Watch and listen to the whole video…
Impressive use of video as a medium
Published by February 12th, 2009 in Adam & Elizabeth. 0 CommentsWe live in the ‘burbs (and proud of it!), right across from a public school. Last week as we were coming home, I was both passed and honked at while driving the speed limit down the 700m of road between the major intersection and where we turn off. The car who passed us was TWO cars behind and the honker was directly behind us, so close that I could no longer see their headlights.
To top it off, that day in Ottawa there were over 200 accidents, and yet people STILL don’t want to obey simple rules of the road. Makes me crazy.
I believe I have reviewed this wine before, but I recently had another bottle and yet again it blew me away. The wine itself is dark and immensely complex. I waited 9 months after purchasing to open the first bottle, and I believe that I didn’t wait long enough. After letting the wine breathe/decant for an hour+ the dark fruits opened up and the true structure began to emerge. While the exact flavours on the mid-palate and finish escape me, what I can tell you is that there IS a solid mid-palate and velvety smooth finish. The tannins are incredibly firm and integrated with the wine, and when given time to open up are textured and velvety.
I have another bottle in my cellar (and by cellar I mean 6-bottle wine rack in the basement!) and will be waiting another year or three before approaching it again.
I want to diverge for a minute and talk about a simple technique I do at home to let me enjoy a bottle of wine and help rate its approachability and longevity. Elizabeth doesn’t drink wine and unless we have company over, it is up to me to both start and finish the bottle. As a rule I only open a bottle when I know that we will be home for diner on three consecutive nights so that I can gradually enjoy the wine. Traditionally people should uncork a bottle and let it breathe for an hour or more before pouring and quaffing. To accommodate for my drinking style, I uncork and pour what I plan to drink that night into a decanter and quickly re-cork the bottle, taking care to not fully puncture the cork (especially the synthetic ones).
By doing this each day it allows the wine to slowly oxidize and open up. A wine to drink within 6 months tends to break down by day 3, and a wine that can age for 3-5 years will last another day beyond that. A wine that can be aged for years will still taste good on day 5(if it lasts that long). I hope that you can use this tip to prolong your wine enjoyment and allow you to learn a little bit about how wines age and open up with oxygen.
Enjoy!
2007 seems to be a growing trend in wines this side of the Atlantic. I reviewed the Chilean 2007 Carmenere last week, which the wine maker was hailing as an “historic” year. I heard on the radio from the venerable Mark McEwan that 2007 was also THE year for Ontario wines. I decided to put Mark’s word to the test and have a bottle of late harvest Riesling from Inniskillin. I have reviewed late harvest Rieslings in a previous post here.
The 2007 version was excellent. Bright, semi-crisp apples on the nose and a slightly acidic finish are all in good proportion. While it could do with a little bit more acidity on the finish, that is purely a personal preference (I like a solid ‘zing’ feeling from Rieslings). The mid-palate has a buttery-citrus texture that eases the transition to the finish. This vintage does have more of a German-style character (crisper fruit on the attack) than in previous years, but it is still uniquely Canadian in the mid-palate and texture.
Another solid effort from a good vintage.
Enjoy!
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