[Drink inside the box.]
Abad Dom Bueno Bierzo 2021
Abad Dom Bueno Bierzo 2021 Price: $16.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Bodega del AbadCountry: SpainRegion: LeónAppellation: Bierzo DO Grapes: MenciaAlcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre Wine nerds love the Mencia grape because it’s contradictory. An iron fist in a velvet glove it comes on gently and elegantly until one realizes that there is a powerful fruit character. My proble with it is that I often get confused about the name of the grape and the part of…
Bottega Soave Classico 2023
Bottega Soave Classico 2023 Price: $18.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Bottega SpACountry: ItalyRegion: VenetoAppellation: Soave Classico DOC Grapes: GarganegaAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre In the wake of the great bottle inflation of the 2020s, I am beginning to think economies of scale have been wholly and unfairly underrated by so-called wine opinion makers (like me). If selling an awful lot of Prosecco means putting an exquisite Soave Classico onto the market for less than 20 Canadian…
Malivoire Gamay 2024
Malivoire Farmstead Gamay 2024 Price: $21.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: MalivoireCountry: CanadaRegion: NiagaraAppellation: Niagara Peninsula VQA Grapes: GamayAlcohol by Volume: 12%Sugar Content: 1 gram per litre Who needs cranberry sauce when red fruit (cherry, straw and raspberry) and white pepper make up this lively and fun wine? But unlike the sauce in the bowl, this sauce, with just 1 gram of residual sugar per litre, is bone dry. If there is a better pairing to turkey than Gamay, I haven’t…
Flat Rock Good Kharma 2024
Flat Rock Good Kharma Chardonnay 2024 Price: $17.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Flat Rock CellarsCountry: CanadaRegion: NiagaraAppellation: Niagara Peninsula VQA Grapes: ChardonnayAlcohol by Volume: 12.5% *Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre I don’t make it a habit of repeating tasting notes from wine producers, since I am trying to sell my added value. But in the case of Flat Rock’s 2024 Good Kharma Chardonnay, which raises funds for Feed Ontario, the province’s association of food banks, I don’t see how I could…
Sparklehorse Brut 2022
Sparklehorse Cap Classique Brut 2022 Price: $29.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Ken ForresterCountry: South AfricaRegion: Western Cape, StellenboschAppellation: Stellenbosch WO Grapes: Chenin BlancAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 6 grams per litre In my experience, the people who really know how to give a good time also know how to have a good time. Ken Forrester, who I consider a friend, is one of those people. Before making wine in The Cape, he was a successful restaurateur in South Africa’s financial…
El Ciprés Malbec 2023
El Ciprés Malbec 2023 Price: $15.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Bodegas CorreasCountry: ArgentinaRegion: MendozaAppellation: Product of Argentina Grapes: MalbecAlcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre I spent a week last November walking around and eating my way through Buenos Aires. There was a lot of beef involved, and a lot of Malbec to wash it down. What struck me was the wide spectrum of styles the makers of (mostly) Mendoza could fashion out of one grape. There was…
Lavradores de Feitoria Branco 2023
Lavradores de Feitoria Branco 2023 Price: $15.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Lavradores de FeitoriaCountry: PortugalRegion: DouroAppellation: Douro DOC Grapes: Malvasia Fina, Gouveio, Syria (% N/A)Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre LCBO website lists this wine as a 2023 vintage, but there is no vintage on the bottle. The Lavradores de Feitoria has a page for the 2024 vintage, which seems to be the latest in the market. But the bottle shown on the Lavradores website is Burgundian,…
Noble Hill Field Atlas 2021
Noble Hill Field Atlas 2021 Price: $18.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Noble HillCountry: South AfricaRegion: Western CapeAppellation: Simonsberg-Paarl WO Grapes: Syrah (81%), Mourvèdre (11%), Viogner (6%), Grenache (2%)Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre I just wrote a column at The Hub about being a slave to familiarity and the temptation to sticking with wines and winemakers I know. By all accounts most wine consumers are motivated as much, if not more, by the fear of buying a crappy wine…
Abad Dom Bueno Godello 2022
Abad Dom Bueno Godello 2022 Price: $17.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Bodega del AbadCountry: SpainRegion: LeónAppellation: Bierzo DO Grapes: GodelloAlcohol by Volume: 13%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre The Godello grape has one of those catchy names that works in English. Or, at least for me, it’s partially catchy. I recognize it, then I have to think hard about where it comes from. If I’m on my game, I’ll remember that, despite its Italian sounding name, it’s Spanish, and is…
Il Poggio Aglianico Sannio 2020
Mas des Bressades Rosé 2024
Mas des Bressades Cuvée Tradition Rosé 2024 Price: $19.00Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Mas des BressadesCountry: FranceRegion: Southern Rhône ValleyAppellation: Costières de Nîmes Grapes: Grenache (50%), Syrah (30%), Cinsault (20%)Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre This widely distributed rosé from the mouth of the Rhône River has been a summer stable in my house for many years because it’s a proper rosé in two respects. First, it’s made in the traditional saignée (bleeding) method. This is when…
Cardo White 2023
Cardo White 2023 Price: $16.95Channel: LCBO Vintages Producer: Quinta do CardoCountry: PortugalRegion: Castelo RodrigoAppellation: DOC Biera Interior Grapes: SíriaAlcohol by Volume: 12.5%Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre I wrote about Artur Gama at in this piece for The Hub when I met him in Toronto in the fall of 2023. The Lisbon-area winemaker was showing wines from his new, high altitude project further north in the Upper Douro. It was called Cardo for the thistles that grew in the vineyards at…