Pelican Bay Wine Tasting

Last week I went to a wine tasting at the Dockside Restaurant on Granville Island. This is a twice a year event put on by the Coal Harbour Liquor Store. There was around 18 tables featuring passionate and knowledgeable wine merchants, winery reps, and a winemaker or two as well. Each table was pouring anywhere from 2-8 wines including reds, whites, bubbly and some delicious sweet wines as well. You can easily go through 60+ wines depending on your pace, amount of spitting and seasoning of your liver.

These are always great events if you don't mind getting tipsy on a weekday. I try to get there right at 5pm as they open to get through some tables before it gets crowded. This allows me to geek out and talk a little deeper about the wines. I am not good company at these events as I usually geek out more than my group of friends and tend to get separated as I zone out in the world of wine. There are always great appy's going around from the Dockside restaurant, and some lovely meat and cheese trays. These are both essential to the evening if you plan on making it around the entire room before 8pm. :) 

Here are some of the notable wines from the tasting:

Elephant Island Orchard Wines - BC
                       Crab Apple sweet wine 2014 - $16.99
                        - Delicious but not too tart; flavours of candied apples dance in your mouth or on top of                              ice cream.


       

       Stellaport - Solera aged Port-style wine - $24.99
                          - Made from cherries with tasty notes  butterscotch, chocolate, and a load of                                           juicy cherries. By using a Solera system this port style wine would be a                                                   combination of all the vintages from 2001-2011. A real delicious surprise that                                           would be great over the holidays.






Riverlore Wines - Marlborough New Zealand
                      Pinot Noir - 2014 - $18.99
                                     - Great price point Pinot with cranberry, raspberry, and some smokey oak. This is a                                               second tier wine of the below Wairau River. Really good value in their Pinot Noir,                                                 Pinot Gris, and Sauv Blanc











Wairau RiverWines - Marlborough New Zealand
                     Pinot Gris - 2014 - $20
                                     - Putting Pinot Gris on the map for NZ; done in an Alsace style with backed pears and                                            apples with some vanilla creaminess from some lees aging. Great attention to detail.





 Hainle Vineyards Estates Winery - BC
                     Grand Reserve - 2013 - $21.90
                                     - One of my favourite wineries in the Okanagan with the winemaker usually in                                                          attendance. This is a blend of Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Merlot, and Zweigelt. Has notes                                          of raspberry, a bit of bramble berry, and a nice earthiness to it.







Thornhaven Estates - BC
                      Brooklyns Blend - 2014 - $17
                                       - A surprising good blend of Sauv Blanc and Chardonnay with some nice notes of                                                  grapefruit, green apple and lime.












Volver - Single Vineyard - La Mancha Spain
                        Tempranillo - 2011
                                       - 100%Tempranillo with nice cherry, red berry notes, as well as hints of mint and dried                                             herbs. Well balanced with a nice juicy finish.






Les Septentrionales - Northern Rhone France
                       Cornas AOC- 2007 - $90
                                      - 100% Syrah with delicious smokey black fruit with a lovely bold earthiness to it, and a                                          finish that lingers for a long time. I definitely went back to this table a couple                                          of  times.






Emmolo - Napa Valley California
                      Sauvignon Blanc - 2013 - $30
                                     - Reminiscent of a Sancerre from France light with nice citrus and pear notes with a nice                                               minerality and crisp acidity. A big contrast from your usual Napa whites like their signature                                           Chardonnays

Beaujolais Nouveau

It is that time of year again, and I am not talking about all the ski hills opening early. There is another reason to get out of bed tomorrow; tonight at midnight Beaujolais Nouveau will be released to wine consumers around the world!

Beaujolais is a French wine made with 100% Gamay Noir. Gamay is a light wine with light tannin's and a fresh fruity palate giving flavours of cherry and strawberry. Beaujolais Nouveau is made for immediate consumption, only fermented for a few weeks after harvest then quickly released. Almost 50% of the harvest will get released this way giving the winery a nice quick source of income.

Beaujolais Nouveau, is fermented using carbonic maceration. The grapes are not crushed but rather left in their bunches. The tanks are filled with carbon dioxide, and since there is no oxygen the grapes are forced to convert the glucose into alcohol. The grapes will then burst, causing the juice to separate from their skins and yeast will finish the fermentation. There will be vintage variations year to year and these can be a good indicator of the quality of the harvest.

Carbonic maceration will make fresh wines with light tannin, a soft mouth feel, and lots of fruit like cherry, banana, grape, and bubblegum. Beaujolais Nouveau will not get better with age and are sometimes served slightly chilled. These can be a great wine to pair with your Thanksgiving dinner or Sunday brunch. So every third Thursday of November go seek out a Beaujolais Nouveau and pretend you're a wine geek for a day. Enjoy a cheap light wine, but don't wait too long because they will probably be gone within a couple of weeks.

Wine Tasting - Oak vs. Unoaked

Oak vs. No Oak

Two weekends ago I held a tasting for friends where we compared oaked against unoaked wines. My wife wanted to get a better understanding of being able to distinguish oaked flavours in wine. I bought 4 whites, all Chardonnay; and 4 reds, 2 Pinot Noir's and 2 fuller bodied reds. We tasted them 2 at a time, one oaked and one unoaked and was able to taste back and forth to note differences. Everyone had different favorites with no true winner on the night. My aim was to stay around $20/bottle so that if someone enjoyed a certain bottle they wouldn't have to splurge when buying one.

Prices listed are before tax in BC.

Whites:

1st Pairing:

La Chablisienne, Chablis La Sereine 2012

A pure Chablis with a lemon zest crisp acidity, a slight herbal note and some wet stone minerality that you will see in Chablis. This is the purest form of cold climate Chardonnay that sees no oak. They are known as austere with varying mineral notes that speak of their individual soils. Chablis is a french AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlée) that lies in the most northern end of Burgundy. Some Premier or Grand Cru Chablis may see some oak, but I can't afford the nectar from those bottles.
$29.49 - BC Liquor
$28.49 - Everything Wine



Toasted Head - Barrel Aged Chardonnay 2013
Wine two in the first pairing was a heavily oaked Chardonnay from Toasted Head. Their name even implies it is going to be oaky. "Toasted Head" refers to the top and bottom of the barrel being toasted (charred). Pretty much all barrels have some level of 'toast' to them from toasting the staves of the barrel in a range from light to heavy. This wine had aromas of banana, pineapple, some peach, and butterscotch-caramelized custard flavours. Definitely lots of oak in this wine with enough acidity to almost balance it. It had a big nose juicy flavours but a pretty sort finish.
$15.79 - BC Liquor

2nd Pairing:

The next white pairing I went with are two from the same Producer, Kim Crawford from New Zealand. We started with 2012 Unoaked Chardonnay from vineyards in Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand.This is a medium to full bodied wine full of ripe tropical fruits like pineapple and melon, with some nectarine, pear and butterscotch rounding out the palate. Much riper and richer in your mouth with riper fruits then our earlier non-oaked wine, the refined crisp Chablis. You wouldn't age this wine but you might be able to get 5 years out of his oaked brother below.
$18.99 - BC Liquor

Pairing from the same producer is a treat and Kim Crawford offers a few of these single parcels series. Their oaked Chardonnay hails from the best parcels of their Hawke's Bay vineyard. This wine is wild fermented; meaning they don't add any predictable wine yeasts to the ferment and allow the natural yeast in the air to ferment the wine. It was aged in 25% new French oak to further enrich the complexity. The nose had apple pie, with peaches and nuts. The palate is rich and smooth with a roasted peach nutty minerality and a length that the unoaked version could't compete with. Both nice wines, but for different occasions or foods.
$23.99 - BC Liquor

Reds

3rd Pairing:

To start the reds we tasted two Pinots from Chile. Pinot like Chardonnay have a real affinity to oak, but can sometimes be overbearing. The first Pinot was Terrapura Pinot Noir 2014 from the Aconcagua Valley. Medium Ruby in colour and had aromas of blueberries and cherries with a hint of earthiness and spice. It was aged in stainless steel and all the grapes came from a single vineyard which is unusual at this price point. There are no distinct signs of oak, just a nice juicy fruit forward Pinot that offers a delicious easy drinking wine with nice subtle complexities. 

$17.99 - Everything Wine

The next Pinot was the Block #21 Pinot Noir Cono Sur. The is another single vineyard Pinot grown 15km from the coast. It spent 11 months in French oak, giving it a deeper, richer colour than the unoaked wine. It has aromas of ripe strawberries and dark cherries. With distinct oak aromas of leather, vanilla, and a hint of toasted cedar. This wine definitely had a bit more complexity to it and a much longer length to the finish. The crowd was split on their favourite of these 2 wines; to me both were good expressions of value Pinot from Chile with the Cono Sur coming out ahead for me due to it's complexity.
$17.49 - BC Liquor
$18.49 - Everything Wine

4th Pairing:

The next set of reds we tasted were full bodied to compliment the light to medium bodied Pinots. The unoaked wine came from the Alentejo region of Portugal, Atlantico - Alentejano, and was a blend made with traditional Portuguese grapes Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Trincadeira. These grapes are also used to make the famous fortified wine Port; so to get these as a big unoaked dry wine is a nice treat. It has aromas of wild cherry and bramble fruit, with a little bit of dried herbs and spice. Try it chilled to refresh yourself when you get home; because it's Monday and it's already been one of those weeks.
$17.99 - Everything Wine

Next up was The Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon 2013. This is from the Clarksberg AVA, California, and has 12% Merlot it to balance the wine and give it a smoother finish. It was aged 14 months in 80% French Oak and 20% American Oak barrels. 60% of the barrels were new and the rest were seasoned. Giving this wine lot's of oak on the forefront with it's smoke and savory toasted cedar. Followed by strawberry jam, juicy maraschino cherries, toffee and a nice nook of nuttiness on the palate. Nice nuances for a ripe Cali Cab Sauv, but it definitely had that distinct smokey nature to it I was looking for to show the oak influence.
$21.99 - Everything Wine



We had a lot of fun tasting and comparing these wines. If anybody wants more info about these wines or oak vs. unoaked fell free to send me an email, or leave a comment.

The Flavours of Oak:

French Oak                   = Toast, Vanilla, Nutty
American Oak              = Sweet Vanilla, Coconut
Other Oak flavour        = Smoke, Cigar box, Charred wood, Resinous


Thanks for reading, and happy sipping!

Wine Ageing and Storage

I wanted to do a quick refresher on wine storage and ageing wines. A lot of people believe that all wines will better with age. Most people are wrong; wines are like people, some age gracefully but most whither away like old fruit pinning for their youthful days.


AGEING WINE:

90% of wine in the world is made to be consumed in the first few years after it is released. Only the finest wine, some fortified wine or wine from vines with certain DNA, will benefit from ageing. A wine needs to have a strong backbone to be able to age and by that I mean  good acidity, tannin, and fruit complexity. If a wine isn't that complex at 1-3 years old it isn't going to get more complex with age. If the wine is mainly fruity, with little acidity or tannin it most certainly won't age. Whites tend to not age as well as reds, but there are still great examples of whites that will age for decades. Wines like German Rieslings, and oaked Chardonnay's like a nice Premier or Grand Cru Burgundy.

As a wine ages the taste will change from the fresh fruity flavours, to oxidative flavours like toffee, coffee, caramel, toast, vanilla; or to more savory aromas like mushrooms, earth, and in those German Rieslings their characteristic petrol aromas. Yes, petrol/gas will be present in high end and aged German Rieslings, or other Rieslings made in that style.

All wines have a time where there past their prime, maybe dull and a bit lifeless. Lost are all the pleasant aromas you would be hoping for, so don't wait too long to drink your wine. Most premium wines have a 'drinking window' meaning when they may be mature, most complex, and the true expression of the winemakers efforts.


STORAGE:

The key to good wine storage is consistency in temperature and humidity. This means the kitchen counter or the fancy wine bottle holder in the window are bad places to put wine you plan on aging. If you plan to store wine longer than a few months you should take some precautions to ensure your investment. This could even be the back of your closet. You don't need a dedicated wine fridge until the wine you're storing far exceeds the cost of the fridge. I currently have the one seen below that holds 28-36 bottles depending on bottle size. If you want to store long term your wine needs to be away from daylight because UV can damage the wine. It also needs to be at a constant temperature with constant humidity to avoid the chance of spoilage. If your collection grows bigger then your space you can find professional wine storage services. These range from private liquor store storage for preferred customers right up to self-serve U-store style temp controlled garage units.


Temperature has a large impact. The warmer the temperature the faster it will mature, but the slower it matures the more complex it may turn out to be. Ideally somewhere between 10-15C if you have a dedicated fridge or cellar. If the wine has a cork then you will want to lay the bottles on their sides so the cork remains moist.

The other issue with wine storage is a mental one, .....can you forget about this amazing wine for a week, month, 1 year, 5 years, a decade?

Some Bordeaux and Ports can age 80-100 years and still be quite pleasant to consume, but it's not in my plans to buy wine for my future kids to consume. I will buy a bottle for their birth vintage for them to enjoy at some point after drinking age, and with their Dad I hope :)

(no rights to pictures; not for commercial purposes)