Berserkers,
Fellow board member Nick Christie is visiting Toronto for a week and staying with Mike Grammer at his condo. So they hosted a boardgaming afternoon in which lengthy sessions of Le Havre and Imperial were played. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and Chinese Black Bean Chicken Macaroni for dinner and we had a quartet of wines to go with our games and food:
JANSZ TASMANIA PREMIUM CUVEE – This came into the LCBO a while back before I closed my collection and the thought of it was so intriguing I made sure to get both this and the Rosé. I mean we all have Champagne and Cremants but how many of us can say we have Tasmanian wine in our collections? Keep in mind, I had absolutely no idea of what the quality would be like, it was a pure impulse purchase.
Light golden yellow in the glass, fragrant frujit aromas of lemon peel, unripe pineapple and green apple. Rich body. On the palate it is very fruit forward with ripe green and golden apple flavors, some nuttiness and a slight touch of lees. This is very fruit focused and a pleasant surprise. They’d like to fashion themselves as a Champagne style maker, but this honestly reminded me more of Franciacorta. Quality sparkler and an interesting change of pace.
PEARL MORISSETTE 2013 CUVEE BLACK BALL RIESLING – A dry very tart Riesling with lemon lime flavors and high acidity that are softened out by aging in foudre that gives the body richness and creaminess. This won’t make your forget your favorite high end Alsacian Riesling but that Francois Morissette managed to pull this off out of the notoriously bad 2013 season is incredible.
BETWEEN THE LINES 2015 CABERNET FRANC – Deep purple red in color. Aromas of ripe raspberries, tobacco leaf and cocoa. Light bodied in the mouth. Light flavors of raspberries, smoky tobacco and some vegetal green pepper betray the fact that the good work done here has been undermined by yet another horrible vintage that played havoc in Niagara. Next year’s vintage from the awesome 2016 season will be much better.
JOST MAPLE WINE – One of my favorite Canadian stickies because Jost manages to make the texture far less cloying than you’d expect. Golden brown in the bottle, of course it smells and tastes like sweet maple syrup. BUT… right along the finish there’s some tangy acidity and maple sap flavor that lifts the wine. The medium-full body is lighter than pure syrup as well which also helps. You’re not downing alcoholized maple syrup here, this is actually a wine. It plays to a single dimension but it plays it very well.