TNs: TWEC (TM) Visits the Vintage Conservatory

[Tran_Bronstein]

Berserkers,

The Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™ paid a visit to the new downtown Toronto location of the Vintage Conservatory. Fellow TWEC ™ and board member Jay Shampur stores his wine there and with membershop comes privileges. Namely a spacious and beautiful new facility and a restaurant quality food service. And the ability to host TWEC ™ members yours truly, Mike Grammer, Michael Wright and special American guest and board member Nick Christie who is visiting the city for a week with is family (Sorry about the snowstorm, man!) But you’re here to read about the wine so let’s get to that.

DUVAL-LEROY 2008 BLANC DE BLANCS PREMIER CRU CHAMPAGNE BRUT – My contrib. This was a great Champagne, with noticeably rich fruit flavor that came off more like ripe white peach than the green apple you normally get from dry white Champagne. Noticeable perception of sweetness even though it’s a mere 5 g/L of RS which is noticeably lower than most Brut level Champagnes. Everyone enjoyed this. Should’ve gotten more than one bottle and will try to hunt some others down.

LOUIS ROEDERER 2017 BRUT ROSE CHAMPAGNE – Nick’s contribution. Crisp and very, VERY tart on the palate with lots of cranberry and phenolics. Not much development here, though, it’s still quite young and everyone agrees it needs more time in the bottle.

LOUIS MICHEL ET FILS 2011 CHABLIS GRAND CRU GRENOUILLES – This aged Chablis Grand Cru was a very generous gift from board member and friend Chris Kostyk out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Congrats on the Eagles winning Super Bowl LIX) and brought back by Mike Grammer up North. Here we have a saline flavor as is expected but rather than the fresh steely structure of a young Chablis, we had a very rich and creamy structure with ripe apple fruit flavor and gentle phenolics. Age has been very good to this and it’s great to experience what an aged Chablis can be like. I see why Burghounds risk the dreaded premox to age their white Burgundies now. Thanks, Chris.

DOMAINE ROULOT 2022 BOURGOGNE BLANC – When is a supermarket wine the equivalent of a Grand Cru Burgundy wine? When it’s this one from Domaine Roulot. A very hyped and equivalently priced domaine producer whose Meursaults go for hundreds of US dollars, this is their non-classified white Burgundy. Mike Grammer found this in New York. It’s pale straw gold, has a light flint on the nose, and has a very clean and crisp Cristal like texture to it. Crisp apple flavor. Goes down incredibly smooth. Damn, I want to know what their Meursaults are like now. Very good.

PAINTED ROCK 2019 SYRAH – 100% from the Okanagan Valley desert out west in British Columbia, Canada. Loads of black pepper spice seasons very rich red fruit and gives it hints of vanilla and black licorice. Light bodied despite the 15% ABV and high acidity. I loved this. Went great with the steak and lamb.

As already noted, the Vintage Conservatory has a great restaurant quality kitchen. We ordered a number of dishes to go with our wines.

Mike G. had the Hamachi Crudo. Raw hamachi was dressed with buttermilk dressing, trout roe, herb oil, chili curls and yuzu miso.

Michael Wright enjoyed the Truffle Mushroom Pappardelle. Pasta was tossed in a white win and truffle cream sauce and oyster mushrooms.

Nick and I had the Burrata Salad. A housemade Burrata was surrounded by yellow heirloom tomato wedges and dressed with fresh basil, lemon vinaigrette and aged balsamic and served with grilled garlic bread.

Jay skipped his appetizer and went right for the Cod Sliders. Beer battered cod was topped with fennel apple slaw and tartar sauce, all sandwiched on white buns.

Nick had the Pork Rib Chop Steak (not pictured). An Iberico pork chop was served with sauteed swiss chard, cranberry compote, squash puree, and pork jus. Mike. G had the Lamb Lollipops. A New Zealand rack of lamb, onion cherry compote, crispy shallots, pomegranate seeds and molasses.

Lastly, Michael Wright and I both had the Angus Striploin. A 12oz Angus striploin steak was served with grilled asparagus and herb butter.

Jay and I each ordered Shoestring Fries dressed with Herbs de Provence on the side.

Our thanks to the staff of the Vintage Conservatory for putting up with us on a snowstormy night. Looking forward to our return.

[Nick_Christie]

I enjoyed my time with the Cabal. Alexander’s first blizzard this weekend . He was bemused.

Jay’s dining club has an excellent snowy view of a city park, which made it very picturesque to catch up with old friends. My first time in Toronto since my son was born, i.e. in over 3 years.

Wine-wise, I think the 08 Duval-Leroy & the '22 Roulot Bourgogne were wines of the evening. Very impressive showing from the Bourgogne.

The British Columbia Syrah had gorgeous, Northern Rhone Aromatics: Bacon, warm dust, lovely rich fruits. Wonderful to smell in the glass. It achieves these via the 15% abv, which is hard for some of us, but this would have been an effective blind in a California Syrah lineup .

The Canadian LCBO gave the 17 Roederer Rose 97 points . So not much higher it can go… (Chuckles). This was mono-dimensional, but I liked its burst on the finish. Seems fairly well made. Not a wine I buy for my cellar, but I’ll endeavor to read some notes on it 5 years from now.

[Mike_Grammer]

Thanks guys, it was another great evening with my close friend Nick and our TWEC members.

My own brief thoughts:

2008 Duval-Leroy BdB This was great stuff. It’s one of the approachable 08s for me, and it definitely asks to be approached. Tart apple and some hint of steel in the background, everything seems to work very well.

2017 Louis Roederer Rose I echo Nick’s thoughts—I think it’s extremely young right now and I don’t actually expect it to broaden out a ton, but there is more in this wine to give and I, too, wouldn’t mind trying another one 5 years on.

2011 Louis Michel Chablis Grenouilles was a generous gift from our friend, Chris Koyste in Philly–thank you, Chris! A particularly pretty wine, it is just on the tipping edge—at least this bottle was—and although I liked how lilting it was in my mouth, I might have had a hard time pegging it as Chablis.

2022 Roulot Bourgogne Blanc Nothing I really need to say. Total exemplar of the house style, crisp, leanly polished and clean as a whistle, yet with plenty of layers in terms of textural give. Lemon and apple mix in for the flavours with a dot or two of minerality. Just sublime already. So glad I was able to source this and share with the team.

2019 Painted Rock Syrah From the Skana Bench—not as well known as some of the other subcommunes in the Okanagan. I’ve had something from here, but it has to be at least a decade ago. I was very pleasantly surprised by this. I think it was 15% but carried its alcohol finely indeed. I got meats as well, and can see Nick’s bacon note. I did also pick up a whiff of licorice that Tran notes. Those are all accents for rich cherry and plum fruit presentation, while not being torpid or heavy at all. Very nice.

Haere Ra

Mike