Recent Articles
Get
Michael Vaughan's Buying Guide for today's Vintages Release today!
With a special $20 Discount
Click Here
Fan
Feedback
©
Michael Vaughan 2006
National Post
Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday,
October 21, 2006
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. Call
the store first to see if stock still remains (each store phone number is
listed).
It's always a pleasure to give readers a window to express their views. Feedback from fans attending last Saturday's Whisky Live Toronto 2006 event was generally positive. There were complaints that even the closed doors couldn't stop blaring "rock" music at the massive LCBO stand from interfering with the paid-for seminars just steps away. Also, one disappointed shopper wondered why was the Scotch selection in the on-site LCBO store on display so paltry?
As for the seminars, the key complaint was that the large water tumblers used to assess whiskies costing up to $2,000 a bottle didn't let tasters truly appreciate what was being served. Nor, given the extreme variability of presentations, did $25 identical pricing of seminars make much sense. Indeed, some ticket buyers were especially grumpy that some samples of the best Scotch evaporated before all seminar attendees received their fair share.
While there was plenty of whisky to taste, the Ontario agent for Ardberg failed to show its newest $124.95 release, which I recommended in last Saturday's National Post. Also, I was surprised to discover that the agency rep was incorrectly informing people that it wasn't on the shelf yet!
Meeting
Gillian Howell, one of the world's
youngest female distillers, at Whisky Live was a distinct pleasure. At 26,
Howell resides at the new Penderyn Distillery in Wales, which was set up
by a group of UK investors and just started distilling on September 14,
2000. My only reservation is that her just-released, pleasant, unpeated,
4-year-old inaugural Penderyn Single Malt Welsh Whisky comes at an
overly ambitious price of $90 a bottle (Vintages has 20 six-packs
appearing next month). For serious drinkers, it is the contents, not just
expensive packaging and marketing hype that count.
Moving
on to the recent sold-out Vintages $250-a-ticket Pre-auction
Gala Tasting at Carlu, some attendees were surprised that
despite the admission price, the tasting glasses were the everyday ISO
variety. Nevertheless, there were some wonderful wines to be tasted,
including the deliciously accessible 1988 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
I was surprised that a number of the highlights sampled, including a
wonderful, elegant, caramel-marmalade flavoured 1953 Chateau Doisy
Daene, the sublime 1998 Chateau Cheval Blanc, as well as, an
amazing Dal Forno 1988 Reciotto della Valpolicella were all not
available for sale at last weekend's auction. Surely it would make sense
to indicate which wines (using the lot numbers) that are actually
available for sale.
In addition, the wine you are previewing may not actually come from the auction. As some items are sourced in the US, it would be useful to know if the wine sampled is actually from the sale (listing lot numbers would be very useful).
Even
then, as good as some of these bottles taste, there can be tremendous
quality shifts resulting from variable storage conditions. While the
Vintages auction netted a record $2.23 million over three days (with a 91%
sell through), authority Peter Meltzer
who is the Wine Spectator's wine auction correspondent (more than two
decades) notes that in many cases there was no report on the wine's
quality condition. This is indicated by bottle fill - the greater the air
space (called ullage), the more likely the wine will be faulty. "Buyers
need to know fill levels when bidding on the likes of Château Palmer
1966 (lot 870) or Palmer 1970 (lot 902)," says Meltzer.
"It also wouldn't hurt to know how the various consignments were
housed - professional storage, home-temperature-humidity-controlled unit,
or passive."
Meltzer also points out that "the estimates (the high-low expected selling prices printed in the catalogue) were somewhat high by US standards, although not altogether unrealistic." Of course, one has to add the 15% buyer's premium plus 12% PST and 6% GST, all of which really increases the cost. For instance, three bottles of DRC 1997 La Tache fetched $2990 (or $4057 after taxes & buyer's premium). This is more than twice the current Wine Spectator auction average of $1766 Cnd. Of course, the LCBO monopoly on such auctions, which restricts availability and competition, generates huge LCBO revenues at customer expense.
Anyone
interested in buying rare wines should invest in a copy of Peter D.
Meltzer's just published Keys to the Cellar:
Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting from Wiley. Listed at
$38.99, it is available at www.chapters.indigo.ca
for only $24.44 (to see click
here).
Pick of the Week
From New Zealand's Matua Valley, winemaker Peter
Munro made his Toronto debut at a tasting at Brasaii restaurant
on King Street West where he presented four very well made wines. 
Currently available on the LCBO general list, is Matua
Valley 2004 Hawkes Bay Merlot Cabernet (610964)
at $15.95. Unlike some New Zealand reds, which can be somewhat herbal,
this fruit-driven blend is very lively with fine juicy plum and ripe
crancherry flavours. It is very versatile - perfect with everything from
lamb chops to burgers. Both it and its companion white, the new, crisp, 2006
Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc (619452 also $15.95),
come with convenient screwcap closures.
2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006
Tasting Note Database
Our
tasting note database from December 31, 2000 to September 2006, covers every
Vintages release product for the past 69 months. There are more than 13,000 notes in the database data. Just enter the name of the product,
supplier name or CSPC number. Or you can search by type of wine, country
of origin, even wine agent! Nothing could be easier. Also you can get information on the agent by clicking on the
agent’s name, as well as current LCBO store inventory by clicking on
"Check
LCBO Availability", which will automatically tell you the
number of bottles at LCBO as of last night.
To
use our Tasting
Notes Database: click
here
|
** For All Visitors ** To
see the complete list of upcoming
products
from the |
Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada
2006
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
(electronic or other wise) and or quotation.
Contact Michael Vaughan at
mbv@total.net