deVine Thoughts

Author: Dirk Chan

Our Annual Fall Scotch Tasting is scheduled for Thursday, November 24th at 7pm, that will steer the cold away and warm the cockles of your heart. Experience a wide variety of Single Malts from numerous producing regions including Islay, Campbeltown, Speyside and Highlands with a focus on the peatier side of whisky.

With five drams at $100 or more, this is an opportunity to sample some high quality bottlings and perhaps add a few to your Christmas wishlist. This is a very popular stand-up event sure to sell quickly so grab your spot early to avoid disappointment.

Book your spot here..

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Author: Dirk Chan

It’s been quite a while since I have been excited about a $20 wine, but the 2010 Astrolabe Sauvignon Blanc – $20.99 from Marlborough, New Zealand did just that.

This blew all of us at deVine away with its immense quality and great price point. Tasting more like a cross between the Kim Crawford and the Cloudy Bay (both of which sell for more money), this had a standout nose of the trademark cat pee gooseberry nose, with fresh mown grass and drying hay. On the palate, it sang with wild exotic tropical fruit, citrus notes of grapefruit and a keylime pie finish. The concentration of fruit was very intense and stayed on the palate for a minute. This won Best Sauvignon Blanc award at the London International Wine Show in London in 2008.

Bravo and our highest recommendation – should be fabulous for Thanksgiving dinner too. Grab yours fast before the rest catches on. Thanks to Michael Fregren of Christopher Stewart Wine & Spirits for bringing this fabulous white into Alberta. You can purchase this online here..

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Author: Dirk Chan

On Tuesday, October 4th from 11:30am to 1pm, the Hardware Grill Restaurant will close during their normal lunch hours to host a private luncheon for 100 guests. A special three course meal with two matching wines will be served, including a takeaway dessert prepared by Chef Larry Stewart with proceeds raised donated to the E4C School Lunch Program.

“We could not participate in helping feed underprivileged school kids on the day of the Al Fresco event, so we came up with the idea of donating the entire restaurant to raise money for the Lunch Program” says Melinda Stewart. “We have two young children of our own, and want to do something special to give back to the community who has supported us so well over the years.”

There will be greetings from the City of Edmonton by none other than Mayor Stephen Mandel, as well as from Jim Taylor, Executive Director of the Downtown Business Association, and Kristin Morra of E4C. We are hoping for the entire 100 seats to be sold for this worthy cause, so please spread the word to your friends and corporate colleagues.

Your can purchase tickets in advance here..

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Author: Dirk Chan

A big THANKS! to all who came out to enjoy Al Fresco on June 11th and bid on our silent auction items. Your support and generosity helped us raise over $26,000 for the E4C School Lunch Program which feeds kids who go to school hungry.

What started out as a deVine fundraiser and a celebration of our 4th year anniversary quickly evolved into an annual 104th-St. community summer event. We want to take this opportunity to thank the various groups involved who made this event the success it was this year.

First a thank you to our Financial Sponsors: the Downtown Business Association, Melcor Developments and the City of Edmonton.

Publicity is the key to the success of any event, you can have the best event that no one knows about, but luckily we had Yuri Wuensch and Marcus Gurske of Play it By Ear Productions for spreading the word and a masterful job they did too with logo and poster design, newspaper, radio and tv interviews. We want to single out Virgin FM for being our Media Sponsor.

Food was a big part of Al Fresco, and a big thank is in order for the long and dedicated hours put in by John Williams of The Blue Plate Diner who was instrumental in pulling together all the great restaurants that were represented at this year’s event. Thank you to the restaurants TZiN Wine & Tapas, Credo Coffee, Sabor Divino, Tres Carnales, Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse, Elm Café, MRKT and Alley Kat Brewery for your enthusiastic participation and then the donations after the fact.

We hope you enjoyed the various entertainment showcased at Al Fresco – due to the hard work and talent of Bridget Smatlan (Fashion Show Organizer and Vendor Coordinator) and Allan Harding (Music Programs), Laura Molina (Fridget Apparel’s Marvel College intern and fashion show assistant), Rob Gaspar (Blunt Salon Owner – Coordnated models and hair), Jessica Halabi (Jessica Halabi Designs), Anna McDonough and Nga Van (Coup Boutique), C’est Sera and all their lovely customers who modeled for the show, Blunt Salon Stylists who did the hair for fashion show, Mode Models, Beauty Lounge, Andie Smith and Kim Jurina (Eyecare Group), make-up artists Gina Cicero and Andrea Steen (Georgie Magazine’s), fashion show dj Dane MacDonald, Patrick Michalak– sound, street participants Capital City Burlesque.

The involvement of so many businesses on 104th-St. truly made Al Fresco a community event. Your enthusiasm in pulling together to support a common cause was truly impressive. Our thanks to Melcor for donating the use of their parking lot, Handmade Mafia’s Ally Ng and Onelineguy Records -Tariq Ishida for his donation box fabricator and as the heavy lifter volunteer.

Our gratitude to another successful pancake breakfast by the Downtown Edmonton Community League. The breakfast was a great way to kick-start the day.

Thanks to the vendors of the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market who remained open for the Al Fresco activities. You showed great stamina in being on 104th-St. from 8:00 AM on! Thanks to liaisons Gabriele Campbell and Dan Young.

No event of this magnitude would be able to run smoothly without the people who donated their time and effort. There are too many names to single out but you know who you are and our most sincere thanks go out to all of you kind-hearted folk!

A big thanks to all the agents and wine importers who came out to pour at the deVine outdoor tent and support this very worthwhile fundraiser. We could not have done this without your support. Over 300 people lined up to come in and taste wine when we only expected 300. Your donation in time and product helped us raise over $4,000! We raise a glass to you all for an outstanding effort!

The online and in-store silent auction raised over $17,000 for E4C, it is the mainstay of our charity fundraising, and the only thing bad weather does not impact. The many interesting and unique items contributed by our generous donors made this all possible. A big THANK YOU to all those who donated and to those people who bid with open hearts. Cheers!

The logistics of putting on such an event is massive, we want to thank Jennifer Collins of the City of Edmonton and Jennifer Treece of the AGLC for clearing the road blocks.

Miscellaneous thankyou’s to Big Top Event Rentals, Thomas Rose of Sobey’s, Lianne Faulder of the Edmonton Journal, Kristin Morra of E4C, Jon Hall, Jim Taylor, Michael Phair, Chelle Busch, Gord Stewart, Chris Martens, Mack Male, Cheri Onushko, Colin Gemmell, Bernard Johnson, Kelly McCauley, Barb Ursuliak, Jacqueline Coffin, Shauna Warwick, Bob Watson, Jane Batty, Ryan Mayer, Jodie Grace, Ben Henderson, Erica Viegas, Sharon Yeo, Denise Kirkpatrick, Bob Parsons, Penelope Irving, Melinda and Larry Stewart.

Last but no least, thankyou’s to the deVine Wines’ owners and staff for their never ending support, dedication and energy to make this happen for another year – Ed, Annabelle, Chad, Dirk, Mark, Hayley, Jimmy, Nic, Bill, Chris and Rick.

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Author: Dirk Chan

One of the great Super-Tuscan estates, the Tenuta dell’Ornellaia was founded in 1981 in what has proved to be one of Italy’s most interesting and expressive wine-making areas, the maritime hills of Bolgheri within the greater wine region of Maremma. This is a great region for fine food and wine and although for centuries it was considered unfit for vineyards, in the past few decades this coastal area has become one of the most ultra exclusive wine producing regions of Italy. Ornellaia’s 97-hectare estate stretches out along the Tyrrhenian Sea, just north of the Maremma between Leghorn and the Island of Elba, and is the birthplace of the now-iconic and highly collectible wines, the Bordeaux inspired Ornellaia and the Merlot based Masseto.

Founded in 1981 by Marchese Lodovico Antinori, brother of the powerful and esteemed Piero Antinori of Solaia fame, it has been this writer’s favourite Super Tuscan, its consistency is flabbergasting – I can’t remember a less than stellar vintage in the last 15 years. Its success is due both to its staunch commitment to the philosophy of “quality without compromise” and to the unique climate and terrain. While in some ways similar to Bordeaux, the estate’s terroir is truly something special with its marine, alluvial and clayey volcanic soils, allowing each grape variety to be planted in its ideal type of soil.

Ornellaia is owned by Frescobaldi, a huge conglomerate and enjoys some famous neighbours such as Sassicaia, the original Super Tuscan. Ornellaia is a Cabernet-Merlot blend (there is no Sangiovese here) that first stepped onto the scene in 1985. The wine is aged in approximately 70% new oak – French barriques – for anywhere from 15-21 months on average. The 2006-2007-2008 trio is already legendary, and while the 2006 is all sold out, we do have some 2007 left and are welcoming the new arrival of the brilliant 2008.

Remarkable depth of fruit and power in these two wines with the classic house style with arresting aromas of black cherry, anise, mocha, dark chocolate, along with the sweet creamy vanilla notes. Each wine is full-bodied with excellent complexity and the structure to age for 20-25 years, perhaps longer.

The 2007 is an extraordinary wine, superbly balanced with ideal acidity and an extremely long finish with strong notes of mocha and anise. The 2008 is extremely deep in color -bright ruby red with evident purple hues and offers beautiful ripeness and excellent persistence. Both are future legends that belong in any serious collection. Look out for a Top Drops vertical tasting of this wine in 2012.

2007 Ornellaia (Tuscany) – $189.99

2008 Ornellaia (Tuscany) – $189.99

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Author: Dirk Chan

The 2010 Bordeaux vintage follows the great 2000, 2005 and 2009 as the vintages of the century. Great weather and even better winemaking know-how has made one of the greatest vintage ever for Bordeaux in 2010, whispered in the same breath as the 1961, 1982, 1990 and those four in the new millennium. Patience will be a virtue for the 2010’s – they are true vin-de-garde wines for cellaring wines showing great balance, freshness, finesse, power and extremely long-aging potential (some are 30-40 year wines). You will be drinking your charismatic and explosive 2009’s long before 2010’s hit prime time. However, the pricing has continued a disturbing trend upward, and even though we in the retail business keep saying it is not sustainable, the Bordelais seem to get away with price increases that no other wine region in the world can.

The Cabernet Sauvignon of the Left Bank will be shown to be the star in 2010 and in particular the Pauillac appellation is what the buyers want – thus the highest increases are seen here. I was fortunate to be at VinExpo in Bordeaux to taste samples from Pichon Baron, Lynch Bages, Grand Puy Lacoste, Haut Batailley, Haut-Bages-Liberal and they were all stunning, ranking with the very best they’ve ever done (unfortunately, none of the First Growths nor Pontet-Canet were at VinExpo). I enjoyed also the St. Juliens for their typicity, the Margaux for their delicacy and I must note that there were some great wines from the Right Bank of Pomerol that were mind-blowing. Note that the 2010 White Bordeaux were captivating and merit serious attention, right up there with the great 2001’s.

It was certainly interesting to go into a room and have all these great chateaux there pouring for you. Your palate is assaulted in a two hour period, but I found that although the tannins were all there for long-aging potential, they were fresh and inviting, ripe and smooth, all good signs. Our 2010 Futures Offering reflects the great quality and consistency of this vintage – we picked wines with good quality for the price and scored highly with critics – many of the wines offered have been purchased for a number of years for the consistency and relative value.

I certainly strongly recommend finding a Bordeaux in your price range and purchasing some 2010, it is without doubt a legendary vintage – people will be comparing 2009 and 2010 like they have (and still are) comparing 1989 and 1990. If 2010 was a significant year for you (marriage, children birth years), then you’ve hit on a goldmine vintage. As usual, we require 75% up front, and the remaining 25% to be paid when the wines arrive in late 2013. First come first served for the Futures and quantities are very limited.

Here is our 2010 Bordeaux Offering..

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Author: Dirk Chan

The folks at Taittinger are engaging and fully prepared and experienced in giving tours. A tiny group of us got the special tour in the afternoon at 2:20pm, and they started right on time. A brief movie was played before the guide took us through the Champagne making process in the cellars.

The flagship Comte de Champagne is made from 100% Chardonnay from Grand Cru vineyards and usually aged in the cellar for ten years or more prior to release (pictured is one vintage of Comte – we were told out of 170,000 stacked here for aging, about 70 of them will break before release for unknown reasons – too much pressure, a week point in the bottle etc). Note the shape of Comte is the classically shaped bottle reminiscent of when Champagne was bottled back in the 14th Century during the time of Louis XIV.

As I said, these folks are prepared for hosting, there are many extremely ornate tasting rooms (see the one below pictured in its leather and black motif). The cellars are labeled in secret codes, so the guides don’t even know the vintage of which Comte is being stored (a security feature). The caves are naturally cool and stays around the defacto standard of 13C or 55F year-round.

We tasted the NV Brut Reserve and the slightly more expensive NV Prelude which sees more bottle age. Finally, they gave us each a bottle of the 2004 Vintage Brut (only made in superb years) to take home with us – nice!

This is the final edition of Dirk’s French Travel blog, hoped you enjoyed it. Lookout next for Ed and Annabelle’s three month travel blogs to start shortly as they venture throughout Europe – Germany, Portugal, Burgundy and the Piedmonte.

In the meantime, deVine’s 2010 Bordeaux Futures offering is now out, as well, look out for a blog with my personal remarks and assessment of the wines of this superb vintage upcoming shortly..

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Author: Dirk Chan

With eager anticipation, we arrived at Chateau Lynch-Bages, one of the Bordeaux’s most recognizable names. This well respected 5th Growth in great years has done it again in 2010 – this is a superb wine (one of the wines of the vintage), and one to cellar for 20-25 years. Pitch black and oozing violets, yet there is a density of fruit that comes in waves. Another home-run from this estate (just wish it wasn’t so expensive, but then all the stunning Pauillac’s have risen 20-40% from 2009, outrageous but people are still buying) that ranks with their great 1982, 1989, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2009.

The Cazes have done extremely well in the Bages, with young Jean Charles taking the reigns from his retired father Jean-Michel and implementing new ideas. We visited the shops where the Cazes have built a series of quaint stores and cafe’s . At the winery, there is a museum (pictured above) that you can visit, where you can see the old archaic equipment that was last used in 1975 (pictured). The elder Cazes’ love for Oriental art is strewn all over the property (see picture on the next page).

The garden-feel tasting room is spacious with windows – we enjoyed the Echo of Lynch Bages 2010, and were even more impressed with the finest Lynch Bages Blanc I have ever tasted – judicious use of oak, citrus fruit, pineapple, grapefruit and star fruit – have to look into this one. I’ve been impressed with the white Bordeaux I’ve tasted on this trip.

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Author: Dirk Chan

An impromptu visit at the exquisitely managed estate of Pichon-Longueville Baron or Pichon Baron for short was the highlight of the day today. This has been one of my favourite Chateaux both to drink and to see – the draw-dropping looking chateau (pictured) is so grand in scale.

The 2010 Pichon Baron is without doubt one of the wines of the vintage and probably the best 2010 I tasted over the last week at VinExpo and various chateau visits (look out for a future blog on the VinExpo tasting of many 2010’s). Unfortunately, finding some Baron is going to be a difficult task as the whole world wants it, irrespective of the high price. Huge yet graceful, lithe yet light with a finish that goes on for minutes. This will easily compete with the First Growths – inky black, it has the guts and concentration to last for 50 years. The more provocative 2009 though will give interesting comparisons just as the 1989 and 1990 did – a racy, sexy wine that will be earlier drinking, but wow, so sumptuous.

Along with the great 2000, 2003, 2005, and now 2009 and 2010, Pichon Baron has had a hair-raising new millennium and on the big ascend under the ownership of French Insurance giant AXA and the guidance of first Jean-Michel Cazes (of Lynch Bages fame) and now Christian Seely (of Quinta do Noval, Suduiraut, Petit Village fame) since 2001.

Besides the two Grand Vins, we also tasted with senior tourism guide Nicolas Santier (pictured below) the 2010 Pibran – impressive and gaining in quality with each passing vintage. The 2nd wine Tourelles was less structured than the first wine, but it will still take a decade for it to come around.

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Author: Dirk Chan

A map of how the original Leoville estate that has separated into the three Leovilles as we know it today (Barton, Las Cases and Poyferre) is most intriguing. If one could be a fly on the wall when the division of the estate occurred would have been fun. The Poyferre holdings are spread wide and far in the St. Julien appellation (they say each plot gives extra dimension to the wine) but it must a be a lot of work for the vineyard staff and for consultant oenologist Michel Rolland to manage.

Proprietor Didier Cuvelier was not present but we tasted with his cousin Anne (pictured below), a very jolly and happy lady who welcomed us and told us that Didier’s work over the last 25 years at Poyferre has really seen the rise of the estate, no longer the last of the Leovilles. What a high tech tasting room we were escorted to, very clinical in its black and white. The spit bucket opens like a clothing drawer under the tasting table (pictured above), and there is a flush button per person to dismiss the spit. There is a dedicated wall with comments from famous wine personalities around the world.

Poyferre and Las Cases share one common vinification cellar, the left part of the cellar is Las Cases’ (windows painted white), the right part is Poyferre’s (painted vanilla yellow), the underground pumping system cris cross in an ‘X’ formation to the respective fermentation rooms across the street.

As for the tasting, I was very impressed with their estate called Le Crock, a tiny little known vineyard in St. Estephe that is surrounded by Cos d’Estournel on one side and Montrose on the right (how great is that?) – very impressive 2010 that I will have to try to hunt down, never seen it before. The 2010 Poyferre was refined, suave yet structured, not the biggest wine from the vintage, but balanced and a true vin de garde that reminds of a cross between 2003 and 2005 but with even more structure.

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