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…