It's not a word, but it's a fine wine

I find it very distressing while working my part time job at the LCBO to stock shelves with items I've not tasted.  I really dislike when my customers ask for my opinion on a wine, and I am only able to relay information I've read or learned from others.  For this reason (and being honest, a few other reasons as well) I try to taste as many of the offerings on the shelves as I can.  I am privy to many samples which helps build my portfolio, but I also venture to try new wines by bringing them home whenever I can.  This is exactly what I did recently when heading over to our friends' house for a mid-week business meeting/wine drinking party.

There are a few wines that have really piqued my interest lately based on what I've read and what customers and colleagues have said.  The two big ones are Apothic Red and Cupcake Red Velvet.  The darn Cupcake keeps selling out before I can get my hands on it, so you'll have to wait for a review on that one.  But here are my thoughts on the other.

Apothic Red, California, $16.00

This is a lovely blend of primarily Syrah, Zinfandel and Merlot, 3 grapes where I feel California wines shine.  If was big and full, with robust spicy notes and it's just slightly off-dry, making it a great match (in my opinion) for spicy sausage or steak with chimichurri sauce.  This wine had a distinct plum jammy flavour with a nice heavy mouth feel.  I really enjoyed it and especially liked that it was a departure from the traditional California Cabernet.  I am looking forward to enjoying this wine again soon when it warms up enough to BBQ a little more regularly.





Until we drink again,

Cheers!

Off the beaten path...

Sometimes I just don't have time to make a separate trip for wine.  I know, I know, there should always be time, but every now and then I'm in a grocery store with one of those little wine corners, and it just seems so convenient to grab a bottle or two without having to hit the LCBO.  In the interest of keeping my job, let's suffice it to say that I buy about 95% of my wine at the LCBO, not just because I work there, but because of the selection.  There's really nothing like wandering all those aisles, looking at all the glorious bottles that are just screaming out for me to drink them.  But I digress.

There is one of these little wine shops in my local Metro, and they have a VERY limited selection.  I pretty much always end up spending $13 on a bottle of Jackson-Triggs Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc because I think that's about the best option available.  I have recently, however, been impressed with two other offerings from this location.

The first I received as a gift, and look forward to tasting again:

Inniskillin East West Series Merlot-Cabernet 2009 (Wine Rack, $17.95)

Inniskillin has estates both in Niagara and in the Okanagan (B.C.).  In an interesting twist, they have blended wines from the two properties to create this new series.  This particular blend is aromatic and complex, and would do well to sit for a year or two more.  I found it a little tart (think cranberries), something that can be assisted with age or thorough aeration (when I serve this again, I will decant it for some time before serving).  Overall a nice product, although there are many others I would choose ahead of this one at this price point.

Jackson-Triggs Proprietors' Selection Malbec-Merlot (Wine Rack, $17.95/1500ML)

I talk a lot about Trapiche's Astica Merlot-Malbec from Argentina as one of the great value wines that I pretty much always have on hand.  I was excited when I saw this blend from Jackson-Triggs.  This is an elegant value wine, with good structure and full body.  It lacks the overall luxurious mouth feel that I get from the Astica blend, and since it's the white label, one doesn't know exactly where these grapes are grown, but it will definitely be something I can grab at the grocery store and know that I'll be serving a wine that can hold it's own.

Have you found any great wines at the little wine shops in your local grocery store?  I'm always willing to try something new... let me know in the comments if there is something you think I should try.

Until we drink again,
Cheers!

Long time, no drink

Well the title might be a big lie... I have been doing lots of drinking, but haven't been blogging.  My apologies.  Apparently this whole stay-at-home-mom gig is more time consuming than I had planned haha.

This week in London, Ontario temperatures have been in the 12-17 degree range.  This means that it's basically spring, and that gets me in the mood for refreshing, easy drinking beverages.  I have recently stepped rather far out of my usual wine profile and have discovered a rather healthy (or perhaps not so healthy) appreciation for a
grape called Muscat.  The Italian version is referred to as Moscato, and that has been the popular choice of name for this grape even when it doesn't hail from the boot.  These are usually white wines, quite sweet, with varying levels of effervescence.

Talking about sweeter wines, we should talk about the sugar scale.  I may have touched on it previously when covering coolers, but since all coolers are some level of sweet, I think it's important to understand what it means in wine.  Your typical robust red wines (Cabs, Merlots, etc) are 2 or under, which means dry.  Wines in the 3-6 range would be considered medium, while anything 7 or over would be deemed sweet.  My palette disagrees somewhat in that I think anything over 4 is very sweet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Here are the 4 Moscatos I have tried and what I think of them.

Emeri Pink Moscato, Australia, $14.95
Sugar Content 6

This was our special New Year's Eve bubbly.  It is a sparkling Moscato with delicate, fizzy bubbles and tastes of sweet berries.  With the 6 sugar code, I actually expected this to taste sweeter, but perhaps the bubbles helped to reduce the sugar's potency.  I'm not sure this is one I'll go back to, but if I were to serve it with food, it would be with a fruit and custard tart.



Barefoot Moscato, California, $9.95
Sugar Content 6

This wine was served to me at one of the meetings of my amateur winemakers club as our welcome cocktail.  I haven't tried many of Barefoot's offerings because I have the impression that they are very commercial based on their very large production of young, fruity, inexpensive wines.  I would say that this Moscato was true to my assumption.  While the sugar code is the same as the sparkling wine above, it had a far sweeter taste in my mouth and was a little too heavy in my opinion.  I need a sweet drink to feel light, and this just felt like I was going to get a headache due to it's syrupy quality.



Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Moscato, California, $11.95
Sugar Content 5

My husband and I took a little getaway to Muskoka and this was one of the wines we brought.  We opened the bottle next to the campfire one evening, and while I wouldn't say that that was the ideal condition for drinking this wine, it was very enjoyable.  Not as thickly sweet as the Barefoot, it was lighter and quite easy drinking.  My husband said it was like drinking juice, in a very good way.  An LCBO customer recently told me that it's great with pie, a recommendation that I'm absolutely going to have to decide on for myself.  Bring on peach pie season.



Botter Puglia Moscato, Italy, $9.95 (8 Bonus Airmiles until March 31, 2012)
Sugar Content 5

This wine is just quite lovely.  It's not sparkling per sé, but it does offer a slight fizz that is very enjoyable and makes the sweet, melony flavours dance around your mouth.  I have a feeling that this is going to be my hot summer day drink of choice this summer.  You want to chill it very thoroughly, and the screw cap is a nice feature.  Although you may lose some of the the bubbly features of the wine, it means that it's a little easier to throw back in the fridge and enjoy again the next day, if there's any left, of course.

So there is my Moscato review... I hope that you give one or more of them a try, even if you think you don't like this type of wine.  You may surprise yourself.  And if you really don't like it, I know someone with an empty glass.

Until we drink again,

Cheers!