Monthly Archives: August 2010

My latest article for Vue Weekly is a feature on the recent saskatoon stomp at en Santé, one of Alberta’s few fruit wineries. There are only a handful of fruit wineries in the province; others include Field Stone near Strathmore and the newly-opened Barr Estate Winery near Sherwood Park.

The Saskatoon Stomp was a fantastic event. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Vue didn’t include any photos that I had taken at the event – so I present you a photo essay of the stomp.

We started with a tour of the orchards, led by winemaker Xina Chrapko:

Then we spread out along the line of saskatoon bushes for a quick berry picking session:

After that we headed into the new winery facility and tasted some yummy fruit wines:

Then it was stomping time! Several bins full of saskatoon berries awaited our toes:

I admit to being a wimp and not stomping any berries myself, but it was pretty amusing to watch other people jump in:

I did wonder what it felt like to squish all the fruit up:

I think it’s safe to say that the kids enjoyed the stomping more than the adults:

Though this little guy might disagree with that:

I’m definitely looking forward to future stomps (and other events) at the winery! For further details about the saskatoon stomp and some good background info on en Santé, read my Vue article. (Here is the link one more time.)

I recently hosted another one of my regular wine study sessions; this month it was Italian wines. Now, obviously with the mammoth wine industry that Italy has, it wasn’t possible for us to even really scratch the surface of all the goodies this country has to offer. Still, I think our choice of wines was fairly representative of some of the major grapes and regions. (Scroll down for the list of wines and my tasting notes.)

In keeping with the tradition of these wine nights, we had a pretty awesome spread – we aimed for either Italian or Italian-inspired fare, to match the wines. I particularly enjoyed the dense and chewy smoked Italian sausage (it paired well with all of the wines, but sausage is pretty good that way). We also had a really interesting Sicilian cheese that was very sharp in flavour and left your mouth feeling strangely tingly. (It was quite an uncanny sensation.) Homemade bruschetta, Italian olives, flame-roasted red peppers, rosemary bread sticks, herb-crusted goat cheese, and fresh BC cherries rounded out our food pairings for the night.

Without further ado, the wines:

2008 Livio Felluga Pinot Grigio (Friuli)
Fresh mushroom, or perhaps mushrooms in oil (a mushroomy, earthy quality is quite common in Pinot Gris). A whiff of white pepper at the end, and hints of flinty mineral and crisp tree fruit.
Very round and creamy mouthfeel, due to time spent aging in partial oak. Absolutely delicious.

2008 Matané Negroamaro (Puglia)
This is all about dried fruits on the nose: sultana raisins, figs, prunes, dates, dried cherry; a smoky quality at the end. Fairly prominent tannins, though quite light in body, which is pretty typical for this grape variety. I could guzzle this stuff quite easily.

2007 Castello di Farnetella Chianti Colli Senesi (Tuscany)
Generic red and black fruits on the nose, with hints of roasted vegetables (bell peppers, zucchini). I’ve never been able to pinpoint a specific aroma or flavour that lets me identify Sangiovese in a blind tasting – however, its super high acidity is usually a big giveaway, and this wine certainly has that. Sour cherry on the palate; light to medium body. Chianti is a great choice for tomato-based dishes, owing to that streak of high acidity. (It also upholds the food and wine pairing rule that states, “When in doubt, choose a wine from the same region as the dish.” You’d be amazed how often this is true.)

2007 Barone Ricasoli Brolio Chianti Classico (Tuscany)
Much denser in body and higher in tannin than the previous Chianti, which is expected as this comes from the specific Chianti Classico appellation (which means there’s stricter quality controls in place). Some peppery nuances on the nose, along with those generic Sangiovese red and black fruits. I think this would do well with a bit more bottle age to reveal the secondary, earthy nuances I know are lurking underneath the primary fruit.

2007 Amano Primitivo (Puglia)
A little hot on the nose, which is certainly a danger with this grape, wherever it is made. (Primitivo is the same thing as Zinfandel, and while Italian versions of the grape have been classically more restrained than their New World counterparts, recent years have seen the Italians adopting more of that North American style – jammy red fruits and overblown alcohol.) Generally enjoyable for its plummy red fruit, though a tad one-dimensional. It was most enjoyable chilled down quite a bit, to quell the booze burn.

2007 il Bacialé Braida di Giacoma Bologna (Monferrato)
Made from a blend of grapes, mainly Barbera. Classic Italian earthiness on the nose (I’m always reminded of agar, or lakeweed, when I smell earthy Italian wines), along with some nice red fruit. Very well balanced, round and velvety in the mouth. More please.

2005 Monteti Caburnio (Tuscany)
Back in my wine shop days, I sold buckets of this stuff when it first arrived on the shelves (about three years ago). It offers a very good glimpse into the style of those much sought-after Supertuscans, but it’s way cheaper than the ridiculously expensive Ornellaias and Sassicaias that those wine-clueless businessmen drool over. (Cheap shot, I know, but one that happens to be all too true in many instances.) This vintage wasn’t as earthy as I remembered; there was a distinct note of jelly sandwich, and one of my pals said it was just like banana rum cream. I’m not entirely sure what she meant by that, but it’s as apt a descriptor as any.

2005 Batasiolo Barolo (Piedmont)
I’m going to stop buying half bottles (375mL). I love their purpose, in principle (i.e. being able to taste expensive wines for half the price), but in practice they all seem to be oxidized. This one wasn’t entirely cooked, but I still got a hell of a lot of baked fruit aromas and a slightly unpleasant sourness lurking underneath. Maybe it was just the wine (or the crappy synthetic cork used to bottle it – why are people still using those damn things?!). However, I’ve tasted a fair amount of Nebbiolo (the red grape that comprises Barolo), and this just didn’t taste right. Where are those subtle flowery aromas of roses and violets? Where was the shockingly tannic palate? At five years old, this should still have some kick to it.

I recently found a bottle of the 2006 Merkin Chupacabra in a local liquor store. I got excited. Why? Because this is one of Maynard James Keenan’s wines, and a few months ago I was despairing that none of his creations were available in Alberta.

That is no longer the case. Local wine importing agency Crimson Imports has just brought the Chupacabra in to Alberta, and they also plan to import a few other listings of Keenan’s wines. There isn’t a firm date set for those yet; they should arrive sometime in the late fall.

There is surprisingly little information available on the Chupacabra. (I suppose this mysteriousness is a perfect match to the wine’s name, the chupacabra being an alleged reptile-like creature that sneaks around at night, sucking the blood of goats and other animals.) Unlike all of Keenan’s other wines, the 2006 Chupacabra is made from California grapes, not Arizona fruit. It comprised of a blend of 13 different varieties, with the majority being Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah. All the fruit was sourced from Paso Robles, and the wine was made at Wente.

Eager for more information on both the Chupacabra and Keenan’s wines in general, I conducted an informal interview with Paula Woolsey, national sales manager of Which Wine LLC – a company that’s been sub-contracted to distribute Keenan’s wines both nationally and internationally. Paula has known Keenan personally for eight years, and has been working at Which Wine for just over a year.

“The 2006 Chupacabra is the exception to the rule,” she notes, going on to explain that this is the only one of Keenan’s wines that’s made from California fruit; though he did use some outside fruit for his earlier wines, from this point forward all his wines will be 100% Arizona grown and made. She also informed me that this wine was created specially for a series of 43 bottle signings and tastings done at various Whole Foods stores throughout the U.S.

12,000 cases of this vintage were produced; there were about 5000 left after the Whole Foods events. Successive vintages of the Chupacabra will be made from Arizona fruit and Paula indicated that at peak production, they will probably create around 25,000 cases of it a year.

Now, this amount of wine may seem like a lot, but it’s actually quite small – especially when compared with the millions of litres being pumped out annually by California wine giants like Gallo and Mondavi. “We are pretty small in the wine world, but the biggest in Arizona,” notes Paula. Keenan’s other brand, Caduceus, is a line of premium wines that will max out around 3000 cases a year.

Keenan has received quite a bit of media attention on his wine projects, which perhaps comes as no surprise, given his fame in the music industry – all celebrities get a fair amount of press coverage of their booze endeavours. Keenan has also brought a lot of attention to his wines, and to Arizona wine in general, with the release of a recent documentary about his and Glomski’s efforts. Blood into Wine will hopefully be made available locally soon; so far I haven’t been able to find a copy.

However, Keenan is certainly not your average celebrity “winemaker.” For starters, he actually makes his wine and grows his grapes. He has been working under winemaker Eric Glomski for several years now; the 2006 Chupacabra was officially made by Glomski (as Keenan indicates in his message on the back label), though Keenan was there throughout the entire process, learning and assisting. “At that time, Eric was his god, his guru,” notes Paula. Keenan has since taken on the lead role in his wine production, and 2010 will mark his first year as an almost solo winemaker. The production of the wines, which was previously done at Page Springs in Arizona, will also be moved to Maynard’s own estate in Jerome.

Also, you just gotta love a rock star who drinks wine straight from the bottle on stage; and he gets 100 extra Awesome Points for the fact that it’s wine he made himself.

A note about the Chupacabra: I’ve tasted it, and it is good. Perhaps a tad overpriced, especially since it’s not from a specific AVA, but this IS California wine we’re talking about. And you have to love a wine that’s named after a pubic wig. What’s that? You didn’t know that’s what a merkin is? Well my friends, let me further elucidate this for you:

And now you know.

When I asked Paula about the significance behind the name “Merkin”, she laughed and told me that it doesn’t really have a specific meaning, per se. “Maynard has a dark sense of humour,” she explains. “Merkin was a term thrown around in some of his favourite movies, like Dr. Strangelove. It’s just a funny, nasty Maynard-ism.”

Whatever they may be called, I’m excited to taste more of Keenan’s wines To date I have never tried a wine from Arizona, and I’m all the more intrigued knowing that the Arizona wine industry is in much the same place as the Canadian wine industry. “There’s a wall that immediately goes up,” Paula notes. Just like with Canadian wines, when you talk about Arizona vino, people wrinkle their noses and assume it’s going to be pretty crappy. However, their industry has grown radically in the last decade; there were 20 wineries in Arizona five years ago and now there are over 60. Canada has witnessed a very similar growth rate, though we’re beginning to level off just slightly (Granted, Canada’s industry has had almost an extra decade on Arizona.)

Arizona also has a very unique growing region for grapes, with the majority of vineyards located above 3500 feet. The climate and weather is comparable to Mendoza, Argentina – and indeed, these vineyards experience the world’s second largest diurnal shift (the swing from cold to warm temperatures, from night to day), next to Argentina. “Most people think it’s just another vanity project,” notes Paula. “But we’re making wines that express Arizona.” And you certainly cannot fault them for that.

Just before we said our good-byes, I asked Paula if there was any truth to the stories of Keenan chasing off rabid fans from his winery with a paintball gun (and in some versions, with a bow and arrow). She explained that most of these are exaggerated, though he did have some problems around 2002, when he first started out in the wine industry and before he had erected proper fencing and turned his house into “a fortress.”

“There are people who literally do their spiritual journeys, and want to hang out with him and be near him,” notes Paula. “But 90% of the people coming to Jerome won’t find him.” She goes on to explain that people are recognizing him a bit more now that Blood into Wine has been released, but she also notes that people seem to be giving him more respect. “He’s opening up, so people are backing off.”

And thank goodness for that. I like Keenan’s music just as much as the next person (well, probably more so than a lot of people), but I wouldn’t even consider stalking the man to do some kind of “spiritual journey.” He may make music that speaks to the deeper reaches of your psyche, but ultimately he’s just a guy. A guy who makes wine.

Well, it appears as though I initially misunderstood, and then misrepresented (er-hem) some facts about the Fringe Festival’s wine bar. Turns out you can’t order from an extended wine list; the only thing available is the usual “house” red and white wine, which you can get at any of the beer tents as well. Oh, and they serve it in the same shitty plastic Dixie cups. (If you hate these as much as me, read my recent rant on them.)

The premium Canadian VQA wines are only available for sampling during the specified hours – 6:30 to 9:30pm on weekdays, 5 to 7pm on Saturday and Sunday. Also, only a couple of wines will be available for sampling per day, and it’s totally random, so you can’t exactly plan to drop by with the intention of tasting a specific wine.

I’m pretty disappointed with this, especially because I just finished devouring a delicious wood-fired pizza, courtesy of Calgary’s Rustixx, and I was really hoping to have enjoyed a yummy Canadian wine with it. At any rate, at least the pizza was good – this is easily the best Fringe food available and definitely worth trying.

As for the “wine bar” (can you honestly even call it that?): I’m disappointed, as I previously stated. If you happen to have some time between shows that coincides with a wine tasting, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to drop in. It’s also a quieter venue to enjoy a drink and some food, if you’re looking to escape from the hubbub of the regular beer tents.

Hopefully next year they’ll actually turn this into a wine bar and offer more than just house wines for sale (and in proper glass stemware, please).

I’ll be at the Fringe Festival all weekend, reviewing plays for Vue Weekly. (8 down, 8 to go.) If you’re interested in discovering what’s good and what sucks, check out their Fringe page – it will be updated constantly over the weekend as new reviews are received and posted.

Inevitably, as I’m waiting for the next play to start and writing about the one I just saw, I find myself hunkered down in one of the beer tents, sipping mediocre Big Rock beer or generic Peller Estates wine. (Last night they served me a glass of red wine at the same temperature as a cold beer. I’m not sure, but this might have actually been a good thing.)

To my delight, this year the Fringe has decided to class things up a notch with their Wine Bar and Internet Café, located on the north end of the grounds on 85 Avenue. The Wine Bar is open noon to midnight throughout the Fringe, and you’ll be able to purchase wine by the glass or bottle (and it’s served in an actual glass wine stem too!) as well as coffee, tea, several liqueurs, and a selection of desserts.

Every night of the Fringe (except Saturday and Sunday), from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, representatives of Andrew Peller Ltd. will host a tasting of Canadian VQA wines. I dropped by the tasting last night, but the tent was pretty dead and I wasn’t really interested in the wine they were serving – hopefully things pick up in the coming days.

As for the “internet café” half of the bar, it’s pretty much restricted to four computers located at the end of the bar. I haven’t been able to ascertain whether or not there’s wifi access; I’ll post an update if I find out.

The Fringe Wine Bar will also feature nightly programming by various Fringe artists. I’m particularly looking forward to the Fringe Forums, which run August 16 to 19 and will delve into a handful of interesting and current Fringe topics. A variety of artists and personalities will attend these forums as panelists and moderators:

Monday, August 16
Is Fringe Theatre Still On the Fringes?
Fringe Theatre Adventures
panelists: Elizabeth Ludwig, Gerald Osborn, Rob Salerno
moderator: Noree Claerhout

Tuesday, August 17
Overlap? The Fringe Festival & The Indie Theatre Threshold
Indie5
panelists: Garett Spelliscy, Amy DeFelice, Chris Bullough
moderator: Krisit Hansen

Wednesday, August 18
Letting it Fly – Playwright & Production
Writers Guild of Alberta
panelists: Kenneth Brown, Marty Chan, Ellen Chorley, Nicole Schafenacker, Mark Stubbings
moderator: Sam Varteniuk

Thursday, August 19
Going it Alone…Writing & Performing a One-Person Show for the Fringe
Alberta Playwrights’ Network
panelists: Chris Craddock, Jeremy Baumung, Keira McDonald
moderator: Tracy Carroll

And here is the wine menu: it’s certainly not the greatest wine list out there, but adequate enough for the purposes of the Fringe – I’ll be enjoying the Red Rooster wines, myself.

Red Rooster
2006 Bantam
2007 Gewurztraminer
2006 Pinot Gris
2006 Meritage

Calona Vineyards
2007 Sovereign Opal
2007 Merlot

Sandhill
2008 Rosé
2006 Gamay Noir
2007 Syrah

Peller Estates (Family Series)
2008 Pinot Blanc
2008 Chardonnay
2007 Shiraz
2007 Merlot
NV White Zinfandel

Copper Moon
Sauvignon Blanc
Malbec

I did it again this year. I thought I would be more diligent about pruning.  I really did. I planted way less than last year, and truly they seemed under control for most of the summer. But, I can’t deny it any longer; I must admit the truth, shameful though it may be: I do not, in fact, have a squash patch in my garden. I have a freaking squash labyrinth.

Winter squashes are notoriously vigorous. If you let them, they can and will send out runners that will quickly take up all available space. They will overwhelm other plants, throttling any and all surrounding vegetation with their frustratingly tough, spiked vines.

They will invade your lawn.

They will wrap around tree trunks and crawl out along the branches.

They will trip you up when you’re trying to get to the veggies at the back of the garden, leaving whipcord scrapes on your ankles. (I so wish I was exaggerating.)

I planted several varieties of squash this year, including pumpkin, zucchini, butternut, and yellow squash. I limited it to one or two plants a hill, and I spaced the hills apart by a good one to two feet. They were nicely tame for all of July, then I went on vacation near the end of the month. Within only four measly days, they grew into a dense ground cover that’s proven to be nirvana for the local mosquito population. I desperately need to get in there and do some trimming. I think I’m going to need a machete.

Lesson learned.

As soon as I saw this bottle languishing in a corner of the liquor store, I had to buy it. Why? Because I had just read this article, about how Cristalino was just sued by Louis Roederer, maker of Cristal – that expensive Champagne favoured by celebrities and rap artists (and celebrity rap artists). Evidently, Cristal thought that Cristalino was trying to ride their oh-so-chic coattails with a similar name, and since Champagne houses just love suing people over trademark disputes, Cristalino got served. After a four-year court battle, $350-per-bottle Cristal emerged victorious over $15 Cristalino. Now Cristalino has to change its name, the colours on the label, and the font.

I could understand Cristal’s decision to sue if the wine had been named “Cristall” or “Cristale” or something like that, but “Cristalino” is different enough that I don’t have an issue with it. Also, Cristalino is super cheap and it’s clearly labelled as a Cava (not a Champagne); I just don’t see anyone mistaking one brand for the other.

Whatever happens to the name and label, I really hope they don’t change the way they make Cristalino because it tastes pretty great, especially for the price point. (Good QPR alert!) Cava is always a pretty low key, everyday kind of wine, but it is also made in the “traditional method” – that’s code for “made the same way that real Champagne is made”, i.e. the secondary fermentation, that gives bubbly its bubbles, occurs in the bottle. (If you use the word “Champagne” anywhere on your label, even on the back to describe the way the wine is made, you’ll get sued. I wasn’t kidding when I said those Champagne producers jump on a legal battle.)

The Cristalino is crisp and refreshing, with lovely toasty, pie crust aromas and some austere citrus and apple flavours. It’s definitely dry, though not bracingly so. Even though I think it’s kind of cheesy, I would be ok describing this as a baby Champagne; it would be a good way to introduce yourself to the classic Champagne style without coughing up over fifty bucks for the real thing. I’ll definitely be buying more of this – whatever its name might be.

***Interested in buying Cristalino? Search for it on the Alberta Liquor Guide to find a nearby location that has it in stock. (Though, it’s always a good idea to phone ahead and make sure they still have it.***

Yesterday I turned these:

Into this:

Actually, this version wasn’t really a true Martinez. I added an extra half shot of orange juice to the mix, and I shook it, rather than stirring it – hence the frothiness. Also I didn’t have any orange bitters so I had to use angostura bitters. (Only the latter was available at my local grocery store, which in itself seems miraculous, since this is a store that doesn’t carry any bar supplies to speak of – not even a bloody bar spoon.)  The result was rather orange-y, but still quite tasty. I actually didn’t mind that it was a bit diluted, since I had stayed up late drinking cocktails the previous night, so I wasn’t really prepared for anything too intense.

However, in the interest of honouring the creator of the Martinez, I present you with the original recipe. It’s much tastier this way, though adding that shot of orange juice does take the edge off nicely, for folks who just aren’t into anything too strong.

1 ½ oz. gin
½ oz. Cinzano
½ oz. Cointreau
3 dashes of orange bitters
Orange zest

Combine the spirits and bitters in a large pitcher filled with ice. Stir carefully for several seconds, until well chilled. Strain into a chilled glass. Rum the rim of the glass with the orange zest before serving.

In this month’s edition of Living Proof, I explore the wonderful world of tequila! and no, I’m not using the word “wonderful” facetiously. Tequila can actually be a damn tasty beverage; it only has a bad rap because most people’s experience with the liquor involves being at a noisy club and choking down several shots of cheap gasoline being masqueraded as legitimate booze.

It is totally worth it to redeem tequila for yourself. Invest in a good bottle of blanco and whip up some yummy margaritas or tequila sunrises (both recipes can be found at the bottom of the article). Or, spoil yourself and buy a top shelf añejo to enjoy all on its own. You’ll need to spend around forty or fifty bucks for a good blanco, and probably at least sixty for a good añejo. And for god’s sake, only buy tequila that’s made from 100% blue agave – look for the words “100% Agave” on the label. (Or “100% de agave”, the nearly-identical Spanish translation.)

The other day I read an article that took a rather, well, ghetto approach to wine. It got me thinking about wine drinking and wine appreciation, and how there are some lines to be drawn.

The article, which ran in the Chicago Tribune on Monday, gave a list of 10 things that you don’t need to enjoy wine – including glass stemware, a corkscrew, and wine from a bottle. Evidently, you can have a rockin’ wine party with a box of wine served in plastic Dixie cups. But let’s be honest; if that’s the type of “wine party” you’re hosting, you can dispense with the word “wine” – at that point you’re just getting drunk on booze, and it wouldn’t matter if it was boxed wine or vodka or rye or beer.

Now, I do not think of myself as a wine snob – I certainly don’t fit into the classic wine snob image of a stuffy, tweed-wearing older gentlemen droning on about various First-Growth Châteaux. Hell, I advocate pairing wine with Hawkins Cheezies, for god’s sake.

But I also think there’s more to wine than just fermented grape juice. If you truly want to learn a bit about wine then you’re going to have to actually pay attention to the beverage at hand, and there are certain ways to go about this that tend to make for the best learning experience. So, I offer the aspiring wine host and enthusiast a guide to the necessities of wine appreciation:

Stemware
Glass stemware is an absolute must. While you can certainly drink wine out of nearly any container, be it a $40 Riedel stem or an old pickle jar, you should aim for a standard wine glass. It doesn’t have to be expensive (lord knows my stemware collection is nothing fancy), but it should be made of glass and shaped appropriately (i.e. with a bowl that’s wider at the bottom and tapered towards the top, to facilitate swirling). The reason for this is simple: you are able to detect more aromas and flavours out of wine that’s served in this manner. Period. Trust me, I’ve quaffed enough wine out of those plastic red beer cups to know that it all tastes the same when served that way, and anything special or even mildly interesting is totally wasted.

Corkscrews
While screwcaps are awesome and I’m a big fan of this closure, a large number of wines are still bottled with corks. Do you really want to spend half an hour trying to jam the cork down the neck of a bottle with a fondue fork, as the Tribune article suggests? (Or sticking it in a shoe and banging it against the wall for ten minutes, like in these videos?) Buy a corkscrew and learn to love it.

Wine Bottles
Like the stemware, wine doesn’t need to be expensive to be enjoyable and interesting. However, though there have been improvements to the type of wine sold in boxed format, if you’re aiming to learn something about wine, you’re going to need to buy wines sold in glass bottles. Also keep in mind that while you don’t have to re-mortgage your house to taste good wine, you’ll have to pay around $20 a bottle to get something that isn’t generic and boring.

Wine Books
The best way to learn about wine is to open a bunch of bottles and start tasting. However, you’ll learn so much more if there’s some method to the madness, and a good wine book will instruct you about the basics. I particularly recommend Jancis Robinson’s How To Taste and Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible, though there are many other good ones out there. If that sounds too much like work, you could buddy up with an experienced wine geek and learn from them. (Hint, hint – I’m available for parties, dinners, and wine-oriented gatherings of any kind; send me an email for more info.)

Wine buckets, aerators, decanters, wine fridges, foil cutters, and wine glass charms
I agree with the article’s assertion that these items are unnecessary. There are plenty of adequate substitutions that can be made for all of these that will not detract from your wine learning experience at all – if they are even needed in the first place. (I would argue that all of them but decanters and fridges are not required; you can use any old juice jug as a decanter and wine fridges are only for people with a cellar that merits such an expense.)

Of course, if your mission was just to get a buzz, then you can ignore all this and drink whatever you want, however you want. Just please don’t call yourself a sommelier afterward.