A Bottle Journey Through the Boot...Tasting Italian Reds

January has been a whirlwind month for me. My baby girl arrived on December 29th at 5:45am!

Since then my life has been primarily focused on getting Cassie used to the world, navigating life with 2 kids, keeping the house in order, all on very little sleep. 

But thanks to the miracle of breast pumps, I've been able to start tasting wine again! My parents flew out to lend a helping hand mid-month, and my dad and I spent some time sampling Italian reds. It was a little tough for me at first-after all, I'd been out of practice for 9 months. What are all the secondary and tertiary flavours again? And descriptors for acidity, tannins and body? Thankfully, it all came back to me when I took my first post-partum sip of wine!

We started at "the heel of the boot" in Puglia, with Il Falcone's 2009 Castel del Monte DOC Riserva.

Focused tannins and angular acidity wrap around hints of plum, sour cherries and forest floor. Medium-bodied with a long, slightly jammy finish. Excellent for weeknight sipping or with mushroom pizza and pork loin.

Next, we travelled up to the Northeastern tip of Italy to taste Tedeschi's 2010 Corasco.

This beauty arouses pleasure with aromas of blueberry, cassis and mocha. Racy acidity and chocolate tannins add to the smooth body and sultry mouthfeel. A long, spicy finish will leave you wanting more! Easily one of the best wines I have ever had from the Venezie/Valpolicella region.

We finished with Paolo Conterno's 2011 Barbera d'Alba Bricco.

Notes of raspberries, red cherries and coffee grounds. Fine tannins and lively acidity create a concentrated, well-balanced body. This wine can handle spicy foods like salami and charcuterie, but is also excellent on it's own.

Finally, I started my Year of Champagne on December 31. I plan to drink various bottles of bubbly throughout the year with tasting notes showing up throughout the blog. First up was GH Mumm Cordon Rouge Brut NV Champagne.

Aromas of green apple, lemon and a hint of freshly baked buns. The mousse is creamy and slightly delicate, with invigorating acidity that arouses the tastebuds. Hints of underripe white peach and stony minerality round out the palate.

I plan to focus February on white wines from France and BC along with my Mother in Law's visit, along with another bottle of Champagne and maybe one or two more red wines.

Cheers!

My Favourite Wines Tasted in 2015

This year is now coming to a close and although 2015 was relatively quiet in my world of wine, it brought much joy and surprise in other facets of life for me. On April 30, I discovered I was pregnant with my second child and in August, I was delighted to learn my baby is a girl! She will make her big arrival on December 30. She had me craving beer most of the pregnancy, future beer lover?

January 1-April 30 still had me busily exploring the world of wine. Some highlights included starting up a tasting group with fellow wine lovers in the late winter/early spring, visiting Jamaica's Appleton Estate Rum Distillery in February and attending a few local tasting events that focused on great value wines. I also made it back to the Okanagan in August and did some wine touring - thank goodness for spit buckets! 

Even with only 4 months of official tasting, I was able to put together a list of wines and pairings that stood out to me during the year. Here are my top wine picks of 2015!

Top Red Wines

Because my drinkable months occurred during the winter, my top picks favour red wines this year.  In fact, there were very few red wines I didn't enjoy in the first 3 months of 2015! The top two wines are priced in the premium category, while the other 3 are priced between $20 and $35 CDN.

1. Burrowing Owl Meritage 2011 - Oliver, British Columbia, Canada 

2. Joseph Phelps Insignia 1996 - Napa, California

3. Dominio de Tares Baltos Mencia 2011 - Bierzo, Spain

4. Silkscarf Malbec Cabernet 2009 - Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

5. Tiefenbrunner Pinot Noir Turmhof 2012 - Alto Adige, Italy

Top White Wines

Spain took the top 1 and 3 spots and French whites, including a Premier Cru, took 2nd and 4th place. All wines are priced under $40 CDN with the exception of the Burgundy, which is premium priced.

1. Bodegas Muga Blanco 2011 - Rioja, Spain

2. Domaine Bouchard Pere et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres 2000 - Burgundy, France  

3. Bodegas Exopto Horizonte de Exopto 2012 - Rioja, Spain

4. Domaine Fouassier Les Romains 2012 - Sancerre, Loire Valley, France 

Because of my shortened "tasting season" this year, I wasn't able to spend as much time with sweet wines, sparkling wines or rose wines and will therefore not be adding these categories to my list this year. However, I did get to experiment with wine and food a fair bit, and here are my top picks for pairings.

Top Wine and Food Pairings

1. Pfaffenheim Gewurztraminer 2013 with Seafood Salad "Louis Style", served in Lettuce Boats

2. Domino Pinot Grigio 2012 with Honey-Lime Marinated Shrimp (v)

3. Tommasi Poggio al Tufo Rompicollo 2011 with Slow-Cooked BBQ Ribs (v)

Honourable Mention; Cameron Hughes Della Robbia semi-sweet Italian Rosso with Wagon Wheels (v)

*Don't knock this pairing until you try it! This pairing is great for camping!

Three of my top wines in the food pairing category happen to be value wines at under $20 per bottle, so my Top Values list is shortened to include the wines mentioned above. Australian Shirazes dominate the list, with a semi-sweet Tokaji clinching 3rd spot and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc rounding out the category. 

Top Values

1. Wynn's Coonawarra Estate Cab Shiraz Merlot 2010 - Coonawarra, Australia

2. M Chapoutier Domaine Tournon "Mathilda" Shiraz 2010 - Victoria, Australia

3. Crown Estates Tokaji Sargamuskotaly semi-sweet 2011 - Hungary

4. Seven Terraces Sauvignon Blanc 2013 - Marlborough, New Zealand

This year I'm going to introduce 2 new categories: Top Spirits and Top Beers. You might be surprised at the number of Canadian spirits & beers on each list, but in my opinion Canada is really starting to make their mark on the world of spirits, especially in the world of Whisky. The top beers are courtesy of my husband, who tasted approximately 100 beers in 2015!

Top Spirits

1. Appleton Estate Rare Blend 12 Year Old Rum - St Elizabeth Parrish, Jamaica

2. Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye - Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

3. Eau Claire Distillery Three Point Vodka - Turner Valley, Alberta, Calgary

Top Beers

1. Phillips Longboat Chocolate Porter - Victoria, BC, Canada

2. Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock - Germany

3. Delerium Tremens - Belgium 

4. Granville Island Lions Winter Ale - Vancouver, BC, Canada

5. Erdinger Dunkel - Germany

So what's next for 2016? 

I plan to return to wine school through Fine Vintage Ltd and take their Canadian Wine Scholar Certification course in late 2016/early 2017. Therefore, my main focus will be on Canadian wines. Our major trip this year will be back to the Okanagan, where I will sample my way through the region and soak up as much knowledge as I can to study and prepare for the course. I am also hoping to spend some time in the Niagara region, should we make it back to my parents' place in Ontario.

Other regions I plan to focus on include Champagne, California, Italian food and wine pairings and Rioja, Spain. 

Huge thanks to all those who still follow me despite my long absence from the blog and twitter! May you have a 2016 filled with good food, good friends and great wine. Cheers!

Farm to Glass: Alberta's First Craft Distillery

The eat/drink local trend is a popular idea in modern society today. Supporting local agriculture and husbandry allows us to consume the freshest possible products, while making a positive impact on our economy. Here in Alberta we can eat locally sourced beef and corn, and drink locally with mead wine and craft breweries. Now we can add spirits to the locally-sourced mix; Eau Claire Distillery, located in Turner Valley, is utilizing a "Farm to Glass" approach in the distillation of their spirits.

This approach starts in the barley fields surrounding Turner Valley. Known as "the best barley in the world", some is exported out to the United Kingdom, where it is used to make some of the finest whisky in the world. Eau Claire uses barley and rye to make their spirits. The grains are harvested the old-fashioned way, with horse and plow. When they arrive at the distillery, the grains are put into the grinder and the husks are broken apart, to remove the bitter flavour from the husk. Then the broken grains are moved to the mash ton, boiling water is added, and flavours are extracted from the grain for 4 hours. The spent grain is removed and shipped to a local dairy farmer to be used as cow feed.

The next step is the fermentation tanks, where a specific yeast is added to develop desired flavour compounds. The fermentation process takes 48 hours, and will generate an alcoholic content of 6-8%. From there, it's off to the copper pot still with 2 different types of "towers": the stripping column, where the alcohol is taken up to 85% abv, used for whisky. The vodka and gin moves on to the second column, and distilled up to 95% abv. Once this occurs, "backwater" from the Sheep's River, fed by the Rocky Mountains, is added to proof the spirit.

There are 3 parts to the spirit when it comes off the still: the first part is the heads, the middle part is called the hearts, and the last part is called the tails. Eau Claire Distillery uses the hearts for their final products, to ensure the best quality. They distill the tails once more and put them into barrels for later usage in the blending process.

Despite the vast humidity and climate differences between Alberta and Scotland, Eau Claire has found a way to mature their whisky on-site. The floor of their aging room is composed of consistent clay, gravel and sand, which is irrigated every day, creating humidity and therefore replicating an aging warehouse in Scotland. The humidity comes from the floor, creating floral notes in the barrels on the bottom, and more earthy notes in the barrels on top. The whisky will age for 3 years before it is released to the public.

Eau Claire Distillery currently offers 3 spirits on their tasting bar: Vodka, Parlour Gin, and the Equinox. The Three Point Vodka is very smooth and creamy, with notes of banana and vanilla. Easy to sip on it's own or mix with soda water. The Parlour Gin is full of botanical aromas, followed by an herbal and spicy kick that doesn't overpower in the mouth. Their seasonal offering, Equinox, was my personal favourite. Springtime flavours of peach and nectarine with Eau Claire's trademark smooth finish make this spirit fantastic for your own customized mojito on the patio! 

Eau Claire Distillery's farm-to-glass approach with Alberta-born spirits takes the "Drink Local" trend to the next level. One sip reinforced for me the pride I have living on such great Alberta soil. The next time you're headed south of Calgary, stop by the distillery for a tour, a tasting and maybe a bottle or two. Click here for more information, or head down to Turner Valley for a tour, tasting and to purchase a bottle or two. As they say at the distillery: "May the Spirits be with You!"

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