Empty Glasses

Remember when your mom told you: “Don’t play with your food“? However, when it comes to wine, playing with it is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind. But it’s exactly what we were asked to do during a workshop I had the pleasure to attend this week.

The Who wants to play sommelier? seires aims to introduce the guests to the work fo the sommelier: understanding the wines, how they are made and how they pair with food to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The first workshop focused on the art of blending, through a highly interactive tasting and experimentation session.

The workshop started with a chance for the attendees to taste two rather classic blends: Bordeaux blends and Rhone blends from all over the world, which were used to split the crowd in two smaller groups based on their preference. I will remember the Cabernet Sauvignon – Merlot blend from Mission Hill, which was a nice surprise for many as Canadian wines often start with a bad reputation. I will also remember The Stump Jump, an Australian Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre blend, which I am grateful to have tasted there, instead of having bought a bottle…

I decided to side at the Bordeaux table, at which we were presented with three glasses of red wines, which were 100% Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Taken individually, they showed a nice representation The goal was to create a nice blend of these three wines, trying to play on the strenghts of each varietal to cover to weaknesses of others. While I usually like the Chinon Expression from Alain Lorieux, it seemed overly green and metallic compared to the others.

We were then asked to mix these wines to create our own blend, which was done in a playful mood by all, with varying degrees success. My initial blend of approximately a third of each wine was a total disaster. Matthieu Dugal‘s blend of two thirds of Cabernet Sauvignon and a third of Cabernet Franc was a pretty good hit. Vanessa Bell‘s instinctive mix of “a shitload of Merlot, a base of Cab Franc and a kickass of Cabernet Sauvignon” was also quite spot-on and generous. I finally managed to get a good result with equal parts of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. This exercise teached us that successful blending is an art which requires a good dose of thought and a lot of failed attempts…

The last part of the night was a small two-course meal, both paired with the Cep d’Antan 2008, a blend of Carmenere, Petit Verdot and Malbec from Château de Bouillerot. On it’s own, the wine was pretty good, and kept improving throughout the night. It had the power from the petit verdot and the malbec and a subtle exotic touch from the carmenere. The wine was outshone by a beet soup to die for and a main course of juicy duck magret.

All in all, we had a great time: we played with our food and wine in such a way that we don’t do normally, drank good wine and had some interesting discussions (some of them about wine). I’d take that kind of night 7 days a week and definitely look forward to the next workshop in March 2011.

In great vintages, go with smaller producers. In small vintages, go with the great producers.

With vintage of century after vintage of the century in Bordeaux, the great names are getting out of range of pretty much everyone. In order to pay 2100$ for one bottle of Ausone 2009, one needs to love wine and have very deep pockets. For us mortals, our focus will go to these smaller producers

]Back in september 2008, the SAQ put for sale an arrival of Bordeaux 2005, hailed as one of the best vintages in the region since forever (you know how it goes…). In a tasting which was organized to preview these wines, we have had the chance to sample the offerings from Château Clarke, Pape Clément and la Fleur de Boüard. While these wines were really good, they were also way over our budget, especially in this vintage.

We did focus to “lesser” wines which were presented in this tasting. Among the favourites were Château Beaumont and Haut-Canteloup, Cuvée Prestige.

Opened shortly after the tasting, I remember the Château Beaumont to be young, full of fruit with the tannins and acidity to allow it to last for a number of years. My other bottle is patiently waiting, with no haste to open it.

At that time, we also opened the Haut-Canteloup. I remember it as highly tannic, a bit harsh, actually, even after more than an hour in decanter. The other one was also laid to rest for a while, until the occasion would come. It was opened last week, along with friends coming over from Montréal. The harsh tannins were smoothed by that year, the apparent wood (iish) was well integrated and the dark fruit mass was brought to the forefront. The bottle drank itself over the course of the night, which is always a good sign!

With vintage 2009 coming up, along with the increased demand from the asian markets, more and more Bordeaux-lovers will need to learn to discover these smaller estates because in these great years, they have lots of quality to offer.