11 posts tagged “festivals”

But the funny thing is that I came back really depressed and I apologize that I have been lately, which is causing me to be late for my posts too. Well last night, I had a few beers with friends at Kurley's. It was a usual night until I felt like I had a proverbial kick to my butt. It's funny because it was as if my mentor, who passed away last year and who is responsible for this blog was there(see my first post if you wonder). Joe was a wonderful friend who had no problem straightening me out when I needed it and often it was at Kurley's. It was if he was there and all of a sudden, I just saw the light and decided that though my world sucks in many ways, I am really blessed. I have a wonderful woman who has a great kid, great friends and have had the honor to have had 2 mentors, One has passed but the other certainly is alive and summers near ViewPoint and is good friends with John and is how I met John. He probably doesn't remember me, but I was sitting with Bob at the Boardroom before a Wings game...actually many games and John would come in and talk of his vines and wine etc. At the time I thought he was dreaming...but now I realize how good his dream was. That was about 5 years ago and Bob gave me a graduate degree in construction theory and if one has that guy as a prof...well its like having Art Laffer for Economics (a Nobel, but a real bad Shatner 5000 rug) but with real hair.

So anyways I am back and will be moving to the country soon...in stages, but getting there so I will certainly start going native and may start talking more of food and agriculture and country stuff too. And if Scotland beats Italy in Glasgow (beat France in Paris by the way), I may do my seminar next year at the wine fest in the family kilt!!!!!!

 

 First: Shelley Thrasher and everyone at the Shores of Erie. Shelley runs the demonstration tent. She gave me the opportunity to speak and was wonderful to deal with.

 

 Second is Terry she has been a real inspiration to me. She and her boy..”the yute” have made my life much better and she inspires me.

 

 Third: The League of Gentlemen and the Ladies too. They have been very supportive and special thanks to Pete…my agent…who really got this going.

 

 And finally, some special winemakers who have really enriched my life through their passion for what they do and making it infectious. Special thanks to Rob and Fab at Muscedere, Harvey and Alma at Erie Shores,  George and Mary Jane Wilson  of Smith and Wilson and finally Edie and the gang at Mastronardi. If you guys didn’t work so hard and make such good product it wouldn’t be worth it.

Well it was a lovely end to the summer. Terry and I decided to go to the Harrow fair but I had the great idea to visit a few wineries on the way.....well we did get there...eventually.

First stop was Sprucewood. There are new wines and some have already sold out. We tried the new Rose which is Pinot Noir based. Forget getting some as they had 4 bottles left when I bought mine. The Meritage is sold out too. Well this is a good problem for them but bad for us.

I tried the new Oaked Chardonnay...very nice and the Pinot Gris as well. It looks like year 2 will be as good as year1 or even better. I like this place and it seems to just get better.

Second stop was Erie Shores and well, I’d like to tell you all about it, but it looked like a remake of the War of 1812. A group of Americans were there and their limo driver decided to basically block the parking lot. Well to avoid the 2^nd battle of Sandwich we decided to grab some Summer Sun, Reserve Cabernet Franc and some Stellar Secret. Well new was the winter harves vidal...which is very nice and basically a 2^nd press ice wine. I have had these in Niagara and they are very good...looking forward to it.

Third stop was Muscedere. Man have they sold a lot of wine. Pinot Gris...au revoir. So sad but the Cab Franc is still excellent and I got some more Oaked Chardonnay and may retry the review and hopefully no lightning this time.

We were taken into the vineyard and the grapes look wonderful and I am really hoping that this year could be superb. Grapes are already coming off so this may be the year.

The Harrow Fair was well...the Harrow Fair. But at $7 its getting a wee bit dear. I was reviewing the prices for lamb and was flabbergasted at the prices. There is money in sheep. It is kinda sad though as if you win as a lamb, you lose; as Gord’s Abattoir seems to want you...oh well.

Hope to see you all at the wine fest and I’m getting ready for my seminar. If all goes well it will be a great evening and if I fall flat on my face I guess I will just hoist a few in despair..Each way I win ....not like the lambs.

 

Now that I have recovered, I had leftovers from the meal and a really nice Tuscan with them.

 

Music is vinyl (of course) and is a rare find: Kimiko Itoh. She's a Japanese jazz singer whom I discovered while living in Toronto. It's from 1989 and is quite good. She does standards so is similar to many other torch singers, but every once in a while you can hear her accent. It's just really smooth and nice.

 

Dinner again was warmed up from Sunday. Well Sunday we had bruschetta,cheese, dip for our appetizer. For the pasta course I took grape tomatoes and cayenne peppers from my garden added shrimp garlic, basil(garden again) and olive oil with good pasta. Main course was veal picatta (local veal), local corn and some green beans. Its funny but many people make a big deal about 100 mile meals but this one was either from my deck and local if possible...within 20 miles...Wines served were: Sauvignon Blancs from Pelee Island (The Ladies of course...Walter..please keep making it..please) and from Smith and Wilson.With the pasta we had Pinot Gris from Muscedere and a Viognier from Peninsula Ridge..both very nice. With the veal we had a Vapolicello Ripasso which was very nice along with a Mastronardi and Erie Shores Cabernet Franc. Oi..no wonder I was a mess Monday. Lindsay..can I take that rehab spot off your hands...its obviously not working for you. Well we never did make dessert (wonder why) and it was made by our pastry chef friend...I had some and it was verrrrry nice...a take on Tiramesu.

 

Well what was nice is that the local wines again were more than good enough. The I Galli Ripasso is a very good bottle of wine and really should have been way better than anything else. It was quite good but the local Cab Francs were more than up top the challenge. I realize the styles and grapes are 180 degrees apart but class is class and all the wines had class...I liked that.

 

Tonight its another of my Italian treasures. Its from a Tuscan subregion (I believe...I found some cleaning up..and a glass that Terry had dropped behind something during our last dinner party...she broke one of my Rosenthals but we found another German glass so I guess I netted out to no losses). Its an 2004 Rosso Piceno.

 

As with Tuscans, the color is a nice deep red. I get a nice earthy nose with hints of leather, and dark fruit. Nice blackish fruit like a prune plum. Very earthy aroma.

 

This wine has tannins. Not like a big Australian, but my tongue is still recovering.The flavour seems to grow. It starts muted then explodes..which is not unlike a good pepper...the taste lingers and again, I find rather dark, earthy. A friend of mine once said that with Tuscan's “you taste the dirt”. This one I certainly do. It just tastes how I imagine Tuscany to be: old castles, old vineyards and grapes. Through the darkness, I taste really good grapes who are just hanging back....leather, some tobacco and dark berries. This is a well made wine.

 

As with most Italian wine it is made to go with food and does food great and stand alone ok. Give this veal, a Boulognase sauce(with freshly made pasta ..of course) and this would be heavenly.

 

One more thing...Italian grapes, just don't travel well. I have had new world Sangeovese and it just isn't the same. It must be just the convergence of climate, terroir, grape and that specialness of the Italians that make this grape work.

Well, while we were waiting for the parade (Terry failed to tell me that we had to drop the yute off an hour early) we had talked to an orchard guy who said he had #2 peaches. Big deal right!! NOPE, we could make peach cider..hey why not..So we went there and well Terry got us lost, and nobody was there, so we found someone down the street and got some from her. This would be very interesting. I also found “corn water wine”. The corn water wine is very strange but we may try that too. Hey why not and if you can use the corn water to make wine after you cook the corn….. that my friends is free. It may taste awful and I might have to lose some teeth but it would be good to laugh about.

Now. After all this, we were knackered, so we sat down on the deck and had a bottle of wine. Terry had been looking forward to trying this particular wine since we had bought it last week.

The wine is Viognier from Smith and Wilson. Well, it was very nice. Like all S & W wines it is very smooth with no nasty bits. The worst I can say is that is has sins of omissions rather than commission which is really much better than sins of commission.

The nose is not pronounced, but Terry and I noted tones of citrus fruit. I smelled hints of lime for some reason. It was very nice and again absolutely nothing nasty.

The initial taste was on of a nice smooth happy wine. This is no Pouilly Fuisse, but it really shouldn’t/couldn’t be. Terry went gaga over this wine. She feels that after Summer Sun, this is her favorite “on the deck summer wine”. For her to say that is big time.

 

 

 I found the taste to have hints of citrus and a nice fruity flavor. The mouth feel was excellent, as it had that nice round feel I really like and has it done with technique rather than sweetness. In all a very nice bottle of wine.

In all honesty, I tend to have avoided this grape in the past since most that I have had were very underwhelming…kinda like Chanbourcin, but S & W have really done a wonderful job with this wine. Though not sophisticated, it is a great wine to have around the pool or on the deck. I would happily serve it with seafood and mild chicken dishes. Treat it like you would Vinho Verde and life will certainly be good. And I guess that that sums up what I feel about this wine. It’s like a local Vinho Verde and coming from me that is an extremely high complement.

 

This year Terry and I took my brother and his wife. She has shown interest in the areas wines so we hoped she would like it. Al is into cars...teaches racing actually and since the MG club was there it gave him something too as he ain't a wine guy. Both appeared to have a real good time.

 

Alma and Harvey are excellent hosts and seem to really enjoy putting on these events. They do it very well and should be a model for the other vineyards. It is unpretentious, adult and casual but it is good where it counts,

 

They have the MG club for an activity, good food and excellent help.. The music was good and fun..That is, it made me feel like I was at a friend's home and not in church. Everyone seemed to have a casual good time about them. Also they have the parking thing down to a tee. It usually is a disaster but it is very organized. Actually the whole thing is very organized, but in a nice way.

 

Above all. Terry has taken a liking to MGA's so maybe I can get one. If anyone snickers about buying an old English sports car...I had a FIAT Spider so an old MG is definitely a step up in reliability. It looks so cool too.

 

The vineyard looks wonderful. The grape bunches look great...green, full, beautiful. Since I am such an expert at growing stuff (I've got my 20 square foot herb farm on my patio) you have it from me that this could/should be a great year. Actually I have that from a couple of vintners that this could be a GREAT year if the weather holds up.

 

New wines: I tasted 2 and had a couple of glasses, though not enough for a review, but enough to get an idea.

 

The are about to release a Reserve Cabernet. The 2005 vintage was very good so they held back some and released them now. All I can say is that I liked it a lot. Now I agree with Michael Pincus regarding the fake/stupid reserve wines being released, but this one is a real reserve. Erie Shores tends to sell their wines young so holding this one back a year to me makes it legitimate. It also allows them enter a new market segment while not alienating their present clientèle and to see the turnout they have a lot of clients. A good move to me and it tastes good too!!!!!. I will get me some soon but I am really overstocked.

 

The second wine was the new Rose... very different from summer sun and in a cool cobalt blue bottle. Looks good and tastes really good. Its light and happy, just like the Summer Sun and compliments it very well. I really liked it and would tell you the name but I can't spell it and Open Office's Spell check isn't that good and jeez I just don't want 50 emails from my 'editors'. But anyhow it was liked by everyone.

 

Al and Pam left with a bottle of Summer Sun and I am about to open a bottle of their Riesling. Congratulation to Erie Shores for their great hospitality and presenting us with another wonderful afternoon.

 

I wish that some of the 'more exotic' villages could be found but the tried and true were all there. At least are having more dancers so that is good too. My hat goes off to the Scots as they had non stop entertainment and aside from the calling of the food it went off without a hitch ( I refused all the club draws but bought a bunch for the fiddich to send the dancer to the nationals). I still find the wee dancers doing the sword dance so cute. I'm just glad they aren't using real swords. Mumsy really liked going there on the last Sunday and the Yute now wants to be a piper. It looks like he will defect to the Scottish Society Band which is cool. I'm just really afraid of living with someone learning the pipes. I guess that is what alcohol is for.

 

Another new fest was the Ice Cream Festival held in Belle River. I just never knew Belle River could have a park like that. It really reminded me of Traverse City. No I wasn't on acid it was really nice. The festival was in its first year and was pretty good. I am really looking forward to next year.

 

At the fest Tso (aka Terry) and I found the trolley people whom I spoke of in my last post. They are doing exactly what I think should be done. I really hope it works as we really need something just like what they do. Just get more meta tags as I couldn't google them and or the Ice Cream Festival site. I can blame Tso for that as she helped get the trolley people their web site as they used her guy. Now I know why Rob always talked to me at length...he just stole my ideas and had terry get him his website designer. A conspiracy if I ever saw one. I just feel so used.

 

My/our cider is coming along very well. The second group is very dry, clear and red. The first is pineapple and very cloudy with a lot of pulp. I am low on alcohol but that is ok. BTW I fixed my MP 44 (juicer whiched I demoed making cider) tonight. Seems that all that work caused the mounting screws to back out and weld themselves to the power terminals. That accounts for the vibrations (no restraint so the motor was on its own) and sparks. Well new screws Loctite and solder has put the MP44 back where it was. It was built like a tank (probably a panther mk 4). A fine piece of German Engineering.

 

I've got to get back to the wineries, but in buying a certain wedding present ( a picked dozen of local wine ) I managed to buy 5 cases of wine so I am overstocked. Guess I will just have to drink more so I can come out to play again.

 

Wine review shortly.

 

Well what winery came with the biggest hype, most labels and fanciest digs. Well, come on its easy....View Pointe. I had heard a multitude of rumors about the wine, the building etc and when it opened I was a little apprehensive.

I had had their wine at a Epicure a couple of years ago and wasn't impressed. Okay it was 150 out and the event is on asphalt ant tso was a little pissed at me. So it wasn't the best of times to taste test. When I saw that they were open we went in and I bought several bottles. On Sunday we met Tso's mum at the John R Park Homestead for the Maple Festival then took her to View Point. Now as per maple syrope....I just don't get how anyone came up with it. The sap tasted like water and in the old days you had to boil it down all night. A lot of work but it tastes good.

Well I left with a case, and of course there was Pinot in it and that's what I am drinking now. A word about the winery. It is not my taste in architecture but the result is nice BUT... change the racking. I cannot get the wine out easily and at some of the prices this is a problem. It could use some softening as I find it all rather hard.....but the wine is good.

I had some grilled salmon and asparagus with a tomato(why did I bother getting cardboard tomatoes..yuck)basil,boccacini salad. The salad was a waste of good cheese and olive oil but oh well. The wine went perfectly with it. It complemented the salmon without overpowering it. Very classy and it did ok with the salad too. There is no vinegar, one relies on the acid of the tomato, BUT these had no acid nor taste so wait till summer(note to self....you have ~ 3 months to figure out how to make fresh mozzarella).

The music was “live at Charlie's” by Mel Torme. This album is a rare gem as I managed to get a standard (yeah right its very limited production virgin vinyl etc) copy of the original direct to disc of his performance at Charlie's. This is definitely one I would have to take to the desert island. This matched the wine well, smooth cool. Then I put on some live Mingus. This did not. Charles Mingus was a musical genius who was eons ahead of his time. His music, though jazz reminds me of Bela Bartok's. A lot of dissonance and the dissonance didn't do the wine any good. So after a call from the ugly American who has a saint for a wife (uawasfaw) who absolved me from the paella disaster I put on some Roxy Music, Avalon to be exact and this too compliments the wine.

Now the wine. The nose is big and amazing. I pick out some oak, lots of fruit and berries and remember I aerated this so it muted the nose somewhat. The color is slightly tawny but still that pale reddy color that makes a Pinot.

The taste. Well it sucks....NOT. This is a wonderful wine it is light yet strong, with all the body of a proper Burgundian. I taste the fruit as it goes in then a whoosh of a wonder follow up. The aftertaste lingers like a good single malt. I taste the oak but it doesn't dominate, it just floats around. This is a very well made wine and is the best Pinot in the area and challenges any of the Niagara Pinots.

All in all I really like this wine and with the hint of tannins I think it may stand up to food better than most Pinots. I've had bigger, and yes better, but at the price of $20 it is a steal and I really enjoyed this wine.