deVine Thoughts

February 15, 2009


California Wine Exhibit

Filed under: deVine's Daily Blog Article — Dirk @ 11:14 am

Four_VinesAuthor: Dirk Chan

As per other years, deVine will be hosting at the store a California wine tasting as a warm-up precursor to this year’s California Wine Fair at the Shaw Conference Centre in support of the Citadel Theatre slated for Thursday, March 5, 2009.

We will be tasting over seventy wines this coming Saturday, February 21 from 11am to 5pm, all of them different than what will be served at the main event – it is a great way to wet your appetite for the main event.

The $10 entry fee will be donated to the Zebra Society of Edmonton in support of abused children in our city. This is a drop-in stand-up event, but if you want to pre-register, you can do so online.

A decade ago, California wines were at the top of the heap and the rage, but countries like Australia, Chile and more recently Argentina, Spain and Portugal have been producing great wines for under $20 that California producers are now having to produce a better product in order to compete with these upstarts. There is no doubt that for immediate appeal, the California wines are wonderful – the Zinfandel has pretty much cornered the market and are tremendously juicy, upfront and wonderful with the barbecue. The Petite Syrah and Syrahs are unique too, while the Pinot Noirs can be excellent (though rarely inexpensive). Finally, the mainstains are still the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon.

If you are able to drop in next Saturday, come earlier rather than later to experience the joyous wines from this world famous wine producing region – a ray of sunshine on a winter’s day! Here is the list of wines we’ll be tasting: http://devinewines.ca/event.html?id=345

Don’t forget to purchase your ticket to the offical California Wine Fair: http://www.citadeltheatre.com/events.php?eventid=706&cat=34

1 Comment »

  1. Sounds like a terrific tasting coming up on Saturday!

    Here a is a heads up on the Lancyre white from Languedoc, these notes were posted on a USA forum.

    TN: `07 Ch. de Lancyre La Rouviere, Coteaux de Languedoc.

    Good natural cork, 13.5% alc, $23 Cdn and first tasting of the newly released `07. Think Bob H has some notes somewhere on earlier vintages? Purchased locally at DeVines, Edmonton.

    Color. Medium straw, no green hints, looks inviting.

    Nose. Citrus/lime, peach, floral, aromatic for sure. Hint of nuttiness in the background, more mineral tones on day 2 and could be some banana? Very appealing without the fruit salad stuff!

    Palate. Always important to serve this type of blend not too chilled I think. Too cold, the acid seems out of balance and the excess chill certainly dulls the fruit tones.
    Initial entry thought was tad too young, dry, minerals, nut tone on finish. As it opens shows some bracing acidity without any honey tones one will expect down the road! Unripe pear and white fruit to forefront, tough to know which food to match with this one. Acidity was less evident on day 2 (found some pink grapefruit) but nothing shines right now. Think another year will do for this one?

    ****** Roussanne from Calif seems to be from 2 camps, looking at Tom Hill`s notes. Dry like this one but more likely to have some tropical fruit edges from others. Maybe a Roussanne Open Mike in the summer will be of interest?

    Food, we ended up with pork tenderloin wrapped in ham and served with bok choy. Ho-hum.

    http://www.chateaudelancyre.com/

    Comment by Bob Parsons — February 18, 2009 @ 5:38 pm

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