Hello fello winos! Very, very lovely wine to tell you about, so put your glass down and pick up a pen.

Chimeres 2007 from Chateau Saint-Roch. (The first e in Chimeres has an accent over it, so please if there are any willing francophones out there, let me know how to insert accents over letters as I am clueless.) This winery is in French Catalonia, near the Mediterranian Sea. Let's all hop into our imaginary planes and fly there, direct to the winery where we can enjoy this wine in huge quantities.

It's a mix of Grenache (65%), Syrah (30%) and Carignan--new to me!--(5%). In Barb math terms, Grenache + Syrah + Carignan= pour me another glass.

There's a lovely earthiness to this wine. The fruit is real berry; the true I-picked-it-off-the-bush-at-the-side-of-the-road kind, not the I've-been-genetically-engineered-and-am-now-sitting-at-the-bottom-of-your-yogurt-cup kind. But there's also a toasty nut, deep, lush, foresty, sexy flavour that makes you want to paint yourself blue, put on a sheet and dance around a bonfire.

A note about the tannins: I found them very present but not disagreeable. We barely decanted this wine, so it may benefit from an hour or so of airing out. I could drink this wine without food, but if you were to eat something with it, have something meaty. I was wishing for pate, but it would be just as nice with a piece of steak, or better yet, some of that lovely elk we enjoyed last week. Oh hell yes!!! I am absolutely 100% going to repeat this wine with elk! Genius!

This was one of Karen's picks--well done, my love! I'm happy to report that this is a wine available at the LCBO, so scuttle away, little kittens, and pick up a bottle of this woodsy nectar to enjoy for the weekend.

'Til next time!

B.

Birthday horizontal tasting!

Helllooooo! This is me after a horizontal tasting...or should I say a horizontal drinking. Can I tell you right off the bat if you're truly interested in setting up a horizontal tasting you should do just that: taste, not drink. By the end I could taste nothing. My tongue was numb. And I've made 11 typos in the last 3 sentences that I've had to go back and correct. So it's very bad for the tongue and fingers to swallow (there's a dirty joke in there somewhere).

So kittens, it's my birthday. Thirty-eight. 3-8. Yup. Lookout 40, I'm coming at lightening speed. I am currently looking for a wrinkle in time that allows me to leap backwards ten years, but in the meantime I vow to continue to enjoy all of the loveliest life has to offer. And really, is 38 so bad? Is 40 so bad? Is 50? As long as you're healthy and there's plenty of good wine, can you really complain?

I certainly had no complaints about my evening. We dined at Chez Maurice, where Karen set up my very first horizontal tasting. Thank-you, Karen, for taking my horizontal tasting virginity in the most pleasant way imaginable! Roses (how do I insert accents? Someone tell me! I can't properly write Rose without it! Shall I spell it phonetically? Rose-EH!) were on the table. Three different regions, all the same year (2009).

So let's start with my expectations. My history with pink wine is short: President's Pink champagne (barf) and Ernst & Julio Gallo Zinfandel (also barf). Never having tried a real rose, I didn't know what to expect exactly, except I guess I thought I'd be drinking something sweeter. Soooo not the case. I was careful to take notes (though my handwriting suffered by the third bottle. Think prude, Barb. Spit, don't swallow next time!) All wines were purchased at the LCBO in Barrie on Bayfield St.

#1:Fielding Estate Rose VQA. This is a Niagara wine; grape varietals are a mix of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Saugvinon.
It smelled like: lovely (but very cold on the first few sniffs) Peach? Melon? Pear?
It tasted like: Nothing like it smelled! Totally different, how wierd! Very, very, very rhubarb to my taste. Off-dry.
Colour: Watermeloney.
Thoughts: Not yummy cold. Needed warming up a bit to be enjoyed. Not my favouritist ever, but at least it didn't smell like throw-up.

#2: Menage a Trois (apologies once again for the lack of proper accents) Folie a Deux Rose 2009. This is a Californian wine, from the Napa Valley. It's a blend of Merlot, Syrah, and Gewurztraminer.
It smelled like: CANDY!
Colour: PINK!
It tasted like: CANDY--sort of. Flavours themselves rang sweet, but this was not a sweet wine. Made for a really interesting vibration on the palate. I got tropical fruit (passionfruit?), floral, cherry and apple off of this wine. Off-dry.
Thoughts: These people are making a thoughtful wine. Not totally my bag, but I appreciate what they're doing.

#3: Chateau la Tour de l'Eveque 2009. From Provence. Made from an astonishing 8 grape varietals, most of which I've never heard of: Rolle, Semillion, Ugni-Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre, Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault.
It smelled like: Perfume, floral. Very faint scent.
It tasted like: Very faint taste. Maybe it was me having drank a few fingers worth of the previous two, but I had a really difficult time making anything of this wine. Gardeney and herbey, but quietly so. Karen called it a vacuous blonde. Off-dry.
Colour: Pale, pale passionfruit tint.
Thoughts: After tasting, we decided this was our least favourite, so into the risotto went the entire bottle. And I have to say, it was the best damned risotto I've ever had.

The winner? The Menage a Trois (are you really surprised?). The Niagara wine 2nd, the French wine 3rd. We drank the winner, used the loser to cook with, and we still have almost an entire bottle of the runner up to go through at a later date.

So the lesson in this, my pets, is rose is probably not what you think it is. It's dry. Like waaaay more dry than I thought it would be. So if you're drinking this stuff, have it with greasy food so it balances out. But don't eat really greasy food, 'cause it's bad for you. In that view, skip them both altogether. Move on to the next wine adventure! So many wines to be had! So little time to enjoy them!

I'll post our dinner menu in the morning, 'cause I'm bagged and it's time to hit the hay. 'Til next time, wine lovers!

B.

Bubble, bubble, no toil, no trouble.

Well here's a reason to do some chug-a-lugging on a hot summer day. Last week Karen and I ran out of wine (you're shocked, I can tell), and all that was left was a bottle of Peller Estates Ice Cuvee Rose that had been chilling in the fridge for a few weeks. It was a gift from Karen she brought back from Niagara; a thank-you for watching her kids over the weekend, while she and her hubby ran away for some grown up time. I'd resolved not to drink it until strawberries were ready, but what's a girl to do? Pop went the cork and into the glass it went.

Honies, darlings, you cannot buy this at the LCBO. But I highly suggest we organize some sort of field trip to this winery and deplete them of their stock. Remember that scene in When Harry Met Sally? You know the one, the "I'll have what she's having" scene. This wine gets three Yes!es and an O My God! Sparkly, light, very strawberry to my palate, it was lovely and fresh and really quite refreshing. And now it's gone. Sads. The empty bottle sits on my desk, teasing me. And I resolve to drink more sparkling wine! Why don't I drink more sparkling wine? It's delicious and you don't need food with it. That's it, dammit! This is my vow, to always have a bottle of sparkling something chilling in the fridge.

On the opposite side of yum, we dove into the last of the Cambridge wine, and in this case, Eileen--my dreamgirl, my wine steward--was off the mark. Or maybe it's just me learning I don't like really dry wine, but the San Marco Frascati was not my bag. Is it just me, or does very dry wine smell just a little bit like throw-up? It improved after it warmed up a little (it was very cold when first poured)and I got whiffs of raspberry off of it, but other that that..bleh.

On a final note, I'll leave you with a link to an incredibly funny video I found on another wine blog. It's the Celebrity Guide to Wine, featuring some of your favourite 80's stars. Let Herbie Hancock teach you about Beaujolais. Watch as Kelly LeBrock properley demonstrate the correct way to open a bottle of wine. Feel kinship with Shelley Hack as she honks down appetizers and drinks wine out of the bottle. It's treasure, trust me.

http://vimeo.com/10339784

'Til next time, kittens!

Barb