Vintage Assessments Home Page

Recent Articles

Archive of National Post Articles

Get all the evaluations for the November Release
Subscribe to Vintage Assessments today by Clicking Here
This not-for-profit website is dedicated to the discerning reader!

New Vinous Tricks & Treats
New Barossa Valley Estate releases

© Michael Vaughan 2004
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday, October 30, 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 is Halloween and I am trying to grapple with a year of vinous tricks and treats. Dealing with the former, every time I enter the LCBO’s Vintages section, I get this scary feeling that they have gone into competition with Toronto’s innumerable dollar shops. It appears that Vintages price makers are fixated on 95 cents as virtually all items now end in 95! It all started last year and is a serious concern for some importers who see their wines rounded up, from say $9.45 to $9.95 with all the spare change going to LCBO coffers. Some have complained that if the price is below the magic mark-up point, rather than mark it down the onus is on the supplier to reduce the selling price so it will hit the magic target. This has been denied by Vintages, who claim they mark down as many wines as they mark up!

All of which makes me wonder: what is wrong with selling a wine for its correct price of say $9.45? It works perfectly for the LCBO’s General List products (where prices are rounded to the nearest nickel). In fact, it was just last summer that the LCBO increased most prices by 15 cents. Such price changes are labour-intensive because in an addition to the mountain of paper work, LCBO staffers had to scurry from price tag to price tag making sure that every nickel and dime was added to display prices.

When we get to the Classics, obviously for people with lots of discretionary income, spare change is done away with all together - everything is in dollars (hopefully rounded up a bit to finance the luxurious Classics Catalogue). The fact that some major retailers have oddball pricing is probably a function of competition, something that is inconceivable in Ontario. At Sam’s Chicago liquor emporium, for instance, everything ends in 49 or 99. Perhaps this inspired the LCBO?

From tricks to treats, last week I had an opportunity to taste a number of upcoming fine Australian releases with Stuart Bourne winemaker at Barossa Valley Estate (BVE for short). This respected winery was initially set up in 1985 as a coop by some 80 growers and produces an extensive array of wines appearing under three labels: E&E, Ebenezer and Moculta. As a Shiraz fan, I was pleased to taste the chunky E & E Black Pepper 2000 Shiraz (922559) once again. This icon fetches $99.95 a bottle and although released last December, it is still available today in a number of stores. It is quite huge and extracty with complex, gamy, slightly stewed plum and smoke-tinged, sweet cherry, toffee flavours.

Significantly less in price is Ebenezer 2001 Shiraz, which will be arriving next February at approximately $35. Although still youthful, it had classy, slightly smoky, plumy, dried cherry flavours that, stylistically speaking, lean in a firm Rhone direction as opposed to the usually juicy Australian style. Bourne explains that every vintage will change and, informed me that the incredibly delicious 1997, which sold in Vintages for a mere $28.95, is now long gone.

At under $20, the black cherry flavoured Moculta 2001 Shiraz (536383), which appeared and disappeared in Vintages earlier this year, is scheduled to be re-released next April. Which finally brings me to perhaps one of the tastiest new best buys to recently hit the LCBO general list. Make way for Barossa Valley Estate 2001 Spires Shiraz (598129) at $15.10 (even though based on the FOB price it really should sell for $14.95), which has flavourful, but elegant, juicy, Damson plum and ripe black cherry flavours along with that lovely hint of smokiness combined with good acidity on the lingering finish. A great buy in a sea mired by mediocrity.

Bourne is justifiably proud of his food-friendly Shiraz, which has decent structure without being too heavy, too light or too sweet. “I used stainless steel for a certain portion to keep the fruit and ended up used French and American oak barrels to provide a touch of complexity,” explains Bourne, who added in Grenache (6.2%), Cabernet Sauvignon (5.5%) and a touch of Cabernet Franc (.7%). The alcohol is there (13.7%) but fortunately it isn’t in your face and is well integrated with the fruit.

There is also a companion white. Barossa Valley Estate 2002 Spires Chardonnay (598136) at $12.95 is a lively crowd pleaser with some sweetish pear, tropical fruit and vanilla. For my taste, however, the upcoming 2003 vintage is a better bet with a bit more acidity and bright ripe lemon-pear flavours. It will arrive at the LCBO in December.

Finally, curmudgeons who to hide away far from those in search of Halloween loot might pick up a most entertaining copy of the book by Stuart Pigott called Planet Wine - A Grape By Grape Visual Guide to the Contemporary Wine World. Fun, entertaining and easy-to-read are not words that apply to many wine books, but Pigott has managed to accomplish this in his idiosyncratic, great-photo-on-every-page tome.