Archive for October, 2011

The wines of Sonoma take centre stage in the release slotted for Saturday October 29th. I don’t have a lot of notes as so few wines were shipped, but those I tasted were, for the most part very good.

Once again congratulations are in order for the team at Tawse winery, which has, for the second year in a row, been bestowed as the Canadian winery of the year. This is a combination of an owner who strives for the best, a deftly skilled winemaker and a team that truly believes they have a wining formula. Well done.

Wines of Sonoma.

944843 KENWOOD JACK LONDON VINEYARD CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007
Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Valley, California $34.95
Rich and chewy, lots of sweet, but balanced dark fruit, black licorice, dried herbs and plenty of spice. It rolls over the palate boasting a core of blackcurrant, anise and despite the hefty tannins, it is one big juicy and enjoyable wine. Find this wine

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Periodically, we dig into our stash of Sean Thackrey wines here at Adams, Heritier and Associates to find out how this or that is coming along. The latest items on our agenda were two vintages of Mr. Thackrey’s flagship bottling, Orion. These are wines that have a track record for cellaring a decade or more, but sometimes, you just have to pull the cork on one or two to see where they’re at in their evolution. These were the first Orions we’ve had since our visit with Sean back in May, 2010. Here’s our report on what we tasted.

2004 Sean Thackrey Orion California Native Red Wine, Rossi Vineyard, St. Helena, 14.4% alc. Find this wine
2005 Sean Thackrey Orion California Native Red Wine, Rossi Vineyard, St. Helena, 14.9% alc. Find this wine
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Thanks to one of my colleagues switching classes with me, I was able to get to London and taste a little of what we, the wine loving public, can expect to find on the shelves this Saturday and two weeks down the road. Although the focus this release is on some very good wines from Tuscany and Piedmont, I surprised myself as I was more impressed with the wines from Argentina, that although not cheap, were in fact exceedingly tasty.

October 15th.

Wines of Piedmont.

225227 LA QUERCIOLA CHICCHIVELLO LANGHE ROSSO 2008 $13.95
Lots of tar, spice, clove, black ground pepper and black fruit that runs across the palate with the right amount of acidity and oomph. Its finish displays the black fruit and adds a note of sweet red berry and dusty tannin. Nice wine, well priced and very quaffable. Find this wine

232454 PODERI DI LUIGI EINAUDI DOLCETTO DI DOGLIANI 2009 $18.95
This wine has layers of fresh berry coulis, cherry and black raspberry with floral notes, dried herb and mineral. It is fleshy on the palate, blueberry joins the fruit mix, it carries some weight, but at this point in its evolution it is a little chunky. Find this wine

233890 GUASTI CLEMENTE & FIGLI FONDA S. NICOLAO BARBERA D’ASTI SUPERIORE 2005 $21.95
A pretty wine, showing fresh cut flowers, damson cherry cola, mocha and maturing fruit, excellent balance, nice texture, gentle tannins and a touch of mineral on the finish. Find this wine

233908 GUASTI CLEMENTE & FIGLI RISERVA BARBARESCO 2005 $35.95 DOCG
As with the Barbera, this wine carries the maturing fruit and mocha notes plus a whiff or two of dried herb, game and meat. However, the palate is dry, has excessive tannins and a note of heat. Find this wine

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We’re always happy to try whatever comes our way from our friends at Tablas Creek Vineyard, because since we filed our first report on their wines, we’ve never had anything they’ve made that rated lower than a “very good,” and more often than not, the stuff is “really, really, really good.” We recently got to try a new bottling from TC, their Patelin de Tablas Rouge. You can read the full story on how this, and its pale counterpart, came to be on their blog, but the short story is that successive drought vintages cut into TC’s production, while a bad economy left many fine Paso Robles vineyards with grapes that they had a hard time selling. The happy solution to these problems was to create Patelin de Tablas; Patelin is roughly translated from the French slang for “country neighborhood.” In years with high production, wines would be comprised predominantly of estate fruit, while in leaner vintages, non-estate fruit from growers with good track records could be included. Most of these vineyards are planted with TC cuttings, and all are farmed sustainably, many through organic or biodynamic principles.
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