August

I know last month I threw everyone for a loop with that barrel aged beer, but I’m happy to say that the response has been great, we’ve since added another beer from Blind Enthusiasm onto our shelves, and we’ll be sourcing more premium beers in the future.

All that aside, this month we’ve stuck to the wines, and we’ve got some great ones in here.  I’ve already decided that most of these will stay on our shelves for a little while.  

In other exciting news, this is the month when the Epicureans begin their second trip of the year!  Val, Anthony, and Erin will be heading to Catalunya and Bordeaux, enjoying great food and wine, and maybe giving the occasional wistful thought of home.  I of course will not be thinking of them at all as I will be too busy running the store, I assure you it has nothing to do with the fact that imagining a glass of Priorat while soaking in the Spanish sun makes me weep with envy.

Anyway…

Last month we held our sixth Wine Workshop!  We had a fun and chilled out evening examining citrus and green fruit flavours in wine, tasting a Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc.  If you like those flavours, stop in and pick a bottle up for yourself, we still have a few of each available.  This month we’ll meet on the 30th to get into Stone and Tropical fruit aromas in wine, which will allow us to taste some really neat things as the Wine Workshop always does.  Grab tickets with the link below!

Foss Marai

Brut Prosecco

It’s not often that a Prosecco comes along with something to say for itself, lately the style has become a race to the bottom between cutting costs and increasing output.  Foss Marai comes in with expressiveness, very clear flavours, and a touch of complexity that show this is a prosecco that wants to be enjoyed for its quality rather than quantity.  It’s a refreshing reminder of what the style can be, and its a cherry-on-top presence for an already refreshing wine.  So what does it taste like?  Well very very cleanly for one.  Floral aromas are intense on this wine, along with pear, lemon, and chalk.  Great acidity is balanced with some residual sugar, but less still than many other “Brut” Prosecco’s.  On the finish there was this great herbal note that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, it made me want to just keep sipping to chase that flavour.

$25

Antoniolo

Erbaluce di Caluso

What on earth is an Erbaluce?  Was what I thought upon being presented with this wine.  Well, it is one of the seemingly endless lesser Italian grapes out there, grown in Northern Piemonte.  After tasting it I could only think “Why is this a ‘lesser’ grape?!”.  The complexity on this was astounding.  Cooked pear and apple, almond, lemon, brioche, honeysuckle, sultana!  I was seriously floored by this wine.  The only fault I could say is that the acidity is pretty mild, making this a better wine to just drink and enjoy for its own complexity than to worry about pairing with food, although a decent brie or bleu would be nice too.

$32

Bailly Lapierre

Cremant de Bourgogne

Summer is the time for sparkling!  Along with the Prosecco above I also had to include this one for it’s uniqueness.  Hailing from Burgundy, this brut rose is made from Pinot Noir and Gamay.  The red fruit profile of those grapes really shines here with strawberry, cranberry, and red plum.  There’s a cool touch of nutmeg in here as well not sure how it got there but I’m glad it is.  This is quite a lively wine with strong effervescence and high acidity.  You could have a lot of fun pairing this wine with many different things, from an appetizer of strawberry and spinach salad all the way to a plate of macarons for dessert!

$30

Zorzal Eggo

Tinto de Tiza

Last month I had a client casually mention that he was “El Presidente” of a winery in Argentina.  That winery is Zorzal.  Argentina is a big place, and while Zorzal isn’t a whale in that ocean, they’re a great deal bigger than a sardine - and tastier too.  A few emails were sent and we had the opportunity to sit down with Paul Moynihan and taste through a few of the wines.  We were especially impressed with the Gran Terroir and Parcelario lineups, but today I wanted to feature something more unique; Eggo.

No, not the frozen waffle, Eggo is named for the concrete eggs used in fermentation and maturation of these wines, of which Zorzal was the first in Argentina to begin using.  Concrete eggs go back a long way, Chateau Petrus of Bordeaux have sworn by them for quite some time, but they lost their spotlight to shiny temperature controlled stainless steel.  Concrete still has its place though, it’s unique shape encourages wine to remain in motion through the heat generated during fermentation.  This movement keeps the yeast particles in motion, encouraging greater contact with the wine which results in a more textured and rounded wine.  Zorzal goes one step further with unlined concrete, which offers the benefits of micro-oxygenation like oak, but without the influence of wood flavour or cutting of trees.

Ultimately this Tinto di Tiza Malbec shows excellent body and refined tannin structure, while allowing the floral and fruit flavours to shine alongside a beautiful chalky minerality.

$36

Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa

Syrah

One of the benefits of us running our own boutique wine shop is that we have full control over the wines we stock.  This is helpful because often it is the case that a producer will have a series of four or five wines, and we really only want to stock one of them, either for varieties sake, or because often one will stand head and shoulders above the rest in quality.  Well that situation is not the case with the Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa series.  I already love Chilean wines for their value but these go so much further than that.  Grown just 12km from the Pacific Ocean these grapes stay nice and cool through the ripening period, allowing for wines with excellent acidity, freshness, and complexity.  This Syrah for example shows juicy blackberry and raspberry, pungent black pepper, and cedar from it’s 14 months in French oak.  A cold soak allowed this wine to extract plenty of colour without going overboard on the tannins.  The acidity keeps this from feeling heavy, but no doubt it is still a robust wine.  Like the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in this series, this wine finishes with some chalkiness, I think of it as a signature.

$28

Red Rooster

Rare Bird Merlot

It was with mixed feelings that I picked up this case at a heavily discounted price - likely an effort to offload warehouse stock given Red Rooster’s unfortunate closing.  I visited them last summer and had a very in depth blind tasting with their tasting room manager.  Aside from that experience, their ‘Rare Bird’ series of wines have always impressed me.  So yeah, great wine, even better price, but not for great reasons.  Oh well, I can pour a glass to drown my sorrows.

This vintage is the 2017, and it is showing that age.  The colour has faded to a nice garnet.  On the nose and palate the fruit profile has definitely shifted, showing cooked plum and blackberry, and faint hit of dried flowers.  Other elements have come to the forefront, vanilla, cocoa, toasted wood, and cloves.  Some earthy mushroom-like aromas have developed as well.  The acidity has dropped off a little, and the tannins have mellowed out nicely, giving a very smooth and appreciable body.  All in all its become a pretty textbook example of an aged red in a relatively short period of time.  As Red Rooster has come to an end, so has the time for this wine to rest, enjoy it now!

$22