essex wine report

It has been awhile since I did a real wine review so here we go again. It was so nice this afternoon that I decided to grill a steak today. This was ok at 4 but by seven it just didn’t seem to do it. My grill got up to 350 so at least it worked but very slowly. Rare was the order of the day.

The wine of choice tonite is Bird Dog from Sanson. If you haven’t been down top the winery, go, go real fast as the wines tend to sell out and yes they deserve to. Bird Dog is basically a Meritage type wine, a blend as is classically done in Bordeaux. Deep red and Big…something that I, the Pinot lover, should hate but it is oh so good. This is a good lesson to all of us. Open your eyes and maybe something you thought you wouldn’t like is actually good. Like all you white wine haters…..you are missing some good stuff and stop that ‘red is good for me crap’.

Music tonight is by Glenn Gould. I suspect you haven’t heard of him, but he was from Toronto and quite possibly the only pianist to rival Oscar Peterson’s talent. Glenn played Bach and played it better than anyone in the world. He was rather eccentric and possibly kept the Fran’s on St. Clair in business but he was a genius. He revolutionized recording and unfortunately I disagree with the route he took but it sounds great to me. What is wonderful is that you can hear him sing along with the music…cool.

Back to the wine. This wine is simply superb. The nose pre aerated is full and large, lots of berries and other good stuff. After aerating it smoothed out totally with a nose of the darker fruits. It was really wild but it has a background of oak with plums and berries…very nice.

Now the taste. It mates so well with the Bach. Smooth intelligent and not in your face. There is tons of flavor in this wine and it lingers like a good wine should. As a Pinot type guy this wine just overwhelms me and I have a tough time explaining the taste other than I really really like this wine. With the steak, it stood up to the fennel and rosemary which I seasoned it with and the earthiness was brought out. If it could do well with that it could do well with most red meat. I’ve had this with roast beef and it was great too.

If you read my wine awards this wine won. Its not my style but who cares. Throw all ideals away and taste. You will be amazed what you like.

PS: I really like the wine that Sanson makes…even his Baco Noir. This is a winery that all should try to get too. His Sauvignon Blanc is superb and there is a little something called ‘Barn Cat’ too. I was looking for a bottle to have with dinner but alas, we drank it all.

What I actually love is hangin with the wine makers and their staff. I find it so uplifting to be with people who are so passionate about what they do and are so optimistic about the future.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege to meet Izabella Benben of Aleksander. Trust me she is the rising star and she is just so cool. She is optimistic and simply glows when she talks about her wine.

Saturday Tso and I got to spend a few hours with Fabio and Rob Muscedere. Not only was the conversation both uplifting and educational, they let us barrel taste. OH MY GOD!!! that was cool. Let me just say that the future is very bright for them. What they have coming down the pike is simply fabulous. They’re Pinot which is over a year away is better than a lot I have had and their Baco just is excellent too. They needed a big wine to round out their stable and here it will be. It was very fun.

That night Tso and I made some veal(you know I just hate buying crummy veal and I got some) and attacked my Pinots. I really didn’t notice until today. The point to that was we had 2 Burgundies and one Konzelmann. The Konzelmann was the most expensive and really really big for a Pinot. It was really different but still very good. Its glad we can compete with the French when it comes to Pinot. What was amazing was the variation of the 3 bottles. Night and day differences but all good. Such a problem.

Well what can I say. Meeting these people has really improved my life. I work in an industry which is 24/7 despair and talking to people who just see opportunity is wonderful. I may spend a lot on wine but its cheaper than a shrink. Thank you all.