Palate Drift...

Palate drift is a fancy way of saying that some of the wines that you used to love are less enjoyable than they used to be. Maybe your first love was a fruity Zin, a buttery Chardonnay, or a jammy Shiraz, or even the big, brooding wines of Barolo - where your first love came from doesn't really matter, but at some point you decided to see the world and leave your high school sweetie behind.

You see, drinking wine is very different from tasting wine. When you drink you pour, you taste, you say "mmmm, I like", and then you move one. Tasters are different - sometimes you sniff a glass for a half an hour or more pondering it: What is that aroma? Where have I smelled that before? A hot or cold vintage? Judicious use of oak? Flowers, which ones? And then the tasting...swirling, analyzing, critiquing...tearing apart in your mind a liquid that is part art, part natural chemistry.

There is nothing wrong with 'drinking' wine, but once you move from drinking to tasting you have cut yourself from your moorings and set your palate adrift. The symptoms are noticeable - signing up for a mixed case from your wine club, forcing dinner guests to drink from two glasses to compare wines they've never heard of, or an attempt at the Wine Century Club - these and other wine 'deviances' are signs that you have found some new love interests in your freshman years of wine.

Adrift, the great fear for a wine aficionado is that your cellar could hold dozens, hundreds, or maybe even thousands of bottles that are no longer 'your style'. Every time you reach into the cellar, you guiltily walk past 'that section' and say "maybe tomorrow", or even worse you say "I wonder how much I could get on auction for that". The relationship is not only over in your mind, you need to formalize the breakup.

So is Joe's style drifting? Absolutely, but it may not be instantly obvious if you look at my scores. I am clearly losing my taste for modern-styled fruity wines - not wholesale abandonment, but a definite reduction in both the frequency of purchase and the frequency of uncorking. In my scoring of wine I try to be style agnostic and focus on quality, i.e. is this a good representative of the style and region. So a fruity wine may be complex and balanced so I score it well, but only by reading my notes you realize that something is amiss. And this is not just happening here - nearly all of my wine friends and fellow bloggers have commented on wines they no longer drink.

In the end we me may drift back to where we began, taking the knowledge that we have gathered on our journey, tearing apart the wines we used to love and finding a new appreciation for them. But undoubtedly many of us will never return.

What prompted this reflective moment? Eminent blogger Barry picked up on my limited enthusiasm for last Friday's The Bull and the Bear - I am adrift, Barry, and enjoying the journey right now.

Cheers!

One Hundred! 2004 Donnafugata Tancredi

Sometimes your first experience with a new grape or wine region is plain awful. That's natural - it's new, and maybe it wasn't to your liking. But there are so many producers out there, how do you know whether you hate the grape or hate the maker? Well, you'll never know until you taste more of that grape/region, but I find too many wine enthusiasts just plain give up right away. 

Me? I never give up on a grape or region. The eternal optimist, supporter of the underdog, I am always hoping to find that one good wine that proves myself and everyone else wrong. But when I have a disappointing experience with a grape/wine region I do the counterintuitive thing, I buy the most expensive bottle I can find - after all, if they can't make a good wine from that grape at $30+, maybe they should just give up, right?  With that in mind, and despite all of my trashing of Nero d'Avola, I thought I'd give this 'misunderstood' grape a chance to shine in the climactic finish to my quest to taste one hundred grape varieties. 

The most expensive Nero I could find for this day was the 2004 Donnafugata Tancredi (Contessa Entellina), a blend of Nero d'Avola (70%) and Cabernet Sauvignon. My previous experiences with Nero (and Sicilian reds in general) have been less than stellar, with most presenting leathery wall of dense, jammy fruit and little structure. But tonight's high stakes bet paid off - a first pour into the decanter and my nose was greeted by a wall of meaty black cherries (confirming my fears, I thought), but in the glass it provided an unexpected "green-ness" - green beans, peppers, and pine lumber, later some flintiness and tarriness - earthy volcanic ash as the night progressed. Incredibly crisp and focused, so unexpectedly stern and unjammy, flavourful but light at the same time. Blinded I might have thought a Loire red. My expectations were low, and this wine blew them away -  a pleasure to pair with meals and nice over the next three evenings, and would probably age well over the next few years.
cork. 14% alcohol
Score: 17.5+/20
Price: C$33.75 (SAQ)

2005 Two Hands "The Bull and The Bear"

In global stock markets "the Bear" has manhandled, mauled and danced on lifeless carcass of the Bull, but in tonight's wine The Bull and The Bear are supposed to live in harmony... 

The 2005 Two Hands "The Bull and The Bear" (Barossa) is a blend of 55% Shiraz (the Bear) and 45% Cabernet (the Bull). On the nose there is no doubt that there is Barossa Shiraz in the glass - big, leathery, black fruit (blackberry, cherries), grenadine, black pepper and a touch of vanilla. A palate of thick, velvety, black cherries - lots of tannin, but not enough acid to hold it together in the way I prefer. A very smooth and very polished effort, so "technically correct" but lacking in soul, leaving me somewhat uninspired. And it was not able to hide that whopping alcohol level...
screwtop. 14.8% alcohol
Score: 17/20
Price: C$49 (LCBO)

(My apologies to my wine buddy and occasional guest blogger Lloyd - my father in law grabbed this, not knowing it was set aside for you - I'll deduct it from your growing tab...)

Market Casualties

While the gentleman above seems to think the world would be a better place with a few less Wall Street types, the wine world should be very nervous. Many are suffering, cutting where they can, and wine is a luxury. One casualty of this market is my annual trip to Napa/Sonoma - thousands of dollars that will not be spent on local wines, hotels and restaurants. Surely I am not alone, and millions of these tiny decisions will have a dramatic impact on the industry. If you fantasize about owning your own winery, wait - prices will get better, and you may even be able to hire a few investment bankers for the annual harvest...

(Here are my posts from Napa 2006 and Sonoma 2007 ...)

Canadian Thanksgiving, Canadian Pinot: Le Clos Jordanne

It is no secret that I love to pair turkey with pinot noir (1, 2, 3, 4), and this year's Thanksgiving dinner continued that tradition. But I abandoned the foreign bottlings today for homemade Canadian wine to celebrate this Canadian holiday. Readers know that this is not home-town boosterism, as I rarely write about Canadian wines, but with the hype around this winery I had to taste.

Le Clos Jordanne is a partnership between two wine giants, Canada's Vincor (acquired by Constellation in 2006) and Burgundy's Boisset, that sought to express a Niagara terroir in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It opened with much fanfare, even talk of an impressive winery designed by Frank Gehry, but those plans seem to have fallen by the wayside after Vincor's acquisition by Constellation. Aside from the buzz around the winery, the wines have also generated a lot of buzz, with the media (mostly local) heaping praise on the early vintages.

Stylistically the 2004 Le Clos Jordanne "Claystone Terrace" was more in tune with my Pinot preferences. A nose of leather, grenadine, fried meat and cooked fruit - a spicy palate with crisp acidity and fine balance, some minerality. A more focused and flavourful effort with substantial length, but lacking in complexity, drink now.
cork, 14.8% alcohol
Score: 16.5/20
Price: C$39.75 (SAQ)

The 2004 Le Clos Jordanne "Clos Jordanne Vineyard" enjoyable, and even a touch more complex on the nose, but less structured than the Claystone. Plum and floral notes on the nose, musk, cloves and pipe tobacco as well. Smooth and enjoyable with leathery cherries, but with minimal tannin or acid to hold it all together. Drink now.
cork, 14.6% alcohol
Score: 16.5/20
Price: C$42.25 (SAQ)

Overall, these were pretty good offerings, with the Claystone seeming more Cote de Beaune and the Clos Jordanne mimicking the Cote de Nuits. These are serious prices, and I could find some better, more structured, Burgundies at those prices, but Cam did note that these were potentially more "drinkable", hence the glowing reviews.

(Surprisingly, the insanely high alcohol was not that noticeable, a common gripe on this site)

"Synchronized Tasting": 2006 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier

One of my best wine buddies is, in fact, a person I have never met. You see, Edward finds as much joy in the exploration of wine as he does in the tasting, and when you combine that with a love of back yard wine bottle photography, well, that's kinship. Unfortunately, Ed lives approx. 18,000 kilometres from Montreal, which makes a vinous "get together" nearly impossible. Recognizing that North America, the Pacific and the Australian continent separate our respective cellars, we agreed to the next best thing - a "synchronized tasting", opening one of Australia's finer bottles of precious liquid. Well, neither distance nor a 12-hour time zone difference could stand in the way of this e-meeting of great palates...

This evening Ed unscrewed the cap and I popped the cork on a bottle of the 2006 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier (Canberra District). With the eyes of the world watching, I decided to record my notes in the order that they arrived on paper...

t=0: The cork had a clean, clearly delineated purpley ring and smelled of cloves, some floral notes as well - beguiling...

t=1 min: As I poured this wine into the decanter I buried my nose in there (do not try this at home), smelling brie cheese, ivy and garden herbs (basil, oregano) - intriguing...

t=30 min: Light ruby red in the glass. Still cool from the cellar toasty new oak dominates on the nose, continued brie cheese. I couldn't wait any longer so I just dove in for a taste...I love the texture of a wine, and the first sensation was just how very smooth this wine was...medium-bodied, crisp and spicy, not showing the heat that some Barossas give off as they push 15% alcohol. I see an hommage a Cote-Rotie...

t=60 min: With the rising temperature and a dash of oxygen the nose explodes in aroma: liquorice, wet coffee grounds, white flowers, black cherry, truffles...

Overall impression: Incredibly soft, polished and balanced with silky tannins, fine acidity and a joyous nose. Don't let that softness fool you - rolling this juice across the palate reveals an edge that tells me more time in the cellar will be rewarding. Easy to love, probably the nicest Shiraz/Viognier I can recall (and that includes the Cote-Roties I have had).
cork. 14% alcohol
Score: 18/20
Price: C$72 (SAQ)

A couple of things: (1) I did not see Ed's score before I recorded mine (Ed kindly switched back to the 20-point system for me), and (2) The screwcap! Now why the heck do the Aussies ship it locally under screw top and overseas under cork? Surely the shipping hazzards are greater for thirsty Northern Hemisphere types? Perhaps it is hard to convince a Canuck to part with $70 if there is a screw cap involved...(guilty) 

PS - Some would call it suicide to go mano-a-mano with Ed's pen and camera, so I gave him a head start, ensuring that I would finish last and thus (hopefully) avoid the inevitable head-to-head comparisons...

Cheers Ed!

Shades of Autumn

Montreal is ablaze in colour, and with unseasonably warm weather Joe has been more outdoors than indoors. That is why Ed is still waiting for me to post my Clonakilla notes...notes coming very soon.

Drive for One Hundred: 2003 Quinta do Vale Meao (Duoro)

Sometimes my quest to taste 100 different grape varieties is, well, uninspiring. After all, there is probably a good reason why many of these varietals are rare, right? Well, a totally different story tonight as I knocked off number 98 and 99 on my list and sipped one of the most compelling wines I have tasted in 2008...

The 2003 Quinta do Vale Meão (Duoro) was tantalizing on the nose - tomato sauce, bing cherries, spicy cedar and green pepper at first, later some wet slate, jammy fruit, cocoa, vanilla and cloves. Gorgeous mouthfeel and texture - a healthy dose of acidity combined with crisp, dense berry fruit and velvety tannins for a finish that went on for minutes. A blend of Portuguese varietals: Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca.
cork. 14.5% alcohol
Score: 18+/20
Price: C$59 (LCBO)

Three Views of Spain and One Paella

Spanish wine is most commonly associated with red wines made from Tempranillo, but Spain produces a myriad of wines from quirky grapes and unheralded appellations. Similar to my Lasagna/Italian wine taste test, tonight I sought to pair a few Spanish reds with "Paella with Pine Nut Meatballs, Sausage and Potatoes" (p. 346) to see which worked best.

Carrying the flag for Rioja was the 2001 Finca Allende Vina Olvido. Similar to my reviews of last January - tarry prunes and leather on the nose, with crisp cherry fruit and silky tannins - this seemed to be the crowd favourite pairing for this meaty paella, but less interesting than the other two wines. 
cork, 12.5% alcohol, Score: 17/20

The smallish Spanish D.O. of Montsant was represented by the 2001 Capçanes Costers del Gravet. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and Carignan, sporting a complex nose of smokey blackberry and violet, cooked fruit and a heavy dose of oak. Dry and velvety textured on the palate with a very long finish - seems like it could age, but fine now with a lengthy decant. Probably better with a steak than tonight's paella. (2000 vintage reviewed here)
cork, 14% alcohol, Score: 17.5/20

Bierzo is located in northern Spain and is home to a rare grape, Mencia, the grape used in tonight's 2006 Pétalos by Descendientes de J. Palacios. A vivid nose of damp, black earth and vegetal notes...cherries, cappuccino, liquorice, black pepper and meaty aromas as well...very complex, coughing up new secrets with every swirl of the glass. Beautiful texture and mouthfeel, velvety tannins and crisp acidity, an extraordinary wine at this price point (but not as well paired with this paella). (2005 vintage reviewed here)
cork, 12.5% alcohol, Score: 18/20

Now some of you may recall a rather a rather salty paella in January, but my skills have much improved - the real star tonight was my paella! The first time my cullinary cooking skills have overshadowed my wine selections...

Drive for One Hundred: 2005 Pazo Senorans Albarino

Albariño, number 97 of my quest, is not an "obscure grape" at all. Found in cheap Portuguese Vinho Verde and pricier Rías Baixas from Spain, it has also found a following in the new world. While I have had Vinho Verde on a number of occasions, tonight I decided to spoil myself with a pricier bottling from Spain (served as a prelude to a paella dinner with friends):

The 2005 Pazo Señoráns Albariño (Rías Baixas) was a pretty wine - a nose of creamy fresh limes, hay and green grass, cranberries, apricot jelly, subtle floral notes in the background. Elegant and well balanced, luscious, with nice persistency and bitterness. Terrific!
cork. 13% alcohol
Score: 17/20
Price: C$23.15  (SAQ)

Drive for One Hundred: Two Obscure Reds

Grapes #95 and #96 in my nearly completed quest are true "oddities" - one fashioned from a grape rarely seen in a single varietal wine, while the other is an obscure old world grape that has somehow found a home in Canada.

I approached the 2004 Vina Ijalba Graciano (Rioja) with some reservation - after all, there must be a reason why Rioja producers have pretty much abandoned (just 0.7% of the vineyard area) this grape, right? A very solid effort - notes of bing cherries, liquorice and truffles dominating on the nose, but some attractive leather, vanilla-y oak, and flinty black pepper as well - very nice to sniff. Crisp cherries and liquorice on the palate, silky tannins and fresh acidity, oaky but not overly so. This is seriously good juice, and could win back some wine drinkers who have abandoned the jammier "nouveau Rioja" wines. 
cork. 13% alcohol
Score: 17/20
Price: C$20.65 (SAQ)

I had similar issues with the Baco Noir, i.e. if Baco is so great, why is this grape so rare? Well it seems to have found a home in Canada. The 2005 Henry of Pelham Baco Noir was quite aromatic and interesting - cherry liqueur and old shoes (leather and rubber, but not in a bad way), green herbs and tarry ashpalt notes - somewhat odd, but interesting. Very crisp, fine acidity, but with little tannin and a short finish. An unusual wine, likely polarizing - I kinda liked it, but I just can't figure out the right pairing...
cork. 13.5% alcohol
Score: 15.5/20
Price: C$14.85 (SAQ)

Drive for One Hundred: Two Obscure Whites

Two more oddities tonight as I close in on the finish line and that fancy scroll, some whites from the South of France and Sicily. 

The 2006 Grande Reserve des Bastides Blanc Sec Perlé is from the Gaillac region in the South of France, and is made from the local varieties Loin de L'œil, Mauzac and Sauvignon Blanc.  A nose of cream and freshly squeezed lemons, some green grass, toasted bread and subtle floral notes. Refreshing...with a slight effervescence, intense minerality and crisp acidity - how about VdP Cotes de Gascogne meets Chablis? 
cork. 12% alcohol
Score: 15.5/20
Price: C$15.55 (SAQ)

From Sicily we have the 2007 Primula Firriato Bianco, a wine made from the native grape Catarratto. Minerally, creamy, and buttery lime scents, some yeast and banana. Fresh limes, soft and chalky on the palate, modest acid. A smooth, balanced and easy drinking wine - a well-priced and enjoyable patio quaffer but a touch bland and fleeting.
cork. 13% alcohol
Score: 15/20
Price: C$10.60 (SAQ)

For those of you who are wondering when this odd grape madness will end, tonight's wines are number 93 and 94 on the list. I'm actually up to 99, notes coming soon...

La Colombe: Great Food & Friends, Pair With Awesome Wine

I joined two buddies, Ash and Lloyd, for an evening of great food and wine at La Colombe. It was my first ever visit to La Colombe, one of Montreal's great "bring your own wine" restos. Lloyd's favourite, I would have to agree that it is amongst Montreal's best, but as great as the food was (my veal shank was stupendous), an amazing flight of wines were the stars this evening...

Lloyd's contribution was a 1995 Grand-Puy-Lacoste (Pauillac). Leafy green notes gave way to unsweetened cocoa, leather, grenadine, smokey black pepper, truffles and pencil shavings - gorgeous! Ever so elegant on the palate, with bright cherry fruit, silky tannins, fresh acidity and a long finish, it was drinking very well this evening but could go MANY more years. A strong case for investing in a wine cellar.
cork, 13% alcohol, Score: 18.5/20

My wine friends rarely taste high-end Malbec so I thought I'd surprise them with my last bottle of 2000 Catena Alta Malbec Angelica Vineyard (Mendoza). A complex and ever-changing nose...beef au jus with a fruit sauce on top...dark cherries, charcoal, flint, undergrowth, cocoa powder and coffee grounds. A palate of crisp, dark cherry fruit and velvety tannins satisfied with a very long finish...even better than last year.
cork, 14% alcohol, Score: 18/20

Ashkan's 1999 Cantina di Montalcino Brunello di Montalcino looked rather suspicious to Lloyd and I, as neither of us had heard of this estate. The mystery continued as this shy bottle took time to open up, later revealing notes of cloves, tobacco, smokey liquorice, and compote. Terrific mouthfeel, all liquorice and velvety tannins dancing across the palate, it may also have been the nicest wine with the food (the decanter emptied first, I believe). IIt might age, but it was drinking So well today.
cork, 13% alcohol, Score: 18/20

Wow, three 18+ wines, doesn't get much better than that...and the food was REALLY, REALLY good.

Bu, Bar à Vin?

Bu is a Montreal wine bar ... well, sort of. Yes, it has an extensive list of wines and special "flights" of wines by the glass (constantly changing), but technically you cannot just sit down and have a drink - you have to order from the kitchen.

Which brings me to the main reason you need to visit Bu - the food. Yes, the wine list is great and the flights are interesting and challenging, but the star is Ms. Alba Delgado, "la chef de cuisine", who brings her twenty years in Italy to a tight selection of flavourful and impeccably-made Italian classics. I've been twice now and I had the "risotto du jour" both times - amongst the best risottos in town. But I digress....

Tonight's intrepid trio of wine tasters included myself, Marcus (who has moved over to Facebook), and my bro-in-law. Our opening flight featured a few whites:

2006 Cecilia Zeta del Tucano (Vermentino di Toscana)
2006 Odysseus (Priorat)
2006 Domaine Larue St-Aubin 1er Cru "Murgers des Dents de Chien" (Burgundy)

The Cecilia was thin and light, with creamy apple and key lime notes... crisp, green and unoaked, not bad. The Odysseus, crafted from Pedro Ximenez grapes, was soft and flavourful on the palate...cantaloupe, pears and applesauce on the nose, a touch hot - I had it pegged for a dry Jurancon (see Alder's winery description). The Domaine Larue was my first from this Burgundian appellation - an oaky, creamy, smokey-apple chardonnay with an up-front minerality that I thought was Californian - expensive and too much oak.

After we washed down the appetizers with the whites we switched to reds for the main course:

2004 Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot (Chambolle-Musigny)
2005 Philippe Alliet Coteau de Noire (Chinon)
2001 Joseph Swan Mancini Ranch Zinfandel (Russian River)

The Alliet Chinon was my favourite and easily identified...green pepper, damp undergrowth, flint and inky blackberry - dry woodsy tannins and crisp acidity on the palate, a long finish, YUM. The Domaine Confuron-Cotetidot had to be the least typical red Burgundy I have ever tasted - meaty walnuts and red berry fruit on the nose, but unbalanced on the palate with a sharp acidic frame and flavours of rusty nails - no one picked this as a pinot, much less Burgundy. The Swan Zin was tired, old, alcohol-y cooked fruit, I was thinking Nero d'Avola on this one (a term I occasionally use to describe an unidentified red wine I don't like...).

But Swan made it up to us, as we enjoyed a glass of the 2001 Joseph Swan Trenton Estate Syrah (Russian River) to finish the evening - meaty, dark berry fruit and cedary black pepper on the nose, blackberries wrapped in velvety tannins on the palate, a wine that is hitting its stride at 7 years old.

Sorry for the delay, Marcus - cheers!

Drive for One Hundred: 2007 La Sablette Muscadet Sèvre et Maine

Muscadet is a confusing wine word, the name of a grape (that also goes by other names), yet the French appellation of "Muscadet Sèvre et Maine" uses the Melon de Bourgogne grape for its dry white wines. Thus tonight's "Muscadet", the 2007 La Sablette Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie, is Melon de Bourgogne - not my first wine from this appellation, but with no notes on my site it ends up in my "Drive for 100". A pretty nose of soapy lavender and wildflowers, framed by aromas of flinty lemon peel, hummus and yeast. Very minerally on the palate, like sipping wine from a stone (or amethyst?) goblet, nicely textured but thin and fleeting. A simple, nicely balanced pre-dinner quaffer, I'd serve it with the salad course or a tray of oysters.
plastic cork. 12% alcohol
Score: 16/20
Price: C$13.55 (SAQ)

Note that the 'sur lie' means the wine is bottled straight from the vat without racking, and must spend a minimum amount of time on the lees before bottling. This is done for added complexity, and may result in some effervescence (but not noticeable tonight).