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    Tagged with 'fine wines'

    Caring for White Wine: Tips and Best Practices

    Caring for White Wine and Sparkling Wine: The Ultimate Guide

    For wine lovers, the joys of sipping a chilled white or celebrating with a bubbly sparkling wine are unparalleled. However, the delicate nuances of these wines require specific care to ensure they remain at their peak quality. Whether you're a casual drinker or a dedicated connoisseur, understanding the ins and outs of white and sparkling wine care is essential. Let’s dive in!

    1. Storage Matters

    Temperature Control: White wines thrive at cooler temperatures than reds. Store your whites between 45°F and 55°F (7°C and 13°C). Sparkling wines should be kept even cooler, around 40°F to 50°F (4°C to 10°C), especially if they're non-vintage and intended for early consumption.

    Horizontal Storage: Just like reds, white and sparkling wines with corks should be stored on their side to keep the cork moist. However, wines with screw tops can be stored upright.

    Shield from Light: Light, especially UV rays, can compromise the quality of white and sparkling wines. Always store them away from direct sunlight. If your storage area needs lighting, opt for LED or incandescent bulbs.

    2. Serving Perfection

    Chill, But Not Too Much: Over-chilling can mask the wine's flavors. Remove the white or sparkling wine from the fridge or cooler about 15 minutes before serving to let it reach the ideal temperature.

    Glassware: Whites should be served in glasses with narrower bowls than reds, concentrating the aromas. Sparkling wines, on the other hand, are best in flutes or tulip-shaped glasses to preserve the bubbles and concentrate the bouquet.

    Decanting Whites: Unlike reds, most whites do not need decanting. However, some aged whites or those with a lot of sediment can benefit from this process.

    Preserving Bubbles: When pouring sparkling wines, tilt the glass and pour slowly down the side to maintain as much effervescence as possible.

    3. Opening with Care

    Turn, Don’t Pop: When opening sparkling wines, keep a firm grip on the cork and turn the bottle, not the cork. A gentle hiss, rather than a dramatic pop, ensures minimal gas loss.

    Use the Right Tools: A good quality corkscrew minimizes the risk of cork breakage or crumbles for white wines.

    4. The Art of Aging

    While many whites and sparkling wines are crafted for immediate enjoyment, some can benefit from aging:

    Vintage Sparkling: High-quality vintage champagnes and sparkling wines can develop added complexity with age. Ensure they are stored in optimal conditions.

    Certain Whites: Varieties like Chardonnay or Riesling, especially from renowned regions, can evolve beautifully over time. However, most whites should be consumed within a few years of purchase.

    Humidity and Stability: Maintain a humidity level of around 70% to keep corks in good condition. And, as with all wines, avoid storing bottles in areas with excessive vibrations.

    5. Beyond the Bottle

    Document the Experience: Using a wine journal or a dedicated app, keep track of the white and sparkling wines you've tasted. Note their profiles, pairings you enjoyed, and any other details to refine your palate.

    Pairing is Key: The light, crisp nature of many whites and the effervescence of sparkling wines make them versatile for food pairings. Experiment with different dishes to discover perfect combinations. Seafood, salads, and light pastas often work well with whites, while sparkling wines can range from appetizers to desserts.

    Conclusion

    White and sparkling wines bring a freshness and vivacity that's distinct from their red counterparts. Their care, while having overlaps with red wine storage, has its unique requirements. By giving your bottles the attention they deserve, you're not just preserving the wine; you're elevating your entire wine-drinking experience. Here’s to the effervescence of sparkling wines and the crispness of whites – may your glasses always reflect the care and passion with which you treat your collection. Cheers!

    Caring for Red Wine: Tips and Best Practices

    Caring for Red Wine: Tips and Best Practices

    Red wine lovers understand that there's more to its appeal than just the taste and aroma. The rituals of storing, serving, and enjoying red wine add to the overall experience. By taking proper care of your red wine, you can ensure that when it's time to open a bottle, the moment is truly delightful, just as the winemaker intended. Here are some helpful insights and guidelines for caring for your beloved red wine.

    1. Proper Storage

    Maintaining the proper temperature is crucial for storing red wine. It's recommended to keep it between 55°F and 65°F (13°C and 18°C) to preserve its flavor and quality. Avoid sudden temperature changes, as they can negatively impact the wine's characteristics. If you don't have a dedicated wine refrigerator or cellar, look for the coolest and most consi­stent area in your home to store your red wine. Store your wine bottles horizontally to keep the cork moist and prevent it from drying out. This ensures that no air seeps in and spoils the wine. Keep it Dark: Wine, especially red, is sensitive to light, particularly UV rays, which can degrade it. Store bottles away from direct sunlight and use incandescent bulbs if lighting is necessary in your storage space.

    2. Serving Red Wine Decanting:

    Certain wines can benefit from the process of decanting, which involves allowing the wine to breathe. This technique helps to soften the tannins and unlock its flavors. To decant a wine, carefully pour it into a decanter, being mindful to leave any sediment behind in the original bottle. Choose a wine glass with a wide bowl when serving red wines. This design allows for better aeration, enhancing the wine's aroma and helping you fully appreciate its flavors. Serving Temperature: Though we often hear "serve red wine at room temperature," this doesn't always apply, especially in warmer climates. Lighter red wines like Pinot Noir can be served slightly chilled, between 55°F to 60°F. Fuller bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon are best served at 60°F to 65°F.

    3. Opening the Bottle

    When examining a wine, one useful indicator of its condition is the cork. A moist cork suggests that the wine has been stored properly, whereas a dry or crumbly cork may signal potential problems. Investing in a high quality corkscrew is essential for opening bottles smoothly and with minimal risk of cork breakage.

    4. Prolonged Storage and Aging

    While not all red wines improve with age, those that do can provide a remarkable exper­ience when opened after several years or even decades. If you plan to age your wine: Monitoring humidity is crucial for aging wine. The ideal humidity level should be around 70%. This helps in preventing the cork from drying out while also avoiding excessive mold growth. Limit Vibrations: Be mindful of constant vibrations in your wine storage area, such as those caused by refrigerators or heavy machinery. These vibrations can disrupt the aging process of your wine. Make sure to store your wine in a quiet and stable location. Consider investing in a wine cellar or cooler if you're dedicated to aging wines. These specialized equipment can help maintain the optimal environment for wine storage.

    5. Enjoying Your Wine - Track Your Collection: Use a wine journal or app to note down your tasting experiences and track the wines in your collection. This aids in understanding your preferences and the evolution of wines over time. Enjoying wine is always better when shared with others. Consider hosting wine tasting parties or joining a wine club to explore new wines and engage in discussions with fellow wine enthus­iasts.

    Conclusion Caring for red wine may seem complicated, but it's really about respecting the art and skill that goes into making each bottle. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that every glass you pour embodies the passion and expertise of its creation. So, let's raise a toast to the vintners and to your commi­tment in preserving their craft. And most importantly, let's celebrate the delightful journey of enjoying red wine. Cheers!

    Spanish Magic

    • Feb 28, 2020

    Adorado de Menade Magnum (1.5L), Rueda. I know the most projected activity associated with time-travel is Hero Stuff (preventing wars, stopping Smirnoff Ice from being invented), but – on the off chance that you aren’t Harrison Ford – what if you went back in time to taste what people drank back then? If you travelled to 1900 in the small, dusty hamlet of La Seca in Rueda and hung out with the grizzled farmers and labourers, you’d be drinking this rustic brew of old Verdejo and Palomino, and you wouldn’t ask the vintage because there ain’t one. Each new vintage goes into the top of a stack of barrels, which is transferred over the many years into the bottom barrels (called Solera, or “on the Ground” in Spanish) from which the wine is drawn, slowly blending each year’s harvest into each other in a consistent style. The “mother” Solera for Adorado, this gorgeous, striking wine from the Menade family, dates back to 1968 and there really aren’t any relatable signposts to guide you towards a description because we are in uncharted territory. At once fresh and vibrant but oxidative – having been subjected to the “flor” method used on Sherry – with notes of almond crisps and dried fruits, this golden wine is full and fortified but not sweet, unctuous and powerful. This is a new thing, you haven’t tasted anything quite like it. I tried it at Top Drop last year and insisted they import it for me (they weren’t going to because they thought it was too weird for North America), they only make a handful of magnums each year (no regular sizes are produced) and I got 6 of ‘em.  Come step back in time. 93 points Robert Parker, 6 Magnums available, $179.98 +tax

    Bodegas Franco-Espanolas Rioja Bordon Gran Reserva 1999, Rioja. Started in Logroño in 1890 when a desperate Bordeaux vigneron came to Spain seeking to make wine again after decades of phylloxera ravaged his home town (Rioja wasn’t affected until years later), the French-Spanish Bodega became famous in the first half of the 20th century with fans like Ernest Hemmingway singing their praises before fascism closed Spain down for business for 40 years. Resurgent in the last couple of decades, the flagship Rioja Bordon is made in that pre-WW1 style, with American white oak and a hella-long bottle aging. Herbaceous and savoury notes battle with the dried cherries and vanilla on this well-deep nose, the palate is still amazingly fresh. Perfectly in the zone, quite delicious. 92 points Wine Spectator, 2 cases available, $50.98 +tax

    Mas Rodo Macabeu 2016, Penedes. I love Viura, with its dichotomy of decadent, oily textures and linear, focused acidity. The folks along the Ebro River love it so much that it forms the back bone of white Riojas. The folks in Penedes love it so much that they plant it on the slopes of the mountains around Barcelona, but they love being Catalans so much that they had to rename it Macabeo so that it didn’t sound too Spanish. When Macabeo comes from old vines, like these gobelet-trained 50-year-old ones in Penedes, the concentration warrants the type of winemaking usually reserved for white Bordeaux, with extended French Oak aging and lees-stirring, offering texture and complexity to the natural melon, citrus and herbal notes. This is powerful stuff, capable of aging – but not too long because the subtle aromatics are so very sexy right now. Nutso value, this. Gold – International Wine Awards, 12 bottles available, $43.98 +tax

    Contino Gran Reserva 2012, Rioja. Given how classically statuesque its wines are, you’d think that Contino has been around since the beginning of time, but in fact the estate was started in 1973 and is distinguished by becoming Rioja’s first “Chateau”, or single vineyard estate. The Ebro curves around the estate, moderating the hot summer temperatures and keeping sugar levels from spiking too early: this is a serious, Bordeaux-like affair, with a bulletproof structure under the intense black and red fruits competing with the wood – we’re about 3-4 years from the window opening here, but this is (like most premium Spanish wines) great value for a Cellar Star. 97 points James Suckling, 12 bottles available, $80.98 +tax

    Cosmic Vinyaters “Valentia” Carinyena Blanca 2018, Alt Emporda. I’m throwing a bunch of new stuff at you here, so let’s slow down and chew our food: 1) this is white Carignan, an ultra-rare mutation of the more commonplace red Carignan variety, and I was also unaware of it before finding this wine. 2) Alt Emporda is a Mediterranean region between Barcelona and the French Border, heavily influenced by both the sea and the Tramontana, a cold wind that makes more delicate wines possible in such a warm climate. 3) Cosmic is the work of Salvador Batlle, who practices organic/biodynamic/voodoo viticulture, intervening as little as possible and probably doing sacred dances and stuff to ward off bad grape-moods. Or something. 4) Take all of these factors and then age them in traditional amphorae and chestnut barrels, and you have Valentia, an illuminating white wine with competing savoury and tropical fruit notes, big, chewy and viscous with a finish longer than this email. Far more delicious and less weird than I made it sound, no need to cautiously poke it with a stick before drinking lots and lots of it. 12 bottles available, $49.98 +tax

    Bodega Lanzaga 2012, Rioja. Telmo Rodriguez, winemaker, terroir purist and allegorical bomb-thrower, came to town last year for what was advertised as a tasting but ended up being an exquisitely-accented rant against the B.C. wine market, castigating us for treating Spain as a Wine Ghetto that delivers only cheap juice with no sense of place (he accordingly removed his wines from BC for a few years). After adjusting the hairs on my back to stand down again, I had to concede that he may have a point – even some of my favourite Riojas, amazing wines all, are more producer driven than place driven, and even a sophisticated market like ours knows far more about the minutia regarding different Burgundian villages than even the macro-geology of Rioja. Telmo seeks to change that with Lanzaga, farmed on 14 hectares in Lanciego, a village in Rioja Alavesa. Lanzaga is reserved and sublime with cherry plum and cumin hints, over an austere but balanced frame – this will likely age like a Burgundy, which is precisely what Telmo intended, I think. 94 points James Suckling, 93 points Robert Parker, 10 bottles available (I bought some), $48.98

    B.C. wineries need us to drink their wines to offset losses of wildfire season

    • Aug 30, 2018
    There isn’t a corner of this province unaffected by this summer’s wildfires, but as bad as the air quality has been in Metro Vancouver, the interior of B.C. has had it far worse, and our wine growing regions (Okanagan, Similkameen) have been hit especially hard. While I haven’t heard news of any vineyards burning, the smoke has been acute enough to keep wine lovers away, and I’ve heard estimates from friends up there that business is down as much as 80% in some wineries.

    It looks like we coasties will get at least a temporary reprieve from the smoke this weekend, but that’s only because maritime winds are pushing it back into the interior, and although I hear you can now see the other side of the lake from Naramata, the upcoming Labour Day weekend – usually a key wine holiday – may end up a wash this year. Remember when Alberta was going to ban BC wine and all of us were going to band together and drink up the slack? This is more dire. The BC wine industry needs our help: if we’re not gonna go drink it up there, we in Metro Van gotta drink it down here.

    With that in mind, I’d like to recommend a few faves; wines to drink over the next couple of weeks while we wait for cooler (and wetter) skies to prevail.

    Kettle Valley Gewurztraminer 2016, Naramata. Pretty pretty pretty, then kapow. A generous, ornate nose of lychee and honeyed flowers precede a 2-plane-seat body and a gingery finish with a whiff of glorious booze. Alsace is clearly the inspiration but this is lighter on its feet and cleaner, the hedonism is all on the front end. This wine hopes you order spring rolls. $20.49 +tax

    Desert Hills Gamay 2017, Black Sage Bench. A spicy firecracker of red fruit and insolence. Wee snaps of vanilla and ash surround the nose, but the fruit is the story here and the fruit came to party. Black pepper on the finish, paired with enough acidity to balance the weight but not enough to make the cool kids sit at your table. Will barbeque the chicken for you. $29.99 +tax

    Black Hills Tempranillo 2016, Black Sage Bench. It may come as a surprise to many, but the cult winery Black Hills does, in fact, make wines that aren’t Nota Bene. Tempranillo isn’t widely planted outside of Spain and almost never planted in B.C., which is a shame because this fab: a bright, ultra-present body of cherries and red apple, interwoven with a nose of roses, cinnamon and fine black pepper. A long hot finish and fine tannins – made for espelette-rubbed pork or chicken. $56.99 +tax. Be sure to stop by our South Vancouver location on Saturday, September 1st at 3pm to taste this BC gem!