Ridge Road Winery - 2010 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay

To celebrate Father's Day today, we in the M household are enjoying a man's man's wine. Normally a beer guy, we found this Chardonnay while taste testing at Ridge Road Winery on Easter weekend this year, and J had to buy a bottle. I never say no to adding a nice vintage to the wine rack but I have to say this isn't my usual fare.

J: Perfect. It tastes like wood, in a good way, and a bit fruity. Not too dry, not too sweet. It went well with shrimp and steak.

M: This wine has a honey smell and manages to be light but full-flavoured at the same time. Almost the white equivalent to the 2010 Apothic Red we reviewed a while back, this Chardonnay is the thing of leather club chairs and cigars. That being said it might not be for everyone. It wasn't my first choice at our wine tasting back in April and only two of our party of four picked up a bottle of it. However, on second tasting I find I really dig the complex, slightly unusual flavours. Definitely a sipping wine and not what you might consider a general crowd pleaser, at $16.95 it's worth a taste. Or even a second chance.

Back on the barrel--Winexpert Australian Shiraz

Since having bebe O I have to admit wine just isn't the same. Until tonight that is. Tonight I'm sipping an Australian Shiraz that I bottled in one of those make your own wine places. I know what you're thinking, aren't those places for diy weddings and the ultra cheap? Well my dear reader, I am the ultra cheap in case you forgot and I swear the Winexpert Australian Shiraz is actually good. So good that after a long day of Mommy-ing I cracked a bottle open and rekindled my love for that sweet red nectar. I won't lie, I've been saving my 2012 Ridge Road Pinot Noir and a very fancy Argentinian red I got from a work supervisor until I got my vino groove back. Well consider it back, and that's all thanks to a Shiraz that came out to under $5 a bottle. A pretty full-bodied red, it isn't overwhelming or too alcohol-y which you might expect for a kit. It's on the dry side and good for sipping on its own or with popcorn - my favourite pairing.

Here's the link for this particular kit and look forward to more posts on the pros and cons of home and in-store wine making in the near future.

http://www.winexpert.com/products/premium/selection-international-series

Ironstone Obsession Symphony

I like to hear about wines that other people who claim not to be wine people like. These adventures often reveal that they are probably more "wine people" than they realize but may be turned off by flavours that are common in certain common varietals (I'm looking at you Chardonnay, Merlot, oaked wines, etc.). People start to think that all wines have to be dry, heavy, powerful, etc. and that is not the case at all! I believe there is a varietal for everyone, you just have to find out what they like. K's friend L was just such a person, but this is his favourite wine. He claims not to like most wines, but I think judging by this one, he just probably would prefer sweeter ones over dry, heavy, oaky wines. L's favourite wine is Ironstone Obession's Symphony wine. The winery is from California  and the bottle rings in at around $15.15. I would reccomend it for people who like their wines sweet and cold, like P. Enjoy!

L -  This is my favourite wine. I really like how sweet it is. It has a very strong flavour to it. It leaves a nice, sweet aftertaste in your mouth. There is a certain zing to it as well. I enjoy this kind of sweetness and can see how it smells like flowers. It would be very hard to match with foods but I would drink it on its own or with a fruity salad, like a spinach salad with fruits, nuts, and a cheese.

K - This wine is very sweet and syrupy with a bit of a fizzy taste.

A - This wine smells like a very sweet flowery syrup, maybe like elderberry syrup. It is sweet like the previously reviewed Black Tower but not as syrupy or peachy. It is a little bit tingly and more like a mango-type tropical fruit flavour. I really like this wine. It is a good wine for socializing. It is quite a sweet wine, so I worry that if one is not careful, it may lead to hangovers!

Cattail Creek Estates Winery, Gamay Noir, 2011, VQA

Winter is an annoying time. A is not in the mood for fun or summery wines because they make her bitter about this prolonged winter. But she also cannot survive on heavy reds alone. Enter the Cattail Creek Gamay Noir. This wine is atypical, in that it is ok to chill it. It is a lighter wine, both in colour and taste, and also is the right wine in taste and weight for light wine winter drinking. Not tropical enough to send A into a state of rage, but not heavy enough to emphasize the fact that winter is still here. At $15.95 it is on the edge of the "everyday" drinking budget, but is worth it for a unique taste. What did A think? Check it out!

A - As you can see in the picture, this is an incredibly light coloured red wine. When I was pouring it, it looked more like a rosé in colour. It has a light rose-coloured tint. It smells smoky and fruity, like raspberries, and has a bit of a vanilla-esque sweetness. It is also a very soft tasting wine. It tastes a bit like plums and rose petals (dusty, floral, and dry). It is definitely not an aggressive tasting wine, but it does have a bit of an alcohol aftertaste. I drank it with my turkey-for-two from the local butcher (a bacon-wrapped stuffed turkey breast from the local butcher). The meaty smokey-ness brought out the jammy sweetness of cherries and plums in this wine, and it cut the alcohol finish. I quite liked this wine with dinner. It is light but not delicate, so pairs well with heartier foods. It is also a bit woody, like a sweet cherry wood that is not overwhleming. While I liked this wine, it has a very distinct flavour that may not make it a crowd pleaser. The dry, slightly floral taste may be a turn off for those who like fruitier reds, but also those who like more chocolate-y or woody reds. The gamay is not always a popular grape, so serve this with a dinner, where its flavours would be better balanced and it would come across as more fruity, but not at a party where you are trying to please a lot of people. This was also good for sipping, both chilled and unchilled, and would make a good sangria base for all people.

Dreaming Tree, Everyday (white blend), California

It was another night in in Kingston, and though it isn't spring, it was time for a chilled white, dammit! B was baking lemon cupcakes with a bumbleberry filling and French chocolate icing, which is an impressive feat for somebody while drinking. B and C have a new kitchen, so we drank this blend called Everyday, from Dreaming Tree, a California winery. I had picked it up in a gift set at Christmas for 23.90$. Alas, the giftset is sold out, but I will review Dreaming Tree's red, which is still available, later on. A collaboration with Dave Matthews, the cork had cute song lyrics on it

Today was also a chance to try out B and C's housewarming gift from K, a fancy electronic wine opener. You put it on the cork, press the button (while holding the bottle) and it takes the cork out.

It worked pretty well. It took us three button presses to get the cork fully out. This wine tool would be handy for people with hand issues, like arthritis, who may find traditional corks hard to grip. It is quite fancy and may make a good gift for the wine lover in your life. But now on to the wine!

A - This wine is a very fruity smelling blend, like lemons and light coloured fruits. It is a very light tasting wine as well, that would be excellent with the dessert we are preparing tonight, or on its own. It is fruity, and tastes like lychees, pears, and white grape juice. It has no aftertaste or alcoholic flavour. Overall, this is a very pleasant wine. I would drink it again. It tastes like sunshine. It is also very light coloured in the glass and isn't thick or syrupy. A great blend!

B - This wine tastes cidery, and like white grapes as well. I would also drink this wine again, readily and in great quantity. I would drink it with grilled salmon or other similar grilled seafood

C- I don't know what to think, it is a bit dry but very light, without a lot of aftertaste. It was hard to pin down the flavour (maybe a bit of apple?) but it is definitely fruity. I would definitely drink it again, because it tastes good and not strong, but it is also a good price.

Konzelmann, Heritage 2010 (VQA)

The LCBO has closed one of their wine warehouses, and as a result, many of their vintages stores are having clearance sales. This wine came from one of those sales, reduced from $20.25 to $15.25, making it more within reach of the average grad student.  This is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Shiraz. As the bottle says, “Together they generate a unique myriad of flavours which are masterfully woven together to become more than the sum of their parts. Cabernet Sauvignon provides a structuring density, and heartiness. A charge of espresso and black pepper from the Shiraz is balanced seamlessly with the red berry fruit flavours of the Merlot.” My mom said that it was nice and drinkable, making it a good mix between a real red drinkers wine and a non-red wine drinkers one.

Dad- I can’t get over the legs on this wine, it’s been a long time since I have had a wine with as many legs as this one. Dry, full-bodied, and it has that smokiness to it. It tastes like cherries and I can’t taste what it is heavier on. It is heavier on the Shiraz I think and you don’t get much of a Merlot taste. It is very peppery, which is why I think it is more of a Shiraz blend. I really like the wine, but it is not a wine you would want to drink more than one or two glasses of because it is very full-bodied, though it would go well with a meal, like a good steak or a roast, like the one A’s Mom makes.

A – This wine smells like a coffee liquer. But it tastes, as my sister would say, like wine. This is a good thing. It is a very strong wine, with a cranberry raspberry start. It is quite dry, which you really get on the finish and its peppery after taste. Like imagine licking black pepper, and it leaving your tongue dry, but balanced with fruits. It is a pretty spicy wine, but is well-rounded. It is a very dark wine. It is a very strong wine, that would be best served with a good meal, or on a rainy night.

International wine-venture: United Stars, Alazanis Valley Semi-Sweet Red, Koncho Winery, City of Kvareli, Georgia

I've wanted to try wine from Georgia (the country) for a while. This is probably because for a long time, it had never occured to me that Georgia made wine. But it does! In fact, some claim it has been making wine since 7000 BC, which is a very long time indeed. It used to be the wine cellar of the Soviet Union, but then that ended, and between trade restrictions and war Russia stopped buying their wine (they had previously made up 80% of their export markett). This is of course quite obviously bad news for Georgia and their wine makers, but on the very-slightly good news side, it's forced them to up their quality and become competitive in a broader market (including Canada, which stocks up to 12 different Georgian wines). Their wine markets' profits have supposedly almost recovered,and the quality has apparently markedly improved.

And so, I decided to go on a wine-venture into untrod territories. It was hard to even find other reviews to suggest what I should expect. But when you wine-venture, you should never travel alone, and so I brought G and E along for the ride (with the promise that if they didn't like it, I would bring a well-reviewed Rose as well!). For a wine-venture, this turned out to be successful! Using my new rating system, even E drank it willingly. At $13.95 a bottle, it is a little pricier than some wines we've tried, but it was unique and very drinkable. It won over our non-red wine drinkers even! So next time you are feeling adventerous, keep Georgia on your mind!

A - This wine smells like a nice red wine (fruity and rich, not floral or alcohol-y). It tastes like a slightly less robust red, it is not forceful or grapey. It is fruity, like raspberries and strawberries, but isn't particularily woody or oaky. It is a quite sweet but very drinkable wine. It is also a very dark purple colour, but light-tasting for its colour. I would drink it again, though it is a lighter red. I was inclined to think it was more of a summer wine, but it stood up well to dinner (beef stew with biscuits), so it can act as a sipper or stand up to a meaty dinner (I guess this makes sense in hindsight).

E - This wine has no bite, like I have come to expect from red wines. I taste it more at the back of my tongue than the front of it. It is sweet and I would drink it.

G - This is a pleasant wine, it is nice and I am not ususally a huge fan of reds, but this one is nice. It has kind of a metallic aftertaste. It matched well with the stew as well, so was a good choice for dinner.

Hardy's Stamps of Australia, 2013 Riesling Gewurtztraminer

Winter is not a great time for budgets. It probably isn’t the best time of year to be spending lots of money on wine. That being said, A finished another big step in her really long project and wanted to celebrate, but this time on a budget. Hardy’s Stamps of Australia Riesling Gewürztraminer fits the bill. A generally likes the sweetness of them, and at $9.95, it is hard to be too disappointing. A always tells people that a grape you like at one price, will probably be just fine at a lower price, which was the case for this wine. A even convinced E to give it a try! What did we think? Find out now!

A- This wine smells very strongly like alcohol. Like grain or rubbing alcohol, not like fun fruity alcohol. But it doesn’t taste like alcohol, so that is a plus. Instead it tastes like not much at all in fact. It tastes a bit like apple juice, lychee juice, and water. It has a bit of a peach aftertaste. It is very, very light. This is the wine of a minute, with hardly any aftertaste at all. It isn’t unpleasant, and I may use it in the summer for a spritzer. For $9.95 this is a good wine for summer drinking on your porch. I would not pair it with food, since even pistachios overwhelmed this poor wine. Is this my favourite wine ever? No. Is it even my favourite Riesling Gewürztraminer? Also no. But is it a good, light fruity wine for the summer that isn’t too sharp or acidy? Yes. And that has to count for something! I would take this to a BBQ or a Baby Shower. It is light sipping wine, that would pair well with light finger foods, but is not thanksgiving dinner wine, or a wine you want to give to wine snobs.

E – It smells like champagne, really strongly of champagne. I think it tastes like apples. It is sweet, and I like sweeter white wines anyways. It has a little bit of a carbonated taste, though no bubbles, but it tingles going down. I would drink it if served it, it wasn’t bad tasting.

Rosehall Run Riesling

While the cat is away the mice will play, and so while I was out of town, P and B were kind enough to write a review for me. I wish I had been there because this wine sounds great and came from a local Prince Edward County winery. Overall, they found this wine to have a bit of a sparkle to it. They described it as “like biting in to a bright, fresh, green apple.” They also noted that it has nice balance for a Riesling, to the point it was almost a non-descript wine. While that may seem damning, they really liked it and both wrote they would drink it again.

P - This is a nice sweet wine that is great for sipping. It had a very fruity bouquet and an easy finish. It was great as a casual sipping wine.

B – This wine is really good, which is saying something because I really like ciders usually and am not such a big wine drinker. It is a crisp, light, and easy drinker that I would definitely take again!

Cattail Creek Estate Series Chardonnay Musque 2011, VQA Four Mile Creek

The night I reviewed this wine was my birthday, and on birthdays I drink special wines. My roommate K made me delicious mac and cheese with bacon and it was the perfect filling meal to precede a birthday party! We drank my mom's favourite wine, a 2011 Chardonnay Musque from Cattail Creek, a small batches vineyard on Niagara on the Lake. At $17.95 a bottle, this is a birthday wine, NOT an everyday wine, but that's ok, because the little bit of sparkle makes it feel special.

A -This wine is lemony, peachy, and sparkly all at once. It is a bit like the Fresca of wines, citrusy, not too sweet, and still sparkilling. It is dry but also sweet. It smells very fruity as well, but more like tropical fruits than the light fruits you get when you taste it. In fact, it smells like my body wash, which is a good thing. It tastes and smells heavily of vanilla.

K- This wine smells very fruity. It smells like white fruits, like peaches, white grapes, etc. It is not as fruity as it smells, though I still like the pear taste I get to start, I don't like the aftertaste. While it is above nail polish remover wine, I still wasn't feeling it. It has a slightly syrupy start, but finishes like burning (alcoholy, covering the whole tongue).

L- This wine is sparkly and sweet (quite heavily both of these things). It tastes like pears. It has a kind of acidy aftertaste though and is very heady. It tastes like it has more alcohol than normal wines. It has the exciting finish of cough medecine sweetness followed by the same fruity, alcoholly, finish.

Sandbanks Love, Cassis Apertivo, 2012

One of A's favourite people had a baby the other day. And babies are worthy of celebrating with wine. A was going to go for a theme, but the only wine with "Baby" in the name is Baby Duck, and you'd have to pay her to drink that (or buy the bottle at least!). So, since the baby is a girl, A went for pink because girls have been associated with pink for the last century. She even drank it from a pink glass! Sandbank's Wineries Love Apertivo seemed perfect for two reasons. 1) It is pink and has a suitable name and 2) it is a half-bottle, which she appreciates as a live alone wine drinker. Half-bottles mean you don't have to drink 6 glasses of wine yourself! This wine is actually a blend of white wine with Canadian Cassis syrup and is technically an apertif, not a wine. It claims to be best drank cold and on its own, so on the instructions of the bottle, A will "embrace the moment!"

A - This wine is a little bit thicker than I normally drink and is quite a lot sweeter. It is a bit syrupy and it really tastes pink, by which I mean sweet, fruity, light, and pleasant. At a 2 on the sugar scale, this wine is a nice compromise between ice wine and normal wine. If you don't like ice wine, this would be a nice dessert sipping wine for you because it is a bit more tart, like cranberries or currants, but still has a nice sweetness. Unlike most ice wines, I probably would buy this wine again. It is more like a thick rose. At $14.95 at the LCBO, it is a wine fit for a dear friend's first baby, and not an everyday drink (luckily, and this friend will appreciate this, I got it on sale from my local store for $10.95, which made it even sweeter!).

Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery, 2012 Baco Noir, VQA

Sadly, due to the whims of fate, my favourite winery is not making Baco Noir this year. In light of this sad news, I, A, have struck out to replace my favourite Baco with a good substitute. I turned to Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery's 2012 Baco Noir. Priced at $14.95, it is in the mid-range for Baco Noir's and it has received good reviews. Plus the guy at the liquor store recommended it, saying it was the best Baco in vintages. With all of these things in its favour, I decided to give it a try. First, I drank it on its own while I cooked dinner, then I drank it with the dinner I had made, a rich mushroom and beef stew served poutine style (over cheese curds and fries) on the advice of Canadian Living (found here: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/gravy_smothered_beef_and_mushrooms.php ) The poutine was good, but I think that the stew was delicious enough on its own, so in the future I would recommend it over mashed potatoes, so its flavour can stand alone (how I ate it the second day) . Enough of my thoughts on stew, you say! So on to the wine...

A - This wine was not the flavour explosion I was hoping for. It predominantly tastes like black pepper and strawberries, with only a hint of the campfire smokiness I like in my Bacos. It didn't exactly have the strong oomph I was hoping for. It was definitely not the cherry, strawberry preserves, and blueberries that the website promised me. Perhaps I was just bitter because I lack the "fireplace, your mate, and a quiet night in," that this wine's website claims it pairs best with. EYE ROLL! While this wine was not exactly what I was looking for, it was by no means a bad wine. I was just hoping for something a little less subtle.

WITH POUTINE: Eating this with a saltier food like poutine brought out the fruitiness and also cut a bit of the peppery-ness. I liked it better with this obscenely rich meal. It brought both to a good middle point. 

AN IMPORTANT ASIDE: I later served a wine-liking but non-snob friend this wine and she really enjoyed it. She isn't big on strong wines so liked that this was a little more subtle, and didn't have an overbearing smokiness. I think this wine might have been something my mom would like too, since she likes less heavy, more fruity reds. With that in mind and my general like for the wine, I would recommend serving this on its own to friends on a night in, or drinking it with a savoury rustic meal. Hot Hamburg anyone? I would drink this wine again, but it does not replace my favourite baco in my heart!

2010 Huff Estates Pinot Noir, VQA – aerated

This wine is a real treat. At $24.95 a bottle it is the kind of wine you drink from time to time, not every day. It is now sold out.  This is one of my Dad’s picks, drank with dill pickle popcorn, because my mom doesn’t like to drink red wine so for my dad any chance to share a red is a special occasion. For normal people, I would recommend it with a dinner, probably a heartier one, though it is nice and complex to drink on its own.

D – This wine is full bodied with a lot of legs, and tastes lightly oaked. There are a lot of flavours going on here. It is nice to drink by itself so you can taste all the flavours going on. It is a very light red, and is almost the colour of a rose. I taste blackberries and currents, darker red fruits, and the woodiness I mentioned earlier. I love this wine. I would eat this with cheeses and pork. The wine isn’t heavy enough for beef or something strongly flavoured like Italian. I might even consider this for a thanksgiving or Christmas wine with turkey.

M – My mom made a very bad face. I think that this wine is too red for her, so this is not a white wine drinkers red. She said it tasted dry and sour, so that’s a no go.

A – This wine has a very distinct flavour, that is quite different than other wines I have drank. It is woody and raisiny and a little bit dry. It tastes like eating a meal, because there are a lot of flavours going on at once. First it is like cherries and raisins, drier fruits. Then it gets dry and spicy. This wine would go well with a nice pork roast, maybe with apples or sage. OR something bacony. I would want to eat it with something fattier to bring out the flavours and balance the dryness. This might also go well with something with a creamy gravy, like a turkey or a chicken pot pie for the same reasons. The more I drank this wine, the more I liked and appreciated it. I would use this a gift for someone who I knew liked red wine. It would also be good for a fancy winter dinner. A win for our wine and popcorn night!