Posts Tagged ‘2010’

Canadian wines for the 2010 Olympics

Friday, February 26th, 2010

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While some want to know what cigars the Canadian ladies hockey team smoked after beating the U.S. for a gold medal last night, the Ontario Wine Diva is focused on introducing us to a few great Canadian wines instead. We’ve excerpted from her 15th tasting, held in honor of Day 15 of the Olympics:

… we raise a glass, in honour of our athletes, of Fielding Estate Winery 2008 Pinot Gris. When you read the description the winery provides on how this wine was made, it is intriguing to see the complexity and thought they put into making this wine. “Three vineyard plots from different sub-appellations (Vinemount Ridge, Niagara Lakeshore, Lincoln Lakeshore) were selected and harvested at different stages to help bring different flavour profiles to the final wine. The grapes were soaked on the skins for a short period before pressing and cold settling. Fermented cold using several yeast strains for three to four weeks, the wines were kept on light lees to help build richness in the final wine. A small portion of the final blend was fermented warm in a neutral French puncheon barrel to help add complexity and mouthfeel.”

… This wine is drinking perfectly now so it is definitely a wine to enjoy while watching the bronze or gold medal games for curling, the semifinals in hockey or the various medal events for speed skating. This wine, which is available in 125 Vintages sections across Ontario for $18.95 a bottle, can also be ordered online.

To discover many  more Canadian wines, read all of The Ontario Wine Diva’s Olympic tasting notes.

Pinot noir scandal

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Bad_wine_SmallGallo’s 2007 Red Bicyclette Pinot noir landed in the #2 position on booquet top charts this week. Could this, in part, be due to the buzz of scandal? Here’s the story from London’s The Independent:

It all started when investigators became suspicious that Pinot noir exports from the Languedoc-Roussillon area far exceeded historic levels.

Thirteen people including executives from two wineries, five co-operatives, négociant Ducasse and conglomerate Sieur d’Arques have been charged with selling Gallo millions of dollars’ worth of wine which was labelled pinot noir, but which, if truth be allegedly told, wasn’t. The quantity involved is staggering – 3.57 million gallons, enough to fill 16 million bottles, or 460 oil tankers.

If the defendants are found guilty, this scandal will join an elite group of international fine wine cons: A component of antifreeze added to Austrian wine (1985); Italian table wines made of water, methanol, plus a little red wine for (1986); the great mislabeled Bordeaux Case of 1989; Sauvignon Blanc fortified with green peppers and synthetic methoxypyrazine (2005); and sugar added to Beaujolais (2007).

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Read another post on the topic from Grapes & Grains