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Get
all the evaluations for
the February
Release The
reader asks National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist Saturday, January 18, 2003 Yes, you’ve got mail.
The e-mailbag is often riddled with questions from avid readers. When I
recently said that a wine’s colour should not be used in scoring its
quality, I was asked “how come every book out there says colour
counts?’ colour blind The point is that colour
should not be permitted to make a inferior smelling/tasting wine score
more highly than one which isn’t quite as good. Of course, in many
cases colour is an important indicator of quality. The trouble is that
different grapes and vilification procedures will produce wines with
vastly different hues and intensities and, unfortunately, there is no
guarantee that more colour means better. One of my favourite
grape varieties, for instance, is Pinot Noir. It will never have the
depth of colour as say the Cabernet Sauvignon grape of Bordeaux, because
unlike Cab, Pinot Noir has white juice. That’s why you can often find
Pinot Noir in Champagne. Its red grape skins are the key. Just like
making a cup of tea, the crushed skins are steeped in the juice (a
process known as maceration) and voilá red wine. It would be wrong to
award a Pinot Noir a lower score than say a Cab because it doesn’t
have the same depth of red. While longer maceration and/or higher
temperature will increase colour, it can also damage flavours. So rather
than muddy the waters by scoring colour, I simply describe it (much more
useful than a number) and go on to evaluate the things that really
count. what, when and how Other questions focus on
the “what, when and how” I taste. First, let me confess that tasting
10,000 plus wines a year is a definite grind. However, unlike the poor
movie reviewer who has to sit through three or four films a day, I
don’t have to spend two hours evaluating something that doesn’t cut
the mustard. Nevertheless, spending some four hours twice a week
shuffling around a lab tasting 70-plus wines at a time is no joy either. An occasional sip of
bottled water will clear the palate - but food breaks are never taken
because it effects concentration. Just like the professional athlete who
trains daily, it takes years to develop one’s sensibilities making
these tasting marathons really work - definitely not for beginners or
even most amateurs. Unfortunately, wine tasting has yet to qualify as an
Olympic sport. I prefer to taste
mid-morning when my taste buds are fresh. I always use the same ISO
tasting glass (discussed in this column a few weeks ago) because I need
consistent notes. As for cleaning my palate, many are surprised that I
rarely need to rinse my mouth. Nor do I “clean” my glass with tap
water. Chlorine is a worse polluter than the tiny remnant drop of the
last wine. This miniscule amount, by the way, has virtually no impact on
the following wine, unless you are changing styles. I always rinse my
glass, for instance, when going from a robust red to a white. best wine destinations Best wine destination is
another recurring reader question. It is difficult to address because so
much depends upon one’s personal interest and discretionary income. It
was easier in the past - in 1965 I spent three months touring European
vineyards on a shoestring budget. In those days I slept on the trains
using my two-month pass and could easily find a room in Paris for under
$10 a night! Today, it is big bucks - so start at home. Once you have toured our local vineyards (and those of the Finger Lakes), my next suggestion would be the Okanagan Valley, especially if there is an Air Canada seat saver fare in September during the Fall wine festival. Personally, I love the
Pacific northwest, especially in the summer. Washington and Oregon are
terrific fly-drive destinations with great wines and stunning scenery.
Of course, California has lots to offer. Even the pricey, crowded Napa
Valley is a must-visit destination. Keep in mind that Sonoma, Mendocino,
etc. are equally exciting, especially with their lower prices. Of all the regions
visited, each with their own special appeal, New Zealand is at the top
of the list. Exactly two years ago I spent ten wondrous days exploring
the scenic roads in search of the world’s finest Pinot Noir. In
comparison to the US dollar and euro, the Canadian buck still means
something in kiwi land. It is the last frontier of reasonably
unblemished travel and its wines have a brightness that is hard to find
anywhere else. If you want more, check out vintagedestinations.ca lcbo empty shelf blues “Why are there so many
empty shelves?” is another question/complaint. All those bare LCBO
shelves aren’t pretty. It’s tragic that wines sit in the LCBO
warehouse for months before getting released. This along with all those
hidden “in-store discoveries” (only visible on my website) make
matters worse. Take today’s wine
recommendation. Wine agency Philippe Dandurand took exception with my
pre-Christmas comment that Cabernet Sauvignon would not go with turkey.
When a bottle of their “soon-to-be-released” California Cab arrived
last month, I got this ‘go forth and multiply’ sort of feeling. So
challenged and armed with several bottles, I did my blind turkey-wine
taste-off. Low and behold I discovered they were right.
Isn’t it bad enough that head office is forcing local store managers to reduce inventory to virtually nothing, meaning constant store stock outs? Apparently, one store manager was threatened with a photograph taken with the store’s “excess” inventory. It gets worse. With no store inventory, head office has cut back on store staffing. Who cares about all that high cost per square foot unused rear store storage space? The LCBO’s “as long as we have something on the shelf, the customer will buy it” philosophy makes me sick.
Check out the
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Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada
2004 |
Beringer’s
Stone Cellars 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon