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THE
FRUGAL OENOPHILE
Wine
Appreciation through Education
email newsletter:
summer 2006 |
In This Issue
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Thoughts
on Wine Awards
How I Spent my Summer Vacation
Rebirth of a Dream
Plastic Blass
Ontario Wine Country - book review
Fielding
Estate Winery |
Go for the Gold, or Silver, or
Bronze
Sometimes
at a tasting of commercial wines I'll come across a wine that
has a sticker boasting that the wine won an award or two at some
wine fair. I try to ignore these as I don't want them to influence
my assessment of the wine. Sometimes I'll be suitably impressed
and entirely agree that the wine is a winner. Other times I don't
get it -- I just can't figure out why that wine got to the top
of the judges' scorecards.
Wine
awards influence our buying decisions -- perhaps not as much
as numeric scores, but the influence is there. And I'll admit
that, in the absence of any other information, awards acknowledge
that the wine is pretty good in some expert's opinion. An award
symbol emblazoned on a bottle is probably a reliable sign, but
you still may want to ask some questions before laying down your
money.
Is
the Award Relevant?
An awards tasting
is fundamentally an un-natural situation: just a few minutes
per wine, dozens of wines in a day, spitting and not getting
the full flavour profile, plus it's wine in isolation -- no food,
no camaraderie. It's tempting to conclude that wine cannot be
effectively judged in this way. Somewhat true, but a good taster
should have the expertise to put the wine in context. As well,
it's often wine-against-wine, so wines are being judged on over-all
quality next to each other.
Who's
Doing the Judging?
An award is no
better than the judges who award it. In the case of wine judges,
they cover the entire spectrum, from the well-seasoned to the
downright unqualified. But what they all share is an enthusiasm
for wine and, usually, a pretty reasonable palate.
While
wine judges typically are good at the job, there is still a subjective
element. Plus, judges' impressions and skills can vary from one
day to the next (see my Jan-Feb-06
newsletter for more on this). Preferences and past experiences
can also influence the outcome.
Who's
Judging the Judges?
Professional judges
are expected to work at the highest standards possible. The Canadian Wine Awards,
for example, are judged by a hand-picked crew of elite tasters.
I frequently attend tastings with these people (many are members
of the Wine Writers'
Circle of Canada) and I am constantly impressed with their
level of knowledge and the quality of their opinions.
And
let's not short-change the amateurs. The Wine
Judges of Canada has a rigorous training program that all
their judges are required to complete. And with that expertise,
they help amateur hone their skills by judging at amateur wine
tastings. I've been on both ends of the AWO
judging equation, and there too I can attest to the quality of
the judging.
But
what if the judges have not had a good level of training or experience.
Sadly, there are some awards that allow practically anyone with
an interest in wine to act as a judge. At one award tasting where
I was a judge, I was appalled when a superior number of unskilled
judges selected an obviously over-the-hill wine as the Best in
Show. Mistakes happen, and while the winery benefited by being
able to unload an otherwise unsellable wine, it was a low point
for me and a few other judges that day.
Is
the Award Current?
For a long time
there was a wine on Ontario store shelves that featured award
symbols as part of the label. The wine had in fact won a few
awards -- more than a decade before! Awards apply to one wine
and one vintage only; they don't get "inherited".
Is
It the Same Winery?
The same vintner
is notorious for winning awards through its boutique wineries,
and then touting those awards on its advertising for other products.
Make sure that the award was given to that wine from that
winery. "Vintner of the Year" awards in particular
can be abused. It is not a given that another winery owned by
the same company is included.
Is
It a Respected Award?
Most award programs
are well run and well respected. But you will occasionally see
some marginal stuff. When you're looking at a bottle with an
award tag on it, have a look at the source of the award. If it's
from a prestigious award group, then the wine probably earned
the honour. But if the gold medal came from the Dreary River
Wine and Model Train Show, then you may want to keep looking.
Is
It a Respected Winery?
This is still one
of the best indicators of quality: who made the wine. If it's
a vintner that routinely turns out good wine, then the award
is an affirmation of their skill and dedication. But you should
be skeptical if the company's wines are usually not so good:
You can't generalize to their other wines.
Does
the Winery Win a Lot of Awards?
When
I visit a winery, I'm always interested in trying the award winners.
But what I ultimately look for is a track record of awards. Most
wineries in Ontario, for example, have shelves full of medals,
ribbons and trophies -- testimony again to skill and dedication.
If the winery has a good assortment of medals, check out the
unadorned wines as well. Sometimes a non-medal winner scored
a single point or a fraction of a point below a medal winner.
That
said, I would also be a bit circumspect if the winery has scads
of awards. Are all those wines truly that good, or is the winery
focusing too much on winning awards, and in the process possibly
neglecting the consumer? If you enter enough wines in enough
competitions, you're bound to win something.
What
about wines that were crafted purely to win awards? Yes, that
happens and there's no way around it. Let's hope the market will
ultimately either reward or punish the maker.
Don't
See Any Awards?
There
are a number of reasons that a winery doesn't display any wine
awards. They may have so few that they don't want to draw attention
to the fact. More likely, they are avoiding awards for a variety
of reasons. Wineries with a very small production may not be
able to justify the cost or the number of bottles involved. One
award scheme, for example, called for a full case of 12 bottles
and a $1000 fee per wine entered!
Another
reason for not pursuing awards is that the winery has nothing
to gain and everything to lose. Well-established Bordeaux wines
never appear in the awards listings. And why should they? When
they can sell all of their production at high prices regardless
of quality, then winning an award is hardly necessary. But the
real risk is to be beaten by "lesser" wines. Who would
pay $100 or more for a growth bordeaux if it lost out to a $40
meritage? (See my "Us
Against Them" article)
Some
wineries believe that the wine should stand on its own merit,
and that awards provide an incomplete and perhaps inappropriate
summary of the wine. One of my favourite wineries is of this
type. Their wines might not show well at a judging, but they
are all trophy winners at the dinner table!
A Few of the Major Wine Awards
About That Hiatus…
I'm
afraid I can't give any reasonable explanation for not delivering
a June, July or even an August newsletter. I have two fairly
decent excuses, though. One is that we mortgaged the farm and
relocated to Italy for two weeks -- a week in Rome and a week
in Montalcino (home of
Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino). My goal now is to emulate
Tuscan cuisine whenever possible while we try to come up with
a plan that will let us retire in Italy.
Excuse
number 2 is the LCBO's tetrapak program. Never have I had such
trouble coming to terms with a so-called environmental initiative
(I even lost sleep!) As a long-term environmentalist and skeptic,
I looked at tetrapak from all angles and read dozens of articles.
The bottom line for me is that I could not process all the confusion,
conflicting opinions and misconceptions.
Tetrapaks
have been called the environmental equivalent of the Hummer,
aggravated by the fundamental failings of Ontario's blue box
program. OK,
so it's not good news, but let's try to put a positive spin on
it. With so many quality wines switching to screwcaps, tetrapaks
give us a clear indicator of what plonk looks like -- I have
tasted all of the currently available Tetrapak wines on offer
from the LCBO, and I am afraid to say that they are, almost without
exception, quite poor. This may change. I hope that the LCBO's
real motives (they make more money and more points on tetrapak
wines) are caught out and that tetrapaks will quickly disappear
in favour of a more responsible -- and dignified -- alternative.
(Just
for fun, while in Montalcino I bought a "juice box"
of local plonk for .44 Euros (about 60 cents). Oddly, it was
much better than most of the tetrapak wines I've tried in Canada.
One-litre boxes of the same stuff sold for 1.99 Euros, versus
the $13-14 most paks cost in Ontario.)
Incidentally,
if you do an internet search on the terms "tetrapak"
and "recycle" or "recycling", you'll come
up almost empty...not a good sign!
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Does Big Business just not "Get
It"?
Wolf
Blass has answered the environmental call by introducing wine
in P.E.T. bottles -- that's polyethylene terephthalate, the plastic
that all those designer water bottles are made from. The schtick
is that the plastic bottles are lighter, unbreakable (within
reason), create less waste than glass, and are easily recycled.
So
how is the company spreading the word about this breakthrough?
With a 12-page printed brochure, of course. You'll find stacks
of the brochures wherever you see the eagle-emblazoned P.E.T.
bottles. And note: the brochures are made with "10% post
consumer waste". Whoopee.
Oh,
and as the fine print says on the back, "Please Recycle".
Well, what happened to "Reduce"?
Rebirth of a Dream
Since
its introduction of the French Rabbit line of tetrapak wines,
the LCBO is renewing a vision that had all but been abandoned:
Government Red & Government White.
Under
a previous administration, the dream was to have two spigots,
one for white wine and one for red (presumably those who wanted
pink would blend the two). That dream is about to become a reality
as the LCBO channels millions of litres of mainly imported factory
plonk into their tetrapak program.
For
those of you who don't live in Ontario, let me explain. The LCBO
is a state liquor monopoly that has been given carte blanche
to write and rewrite its own rules. (For example, the LCBO can
impose levies, which are not to be confused with taxes. You can
complain about abusive taxation, but levies are OK.) Because
they return a "dividend" of more than $1 billion to
the Ontario Government each year, they are allowed to do whatever
they want. They have now decided to wage war on glass rather
than make an effort to help reclaim and recycle it. The LCBO
seems to want all wine to be in tetrapak, and they don't care
what they have to do to accomplish that goal.
Ontario's
Participation
One
of the best sources of information on this topic is SolidWasteMag.com.
This blogsite has posted a lot of resources, most of them condemning
the LCBO's tactics in its tetrapak initiative. Take this example
from a letter to Linda Franklin, CEO of the Wine
Counsel of Ontario, from Lyle Clarke, Project Lead, LCBO
Environmental Strategy:
"…assuming
the WCO were to indicate a desire for the LCBO to lift the moratorium
for Ontario wine, the LCBO would be pleased to discuss a comprehensive
strategy for the expansion of the LCBO's offering Ontario wine
in [tetrapak] format.
"…it
is very important for the LCBO to maintain a premium image for
wines in alternative package, and therefore the Wines Category
will not purchase any new products, including extensions of existing
brands, that are not priced in the premium segment. However,
Wines will replace any existing SKU if the supplier is proposing
to completely convert from a glass to a non-glass format such
as as Tetra Pak for that SKU, regardless of its price positioning
in the market."
Interestingly,
in another letter, this time to the editor of the National Post
in response to a scathing article by David
Menzies, Mr. Clarke says: "Allegations that there is
a correlation between the shelf space a supplier receives and
whether they offer products in alternative packages are totally
false."
OK,
if you say so.
Almost
daily I get sent an article panning the tetrapak movement. The
two best I've received take opposite views. My favourite is Environmental
myths damaging to Canadian wine industry by Tracey Bochner
and Erin Burcham of APEX Public Relations. It seems that misinformation
about tetrapaks is what's wrong with Ontario wineries. I always
thought it was lack of LCBO shelf space, the LCBO's preference
for imports, government indifference, and "Cellared in Canada"
plonk that was holding back the industry. It's nice to know that
all I have to do is embrace tetrapak and everything will be put
right.
Ontario Wine Country
by
Rod Phillips & Lorraine
Parrow
Kudos
to Rod Phillips, Lorraine Parow and Whitecap Books for taking
a well-worn genre and breathing new life into it. This book has
the potential to set a new format standard -- a mega-magazine
that does all that a coffee table book can do and more, and does
it at half the price.
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What
I like about this volume is the authors' genuine delight in the
Ontario wine industry. Their love of wine and its culture is
evident in every paragraph, and those paragraphs are very user
friendly, presenting verbal portraits of nearly 90 wineries (2/3
of which did not exist 10 years ago). The photography is spectacular
and the subject matter reveals much of what goes into making
wine.
My
only criticisms are that the photo captions don't always tell
what the photo is about, nor are any of the relatively few human
subjects named. The other -- and this is not an insignificant
quibble -- is that fruit wineries are completely unrepresented.
I
hope that this will become a regularly updated book, and that
it will expand to include all wineries and more of the people.
Ontario
Wine Country
Text
by Rod Phillips, Photos by Lorraine Parrow
Whitecap
Books
Vancouver BC Canada
ISBN:
1-55285-649-6
$29.95 Cdn
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Buy it now from Amazon.com
Buy it now from Amazon.ca
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Fielding Estate
I
had a chance to visit Fielding
Estate Winery recently, a rather obvious decision because,
when I visited this winery early last year, I was quite impressed
with their all wines. I have a firm belief when it comes to retail
sales -- hanging around, looking bored and running the cash register
only when needed doesn't work. When I visited Fielding, the two
on-duty staff kept me occupied and enthralled the entire time.
Susanna and Jennifer, if you're reading this, you are the kind
of people this industry needs.
Fielding
is a very attractive winery. The main building is a simple cedar-clad
rectangle that overlooks a pond that is frequented by a neighbour's
pointer. Don't let the unpaved and muddy driveway deter you.
This is a wonderful winery that offers consistent, high quality
wines at every price point. The Fielding family made their mark
in the fast food business, and have taken their profits and invested
them in a very classy winery. The winery is, for the most part,
gravity fed. All grapes are grown on the property.
Fielding Wines (All wines are VQA)
Syrah
2004 - $28
Subtle cherry, light spice, marshmallow, vanilla,
raspberry, and smokey oak. Like a juicy cabernet, with rich-though-understated
cherry and black raspberry, supported by smooth tannins and a
spicy acidity. Quite full with very good length.
Pinot
Grigio 2005 - $18
Rich light peachy
straw colour. Has a slight reisling quality to it with gobs of
peach, white grapefruit and a hint of petrol. Huge flavour on
the palate: peach lemon, medium dry at the uptake yet finishing
almost dry. Very refreshing. Very good body and length. An exceptional
wine for the price.
Unoaked
Chardonnay 2004 - $13
Pale platinum straw colour. Huge tropical fruit,
dried pineapple and traces of mineral and smoke. The palate shows
a hint of musk, with backed lemon, crisp acidity and more smoke
at the close. Good body and length. Sure to be a hit at any BBQ
and terrific value.
Gewurztraminer
2004 - $14
Pale straw colour. Bang-on gewurz nose shows lychee,
musk and dried grass. Barely off-dry on the back palate, with
rich citrus flavours and a crisp, refreshing acidity. Very good
body and length.
Chardonnay
Musqué 2005 - $15
Pale platinum straw colour. Medium dry but crisp,
like liquid apple pie, with a lemony close. Good body and length.
Riesling
Semi-dry 2005 - $16
Pale platinum straw. Subtle, with nuances of lemon,
spice, grapefruit and paraffin. Less sugar than expected. Crisp
and flavourful, with good body and length.
Cabernet
Sauvignon 2004 - $15
Brilliant ruby colour. Rich, complex and spicy
on the nose showing dark berries and green tobacco. Not as full
as some, with dark berry flavours and solid tannins. Quite full
with good length.
Cabernet-Merlot
2004 - $30
Deep ruby-garnet. Good cab character with spice,
bell pepper and a touch of cedar. Fullish on the palate, leading
off with a bit of acidity followed by blackcurrant, blackberry,
tobacco, and firm tannins. Quite good body and length.
Cabernet
2004 - $32
Deep ruby colour. A riot of spice, major black
currant, leather and smokey wood. Gobs of bumbleberry on the
palate, with a firm acid core, gentle tannins and a hint of coffee.
Very good body and length.
Meritage
2004 - $40
Deep black cherry colour. Cabernet dominates here,
showing red currants, spices, and traces of wood. Nicely balanced,
smooth and gentle, with good body and very good length.
Chardonnay
Reserve 2004 - $30
Medium straw colour. Loaded with honey, spice,
butterscotch and butter. Smooth, round and full on the palate,
showing more of the spice, firm acidity, and sweet oak down deep.
Very good body and length.
From "The Frugal Oenophile's Lexicon
of Wine Tasting Terms"
Diamonds/Gravel
Harmless
tartrate crystals from tartaric acid that precipitate out of
finished wine. Can be a good sign, showing that the wine has
not been over processed
You can buy my Wine Lexicon and other items at my
Online Store
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Inspirational Quote
Cheap
wine will always be too expensive - Alex Bespalof
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