Guest Review - Porcupine Ridge Syrah 2012

AND NOW FOR THE TREAT! A guest review from one of our L's! Happy Halloween!

Since M is pregnant, she asked if I would do the honours of picking my favourite wine, perhaps from Canada, and write a review for the wine blog. Truthfully, my favourite wine of all time is Henry of Pelham's Baco Noir Reserve, ca. 2006. Now clearly this was a long time ago, and even in 2007 it was an almost exclusive wine at select restaurants. I thought of a few more choice Canadian wines I've thoroughly enjoyed over the last 10 years( As of Monday Oct 21st!) and found very few, with most of them from tiny wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake that hardly had a chance to see the fluorescent light of the inside of the LCBO. So, to solve this problem I went to the source - Miss LCBO.

 Now, I didn't have a plan per se. I know I like deep, rich reds, so that was the only criterion I had set out for myself. After perusing the small vintage section I stumbled upon a highly praised and reasonably priced selection from South Africa - Porcupine Ridge Syrah - at a grad-student-friendly $14.95. This wine is made at Boekenhoutskloof Winery (wasn't that fun to try and say, even in your head?) and is of Swartland origin. The wine is named for the crested porcupines that are native to the region. The little LCBO sign told me it was a "Vintage Essential" and a "stellar value", and with a super adorable porcupine sketch on the label, how could I resist?  *(For enviro-conscious wine drinkers, this wine has "Integrity and Sustainability" certification.)                                           

 

 

In the past I haven't had much luck with wines from South Africa, but I have to say this wine was exceptional. The colour is a deep plum, with an amaranth or deep raspberry glow. The body and texture of the wine are just as complex and deep as the colour. It is smoky and very smooth, beginning with a taste of blackberry followed by a bit of spice or pepper, ending on notes of vanilla and the hint of (French) oak (you can tell the oak is super-classy! lol). There is zilch in the way of that tart, acidic aftertaste most grad-student-friendly priced wines often have. It's a lovely, mellow wine that is perfect for sipping alone or with any meal. (This bottle lasted me 6 tastings! And I was satisfied each time - from sipping on its own to paring with Asian fare.)

I had initially looked at this wine because I wasn't sure I had encountered a 'Syrah' before but have since discovered it's just another way to say "Shiraz". I am typically not a fan of Shiraz as I often find them to be too bright, hot, young and acidic. This Syrah, however, has changed my mind. It's on my new favourites list and I look forward to my next encounter with a Syrah.  -L

Once Upon a Vine, The Big Bad Red

As everyone knows, I love themes. Theme weeks in seminar, theme parties, theme dinners, and yes, even theme wines. So in honour of Halloween I will have a trick and a treat. Today the trick: a red wine even non-red wine drinkers will drink. Monday will bring the treat! I bought Once Upon a Vine's Big Bad Red because I liked the bottle and though the description of chocolate and red fruits sounded like something I would drink. This California red is a blend of mostly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and a touch of Zinfandel. My parents and I tasted it with our Thanksgiving meal. It was delicious. Here is the rundown:

A - This is a very smooth drinking red. It tastes very currant-y, and like cranberries. It has a little bit of a cocoa taste as well. It is a touch dry, but not overwhelmingly so. It is a good wine to cook with because it went easily from pre-drink to dinner, and it went well with our turkey dinner. We aerated this wine which helped to smooth it out. It is a stronger grape blend that can stand up to it. This is an excellent fall wine overall.

D - This wine has oak on the nose, and a nice burgundy colour. It is a fairly light red, lighter than you would think from the colour. I can't put my finger on what it tastes like, but it is not grapey. Maybe it is raspberries and cranberries? I think it is the Syrah which makes it taste so smooth. It has very nice body and very good legs.

M - This is a quite nice wine for someone who doesn't normally even drink red wine. I would eat this with beef, like a good roast or a hearty stew, but also think it would work well with pasta. It is quite light and smooth. I could drink the whole bottle. It has a stong immediate taste but it doesn't linger or leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

Belliveau Orchards Massé, New Brunswick

To honour B and C's anniversary and the coming of fall, today I am pleased to bring you a review of an apple wine they brought back with them from a recent trip to New Brunswick. As you know, B and C aren't huge wine drinkers and fruit wines are a great step in between juice and wine for those who don't love grape wines. This wine was a delicious alternative to grape wines, so if you like cider, check out your local orchards. This one is from New Brunswick, but Ontario orchards make them too (for example, Archibald's Winery in Bowmanville ships their wines across Ontario and makes a Honey Crisp Wine and one from McIntosh apples http://archibaldswinery.com and Applewood Farms makes something called the "Smokin' Apple" http://www.applewoodfarmwinery.com/. I personally have tried Legend's fruit wines, much to my satisfaction http://www.legendsestates.com). So happy harvest, friends! Have your apples and drink them too!

A - This wine is very appley (editorial aside from present A: Duh!). It is like a cider and a wine had a baby. It is a very sweet wine and not at all dry. It has no sparkle to it, but is very tasty with a bit of a tingle on your tongue. It would be best served ice cold. I thought it was very good and enjoyed it!

B - I like it! It is very drinkable. Smooth and refreshingly crisp. I could drink the whole bottle. We tasted a lot of apple wines on our trip and this was our favourite out of maybe a dozen or so. They were all good in their own ways though, especially for a cider drinker.

C - This is a drier and sweeter wine than cider. It is between the pub ciders and the sweeter canned ciders in terms of taste. It was very light and in terms of alcohol content is higher than a cider, but lower than a wine. This wine comes straight from the apple orchard and really tastes like it! The smell is a bit spicy like cinnamon but it doesn't taste like it.

Konzelmann Four Generations Fresco Secco, VQA

We here at RWR have a lot to celebrate. My high school friend MB got married last weekend to the love of her life in a beautiful wedding. My OTHER high school friend Dr. D got ENGAGED!!!!! My friend from undergrad E is getting married in April. My friend K got married! My friends C and R did too! M is pregnant! And I, along with many of my grad school friends, are teaching for the first time. It is a season of excitement. It calls for sparkling wine!

But here is the truth, dear reader. While I love reds, whites, and roses from around the world, sparkling wine and champagne are not my best friends. Perhaps fuelled by memories of defiantly drinking Bright's Presidents Dry Sparkling wine at New Years with my parents to prove I was sophisticated, the thought of drinking it makes me cringe. So I took a leap of faith. I did something I have never done. I used the LCBO Wine Match tool: http://lcbo.ca/winestyles/index.shtml. I think I know my own pallette in all other regards pretty well. But I took a chance on it for sparkling wine. I put in "sparkling" as my colour, and then knowing my budget would not allow "rich and complex" and that since I don't like the taste of sparkling wine "Medium-bodied and flavourful" might not be my bag, baby, I chose to go with "Light and fruity," a tried and true description of wines I liked. This one popped up and at $11.70 was a good match to my price range. I took it to my friend Miss J's house to drink in between MB's ceremony and reception. Her mom, Mama M, is a wine lover like me, so I knew I'd be in good company. So with the scene set, let's cheers the couple and taste some wine!

Mama M - I liked this wine. It was a bit nutty flavoured and dry. It was very drinkable. Though my favourite overall champagne is Veuve Clicquot and my favourite cheap champagne is Freixenet Carta Nevada Sparkling, I would be happy to add this into my rotation. This wine is a Riesling as well, which I don't usually like, but then again I also don't usually like sweet wines, but I do like this one. A fitting celebration of MB!

A - This is sweet and a little lemony and fruity. It's just dry enough to keep the sweetness from being obnoxious or headache-inducing though! This is a characteristic I appreciate, because I find other sparkling wines  give me huge headaches. This wine was more like a fizzy normal wine, instead of a fake champagne type sparkling wine. It is very pleasantly fruity and it does have a bit of a sweet nutty aftertaste, like almonds. I could actually drink this on its own for fun, as a normal drinking wine, which is saying something. MB's wedding is JUST THAT GOOD!

J - I like it. I am not a champagne drinker but would finish this glass. This is saying a lot because that is not always the case for champagnes and sparkling wines.

Papa J - I liked it, I tasted a little oak.

A Dry Spell

As most of you probably now, I (M), am pregnant. So how does one review wines while pregnant? Well it's a tricky thing. When I first found out I was pregnant I stopped drinking all alcohol immediately. That being said, I had consumed more than my fair share over the long weekend before and was enjoying my glass of wine most nights of the week when I was unknowingly pregnant. Do I feel bad about that? Not really. I'm not exactly a binge drinker normally, and having talked to friends and family who have been there before, this is often the case when you're not strictly planning a pregnancy.

So do I drink now? The short answer is no. Some of you might be thinking "of course not! Who drinks when they're pregnant? Does she want a baby with an arm growing out of its head?!". My answers to that would be "lots of people apparently." and "while that might be neat initially, it would be difficult to dress a baby for cold Northern Ontario winters with an extra appendage where a toque goes."

But to address the more important issue, many people do drink while pregnant. I've read tons of online testimonies from women who drink, within reasonable limits, while carrying babies. There's been a recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Emily Oster which advocates drinking "like a European adult" while pregnant (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323514404578652091268307904.html). Now I have problems with that phrase, having seen many a grown person drinking like a fish while in Europe, but the idea is the same. Enjoy a glass of wine in the evening, not a bottle or three and things should be all good. I even went so far as to ask my doctor what he thought about it. His answer was "it's not kosher for a doctor to tell a pregnant lady it's ok to drink, but there are no conclusive studies proving that enjoying a glass of wine every night will harm a baby."

So...permission from an expert? Yes and no. He's right, there are no conclusive studies that show the negative effects of limited alcohol intake on babies because no one is willing to run that kind of trial on pregnant ladies and fetuses, but I'm still the expert on me. I agree with him, a glass of wine probably won't hurt anything, but -- and this is the big one -- BUT if something did happen to my baby, a third arm, somehow under/over developed, whatever, I know who I would blame. Me. It doesn't matter if science proves it's not my fault, I'd feel responsible because that's just who I am. My decision is based on my own self-awareness and I don't judge others who would make a different decision, but that's the way she goes, as they say. I've decided to save my next glass of wine for a moment of celebration -- preferably celebrating the birth of a healthy child. And a glass, or three, I will have, but I can wait. Dreaming about wine (no, for real, I do that) in the meantime will make that moment all the sweeter!

2011 Henry of Pelham Baco Noir, VQA

This wine was L's choice after she loved the much more expensive Reserve Baco from Henry of Pelham. At $13.95 a bottle, this wine was a much more reasonable choice than the $25 Reserve and was an appropriate choice to drink on its own with friends! We went over to L's friend, L also (L Eng. to distinguish), and had a lovely evening in on a rainy night out.

L - This wine is very grapey and not at all ash-tray-y. It tastes quite young. It is bright and a bit acrid at the end of the taste. It is a really nice wine to drink more than one glass of. It may be nice chilled or with BBQ. It is a more typical baco than the reserve, but it lacks the fruitiness of the more expensive pick.

L Eng.- It is musty and minerally tasting. It needs more air I think (after this we let it breathe for a bit and discussed the merits of decanters and aeroators). It like this wine and it is not very alcohol forward, unlike some reds which can be boozy and juicy. It is a very thin wine though.

A - It is musty and woody smelling. It tastes very simple and then we let it breathe some. After the breathing, it was a light and very smokey wine, with a little taste of cherry-esque flavour going on, but there was not much else going on beyond smoke. It was a very young wine with not much going on and lacked the complexity of the reserve. It was a good wine for casual sipping.