From the Cellar

A Dinner with Sue (California / Chile / Spain)

28 Sep 2016

 

(January 30, 2016) ... Our friend Sue appears in many of these posts, for two reasons: she loves wine and she adds the white element to many of these stories (meaning the Chardonnay), because she loves the juice from that grape and she's turned my wife onto those wines as well. Tonight we had dinner at her place and as is my way I brought some wine, three bottles to be exact:

Havens 2014 Chardonnay ... I was actually thrilled by this bottle, and I don't say that much about Chardonnay. It was inexpensive (for Ontario prices) and it was a pure hedonistic delight in California Chardonnay without being over the top - I was so thrilled I did a video review of the wine (coming soon) - so why is it so delicious: the wine was creamy and buttery,  with vanilla, caramel apple, gentle acidity, and a long lingering finish. I am told Sue went out the next day and ordered up 6 bottles.

Montes 2012 Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon ... This was the first red poured this evening and it delivered, as I knew it would. This was a wine I had been waiting to hit the Ontario market in quantity, because I had had a sneak peak of it about 6 months earlier, and was enthralled with the richness of flavour. This is the first year Montes started dry farming their vineyards for this line of wines. Key elements to this wine were the minty-smoky-black fruit and pure intensity of flavour. This wine has always been good value, but now even better.

Chapillon 2011 Siendra ... This Spanish red closed off the evening and was just a gorgeous smoky number with vanilla-black fruit, smooth and very easy drinking. I am so often shocked at what the Spanish put into a bottle for so little dough. They continue to be a favourite go-to country of mine for wine.

 

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