Berserkers,
The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™ gathered together at a downtown hotel restaurant for an evening of mushroom-themed cuisine and fine wine. All contributions were generously donated by board member Jay Shampur. Food porn to be added later tonight. We polished off the following four wines:
Domaine Tempier 2013 Bandol Rosé – A blend of Mourvedre, Grenach, Cinsault and Carnigan, this very finely structured Rosé trades off the strong fruit flavors I associate with Rosé in favor of a more complex and robust structure. Lovely pale salmon pink in the glass, on the nose it smells like watermelon and black pepper. In the mouth, I was a bit shocked to find a rather subtle fruit flavor instead of the bold strawberry kool-aid flavor I was expecting that I literally couldn’t place until I went shopping this weekend – blood orange.
What it lacks in fruit, this Bandol makes up for with a superb full body, minerality, and acidity. It is exceptionally well-balanced for an unmanly Rosé wine and in fact feels like an Alsace wine in the mouth.
This wine also went superbly with the food because of that balance. In fact, with the exception of one dish – the mushroom kreplash in brodo di funghi – it matched very well with every dish. Definitely a food Rosé, I could not see myself drinking this on its own but AFWE fanatics should like this. I personally found the Pearl Morrisette Cab Franc and Megalomaniac Pinot Noir Rosés much more flavorful.
Tawse 2008 Pinot Noir – A decently aged organic and biodynamic Pinot Noir from Ontario groundbreaker Maury Tawse, this wine represents the best of everything about Ontario Pinot Noir. Whether that’s the best of everything about Pinot Noir itself is another matter which I’ll get into below.
Rich ruby purple in the glass with crimson highlights. Easily and by far the absolute best nose of the night, exploding full of black pepper spice, rosemary, and deep ripe cherry fruit. You could use the bottle as an air freshener if you wanted to.
In the mouth, medium-bodied strong fruit flavors of ripe black cherries, spices and a very slight touch of rosemary and mint herbs on the finish that I usually only associate with Sauvignon Blanc which made this very interesting. Also a touch of vanilla in there and surprisingly strong tannins on the finish, indicating this could certainly age longer – perhaps even as long as a classic Burgundy which Jay and Michael both pointed out to me.
Now here’s the catch – AFWE’s will be glad to read this wine doesn’t have the overreaching overoaked fruit bomb cherry cola flavors dislike in California Pinot Noir.
Before you celebrate, however, you should know it also doesn’t have the delicacy and subtleness of a fine Burgundy Pinot Noir, either.
In fact, I would literally classify this wine as absolutely dead center right in the middle of both of those styles of wine. On the one hand, this indicates superb balance. On the other, it also means it’s not anything either lovers of those styles will go crazy over. It’s not strong enough for the WWF lovers but also not delicate enough for AFWE lovers, either.
This all said, it’s miles above the regular Pinot Noir served up by Ontario and should be commended for that alone. It’s only compared to the elite that I question if it can stand up and the fact that I am even comparing it to the elite demonstrates how highly I think of it. Only time will tell where it ends up in the pantheon of greats. RECOMMENDED with caveats above.
Le Cadeal 2010 Diversité Willamette Valley Pinot Noir – Holy crap. Burgundy watch out. I really didn’t like the last Oregonian Pinot Noir I tasted a few years back at a Mike Grammer led Pinot offline but a different wine and an evolving palate have made for quite an eye-opener here.
Delicate subtle nose of fresh cherries and a touch of rose petals. Also rich ruby purple though a touch lighter than the Tawse. Light bodied, much softer tannins and delicate cherry fruit and rosewater flavors. Very delicate wine considering it’s so young. RECOMMENDED
1979 Chateau Gilette Creme de Tete Sauternes – Holy. Mother.Of.God. How the Sauternes lovers on this board are not going crazy over this is beyond me. The only reference I have is a properly decanted 01 Yquem and this tastes pretty damn close to that straight popped and poured out of the bottle.
Our somm/server informed us, and net research later confirms, that the Gilette family completely eschew oak aging for their Sauternes and age them in concrete for well over 20 years or longer. You’d never know this was a 39 year old Sauternes from looking at it, smelling it, or drinking it.
A brilliant golden yellow in the glass. Nose of creamed buckwheat honey (that’s a very Canadian reference unless you Yankees eat the stuff too), dried lemon peel and fresh cream.
In the mouth, full-bodied and very smooth tastes of candied lemon peel, vanilla, fresh cream and honey. Glides on a backbone of botrytis glycerin. It’s essentially a liquid lemon creme brulée. The absence of oak is quite noticeable in the taste and as a result the Gilette is much more lemon cream flavored and way softer in texture and mouthfeel than any other Sauternes I’ve ever had… including the aforementioned Yquem which was pretty darn silky itself. Extremely long finish.
The other thing to point out is that our 500 ml bottle was quite a QPR value relative to an Yquem from the same time period which is something to consider as well.
This is an absolutely brilliant wine and worth every penny of the high price. I would love to known what the experienced Sauternes drinkers think of this. I cannot believe it doesn’t get more buzz on this board. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 
