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World Cup Blues
Winners for Whiners
© Michael Vaughan 2002
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
National Post • Saturday, June 22, 2002

It’s Wednesday and I am contemplating this weekend’s celebratory beverage selection. Unfortunately, it’s getting tougher and tougher when it comes down to selecting a wine to toast World Cup victors. What with France, Portugal, Italy and Argentina gone, the pickings are ever slimmer. As for today’s match, Spain v. Korea and Senegal v. Turkey, by the time you read this the outcome will be known.

While I am personally rooting for Spain, whose wines offer great appeal, the survival possibilities of their soccer team is hardly assured. It’s not that I have anything against Korea. I love their cuisine and they also make a fine lager called OB. Unfortunately, you will have to go to a Korean restaurant if you want a bottle (the LCBO doesn’t stock it). In fact, it was in such an establishment where I discovered what may well be the answer for Korea’s sterling World Cup performance - a flavourful, distilled, herbal concoction with ginseng called Bek Se Ju (13%), which is literally translated as “longevity alcohol.”  

If Spain is victorious, there are hundreds, even thousands of possible great libations. For fans of traditional Rioja, the mouthfilling, cedar-driven Muga 1997 Unfiltered Rioja Reserva ($19.95 in this month’s Vintages release) is going to be hard to beat. The nose is extremely complex with limes, baked plums, prunes and even sun dried tomato notes. Having spent 25 months in oak, the cedar flavours are quite pronounced but yet still balanced by stewed plums and sandalwood-tinged, red pepper flavours that go on and on. As of last Monday there were 5 cases at Queens Quay. And even if Spain loses, this is the kind of red that makes everyone feel like a  winner.

Talking about losers, I don’t know if there is an Italian version of “Don’t cry for me Argentina” but there were certainly a lot of wet eyes around earlier this week when Italy’s finest went down in flames. Rather than whine about officiating, let me recommend two decent buys currently on the LCBO General List.

The first, an inexpensive white, comes from one of those large coops in Lazio region of central Italy which hardly known for great wine. At an incredible $5.95 a bottle, Cerveteri 2001 Fontana Morella Bianco has surprisingly fresh, light bodied, ripe lemon flavours with a faintly leesy, unoaked finish. Normally at this price, quality expectations are at the subway level. Just one taste, however, and it will be obvious that the frolicking, toga-clad Romans pictured on the bottle’s front label were also impressed with this tasty crowd pleaser. Perfect for fish or poultry, this isn’t a wine for laying down but chilling and gulping.

This blend of Trebbiano and Malvasia has just been launched in one hundred LCBO outlets. Unfortunately, each store has a miniscule 12 bottles on hand, hardly enough to wet a rat’s ass. Now in its 75^th year, it is depressing to discover that LCBO store inventory has truly become a thing of the past. The newly instituted “just-in-time” shelf stocking is a joke. May I suggest you call the store before going and request to have your selection held so as to save you a wasted trip. You never know when the LCBO cupboard will be bare.

Moving on to an excellent, very accessible red at only $9.65 - Mezzacorona 2000 Trentino Merlot from northern Italy’s Lake Garda region. This new LCBO General List entry is smooth, medium bodied, ripe plum and dried cherry flavours. There isn’t a hint of bitterness or malic (green apple) acidity - characteristics that are occasionally found in some Italian reds at this price point. This 98-year-old former large coop has been absorbed into a new, publicly-traded, conglomerate with 2,500 hectares of vines in Trentino, Alto-Adige, Sicily and Tuscany. The Trentino winery was fully updated with a new modern facility just two years ago, and the results are impressive.

For those wanting something stiffer to drown their World Cup blues (i.e. UK), there’s an excellent, new, well-priced Scotch in Vintages. Drumguish Single Highland Malt at only $29.70 is represents outstanding value. Light golden yellow in colour, the charming nose is slightly spicy and honeyed with beeswax, faintly smoky, ripe apricot notes. It’s quite lovely on the palate with elegant, rounded, slightly peppery, ripe lemon flavours.

Which brings me around to the mystery whisky of the day, which cost three times as much as the Drumguish. We held a number of blind comparative tastings. The mystery whisky was slightly lighter in colour with a more pungent, peppery nose. It is also a tad hotter and more peppery on the palate with a touch of caramel.

The results were surprising. While I preferred the first; as did a number of other tasters, some gave the edge to our mystery whisky, which had more grip (43% vs. 40% alcohol). The latter turned out to be Glen Breton Rare which comes from Glenora, North America’s only single malt distillery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It has had rave reviews and is definitely a cult item. Ontario consumers have apparently been clamoring for the stuff, although at $89.95, you will have to decide for yourself whether its worth the price. Keep in mind that it is now on the LCBO General List and that the price has fallen from a $99 high when it appeared in Vintages last December. Ironically, to my taste the first-bottling of Glen Breton at only 40% was superior to this higher proof blend! Unfortunately, this lower proof bottling has been discontinued. All of which makes me think, perhaps it is time for a  World Cup Whisky match.  

Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2004
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Contact Michael Vaughan at
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