Monday 4 March 2013

2008 Chateau des Charms Pinot Noir, Estate Bottled

In every LCBO there is a magical section where there are things that they have ordered and can't sell or no longer want to carry, and so they put these wines on sale, usually at between 20 and 30 per cent off. This is not consistent from store to store, or even day to day, which makes it even more magical in some ways. At our store it is always around the outside edge of the store on one of the enders or rarely, usually after Christmas, on one of the bigger shelves towards the beer fridge. This section gives wine experimenters like myself a chance to get higher end wines (and trust me, it is never the $7.00 wines on sale) at a lower price point, if you are willing to take the chance. For example, this wine usually retails for $14.95, but I picked it up for $11.95, neither of which are bad prices, but I certainly like the second one a lot better. It is also a VQA wine, with the winery located on quite a large estate in Niagara on the Lake.

A - After a bit of a disappoining dinner I was looking for something good, and thankfully pulled this one off the shelf. This wine is quite a dry red, and has a distinctly oaky taste to it but a very sweet and juicy finish. This gives it a bit of a smokey taste, but smokey like a campfire, not like a cigar or cigarette. To me, it both tastes and smells a little alcoholy, but not in the same obnoxious way that some of the other wines we have tasted have. It has a bit of a tingly taste on the tongue, like it has a bit of fizz rather than a lot of sparkle.

K - This wine has an earthy smell, like a nice woodsy kind one that smells like a forest. It is a nice solid earthy red. As a non-dry wine drinker, I would still drink this. It is easy and sippable and really quite nice. There is actual red wine flavour here, so even though you can taste the alcohol to it, it isn't overwhelming. It tastes like a fall wine, like one you would take on a camping trip in the fall, but not camping in the summer.

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