St. Clair Vicar’s Choice Pinot Noir (2004)

Pinot Noir is a love it or leave it grape, and I’m a sucker for a good, affordable Pinot. On my last trip to a certain wine store, I must have been sending off subliminal Pinot-craving waves. A certain employee there (let’s call him the Doctor) picked up on my mood and intercepted me on my way to the staff picks section. Intrigued (and having a lot of respect for his impeccable taste), I followed him to the New Zealand corner of the store.

Stopping at the border between New Zealand and South Africa, the good Doctor pointed at the St. Clair ‘Vicar’s Choice’ Pinot Noir (2004 vintage). A true bargain and a veritable steal for $16.99, he said. It is difficult indeed to find a good Pinot for under $20, he added, sinking the hook in deeper. I thought about it, but decided that it was more than I wanted to spend. He saw the indecision in my eyes and swayed me by adding that the store had only received ten cases, and two were already sold. That did it. With some trepidation, I took the Stelvin-closed bottle home and opened it.

He was right. This is an excellent wine. It was clean, crisp, and slightly acidic. Packed with bright (almost sweet) cherry fruit, it also showed a long finish and a hint of tannic goodness make this darn near perfect. And for under $20, it’s even better. My wife loved it, and pronounced it her second favourite New Zealand wine of the year (after the Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc she savored last weekend). It is a textbook example of a well-made Pinot Noir.

But I felt it was missing something. It was almost too perfect. It was like hearing a Canadian Idol contestant from the Prairies covering an old Motown classic. Technically perfect - yes - but not my style. I don’t like my Pinots to be so clean and polite. I prefer it when they come swaggering up from the wrong side of the tracks, smoking a joint, wearing a tattered old Circle Jerks t-shirt and spitting on the sidewalk.

So while I must complement the folks at St. Clair for their very fine Pinot Noir, it’s not for me. Give me the smoky, dirty Mission Hill ‘Five Vineyards’ Pinot Noir any day. Or roll out the funky French carpet and send some fine Burgundy my way. Give me any Pinot that isn’t afraid to let it’s inner funk hang out (as long as the inner funk doesn’t remind me of an overripe durian fruit).

But save the almost-too-perfect Pinot Noirs for someone else…

Goats do Roam White (2005)

I know. Yet another South African white wine. At the risk of being repetitive, I love the stuff. This is a fun little white blend (from Fairview) that will set you back $10.13 (plus tax) at your local MLCC or private wine store. The name is cute, the Stelvin closure is handy and the wine is really good.

Blended from a mixture of Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, and Riesling (with a touch of Viognier and Grenache Blanc to keep it interesting), this is a great little summertime sipper. There’s no wood to be found, but we did come across lots of fruit (peaches and green grapes) along with some interesting hints of spice. The mouth was nice and full-bodied, with more spices and green grape flavours. And the finish was long enough to keep my interest.

For $10 and change, this is a great deal. I served it up last night with a “time to clean out the crisper” frittata and a side of roasted asparagus. I’ve had the equivalent red blend, and I have to confess that I’m not the biggest fan. The wine is good, but there is a lot of Pinotage in the red blend, and I’ve never developed a taste for the earth, rubber and smoke flavours you often find with Pinotage.

Charles Back and the witty folks at Fairview have come up with many other creative wine titles, including Goat Door, Goats do Roam in Villages and Bored Doe. You can find all of them on their website.

Thoughts on the Winnipeg Wine Festival

First of all, I did not have the pleasure of enjoying the wine festival as an attendee. I worked (incognito of course) at a booth, which gave me a different perspective on the festival. From my vantage point, things went very well. It was packed and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Apparently the event raised over $200,000 for the Special Olympics.

Anyways, a few thoughts…

• There were a lot of great questions and a lot of people who really knew their wines. My favourite question was from the guy who walked right up and said that he liked his steaks done between blue and rare. He liked a big red with his steaks, just not a jammy Shiraz. So which one of the wines I was pouring would fulfill his needs? We tried him on the Thorne-Clarke Shotfire Ridge Quartage. He didn’t mind it, but felt that it was too jammy for his steaks. But I made him very happy when I poured a glass of the Nederberg Private Bin Cabernet Sauvignon (2001) for him.
• Incidentally, the Nederberg wines went over very well that night (both the Cab and the equally tasty Sauvignon Blanc). People raved about them, and had lots of good things to say about South African wines in general.
• Based on a scientifically inaccurate sample of everybody who spoke to me, it’s apparent that when most people hear the word Syrah, they expect that you are pouring a Shiraz. While the Snoqualmie Syrah (from Washington State) is excellent, it is a faithful disciple of the French-style Syrahs, with no jam and not a lot of fruit to be found. I tried to talk to as many people as I could about the difference, but it didn’t go over as well as I had hoped. However, it’s a great wine, and for under $20 is an excellent value as well. Try it at your next BBQ. I’m looking forward to enjoying it with a nice grilled Manitoba lamb sirloin.
• More people of my generation are enjoying wine than ever before. I ran into a lot of friends and co-workers there, people I didn’t expect to see at a wine festival. And that made me very happy, because I think my generation gets a bad rap for not being into wine. The number of twenty and thirty-somethings at the festival gave me great hope for the future of wine.
• But…some people clearly just come to the festival to drink as much as possible. For $35, it’s an easier way of doing a pub crawl. I should have expected it, but I was still a little surprised as the night drew to a close and the drinkers tried to maximize their $35.
• People like rose wines, but they are always surprised when it turns out to be as bone-dry as we promised. I think I won over a lot of converts that night by pouring an excellent Spanish rose (Castillo de Jumilla Monastrell Rose).
• Brunello di Montalcinos are excellent wines. But they need time to open up and even a seven-year old Brunello can be a little too tight for a palate expecting more fruit. I loved it though, and it reinforces my desire to explore Italian wines.
• California Pinot Noir goes well anywhere, anytime and any place. We opened the Rochioli Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (2004) right at 9:00 and immediately had a lineup at the booth. I was surprised by the passion of the Pinot-loving crowd.
• Greek wines are very tasty. We poured a couple of interesting Greek wines and they went over really well. The red (’Laloudi’ Mavraki-Agiorgitiko-Cabernet) was very complex with lots of interesting flavours, and was a hit. Not as many people went for the white (’Laloudi’ Moschofilero), but those who tried it loved it.

My favourite wine of the night? Since I didn’t leave the booth once, my choices were limited. But I loved the Saint M. Riesling from Dr. Loosen and Chateau Saint-Michelle. The Nederbergs were excellent, as was the Snoqualmie Syrah. And the two sips of Rochioli that I tried were darn near perfect too. But I was happiest with my bottle of lukewarm water. It was really hot in the Convention Centre and I made the mistake of wearing a black suit. The only benefit was that nobody noticed when I spilled wine on myself…

Red Bicyclette Syrah

First off, my apologies for the long absence. What can I say? Life, work and other things do get in the way sometimes. It’s been an interesting month to say the least. And on that note, I’d like to publicly thank Dr. Broughton and the wonderful folks at the Pembina Veterinary Hospital for saving the life of my beloved little feline friend. She’s the only cat I’ve ever known who will go for your wine if you leave the glass on the floor, and she prefers to go for Sauvignon Blanc (although my wife and I neither encourage nor even allow this).

I’m afraid to say posting will continue to be sporadic in May and June (although more regular than April was) as I’ll be away several times and have a lot of work piling up at my day job. Hopefully as the summer rolls in, I’ll have more time to enjoy wine and to write about it too.

Anyways, expect to see my Winnipeg Wine Festival report in the next few days. I’m also working on a series of posts about a topic that will bring my day job and my wine blog closer together. Stay tuned for more details and for now, I’ll leave you with this tasting note:

Red Bicyclette Syrah (2004)

So the worldwide Gallo wine empire now has an outpost in France. Their Red Bicyclette line (available at your neighbourhood MLCC for $15.99 per bottle) comes in three flavours – Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah. I’ve secretly been enjoying the Merlot for months now, ever since a friend foisted a bottle on me at a dinner party. So in my ongoing quest for a decent French red under $20, I decided to give the Syrah a shot at glory.

And you know what? This really was good. It’s a bit lighter than some of its cousins, and it was somewhat shy and reserved at first. But the Red Bicyclette showed off tonnes of gorgeous cherry fruit and pepper on the nose, and this carried through into the mouth. There was a surprising amount of well-balanced tannins (especially given the light colour), and there was a lot more complexity in the glass than I had expected. My only complaint is that the finish was a bit weaker than I’d like. But it tasted so good… And the flavours were still strong a day later.

For $16, it’s verging on being a bit steep. For a good French wine in this category, I’d usually go for the Perrin family’s ‘VF’ Syrah/Grenache instead. But it is a very tasty, very appealing wine with a lot more complexity than you would expect. Even the packaging is sort of cute in a kitschy faux-French kind of way. Very tasty and very easy to recommend. Their website is worth a visit too, even if only for the recipes.