Berserkers,
Last night fellow board member Michael Grammer and I had the pleasure of being guests at a special wine and winter BBQ faceoff event hosted by fellow board member Dylan Provencher and his lovely wife Chelsea in their beautiful downtown Toronto home. Dylan reached out to Michael Grammer in order to finally put a face to a fellow local board member and I tagged along as Mike’s sidekick, for wine sidekicking is what I do best in life.
The evening was highlighted by a double main event: a blind Sauternes tasting in which we were challenged to find the Chateau Yquem amongst a blind trio which was then followed by a winter BBQ faceoff pitting two of the city’s best BBQ restaurants against each other.
In addition, each attending guest generously brought a high-end bottle from their personal wine collections to match with the BBQ food. As a result, many fine reds along with a great sparkling and a white were also imbibed. As such, I will happily break the report down into its major components:
SAUTERNES BLIND FACEOFF
The evening began with a trio of blind Sauternes expertly served in a trio of tasting glasses for everyone. This was originally going to be the finisher after the BBQ faceoff, Dylan informed us, until his friend Ross gave him the inspired notion to do the Sauternes faceoff first instead when people’s appetites and palates would not be satiated by the BBQ food and various wines. This proved to indeed be the ideal course of action.
The only information we had as a group was that one of the Sauternes was indeed an aged Chateau d’Yquem. No information at all was given on the other two. Our challenge was both to identify the Yquem as well as score and pick our favorite in order to declare a winner. This would prove to be a fun and humbling experience as I would embarrassingly forget the lessons I learned at the recent Winetasters of Toronto “Hello Sweetie!” 01 Sauternes tasting event as you’ll see below. Ross also generously provided a duck rillette and foie gras terrine with baguette slices to accompany the Sauternes, making it a full appetizer and aperitif course.
BLIND I: A deep rich gold in color. Nose is all honey, I don’t register any fruit or botrytis. In the mouth, extremely sweet honey and vanilla with a bit of roasted tropical fruit. I was sure this was definitely not the Yquem but when Dylan actually called for the vote, I overheard someone say they were sure it was aged Yquem from the color and I inexplicably changed my vote to this last second, completely forgetting that this was the very same reason I changed my mind last second on the 01 Myrat at the Winetasters event. Sadly, I caved to peer pressure the way a reed bends to a hurricane. REVEAL: Chateau Suiduiraut 1989 Sauternes. I was a little surprised as I found this very unbalanced towards sweetness compared to the other two and I usually associate Suiduiraut with high quality and balance, right up there with Climens and Rieussec.
BLIND II: Much lighter in color, but a superbly intense nose and palate of buckwheat honey and tropical fruit that was quite heady. I had an interesting conversation with a guest who thought this was actually a Tokaji, it was so intense and I actually started to agree. No way a Sauternes could be this intensely tropical. Then I looked at the blind wrapped bottles and their uniform shape ruled that one out due to not matching the unique look of a Tokaji bottle but damn I could why he felt that way. I was super impressed with this but did not peg it all for the Yquem. Absolutely outstanding sweet wine. REVEAL: Chateau d’Yquem 1995 Sauternes. Only two of the over 30 assembled guests correctly guessed this as the Yquem upon Dylan’s call for the vote and honestly the rest of us looked at them like they were crazy… only to be severely humbled when it turned out they were right. I usually associate Yquem with finesse and the Winetasters event backed that up but man this one was super powerful in a really good way. It really did come off more as Tokaji than a Sauternes.
BLIND III: From conversations I had around the room, this was the favorite of the three as well as my personal favorite. Highly balanced nose and palate of botrytis glycerin, roasted pineapple, dried mango, and vanilla. While not as intense as II, it was superbly balanced and the most complex of the three Sauternes. Before I foolishly changed my mind last second, this was my actual guess as the Yquem. REVEAL: Chateau Suiduiraut 2001 Sauternes. Wow. You could hear the pleasant shock go through the crowd because, again, this was the clear favorite of the crowd before the reveal. More than that, it is certainly a lot more affordable that the Yquem and far more likely to be acquired if not already in cellars today… which probably explains the wide grins and people whispering to each other I noticed after the reveal. A well deserved win. Interesting that this is the second time in recent experience an Yquem has placed second in a blind contest to me but honestly it was once again really quite close.
TORONTO BBQ FACEOFF
With the first phase of the evening’s event out of the way, Dylan’s wife Chelsea arrived with the BBQ food for the faceoff. The food was provided by the Beach Hill Smokehouse and Hog Town Smoke. The restaurants provided the exact same BBQ’ed proteins and traditional sides: side ribs, brisket, burnt ends, sausage, and chicken accompanied by their signature sauces, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, corn bread and creamy coleslaw. Hog Town Smoke also provided one extra, a red cabbage slaw with a traditional vinegar and oil dressing which was not part of the contest. All items were judged on visual appeal, texture, and taste. Please note the pics are taken directly from the BlogTO’s website coverage of each restaurant for sample representation purposes only as unfortunately my phone ran out of power shortly after snapping as many of the wines as I could.
Judging from conversations with the crowd and my own scores, Beach Hill Smokehouse really pulled away on the proteins, with the crowd especially loving the smoked sausage, side ribs and the melt in your mouth brisket which the fat had really permeated quite well. Many felt the macaroni and cheese was an afterthought and the cornbread was too sweet, though.
Hog Town Smoke’s proteins were very tasty but not as smooth as those from Beach Hill and I could tell that was making a big difference for most of the crowd, though a few people also told me they specifically preferred the drier less fatty texture of their proteins. Where Hog Town ran away is with the sides. Their creamy macaroni and cheese was a hit, their corn bread muffins tasted more like corn. I loved the red slaw and at one point people were eating their creamy slaw right out of the containers to finish them off.
My own personal judgment was that Beach Hill had won for ribs, sausage, burnt ends and baked beans. Hog Town Smoke had won for mac ‘n’ cheese, cornbread and coleslaw. Dead tie for both the brisket and the chicken. I think this fell very much in line with the majority.
