The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal™ gathered to welcome back the Honorable Bernard Schwartz back to the city of Toronto from sunny California for some more extravagant wine and food. For our first get together, a large group of us gathered at Le Notre Bistro for a great tasting course menu put together by general manager and owner Serguei and spearheaded by Chef Stephanie and Sous-chef Tim. The Canadian contingent was repped by yours truly, board members Jay Shampur and Mike Grammer, Michael Wright, Heather MacDougall, and our friend Liz; the American contingent was composed of Judge Schwartz who is a dual citizen and Tim Burnett. On to the food and wine:
RAATS 2017 ORIGINAL CHENIN BLANC – Mr. Wright bought us off the list a South African Chenin from 35 year old vines, aged on lees in steel with no oak. Extremely creamy texture, lemon drop and green flavors, and a touch of phenolic bitterness. Lean, fresh and racy. A good wine to open with.
LEEUWIN ESTATES 2013 ART SERIES CHARDONNAY – Mike G. contributed this Aussie Chardonnay which had been opened and slow-oxed a day before. Heather noted its power. Tense but gorgeous butter, green apple and lemon flavors with cream, lees and some waxy botrytis and some flint in there too noted by the others. Very high acidity, like German Riesling level acidity. I really enjoyed this. Only criticism is that the finish is quite a bit short for such a powerful wine. Great wine.
NORMAN HARDIE 2014 CUVEE DIX UNFILTERED CHARDONNAY – Heather contributed this in Magnum. Gunpowder nose, lighter bodied than the Leeuwin, marked more by lemon peel and grapefruit pith flavors with a high acidity that gives this almost Sauvignon Blanc like qualities. Not as powerful as the Leeuwin but finish lasts a lot longer. A great food wine.
This wine engendered a brief but important discussion at the table. For those unaware, Mr. Hardie --whom I have personally met a on a number of occasions and admired as one of the visionary winemakers who helped put Prince Edward County wines on the map in Canada and all around the world – was caught up in the #MeToo movement earlier this year and exposed as a longtime sexual harasser of both his own staff and others in the wine industry. It has been revealed that this was a long known open secret in the industry and young women interested in the wine industry have literally left that dream behind due to their encounters with him. Without the #MeToo movement, it is likely that this terrible situation would have continued unabated.
Do his inexcusable actions preclude us from enjoying his product if we are against this behavior and fully support those who have been victimized? Are we hypocrites or bad people if we do? Are we allowed to separate the product from the horrible man who created them? I personally have a very hard time reconciling the fond memories of the intelligent, passionate, visionary, hard-working, skilled and generous winemaker that I have met previously with the horrendous facts that have been reported. You can never really truly know anyone ever, especially having only met them a few times, but the very strong positive impressions he personally left me with are so incongruous with his reported, verified and admitted harassment that it’s mind-boggling to me that we are talking about the same person.
In the end, we all enjoyed the wine tonight while openly acknowledging and discussing the situation. We more or less came to the consensus that we couldn’t punish all the other innocent hard workers at the winery by snubbing the wine. They have dreams and ambitions that should be supported as well and they have a hard enough time making a living in this crazy industry whose end product we all love. Having met some of those hard working people at the winery itself, I can fully support that and I enjoyed the wine tonight without issue. That said, I should note that I currently have none of his wines in my personal collection and would be hesitant to acquire some more by purchase or trade at this time. I hope that may change in the future.
Many restaurants, the LCBO, and the SAQ dropped Norman Hardie’s wines as a result of the reports, but the winery itself continues to do very well and he is quite lucky that it is still doing well considering how seriously he endangered it. I sincerely hope that Mr. Hardie has learned something from all this and is being sincere in his stated attempt to reform now that his terrible secret behavior has been outed, because I really would like to continue supporting his winery if my conscience would allow me to. And if he shows that he hasn’t then I definitely won’t.
JAY’S MYSTERY RED – Jay brought a Magnum of a mystery red for us to try. Lovely red stewed fruit flavors, it has a nose like a Cabernet to me. The others noted settled tannins, high alcohol, a mintiness normally associated with Cali Cab, and old sweet red fruit. This really came off as an aged Bordeaux to me. Turns out I was right but completely wrong. Revealed as the CHATEAU DES CHARMES 2005 EQUULEUS from Niagara, Ontario. This is their flagship red wine composed of 50% Cab Sauv, 25% Cab Franc, and 25% Merlot all from the Paul Bosc vineyards in Niagara on the Lake. An achievement for Ontario wine.
UNDER THE WIRE 2012 BROSSEAU VINEYARD SPARKLING CHARDONNAY – This is the sparkling wine project headed by Chris Cottrell and Morgan Twain-Peterson. A total green apple smoothie with autolytic lees accents and lemon verbena flavors noted by Heather. A successful emulation of a Blanc des Blancs.
RHYS 2008 SYRAH – A mild saline nose leads to deliciously balanced sour cherry and pomengranate fruit flavors with slight black pepper and tannin accents. Someone at the table described this as pomengranate molasses without any sweetness. Very enjoyable. I did note, however, that on this night it was living in the shadow of the other reds because it wasn’t the surprise that the Equuleus was or the bombast that was the –
TOR 2009 NAPA VALLEY CABERNET SAUVIGNON – His Honor brought this very Bordeaux like wine, this had a sweet nose with high heat. Smooth texture, settled tannins and delicious red fruit. Classic Cali Cab, it was very big but also very balanced. Great with the food.
GRAHAM’S 1991 VINTAGE PORTO – My contrib, natch. Flowers, notably lavender and hibiscus, and heat on the nose. Trademark Graham’s floralness for you Port fanatics out there. Never lets you down. Sweet ripe purple plum flavors mix seamlessly with heat and black pepper spice. Tannins all settled out, not a whit of grit. Took the leftovers home to follow up and see how and if it develops. Tim ripped into me for not having decanted this properly beforehand. I defended myself by stating that very early on during the organization of the dinner I mentioned well ahead in the email thread what I was bringing and nobody said anything about it needing decanting. This, of course, caused Tim to rip into me even more by stating that he assumed my basic competence in dealing with such matters. Hmph. Typically loud brash know it all American. 
Before I could take his nose off with a pair of heated Port tongs, Serguei, Mike and Heather assured me with their collective vast wine experience that the wine would show just fine without the need of a decanting. I think I’ll go with their word instead.
