German Wine Fair – Welcomes Trade and Consumers – May 28

Riesling & Co. World Tour stops in Toronto on May 28th at the Arcadian Loft

To highlight their wines’ surprising flavours and top level food friendly versatility, the Riesling & Co. 2013 German wine fair returns to Toronto this spring.

On May 28 over 25 celebrated German winemakers and winery principals, offering 100+ wines, will assemble at the Arcadian Loft to offer guests the most extensive German wine tasting in Canada.

The “walk about” trade fair is open for attendance by professionals from the retail, media, and hospitality sectors during the day and by consumer wine enthusiasts during the evening. (See special offer for Wine Align subscribers below)

“What better way to discover the versatility of German Riesling and Pinots, than when matched with the passion of the visiting winemakers,” notes Ulrike Lenhardt of the German Wine Institute, who will be in Toronto for the event.

German Wine Queen and winemaker Julia Bertram

Winemaker Julia Bertram German Wine Queen

Guests will also have an opportunity to meet a real live QUEEN – German Wine Queen and winemaker Julia Bertram who will be attending to educate visitors on German wines!

German wines are generally heralded as great food friendly wines. This is a very bold statement, but most sommeliers and other food and wine professionals will agree.

Germany’s wines, while following strict wine laws, offer among the most variety, and one can find a wine for any occasion, matching any food and satisfying almost anyone.

The not-really secret here is the variety in styles (dry to sweet, sparkling or still), grape varieties (Riesling and Pinot Noir, to name the top ones of either white or red) and the distinct levels of richness (light to full, to honey-like) plus, based on the cooler climate, the wines generally have a good amount of acidity (considered vital for a great food wine) and lower levels of alcohol than warmer climate peers.

Another great thing about German wines with the higher acidity levels is that the wines last better than any other wines after they are opened. Hence don’t hesitate to open more than one bottle, taste and decide what will be the best for the occasion and return the other opened bottles to the refrigerator for later enjoyment.

“If you don’t love German wines, you just have not yet found the right one for you.”

Much has been written about food and wine pairing suggesting what goes and what does not go together. In the belief that enjoyment of food and wine is a very personal experience, we encourage everyone to experiment -and what better place than at the German Wine Fair!

To add to the fair, food pairings will be catered by Oliver and Bonacini and live music will be styled by BELLOSOUND.

And as an added incentive to join us, all trade and consumer registrants are eligible to win Rimowa Luggage valued $595.

Date and Location:

Tuesday, May 28th  – Arcadian Loft, 8^Th Floor, 401 Bay Street, Toronto

Trade Tasting

2:00PM to 5:00 PM

Media and Trade professionals interested in attending the walk-about are encouraged to register at: www.germanwinefair.ca

NEW: Consumer Tasting

Calling all wine lovers! Meet over 25 winemakers and winery principals  and taste over 100 wines with food pairings by Oliver & Bonacini

7:00PM to 9:30 PM

Tickets $65 — all food and wine samples included

Wine Align subscribers receive $10.00 off the regular ticket price of $65.00.
Enter promo code: winealign

Order Tickets Here

Wine lovers are encouraged to visit: www.germanwinefair.ca for more information.

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Filed under: Events, News, Wine, Events, Germany, Riesling, Wine

The Successful Collector – By Julian Hitner ~ Alsatian Riesling and Gewurztraminer – not to be forgotten ~ May 28th, 2011

The best source in France for two mesmerizing grapes:

Julian Hitner

Taking out a scrap piece of paper from my recycling bin, now and then I enjoy spending a few minutes creating lists about my favourite types of wine. These lists I sometimes format according to grape, other times by region or country, and/or on occasion by their ranking as ‘established growths.’ Of the former, my list usually ends up being something like this: for reds, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah; for whites, Riesling, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc, the very latter of which I most take pleasure in when it is blended with Sémillon and, excepting Hunter Valley, aged judiciously in French oak barriques.

Of the middle category, my often-wandering mind invariably settles on France, my most beloved winegrowing nation on Earth. From then on, it becomes a simple matter of picking my three favourite regions: Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhône. Such an effort to leave out Champagne! As for my favourite ‘classed growths,’ suffice it to say that I have rather luxurious tastes, and we shall leave it at that.

Yet, regarding my regional/country list, notice how I omitted the ‘subject region’ shown, quite clearly, in the title of this column? No, this was not done in error, but in a rather humourous literary fashion; for Alsace is, without a shred of doubt, one of those winegrowing areas that oftentimes seems forgotten when compared to all its other, more famous counterparts in France. A sad thing, really, for my very favourite type of white wine, alongside white Burgundy and Bordeaux, hails from none other than this marvellously understated, yet undeniably beautiful, part of the country. This grape, of course, is Riesling, the darling varietal of sommeliers and wine commentators, worldwide.

Aside from Germany, there truly is no other place in the Old World where Riesling is crafted to such a remarkable level of dexterity, fullness, originality, and refinement. Accounting for roughly 21.9% of all vines grown in Alsace, or about 3,350 hectares, Alsatian Riesling has historically been fermented to full dryness and crafted in such a style that best accentuates the overall minerality, vibrancy, and unique intensity of flavour(s) of the varietal. In Alsace, the best Riesling vineyards, typically cultivated with greater restrictions (ex. lower yields) on Grand Cru sites, are most often found on soils comprising sandy clay and loam. Common aromatics in youth? Think of fresh lemon, citrus peel, green apples, white peaches, melon, minerals, and spice (just to name a few). Just as important, the finest Alsatian Rieslings can easily age for a good deal more than just a couple of years, with some wines even requiring at least a decade to reach their full potential. As for dessert versions, such as Vendange Tardive (late harvest, often with a touch of botrytis) and Sélection de Grains Nobles (fully botrytized), let’s just say that I’ve enjoyed several extraordinary examples over thirty years of age. How I adore Alsatian Riesling!

This said, I couldn’t bring this column to a close without mentioning another Alsatian-based grape of absolutely marvellous character: Gewurztraminer. Quite possibly the spiciest, most ‘exotic’ varietal on the planet; in Alsace, Gewurztraminer (spelled without the umlaut) is sometimes even claimed to rival Riesling in terms of overall prestige. Comprising around 18.6% of all planted vineyards, of which, like Riesling, the Grand Cru sites will often yield the best results, Gewurztraminer is one of those grapes adaptable to all sorts of differing soil conditions, though clay and mineral-heavy deposits will often play a role in the best examples. Common aromatics? In Gewurztraminer, they are so identifiable, even the most amateurish of wine lovers should get these right: fresh rose (and tea) pedals, abundant lychees, honeysuckle, bergamot, lemon, jasmine, melon, and Asian spice. Also not to be overlooked is the fact that the best bottlings can easily age for well over a decade, with the more ‘entry range’ versions even able to withstand a few years’ worth of cellaring. Almost makes me wish I’d added Alsace to my list … so where did I put that scrap of paper?

Click here for a few gems for collectors from the May 28th, 2011 Vintages release .

Filed under: Featured Articles, Wine, Alsace, Gewurztraminer, Julian Hitner, Riesling, The Successful Collector, Vintages

John Szabo’s Vintages Preview for January 22nd – Purple-stained teeth and compacted crustaceans: Madiran and Limarì, where else?

John Szabo, MS

In this posting, check out my top smart buys, which include a highlight from each of Southwest France & Chile, the themes of the January 22nd release. As a treat for terroir fanatics, I’ve included a video from my recent trip to Chile where Javier Villarroel explains the uniqueness of the soils of the recently re-discovered Limarì Valley.

Smart Buys
This week’s smart buys include a pair of excellent German rieslings: 2008 MARKUS MOLITOR RIESLING SPÄTLESE $22.95 and 2006 KRUGER-RUMPF RIESLING SPÄTLESE $16.95. Both offer that incomparable combination of vague sweetness perfectly balanced by riveting acids and pronounced stony flavours, the way we love it.  But not to be upstaged, Niagara secures a spot in the top ten with a Riesling their own, the lovely 2008 CREEKSIDE ESTATE BUTLER’S GRANT RIESLING VQA $15.95. It’s lightly honeyed, sweet grass-flavoured white at a superb price.

Elsewhere, Portugal and Southern France earn two spots each in the smart buys, Spain offers a rare but vibrantly delicious Rioja made from 100% graciano (usually just a small component of the traditional blend), and Oregon comes through with a lovely, old world style pinot noir at just $21.95, a great value, as fans of Oregon pinot will attest. See the full list here.

Southwest France – Madiran
Southwest France is a land of, plains and plateaus, lazy rivers, hearty duck-based cuisine (confit, foie gras, cassoulet etc.), prunes and Armagnac, Henry the IV, muskateers and Gascon swashbucklers. The accent is so thick down here that it is barely intelligible even to fluent French speakers. Once I was in Paris watching the news. A French reporter was interviewing a French farmer from what the rest of France calls la France profonde, or “deep France”, that is the deep southwest, and the farmer’s words were subtitled in French. At first perplexed, I turned quickly thankful, as I would have otherwise understood less than half. I didn’t feel badly though as evidently even Parisians are unable to fully comprehend the accent of their own countrymen. I suppose it’s much like speaking to an old Newfoundlander from the interior or a Quebecer from some lost little village.

Château Peyros

Southwest France is far off most modern tourist itineraries and as such has been able to preserve an air of timelessness. It’s like a sort of time capsule that one could step into today and travel back 10, 20, 50 or a hundred years ago without noticing much change, other than perhaps fewer cars and sneakers and more horses and knee-high leather boots. And despite efforts to modernize and adapt to current fashions, the wines, too, seem caught up in an eddy of the past and unable to surge forward into the 21st century. But that’s a good thing. There’s enough of the commonplace, standardized international wines available elsewhere. I’m more interested in these regional relics, the dark firm wines of Cahors, the sweet, quirky whites of Jurançon, the stolid reds of Madiran.

Lovers of fruity, creamy-textured wines will likely run screaming from the tough malbec-based wines of Cahors and straight on to Mendoza. Ditto the wines of Madiran, made predominantly from tannat, a variety whose very name derives from its abundance of tannins and marked acidity. One of the toughest barrel tastings I’ve ever done was during a reconnaissance trip to southwest France. My partner and I had stopped in to see a Madiran producer; it was a sunny, hot June day with the mercury hovering above 30ºC, and air as still as a lake at dawn. We stepped into a somewhat cooler cellar filled with barrels stained deep purple-red, an ominous sign already. The vintner drew some inky-black liquid into his permanently stained pipette and let fall a viscous stream of wine into our glasses. With trepidation, we proceeded to taste some of the thickest, darkest, most tannic young red wine I have ever sunk teeth into. It was like swishing a mouthful of moist sand and gravel, leaving your mouth drier than the Sahara. After just three wines I was shattered and my teeth were more purple than if I had been sucking on a grape-flavoured lollipop all day. It was great. We agreed to start importing the wines immediately, knowing that in time, a long time, these wines would be outstanding. Then we repaired to the air-conditioned car parked under a tree for the entire afternoon until the saliva returned to our mouths.

The wines of Madiran were once well-known to outsiders, as this lost corner of France lies along the ancient pilgrimage route that leads across the Pyrenées all the way to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. But you need not walk a thousand kilometers to have a taste. Just jump in your car and head down to the LCBO on January 22nd and pick up a bottle, or a case, of the 2005 CHÂTEAU PEYROS MADIRAN 14.95. Château Peyros is part of Lesgourgues vineyards, a collection of six estates that cover terroirs from Bas Armagnac to Uruguay, and from Madiran to Bordeaux and the heart of the Graves. The name Peyros means “a stony place” in Gascon language, as the château’s terroir is loaded with rolled pebbles churned up by glaciers. Vines are cultivated through sustainable agriculture and enriched by organic manure from a herd of 300 ewes that walks around the vineyard from October until May. The 2005 on offer here should appeal to fans of mature Bordeaux at a fraction of the price. It’s nicely mature, savoury, complex and earthy, with terrific complexity for the money.

Chile’s Limarì Valley

The other theme of the release is Chile, a country that by now needs little introduction for Canadian drinkers. My value highlight of the release, however, hails from a region that won’t be as familiar as the Maipo or Casablanca Valleys; I’m talking about the Limarì Valley.

The Limarí Valley lies 400kms north of Santiago. Though once the center of the Inca Empire, and considering that vines were first planted as early as 1548 (by a Franciscan monk named Limarì), in terms of quality, export-worthy wine, it has only recently hit the map. Many of Chile’s terroir hunters (Concha y Toro, Undurraga, De Martino, among others) have been persuaded to take a fresh look at the valley and explore its potential to make intense but elegant and mineral reds and whites.

Like other cooler coastal regions in Chile, fog from the Pacific Ocean, called the Camanchaca in Limarì, settles into the valley each morning, cooling and nourishing the vines, only to be burned off by mid-morning as the sun rises over the Andes and bathes the vines in pure sunlight all afternoon. The coastal mountains are lower here than further south, resulting in an even more marked marine influence. Strong wind is near-constant, and with less than 4 inches of rainfall per year, drip irrigation is essential here, as elsewhere in Chile.

Yet it’s not so much the climate that differentiates the Limarì Valley, but rather its unique soils. This is one of the few regions in Chile where active calcium carbonate (limestone) is close enough to the surface that vine roots can reach down and extract a little magical chalky flavour. This gives the wines of Limarì a distinctive mineral signature, and for me, ratchets up the excitement. Watch Javier Villarroel describe the soils of the Limarì here in this short video, shot last January during my visit to Chile (sorry for the Blair Witch Project-like shakiness, it’s not meant to be a horror show).

Almost half of the nearly 1700 hectares of vineyards is planted to cabernet sauvignon, but for my money, chardonnay, syrah and carmenere are the most interesting. My pick from the release is the 2008 TABALÍ RESERVA CARMENÈRE $14.95. Tabalì was among the first modern wineries to plant vines in 1993, and this signature grape shows an extra degree of class and complexity in the price category, with a savoury-mineral element and elegant proportioning overall.

Top Smart Buys
All Reviews

Cheers,

John Szabo, Master Sommelier

Filed under: Featured Articles, Wine, Chile, John Szabo, LCBO, Limarì Valley, Madiran, Riesling, Southwest France, Vintages, Vintages Preview

Austria’s Best Whites – The Latest Report From Central Europe – by John Szabo

John Szabo, MS

The Austrians know how to put on a good show. The biannual VieVinum event took place this year from May 28-31 in the majestic court palace rooms of the Wiener Hofburg in downtown Vienna. Over 850 international journalists, importers, agents and sommeliers were invited to Vienna to taste as assess the recent vintages and get an up-to-date picture on the Austrian wine scene. In total, over 14,000 wine enthusiasts from all over Austria took the opportunity to taste the new vintages from Austrian wine producers during the three-day event.

From nearly zero in the mid-eighties, Austrian vintners have enjoyed a near-constant increase in exports over the last 25 years. Exceeding all expectations, even in the last troublesome couple of years exports of bottled wine (87% of total exports) have continued to grow, particularly in value, up 4.4% from last year. Germany is still the most import market by a large margin at nearly 60% of all exports.

Sadly, Canada does not even figure in the top ten list of export destination countries, a pity given the extraordinary quality of the recent releases. One can’t even blame the LCBO for lack of availability, as a quick scan of available Austrian wines reveals an impressive collection of some of the most sought after names currently on sale in Ontario. I can only surmise that it is simply lack of awareness about the beauty of these extremely versatile and food-friendly wines that relegates them to the dark corners of the Vintages Shop Online program and the occasional dialed in agent who’s ahead of the learning curve. Why aren’t Canadians buying more Austrian Wines?

Austrian wine production is dominated by white wine, with white grape varieties representing over 68% of total vineyard plantings (latest stats from 2007). Of these Grüner Veltliner (or “grooner, or ‘gru-vee”) is easily the flagship grape, accounting for nearly 1/3 of all grapes planted. (Riesling, though represented on only 3.6% of vineyard acreage, qualifies for me as Austria’s second most important white grape in sheer qualitative terms.) Grüner is an amazingly flexible grape that comes in a range of styles from light, bright and peppery to rich, lush and full bodied. Most are aged without recourse to oak, allowing purity of fruit and mineral flavours to shine through. I’ve done considerable experimentation matching grüner with food, and I find it to be one of the most friendly and flexible wines out there. From classic European-style fish and seafood preparations to sushi and sashimi, Thai, Chinese dim-sum and lightly spiced Indian curries, grüner seems to handle it all with aplomb. Just ask Vikram Vij of the celebrated Indian restaurant Vij’s in Vancouver (a certified sommelier). “We prefer fresh, crisp whites without too much oak”. Enter grüner (and a fine collection of German white, too). My experience consulting on the list for the Aman Patel of the Indian Rice Factory in Toronto led to much the same conclusions.

To find the top kit, look to the trio of appellations bordering the Danube to the west of Vienna, north of the River: Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal. With variations in elevation, aspect and most importantly soil type, the grüners from these areas can be astonishingly mineral-flavoured or succulently juicy with lively citrus and stone fruit (green peach, apricot). The signature of the grape, however, is a totally unique herbal-spicy-vegetal nuance that many liken to white pepper, though I’m most often reminded of turnip, parsnip or even fresh lentil flavours as well as sweet green herbs like tarragon or basil. Whatever the case, these are some of the most original wines in the world.

The historic vineyards of Austria share a philosophical link with Burgundy and Germany, in that over the course of centuries, specific vineyards with marked individual character have been identified, named, vinified and bottled separately in order to highlight the terroir. It’s not surprising given that Cistercian and Benedictine monasteries have been established in the Danube River Valley for nearly a thousand years. Monks, with their envious spare time, affinity for contemplation and singular purpose of exalting God through their work, were well positioned to dissect the land and champion each vineyard’s individual character. And grüner veltliner, like pinot noir and riesling, is a perfect vector for articulating the land. Some of these monasteries have been making wine continuously for centuries, such as the Stift Göttweig (11thC) and Schloss Gobelsburg (12thC).

The result for modern drinkers is a sometimes-bewildering array of names on labels that takes more than a bit of knowledge to untangle, but it’s well worth the effort. For more information on Austrian wines, visit www.winesfromaustria.com. It is an excellent, well organized resource. In the meantime, here is a brief lexicon of Austrian wine terms to aid in deciphering the labels of the recommended wines below:

Trocken: dry

Trockenbeerenauslese: “dried out selected grapes”, ie. Botrytis affected, resulting, confusingly, in very sweet wine.

Ried: “single Vineyard”. The name following the term ried refers to the name of the vineyard, as in “Ried Lamm”, where Lamm is the name of the site in which the grapes are grown.

Steinfeder, federspiel, smaragd: three terms exclusive to the Wachau region, referring to increasing levels of ripeness. Steinfeder describes the lightest style, usually with about 11.5% alcohol, moving up the scale to smaragd, the most full bodied wines often tipping in at over 14% alcohol, with corresponding intensity of flavour, body, etc.

Terrassen: “terraces”. The steepest parts of the Danube Valley have been carved into terraces in order to make winegrowing possible. Terraces help to reduce erosion and make vineyard management a little easier.

Berg: “hill”. Often used in conjunction with a vineyard name, as in Käferberg or Loibner Berg. These steep sites offer excellent drainage and sun exposure, yielding excellent quality wines. In order to be labeled as bergwein, the site must have a slope of at least 26º (subject to verification).

Weingut: winery; the producer’s name

Recommended Wines from LCBO, Vintages and Vintages Shop Online:

GROONER GRUNER VELTLINER 2009 $12.95

LAURENZ UND SOPHIE SINGING GRÜNER VELTLINER 2008 $14.95

DOMÄNE WACHAU TERRACES GRÜNER VELTLINER 2008 $15.95

SALOMON UNDHOF SALOMON GROOVEY GRÜNER VELTLINER 2009 $12.95

WEINGUT RABL G. GRÜNER VELTLINER 2006 $26.20

RABL KÄFERBERG GRÜNER VELTLINER 2006 $29.00

LOIMER GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $16.95

LOIMER LANGENLOIS TERRASSEN GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $35.00

LOIMER LANGENLOIS TERRASSEN TROCKEN RIESLING 2007 $35.00

NIKOLAIHOF IM WEINGEBIRGE GRÜNER VELTLINER TROCKEN 2006 $65.00

F.X. PICHLER GRÜNER VELTLINER FEDERSPIEL LOIBNER KLOSTERSATZ 2007$35.00

F.X. PICHLER GRÜNER VELTLINER SMARAGD LOIBNER BERG 2007 $59.00

F.X. PICHLER GRÜNER VELTLINER SMARAGD URGESTEIN TERRASSEN 2007$45.00

HUBER GRÜNER VELTLINER BERG 2007 $39.00

KRACHER GRAND CUVÉE TROCKENBEERENAUSLESE NO. 6 NOUVELLE VAGUE 2001 $79.00

RUDI PICHLER KOLLMÜTZ SMARAGD GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $54.00

RUDI PICHLER SMARAGD TERRASSEN GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $39.00

RUDI PICHLER STEINRIEGL SMARAGD RIESLING 2007 $66.00

SALOMON UNDHOF PFAFFENBERG RIESLING 2007 $24.00

SALOMON-UNDHOF WIEDEN TRADITION GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007$23.00

SCHLOSS GOBELSBURG KAMMERNER LAMM GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007$45.00

SCHLOSS GOBELSBURG KAMMERNER RENNER GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $29.00

WEINGUT BRÜNDLMAYER STEINMASSEL RIESLING 2006 $29.00

WEINGUT NIGL PRIVAT GRÜNER VELTLINER 2007 $49.00

Cheers,

John Szabo, MS

Filed under: Featured Articles, Wine, Austria, Grüner Veltliner, John Szabo, Riesling