Duck!

I forgot to post about the great duck tasting a few weeks back. After pressing our zin, Todd and Steph and I decided that dinner would be in order. Steph had purchased a duck (from Podesto's) for the occasion, and she proceeded to roast it along with potatoes, etc. I also grilled some pork chops for the not duck eaters, and we had the usual host of varied accompaniments. I had never had duck before, so it was definitely an interesting food experience. I would describe it as really intensely flavoured dark turkey meat, without the skin.

Ah, the wine. What would go with duck. Of course, Todd brought an pinot - a 02 Archery Summit (at least I think it was an 02) from Oregon. It was good, but past its prime and had a remarkable amount of tannin for a pinot. Steph brought a syrah purchased at FW that was alot like a pinot - the name now escapes me but will pop into my head at some point. I opened an oddball mystery wine that everyone agreed was indeed odd. It was a 07 Deol Pinot Noir / Marechal Foch blend from Vancouver Island. Surprisingly, nobody identified it correctly! A novelty but not something I would search out again.

The wine of the night with the main course, opened by yours truly, was an 02 Black Hills Nota Bene meritage blend from BC. Nota Bene has become sort of a BC cult wine - very difficult to find. When Annette and I were at the winery in 2004 (the last year that the wine was available for sale at the winery instead of selling out on release) we bought half a case of the 02. This wine has aged beautifully and had a lovely herbal olive type nose with some dried earth. A bit of that unmistakable old cab smell. Soft fruit and tannins, mixed with the herbal spicy earth and tobacco notes. A good match with the duck.

For dessert, we had a baked apple dish that went outstandingly well with the wine that Todd opened - an 03 Jackson Triggs Riesling icewine from BC. This wine was stupendous when we tried it three years ago at a conference in BC, and it was still fab. It had lost a bit of intensity, but gained a gorgeous bricky colour and still had that unmistakable icewine nose and sweet/sour flavour. Great stuff, and a superb match with the dessert.

Musings

Had bought a few bottles of a cheap Nero d'Avola at TJ's a while back, and went to open one recently. After taking out the cork I turned away to put the cork on the counter, and when I turned back the bottle was foaming over. Like sparkling wine or beer. Not something I have ever experienced - I mean, I have had wines that are a bit spritzy (or "frizzante"), but this was something else. After clean up, I opened another one. Same thing. Then the last one. Same thing again. Clearly the wine was not stable and was refermenting in the bottle. Interesting.

Kudos to TJ's. Took the three bottles back with no receipt, they looked up the normal prices and gave me a refund.

Last night in SF with Annette, we went out for dinner before going to the Melody Gardot concert at the Palace of Fine Arts (great singer, by the way, but not much of a performer). Dinner was at a little pub style place near the concert called Liverpool Lils. Had a bottle of zin called Teira from the 06 vintage. This is a Sonoma product. I had never heard of it, but it was actually pretty good. Only 13.5% alc which is hard to find these days in a zin.

7 days until the scary wine tasting.......

09 Vintage Update

for those that care, the 2009 Tri Swines Wine Zinfandel is fermenting nicely, more than half way to dry with good colour. Let's hope for the best (ie: the the winemakers don't screw it up).

Enjoyed a 2005 Antelope Ridge Chardonnay last night (from BC). Nice nut and subtle white fruit notes, not too oaky, somewhat euro in character. This winery is run by a couple of old school types (from Germany, I think) that have their own way of doing things. Not for the "give me a big fat tropical fruit chard" types. Good with roast chicken.

Pinots at FW tonight with the infamous Alan doing the pouring.

Upcoming - the October swines "scary wine" tasting on Halloween will soon be here.

Cedar Creek Cab

about three years ago, while touring thru the Okanagan Valley in BC, we went to Cedar Creek Estate winery for a tasting. While there they pointed out "the last 6 bottles available" of the 02 Cab Sauv Platinum Reserve, which apparently had won the Canadian wine of the year competition and was, by all reports, supposed to be quite good. Jan, one of the Canadian wine swines, immediately said "we'll take them". Todd got 2, I took 2, and Jan took 2.

Last Friday I opened the first of mine. Notes:

dark ruby with garnet rim. Nose is dry tobacco, leafy, with dark currant fruit. A bit of that older cab smell (sorry, I don't have a better description than that. You know it when you smell it). l/m to m acid, m tanns, dark currant fruit and vanilla. Notes of dried herbs and cola. Intense mix of flavours, a pomegranite hint starts to appear. Long finish. This wine is crazy good.

There you go. This wine was definitely worthy of whatever award it won. Much better than the corked wine that Todd opened. However, he made up for it with his backup wine - a 2003 Pride Cabernet Franc that was a monster, to say the least.

The next day Tri Swines Wines picked zinfandel for our 2009 vintage, and then we racked the 08 vintage of Dornfelder and put it on some oak. The garage smells like a winery again - awesome!

Updates - September Tasting

but before we get to that, at some point in the September I opened up a 2003 Dom du Gros Nore Red Bandol. Bought this at Wine Wizards several years ago. It had lovely garrigue on the nose, lots of dk cherry fruit and herbal spice notes on pal. Long finish. Fabulous. Restores my faith in cellaring wine.

as for the September tasting, it was again a couple of varietals and a couple of countries.

wine 1 - m to m/d gold, rubber and lychee on the nose, sweet and sour kind of thing. l/m to m acid, rich round mouthfeel, lychee and apricot flavours. 16 pts.

wine 2 - p/m gold, lemon lime and rubber on nose. Some residual sugar, l/m to m acid, rubber and green apples, med intensity and finish. 15 pts.

wine 3 - m gold, light nose. m to m/h acid, sour lemon lime and green apple, slightly bitter. 13 pts.

wine 4 - m gold, lychee and hazelnut nose. L/m acid, residual sugar, m body, sweet finish, apricot flavours. 15.5 pts.

wine 5 - m gold. Tutti frutti and lemon lime nose. m acid, bitter rindy note, lemon zest. Simple finish. 13.5 pts.

wine 6 - m to m/d gold. Light lemon lime, bit of lychee, gets stronger. l/m to m acid, rich lychee notes. 15.5 pts.

wine 7 - p to p/m gold, sulfury and rubbery. m acid, rubbery lemon powerhouse. 14.5 pts.

Group favourite was wine 2, followed by wine 1 and then wine 4. Least favourite was wine 3.

wine 1 - 07 Zind Humbrecht Gewurz (Alsace). $20 (this is a great price for this wine).

wine 2 - 07 Monchhof Spatlese Riesling (Germany). $16

wine 3 - 07 Zind Humbrecht Riesling (Alsace) $19

wine 4 - 07 Pfeffinger Spatlese Gewurz (Germany) $20. Another good value.

wine 5 - 07 Lucien Albrecht Riesling (Alsace) $15

wine 6 - 07 Lucien Albrecht Reserve Gewurz (Alsace) $17

wine 7 - 07 Eitelsbergher Karthauserhofberg Riesling (Germany) $22

2007 is considered to be a very good vintage for Alsace and most of Germany. So this was an interesting comparison of the two varietals as they are made in different places. My preference was for the three gewurz's over any of the rieslings.

Updates - August Tasting

Okay, it's been a while. I guess September was kind of busy.

Tasting at end of August. Wines by Todd. 7 wines, I think the idea was there were two varietals and two countries involved. My notes:

wine 1 - m/d gold, slightly herbal nose with melon and some coconut. med acid, with melon and apple flavours and a spicy vanilla finish. Oak is a bit hefty on this one. 14 pts.

wine 2 - m/d gold, rubbery notes with maybe a bit of lychee on the nose. m to m/h acid, green apple and lemon. l/m body. 14 pts.

wine 3 - m gold. Light nose, maybe a bit of lychee and nut. m acid, slightly sweet, mineral and lemon, m body, kind of simple. 13 pts.

wine 4 - m gold, soapy floral nose. m acid, sharp minerally lemon steely flavour. light body. 13 pts.

wine 5 - p/m gold, slightly skunky floral nose (some say perm solution). m acid, mineral with a slightly bitter resiny note. Good body, pear finish. 14 pts.

wine 6 - m/d gold. Woody slightly musty nose to start, turns to melon. l/m acid, vanilla, apple flavours, some melon. 14 pts.

wine 7 - p to m gold. Floral, with a hint of smoke, perfumy. l/m acid, mineral almost salty notes, nutty. This one is a bit odd. 13 pts.

wine 1 = 06 Rodney Strong Chard - $24. This one is more than a bit disappointing.

wine 2 - 08 Crios Torrontes (Susan Balbo). $15. Decent value.

wine 3 - 08 Zolo Torrontes. $15

wine 4 - 018 Filus Torrontes $7.29

wine 5 - 08 Alamos Torrontes. $10. This has to be the value winner for the night.

wine 6 - 06 Keenan Chard. $30. Ouch.

wine 7 - 08 Tamari Torrontes Reserva, $14.

Conclusion - Torrontes is an upcoming varietal, one to pay attention to. Fairly decent value, as is common with Argentinian wines. The two cal chards did not fare well in the value category.