Wine, dinner, zombies and hope.

8 years together, 2 years married. Surely that night deserves a couple of steaks a nice a bottle of wine. Yes, definitely. But of course I could just as easily have said "ooh the 3rd Tuesday of the month..let's party!"

Any excuse will do.

 In the basement closet I call my wine cellar I have a modest but growing collection of around 100+ bottles of wine that have accumulated over the past 2 or 3 years:

 

Note the digital thermometer/hydrometer and water bucket I stole from the freezer. The thermometer/hydrometer is there to show me just how wrong the temperature and humidity is in the closet and the water is there to try and fix it. 

So, when an occasion arises (a such as an anniversary, or a Tuesday) the question for me is which one do I open?

I say modest collection because 100 bottles isn't really that much. Sure, it seems like a lot if, as I did for most of my wine drinking career, you buy your wine as you go and never have more than a few bottles on the ready in your kitchen. But if you are a wine drinker chances are you open a bottle somewhere between everyday and every three or four days. Even if it's only every four days that still works out to 91 bottles a year! And if between you and your better half you go through a bottle every 2 days that's 182 bottles of wine a year! And that's not including days when guests are over and several bottles get drunk. So having a good supply makes sense. You don't have to keep running out to the wine shop and you have a supply for unexpected guests and you always have something fitting to open regardless of what's for dinner.

Also, I figure having a stash of 100 or so bottles of wine is just enough to carefully ration out for several years in the event you have to board up the windows due to a zombie attack. Those of you living near a cemetery would do well to be prepared.

 

But the main reason to have a wine cellar is to age your own wine. This is not necessary if you only drink wine that costs less than around $14. Those wines are perfectly yummy but are generally made for drinking soon (there are exceptions). But if you sometimes buy wines that go for $15 or $20 and up some of those may be candidates for cellaring. Those wines, if kept well, will mellow and gain a complexity of taste and bouquet. 

So anyway, anniversary dinner. Steak. Wine. Red. There are several choices, but the problem of cellaring wine is when do you open it? There is a tendency to keep wine for a special occasion that never seems to come! The worst thing you could do is wait too long. None of my wines are that old yet but they one day will be. When in doubt err on the side of youth.

I decided on a bottle of 2002 Arrowood Syrah from Sonoma I've had for a few years (it was around $25)...Robert Parker reviewed it in '03 and said it would drink well for 7-8 years so that should make 2010 a good year to open it. Plus 2002 was the year my wife and I met!

 

and here's what it was going to be drunk with (1 ribeye and 1 fillet..each to be shared);

I took the bottle out of the cellar several hours before and stood it upright to allow any sediment to settle. The wine was "unfined and unfiltered" so I expected a bunch of junk at the bottle of the bottle, surprisingly there wasn't much. I removed the foil and could see that the cork was of great quality and in perfect shape:

 

 

Not a hint of seepage. I poured a taste into a glass. The wine was very dark, almost opaque with the slightest hint of bricking on the rim. Surprisingly dull nose, some leather and rubber tires.

Then I had a taste: Full bodied, stewed fruit, a tad smoky. Still fairly tannic for an 8yr old, but starting to soften. Quite a hot wine too at 15% alcohol and it showed. Dry and heady. Needed some air.

After some sips my wife decanted the bottle and I carried on in the kitchen...

herbed potatoes,

 

tarragon/stilton/white wine sauce,

co-ordinating (empty pan for garlic/lemon scallops, oil for fried onion strings):

 the final plate:

So in the end I liked the wine but I did not quite love it. It seemed a bit out of balance. Slightly sour, too much alcohol. A long, almost port-like finish. I keep tasting it and going back and forth from giving it an 89 to a 91...so 90 it is. But it went very well with dinner, it cut right through the rich meat and fried onions. It may have even been better the next day when I drank the small reminder.

I think the reason I like my cellar so much is that when I look at it I don't see a just bunch of bottles of wine. I see future anniversaries. I see birthdays, gatherings of friends and family...Tuesdays yet to come.

The cellar represents hope. It is a dark, cold, closet of pure optimism. Each bottle is a share of stock in the future. I may already have my 40th and 50th birthday wines in the back there somewhere. Each bottle is a bet on being there for it's opening.

And if you think that sounds like bullshit, well, if you have a better way to justify your wine spending to your wife I'd love to hear it.

Yummy Cheapies!

Here's a few wines I like that all cost under $10! (well mostly).

Cono Sur Viognier, Chile, $9.95

87+
Probably the best valued white at LCBO. We drank this with a pile of Indian food and it was fantastic. I bought a whole bunch more to have at the ready. Much more flavor than similarly priced Rieslings or Chardonnays (to compare apples and oranges). Citrusy, (bitter apricots?) some nice spice and a slightly musky-sour thing (in a good way). Has some body to it and a good finish. Really good all-round white.

Bodegas Castano La Casona Old Vines Monastrell, Spain, $8.90

87
For the price: heck yeah.
This is made from monastrell or mourvedre as it's more commonly know.
Dark, dry, tannic, herbal with subdued fruit. Old world style for sure.
Not a sipping wine as such but goes great with bold food...spaghetti and spicy meat sauce in my case.
Degraded fairly quickly once opened. Open and drink in one night...leftovers did not fair well the next day. Drinkable but a sourness and acidity came to the fore.
If you're looking for something different at a steal of a price this is it.
I may stick a few in the cellar for a couple years just to see how it evolves.

Finca Flichman Misterio Malbec, Argentina, $7.95

 

86+
One of the best values at LCBO. Medium to full bodied with dense, spicy, fruits and plenty of oak and some smoky flavours. Nothing fancy here, no character to speak of. nothing to make you say "oh my!" but a good all-round red with acidity and tannins to cut through rich and spicy foods. We drank a bottle of this with beef fajitas and it was perfect...this wine will surely go well with any spicy beef dish and would also be great for a mixed meat bbq.

Hoya De Cadenas Reserva, Spain, $11.45

88
pretty good tempranillo for the price....a lighter style but still some concentration of flavour. good long finish, if a tad rustic.
i'd buy again.

So there you go...and if you try any of these and think I'm on crack...well at least it didn't cost you much to find that out.

 

"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"

Well, that answers that question: Exactly what wine does one drink with the liver of a pushy census taker?

Chianti, of course!

Good enough for Hannibal Lecter, good enough for me. Though I never eat liver and rarely eat fava beans.

Chianti was the first wine I remember buying regularly. That, along with the classic 'I'm in my 20's and this black bottle looks sort of badass' Masi Valpolicella:

 But back then Chianti still came in the uber-kitchy, squat, straw-wrapped bottle (called a fiasco!) 

 Little did I know that I was drinking a really cheapo wine. Not quite Mateus cheap...but close. (Mateus being the 'which wine can I afford on an OSAP budget?' wine).

 

Ahh...memories...

But the Chianti tasted good to me, it went great with pizza and the bottle was fun...always made a great candle holder too!

You don't see those bottles much anymore (sadly, I say!) in Ontario. The one I brought back from Tuscany a few years ago has become a decoration. I figured the wine inside was likely average at best so on the shelf it remains...along with other souvenirs including that weird spongy rock I grabbed from the top of Mt. Vesuvius!

But now Chianti has become a bit more fancy pants. The cheapest bottle of Chianti at LCBO is now around $12, the most expensive around $300! Mateus, by the way, is now $8.95, up from the six something I remember it costing 'back in the day'....more on LCBO pricing another time.

This increase in Chianti quality is largely due to Tuscan* wine makers taking their jobs a bit more seriously in the past decade or two.  

 

*This is a Tusken Raider. His wines suck.

Chianti is made, primarily, from Sangiovese, a fine grape that also makes the amazing Brunello di Montalcino! Though some Chiantis have as much as 25% other grapes mixed in. Unless you know the producer it's tough to tell exactly what the recipe is for a particular Chianti. This being the case, Chianti can come in many styles ranging from light, juicy and fruity to darker, fuller, more savory and tannic. But in almost all cases they should have really good acidity. Acidity in wine is what makes your mouth water and it's what makes a wine go great with food. Chianti is great for cutting through zesty tomato sauces. 

As with the previous posting about Beaujolais, Chianti comes in a few tiers:

"Chianti"...the grapes might come from anywhere in the Chianti region. You won't find anything that will blow your mind, but you will likely enjoy a glass of fruity, tangy wine that matches well with your pizza or spaghetti.

The letters "D.O.G." on a sticker on the neck "guarantees" the origin of the grapes while "D.O.C.G." additionally "guarantees" the quality of the wine...it's not fool proof but it increases your chances of grabbing a better bottle of wine.

Another one you'll see is "Chianti Classico" This wine comes from a more specific part of the Chianti region. The rules are a bit more strict, the wine more expensive, and also better.

"Classico" is just one of several areas of Chianti.

Here's a map I stole from Wikipedia, it shows the large "Chianti" region and all the smaller sub-regions...Like French wines, the more specific the location, the better the wine...theoretically.

In general, my advice to you when looking to buy something better than regular Chianti is to look for a few things:

-"Classico" or another sub-region...if Classico, look for a Black Rooster as it indicates that the wine has been regulated by the Gallo Nero Consortium, a bunch of producers that got together to keep quality standards high.

-"D.O.C.G." on the neck
-"Reserva" This means that the wine has been aged a extra couple years of more.
-"Chianti Superiore" a less common Chianti that has high standards.

In the tremendously under-rated sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, we find the good doctor slumming it in Florence. At one point we see him sitting in an al fresco cafe, sipping a glass of wine.

So about a year or two ago I tried to freeze the DVD frame to see what he was drinking....and yup, sure enough, it was Chianti, Il Grigio Chianti Classico:

So naturally I hunted one down:

This begs the question:

Whom shall I have for dinner?

Beaujolais: The white of reds.

Rich, dense, complex, heady, expensive, pretentious.

Those words do not describe Beaujolais.

Light, fruity, simple, versatile, easy going, yummy.

Those do.

No idea what wine to bring? Beaujolais. Not sure what to drink with what you just cooked? Beaujolais.

It's the laid back, wishy-washy friend ("I have no strong opinion about anything") of wines.

If you asked it what music it likes, it would answer "oh I listen to everything".

It shops at the Gap, laughs along with the laugh-track of "Friends" and is a casual sports fan. He doesn't care who wins as long as everyone's having fun.

Beaujolais comes from France. Beaujolais, France, which is technically part of the Burgundy region. All Beaujolais is made from a single variety of grape: Gamay. (Note: French, and other European wines in general: They almost never tell you what grape they use on the label! But more on that another day).

There are a few basic tiers of Beaujolais and, as with all French wines, the quality increases as the location of it's origins becomes more specific.

Level 1: "Beaujolais" This is the cheapest, plain ol' Beaujolais...the grapes could have come from anywhere in the region. Perfectly yummy. Drink it young and drink it slightly cool.

Level 2: "Beaujolais-Villages" These wines are made in the Haut Beaujolais region, and just as the Haut Medoc is a more specific part of Medoc region  in Bordeaux, so too is this a more specific, northern, part of Beaujolais. The grapes are said to prefer it's hills and soil, and you aren't allowed to grow as many grapes per acre ("lower yield"). In theory these wines should be better than plain ol' Beaujolais, though in my experience you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart blindfolded. Again, drink young, drink cool.

Level 3: "Cru Beaujolais" Cru mean "growth" in French. In Bordeaux and Burgundy Cru refers to a specific vineyard, in Beaujolais it can also refer to a whole village. Even lower yields, a more full bodied wine. The thing is, you will not see the words "Beaujolais" or "Cru" on the label. What you will see is the name of the Cru. The most common to be found at your local LCBO will be Fleurie, Brouilly & Chiroubles...but there are several more. Drink these a bit warmer and go ahead and cellar them for a few years if you want.

 

And finally the other main kind of Beaujolais is Beaujolais Nouveau. You can always spot it because it has wacky labels:

  

See?

But the only time you can find it is in November. 

You see, Beaujolais Nouveau is really more an event than a drink. It's the first wine in France to be released...and it's a party day. On the 3rd Thursday of every November the wine is released to the world and then you can taste some of the youngest, freshest wine you've ever had. The bigger LCBOs in town will have it, and if you get there on the day Queens Quay and Summerhill will let you taste it for free. Bottles are only about $12-15. 

In fact you'd be hard pressed to spend more than $20 even on a Cru Beaujolais.

But Beaujolais is not a wine to be sniffed and swirled and talked about. It's a wine to crack open at the beginning of a night of many bottles. A wine to crack open with almost any food. 

Low in alcohol, low in tannins, refreshing acidity, light and fruity. It's the white wine of red wine.

A wine to drink.

Wine ratings and the 100 point scale.

In this blog I'll use the 100 pt scale popularized by American wine guru Robert Parker simply because it seems to be the most common. It’s almost unheard of to find an undrinkable wine these days which is why almost every wine for sale will at least get a “drinkable” score of 80. Which is to say it’s better than homemade or what you would make in a do-it-yourself wine shop (this is where the 50’s 60’s and 70’s scores can be used!).
Bad commercial wine is uncommon. Modern wine technology and science is such that it’s just easier to make decent wine than ever before. This means that just by virtue of the fact that some winery made a bunch of wine and bothered to stick labels on it and got it into stores means that it’s at the very least drinkable.
This is why the 100 pt scale is in practice a 20 pt scale…80-100.
The way it works for me is basically this:
80-84: drinkable, forgettable
85-89: above average, something I would buy again.
90-94: Way above average, makes you say “oh wow!”
95+: Orgasmic, so good you want to punch the guy next to you out of frustration at your loss of words.
Price should have no bearing on the rating unless I specify that I’ve curved the score accordingly. A wine with a score of 92 should be a 92 regardless if it’s $20 or $200.

I’m also of the opinion that a wine can’t truly and properly be tasted unless you swallow it.