Beserkers,
With my wine purchases wrapping up at the beginning of 2012 for a minimum of a half year, it was my mission this Xmas season to complete my collection of sweet wines from most of the major wine regions of the world. Barring a couple of Tawny ports and a couple of bottles of Quady Essencia when I get back to TO, my mission is now complete. Beginning Jan 2012, all wine purchases stop as I pay down debt and save for a potential vacation to wine country in Italy.
Also, I have to prove to my family that I don’t have "alcoholic tendencies."So with this in mind came the urgency to complete my collection as it were.
This trip was a bit unusual in that before returning, I discovered something by chance on the last trip in early December: unlike the LCBO, the SAQ regularly brings in new vintages of their standard Cellier upscale selections. Once a wine is brought in, it’s ALWAYS brought in on a consistent basis. As a result, I brought single bottles of a number of wines back with me to Montreal for “upgrades” to newer vintages so I could have mini-verticals of previous purchases.
Since I purchased gift cards as my major gift purchases in TO this year to bring with me, there was no time wasted on frivolous purchases. My time in Montreal was spent with family, cooking for them, eating with them, and shopping for wine and groceries with them. Here’s the recap of the journey:
DAY 1: After getting into Montreal the night before, I spent Thursday working remotely and then went out shopping with my brother and his wife. We went to the Atwater market and purchased some lobster and scampi for dinner. I love this market. Very charming and some very unique food stores, such as the one devoted to pates and terrines. Conveniently, the Atwater SAQ Selection store is right across from the market.
One of my particular mission points was to finally acquire French sweet wines from the Languedoc-Rousillon, Southwest, and more from the Loire, which were missing out of my collection. I started off small at Atwater with the Vignerons Catalans 05 Grand Cru Banyuls. My research shows Rivesaltes, Banyuls and Maury from the Langeuedoc-Rousillon are actually quite similar to the Port wines of Portugal but quite a bit less alcoholic. This was a small but very good start.
From here, I made my way by subway to the Beaubien Selection store and did my trade-ins. I upgraded a bottle of 07 Planeta Moscato for an 09 and an 06 Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos for an 07. I also did the majority of my acquisitions: Ca’Rugate 08 La Perlara passito, Pierre-Bise Anclaie 09 Coteaux du Layon, Benanti 08 Il Musico passito, Mas Amiel 08 Vintage Maury, Bott-Geyl Sonnenglanz 07 Pinot Gris, and 09 Pacherenc du Vic-Bilhs from Chateau Laffitte Teston and Chateau Aydie respectively.
DAY 2: Friday was spent at one of my sisters with her family shopping for groceries for the big family Xmas dinner and babysitting her kids after while she and her husband went out to his office’s Xmas party. I made two slow roasted turkeys stuffed with a corn flake and chicken liver stuffing and gravy. The 20 lb monster had to be done overnight for 11 hours at 225 degrees in a convection oven. The smaller 10 lb one took 6 hours at 250 degrees the next day. Both came out perfect. No wine shopping, lots of groceries and cooking.
DAY 3: Xmas Eve and naturally last minute grocery and gift shopping on my sister’s behalf. I accompanied her as grocery-hauling manpower on the condition of a drive to the Pierrefonds Selection store. Here I acquired the Vignerons Catalans 74 Horsage Rivesaltes (the French equivalent to a 20 year old Tawny port), 07 Maculan Torcolato, and the Frescobaldi 05 Castello Di Pomino and Tenute Marchesi Antinori 06 Vin Santos. The smaller turkey was ready when we got home.
Added to my turkeys were family contributions of a buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil salad topped with balsamic, scalloped potatoes, steamed broccoli, and sticky rice. Dessert was a chocolate frosted chocolate birthday cake for one my nieces.
At the dinner, I got my own surprise when my sister gave me an unexpected gift of a bottle of Clos St Denis Pomme de Glace 06 Ice Cider. after looking them up on the web, I discovered that they also make a high-end ice cider called Fine pomme de Glace that is aged a year in American oak. They are one of only two other Quebec cider makers to do any oak aging of their ice cider (La Face Cachee de la Pomme being the other, and I got a bottle of that last trip) so I resolved to get one.
DAY 4: My sister and I braved Boxing Day sales at the West Island’s biggest shopping mall, Fairview Pointe-Claire. After half an hour of fruitlessly searching their large parking lot for a spot, we got the smart idea to go park at the mini-mall across the street. Sure it’s busy but nowhere near as busy as the mall. We got a spot and walked across the street to the mall and got some cute little snowsuits for my nieces and then went grocery shopping for dinner, which consisted of garlic butter poached shrimp and oven-fried breaded chicken drumsticks and salad. Then we stopped by the Pierrefonds SAQ again and got the bottle of Fine Pomme de Glace which is actually hand-numbered on the back label. Nice.
DAY 5: My sister’s husband and I took my nephews to Fairview on the less-busy but still busy day after Boxing Day. There is actually a Selection SAQ in the mall itself, but I checked it out on Boxing Day and there was nothing I was interested in. I was actually going to just skip it over this day but my nephew reminded me to take a quick look. Much to my surprise, it was here that I finally acquired a holy grail of wine I’ve been hunting a long time for: a Kracher 2001 No. 3 TBA Chardonnay. I first laid eyes on this wine back in the summer in plentiful supply at the Pierrefonds SAQ and resolved to get it on my return to Montreal afterwards. Big mistake.
Despite 20 bottles being listed on their website at six different locations, this wine was in fact completely sold out at 2 of them I checked when I was last in two weeks ago and 3 more I checked this holiday season. Annoyingly, the SAQ website still lists them as being for sale at these locations. I had actually given up hope of ever finding and acquiring it and moved on from it, and was quite surprised to find it here.
Unfortunately for Mike Grammer, there was exactly just oNE bottle for sale and since I didn’t see it the day before when I went Boxing Day shopping the day before, I’m 100% certain I lucked into a return here. Sorry, Mike, no extra bottle to give you so you’ll just have to settle for sharing this with me when we get the chance to.
So lots of nice stuff acquired here. I’m particularly happy with the Kracher, Loire, and Langeudoc-Roussillon purchases. Remarkably, though it seems like an extravagant purchase, the truth is that with one exception there’s not a single bottle listed in this post costing over $40, and many of them only cost $20-30 or less. Careful selection and purchasing has allowed me to make the most of my wine dollar as I wrap up my purchases for the foreseeable future. I look forward to posting notes on these in 2012 and onward. Cheers!