Vintages on a Roll

Michael Vaughan
Friday, April 11, 2008

Welcome to Friday First
Tomorrow’s Vintages April 12th Release which has a Southern Exposure thematic featuring 25 selections. It sounds nice but unfortunately the premise is a bit flimsy. Simply coming from a hot climate hardly represents a stylistic class of wines.

Of the 122-items being released, 25 are In-Store Discoveries (to see the full list of wines along with agents and case quantities click here). These ISDs are not evaluated because Vintages forbids wine writers from tasting the freshly-opened and unfinished ISD releases presented to the LCBO consultants. All wines recommended below have been tasted three times. They are generally available in LVBO stores as of today - Friday, April 11th.

Best Buy Whites
From the Niagara Peninsula, Mike Weir 2006 Sauvignon Blanc (686972) at $15.95 is a destination. It is free of any bitter, herbal notes that characterize some SBs coming out of South African and New Zealand. It scored *+/** out of three stars and has a very light yellow colour with only 11.8% alcohol. The nose is quite intense with spicy, very zesty, grapefruit peel and rhubarb notes. On the palate it is very dry, bright and medium-light bodied with very tangy, spicy, yellow grapefruit flavours with a lingering, zesty, rhubarb finish. It is ready to enjoy today and would be perfect with seafood

Another fine VQA ** buy is Peninsula Ridge 2006 Dubois Vineyard Reserve Inox Chardonnay (56606) at $19.95. It has a very bright light yellow colour and 13% alcohol. The nose is quite complex, slightly leesy and mineral-driven with ripe lemon and spicy rhubarb-grapefruit notes. On the palate it is gently complex, dry, medium bodied and quite well structured with solid, ripe lemon-grapefruit flavours and a long, lingering finish. It is oak-free and developed its complexity by extended lees exposure. Try with poultry.

My Release Highlight is from South Australia, a blend of 80% McLaren Vale and 20% Adelaide. d’Arenberg  2006 The Last Ditch Viognier (25064) is so tasty **+ at $19.95 that I really don’t care that it doesn’t have anything in common with the traditional Viognier from the south of France. Bright very light yellow colour, the nose shows great complexity with intense, spicy, vanilla stick and lovely key lime pie notes. Dry, medium bodied and well structured, the taste is very bright with lemony, key lime pie flavours and a lingering cedary finish.

Best Buy Reds
From Rioja, Muga 2004 Reserva (177345) at $23.95 shows lots of **+ class. It weighs in with 14% alcohol and has a very deep intense purple colour. The nose is intense, complex and cedary with lots of baked plums. On the palate, it is dry, harmonious, medium to medium-full bodied and fairly extracty with cedary, ripe plum and mocha flavours along with a lingering, balanced finish. It is even a bit better than the recommended 2003 released on September 1, 2007.

The best *** red of the release is the left bank Bodeaux from Pessac-Léognan - 2001 Château Larrivet-Haut-Brion (61788) at $71.95. It has a fairly deep intense purple colour and a complex, spicy, licorice-tinged, ripe plum nose with some cedary, sandalwood notes. Dry, spicy and very well structured on the palate, the harmonious, ripe plum and dried red and black cherries flavours combine with hints of cassis, sandalwood and vanilla stick on the long, lingering, licorice-tinged finish. It is showing surprising well at the moment and should last many years. 

In the fairly cheap and cheerful department comes the extremely tasty, harmonious ** 2005 Château Calissanne (61283) at only $15.95. This AC Côteaux d’Aix-en-Provence from the south of France is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose is very attractive with spicy, juicy, ripe black cherry fruit and some slightly smoky, sandalwood notes. It is dry, well balanced and medium bodied with ripe plum and juicy cherry flavours and a lingering, slightly cedary finish. It will go well with almost anything.

A Great Dessert Wine
Cave Spring 2006 Riesling Icewine (447441) at $59.95 per half bottle is a classic. This sublime VQA Niagara Peninsula effort has a lovely, complex, intense, sweet and sour lemon drop nose with some honeyed caramel notes. Solid, sweet but balanced, rich, viscous, spicy, lemon meringue pie and caramel-vanilla ice cream flavours. It has excellent acidity on the finish that keep the wine balanced despite the 190 grams of residual sugar. Some 38% of the grapes were botrytis affected.

If you wish to receive the April 12th Edition of Vintage Assessments
click here and it will be sent to you today!