essex wine report

I hope my continuation on this theme is not bothering anyone. I intend to get back into wine etc but people seem very interested in this.

I will give you a link I just got. I mean I just watched this. There are people who are already doing what I proposed in their own way. This is excellent!!! An organic free approach rather than corporate is the best way to me.

So here is a company being profiled on tv....... give it a watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZiYOrmfgno

this came from someone who gets it...

I was quite taken by the response I got from last weeks column. People with whom I spoke to are rather passionate about this issue. As I was quite upset when I wrote that post so I feel obligated to expand upon my ideas.

The commentators had some very good ideas and as I would like to be part of the solution rather than just complaining I propose the following.

As stated by the 2^nd commentator I too feel we are at a crossroads. We can gain victory as we did at Normandy or sink into quagmire similar to Anzio. To gain victory something must change. We have off location outlets which sell Niagara wine in our Appellation, but we cannot sell ours. This is definitely wrong. The liscence holder for the outlet in Kingsvile is closing the outlet. Well why couldn't it sell our wine? Wouldn't that be a novel idea.

But I feel that we could obtain a victory here. I feel this for 3 basic reasons: 1) good product which will gain converts, 2) several wineries are owned by powerful wealthy people who know the right people and 3) a strong but arrogant and incompetent enemy (the provincial government).

To help solve the problem I have proposed Appellation Wine Stores. This runs contrary to any and all government policy, but this I believe is the ideal which we should strive toward. These could be expanded to include local artisinal product and roughly follow the model of “Whole Food Markets” in the US.

This though, I believe will always be a nonstarter. The government relies upon the massive earnings from the 'proper' lcbo outlets and will pull out the tried and true Nafta card and most people will shudder since those ugly Americans only want to ruin us and steal all of our lumber. I personally think that the Americans could care less. A few stores in Appellations will not cause a massive retaliation Those evil Mondavi people may actually like it as they tend to want to locate in name regions so if another name area was found they would definitely profit from it.

As such I have a plan 2. This could be done tomorrow in the present locations and I believe the Nafta straw man could be nullified. Simply, an area of the store could be “leased” to the Vintner's Association who would stock and maintain the area. This is a model used in many retail operations already so is nothing new. There would be union issues but as they would do less work I think this would be agreeable. The wine could then be sold in a co-operative manner allowing all wineries to actually make a profit and get exposure. Again this should only apply to in Appellation stores. Since I am represented by the Minister of Economic Development and the east side has the Minister of Energy, they should be able to push this thru, especially since we are in a current economic crisis and can use all the help we can get. Again this is an immediate single step of my plan, but an important one and the one that may allow us to break out of the beach head.

My second strategy is more long term. Sun Tzu spoke of the need to have both long a short term objectives. We can inject capital thru the “Lease” areas and then build a base for long term stability. This base would be built through a multifaceted marketing plan made here and not in Toronto, which addresses our needs, strengths and desires not a mini Toronto or worse, treating us as ignorant provincials. I feel this marketing should not target Toronto, but Ohio and SE Lower Michigan. They are our natural market. I am always amazed on how many people from Ohio I meet at the wineries. They like it here so maybe they should be who we market to.

Again Master Sun spoke of finding out what is important to your enemy and seize it. If water is in short supply, take the well. If the enemy is on a river or lake taking his well will do little good. Let me turn this on its head. Find out what you clients needs are and solve the issues that prevent them from consuming your product or service.

This is where a local marketing/tourism strategy must be developed. The Americans have boats, we do have marinas but they will need shelter and car rental. Thus part of the plan could simply be to provide packages where the client would be able to dock his/her boat in a slip, have a rental car waiting, a B&B reserved and a tour package layed out. Make it so they have no excuses not to come. This though will have to be spearheaded by the vintner's association as I fear that the Visitor and Convention Bureau is set up by and for the casino so we are on our own. Thats ok since we would have ultimate freedom of operation. The concept of “this isn't my job” will/must be purged from their thinking and the goal is to find solutions. The province could care less about us so its time to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.

Add to this car trips done in the same manner. We have the local tourism talent to make it go and we may actually get some funding...that is after we get it going.

Take this one step further and we get into APP's comments regarding Collingwood. The resorts could come in time as we have a beautiful coastline, nice people, great history, and golf courses.

There are other tourism ideas which I feel could dovetail and help the wineries and us overall. We need to take advantage of our history. This area was a hotbed of organized crime during prohibition, and with the success of the Sopranos we could relish in our sordid history. The mob island that can be seen from View Pointe and Spucewood to all the Rum Running sites which would make a great Al Capone getaway weekend...add some wineries et voila.

A second easy one would be promoting our golf courses who seem to have wineries near them...if dad wants a round or two mom can shop in Amherstberg or Kingsville then off to a few wineries with stories of how nice it is here.

Then one which I just can't believe we don't rejoice in. We were a major terminus for the Underground Railway. The churches in Sandwich and Amherstberg and Assumption btw should be on a tour which will bring people here and guess what....they are near the wineries too. In as much we should work to re-establish the Emancipation Day Festival. Not only was it a must when I was growing up, it is a day which we should all be proud of. We celebrate many things but this was 'doing the right thing' and we should and must celebrate this. This is a huge tourism and branding opportunity which we are missing.

Above all, our future rests in our hands, not Toronto's. We need and must have a made in Lake Erie North Shore solution. We have the talent here, we do not need Toronto. I feel we should target the Americans who, are wealthy, drink wine, are close and within 4 hrs are more Americans than Ontarians in all of Ontario. We are in this fight by ourselves and shouldn't expect anyone else to help us.

I certainly hope The Star mis-represented the meeting this weekend between the wineries and the provincial government. Let me preface my remarks by pointing out that we have two senior cabinet ministers from our area (Pupatello and Duncan) and a very powerful ex-federal cabinet minister Ms Whelan who undoubtedly still has some favors owed in Ottawa.

What does this get us? The square root of **** all. Oh the other minister (from Niagara by the way) had no sympathy to the request that we may get some off premises licenses. Oh there are many in Niagara, but we can't get them. Oh yes I forgot....Nafta issue. Sure we couldn't get something from the Americans, like in Appellation wine stores. Just too hot an issue I guess.

Let's get to reality. The LCBO makes so much money for the province that they will not sacrifice it one iota. Why should they sacrifice their $8 mark up and help wineries and farmers......Where is Eugene Whelan's legacy????

This isn't funny. I remember a certain wine consultant share with me how the old old store on Dougall was the #2 Vintages. Was he promoted for his good work????? Nope he was fired. Can't have greasy haired Windsorites ( I heard that one from a beautiful Toronto person who claimed that her hair got greasy driving through Windsor) buying more wine than the beautiful people. So now we have a wine region. Does the province do anything to help. Not a bit. Check out their own literature. Prince Edward County gets infinitely more coverage But we win awards. So all the money they suck out of us at the LCBO is more valuable than growing a new industry. Good work Dwight!!! Good work Sandra!!!

I just did a little research at my local store. Not a lot of Ontario wine but a fair amount of Pelee Island and some Colio. Boy shouldn't it be 70% local. At the Roundhouse its much the same. But then again if I owned a winery I wouldn't want to lose money selling to the government. As a result many wineries refuse to sell to the government.

If we had real representation, who actually cared about creating jobs and helping their constituents, they would be fighting tooth and nail for Appellation Wine stores that sell the local wines within the Appellation at rates which make the wineries money. Here's the rub... LCBO would lose wine sales as they mark stuff up so much one would be hard pressed not to buy local. Nafta....yeah right we trade them some trees and some fish and they are all happy....this is nothing to the Americans. It is so tired and just so easy to blame Americans for all of our problems

But I just can't see this adversely affecting the LCBO overall revenues (we just don't have enough people) but it would certainly make some people's live a whole lot simpler. Don't for a second think the wineries wouldn't want to be on LCBO shelves, but they can't afford what the LCBO will pay for the wine. I really think that the LCBO deserve 60% of the selling cost....don't you????. That's really helping us replace lost auto jobs isn't it.

I am dreaming of the day that I can walk into a store (just like the stores in Niagara) and get some local wine, with all of them represented, so I don't have to use up a whole day to get my wine. I want all the wineries to make a lot of money and help rebuild our economy. It is so sad that so many Windsorite who drink a lot of wine (we were #2 remember) know nothing of what we make and when they get some they are happy. But with our current representation, this just won't happen. If we were an hour from Toronto this may be totally different.

Am I advocating voting Tory...nope they did nothing for us for years. Maybe we should succeed from Ontario and have our own province. We couldn't be treated worse.

I am over the hump at work so I am trying to de-stress a wee bit. Then of course I open my freezer and lo and behold there isn't much ice in it as I had a bun cause my door to stay a wee bit open.Well ~ 25lbs of now raw meat in the bin... I am stressed again.

But then again, I am drinking a great bottle of wine, so life is better. I had fish...pickerel(local nirvana) ..and so needed some music to go with it. Great Big Sea fits the bill perfectly. Its great music from “The Rock” and was recorded live in Halifax(fishin music...not really... its great Celtic stuff)). I haven't watched the dvd yet but I think I have watched this show and it was great . This is our heritage music and man its hard not to smile and want to dance. Sir Rodney, has a cousin in a Cape Breton band which I cannot pronounce whom I may like better but this is great.

The wine....oh yes I forgot. Its Mastronardi's Gewürztraminer. Yes, we all know that I have a Gewurtz jones and this one makes me smile. Again, I see two types. The Alsace version which is round, spicy and tastes sweet but is dry and the California style which is crisp and not very spicy. Kinda what they do to Sauvignon Blanc. This one is in the Alsace camp.

It has great mouth feel. Its round and has a slight sweetness...perception is quite sweet but I know its not. There are all the citrus hints then the pepper as it goes down the throat. This is one I really like. The taste just lingers for a while again just as I like it. I get pineapple in the nose and at one point petrol but I think that was illusory as that aroma I just don't get.

It went great with the pickerel. I used the fish nazi's coating(very lightly) and sauted it in grapeseed oil. With it I had a store salad which I made a lemon/olive oil vinaigrette for. The wine picked up on the citrus in the meal and went swimmingly. This wine would shine with shrimp(managed to stay frozen in my freezer..YEAH BABY!!!) marinated in limoncello/oregano/olive oil and pepper and grilled...yummy .

Boy I just love this wine. No Sophia Loren stomping grapes( if I visualize this as I drink a wine it is my 100 score) but its close. If Great Big Sea let loose with some bagpipes right now it may get me there.

I have been accused of being a homer on our wine but WE ARE WINNING ALOT OF AWARDS!!!!! and if we keep up this level of quality we will be a premier wine area. We can never beat out Napa but I really think we will be the 'next' region and wines like this one will get us there.

It cheered me up and isn't that the point of it.

Well another local has got the idea...and who is it this time???? Well its one of my all time favorites. I remember going there while in school and having our favorite waiter of all time hide any and all of the Lowenbrau Dark (from Germany) after they decided us colonials weren't good enuff for it. It was a very odd beer as it kinda tasted like the usual Lowenbrau but with soya sauce added. In any event it was great and “our guy” managed to keep us fed for almost six months. BTW we compensated him quite well. It reopened after a short layoff and now is as good as it ever was...and much cleaner.

What is it.....well the DH, the ditch or simply the Dominion House. Over their bar were several bottles of Sprucewood's wines. I was very pleasantly surprised. They get it!!!!!!. The clientèle is similar to what is was in the old days.....actually better and I like the food much better. I still miss the Tom-Tom but it would have to be well done so.....RIP.

Congratulations to the dh people and Sprucewood for getting their wine in there.

Well we bottled our cider on Saturday and there were no incidents or any explosions....yet. The taste was very good so I will give my thanks to Simpson Orchards whose owner selected the apples for me. The balance was very good. It had a very apply nose and very dry. It wasn't as tart as I would have liked but I think it has great potential.

What is funny is that the cloudier one tastes much better at this time. Well I'm just going to wait and use the clear bottle first.

Raspberries are a bloomin so we have some ideas.......

After we bottled on Saturday we decided to make dinner, but we were still full from lunch. Now this is an aside (oh and I never wonder off topic do I): we had lunch at this really cool place in Leamington. We wanted to go for some Mexican, but they we closed so we saw this neat restaurant which had pictures of all this food on the window. Well so this is Mexican we thought.....No No No No!! It was Iranian and Carribean. Odd you say......throw in lasagna and I was very confused. Well we tried the Iranian food as, well we never had it before and the owner said it was really good... So we bought a lot of food. It was great and they are too. Very different from Lebanese food (like she said). We will go back... Well seems she married someone from St Vincent so thats were the Jerk and Curry comes from. We are going to take some friends there soon...its just too cool on their patio in the back....Its about a 1/2 block east of Erie downtown near the 10000 Villages across from the bakery.

We give it 4 stars.

Ok so when we were too full for dinner we decided to open some wine. Well what was it???? Oh the suspense is killing you...I know it is. Well it was “the Ladies” from Pelee Island. We first had this wine at the benefit at Calabria a few weeks ago and thought it was great so we bought a bottle. This wine is a Sauvignon Blanc which is an old favorite of mine.

Opening it, I and we were struck by the aroma. Grassy, citrus notes and lots of all types of fruit. Tasting it brought the grassy notes all over. With a lot of citrus notes it was wonderful. This wine reminded me of a real nice New Zealand product which is a really good thing.

Tso was bowled over by the wine. She felt it was the best she has had. Well this was after Wagner's Sauvignon Blanc which I have extolled about in the past. The Ladies were just a lot better. Now that is saying something. I love my Sauv Blancs and this one is right up there and it is way cheaper than Oyster Bay so I am very happy.

The citrus and grass were just there, but not in a 'forward way' and it wasn't muted like a Californian. This was just how I like them.

This wine is a winner and if you like this style I suggest getting some. BTW it is only available at the winery so make the trek to Kingsville and get some. Their staff is quite good and you will be surprised what you can get there.

Well since Mozart got me so worked up, I have moved onto some Bach. Brandenburg Concertos. May I begin to slouch and write like William F. Buckley ( I can only dream ok) because I remember watching Firing Line and this was the theme.

I think Bill would like the wine I am drinking. It is the new Mastronardi Cabernet Franc and may I say that I just love it. It went well with the Mozart, but with Bach it is just right.

I had a cheese plate for dinner. A wee bit of fresh goat cheese and some camembert. The Cab Franc held up great and just tasted good. I feel happy right now.

Like other Mastronardi wine, I found aerating it had a world of difference. It was really alive prior to aeration but after it just got better, a wee bit more muted, the nose mellowing out and I could find background hues. What I find funny is that their wines change so much. Please try aerating them and they just go to another level.

The taste just lingers and plays with the back of my throat. It may sound strange but I find this wine rather dark. That isn't a bad thing, as I don't taste anything that just jumps up and grabs me. To me that is a good thing. It means to me that the balance is right.

 No harshness just nice balance. I can taste the tannins but they are not "upfront" nor is the oak. I really like this wine and would recommend it highly. There are more than enough tannins to stand up to food  here yet again they are controlled.

I would serve this with a little lighter fare but wouldn't be scared off with a roast, but I wouldn't smoke it or turn it on the barbeque.

I apologize as I have a rant coming on. I'm listening to Horowitz play Mozart and having some wine, but I had to have License to Grill on and he is doing something very similar to what I made look like Atilla the Hun was the main chef...Oi.

Where to start..ok..the deposit on wine bottles...yup that's a good one.... took some back... 20 bucks too...had the yute help me and I filled my trunk.. tripped over some furniture on the deck getting that last 20 cents worth and landed in what was in my recycle........It hurt and I looked foolish. To make it worse  Chairman Miller of Toronto wants to sue the province for taking funds away from his recycling effort. I love Communism...hey I recycled and sometimes went to the neighbor's bin when I had too many empties...now they laugh at me at the Beer Store. I  even asked if Albert ( a handicapped man who lived down the street and collected empties for cigarette money) was still in the neighborhood. He took care of my beer empties, maybe he does wine and I felt good getting him a little money.

Now hamburgers. I love a good burger and now have to go to Detroit to get one. Oh yes, the pie police want to protect me from undercooked meat. EXCUSE ME, but I am an adult and am careful and don't get a medium rare burger from Typhoid Mary (btw I have eaten in many of Detroit's finest watering holes and always seemed to survive their medium rare burgers). Now I must get charcoal and I hate charcoal. So now Tso and I act like refugees and go to Detroit to get our fix. But you know what???? That medium rare burger smothered in stilton with an Anchor Steam was wonderful. For all you out there who think that Americans can't make beer should try one of those babies cos they are great. Please let me choose and close those dirty restaurants and leave the places I go alone. Must I pay them off to get a medium burger...I don't even try anymore.

Oh yeah, while I'm on that, what about sunny side up eggs....I love them BUT NO... the pie police say they are dangerous. Well well well glad you are protecting me............................