Random Wine Notes While Eating Extruded Bison
Recent unbottlings, accompanied by a variety of sausages and other processed meat products courtesy of the Swan Valley Co-op private label "Lake Country Select".
Niagara - Stratus Red 2002: Been waiting to dip into a bottle ever since I started seeing the White Stratus pop up on the wine list at the Sparrow, Crush and The Swan.
Was the first bottle of the evening, and is developing very nicely. Sipped with some home made foccacia. When I bought it last year, had a distinct orange peel finish to it which has mellowed out. One of the more complex Niagara Reds and highly recommended. Is it the Opus One of Canada? Not yet.. .but on its way.
California - Ridge Lytton Springs 2004: Second bottle of the night, paired nicely with the lamb sausages. Little bit of zin zip, a touch young and oaky perhaps but a nice treat shared by some good friends. Made me run home and check out my Ridge box. Still hanging on to a '02 Sonoma Station for a couple more years I think.
New Mexico - Shared my last La Bomba Grande as the third bottle after the Stratus and the Ridge. Recounted the story of the mad professor who made it, relived the breathtaking beauty of the canyon-side vista of the tasting room.
Niagara - Marynissen Merlot 1999: Excellent with the bison garlic sausage. Marynissen was the first VQA winery Sheena started seriously collecting many years ago. Still doing lovely reds. Some of the older vinifera in the region and it shows. Their merlots have always been a bit bigger and richer than most. And this one holding up nicely. Probably won't push the 1/2 case that is left more than another 2-3 years. A vertical tasting is beginning to speak to me....
And the extruded bison? Well, when you buy the buffalo jerky at the Swan River co-op, and then read the checkout receipt, that is exactly how it is bar coded. "Extruded Bison". Yum.
posted by Sheena @ 1:39 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I've been excited to hear your thoughts all week but haven't gotten to asking til now: whatcha think of Tetra Pak wines? I've had a few French Rabbits this week. I don't know ANYthing about wine and how to describe it, but - I don't really care for the Merlot, but I was okay with the Cabernet Sauvignon.
I'm trying to drink red wine at dinner, and a big mouthful a half hour before bed to make me sleep better. So far it's working. I saw these Tetra Paks and quickly assumed they were a poor environmental choice - but then I learned on the side of the package how extra-environmental they actually are.
You think in ten or twenty years we'll be looking at mostly Tetra Paks? What a big change - we could all tell our kids, "Oh, wine used to come in bottles actually."
Well Jason, it's like this.
Sheena truly believes that God created all forms of alcohol with purpose and meaning in mind. No wine is without soul and value to the world.
But like people, not all wines contribute the same value to society. They're not 'better' or 'worse'. Just different.
Wines in tetrapacks are like retarded kids. In the right setting, under the right conditions, they can contribute and be fulfilled and bring happiness to us all. In more sinister societies they can be abused and used as cannon fodder, or unfair experimental subjects by underage sneaks hoping to avoid clinks in the backpack.
The bottom line is objective: Do you want something for now, this minute, this moment, quality and provenance be damned? Or do you want something for the long term, a treasure to be nurtured, something that will mature and evolve along with you? In that case, you'll need cork and glass.
Choose your wines like you choose your organic foods or fair trade coffee. Understand who gets the money at the end of the line. Is it a father-daughter family business an hour drive from you? Or an industrial conglomerate that buys pesticide laden shit from underpaid third world growers and ships them to your table in rusty container ships under flags of indeterminant origin.
It's your money. Your liver. Choose accordingly.
Is it a father-daughter family business an hour drive from you? Or an industrial conglomerate that buys pesticide laden shit from underpaid third world growers
Hmm, maybe I've been taken in by all the folksy packaging, or maybe it's just that I've never been a wine drinker, but - I kinda assumed they were all father-daughter operations. Is there a Coca Cola of wine companies? I know that something like Lindeman's is really huge, for example... but (to sound naive) it's "Lindeman's", which I took to be the Lindeman's family. Okay, I know, DuPont is the DuPont family, I guess. I just imagined a very romantic view of wine. How do you tell the difference?
(That comment was worth its own post, by the way - that rocked)
There are many Coca-Cola conglomerates out there, Boissert (the endeavour behind French Rabbit) included. That does not necessarily mean shit wine, my preference is to buy local or buy small. My wine snobbery is not on price or regional issues, but on supporting small independents who break their backs in the fields, in the warehouse, behind the tasting bar to make a go of things. That's why I've been a big VQA/Ontario fan for many many years. You can see the operations for yourselves and make informed buying decisions.
Google the phenomenon of the "wine lake", and be very afraid of anything with a cartoon animal on the label.
Is there any Ontario labels you avoid?
I've only started on red wine to make me sleep, so I'm entirely open-minded on variety of grape or whatever, and I do like to buy local just for the sake of shipping.
Shipping was a big reason I got the (Tetra Pak'd) French Rabbit. Which I'm not going to buy any more.
However, I did spot on the way out some Tetra Pak Ontario wine (red) that I'd already decided to buy next time I go in (Tuesday or Wednesday) -- I wish I could remember the label. I'll run it by you when I get one, though, and ask your opinion.
Thanks for everything.
oh I love Marynissen.
one of my favorite local wineries.
also have you tried anything from Lailey?
mmmmm lamb sausages.......
did you make the homemade focaccia?
how extrudiatingly painful. i would think a smokey proch climber would go best with buffalo jerky.
No, TPG.. I didn't cook anything that night, I was just a visitor in town bringing wine.
I should do a separate post just on Marynissen one day. I love them too.. as winemakers and as people. It's nice to walk into the tasting room a couple of times a year and have people smile and remember you. I scored 5/5 on a vertical tasting of their '90s Merlot a few of years back, and have probably 4 cases of their Cab Francs, Merlots, and Cab/Merlot blends. Never really got into their whites though.
And yes, love Lailey too. Have some of their first (was it 2001? or 2000) Canadian Oak Pinot Noir. A few misc Cab Francs and blends stashed away. Last thing of theirs I drank was a Zweigelt about a month ago. 2003 or 2004 I believe. Pretty place, too.
With Marynissen on the brain, I opened a 2000 Cab Sauvignon Lot 61. Very nice. Getting to that lovely dark bricky colour of older reds. A chocolately anise edge. And 2000 overall was actually kind of crappy for Niagara reds. These guys an exception.
And your people are sure?
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