The Fermented Grape

A hot summer evening and a delicious wine

A few weekends back, I was invited to my friend Judy’s house for dinner.  I offered to bring dessert because it is berry season and I wanted to eat berries.  I made a delicious raspberry and strawberry “soup” and added whole berries and mint to it. I thought it would be fun to have sparkling wine both to put in the dessert just before serving s well as to drink with dessert.  But what to buy?  Champagne was the obvious choice, especially one with more pinot noir in the blend for those wonderful strawberry aromas, but I didn’t want to spend that much money.  I turned to Brachetto, a red frizzante, off-dry wine from Piedmont. It was the perfect choice.  It was light (low alcohol) and fruity and a fun way to end the evening.  Make sure you serve it chilled. 

Next time you are buying wine, step out of your comfort zone and try something completely new.  Experiment with different varietals or explore a new country or region.  There is so much delicious wine available   Have fun with it!

Cheers, Michelle

 

On tasting many wines

Last week I wrote about tasting 100 Chardonnays over the course of the Cool Climate Chardonnay Festival weekend and I had several people ask how I could sample that many wines and still appreciate what I tasted.  The answer is practice… spitting that is.  

When I first started studying wine, I finished all the wines that I tasted.  By the end of the evening, everything was simply “delicious” and my tasting notes became, well, interesting.  I did, however, have a super fun time!  This year as my first experience at Vinexpo.  My goal was to taste as many wines as I could over the course of the event and still be able to speak coherently at the end of the day.  I had to spit.

While it is sad to taste a delicious wine and end up not only spitting but pouring out what is left in the glass, it is a necessary evil.  I was able to taste 60-80 wines a day, take proper notes on all of them and remain lucid!  And there was a small amount of wine that didn’t quite make it into the spittoon…

Here is a tip – carry a tissue with you for the inevitable mis-spit (aka dribble).  I learned that the hard way.

Cheers,

Michelle

Cool Climate Chardonnay Festival

This weekend was the inaugural Cool Climate Chardonnay Festival in Niagara Ontario. It was a weekend of events starting with the kick-off at Flat Rock Cellars on the Twenty-Mile Bench in Jordan, followed by a selection of afternoon and evening events on Saturday and the finale - a brunch closing at Ravine Vineyard in St. David’s on Sunday. The weather was hot and sticky, the Chardonnay was cool and the event was a smashing success. The biggest joke of the weekend was that with 38C temperatures, was Niagara truly a “cool climate”?

I must put all cards on the table… I was ABC (anything but Chardonnay) for a long time. The massive, over-oaked Chardonnays that have been the style for many years were never to my liking. If I was to drink Chardonnay it would be a Chablis or if fortunate, a wonderful Chassagne-Montrachet, so I didn’t have big expectations for this event.

I was pleasantly surprised. The move back to elegant, Burgundian-style Chardonnays is refreshing. Oak is still present but is being used judiciously. Cool-climate producers from around the world were present from Canada to Tasmania and it was fascinating to taste the subtle and not-so-subtle variations between the wines of various winemakers, many of whom were present.

Over the course of the weekend, I tasted about 100 Chardonnays. Here are my favourites from Ontario:

Ravine Vineyard 2009: A mouth-watering Chardonnay with aromas of orange blossoms and a touch of honey and smoke. The mouth is round and soft and the finish is slightly tropical with hints of pineapple. The acidity balances everything out. A delicious wine that I kept going back to.

Bachelder Niagara 2009: Tom Bachelder – ex of Clos Jordanne – has started his own venture and we had the good fortune to have the first official taste of his Niagara Chardonnay at Tawse on Saturday night. It is a beautifully elegant wine with a long finish. Complex with with pure fruit and floral notes and wonderful minerality. A seam of acidity that runs the length of the wine. I am looking forward to release date this fall.

Tawse Spark 2008 Méthode Champenoise: A very good sparkling blanc de blanc with the heady aromas of brioche and apples. The bubbles are fine and abundant and the finish goes on forever. Definitely worth a try.

Stratus 2009: I was quite surprised with the new, more moderate style Chardonnay that is the 2009 release. Paul Hobbs (Cobos – Argentina, Paul Hobbs Winery – Napa) was brought on as wine consultant for the 2009 vintage and the result was a leaner, crisper more elegant wine with green apple and hints of orange peel on the finish. A very positive change.

Southbrook Triomphe 2009: Beautiful floral nose with a dash of tropical fruit. Elegant toastiness and a touch of crème brulée. Whereas the ABC style of Chardonnay would have over-done this element, Ann Sperling has made a truly elegant wine where everything is in balance. Clean and crisp with great minerality and a long finish.

Wednesday was my first day at the bodega. I sorted grapes, barrel tasted the white wines, made the yeast mixture that would eventually be put into the tanks of grapes and that would start the fermentation process, walked through my vineyard and said hello to my grapes (tasted a few – I think they are delicious!), and lastly, did a chemical analysis of my grapes. It was a busy day.

I met a fellow by the name of Tom Garrett who is the assistant winemaker at Revana Winery in Napa. Dr. Revana owns property here as well and sent Tom down to check things out. Revana Cabernet Sauvignon was ranked 4 in Wine Spectator’s top 100 wines of 2010. I was fortunate to taste the wine last November when I was down at the same time as Dr. Revana and was excited to meet Tom who happens to be a terrific guy. Since my technical Spanish is even worse than my regular Spanish (and my winemaker’s English is worse than my Spanish) Tom answered a lot of my questions and while I still am only scratching the surface of what is winemaking, I am learning every day. Tom is definitely someone I plan on staying in touch with. He has said if I wanted to come to Napa for harvest in September, I was more than welcome!

Welcome to The Fermented Grape. My journey to Vista Flores, Argentina began with a trip to the Antarctic that never happened (the boat sank before I even got there). As my grandfather used to always say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but I decided to make wine instead.

I bought a small vineyard in the Uco Valley of Argentina, southwest of Mendoza. It was raw land three years ago and this year I am harvesting for the first time. There are many other owners of land under the same umbrella – the entire project is run by a professional team of agronomists, winemakers, and cellar managers. But I have done something that I am sure no other owner has done – I have left my career in banking to pursue my dream of being in the world of wine. So for the next two months I am living on the outskirts of Vista Flores, population ? (I have walked the length of the main street twice while shopping for groceries!). In my Spanglish, I have shopped at the green grocer, the pharmacy, the corner store where I loaded up my cell phone with minutes and the grocery store. The people of this town I am sure don’t know what to make of me but I just laugh at my terrible Spanish and try to make myself understood. I promised everyone that at the end of two months, my Spanish would be much better! When I was chatting with the pharmacist she asked me where I was from and when I told her Canada, she said “Toronto? There are a lot of Italians in Toronto!” There are a lot of Italians in Argentina, too!

Wednesday was my first day at the bodega. I sorted grapes, barrel tasted the white wines, made the yeast mixture that would eventually be but into the tanks of grapes and would start their fermentation, walked through my vineyard and said hello to my grapes, and did a chemical analysis of my grapes. It was a very busy day.

Please check back every once in a while as I continue to write about the world of wine. Feel free to comment or ask questions or even disagree with what I say. I encourage interaction of all sorts.