Organic & Artisanal
Vintages Best Buys

Michael Vaughan
Friday, April 4, 2008

Welcome to Friday First Some readers were surprised that last week’s feature on the March 29th Vintages Release did not include any recommendations from the artisnal (14-items) and organic (17-items) sections.

While quite a few of these new wines did not impress, I do have several recommendations. Before listing my best buys, I have to question the LCBO’s designation of “artisanal” producers and, in particular, the LCBO’s selection of wines.

For instance, J.M. Sohler may well produce some distinguished whites in Alsace, but the current 2005 Riesling Heissenberg at $18.95 isn’t worthy of a detour. The back label has a glowing review by ever-affable Zoltan Szabo, a Toronto-based wine-consultant. From my vantage point, his 4.5 star rating (out of 5 stars) is decidedly over-optimistic. The two bottles of Sohler Riesling I sampled were rather difficult, with peppery, dried apple flavours. With only 12.5% alcohol, it appears that the grapes did not develop sufficient phenolic ripeness thereby explaining the lack of ripe fruit. While I didn’t particularly like this wine, it would work with certain dishes. My score? A lowly single star out of a potential of three.

An infinitely better buy with **/**+ stars at the same price is Pierre Sparr 2005 Gewurztraminer Réserve (747600), which is riper (13.5% alcohol) and loaded with candied lychee flavours. The nose is honeyed, sweet, and very spicy with candied lychee and baked pear nose. On the palate it is spicy, well-balanced, fairly intense and medium to medium-full bodied with honeyed, sweet pear and lychee flavours. It is ready to enjoy and for comparison purposes, this fine Alsatian effort is a tad richer than the recommended Spy Valley 2006 Gewurztraminer (32870) at $18.95 from New Zealand. Note that neither of these whites are “artisinal” or “organic”.

While I have no organic white recommendations, I have two from artisanal selection. First from Oregon’s Willamette Valley is Benton-Lane 2006 Pinot Gris (64253) at $22.95. It weighs in with 14% alcohol and has an intense, honeyed, spicy, ripe apple purée nose with some hints of lemon. On the palate it is fairly dry and zesty with bright, ripe lemon-melon flavours and a lingering, honeyed finish. Great with poultry and freshly steamed Spring asparagus.

For lovers of Loire Sauvignon Blanc, don’t miss 2006 Sancerre Cuvée Les Caillottes (65573) at $23.95. It has an attractive, spicy, honeyed, ripe melon and yellow grapefruit nose. Ditto for the palate, which is dry, harmonious and medium bodied with refined ripe yellow grapefruit flavours along with hints of grass and ripe melon on the finish.

Moving on the reds, things went from challenging to disappointing. Of some 20 selections, I only had two recommendations - just 10% of the total listed. The first from the Napa Valley is the extracty artisinal Madrigal Vineyards 2003 Petite Sirah 2003 (71803) at $19.95. It has a solid 14.8% alcohol and an extremely deep intense purple colour. The nose is intense, spicy and Bourbon-tinged with plummy, baked cherry notes. On the palate it is dry and fairly well structured with spicy, plummy, dried cherry flavours and a long finish.

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