Michael Pinkus Wine Review - On the Road with the Grape Guy

Report from - California Wine Fair ... Monday April 6, 2009

13 Apr 2009

Details: Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

The 29th installment of this annual bacchanalia was held once again at the Royal York in downtown Toronto. This year, as last, I got a chance to feed my face on California's dime, at their seventeenth annual "Toast to California" luncheon. Salmon, steak, cheese were all highlights of the menu, along with a few nice wines (listed below) - but the real highlight for me was guest speaker Joel Peterson, winemaker and master of Zin at Ravenswood winery. Regular readers know, I’m a fan of good Zinfandel and there's no better show to find such taste treats … but to listen to one of the head Zin-makers of California, well that's a treat unto itself.

Choice Quotes …
"We live in a fantastic time of wine and people's acceptance of wine."
"When you make a wine recommendation you can change a whole life." In reference to a bottle of 1945 Chateauneuf-du-Pape and his son’s own wine company: Bedrock Wine.

Zin-istory and Zin-bits …

Zinfandel started its life in Croatia moved to Vienna than to New York and Boston before finally founding a home in California during the gold rush in 1851.

The 1883 Harrod’s catalogue has a Zinfandel for sale listed as “good wine” and during prohibition it was mainly Zinfandel that home winemakers were making their allotment from.

During the Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway this year Zinfandel was served.

ZAP (the Zinfandel Advocate and Producers) first met twenty years ago, poured approximately twenty wines and had approximately 50 people at the tasting; today that get together is a weeklong festival with over 300 wineries pouring more than 900 wines to well over 9,000 people... (As for the wines - Read more)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.

Report from - The wines of Pennys Hill and Mr. Riggs ... March 31, 2009

11 Apr 2009

Details: Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

We find ourselves at the Fine Wine Reserve to taste wines from the small yet connected producers Penny’s Hill and Mr. Riggs. How are they connected you ask? Mr. Riggs is actually Ben Riggs, who is the winemaker for Penny’s Hill. Riggs has been a winemaker for over 24 years, fourteen of which were spent at Wirra Wirra in Australia before moving over to the Hill in 1995. Of the five wines poured, three from Riggs and two from Penny’s, these were my top choices:

Mr. Riggs 2006 Shiraz ($55.00 - available in limited quantities at the LCBO) … this is the premium level of Riggs wine, aged two years in 100% French Oak and carefully barrel selected from the best barrels. The nose is very pretty for a muscular wine like this -smells of floral, red berry and chocolate are followed up in the mouth by white pepper, chocolate, juicy black fruit (like blackberries and cassis), and a smooth sweet finish - due in part, I’m sure, to the 15% alcohol.

Penny's Hill 2007 "Red Dot” Shiraz ($30.00 - not available yet) … this wine just smells juicy yet there's a firmness in the leather and spice that goes well with the black fruit. Chocolate/mocha touches the tongue and leads to raspberries and cassis before giving way to white pepper with a long lingering finish – slightly confused? Taste it and you won’t be, you’ll realize, as the Aussie’s would say, “it’s bloody good” and tasty too.

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.