May14

Maclean’s Wine, an app about Wine in Canada

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Maclean’s Wine, an app about Wine in Canada

Maclean’s has a new wine app out, and it’s all about Wine in Canada. Maclean’s Wine, brought to you by Rogers – they of cell phone fame who own Maclean’s, they of words-on-pages fame – explores all things about wine in Canada, including the people and the places that matter, tasting notes galore, and insider tips about where to go and what to do when you’re looking to get in on the wine action north of the 49th.

Made with the screen real estate of the iPad in mind, It’s first and foremost an ebook, but a glorious and ever=changing one at that. The imagery is gorgeous and the information, well, informative. These are early days for this fresh-fased addition to the wine scene, so I’m looking forward to seeing timely updates that will prevent this e-tome from being relegated to the category of out-of-date wine guides. More development towards interactivity and community would also be welcome, though this isn’t clearly the primary mandate of this app.

What’s more, the app is available not only in Canada but also the United States from the iTunes App Store.

Did you get yours yet? What do you think?

May9

Hester Creek Barrel Selects Merlot 2011

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Hester Creek Barrel Selects Merlot 2011

HC_2011-Merlot This wine is like a old-time fairy tale of sorts, in my mind. And in a good way. Picture for yourself a forest floor of blackberries blueberries and black currants, juicy and supple forest fruit from the late summer. It’s a comforting scene in mouth and mind, but as with any old school fairy tale, there’s a darker side. Wonder what it is that goes bump in the night? It’s that beast that only wine drinkers know so well. Indeed, the oak monster lurks in the shadows. But don’t be too afraid, especially if you’re not shy about the soft vanilla and toasty notes it brings to the table – there’s a harmonious balance of oak and fruit here.

And for such a young thing, it’s mature for its age, and instantly drinkable. Tannins are smooth, the mouth feel “round” for lack of a better word, and without heat despite clocking in at a hair above 14%. Perfect pairing for your favorite red meat off the grill, but stands up well on its own as a sipper.

As a footnote of sorts, Hester Creek states that this wine is aged in specially selected barrels. I’m curious, who selects them and what’s the criteria? Are the other barrels envious? And did the selector of barrels at any time stop and mutter to themselves “these are not the barrels you are looking for”? Let me mull on these with another glass.

Apr8

Church and State Coyote Bowl Meritage 2008

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Church and State Coyote Bowl Meritage 2008

We recently had a chance to taste the 2008 Coyote Bowl Meritage from Church and State, a winery in the Okanagan Valley, in British Columbia, Canada. I didn’t know much about the winery going in, and if you don’t either, here’s the dirty:

In the Okanagan Valley, Church and State farms 60 acres on estate land, mainly on the Black Sage Bench, and a further 30 acres through our partnerships with growers in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. They also have 11 acres of planted grapes on the Saanich Peninsula. Nestled in the Coyote Bowl Vineyard, the winery of the same name offers splendid views of the valley and graceful concrete and beam architecture.

And here’s what we found out about what’s in the bottle after some swirling, sipping, and such:

Church and State 2008 Meritage

Church and State 2008 Coyote Bowl Meritage (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot blessed by the Meritage Alliance).

Developing complexity for what is still a young wine, the berry-dominant fruit plays nicely off the well-integrated oak, supported by smooth tannins. There’s a pleasant complexity here, with hints of hebality and smokiness.

According to the winery, “the fruit for this wine, sourced from different vineyards in Oliver and Osoyoos, was picked in late October, 2008. The juice was fermented in stainless tanks and transferred to French Oak Barrels – 20% new oak – where it was matured for 31 months before being bottled.”

Production was ramped up significantly from the 07 vintage, from 550 cases to over 1500 cases in 08.

The wine is not without critical merit, having won Gold at the 2012 New World International Wine Competition and another Gold at the 2012 All-Canadian Wine Championships.

Feb15

BC Reforms Wine Laws

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BC Reforms Wine Laws

This week, the British Columbia provincial government announced some wine law reforms to continue to open things up and update laws, many of which date back to Prohibition.

It’s one small step for the wine industry but is probably feeling like one giant leap for the Liquor board, but even small victories are welcome in this wine land where public and private co-mingle.

Among the reforms:

  • Private liquor stores can now set up shop next door to government stores. Previously, there was a 1km minimum limit unless the general manager was willing to waive the rule.
  • Independent wine stores and VQA wine stores are included in a category of wine stores that are now considered licensees. What does this mean, you ask? Basically, it makes everyone subject to the same regulator. Wholesale prices won’t be affected, and no new licenses will be granted at least at this time.
  • Breweries and distillers can now more freely operate tasting rooms.
  • Small or mid sized wineries (and breweries and such) can now have a direct relationship with up to three retail establishments (e.g., bar, restaurant, private liquor store).
  • And, last but definitely not least, the provincial government has appointed Herb Leroy as “Wine Envoy”, tasking him with helping to open up interprovincial wine shipping laws. And it looks like Herb is quick to get going. At least he’s updated his LinkedIn account to state Wine Envoy as his current job.

To get down to the nitty gritty and a sense of the ridiculousness posed when these laws were not yes passed, hop on over the Mark Hicken’s Wine Law website.

Feb4

A Canadian Foursome

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A Canadian Foursome

There’s nothing like a quartet of Canadian wine to pass the weekend. This time we were tasked with west coast wine from the Okanagan Valley in that best of natural playgrounds, British Columbia.

Let’s see what the

The 2010 Noble Ridge Meritage, a blend of predominantly Merlot grapes with some Cabernet Sauvignon aged in French and American oak barrels, is a friendly and fruit-forward with a little spicy kick. Berries abound, driven first and foremost by blackberries. Built to please, this one’s a crowd pleaser.

About Noble Ridge: Jim and Leslie D’Andrea began the Noble Ridge winery in 2001. When they purchased the property it had only 3.5 acre of vines. Since then they have planted an additional 18 acres. Tending to vineyards and making the wines is all done by hand.

The 2010 Sonoran Estate Winery Jazz Series Riesling Gewrurztraminer, is a crisp blend with an aromatic component to please any Gewurz lover. Green apples and stone fruit, and a hint of citrus. Great balance! And do I have a daring pairing for you with this one – roasted kale chips. It surprised me how well the roasted kale and this wine go together, but there was a harmony in my mouth that was pretty damn astounding!

About Sonoran Estate: “Immigrants from Holland in 1982, the Smits family were Fraser Valley flower growers until moving in 2000 to a Summerland orchard set on a dramatic slope overlooking Lake Okanagan. After opening a highway-side bed and breakfast, the Smits replaced the fruit trees with vines, opening a winery with the first fruit from the vineyard. The varieties grown include merlot, pinot noir, chardonnay, gewürztraminer, riesling, ehrenfelser and pinot blanc. In 2007, the family moved from the original Sonoran winery, which had difficult highway access, to a high-traffic site on the wine route in Summerland. Beginning with the 2005 vintage, Sonoran now releases its premium wines under the 13 Moons label. Inspired by the lunar cycles, the label also signals a commitment to biodynamic practices.” — BC Wine.com

2009 Dunham Froese MDC, a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Zinfandel, and 25% Syrah, is about as approachable as wine can get. Silky smooth, with the softness of a cool blueberry pie. A great solo joy, it doesn’t need food to make it memorable. The wine is a tribute to Dunham Froese proprietor Gene Covert’s late father, who was an avid Cab drinker.

About Dunham Froese: Dunham Froese, now known as Covert Farms, was founded in 2005 together by the Covert and and Froese families. Those wines from the early years were well received and the winery was named “Best New Winery to Watch for” in 2008 by the Okanagan Wine Festival Society. In 2011, the Covert family assumed full ownership.

2011 Platinum Bench Chardonnay, the inaugural release of this wine. It’s got even oaky backbone to make us know it means business, but without taking away that citrusy zing. MIngling iwth that citrus are crisp Granny Smith apples and a melony softness. Very refreshing on the finish. We previously wrote about Platinum Bench’s 2011 Gamay Noir and Pinot Gris, which we were fans of, so it’s very interesting to find another potent weapon in their vinous arsenal. These folks have sure come out swinging. Production is only 350 cases.

About Platinum Bench Estate Winery: We truly don’t know much yet about the Platinum crew. They’ve barely gotten here, and they’re winning awards and storming palates. The Oliver, BC winery was established in 2012 by Fiona Duncan and Murray Jones. And there’s a dog named Wally. What more is there to know?

And that’s all folks. Truly, it is.

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For more on wines from the Okanagan valley, this is the best book I know.

Jan30

Wine Apps for Blackberry 10

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Wine Apps for Blackberry 10

Blackberry released its new Blackberry 10 operating system today, along with two new phones – the iPhoneish Z10 and the more traditionally Blackberry-style, keyboard-laden Q10. In the release, Blackberry announced that there are over 70,000 apps immediately available. So this got me wondering how many wine apps are there? So we did some digging, and here’s what we found (and most of them are not your usual suspects).

Mobifusion has been busy for this release, and among their apps are a couple noteworthy wine apps, Instant Wine Expert, with a $5.99 price tag and which is by the sound of it is a 1WineDude-esque “tool for working out what’s what in the world of wine, without pretentiousness or pomp”, and Top Wines of the World, a “companion guide for wines from Australia, California, France, Spain, Italy, Chile, Argentina, and [elsewhere around the world]. Both these apps sound bookish, but that is the case with many wine knowledge apps across platforms.

Cytrus has put out a crowdsourcing type wine app called Top12Wines  that you can download here.

The new version of the Vivino Wine Scanner (also familiar on iOS and available in the iTunes App Store) released today to be compatible with OS10, allows users to take a photo of any wine, and the app will automatically match it against an online wine database of more than 500,000 wines.

Wine Secretary looks to be a new app on the Blackberry platform, made specifically for the OS10 release. With it, you can guide your wine purchases using ratings, prices, and reviews from an archive of 1 million+ wines.

So where are apps from the Wine Spectator, Snooth, Nat Decants and others that are staples in iOS? Let’s hope they join the BB10 party soon!

We’ll keep updating as we find out about more wine apps, so keep checking back…

 

 

Jan29

App Review: Pocket Wine

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App Review: Pocket Wine

PocketWine1In this week’s app review, I’m taking a closer look at Pocket Wine, an app that, in the words of the developer, “unlocks the complex world of wine” and “enables you to easily navigate, explore and gain a clear understanding of all the major grape varieties and blends”. Pocket Wine’s main features are a wine Style guide, a listing of Grape varieties, a Food section that allows you to find a suitable wine match for whatever you’re looking at making for din-din, and My Taste (a taste profile feature that’s seriously fun).

The design is warm and inviting. The text pops out well, and the icons are distinguishable and memorable, so they’re doing their job. The navigation is traditionally iOS’sy and as such intuitive for anyone familiar with the platform.

The Style feature is a great access point into finding wines that suit my style (or what I think is my style – more on this below), and going into reading about a wine variety that I find interesting opens up so much information about everything from the variety’s origins, regions where it can be found, potential food pairings, and even a place to put my notes. The one thing that could open it up even more is a link from a proposed food pairing back to that food’s page in the Food section, so that maybe if I don’t like, say, Pinot Grigio with that fish, I can go to the fish’s Goof section page and find other potential wine matches.

The Grapes feature is a more direct link to what I just talked about above, and its inclusion on the menu is a great choice on the part of the developer as its an oft-needed reference not only for beginners but for more seasoned wine lovers wanting to venture into that more unfamiliar territory manned by the Arintos and Assyrtikos of the vine world.

PocketWine2My Taste, a feature that allows you to create a taste profile, is interesting and fun especially when comparing with friends while sharing a bottle and a few laughs. But more than that, it’s truthful. It doesn’t give you a Facebook game-like result of “You are a Cab Man!” but instead sliding-scale results for how you could potentially like multiple wine styles. And you know what? It was pretty spot on with my tastes – I do like smooth reds even if I’ve got a thing for powerhouse Cabs on occasion. What this feature may be missing is a direct link out of My Taste to a wine style. When I saw 80% compatibility to Smooth, I tapped on “Smooth” but nothing happened. Having said that, it’s not a long jaunt back to the Style view, but in this world of multiple access points, that direct access is something that would be a nice-to-have feature.

Pocket Wine is designed for both the iPad and iPhone, which – although almost being a must for most apps these days – is convenient as I like to have this kind of information with me on the go on my iPhone, but when settling down for some lengthier reading on grape varieties or that food-wine match for this Saturday’s dinner, the iPad is easier on the eyes.

All in all, this is a great wine app for both newbies and as a reference tool for veteran wine geeks, and definitely a step up from the various competing free apps that are out there.  It’s available on the US App Store at Pocket Wine – USA and on the Canadian App Store at Pocket Wine – Canada.

Rating: 4 stars

Jan23

Francis Ford Coppola Presents “Inglenook Now”

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Francis Ford Coppola Presents “Inglenook Now”

Rubicon_Vineyard

Francis Ford Coppola, he of Godafther and Apocalypse Now cinematic fame, is probably even more known to some wine folk for his endeavors in California wine for many years now. And when it comes to wine news concerning Mr. Coppola, the recent news of him re-booting the Inglenook brand, and the old Inglenook property’s vineyards, after buying back the Inglenook trademark in 2011 is the cherry on the cake he’s been putting together when not busy bankrupting himself and avoiding Hollywood slavery while making groundbreaking films.Inglenook1941

Coppola bought the Niebaum mansion in 1975 and over the past four decades, he began buying back the property that had been sold in pieces, made it his family home, and poured money into it even when he wasn’t flush with money – but that’s what a labor of love does to you. It’s the one thing he has stuck with, even as he has easily abandoned Hollywood, parting with mainstream filmmaking, something most of the world knows him for. But then again, Coppola has always been one to walk his own path

IInglenook_Winerynglenook’s fame is decades old. Over a hundred years ago they were already making award-winning wine on this estate founded by, of all things, a sea captain from Finland. It garnered the kind of legendary status that has made it, as Robert Mondavi called it, “the most important winery property in the Napa Valley.” So to Coppola, it was a no-brainer to buy back the original Inglenook brand, and replace the Rubicon brand with it, when it became available.

But it doesn’t stop with just a brand. Coppola is intent on reviving the lighter style of wine that made it famous, Cabernets made with few of the modern techniques that seem mandatory in today’s winemaking process. He’s even ready to abandon the usually over the top, oaked fruit bombs of Cabs that Napa has made famous and turn to an older style, some would even say a more Bordeaux style. The shift also requires a change to the hundreds of acres of vines at Inglenook’s vineyards. Coppola has always been very attentive to the farming of his land, and is one of the only vineyard owners in the region to keep a full crew year round to better achieve this purpose.

Now we are beginning to see the first vintages, but a hundred years ago it was the long lasting quality of the Inglenook wines that made them special, so it could be expected that the success of the results of Coppola’s work can only be weighed years, if not decades from now. But if the long-lasting success of his greatest cinematic labor of love, Apocalypse Now, is any sign, there may be great things to come.

           

Jan18

Rolling Stones on a Whole Lot of Wine

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Rolling Stones on a Whole Lot of Wine

Over the last little while I’ve noticed that the Rolling Stones appear on a whole lot of wine out there, or at least it seems that way. On California wine from Mendocino, Canadian ice wine, and sometimes on wine where it’s pretty damn impossible to figure out where the wine comes from or even what grapes are involved.

This is nothing new and other celebrities from Elvis to the Grateful Dead have gotten in on this. After all, beyond the wine itself, these items exist as collectibles and the bottles will surely last sealed and cherished long after the Best Before date of the juice inside, and dare I say it, even beyond the seemingly unending the lasting power of the Stones themselves.

What’s interesting is the depth of the Rolling Stones band’s and brand’s involvement. This is a global brand with amazing reach so why do the Stones tongue logo, and for example, the names of their most memorable tunes Satisfaction and Sympathy for the Devil appear on the labels of a small release of Canadian ice wine? Perhaps it’s just another conquest in a long line of supermodels, platinum records and other triumphs. Though the Stones have apparently tried the Pinot Noir ice wine and have given it the thumbs up, says Jeff Harder, owner of Ex Nihilo winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, where the wine hails from.

Whatever the reason, the business model is working both for the celebrities and the wineries. Sales of celebrity based wines have been on the rise the last few years. Gary Vaynerchukonce said that celebrity wines are “the next new marketing oasis”, but that oasis is running dry. Market saturation and overload are close at hand, but in the spirit of the Stones, why bother with those dreary details. No, let’s concentrate on the rock ‘n’ roll, and at least for now, a good – or even half decent – wine can be a part of that rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

Jan10

M. Chapoutier Les Vignes De Bila-Haut Cotes Du Roussillon Villages 2010

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M. Chapoutier Les Vignes De Bila-Haut Cotes Du Roussillon Villages 2010

Thanks go out to Wine Chateau, a family-owned online and bricks & mortar wine retailer based in New Jersey, who provided us with a sample of this wine.

Bila-Haut, composed of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, is a wine grown in the Roussillon commune of Latour-de-France. The plots where this wine hails are located on the slopes of the high Agly Valley, composed of gneiss and schist from the Devonian Period.

In the glass, it’s a deep, dense garnet. So let’s take it for a whirl.

On the nose, there are black currants, raspberry, spices, figs and chocolate. much of the same carrier through to the palate: the dark berries, a hint of chocolate, and coffee notes. This wine has lovely balance. Medium tannins and a comfortable load of fruit, the 2010 is not at all heavy. The alcohol clocks in at a solid 14% but it’s a smooth fourteen, without any burn.

It also provides great value, and looks like a good value – maybe even too good as Wine Chateau looks to be completely sold out at the moment.

About M. Chapoutier:

M. Chapoutier has a two hundred year old history in the Rhone Valley, and is now also in the Roussillon. Chapoutier’s own vineyards and the vineyards they source from are either organically or biodynamically cultivated.