Mock Turtle

A few random notes on recent red experiences:

2006 Farina Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso “Le Pezze” ($14.95, 13.5%). This is currently available at Vintages though stocks in Toronto Central are starting to get low. A good value on a $15 red, with a very fruity red berry nose with a hint of sandalwood and spice. A hint of candiedness which seems to have put us off the first time we tasted it but not so much the second time. Barely dry, medium and med+ body, med- tannin, average balance and finish. A yummy everyday-ish wine.

Gabbiano 2008 Chianti (bottled by Beringer Blass Italia [!]) ($14.95, 12.5%). Another good value everyday-ish wine, with a classic cherry-sandalwood nose with a hint of spice. Not the most complex Chianti, but authentic. This is readily available on the LCBO general list.

Luigi Bosca 2006 Malbec Reserva, Vistalba Vineyard Mendoza (Argentina) ($16.95, 14%). This was widely available for a while at Vintages but seems now to be largely out of stock in Toronto Central. Strong dark fruit nose — plum, chocolate, blueberry/cassis, spicy dark fruit, tobacco, hint of something charred. A very rich nose and palate with very full body. Average balance and finish. We found it somewhat fragile with exposure to air, developing some rather odd notes towards the end of the bottle. Typical of our ambivalence toward Argentina Malbec — rich, yummy, not much sense of terroir, attractiveness on the nose and palate due in part to its heavy dose of alcohol.

Chateau le Barradis 2006 AOC Bergerac (south-west France) ($13.95, 11.5%). Organic. A slightly odd wine, completely the opposite of the previous wine. Shy nose, hard to place fruit (maybe strawberry), slight hint of green, meatiness, spice, sour cherry, develops secondary aromas with air. Medium acid and body, med- tannin, avg+ balance and average finish. A light red with some interest on the nose which carries through to the palate, goes well with food. A bit like a good light Ontario red (apparently made primarily with Merlot and Cabernet Franc). Perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but very good value at $14 and good with food. Apparently not widely popular since still quite a lot left at Vintages.

2008 Santa Julia Reserva Malbec (Mendoza) (about $14, 14%). J. just viscerally disliked this wine, leaving rather too much of it for me and ultimately for the sink. It’s a high alcohol, plummy red with a hint of spiciness, medium tannin, no terroir to speak of and a bit of a confected feel to it. The Luigi Bosca is much, much better.

We have unfortunately started to give up on the $7 reds we used to like and buy regularly — both the Farnese and the Citra seem to be heading increasingly in a fruity/candied/carbonic direction. I don’t think it’s just a matter of being able to afford better wines these days, but the $14.95 Italians mentioned above are increasingly becoming the wines we buy if we want an everyday red on a weekday.

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2008 was a rather cool summer in Ontario (though not as bad as 2009), and I was curious how the wines would turn out. The answer so far, interestingly, is pretty well, at least as far as the whites are concerned.

The great bargain of the Ontario wine world, as far as I’m concerned, continues to be the basic $12.95 general list Peninsula Ridge INOX Chardonnay. We first ran into this wine in its 2007 incarnation, which we liked a lot and thought was excellent value. The 2008 has a yeasty-biscuity-minerally nose, with generous citrus fruit and good follow-through on the palate. Stock up and drink now — we found the 2007 starting to fade a bit by last Spring.

Another good value from 2008 is the 2008 Malivoire White, a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling, and Gewurtztraminer readily available at the LCBO (may technically be Vintages — not sure) for $14.95. It has a racy nose of minerals and fresh green fruits with a hint of yeast and honey that carries through nicely to the palate. J. found the Riesling-Chardonnay combo nose a bit offputting, even before she knew it was a combination of Riesling and Chardonnay. She did admire the graphic design on the label though.

Slightly more expensive at $22.00, but worth the extra money if you’re in the mood for a good Riesling, is the 2008 Tawse Wismer Vineyard Foxcroft Block Riesling. It has a nose of lees, honey, green apple and limestone, with a hint of acidity on the nose. It’s only 11% but that’s enough to the give the nose presence. Good follow through to an off-dry palate balanced by quite a lot of acidity. A cool-weather Riesling (no petrol or tropical fruits) but nicely made with a generous palate and enough interest on the nose to take it above the standard $15 bottle.

The only real dispppointment in the whites department so far was a rather expensive-ish Riesling from Flat Rock, the 2008 Nadia’s Vineyard, which had an interesting nose but sort of vanished into lightly flavoured mineral water on the palate (very dry, high acidity, a bit of a spritz, but no follow-through from the nose or body to speak of). It’s $20 and 10.5% — spend the extra $2.00 on the Tawse which is a much more rewarding experience.

We haven’t been able to sample the standard $14-15 bottles for 2008 yet (Cave Spring, Henry of Pelham and the like). The 2006 off-drys were really nice, though for some reason the basic 2007s went all flabby and unfocused (the 2007 Cave Spring Estate Bottled, still available for around $18, is quite pleasant but maybe a bit *too* petrol-ly). I’ll be curious to see what happens with 2008.

Haven’t sampled much by way of 2008 reds yet. Tasted one of the mass-market VQA Cabernet Sauvignon bottles at a party, a not surprisingly it was pretty green. But mass-market Cab Sauv from Ontario is not usually a satisfying experience, even in a good year. I’m curious what the 2008 Malivoire “Red” blend is like — it’s a companion to the Malivoire white blend discussed above.

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The BMJ’s Christmas issue is full of goodness as usual.

Ingested foreign bodies and societal wealth: three year observational study of swallowed coins

Objective: To examine the relation between coins ingested by children and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

But sadly, for it would’ve made a fine headline had the results been different,

Conclusion: There was no detectable difference in the total value of coins ingested, or ratio of coins to other objects swallowed, before or after a massive stock market crash

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Another day, another woe-is-Gen Y story. In all seriousness, Canada’s poor mechanisms of getting new graduates into the workforce are an ongoing problem. But this latest story on the front page of the Report on Business isn’t particularly compelling:

Elizabeth Adams, 24, knows all about timing. She recently graduated with a fine arts degree and hoped for a career as a painter or a photographer in Peterborough, Ont. But she’s failed to find work in her field.

What, really? There are so many things wrong with this, it’s almost hard to know where to start. Elizabeth: it’s not timing, it’s your field. How many jobs as “painter” are there, ever? Or even gallery positions? And in Peterborough(population 135,000)?

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