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Vintage
Releases © Michael Vaughan 2002 National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist Saturday, October 5, 2002
It may not
set the world on fire, but it is infinitely better than the
over-the-hill Klipfel 1997 Grand Cru Riesling
Kastelberg, which
comes from Alsace and is being released at $18.90. If you are thinking
of Germany, unfortunately the Graacher
Himmelreich 1999 Riesling Kabinett at $15.50 was not presented for evaluation.
Another good
match comes from California’s Sonoma County - Rodney
Strong 2000 Chardonnay
at $19.95. It is fairly dry and yet rounded with spicy, lemony, faintly
tropical flavours show a touch of vanilla stick on the lingering finish.
Moving on to
reds, one has to be much more careful about choosing something that will
not overpower the bird’s delicately flavoured flesh. Beaujolais, for
instance, has long been touted as a great turkey match. Unfortunately,
many lack sufficient fruitiness and today’s release of Mommessin
2001 Brouilly Les Grumières
($15.95) typifies this deficiency.
Malvasia
Nera at only $13.85 is another great bargain of today’s release. The
terrific, spicy chocolaty, berried nose is followed up by fairly
full-bodied, ready to drink, chocolaty, raspberry-plum flavours and a
lovely finish. While it works better with dark meat than white, its
smooth savory notes are likely to have very broad appeal.
Unlike so
previous shipments, this Pelorus is a non vintage and is made in the
following traditionnelle or classique method. Several clones of chardonnay (the predominant
variety) and pinot noir are pressed without crushing and inoculated with
Montrachet yeast. The base wines are fermented and aged in a mixture of
stainless steel tanks, large oak vats and small French oak barrels.
Following the spontaneous malolactic fermentation the wine is left to
age on lees for a further eight months prior to blending each November.
Sugar and prise de mousse yeast is added to the final blend (called triage)
in February and then the wine is allowed to age in the bottle for a
minimum of two years on its lees before disgorgement. The resulting
sparkling wine has lots of character and is higher ion alcohol (13%)
than most sparkling wines on the market.
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Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada
2004 |
With
Thanksgiving coming up next weekend I have tried to cherry pick
today’s Vintages release with the turkey in mind. In terms of whites,
Riesling and Chardonnay are pretty good bets. Fortunately there is one
well-priced white from a new Beamsville Bench winery. Winemaker David
Johnson and his wife Louise Engel launched their venture in 1999 with
23-acre of vineyards. 
What
was tasted and is worth buying, this time from Italy where turkey is
rarely served, is 
Talking
about good buys, I would be hard pressed to find something better than 
As
for Sauvignon Blanc, my experience is that it is usually too dry and
shrill to go with our feathered friend. If, however, oysters happen to
be on your menu, then I would suggest a bottle of the gooseberry, Anjou
pear peel flavoured 
In the same
vein, many Italian reds will not cut the mustard when it comes to
turkey. Sangiovese-based wines, for instance, are often too dry and
assertive; more bright fruit is needed. I was excited to discover 
While it may
not be a good match for fowl, rib steak leaps to mind, you will not find
better value than 
Last but not
least comes a dry, wonderfully rich, toasty sparkler from New
Zealand’s Marlborough region that would be the perfect Thanksgiving
pre-prandial. Check out