The Appeal of New and Unusual Wines

Which of the following scenarios is likely to result in more pleasure? Scenario one: you open a bottle of wine from a favourite region and variety(ies) that you purchased several years ago and it meets all your expectations. Scenario two: you open a bottle of unusual wine from a completely different region or varieties that was gifted to you and it delights with its style and quality. All else being equal, I would argue that the latter scenario is the more pleasing one because of the element of surprise. When I purchase classic regional wines, I research them beforehand and generally have a pretty good sense of what I can expect from each. They aren't always exactly what I anticipated but generally show good varietal typicity and represent fair to excellent value regardless of the price I paid. I am generally pleased and rarely surprised by these wines.

As a result, I often add new and unusual bottles to my shopping cart. Part of this is the joy of exploring the wide world of wine and the learning that comes from going outside your comfort zone but mostly, I purchase these wines because I tend to have far fewer expectations so when I open one, I am eager to embrace whatever experience awaits. Sometimes, the wines under deliver and I might decide this is not a region or variety I will search out in future. Other times, these wines offer a level of quality and pleasure that has me asking, "where have you been all my life?" There is nothing like being transported to a different part of the world through a wine. When I'm asked have you ever been to Georgia, or Crete, or Corsica, or Taiwan, I might respond not yet, but at least I've enjoyed wines from those places. As a huge advocate of diversity in the wine world, I fear the industry is becoming far too homogenized with so much Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon getting all the attention. By purchasing a wider range of wines, I hope to do my small part to support wineries at home and around the world that are doing something different or embracing innovation.

It is fair to say that most wine-interested consumers will only buy wines from places and producers they are familiar with. Perhaps it's an inexpensive Cabernet from their favourite producer in California with all its dark fruit, overt clove and mocha flavours, soft tannins, seductive sweetness, and warming alcohol. Nobody wants to risk spending their hard-earned money on a bottle that might disappoint so this can be a reliable 'sure thing'. The problem is, while you may enjoy your $20 Cali Cab day after day, you could be getting even more pleasure from something entirely different that might cost less money. Maybe its a Malbec from Cahors or Mendoza, or a ripasso Valpolicella. Unless you adventure outside the box once in a while, you'll never know what you've been missing.

Last summer I was camping in Québec and stopped by a new winery near Granby south of Montreal. The owner of Vignoble Picbois, John Baldwin, is a former restaurant manager in British Columbia. In the 90's, he was running the prestigious Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler while I was at Raincity Grill and C Restaurant in Vancouver so I was eager to see what he was up to in his new life as winery owner and winemaker. My experience with Québecois wines is quite limited, and while I've been delighted with many I've tried, every new wine comes with few expectations. Only two wines were available for purchase the day I visited John, so I bought a couple of bottles of each to stuff into the fridge of my 1993 Eurovan Camper van for the trip home. 

Recently, I opened my final bottle of the 2022 Rosé alongside some pan-fried cod with garlic brown butter and poached local asparagus. The wine is a blend of two white varieties: 42% Vidal, 42% Geisenheim, and 16% Sabrevois, a red variety. What could this unusual blend from these strange hybrid grape varieties produced in a wine world backwater possibly offer compared to a classic rosé from Provence or Spain? Why would I waste my money on such a risky purchase? As it turns out, it was an absolute delight brimming with elegance and freshness. Masterfully blended, it offered pink peppercorn, citrus, and sour red fruits notes with herbal and pine notes. Mouth-filling, dry, but nicely rounded after 2 years, it was perfectly balanced, wonderfully complex, and had a surprisingly long finish. No surprise it was only one of three Québecois vineyards that won a gold medal at Sélections Mondiales. I reached out to John to share my enthusiasm and he informed me of a new wine, the Cuvée Seduction, that has recently been released and promises to blow my socks off. So the new wine adventure continues and I love it. Something else new and unusual to experience in the months ahead.

There is no doubt, life is too short to drink bad wine, but I would also add, life is too short to drink too much of the same wine, no matter how good it might be. 

As the French say, Vive la Différence!

Why Chardonnay IS the Greatest White Grape on the Planet

 I realize this is both a controversial and bold statement and likely one that is impossible to prove, just like it’s impossible for sommeliers to prove wines contain aromas and flavours of minerality. Like them, I just know it. I'll do my best to defend my position, but I encourage others to chime in and challenge my assertions. 

Let me start by saying I am quite biased in my view. My mother's family was from Burgundy. They lived in a little village near Chablis called Noyers that I have visited on a few occasions. It is charming, quiet, and historic like so many tucked away in every corner of France. My great uncle Rico was a ‘Noyerer’ until he passed away at 102 years of age. Each day he walked the entirety of the village, ate his lunch at the local restaurant with other townsfolk, and drank a glass of Chablis. He had two wives and never wore glasses. I attribute his long life to the former three activities. The first great wine I had in my life was a Chardonnay. It was a 1986 François Ravenneau 1er Cru Chablis Montée de Tonnerre and I drank it with my wife in 1992. It was absolutely, heart-stoppingly good and it changed my world. I had just completed my certified sommelier training in Toronto and moved out west to Vancouver to explore opportunities. If there was even the tiniest shred of a doubt that I would devote my life to wine, it was instantly dispelled. Great wines can do that.

Many claim that Riesling is, in fact, the greatest white grape on the planet because of its innate ability to carry to the glass the character of the terroir in which it is grown. Riesling has scintillating acidity and lovely fruit intensity. It can be made as a bone dry or extremely sweet wine. It can be still or sparkling and the best versions age for decades. The only problem is relatively few people drink it and only a small number of regions of the world are capable or making great wines from it. I love Riesling on certain occasions but for everyday drinking, I’m a Chard man.

Chardonnay has a great story. Not only does it grow in practically every wine-producing country on earth making it widely available to masses of wine drinkers, but it can also produce perfectly drinkable inexpensive plonk or the greatest and most expensive wines on the planet. If you have ever sampled a great Montrachet from Leflaive, a Kumeu River from New Zealand, or a Domaine de la Côte from Santa Rita Hills, you’ll understand what I’m saying. Of course, like any grape variety there are plenty of awful versions out there too, but the beauty of Chardonnay is choice, choice, choice. You can spend $3 or $300. You can have feather-lite and simple, fruity, rich and complex, woody, stony, still, or sparkling. While sweet Chardonnay is a bit of a rarity, there are some producers of inexpensive, commercial Chardonnay that may leave 8-12 grams of sugar to enhance the fruit character and ease of drinking. Chardonnay also grows on a wide variety of soils. While it is most celebrated on limestone or chalky soils, very good versions can be grown on sandy, loamy, or gravelly soils too. 

Champagne makes arguably the best and most age worthy sparkling wines, typically labelled Blanc de Blancs, and made entirely from Chardonnay. Try finding Blanc des Millenaires from Heidsieck or Lanson Noble Blanc de Blancs. If you’ve got a few extra hundreds of dollars laying around, you might opt for a Krug Clos de Mesnil or Salon. As for still wines, there are pristine, mineral-rich, nervous, energetic whites with moderate alcohol from places like Chablis, France or Prince Edward County, Ontario. If you prefer a slightly richer mouthfeel without the smell and taste of new oak, you can opt for a Chardonnay with lees contact. This is where the yeast cells, now perished post alcoholic fermentation, are allowed to remain in the wine during a period of aging. During this time, the yeast cells autolyze, or self-digest, breaking down into wonderful aromas of fresh bread dough and biscuit. This autolysis also adds mid-palate richness to the wines. There are plenty of good versions in Niagara, Ontario or from the cool coastal vineyards in South Africa, New Zealand, or Chile. Another common technique to enhance the body of the wine is malolactic fermentation. In this process, the sharp, aggressive malic acid is naturally converted to the creamier, softer lactic acid through the help of bacteria. Not only does this give the wines a slightly smoother, creamy mouthfeel, but it also adds a sometimes-intriguing buttery diacetyl aroma which complements the apple, pear, nut, and biscuit aromas perfectly. For many, the greatest expression of Chardonnay is one with plenty of new oak character. Great wines with extreme complexity can be enhanced by aging in a percentage of small, new oak barrels. New French oak barrels add clove and baking spice, vanilla, toasty wood, and lovely earthy notes to the wines. New American oak barrels add coconut, sweet, candied vanilla, and dill aromas. The fact that Chardonnay comes from so many places, in so many styles means you’ll have endless food pairing possibilities too. Many think of great Chablis with escargots in butter, garlic and parsley while others might opt for prestigious Côte de Beaune wines with lobster tail and drawn butter. Imagine for a minute the beef eater who wants to drink white wine – what to suggest? Buttery versions of Chardonnay reintroduce fat and moisture to roast or grilled steak, especially when the meat’s fat has been mostly rendered during longer cooking. One of my favourite pairings is great Canadian aged Cheddar with Chardonnay. The flavours are perfectly harmonized and the acid and fruit in the wine cleanses and refreshes the palate with each sip. Sparkling Chardonnay is also heaven with high-fat, soft cheeses like triple cream Brie. Even the ubiquitous Caesar Salad has a friend in a lemony, aromatic new world Chardonnay.

If that wasn’t proof enough, there is almost half a million acres of Chardonnay planted on earth. Only the lowly Airen exceeds that, and it’s grown mostly to produce Spanish brandy. Chardonnay suits every white and even some red moods. It’s a beautiful marriage of mother nature’s generosity and mans know-how. Well-executed, it can be one of the most profound and complex wines on earth and even at it’s worst, it’s generally still drinkable. Not many varieties can claim that.

There are many regions out there producing excellent Chardonnay – too many to name. The best way to taste the remarkable range of styles available is to attend the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration on July 18 to 21 (www.coolchardonnay.org). Chardonnay of all styles and price points from around the world are featured. In the meantime, here is a wonderful local version that hits all the right buttons. It's got wonderful pure fruit expression, deft winemaking, a razor sharp backbone of gorgeous acidity, and pristine balance and all that comes at a very reasonable price. It's sure to put a smile on your face just as it did mine. Find it at www.maenadwines.com/

Why Age Wines?

Why Age Wines?

As Howard Jones likes to point out, things can only get better. While that may be true of some things, it isn't always true of wines. 

As a professor of beverage alcohol, I often get asked by my students, "why age a wine?", and "which wines should I age?". These are both excellent questions and although they seem to be asked less and less often, I am still eager to convey the benefits of patience and good cellaring practices. At any given time, I have roughly 600 bottles sleeping in my subterranean wine cellar. It's dark, cool, and damp - all excellent conditions for long-term wine storage. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to pull bottles out of the rack that have rested for a decade or more and are finally ready to be consumed with friends and a good meal. If I time it right, at this point in their lives, the wines have developed plenty of tertiary aromas or "bouquet". These aromas might include dried fruit, cedar wood, tobacco, mushroom, earth, honey, or animal smells. In a perfect world, their acids have rounded, their tannins are velvety and sweet, and there is a sensation of lushness and fullness to the wines. Flavours last much longer on the palate and aromas are much more complex as these tertiary characteristics join the now-integrated secondary "winemaking" and primary "grape and terroir" aromas. A bottle, aged properly, that might have cost $20 or $30, will smell, taste, and feel like a much more expensive wine. 

So which wines to age? Ideally, we are looking for wines with adequate structure and concentration. That is to say, whites with plenty of acid surrounded by lots of extract and complexity. Reds should have ripe, firm tannins plus lots of chewy and dense fruit character. Obviously, prestigious wines from Bordeaux, Barolo, and Brunello are the pinnacle of ageworthy wines, but there are plenty of other, less prestigious and less expensive wines out there that will still enjoy a 5-10 year slumber. 

Take, for example, the Rosso Piceno pictured here from Le Marche, Italy. It's a blend of Montepulciano and Sangiovese and offers a really lovely drinking experience in youth. The problem is, the tannins are quite firm and a little obtrusive and the aromatic complexity is somewhat limited at this point. Imagine a tight fist where each finger has its own unique aroma and flavour. It isn't until the fist loosens that each of the fingers aroma becomes evident. Wines are like that. As they age, their grip loosens and their character becomes more expressive, giving the wine more complexity and ultimately a softer and more pleasurable mouthfeel. Because this Rosso Piceno has such lovely fruit concentration and ripe but plentiful tannins, I know it will become more and more perfumed, mouth-filling, and smooth after 5+ years of aging. It's only $17.95, but it's really well made and it comes from grape varieties that generally guarantee tannin and acidity. The fact that it has such lovely, dense fruit concentration is what makes it such a great candidate for your cellar. 

One final word on aging. It is always better to drink a wine too young than to drink it too old. Don't wait too long because once a wine is aged too long, the fruit dries out and it loses its glorious texture. As a general rule of thumb, most whites will be enjoyable between 5 to 10 years old and most ageworthy reds will be approachable between 10 to 15 years. It's always a good idea to buy a few bottles so you can monitor a wines progress each time to pull another cork.