Mrs. Wino Journalist and I were compelled this week to spend an early evening attending our son’s parent-teacher meetings. This meant neither of us would be home to cook dinner. Dining out after the school visit was contemplated but ultimately rejected on the grounds that would be tired and want to slip with as little fuss as possible from the dining table to the TV couch.
Something would have to taken out of the feezer. The son could be dispatched to heat up our dinner while we discussed his academic future on the other side of town. We would dine on the Summerhill Market’s boeuf Bourgignon, accompanied by a baguette acquired on a dog walk from our local bakery, Thuet, and a simple green salad.
When we got back, all was going according to plan, as the table was being set, I engaged in the hard work of choosing a wine to go with dinner.
An agent had sent me some sample wines to taste, and I had tried one of them, a Chianti Classico, that afternoon. (It’s good and well priced and will be profiled in MJWJ when it is released into LCBO Vintages next month.) The obvious thing would be to move the recorked bottle from the kitchen counter to the table and enjoy the rest of the wine with dinner.
But Chianti with Bourgignon? Is that even allowed?
At this point, my wife, who had set the table, cut the bread, dressed the salad, and poured the water, looked over to see me staring at the bottle. She asked, “Is everything alright?”
“Not really. I’m not sure if this wine goes. I mean it’s Sangiovese. I don’t have any Burgundy we could open on a week night, but there’s some Niagara Gamay downstairs… should I get it?”
I should add that my wino neuroticism is complimented by a strong ancestral Scottish tendency. I didn’t want to give up on the Chianti. It would probably be fine in the fridge for the next day and dinner. But it seemed like a bit of an extravagance to open another bottle. Especially if we didn’t finish the Gamay.
If we didn’t finish the Gamay, then the next day there would be two open bottles of wine in the fridge. Would I have to meal plan something that went with both? Now that I thought of it, there was already a heal of an Argentine Malbec we hadn’t finished in the fridge door shelf. Things were getting out of control.
At first, my wife did not answer me with words, but rather with a look that said silently, just how insane are you? Then, she said, “Do you think they made the stew with Burgundy?
I don’t know what happens in the catering kitchens of fancy grocery stores, but I’m pretty sure they are not using Grand Cru, or even Premier Cru, Burgundy when they cook. I also don’t know how often Tuscans make boeuf Bourgignon, but I bet when they do, they are as likely to serve it with Sangiovese than anything else.
Earlier this month I wrote about les Problèmes de Riches. I seemed to have been afflicted by them. I got over myself, we had good glass of Italian wine with a French inspired dish and lived to tell the tale.
SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY
A friendly reminder that I will be at the Wines of South Africa tasting at Paris Paris on Ossington this Tuesday evening (October 29) beginning at 7pm. $40 gets you access rare and fancy wines and canapes, as well as the pleasure of my company. Details are here.
Please help me keep MJWJ online and posting frequently by taking out a paid subscription. This month, I am offering readers a chance to subscribe for 25% off of the regular price… forever. Click on the button below to find out more.
CAPEZZANA IN CARMIGNANO
I have a soft spot for the wines of Tenuta di Capazzana, which dominates the small Tuscan appellation of Carmignano. I wrote about the winery and wines in detail last year at The Hub: read the article here. So when Charles Baker, who runs their import agency, Cru Wine Merchants, called me last week to say that not only were the new releases of their wines available but that the Contessa Beatrice Contini Bonacossi would be in Toronto to lead a tasting of them last Sunday at La Palma on Dundas West I jumped at the opportunity to go.
I was not dissapointed at the structred tasting for about 20 of the Cru agency’s regular customers. Contini Bonacossi was friendly and informal and led us through a tasting of Capazzana wines filled with family lore. Some of the wines Sangiovese-based and Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon wines I had tasted and enjoyed before, others I hadn’t including two whites: a luxurious 2023 Trebbiano (not a contradiction) in this case), and an almost syrupy 2016 Vin Santo, heavy on walnuts and candied fruit.
If you know the wines, including the reasonably priced Barco Reale, available in the 2020 vintage, contact Cru for more information. If you don’t, look for them on better wine lists or check out the Loop Line wine bar and bottle shop on Dupont.
NEW WRITING AT THE HUB
I have a column in The Hub this week about why Alsatian wines are particularly poised to make a comeback. My theory (which is actually mostly borrowed) involves global warming, insane Burgundy prices and hand picking. Read about it here.
Please help me keep MJWJ online and posting frequently by taking out a paid subscription. This month, I am offering readers a chance to subscribe for 25% off of the regular price… forever. Click on the button below to find out more.
WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
San Giacomo Gavi di Gavi 2022
Price: $22.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Tenuta San Giacomo
Country: Italy
Region: Piedmont
Appellation: Gavi di Gavi DOCG
Grapes: Cortese
Alcohol by Volume: 13%
Sugar Content: N/A, drinks very dry
The San Giacomo is a serious Gavi. It’s a bit austere and steely at first before revealing lemon drop citrus and a finishing wave of mouth watering acidity. Tara Q. Thomas has called Gavi Piedmont’s “quiet wine”, in the sense that one often needs to pay attention to it hear the message.
I think that description holds on the San Giacomo; it’s subtle. Maybe it wants to be leisurely sipped over a weekend lunch. Or contemplated in silence while catching up on a bit of reading, or just looking out the window.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/san-giacomo-gavi-del-comune-di-gavi-2022-36687
Borgo Conventi Refosco 2023
Price: $21.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Borgo Conventi
Country: Italy
Region: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Appellation: Isonzo del Friuli DOC
Grapes: Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso
Alcohol by Volume: 13%
Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre
Borgo Conventi is one of the wineries owned by the Geox shoe tycoon Giancarlo Moretti Polegato. I am all in favour of very rich people buying up wineries if it means more good wine at economy of scale prices. I hope there are more Bogo Coventi wines coming down the LCBO Vintages pipe, because affordable wine from Friulli, northwest is becoming rarer and rarer.
Almost as rare as finding a Refosco in Canada, for that matter. Refosco is one of the cheerful medium bodied Italian grapes that fell out favour for being cheerful and medium bodied. It’s not very complicated, but it has a kind of signature twang and fruit notes are often moving towards the black and blue end of the spectrum.
The Borgo Conventi, which is made specifically from the “red stemmed” Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso cultivar, goes to blackberry notes, with a hint of leather and smokehouse. Since it’s autumn, I want to pair it with mushrooms or something with mushrooms, like a pasta that might also involve some cream.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/borgo-conventi-refosco-dal-peduncolo-rosso-2023-39125
