Newsletter-0008 A Chilling Response
18 Aug 2005- Details
- Category: Newsletter Archives
| OntarioWineReview Newsletter 08 June 2005 |
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- Ontario Wine Review: A Chilling Response
- Grape Guy’s Pick of the Bunch: Unity Wines
- Raise your Spirits: Advice about things we “wine” about: like stains and hangovers
- Wine Event Spotlight: Oysters Anyone?
Ontario Wine Review: A Chilling Response(Print a .pdf version of this newsletter.)
A few weeks back we ran an article about chilling both red and white wine … and in response to some of your comments and emails, I will again make my case for doing so. I’m sure we can all agree that whites are better chilled so let’s skip right over them and move right to the contentious issue at hand: chilling reds. Your comments ranged from “Sacrilegious” (Norman Smith – Ajax) to “Amen brother” (signed “your brother of a different mother” – swear to God). As I stated previously – and received plenty of flak for - I like to chill all my red wines – I did not mean kill with a chill – but chill slightly (an hour or two in the fridge before drinking) … I like doing this for many reasons but my favourite and most significant reason is to taste the difference in the wine as it warms up.
At no time am I advocating putting your bottle in the fridge for six days, or in the freezer overnight – I mean the afternoon before the evening you open it, put the bottle in the fridge for a little chilling (if you’re planning to open it at 8, put it in sometime after 6), then try this simple exercise. Open the bottle and taste as you normally would, then pour yourself a half glass, leave the bottle out of the fridge and go about your business with your glass of vino. By the time you have finished your first glass the wine has already begun to change in flavour because it has warmed up. Take note of the different mouth feel, taste and temperature; swirl the wine in the glass to aerate it and take a sniff, delve into the new aromas that were not previously there. There will be a point where the wine is too cold and another where the wine is too warm – but just as Godilocks found out, there is a time when the temperature is “just right”, and that’s when you find out what your ideal temperature for wine is. With practice and patience, you can make sure your wines are always to your liking.
Grape Guy’s Pick of the Bunch : Unity WinesJuly 1 st … as our divided countrymen got together to celebrate our national birthday – we here at OntarioWineReview got together to taste a combination of grapes from both major wine-growing regions of Canada.
Unity Wine is the brainchild of Vincor … taking two climates, two soils, two different parts of the country: BC (Okanagan Valley) and Ontario (Niagara Peninsula) – the same grape(s) and blending them together into one unified (Unity) wine. So did it work? The OntarioWineReview panel decides below:
Unity Wine – 2002 Chardonnay
At first we thought it a little closed, but then again maybe it was just too cold (note to self: look at that fridge setting) … as the wine warmed, there was an enjoyable fruitiness along with citrus smells to the wine – the taste was exactly as the nose had predicted citrus with definite lemons and limes, which we found refreshing in a chardonnay. This wine was quite impressive to our mostly ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) crowd – something you could comfortably serve to impress those non-Chardonnay drinkers in your life.
Unity Wine – 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot
The Cab Sauv-Merlot yielded more interesting comments – along with a pleasant fruity nose upon first snort, we discovered something even more interesting upon repeated swirling and sniffing: “HP Sauce” – was the way one panel member described the peppery-spicy smell, which suddenly had us all dreaming of steaks and burgers hot off the grill. A hint of tannin made for a nice easy drinking wine, which is best described as smooth, while the dryness in the finish made us once again crave something from the BBQ. In general, we were impressed with Unity, an impressive dual, coast-to-(almost)coast effort that has yielded a couple of interesting and tasty wines. Happy Birthday Canada ... things are looking good in Canada’s wine countries.
Visit www.winerack.com for more details or to purchase this great wine.
The Grape Vine : Submit your opinion and become a part of the OWR tasters circle.Should one of these wines be a candidate for our OntarioWineReview Crystal Cork Awards?
Chime in and tell us what you think ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Raise your Spirits : Advice about things we “wine” about: like stains and hangovers.Harper’s Hangover hindsight …
Some hangover remedies are peculiar: a full greasy McDonald’s breakfast; some are strange: lie with your head hanging over the bed and drink a glass of water; and others are just disgusting: a raw egg cracked into tomato juice with horseradish. But here’s one that works and makes a lot of sense … if you can remember to do it before hitting the sack: Water. Drink a few glasses of water before bed. Alcohol will do its duty by dehydrating you – the reason you feel sick the next day is that the alcohol has replaced valuable fluids in your system. By replenishing those lost fluids with much needed water, you have a better than even chance of waking up minus the headache.
Now if only it could replenish the self-esteem you lost the night before wearing that lampshade, amongst other things!
Wine Event Spotlight : Shuck’em, Suck’em, Eat’em RawNow I will admit that I am not an oyster fan so I will not be seen within 60 miles of this event but I just love the name so much that I decided to highlight it: The 7 th annual “Shuck’em, Suck’em, Eat’em Raw” event happens at Henry of Pelham Winery. Check the website at www.henryofpelham.com/hopevent.html and scroll down the page a bit for more details; and hey from the sounds of it, bring a bib.
Contact Michael Pinkus Grape Guy OntarioWineReview
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