essex wine report

I love harvest time. This is when the world seems right and pumpkins are everywhere. Just wants me to watch a Snoopy special.

What's even better is that is WILL be a banner year for wine. Mark this one down as it could be one of those special years. This is when we will be showing the world what can be made here. Kudu's to Rob Muscedere for the piece on the Windsor Star site.

Well tonight I am having a wine that a friend actually left my seminar to buy more. For that I forgive him . His wife liked this one a lot and he liked the Mastronardi version. Both have great taste as this is one of my favourites.

Gewürztraminer is a grape native to Alsace. It is somewhat similar to Riesling, but it has that wonderful spicy character that Riesling doesn't have. Take all the cues for Riesling then add pepper, hopefully lots of pepper.

Music tonight started with William Shatner's fabulous album, Has Been. Don't laugh as he did it with Ben Folds and Joe Jackson is on it along with other cameo's. The album is thoughtful and entertaining. After dinner is Chanchullor, by Rueben Gonzales, which is part of the Buena Vista Social Club group of albums. Great Cuban jazz. Just wonderful.

Food was some Pollock I breaded (very cajunny) and pan-fried and tossed over a salad. I made the dressing from pistachio oil and lemon juice over baby greens. It worked rather well and the wine stood up to the stronger flavours quite well and the lemon elements mated well with the citrus notes in the wine.

Well the wine.....CREW's Gewürztraminer. If you remember last years. It was quite California in taste. This years is head and shoulders better.

The aroma is wonderful with just gobs of citrus fruits. Mango's come to mind. Very very fresh smelling. It is a wonderful pale yellow, kind of like straw.

Now the taste........This wine is very citrussy. It could overwhelm the unsusspecting, Actually we found someone on Sunday at the Wine Fest who just didn't like. Suited me fine as she let Terry and I have a lot of it. It's very floral too and yes the spice is there. Not a lot of pepper, like some Alsatians but present to offset the fruit...remember mangoes like pepper, but I have issues with mangoes after the tiger scene in Apocalypse Now.....saw it on an IMAX screen and mangoes have a flashback element for me..oh well.

The mouth feel is excellent as the wine has a feel. It hangs around and lingers. I just don't like astringency and this wine isn't it isn't quite round like me but its on the path. Mouth feel to me is very important. Mario Batali talks of unxiousness, that wonderful mouth feel one gets when adding some parm early to the pasta sauce then adding some at the end. Its that wonderful feeling. Try a good Alsatian cos they have in droves.

Well this wine is a keeper. The citrus allows it to go great with fish and the spiciness allows one to branch out to where beer only went before. I had Cajun and it worked so this wine is very food friendly. I am really going to have to serve their with some Singapore Noodle cos I think it would stand up to the spice and fish sauce. Now don't worry about pairing to a milder dish as this wine will complement just about any white wine friendly food. Think of what you would serve Riesling with and then substitute this one.

I apologize for tasting another Cabernet Franc, but as you know, I truly believe that this may be the best red wine produced in the area. I love it and it is very terroir friendly, that is it tastes like the dirt. I like that a lot.

Tonight I really wanted a BIG BIG wine and had hoped to find a biggie from View Pointe, but for some reason it isn't there.....Terry, oh Terry.

But anyway in my search I found something very interesting so here we go. It's an 02 Cabernet Franc Reserve from Colio. Now I never implied that Colio can't make good wine because they can, but at times I find the staff there a wee bit wanting. I was there and a wonderful lady spent time with me and showed me just how good they can do. Then Terry and I go and were told this "I would learn more about the wine if they paid me more". Oi that just is not acceptable. We haven't been back since. When will these wineries get it through their heads that people like us are into the experience and if we are treated poorly we won't open our wallets. Pelee Island does not have this problem, nor do the other wineries I've been to, here and Peninsula Ridge just don't get it.

Now back to the wine. The aroma is very nice. It is earthy with dark fruit, just like I like.

The taste, well it is very nice. There are strong tannins for a Cab Franc but it isn't overoaked. I taste the oak. This is a big big Cab Franc and I like it. It stood up to a steak very well. This wine is very plummy, which is very nice...good earthy tones that I just love. This would form the backbone of a great Meritage.

The un-aerated version is radically different...much fresher more grapey, less earthy. The aroma was just lightened by a mile...interesting.

Taste is totally different. I find it rather dead and lifeless. The tannins seem to back off and I just like the aerated version so much more. So I'll end it here.

Well I'm happy to say that the rumours are true! There is Pinot at D'Angelo. I bought three bottles and had a pleasant talk with Sal D'Angelo. They are not cheap and as only Sal could say...they need to be laid down for a while...gee they are only 5 years old. That's young for him. I'll try one then store the other two. Well the tasting showed them to be quite good now. I think it's been worth the wait.

From my talk at the wine fest Saturday....

I was pleased to give it and it was suggested that I print my text as I wasn't able to complete it due to time restraints on the tent.

... I'm hoping that you are all having fun and enjoying some wine. I am Jim Small. the writer of Essex Wine Report, a blog which deals with the local wines, food, and music.

I really have come to love the wines from this region and the people who make them. For years we were been told that wine can't be made in Canada and if it could it could only be done in BC and Niagara and anyway that all the Canadian wine is plonk. Wineries were left for dead in nafta and the beer was protected. Guess what......the wineries increased their quality to survive and now we have a thriving wine industry and a dying beer industry.

You just can't make wine in Essex county... well in the early years they certainly did. Pelee Island was the host of a winery before the turn of the 20^th century and grapes were grown all over the county. This was stopped due to profits available with tobacco and prohibition killed off the rest.

In a way we are very similar to Sonoma in California.. Can't grow grapes there they said.. I think they forgot to tell the monks who had the place covered in vineyards made it  the top wine producer prior to prohibition, but who remembers history. They now produce a lot of excellent wine and are overshadowed by a bigger more name area..just like us. They have Napa and we have Niagara.

But it's funny. Travel around the vineyards and see just how many awards are being won down here. For an area which cannot grow grapes we seem to win. Talk to Mastronardi about ice wine...gold.....Muscedere about Baco...gold.....Smith and Wilson...2 golds... for being so bad we are doing ok.

Well its fine. Let the boys in Niagara think that a bran new winery can justify $70 a bottle for their first vintage and I will just keep drinking our local stuff which I think is just fine.

Lets face it we are in a northern viniculture area. BUT we are on a latitude similar to northern California and south of Bordeaux and Burgundy. If you get into weather stats we are quite similar to Napa and the French areas. That gives hope and with our relatively mild winters we can do an awful lot here. Needless to say though, you won't see the hot weather grapes here. Sangiovese is not grown nor Spanish varieties. Someone may be but I bet our shorter season will make it tough for them.

Lets look at the white wines.

The classic grapes of Alsace do fine here.

Riesling was the #1 grape at the turn of the 20^th century and well we do a lot with it. Niagara goes for a more rounder style and here it tends to be crisper which is more to the California style, why. It's hotter...  though this is not written in stone. Try the local Rieslings, they are al different and all good.

Another Alsatians grape it Gewurztraminer... which if my German is right means spicy grape...well its Alsatian, which is in France but Alsace is also on the Rhine, and they eat sauerkraut... so anyhow. This wine can be quite spicy , as if pepper was added which makes it very food friendly. Local ones range from mild California types to really spicy peppery wines. These wines are great.

The third is Pinot Blanc ..also known as Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio. This grape or group of grapes are descendants of the Pinot Noir grape..a good thing..and produces a wine which varies with terroir and is extremely food friendly. Down here this grape is very popular and the locals make great wines with it.

From Bordeaux and Burgundy we get Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Chardonnay is a classic wine that has taken a bad rap. New world winemakers just used too much oak with it and they tended to ruin the wine. From Burgundy we get Pouilly Fuisse. Though for years I hated Chardonnay, but loved Pouilly Fuissse (except for the price). The French just do such nice things with the classic grapes.

Now a judiciously oaked Chardonnay is excellent and try the locals. They do some really nice ones. Oaked or unoaked this grape thrives here and nobody makes a product that only beavers would love. I am really starting to like the local Chardonnays. Special note goes to Muscedere, who use Canadian Oak.

From Bordeaux and Loire we get Sauvignon Blanc. Sauvignon Blanc is a classic French grape very old. Done right one gets citrus, fresh cut grass and exotic fruit. It can be bold or muted. From Loire Valley we get Pouilly Fume, another classic wine. Done sweet and we get Sauterne. Well in the early 60's Robert Mondavi decided to call his dry Sauv's Fume Blanc and since then Californian versions are called Fume Blanc....we call ours Sauvignon Blanc.

It's a great wine with fish. It goes amazingly well with local perch and pickerel.. Just trust me and the locals rival those of New Zealand and cost quite a bit less. That makes me happy. And this years releases have an amazing amount of citrus so man they are nice.

REDS:             

Here we follow the classic reds of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

From Burgundy we get 2 classic grapes and 1 famous fun wine. The fun wine is Beaujolais Nouveau which is the first release of that years harvest. it is just barely fermented but is a major festive event and actually can foretell the quality of the harvest.

The 2 grapes are Gamay Noir which gives us Beaujolais and Pinot Noir which gives us Pinot Noir or just Pinot. The king of Burgundy loved his Pinot so much that he banned all other grapes in about 1500 so that's why Pinot predominates there. This grape though is very hard to grow and to make into wine. Finicky is the word but just like Nebbliano and Sangeovese it makes wine that's worth the effort. Me I'm a pinot guy and will justify the high costs for the wonderful taste. Niagara does more pinot but we still make quite a few good ones here and hey I can drive to Harrow or Kingsville a lot faster than going to the bench.

Bordeaux is the major centre for red wines in the world. The term Claret refereed to Bordeaux wines. The major grapes are Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bordeaux theses are generally blended and the blends vary per village...and of course they will not tell you. At least here they tell you what you are getting.

The classic blend is Meritage which is a blend of all three. This wine is big but in the hands of a great winemaker is nirvana. Look around here and see all the Cab Sauv, Merlot and Cab Franc blends and singular varieties and then try a Meritage. Expensive but you will be hooked.

For the reds I see Cab Franc as the best red down here. Rather lightish and varied from each winemaker.  Regional terroir variations cause it to be rather spicy in Colchester but not north of Harrow. It goes from light to huge and unoaked to heavy oak...a fine wine with food and I think will be a great signature wine for our area.

Now the question is...why no Sangeovese, Nebbliano, Malbec, Temperillo or other grapes. Well, Sangeovese ripens late and just doesn't seem to grow well outside Italy. Same with Nebbliano. These should do well here but they just don't. I wish they would but I think our growing season is just not right. The Spanish grapes need more heat so I guess we must just suffer with the classic French varieties.

A great scholar...Mario Batali once said "get to know your butcher"....well that is certainly true, but I will add a corollary.."get to know your winemaker". Find out what makes him or her tick and I bet I bet that if you like the winemaker you will like the wine. Being an engineer I find that I am drawn to the wines made by fellow engineers. Oh yes we have 2.....Rob Muscedere and Tanya Mitchell. So when you go to Muscedere and Sprucewood you get wine made by extremely well trained people...precise, clean crisp and not whimsical, but very very good. Now go up to Blenheim and George Wilson ..of Smith and Wilson...who once told me that he was only a fruit farmer. That is true and his family has been there for 100yrs or so but the wine reflects him. It is refined, classy and not brash. If anything it suffers from sins of omission rather than commission. He says he makes wines that him and his wife likes...well I guess I share the tastes.

In reality I really believe that the most important part of the wine is the personality of the winemaker. Everyone that I have talked to down here believes that the wine is made in the vineyard but as I grow, I feel it is more the winemaker imparts that je ne sais quois.

Now another question is why are the wineries clustered where they are. Well this is not as complicated as you think. In the old days the whole county was covered with vineyards and fruit is grown everywhere BUT Colchester gave the ability to get land on the lake...very good...at a reasonable price. Inland has some advantages and short comings so there are wineries around MacGregor, but I bet that they owned that land prior to growing grapes. Over in the Ruthven area the same thing. There are numerous orchards and now 2 wineries. And of course there is the island. Personally I do not understand why that island isn't one big vineyard as the terroir is almost perfect and the weather is right...but I guess there is that little tough winter and higher cost thing to slow it down. But being on water moderates the temperature..good for Pinot Noir BUT things get going slower. Move inland and growth gets going faster in the spring but it stays hotter so there is more sugar earlier picking but less acid. If life was simple. But anyway this area is a wonderful growing area and basically cost is more of a determining factor rather than specific locations. Bet grapes would grow great along Lake St Clair but I just don't foresee tearing down million dollars homes to plant vines.

Ok so I've covered a lot but now some of my own ideas.

Wine is something to be cherished with friends, with food and music. Think of your best times and it is not drinking a wonderful wine in the dark after lightning just hit the transformer in your back yard...trust me on that one. I remember meals with friends and great wine, food music and talk. Wine is a social thing.

Imagine this: sitting on the deck in the evening,, with the one you love, Al Green on the stereo, some prosciuto, smoked salmon and goat cheese for nibblies and a wonderful bottle of Pinot Noir. That's living and that's how we should judge wine. I just can't have a wine and say "oh my this is a 97" because that isn't how I view wine. It's like reviewing a classic car like an Auburn but not cruising in it. It just misses the point.

Glassware. Rule 1 is that the glass is to hold the wine. If it doesn't leak its ok.  If you start there you avoid a different glass for every type of wine. Choose a glass which you like for red and make it big enough to get your nose in and get a white that is smaller. Then get a champagne glass. I like hollow stems but it's hard to clean them. That's it and get glasses that you can afford to replace because if you have dinner parties you will break them. That's ok too as long as nobody loses an eye.

Chilling wine. Let me refer to the cellar temp in my chateau outside Macon in Burgundy. Red wine is never served there at room temp as it comes from my cave. My cave is cool, not cold, as it is in the 4^th basement, below the old torture chamber. The wine bottle should be cool to the touch but not cold enough to sweat. Warm reds are just to alcoholic to me and cold ones have no taste or aroma. Whites on the other hand, do not deserve the same treatment you give beer. Chilled but not cold. Warm bad, cold bad you need just right.

Aerating. I aerate all of my reds. This means using a device...in my case an aeration funnel...which is a funnel with the end blocked off and holes around the end. This causes the wine to hit the sides of the carafe and get air as it runs down. This smoothes out the wine and really improves it. Try taking a zip lock bag...cut little holes in 1 corner get a pitcher and pour the wine thru the baggie into the pitcher and then taste the results. You will find that the wine really smoothes out. Of course you can do this by simply letting the wine sit unopened for 8 hrs but at my house wine has a much shorter life expectancy than that.

Let me finish by talking about the artisinal aspects of the wine. Here in this area we a blessed by the bounty. We have wonderful fish, vegetables, fruit and meats. There are butchers doing wonderful things with meat and you really should get to know one. Buying meat from a supermarket in those little foam packages with that slimy white thing under it is way different from walking into the butcher shop and getting local meat that wasn't slaughtered in some 3^rd world country and shipped here, but was done in a local abattoir that the butcher has seen. Add to this fruits and veggies that still have dirt on them. Add to this some great wine made by artisans who are here. These are special products made by special people. Even Colio and Pelee Island have artisinal products. You don't find these at the LCBO but at the winery and trust me they are really good. The kinda hide them but they are there.

Picture this meal.... Pickerel and/or perch from the dock in Kingsville or from the yellow building on hwy 3(an outlet for Wheately), corn from Cottam taken off the cob and sautéed in butter, local garlic mashed potatoes and a nice Sauvignon Blanc. Add a cucumber and tomato salad both from Kingsville with goat cheese and fresh basil, kissed by good olive oil and for dessert, local truffles from Soldary in Maidstone washed down with ice wine.

This weekend was a big thing for me so I’d like to thank the people who had a lot to do with me being able to do the seminar.

First: Shelley Thrasher and everyone at the Shores of Erie. Shelley runs the demonstration tent. She gave me the opportunity to speak and was wonderful to deal with.

Second is Terry she has been a real inspiration to me. She and her boy..”the yute” have made my life much better and she inspires me.

Third: The League of Gentlemen and the Ladies too. They have been very supportive and special thanks to Pete…my agent…who really got this going.

Well it was a lovely end to the summer. Terry and I decided to go to the Harrow fair but I had the great idea to visit a few wineries on the way.....well we did get there...eventually.

First stop was Sprucewood. There are new wines and some have already sold out. We tried the new Rose which is Pinot Noir based. Forget getting some as they had 4 bottles left when I bought mine. The Meritage is sold out too. Well this is a good problem for them but bad for us.

I tried the new Oaked Chardonnay...very nice and the Pinot Gris as well. It looks like year 2 will be as good as year1 or even better. I like this place and it seems to just get better.

Second stop was Erie Shores and well, I’d like to tell you all about it, but it looked like a remake of the War of 1812. A group of Americans were there and their limo driver decided to basically block the parking lot. Well to avoid the 2^nd battle of Sandwich we decided to grab some Summer Sun, Reserve Cabernet Franc and some Stellar Secret. Well new was the winter harves vidal...which is very nice and basically a 2^nd press ice wine. I have had these in Niagara and they are very good...looking forward to it.

Third stop was Muscedere. Man have they sold a lot of wine. Pinot Gris...au revoir. So sad but the Cab Franc is still excellent and I got some more Oaked Chardonnay and may retry the review and hopefully no lightning this time.

We were taken into the vineyard and the grapes look wonderful and I am really hoping that this year could be superb. Grapes are already coming off so this may be the year.

The Harrow Fair was well...the Harrow Fair. But at $7 its getting a wee bit dear. I was reviewing the prices for lamb and was flabbergasted at the prices. There is money in sheep. It is kinda sad though as if you win as a lamb, you lose; as Gord’s Abattoir seems to want you...oh well.

Hope to see you all at the wine fest and I’m getting ready for my seminar. If all goes well it will be a great evening and if I fall flat on my face I guess I will just hoist a few in despair..Each way I win ....not like the lambs.

Amazing but my lights are still on. No lightning this week so I guess I am safe for now. I have one amplifier left so I’m roughing it and it sounds quite good anyway.

Tonite, I need to relax and so for that the music of choice is Mel Torme and George Shearing..A Vintage Year which was recorded at the Paul Masson Winery in California. This is appropo for two reasons. One is that this album is great (vinyl) and the wine’s producer stages music at their vineyard.

Dinner was local corn cut from the cob(this may be the last of it..it tastes good but looked awful) sauteed in butter, and beef tenderloin stuffed with prosciuto, sage and goat cheese. It’s a reheat from the weekend when I grilled it. Yup, it’s leftovers, but good leftovers.

On Saturday night, Terry and I had Muscedere’s Cabernet Franc (excellent) with it and so tonite I wanted to try another. It’s been too long for me to try this one so here it is... Mastronardi’s Cabernet Franc 2004. I’ve been really wanting to try this as its been here for ages and it kinda went to the back of my wine cooler, so here it goes.

The aroma is luscious and deep. I get tones of dark fruits..prune plums(I love them) and it smells so smooth..kinda like the Velvet Fog. This wine is made for Mel Torme. I know some of you are snickering but the man was a wonderful singer and had a great sense of humour.

The first thing that I can say is that the Colchester pepper is not there. So my theory is taking shape as this wine isn’t spicy like the southwestern four’s.

To me there are just enough tannins to keep it interesting but they don’t get you, that’s good and there’s enough to stand up to food.

The taste just seems to grow as I drink it. Its analogous to really good hot food as it doesn’t hit you it sneaks up on you and lingers. Wonderful fruit, smoothness and a warmness that hangs about. I taste the fruit, plums and a wee wee bit of the base earthiness that makes a Cab Franc a cab franc and not a cab frank...inside joke.

It has enough body to hang with food and just went so well with the beef and just seemed happy when I got some sage and goat cheese with the meat. Like any Cab Franc it isn’t a ‘Big" wine but this wine exudes class and further enhances my belief that Cab Franc is the red of this area.

Unaerated it is just so different. I realize that aeration affects the nose in a negative way but this wine exploded when I tried some sans aeration (I held a glass back). Not as deep, more fruit and a bright aroma (can’t place it). Still very nice, but I like aerated better.

The taste spectrum moved far forward and that lovely lingering is overwhelmed. It’s still very nice but aerate this wine...it has class and legs and really really tastes good.

So I would serve this wine to anyone and I am more than happy to drink it on its own. Don’t waste it on an over spiced dish, but let it shine with a nice cut of beef, boar, venison or lamb. Life could and would be very nice. As typical with them they have produced another excellent wine and a value as its just a joy to drink.