Curious Fruit Carignan Grenache 2009 (France)

As a Valentine's Day gift to myself I went to the LCBO and did some browsing, with the intent of finding some great valued wines. Earlier that day, Alia had forwarded me an e-mail that showed the Top 50 Value Wines at the LCBO. Before heading to the store I did a quick browse and found four reds that interested me.

Needless to say, I went and picked up 8(!!) bottles (a little bit aggressive), but only spent $100.60. I think that this is SUPER reasonable as the average price of each bottle came out to 12.58. Amazing. The first one that I tried was the Curious Fruit Carignan Grenache which is a 2009 vin de France. The bottle is just in the non-vintage section and retails for $9.95. I was intrigued by the name of the wine, as well as what the bottle looked like. Super simple, and somewhat cheesy! After opening the wine, the first sip was not the best but after a couple of minutes of it breathing in the glass it got so much better. The wine itself is made from Carignan and Grenache, and comes from the South of France. These grapes do better in the warmer regions and tend to give off spiciness as well as black fruit on the nose. It is a well balanced wine and has fine tannins with a great acidity and medium finish.

I would definitely recommend this wine for everyone! Not only is the price right, but it definitely allows people to break out of their comfort zones and try something new.

Happy Wednesday!

HM

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Hope that everyone is having a fantastic day surrounded by people that you love! Tonight I am going to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a couple of girl friends in the best way possible, with chocolate fondue. This past year, I have had some great wine loves and thought that in the spirit of the day I would put together my two top ten lists. The first list is my more affordable one, and the second is my extravagant dream wine list. These cover wines that I have tasted over the past year, or for the extravagant list (some more affordable than others) over the past few years.

Top Ten Affordable Wines (in no particular order!):

1.       2010 Mount Riley Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) - $15.95

2.       2010 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon (California) - $19.95

3.       Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne Rose (France) - $18.95

4.       2007 Paroles de Femme Cotes du Rhone (France) - $14.95

5.       2010 Alamos Torrontes (Argentina) - $13.95

6.       2009  Gnarly Head Zinfandel (USA) - $16.95

7.       2006 Salice Salentino Rocca Dei Mori (Puglia, Italy) - $14.95

8.       Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay (Burgundy, France) - $18.95

9.       2008 Grove Street Pinot Noir (Sonoma County, USA) - $17.95

10.   2010 Perrin & Fils Tavel Rose (Rhone, France) - $19.95

Top Ten Extravagant Wines (in no particular order!):

1.       2008 Faust Cabernet Sauvignon (California, USA) - $39.95

2.       Veuve Clicquot Brut (France) - $66.30

3.       Zenata Ripassa Valpolicella (Veneto, Italy) - $24.95

4.       J. Lohr Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon (California, USA) - $21.95

5.       2005 Masi Serego Amarone Della Valpolicella - $69.95

6.       Graham’s 20 Year Old Tawny Port - $36.95

7.       Conundrum (California, USA) - $23.95

8.       Trius Brut VQA (Ontario, Canada) - $24.95

9.       2009 Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Pinot Noir (California, USA) - $26.95

10.   Grand Vin de Bourgogne Petit Chablis (Burgundy, France) - $19.95

As you can see the wines come from so many different regions, grapes, and price ranges! All of the above are spectacular and I wish that I could always have a wine fridge stocked with these items year round ... but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to look like it is going to happen in the near future! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with lots of adventure and delicious wine!

HM

Another Portuguese Gem

Has anyone else felt like this week has most certainly been a 'full moon' week? Work-wise, everything seems just that much more frustrating. I walked into my place after a particularly weird Tuesday, and sure enough, as soon as my door shut, I saw the full moon rising ominously up from the lake. Go figure. Thankfully, life-wise, things seem to be (I'm hoping!) falling back into a very happy place.

I shall spare you any more of my gory (or boring) life details. To the wine:

My last post featured a lovely (if chilled people, if chilled!) $7.95 bottle of wine from Portugal. For fun, I purchased a bottle for comparison at the $14.95 price point, also from Portugal.

This wine-- It is lovely. It's one of those wines where you take a sip and wham, you immediately start to wonder why you don't drink more Portuguese wine/why you've been spending more money than your Mint iPad app allows you to on Californian wines/how to immediately acquire another bottle (slash case!) of this wine. Maybe my basis of comparison was unfair with the cheaper bottle, but my gosh. This wine. It is good. I implore you all to search through the Vintages section for some Portuguese finds.

The wine in question is a 2008 Monte Das Servas Colheita Seleccionada, produced under the sunny skies of Southern Portugal by Herdade das Servas. It is a gem. Only 300 cases of this wine came to Canada, so make use of the Vintages "product search" and grab some while you can. The aromas are abundant: Prune, chocolate, and black cherry, with some little hints of anise that come through as the wine rests. It's really lovely and complex: You won't get tired of the wine as it continues to evolve in the glass. I would pair this with a charcuterie/cheese plate, or something a touch gamey like a lovely duck shepherd's pie.

Have a great weekend everyone.

XO
AK

Las Rocas Garnacha

The other day I was at my parent's house in Oakville, and was getting us some wine for dinner. When I was going through their wine fridge I found one of my old favourite reds. The first time that I purchased it, I was immediately drawn to the label (for some reason I just love the writing), and then was secondly drawn to the price of $14.95. I am one that likes to literally judge a book by it's cover, and this trend sometimes makes its way over to how I purchase my wine. If I like the label, I am usually more attracted to it, and I then take the time to look at the region, grape, producer, etc. It might seem a bit ridiculous, but it seems to have worked so far, so I am going to go with it!

The red that I stumbled across in the oh so affordable (I never seem to have to pay for the wine that I get there) wine fridge is Las Rocas Garnacha. It is in the vintages section at the LCBO and I think it is delicious. It is a Garnacha from Spain that has a good strength to it, and smells of raspberries, pepper and earth. If you have heard of a Grenache, this is just the Spanish name for the grape. In France, and other countries, the Grenache is typically blended with other grapes but Las Rocas is made 100% from the Garnacha varietal. The wine has relatively good acidity and tannins, and is in my opinion a perfect winter red.

Happy Monday!

HM

Frugal February

Dear Diary,

Today I did something that I haven't done in a very long time: I circumvented the Vintages section at the LCBO (shocking, I know), and went to the generalist bottles. That's not all. I purchased a bottle of wine for $7.95. Yes, a full 750mL bottle. 

Love,

Alia

There are so many wonderful bottles of wine that constantly grace the shelves of the LCBO. I consider us who live in Ontario very lucky to have the LCBO: I know there's a lot of legalities and annoyances for producers that are associated with a publicly owned liquor store, but overall, I do find the quality and variety of the offerings really good. This is why I usually end up in some degree of a treasure hunt around the Vintages section and fail to ever go beyond it's boarders. I mean, why wouldn't you want to buy the bottles that are only there for a limited amount of time?! Maybe it's the treasurer hunter in me.. But I do believe there is a link between case volumes and quality, so inherently, the limited Vintages cases should prove to be better wine than the ubiquitous wines that grace the generalist section shelves. That being said, sometimes it's nice to have a really uncomplicated wine (to offset the inevitable complications that life brings, of course!)

To the wine: The Vila Regia 2010 is from the Duoro region in Portugal. It's a very decent table wine for $7.95. This wine benefits from being served a bit chilled, so put the bottle in the fridge for about 15 minutes before it's time to enjoy it. Once you've done so.. It's really quite decent. Everything about this wine is fruit: The colour is a really pretty cherry, and the dominant flavours are cherry/strawberry (it's a tad confected, but at this price..). The fruitiness is offset by some nice acidity and a bit of smoke, which makes the wine quite enjoyable. It's a really non-committal, pleasing, weeknight wine when you're not looking for anything too serious-- I know, I'm setting you up really well for the week ahead.

Happy imbibing.

XO
AK