TN: TWEC (TM) Hosts "The Count" at Montecito

Berserkers,

The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal TM) hosted Mikhail “The Count” Lipyanskiy, his lovely wife Svetlana and their charming young son, Zack at one of our favorite hangouts: Montecito restaurant in downtown Toronto. Mike Grammer, Michael Wright, myself and Heather MacDougall (who also manages Montecito and did double duty with us) enjoyed some amazing California cuisine and a slew of great wines. The Count is a man after my own heart as the evening turned on quite a number of sweet wines. There were some repeats from the night before and I will only post a brief update on those:

Weignut Rappenhof 1986 Dr. Reinhard Muth Guntersblumer Bompfad Riesling Kabinett – Held up well from last night, my notes are the same. Importantly, no degradation in quality.

Mullen 2007 Krover Paradies Riesling Spatlese – When Michael “I Hate German Riesling” Grammer declares this a WOTN, you know it’s something special. Mikhail brought this amazing Spatlese that is sweet but has electric citrus flavors. Fruit-driven sweetness that tastes like it actually comes from the fruit. If you’ve tasted fructose you know how different it is from glucose. Strong flintiness to the body. Easily the equal of a Donhoff or a Prum for a third of the price. Too bad it’s not available here in Toronto.

J. Rochioli 2003 RRV River Block Pinot Noir – I initially thought this wine was off but Heather assured me it was just served too cold and to let it warm up. Sure enough, ripe black cherries and cranberries, black tea, and cedar pine aromas and flavors come out. A touch of sweetness. Smooth texture with nary a tannin to be felt on the tongue. I was even more impressed when I took a second look at the bottle and realized that it was an 03, not a 13 as I first thought. Impressive wine.

Domaine Faiveley 2001 Corton Clos des Cortons Grand Cru – Another great Pinot, this one is of course more “rustic” i.e. tannins are detectable giving it an earthy flavor. More cranberry and sour cherry flavors and a much lighter body than the Rochioli. Also quite a bit dryer due to higher acidity. This is Burgundy after all. I preferred the Rochioli personally but recognize this wine’s greatness. Like the Roche de Bellene Gevrey-Chambertin, this has the Burgundy good for Burghounds but the stuffings to make it appeal to bigger wine lovers such as myself.

Chateau Climens 2005 Barsac – Much better than yesterday as the bitter edge has gone away and the texture feels a lot smoother and more vanilla has come out to complement the dried fruit. A great sweet wine.

Fernando de Castillo Antique Pedro Ximenez – I really wanted to see Heather’s reaction to this wine. She nailed it by describing this as Indonesian soy sauce (it is sweeter and thicker than Chinese soy sauce) and I noted out loud that the major characteristic was umami. All the dried fruit, coffee, tobacco, caramel and chocolate notes and aromas are as strong as ever.

Kracher 1998 #3 Scheurebe TBA – Dark brown sugar in color. Tropical fruit salad, honey sweetness, caramel and a touch of what I can only describe as beeswax honeycomb. Very complex wine. Mikhail told us a story of how he brought a bottle of this to a get-together where an 89 Yquem was opened and nobody touched the Yquem because of this wine. Krachers are to sweet wines as Cristal is to Champagne – everything else is a pretender.

Vilmart NV Ratafia de Champagne – Well I had to bring something to the party. This fortified wine is made from 100% Pinot Noir Champagne must and Marc de Champagne. Light bright straw gold in the glass. Lots of yeast and caramel on the nose. Actually, it smells just like, well, champagne. On the palate, surprisingly light bodied despite the 18% ABV. Beautiful red apple and unripe pineapple fruit flavors, high bright acidity, and a very intriguing note of buttered popcorn on the finish. This is a very unusual sweet wine that should be tasted at least once by both Champagne and sweet wine lovers.

Bonus food porn pics:
Chilled cucumber soup with creme fraiche and caviar

Beef skirt steak on Blackbird sourdough

Dorset lamb saddle with chanterelles and chard

And for dessert, Montecito’s lucious take on an ice cream sandwich

Thanks for the notes - I was having way to much fun chatting with you guys to take any down. The Burgundy was very very good. Earthy, still rather young but already showing some lovely florals on top of the tart cherry. Loved it. I did bring the Mullen… and so I am biased. But it was stellar. The px and kracher need no words. I must say you managed to surprise a sweet wine geek. I have never even seen the ratafia much less tasted it. It was unique!! Oak and white flowers on the nose makes me think of Burgundy or champagne…and the mid is Muscat de beaumes ? Quite complex and lighter than one would guess


Thanks again to the Toronto crowd and Mike especially for making our first visit to the city so amazing.

Thanks guys—divide and conquer on the notes!

2007 Mullen Krover Paradis Riesling Spatlese

In a way, I suppose this was my graduation ceremony from the University of I Can’t Hate German Riesling Anymore. I have been slowly coming around, but to run this through my tastebuds and olfactory senses over the course of a night was to understand. Initially already balanced and freshly sweet, like liquid fruit salad, it gains energy and real structure and linearity as the night goes on, becoming deeper and more authoritative as the hours passed. By the end of the night, this was a remarkable, memorable wine that has so many years of life left. WOTN indeed, even above the Kracher!

2003 Rochioli Riverblock Pinot Noir

This is on the slightly rich and charged side that Rochioli can get to. A wonderful sidebar sniff of walnut and chestnut, though, lends a lot of interest to the bouquet. It fills the mouth nicely with plenty of red fruit, but I did feel that this was a tad simpler than I’d expect from a block-level pinot from them.

2001 Faiveley Corton Clos des Cortons

Huge thanks to Michael for splurging on this (at my evil urging), which I have Jonesed for since seeing it on Heather’s list. I did not Jones in vain. Very classic 01, and it gets more so with air time in the glass—mineral and earth and floral overtones to tart raspberry and cherry fruit, Count has described it perfectly. It has elegant weight and also has a tremendous lifespan ahead of it.

1998 Kracher #3 Scheurebe ZDS

Who was an evil mastermind? Who? Alois Kracher, of course. Each one of these reminds us of the loss of the great winemaker. Redolent nose and palate of apricot, nougat and ripe nectarine. It is heavy and light at the same time. I will say that, for me, the two good bottles of 89 D’Yquem I’ve had in the last 13 months were better than this, but not by very much. It’s an excellent sweetie.

Vilmart NV Ratafia de Champagne

We finished with this and it is one of the most unusual alcoholic beverages I’ve put in my mouth. Extremely difficult to relate it to anything, it has sweet lemon and also quite ripe fruit going on, and there was a middle definite note of popcorn. We all gave some thought to Muscat de Frontignan as a comparator, and I gave some thought to Tokaji and Jurancon stuff too (a Moulin de Touchais, maybe?). Regardless, it was great fun to try, thanks Tran.

A great way to (almost) end a great visit—Count and I stayed up late into the night talking politics, philosophy, social and culture—the best kind of visit.

See you in a couple months, hermano!

Mike