An Amazing Wine Tasting Evening with Friends

A group of friends in the midst of an amazing wine tasting.

WSET is not just for studying....

As I have alluded to before, people make great connections and friendships while doing the WSET course. We were all in it together, trying our best to pass the course, feeling the pressure of learning such a vast amount of information and feeling the pleasure of tasting wine together. 

But it finished in December!

Happily, the group that I have tasted with before - the friends that I have tasted with before - are continuing to get together. The first time, since our test, was a couple weeks ago when I was in France. 

The next time was just last Thursday.

Andrew was our host. He has taken both his WSET 3 and a comparable level of his CMS - Court of Master Sommeliers. He works at a restaurant but also works at a local independent liquor store and, therefore, can get a great deal on great wines!

Verity and her partner, Joey, were also in attendance. I took my WSET 3 with Verity - in fact, she related the story of our first class together - we had a champagne and some minor bubbles like Prosecco in a blind tasting. Both of us proudly announced that the Prosecco was the great wine, much to our chagrin! We both learned an awful lot more about wine since that first class. Verity also completed a comparable level of her CMS.

When I took my WSET, Sarah sat beside me every class - she was my WSET Buddy! It was great to see her at the tasting and reconnect with her once again.

A new person (for me), Steph, was working on the same level of CMS that Verity and Andrew had achieved. She is an actual Sommelier at a famous Vancouver restaurant! 

Finally, my buddy, Stewart, whom I have known since high school (when we used to drank a gallon bottle of Calona Medium White) came along as well.  Although he has not completed a formal wine course, Stew is well versed in the wine world (we've both come a very long way).

After everyone arrived, Andrew welcomed us with a glass of 2016 Crescent Hill Glennallyn Private Reserve Gewürztraminer from the Okanagan. As is common with this varietal, it was very aromatic and was a tasty, light way to start off our night. 

Andrew always does such a good job!

Our next wines were blind tastings. We had three whites and three reds.

Our first white was described by Steph, who spoke with such confidence that I was drawn in, hook. line and sinker, to what she thought the wines were. We tasted, and swirled, and spat. 

It was a Zarate Rias Baxas Albarino from Spain. It was not a strong wine and was not as full bodied as I thought it would be. 

Yellow, or lemon, in colour, this wine had aromas of lemon, apple, and had a minerality. These aromas were fresh, tart and ripe. On the palate, there were the same flavours - fresh or ripe apples, wet stone,  as well as medium plus acidity, medium length and medium complexity. There was also some oak on this wine.

As for all of the wines that we tasted, we all tried to come up with both the varietal and the place. Most people though this was a Chardonnay although some thought it was a Pinot Gris or something Italian. But we were all wrong. Albarino was just not on our radar! Overall, a Good wine.

Our next wine was another white and, this time, I nailed it. For me, petrol is an unmistakable aroma - and that means Riesling. Interestingly, unlike many of the petrol smelling Rieslings I have had in the past, this one was bone dry. This 2014  Howard Park Porongurup Riesling from Australia had additional aromas of rubber. pear, peach,. apple and a minerality. A complex nose with pronounced aromas.

On the palate, it was bone dry, as I said, with tastes of apple. It did not have the same mineral taste and was medium plus in alcohol and medium plus in acidity. This was a great dry Riesling - and I stated that to the group. Before the reveal I had also written down that I thought it was from Australia but hesitated to share that information. A Very Good to Outstanding wine.

Our final white was a real shocker. Verity described it as a 'giant in a sleeping bag' which means that it did not have a very pronounced aroma but when you got your nose close enough, there was an explosion of complex aromas. On the nose - and on the palate - were aromas like cloves, wood, popcorn, butter and vanilla. In fact, it smelled a little like a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly! It had medium acid, medium body and a very complex flavour.

Still, we didn't think it was all that fancy. We narrowed it down to Chardonnay but thought it was from California. You know, a big, oaky Chardonnay with lots of flavour.

Nope.

It was a Pouilly Fuiissé from the Maconnais region of Burgundy.  This 2014  Chateau Fuissé Le Clos Monopolé was not what we expected! It was probably the most expensive wine of the night, worth over $100. However, none of us found the elegance or refinement that we would expect from this kind of wine, although there was great complexity. I would rate this as Good to Very Good.

On to the reds!

Our first red of the night was a difficult one. Pale ruby in colour, it had aromas of mint and earth and a bit of an underbrush aroma. There were red fruits like cherry and raspberry as well as dried cranberry. On the palate, there were tastes of the same with the addition of some sort of leaf - like tomato leaf. It had medium plus acidity, medium minus tannins, and light bodied.

This Sangiovese wine was a 2015 Noelia Ricci Godenza Superiore from the Romagna area of Italy. It stumped us all. I thought it might be a cru Beaujolais although I couldn't detect the hallmarks of carbonic fermentation. There were some murmurings that it might be from Italy but no one had a strong feeling about that. Pinot Noir was another guess made by many of the group. It was certainly a surprise when the reveal came. This was a Very Good wine.

There next wine was probably my favourite. The 2015 Cannonball Merlot from Sonoma County had aromas of pepper, smoke, dark fruit such as plum and black berry,  jam, cedar and mushrooms. This wine had a pronounced intensity on its rather complex nose. On the palate was the same black, jammy fruits as well as some earthiness with medium acidity, medium plus tannins, and high alcohol. This wine had balance, complexity, length and intensity and I would rate this wine as Outstanding.  I first thought it was a Syrah, possibly from the Northern Rhone. My second guess was Merlot from California.

The final red for the night was another tricky one. The Chateau de Cherrière Bourgogne Pinot Noir was a very structured wine with medium plus acid and medium plus tannins, something I did not expect with a Pinot Noir. There were tastes and aromas of cedar, tobacco, farmyard, leather, mushroom, black fruit and black cherry. This was a real stumper as it had that Pinot Noir taste but such strong structure! I would rate this as Very Good.

One of the members of our group had something to celebrate so Andrew brought out a celebratory champagne style wine. The celebrant, Verity, then used a bread knife to sabre the wine! If you have a nice cold bottle of champagne (or other bubbly), you can use any kind of knife to open it. You simply slide the knife from the middle of the bottle up the seam of the bottle and, voila! The cork and some of the bottle will fly off the top!

Verity sabred a 1996 Summerhill Cipes Traditional Cuvée sparkling wine form the Okanagan ($80). I didn't do a formal tasting note at this point (we had finished the bottle leftovers at this point and were refraining from spitting or dumping) but I do recall that this was more than just a bready, yeasty tasting champagne. It had a beautiful golden colour. a nice fizz, and an exquisite taste that included a bit of a sherry.

A wonderful celebration to finish off a wonderful wine tasting evening!

Great wines under $20 - Italy, Spain and France

This week's painting - a vineyard - from a photo on my iPad...

Each week, my friend, Keith, and I go out somewhere into nature and we paint - it's called plein air painting.

Lately, we've been painting in Keith's basement - when it's below freezing, it's just too darned cold to paint outside!

After we paint, we taste a couple of wines while we eat lunch. Thanks to my Coravin, we only have a small sample of wine while the rest of the bottle stays fresh.

The past few weeks have been really quite good for wine tasting so I thought I'd briefly share the wines that we've tried. In most cases, the wines are under $20.

When I backpacked in Europe at the tender age of 24, I recall taking a ferry from Brindisi, Italy, to Greece. I remember it being rather chaotic getting on and off the ferry and having to share a cabin with a couple of strangers as well as my friend. Little did I know that they make a very nice wine there - the 2015  Corte Ottone Brindisi Riserva ($16.99). 

Riserva, happily, means something in Italy - it is a better wine that has to meet certain minimum requirements in ageing (unlike most countries where it has no legal definition). In this case, it means that it has been aged a minimum of two years. Brindisi is in the Puglia region of Italy so it should be no surprise that this wine is mostly Negroamaro (with some Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera). There were tastes of dark fruit like black cherry, black plum, and maybe a hint of dark fruit with vanilla and spice on the nose.Tannins were medium with medium acidity and a medium finish. I would definitely suggest this one with food - especially Italian - anything from pasta to pizza. It was also quite drinkable all by itself. Rated Very Good.  

Staying in Puglia, there is the Codici Masserie Fiano ($14.99) which was a fresh and floral wine, with aromas and tastes of peach, pear and apple. There was also a minerality - like a stone taste - that was a bit unusual. The Fiano grape is usually found a bit farther north, in Campagnia, so I'm not certain if this is the typical taste for Fiano. High in acidity, this would be a great food wine. Interestingly, when I poured this wine, I accidentally poured it again for our second wine. By this time, the wine had opened up considerably and the floral nature and complex flavours were much more apparent - we initially thought it was a different wine! Rated Very Good.

The actual second wine we tried that day was another Italian, a 2016 Bolla Soave Classico. Soave is the name of a wine made in Veneto where wine is made from mostly the Garganega grape. Classico means that this wine is made in the original area of the DOC (designated wine area - sort of like VQA) and is the better wine of the area. 

This wine was an absolute steal at $12.99. It has lots of wonderful fruity aromas and tastes including pear, apple, honey, lemon and pear. It also had medium acidity that would help it be a wonderful food pairing wine. I wouldn't count this out as a sipper, though, as it had a nice, round flavour that would be excellent for slurping on the patio - or maybe in the kitchen, considering the weather right now. I would rate this one as Good to Very Good - and suggest that it would be a good one to stock up on. 

Yesterday's tasting was one where I thought it would be interesting to try two wines that were made from the same grape but from different countries. This can be challenging as we try to limit our purchases to under $20 a.bottle and we also need a wine with a cork so we can Coravin the wine. The grape I decided on was Grenache (or Garnacha) - particularly became Keith had stated that he really didn't like Southern Rhone wines because they were a bit dull and boring. He was a bit surprised by our tasing!

From the Rioja region of Spain, we tried a2016  La Maldita Garnacha ($18.99). This wine tasted of dark cherries, black plums, and had an earthiness and spiciness that was good. It had high acidity, a medium finish, and some smokey notes as well. This wine was a food friendly wine but was bit rustic in its spiciness - almost a bit too strong - but it would go well with a strongly flavoured dish. I would rate this wine as Good. 

The second Grenache wine we tried wasn't actually just Grenache. It was a blend of Grenache and Syrah and was a 2015 Boutinot Les Coteaux Côtes du Rhône Villages ($19.99). This wine had all of the wonderful black fruiit flavours of the the Garnacha - black cherry, black plum - but also had a roundness and sophistication that the Syrah brought to it. There were medium tannins along with medium plus acidity and additional flavours like vanilla and spice - but not too much spice. The flavours were much more integrated with this wine. This wine would be an excellent food wine as it would go with a fairly wide range of food - from pork chops to lamb to steak to duck. It is also very nice to drink on its own. I reviewed the 2013 vintage of this wine a couple years ago and was a bit lukewarm on the rating - the 2015 vintage, however, is much better - even Vivino agrees with me, giving its best rating for the 2015 vintage.  A great deal for a wine that is almost as good as some more expensive Chateau Neuf des Papes wines, I would rate this wine as Very Good to Excellent. Fill your boots!

Cheers.

A Wine Podcast, A Wine Superstore, and a Couple of Wines

I am very fortunate that my commute to work is an enjoyable fifteen minute walk. While on that walk, I listen to a number of different podcasts ranging from fiction stories (Escape Pod), Star Trek Stories (Star Trek Outpost), a podcast about advertising (Under the Influence), travel (Travel with Rick Steves), and horror (Faculty of Horror).

I also listen to numerous podcasts on, you guessed it, wine.

One of the wine podcasts I regularly listen to is Wine For Normal People. Way back when I was writing this post (in August of last year, for goodness sakes!), I went on about how the host of the podcast, Elizabeth Schneider, can be a bit annoying at times. Well, since that time I have listened to dozens of her podcasts and I have had to reevaluate. Her podcast is extremely informative and covers a diverse range of topics - sometimes an episode deals with a particular winery in a particular area while other times there will be a great overview of a certain varietal or a particular region.

I have to admit that, about halfway through each podcast, she will do a plug for a product which lasts a few minutes but. luckily, I can just click the 15 seconds skip button on my iPhone and I can get right back to the podcast.

The podcast is certainly more accessible and entertaining than some of the more highbrow ones that I attempt to listen to (with sometimes limited success) so I think it is a great way to spend 30 minutes to learn something new about wine. There are over two hundred episodes - if you are starting out, I would look for the episodes dealing with particular grapes.

On to the superstore.....

Back when I did this post, I wrote about how Everything Wine was a great place to browse just wine. They don't carry anything else, just wine.

The only problem was that they were a bit of a drive away (in West Vancouver).

Well, just two weeks ago, an Everything Wine opened up in Langley (across the river from me) and I checked it out yesterday.

It really is a superstore for wine - it kind of looks like a Costco store for wine. The main part of the store is quite industrial looking - and my wife complained that it was not as cozy as the government liquor stores - but there are many, many different types of wine.

There is also a vintage cellar area that is quite large and has a good selection of $50 and up wines. Taking my WSET course has really helped in that I can recognize the names of many of these wines and producers. Unfortunately, I still can't afford most of them!

I bought a dozen wines ranging from a cheap California wine for $13  to a fancy French wine that was $45.  There was a volume discount which saved me between 65 cents to 5 bucks on each bottle. I'm not sure how the discounts work as a $23 bottle had a $5 discount, a $24 bottle only $1.22, and the $45 bottle only $2.27!

Still, I think it is fantastic to have another place to browse wine. There are some wines which I suspect aren't available in the government store. But I also want to make sure that I visit the smaller, boutique stores to see what they have to offer.

Onto the wines.

The first was a Spanish Garcia Carrion Pata Negra Rioja ($20 from the government liquor store). This particular wine was made from Tempranillo and two grapes I hadn't heard of before, Graciano (gives structure and aging potential) and Mazuelo (actually, Spanish for Carignan which is a blending wine). It was a nice dark wine with red fruit on the nose and both red and black fruit on the palate with some vanilla flavour - it is a Crianza wine so was aged in oak for at least two years. The average price on Vivino was $8 so I'm not sure why we're paying so much up here in BC! It was a good Rioja - nothing outstanding but pleasant to drink.

Next is Priocca Piacera (can't find a website) from Italy - a last minute grab at Everything Wine. At only $14 on sale, I thought it would be a good match for some wild mushroom ravioli in a tomato sauce. After all, piacere is Italian for like. It was a bit hard to smell on the nose so I was hopeful that this was a really complex wine..... but no. It was a disappointing bulk wine that was rather characterless - except for a mild astringency that was a bit unpleasant. The tomato sauce did manage to smooth out the wine a bit but I would definitely not buy this one again.

Finally, another wine form Everything Wine - and this was the cheapest of the dozen I bought there - a 2015 Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from California ($12.99). Surprisingly,  (especially after the Piacera wine) this wine had a rather enjoyable black fruit aroma. On the palate, the wine was a bit  jammy but was bold and had a rich vanilla taste. It was good wine for the price and I would buy it again - a great burger or meatloaf wine! I only had a glass last night and when I had another glass tonight, it was still very drinkable.

I am looking forward to trying the other 10 wines from Everything Wine! Good times...

Chianti Classico Cries out for Pasta!

Since things have settled down in my life (i.e., my daughter has had her wedding), it's time to get back to looking at wine!

Today, I discovered a store that has been on my radar for the last little while - Everything Wine.

In the past, when I've seen their ads, it has seemed that most of the product is pretty inexpensive and, I assumed, a lot of cheap-o jug wine. Granted, there were a few wines that were a little more expensive but I had, in my mind, decided that this was a No Frills version of a liquor store.

Then I cam across an ad yesterday in the newspaper where Everything Wine advertised their latest Bordeaux wines. I was intrigued.

After my wife and I stopped off at Bosa Foods for some pasta and a new, fancy decanter, we made our way to Everything Wine in North Vancouver. I entered the door and was very impressed! They have a large assortment of wines ranging from the cheap jug wines all the way to fancy vintage wines.  I did manage to pick up a couple of bottles of Bordeaux wines but will blog about those later.

Previously, while at Bosa, we bought some fresh pasta and needed something to go with it. I found, in the rather large Italian section of Everything Wine, a Cafaggio 2013 Single Estate Chianti Classico for a mere $26. Single estate means that the wine was made with grapes from only the winery and  bottled on the estate. Chianti wines, by the way, are made in the Chianti region with Sangiovese grapes. Chianti Classico wines are from a smaller region within Chianti where the wines are usually better quality then regular Chianti wines.

Back at home, I poured the wine into the decanter. We had bought the decanter at Bosa and it was a Trudeau Ova Carafe - very nice design and a good price - $29. After about 5 minutes, I decided that we needed to at least have a taste so I poured a couple of small glasses.

The colour was ruby and clear. There was red fruit on the nose including cherry and raspberry. When I tasted it, there were some tannins as well as black currant, cassis and definitely some cherries. Unfortunately, it tasted a bit thin - almost a bit watery - which was initially a disappointment.

Then, I remembered - in places like France and Italy, you are meant to drink the wine with food. Maybe some food would help this wine? I had a couple of olives (our fancy appetizer) and took a sip. What a difference! The wine complimented the olives perfectly.

After another half hour, we tried the pasta (mushroom ravioli with a tomato, basil and pancetta sauce) and, again, the wine was a glorious pairing with the food! The thinness or wateriness was now a refreshing accompaniment to the pasta and the light tannins paired well with the tomatoes in the sauce.

The decanter made a difference, too. It tasted even better after a half hour!

After trying the pasta with food, I would rate it like this:
Balance - it was actually beautifully balanced when served with food
Length - it was a tasty wine but the taste did not linger very long
Intensity - not that intense
Complexity - there were some great flavours and, the way it meshed with the food, was definitely complex.
Expressive - I think this is how Chianti Classico is meant to be drunk - with a tasty bowl of pasta!

Overall, a good to very good wine - Cin Cin!

Now that's Italian! Italian wines from WSET Class #6

Tuesday night's class marked the two thirds mark in our course of nine classes. It seems like time is accelerating - both at my job and at the WSET course!

Ah, Italy! It just seems last week (not two years ago) that my wife and I were spending time in Rome, walking the streets, sampling the food, admiring the amazing variety of ancient wonders, and drinking the wine.

You can have at least some of that experience here - you can cook yourself a wonderful meal, watch a great Italian movie, and sip a Pinot Grigio or a Nebbiolo as you recapture your great memories.

Cin cin!

Tonight's class focussed on a variety of wines but the first half looks at Italian wines.

We started with the whites. Italian whites are, for the most part, pale lemon in colour and tasting of green fruit. There are not a lot of differences between the different white varietals but that made it only more interesting as we proceeded to blind taste two different Italian whites and a Spanish one.

First things first, though - I discovered that Italy has over 1000 indigenous grape varietals. In Soave the grape is Garganega and in Gavi it is Cortese. Trebbiano is the most widely planted grape in Italy but you don't often see it on its own. There is also Verdicchio from Castello di Jesi.

Our first three wines were white wines - one was a Pinot Grigio (lighter than the French interpretation of the grape called Pinot Gris), one was a Soave (Garganega grape) and one was a Spanish grape called Albarino which is the signature white grape of Spain.

It was a pretty good evening for our group - and even for me! We were pretty much bang on with our assessments of the wine - or at least, that's how I remember it! The first wine was a 2015 Tolloy Pinot Grigio which was - well  - pale lemon in colour. It had a medium minus intensity nose and smelled of underripe peach and pear. On the palate, it was dry with high acidity and a medium minus body. I tasted the same fruit with a bit of grapefruit and lemon. It had a medium minus finish, was from the Alto Adige area (famous for Pinot Grigio) and cost a mere $20. It was rated Good.

 

Next was a better wine.Pale lemon in colour, it had medium intensity on the nose, lemon, grapefruit and apricot on the nose with a definite floral aroma. On the palate, there were the tastes of citrus, grapefruit and lemon and it had a dry taste (drier than the Pinot Grigio) with high acidity, light body and a medium plus finish. It was balanced, intense, complex and expressive and therefore earned a rating of Very Good. It was a 2015 Pieropan from Soave (made with Gargenega grapes)  priced at $29. 

 

The final white of the evening was a Pazo Senoran wine made with the Albarino grape which is the signature white grape of Spain! It was (surprise) pale lemon in colour and had medium intensity on the nose. There were aromas of ripe apple and pear, stone fruit and nectarine. On the palate, it was dry with medium acidity. medium body, and flavours of peach, white pepper, melon, and grapefruit. It had a medium finish, was rated Very Good, and this fabulous wine costs $37 

Switching to reds, we looked at a  famous Italian area. The first was a Chianti (made from Sangiovese grapes) from Castello di Bossi. It was pale garnet in colour and had a medium plus intensity on the nose with aromas of cranberry, cherry, violets, tea, and spices. There were similar flavours on the palate including red fruit such as plum, and high acidity, medium plus body, and medium plus tannins. The finish was medium and the overall rating of this $33 wine was Very Good. It was a pretty nice wine but paled compared to the next one.

This was a 2010 Uccelliera Brunello (di Montalcino), also made from Sangiovese grapes, and made south of Tuscany.  This was also medium garnet and was also clear. It was medium intensity on the nose and was very complex on the nose - red currant, raspberry, red cherry, plum, fig, cloves, spice and smokiness were all apparent. The palate also had plum, back currant, leather and tobacco. This dry wine was high in tannins, high acidity, full body with a fantastic long finish. I would rate this $100 wine as Outstanding. And a great way to finish off our wines of Italy!