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LCBO Events Galore
The best tasting deal in town!
© Michael Vaughan 2004
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday, October 16, 2004

LIVE WINE LINK
www.winefind.ca
(CLICK ON THE NAME - All listings are automatically linked to the LCBO database)
If there is a product that interests you, just click on the name below and you will instantaneously connected with the LCBO database. The product will appear in blue and all you have to do is click on the name again and then the next screen will provide details along with the store search. Just click on store search. The number of bottles in each store is updated nightly. You should call the store first to see if stock still remains (each store phone number is listed).

It’s a month of events galore at the LCBO. Tastings, receptions, dinners, you name it. Of course, very few of these things come cheaply. Earlier this week, for instance, some 200 wine collectors paid $250 apiece to attend the 3rd annual gala preview tasting for this weekend’s LCBO auction taking place today and tomorrow at Ritchies, which is located at 288 King Street East.

While $250 might sound like a lot, how often can you taste, albeit in miniscule quantities, wines that cost over $1,000 a bottle? Some 62 were up for grabs, including 4 vintages of the famed Chateau Petrus (1988, 1989, 1990 and 1996). To ease tasting congestion, these were spread among three tables. Ditto for the fabled 1982 and 1996 Chateau Latour, which scored 100 and 99 points respectively by Robert Parker. Quantities were limited, in some cases to a single magnum meaning that one had to use some strategy in determining what to try and taste. With some 200 attendees, that would leave less than a quarter of an ounce each assuming that the bottle(s) are sound. Another complication is that a number of the high end wines were not sourced from the auction itself, but purchased in New York.

Certainly, high scoring rarities attract collectors like moths to a flame. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to taste many trophy wines and, like others, I often find the price-quality ratios to be out of whack. If money were no object, perhaps I could rationalize some astronomic prices in a quest to taste the perfect wine. But like the dinosaur, I come from an era when the greatest of wines were relatively cheap. My mint 1962 Chateau Latour, for instance, was purchased at the SAQ in 1967 for a mere $6.90. In those days the ratio of price between an everyday quaffer and the very best was a factor of 4. Today, that ratio might be 400!

Of course, it would be silly to compare taste profiles of two-buck-chuck with Chateau Latour. One has to acknowledge that beauty is in the mind, or in this case, the palate of the beholder. And yet I wonder. How many are aware that last June, that $1.99 bottle of California 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz won a prestigious double gold medal at the 28th International Eastern Wine Competition, which featured 2,300 combatants?

Having said this, it is always exciting to taste those rare efforts, which bring the critics to their knees. Buying is something else. There is, of course, the art of cherry picking along with sheer luck. At last year’s auction, Toronto wine agent Steven Cohen picked up a case (for his personal cellar) of wonderfully accessible 1975 Chateau Lynch Bages for a mere $80 a bottle (including the buyer’s premium of 15%, PST and GST adding some 32% to the final price).

There are fine buys out there, but you will not find for those nice little case lots that characterized previous auctions. According to Barry O’Brien, the LCBO’s Director of Corporate Affairs and event organizer, the number of lots in this year’s auction has dropped from a high of about 1500 to 1,100. He explains that the LCBO has moved to consolidate lots by putting wines together so that they come out at around a $1,000 minimum. “Still great buys,” he adds.

A quick inspection of the Catalogue, which arrived on Thursday well after my press deadline, indicates that there are plenty of lots beneath the $1,000 threshold suggested by O’Brien. Unfortunately, various requests for a straightforward, easily searchable, auction database (in Excel or Filemaker) has continuously fallen on deaf ears. Instead, we have a sectionalized catalogue in PDF form, which makes searching somewhat awkward and certainly labour intensive. Lot numbers are initially hard to find -  for 633, for instance, you have to type 6space3space3! Also, the numerous images suck up memory space.

Moving on, other distinguished Vintages events this week include a $185 Monday night dinner with Stuart Bourne presenting six Barossa Valley Estate wines at Ultra Supper Club. If you can’t make that, then perhaps it will be Wednesday night’s  $195 Champagne dinner with Christian Pol-Roger and seven of his bubblies at Truffles Restaurant Four Seasons Hotel.

Those on restricted budgets shouldn’t get overly depressed by not being able to partake in these high-end events. Over at the Summerhill/Yonge store  “number ten” one can find the LCBO’s first (and perhaps last) tasting tower. Over 100 wines (currently mostly from Ontario) and, better yet, spirits are yours for the sampling. A really  terrific variety of Scotch and Irish whiskies are available for assessment. It is hard to believe that you can get a wee nip of Glenfiddich 18 Year Old Ancient Reserve (530352), which costs $90.20 for a mere $1.50! It's the best deal in town! For Tasting Tower details click here.

For the trade people, the Portuguese Trade Commission will present Port Wine Mini Salon at the Le Royal Meridien King Edward. For RSVP call  416-642-7919. 

Finally those looking for great value should salute Alex Patinios of Dionysus Wines who with Yvon Mau, will donate 50 cents for every bottle 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Colombard Chardonnay sold in until November 6th to Juvenile Diabetes Research. In May 2001, Alex’s 3-year old son, Philip, was diagnosed with Juvenile (type 1) Diabetes. Today, Philip is in grade two and manages his diabetes well and, with the support of a great team, receives several insulin injections daily. Last year’s campaign raised almost $17,000. This year with the generosity of Yvon Mau and the support of the LCBO, Alex Patinios hopes to raise $20,000.