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A
new cloak of Vintages secrecy! ©
© Michael
Vaughan 2001
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits
Columnist
Saturday, May 26, 2001
I
just don’t get it. After years of complaining, the director of Vintages
took a step in the right direction and decided to stop hiding some of the
new wines coming into the system. These products were known as “soft”
releases – small quantities of usually good wines which were slipped
into selected Vintages stores without the public’s knowledge.
This
shady practice ended last year with the Vintages launch of the “Selected
Distribution” program where these wines were actually identified every
month in the Vintages Catalogue. Even though they were rarely put out for
evaluation, the producer, agent and most important customer would know at
least what was available. If you happened to live in an area where the
wines were not available, you could order them the week after release.
All
this ended recently - less than a year later. I discovered this when a
couple of unidentified wines appeared in our Vintages tasting but not in
the May release Catalogue. When I inquired about them, I was met with a
wall of silence – I was told that no one was permitted to tell me
anything about them!
I
emailed my concern to the director of Vintages. I stated that “the LCBO has a quasi-monopoly on sales (especially imports) and your
"shareholders" (i.e. the Ontario public) have the right to know
what is going on at Vintages and what products are available for sale and
when!”
I
was promised an answer by April 27 at the latest, but nothing turned up by
that date. When a Vintages staff member response finally appeared, it
stated that these ex-Selected Distribution items were now being called
‘In-Store Discovery’ and that
‘information and tasting notes will be available in our largest,
full-service stores but not marketed in our monthly release
publications.’ Unfortunately, none of my concerns were addressed.
It
has been revealed that Vintages cancelled the “Selected Distribution”
because it was receiving complaints from some people who wanted to see
these wines in their own local stores and/or couldn’t order them until a
week after their release when they might be sold out. Apparently the LCBO
also wanted these wines to fill the bare shelves in the larger Vintages
stores. It must have taken a lot of LCBO head office late nights to figure
out that ‘if we don’t tell anybody that the wines are out there,
nobody will complain!’
Now
if this were a privately owed store system, it would be their business. If
we didn’t like the selection at one store we could go to another.
However, as the government-operated LCBO stores are the only game in town
for imports, this official policy of hide and seek seems ludicrous. It’s
bad enough that there isn’t a website (as in Quebec or BC) enabling
customers to find out what’s available, now even the official LCBO
Infoline can’t tell what’s coming into the LCBO stores! With almost a
billion in LCBO profits, one would think that the LCBO could give its
customers the access they require to find out what’s for sale.
The
May 5th In-Store Discovery consisted of 11 wines and one spirit
available in 20 stores (to see a list of products
press here / for stores
see press here). How are they moving? Very slowly, in fact all
are still available for purchase! And that’s too bad for the suppliers
who are understandably upset by the fact that their wines have received
virtually no exposure.
The
small Toronto-based Lexcellent
agency (416-461-4577) has imported a stunning best buy red - 1998 Domaine de La Camarette La Cuvée Terroir
Vieilles Vignes at only $14.95. This French Côtes du Ventoux
has a lovely, spicy, slightly leathery, blueberry compote nose with a hint
of smoke and bacon fat. Rich, mouthfilling and yet still fairly rounded on
the palate with some lingering, herbal, prune-plum purée flavours on the
finish. Great for an outdoor bbq, this wine should have sold out on the
day it was released!
Another
intriguing red is the remarkable Lingenfelder
1997 ‘Ganymed’ Spätburgunder at $21.95. This is an
excellent German example of this vintage’s very low-yielding Pinot Noir
(Maria Theresa clone) from Lingenfelder’s own estate vineyard (spring
frosts in April 1997 reduced yields from 50 to just 25 hl/hc). It has a
fine, complex, rose hip nose with some hints of sandalwood and bright,
medium-bodied, tangy, sweetish, rosehip-raspberry flavours, which would be
perfect slightly chilled with a veal Holstein or a schnitzel. Unfined and
unfiltered, it carries a wallop – 13.9% alcohol. It is designated as a
‘Deutscher Tafelwein’ because of Lingenfelder’s use of French Allier
oak barrels (François Frères) which used to be prohibited by German wine
laws. And it’s a collector’s item. The label, which shows male
genitalia, was banned in the US. Unfortunately, only a very limited
quantity of this wine is available (just 25 cases). More than half has
already been snapped up by Toronto restaurants – including the CN Tower,
Monsoon and Barberian’s, so you will have to move quickly on this one. (www.lingenfelder.com)
When
I discussed termination of the “Selected Distribution” program with
thirteenth generation winegrower Rainer-Karl Lingenfelder, he was
understandably upset that his wine wasn’t afforded the exposure by the
LCBO that it deserved. I am sure that most Pinot Noir-loving LCBO
customers feel exactly the same way. If all these wines were worth buying,
then perhaps one might say – who cares. But they’re not. Of the
limited number tasted, two were definitely not worth a detour! And as the
LCBO tenaciously describes every wine it sells as a “winner”, it’s
only the producer and customer who are hurt by this new cloak of Vintages
secrecy.
Coming up this week: New Zealand’s annual tasting takes place on Monday, May 28th at Alice Fazooli’s - details are on my website or cal1 705-444-5255 to reserve. Also one of Canada’s best wineries, Henry of Pelham, presents a five course wine makers dinner at Bb33 Bistro ($90+ per person) on Thursday, May 31st. To reserve call (416) 585-4319.
Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada
2004
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
(electronic or other wise) and or quotation.
Contact Michael Vaughan at
mbv@total.net