineral-edged finish. It’s definitely a food-friendly Chardonnay.

This is a very nice wine for the money. I’d actually go so far as to say it’s currently my favourite under-$20 Chardonnay.

$19.99 from the winery.

This’ll be short and sweet, but I wanted to get it onto the site. I’m about to head out to dinner with Candace and popped this open as an aperitif – a tasty sipper, if you will.

Wow. Anyone who reads this site knows I’m a sucker for a crisp and fruity Riesling and this has that in spades. It’s a beautiful mix of light diesel and citrus fruit on the nose (much better than that sounds – you Riesling folks know what I’m talking about) with flavours that burst in beautiful fireworks on the tongue. It zings across the tongue. There’s lime, grapefruit and orange with a long mineral-edged finish. It’s the classic dip a flinty rock in a citrus cocktail and give it a good lick kinda’ wine.

I love it. ‘Nuff said. Drink more Riesling, especially the German stuff. You’ll thank me.

$40 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

This is the second time I’ve picked this wine up from Kitsilano Wine Cellars in the last while… and I wanted to write it up because it’s quite the unique drop of juice.

Normally, when I think of (or drink) a Sauvignon Blanc, I think crisp, grassy and fruity with a mineral edge. This is a completely different SB. Instead of the usual grassy acidity, it’s got a load of honey-soaked wheat flavour followed by a medium-long and earthy finish that is full-bodied and a bit hot (it’s carrying 14.5% booze). Overall, it is really tasty and pretty well-balanced.

Do I like it? Hell yeah. It’s a tasty bottle of wine and is completely different from the usual Sauvignon Blanc – in a good way.

$26 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

I made a trip to Kitsilano Wine Cellars after work today to get a bottle to lay down in the cellar/closet. I ended up with a 2004 Pio Cesare Barolo… and because I was taking that home to put away and keep my hands off it for a while, I wanted something I could pop open tonight with dinner (a pizza).

In Italy’s Piedmont region, Dolcetto is considered the everyday wine. The folks there love it and while I was there, I have to admit I developed a fondness for it as well. It’s an uncomplicated and unpretentious wine – all light tannins and peppery cherry fruit.

That’s exactly what this bottle of wine is – uncomplicated and unpretentious. It may not be super-complex, but it’s exactly what I thought it would be. There’s the dark cherry fruit and dusty tannins that make it a great pairing with pizza (or pretty much any other tomato-based Italian inspired food). The flavours may not last long, but they’re food-friendly and fun.

It gets an extra half-star for just being a good, food-friendly wine.

$29 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars.

I reviewed the 2005 vintage of this wine a couple of weeks ago and quite liked it. This one? Not so much.

Maybe it’s my palate this week, but I’m not liking it. The nose has a smoky-sweet BBQ sauce kinda thing going on. That pretty much tells you what’s happening. It’s like there was a fire near the vineyard and the smoke infused the grapes. It’s not working for me.

It’s like you’ve got a handful of crushed blackberries (sounds good so far) and then douse them with a generous dose of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce (OK, not sounding so good anymore). That’s followed up by a short and slightly hot (15.8% booze) and sour finish with not much going on in the middle. ‘Nuff said.

I’d say to give it a pass. Either search out the 2005, or another Zin in the price range.

$31.99 at Liberty Wine Cellars.

So, I’ve finally taken the plunge into video for the site. I purchased a Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket video camera and took it along on the trip to ZAP down in San Fran. I meant to film more, but managed to get some of the festival on video.

Here’s a brief intro to the media tasting lounge at ZAP and a quick (and shoddily filmed) shot of the view of the bay.

I wish someone had given me these tips before I first attended the ZAP fest a couple of years ago. Some stuff to think about before going to a big wine festival:

A quick show of the 2nd pavilion and early trade and media crowd at the 2009 ZAP Festival tasting:

How can you not love tasting wine with a view like this??

… and finally, here’s a look at how quickly the pavilion fills up when the doors are opened to the public at 1pm. Compare it to the earlier video shot of just trade and media people. Also, to guage the size of this tasting, remember that there’s another separate pavilion that housed wineries ordered alphabetically A – L. This is a HUGE tasting folks.

That’s it for the shaky video. Don’t be scared by the purple zombie teeth. That’s what happens between brushings when you’re tasting Zins. Graham and I will be putting together our list of highlights this week. Until then, head over to Just-Grapes and have a read of what Shea thought of the tasting.

UPDATE: Viddler seems to be having a few issues today. Their site has been down and all embedded videos may not be showing up. If you don’t see videos in the post, maybe come back later.