Victoria Day Weekend:
An Explosion of Flavours

Michael Vaughan
Friday, May 16, 2008

Welcome to Friday First
First, let me wish readers happy holidays. Beginning today, resort and cottage-area LCBO stores that normally close at 6:00 pm will remain open until 9:00 on Friday evenings. Selected LCBO stores in these communities will also stay open later on Saturday evenings. In most cases, these extended Friday and Saturday evening hours will continue until the Labour Day weekend. To check if your store is open, call the Infoline at 1-800-ONT-LCBO (668-5226) or infoline@lcbo.com

Let me kick of with last Friday’s May 9th Henry of Pelham’s tasting of 13 vintages of their Reserve Riesling, which is available on the LCBO general list at $14.85. This estate-bottled white comes from their own vineyards planted in 1984. They have always been reasonably priced. To see my tasting note on the recommended, 2006 Cuvee-award-winner click here.

Henry of Pelham
Riesling Reserve Tasting 1990-2007
This was an extremely interesting exercise with 1995 (a warm intense vintage) coming out a clear first with 93-points, followed by the 1996 (a longer cooler vintage) with 91-points.

The tasting was professionally done in ISO glasses, but some extremely important facts relating to the nature of the vintage (i.e. long dry fall with a late hand picking), the quality of the grapes (brix, yield per vine, presence of botrytis, TA, etc.) were not available. Nor were any background details of how the wines were made – yeast type, fermentation, residual sugar, total acidity, type of filtration, etc. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to understand what is in the glass without this additional information.

It appears that many wine writers don’t care about this information. There seems to be an assumption that simply scoring a wine is all that matters. In fact, you can never truly understand and/or judge a wine accurately unless you have these details. Simply liking or disliking what’s in the glass may be what the readers wants, but the quality of what’s in the glass totally depends on these ignored details. Without knowing and comprehending the latter, one will never become a knowledgeable wine expert.

Wine Awards Canada
Ontario Medal Winners
Here is our exclusive updated Wine Awards Canada summary of the 90 Ontario wine award winners to date. There are a total of 73 Ontario Wine Award medals and 20 Cuvée gold medal award winners. Only 3 wines appear in both lists. To see the list click here

Chez Victor Welcomes
Eric Peacock & Henry of Pelham
On Friday night, Chez Victor hosted a special dinner. Visiting chef Eric Peacock did well, although the sound level was a tad too high for me liking. The best course was

Foie Gras Torchon, Roasted Squab Breast,
Rhubarb Compote
2006 Riesling Icewine Niagara Escarpment

Spanish Winemaker
Maria Martinez introduces
Solaz 2005 Merlot Tempranillo

On Monday, May 12th I met with the ever-charming Maria Martinez to taste some of her newly-listed and upcoming wines for the LCBO. Maria is the winemaker at Bodegas Osborne and is responsible for Solaz, Dominio de Malpica and Bodegas Montecillo.

In terms of price-quality ratios, the most impressive was the newly-listed Osborne Solaz 2005 Merlot Tempranillo (74021) at only $10.75 a bottle on the general list. Available in 108 stores, this big, juicy 65/35 blend is perfect for BBQ ribs or just about anything off the BBQ. The focus is ripe plums and black cherries. It’s ripe and ready to rock and roll – a winner for the Victoria Day weekend.

If you wish to receive the May 24th Edition of Vintage Assessments and get the complete list of exactly what’s worth buying (and avoiding) become an FBTI Supporter today and have our May 24th issue and my personal Shopping List sent to you TODAY click here