Found May 2013
Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
May 2, 2013
Featherstone 2003 Cabernet Franc - Estate Bottled
July 6, 2012
Kacaba Vineyards 2003 Cabernet Franc
Found July 2012
As you can see it was a big tasting day at my house in July (see two previous posts - Caroline and Riverview) ... I actually had a former employee of Kacaba over for a small tasting and we opened a few bottles of older Ontario wines to see how they were aging. He was very excited to break into this bottle because he was working for the company at the time and was "quite familiar" with this bottle. Upon opening the wine was just loaded with VA (volatile acidity = nail polish remover), and this did not seem to blow off as we had hoped. In the spirit of tasting every wine, even the ones that show poorly on the nose, we took a few sips. We found the wine to be too heavy in the oak department and very heavily spiced but it also lacked any kind of fruit characteristics what-so-ever ... it was all barrel all the time. I did a few experiments to see if it was just time in bottle that had closed it up but it never did seem to open up ... what I did find was that a quick sip of the wine followed by a quick swallow made the wine almost palatable, but if you held it in your mouth for any length of time, or tried to aerate it it just ruined any pleasure you would derive from the wine. Over the course of half an hour the wine turned sour and nasty, especially on the finish. In the end the wine lacked depth beyond its dry and woody flavours. Hate to say it, but if you have this wine sitting around the house it's a mess, with no hope of getting better. Lost & Found Rating: Trash
December 29, 2010
Aleksander Estate 2003 Riesling
Found December 2010
Now here is something unusual, or something that is becoming unusual, a wine that I have not previously reviewed that got lost in my cellar. It used to be a more regular occurrence, which is why I started this blog in the first place, but as my record keeping got better it almost seemed redundant to have this site ... but thankfully it is still alive and well so I can tell you about one of my most recent finds. While rejiggering my cellar I found a 7 year old bottle of Riesling from Aleksander Estate, located in the Lake Erie North Shore. Since the winery started in 2005 this must be one of their very first efforts, and it is a decent effort at that. Colour is golden with a nose hinting at mac apple with the merest hint of petrol. The taste became a little more problematic, while the acidity was still good and the wine was aging nicely without faults, it seemed to be losing flavour, the petrol is faint-faint-faint on the tongue but other flavours don`t seem to be driving this wine at all, it has become `just a white wine, it`s simple yet sippable with no distinguishing characteristics on the palate. Lost & Found Rating: Minor Treasure
December 6, 2010
Henry of Pelham 2003 Reserve Riesling
Found December 2010
Well, I combed through my records and could find nothing about me having tried this bottle before. I have one bottle in my collection and that is all, so I must have been saving it for a special occasion and that occasion was tonight. After a long weekend and long day we decided to relax and open something interesting, and what could be more interesting than a seven year old bottle of Riesling. The nose was shy at first, we barely got any smell and even the flavour was a little muted. We set our glasses aside and waited 15 minutes ... what a difference: petrol mixed with green apple and lime skin. The palate was similar yet different, the petrol wasn't apparent it gave up completely to the green apple, while the lime gave way to more lemony-citrus ... good acidity balanced everything nicely and there was a lovely mouth-coating lingering finish. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure
July 18, 2010
Willow Springs Winery 2003 Vidal
Found July 2010
Lazy (and hot) Sunday afternoon ... the call for lunch is a tuna sandwich ... now I have to find a white wine (too heavy for red with all this heat, besides dinner is a steak so red is already forecasted for later). I find this Vidal in one of my wine fridges, for all I remember it may have been there since 2003. Nose is slightly honeyed with some peach and apple puree. Teeth-chillingly cold, so for now it is okay, it tastes like booze in white wine; we'll have to give it some time to warm up and develop some flavours.
20 minutes have passed and now we are starting to see what was under that cold exterior ... and in truth this is not bad at all. There is some slightly oxidized apple here, with a hint of pear, a drop of lemon and enough acidity left to hold it all together. It's a wine I keep sipping on wondering when the other shoe is going to drop and I won't want to drink it anymore, but I keep on sipping away. There's even a nice mid-length finish of apple peel. I can't complain too much about this wine, it is doing its job on a hot July afternoon, plus it has me taking more and more sips trying to figure it out - what more can I want. I am prepare to make the call on this Willow Springs 2003 Vidal. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure
August 30, 2009
Pelee Island Winery 2003 Vinedressers Cabernet Sauvignon
Found August 2009
Pelee Island really doesn't get the credit they deserve. Yes they are one of the culprits in the Cellared in Canada fiasco gripping this province, but they also make plenty of VQA wines, and the ones that really should be getting a shout out are the Vinedressers (Reserve) series of wines that are only available at the winery. These are some pretty consistent wines year in and year out. Take this Cabernet Sauvignon as an example, from the mediocre 2003 vintage - the smells consist of white pepper and red fruit with hints of toasted licorice root. Palate-wise it took time to open, but when it did there was lots to appreciate: pepper, red fruit and dried blackberries, a bit of barrel toast and a pleasant thoroughly enjoyable mouth feel that slid smoothly across the tongue. This wine has definitely peaked - so I you have any, now's the time to drink up. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure
January 28, 2008
Willow Springs 2003 Vidal
(Found – January 2008)
The lowly Vidal grape … the only good thing that has come to it is the invention of icewine, right? Not so fast folks. Someone once commented to me that they never see the Vidal grape outside of icewine. Vidal, believe it or not, shows up in quite a few wines, but they are mostly house blends or house wines and are more often than not off dry. I located a couple of bottles of this Willow Springs offering and wondered how it has fared over the past few years. Vidal is rarely if ever oaked so from vine to bottle there is probably a 6-month gap (if that) – so this wine would have been bottled in early 2004 … still that’s four years on. What I found in my glass was surprising – the colour had darkened and the smells were melon, lemon and a bit of sweet tangerine … the palate showed a decent amount of sweetness along with hits of cantaloup flesh and honeydew melon rind. In the mouth it felt rounded and still had a bit of acidity, while the finish lingered on the cheeks with some lemony-zing. Surprised? Maybe a little, though I had tried a 2004 Vidal a few months ago that was holding up pretty well too … good to see the lowly Vidal holding its own – this would be something nice to sip on come the summer. Lost and Found rating: MINOR TREASURE.
The lowly Vidal grape … the only good thing that has come to it is the invention of icewine, right? Not so fast folks. Someone once commented to me that they never see the Vidal grape outside of icewine. Vidal, believe it or not, shows up in quite a few wines, but they are mostly house blends or house wines and are more often than not off dry. I located a couple of bottles of this Willow Springs offering and wondered how it has fared over the past few years. Vidal is rarely if ever oaked so from vine to bottle there is probably a 6-month gap (if that) – so this wine would have been bottled in early 2004 … still that’s four years on. What I found in my glass was surprising – the colour had darkened and the smells were melon, lemon and a bit of sweet tangerine … the palate showed a decent amount of sweetness along with hits of cantaloup flesh and honeydew melon rind. In the mouth it felt rounded and still had a bit of acidity, while the finish lingered on the cheeks with some lemony-zing. Surprised? Maybe a little, though I had tried a 2004 Vidal a few months ago that was holding up pretty well too … good to see the lowly Vidal holding its own – this would be something nice to sip on come the summer. Lost and Found rating: MINOR TREASURE.
January 9, 2008
Pillitteri Estates 2003 Late Harvest Vidal
(Found – January 2008)
In August of 2006 I popped the cork on a bottle of this wine and the cork slid out without any resistence (never a good sign) … the wine turned out to be flat in the mouth, but still had quite a prominent and inviting nose. Flash forward a year and a half and I located another bottle of this wine kicking around on my mother’s wine rack (we must have each bought a bottle during a visit to the winery). I had her put it in the fridge and on my next visit (a few days later) we opened it. Now believe it or not kiddies sometimes a wine can be too cold, this will mute the flavours and smells, and that’s exactly what happened here. But the good news is, you can always let it warm up – better that than to throw an ice cube in it (you know who I’m talking to out there). At first it was just apples that wafted up from the glass and the flavours were apples and lilac. 20 minutes later there was pineapple, wildflower honey and honeydew melon grabbing the olfactories … the flavours had also come around producing that wildflower honey and dried apricots sensation on the tongue, all with a sweet limeade finish. Lost + Found Rating: TREASURE.
In August of 2006 I popped the cork on a bottle of this wine and the cork slid out without any resistence (never a good sign) … the wine turned out to be flat in the mouth, but still had quite a prominent and inviting nose. Flash forward a year and a half and I located another bottle of this wine kicking around on my mother’s wine rack (we must have each bought a bottle during a visit to the winery). I had her put it in the fridge and on my next visit (a few days later) we opened it. Now believe it or not kiddies sometimes a wine can be too cold, this will mute the flavours and smells, and that’s exactly what happened here. But the good news is, you can always let it warm up – better that than to throw an ice cube in it (you know who I’m talking to out there). At first it was just apples that wafted up from the glass and the flavours were apples and lilac. 20 minutes later there was pineapple, wildflower honey and honeydew melon grabbing the olfactories … the flavours had also come around producing that wildflower honey and dried apricots sensation on the tongue, all with a sweet limeade finish. Lost + Found Rating: TREASURE.
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