No Algorithm
Save on Soave | Mencia
I sent off a second column on Cape Wine 2025 to The Hub this week. (It can be found here after 7:00 AM on Saturday, October 18.) It was supposed to be a general overview of what I found at the big South African trade show, but this proved to be impossible in 1,000-1,200 words.
I wrote, instead, about a handful of boutique wineries that I thought were indicative of a new(ish) negociant trend going on in The Western Cape, including Thistle & Weed (pictured above) and a few members of the Zoo Cru. But there’s so much more to write about… stay tuned.
The great thing about big shows like Cape Wine is that everyone is there. The trouble with big shows like Cape Wine is that everyone is there, so one invariably misses some of them.
Ah well, there is no substitute for tasting and meeting people in real life. You can’t taste, let alone drink, wine on an app, or through a screen. And there is no algorithm, you have to figure out what to taste when all on your own. I tell myself I go to as many tastings as I can to generate content, and learn a few things. But, really, I think it’s just good for the soul.
South Australian Delegation
A smaller tasting of note happened at The National Club towards the end of last month. I met The Honourable Joe Szakacs MP, Minister for Trade and Investment, and Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science for the State of South Australia. Mr. Szakacs was here with a delegation of South Australians looking for investment in North America. He brought with him a handful of wine people, since South Australia is the epicentre of Ozzy production, with Adelaide as the unofficial wine capital.
I am unclear if the wine producers came along to solicit investment as well, but they were certainly trying to sell more wine in Ontario, which Mr. Szakacs and his government are happy to encourage. The minister was somewhat demure when I asked him if South Australia was trying to fill the space left by the currently banned US wine producers in the province, explaining that Canada was already an important market for South Australian wines and they hoped to grow their share.
I met Joe Szakacs at a small walk around featuring a handful of producers that are already in Ontario including Angove, Mollydooker, Randall Wine Group, Wakefield, Wirra Wirra, Wynns, and Zonte’s Footstep. The last was represented by a double agent: former Calgarian turned Australian winemaker, Brad Rey.
Highlights of the tasting included the 2021 Wirra Wirra Farmer’s Heart Grenache from the McLaren Vale, a beautiful and gentle expression of the grape from old vines that was a steal at the LCBO for $26… and has sold out. Victoria Angove brought her family’s 2020 Warboys Single Vineyard Shiraz, also from the McLaren Vale, a few bottles of which can be had for $76 at the Port Carling and Leaside/Laird LCBOs or online. Rey’s Zonte’s line of wines are regularly in Vintages and always great value at that sweet $19.95 spot, like the widely available 2020 Zonte’s Footstep Blackberry Patch Cabernet Sauvignon. Guess what it tastes like?
Please support my work and this newsletter by becoming a MJ Wine Box paid subscriber. Sign up today and recieve 20% off for life. Click on the button below to redeem this offer.
WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
Bottega Soave Classico 2023
Price: $18.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Bottega SpA
Country: Italy
Region: Veneto
Appellation: Soave Classico DOC
Grapes: Garganega
Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%
Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre
In the wake of the great bottle inflation of the 2020s, I am beginning to think economies of scale have been wholly and unfairly underrated by so-called wine opinion makers (like me). If selling an awful lot of Prosecco means putting an exquisite Soave Classico onto the market for less than 20 Canadian dollars, then I am all for it. Good for Bottega, champions for all the wines of the Veneto. Grazie mille.
The 2023 Bottega Soave Classico is a surprisingly rich and textured white wine. The weight and concentration of apple and pear fruit is beautifully balanced by fresh lemon citrus acidity. It is seasoned with a salty dash of minerality that may, or may not, come from the volcanic soils its grapes were grown in. It would do with smoked salmon, or the very last of the season’s tomato salads, dressed simply in olive oil and salt.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/bottega-soave-classico-44729
Abad Dom Bueno Laderas del Norte Bierzo 2021
Price: $16.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Bodega del Abad
Country: Spain
Region: León
Appellation: Bierzo DO
Grapes: Mencia
Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%
Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre
Wine nerds love the Mencia grape because it’s contradictory. An iron fist in a velvet glove it comes on gently and elegantly until one realizes that there is a powerful fruit character. My proble with it is that I often get confused about the name of the grape and the part of the world, in Northwest Spain’s Galicia region, that it’s mostly grown in, Bierzo. As I wrote in a June review of this Mencia’s sister wine, the Abad Dom Bueno Godello 2022:
The Bierzo wine region has a similarly catchy name: it’s distinct and pronounceably friendly for English speakers. What gets confusing is that its principal red wine grape, Mencia, is equally distinct and pronounceably friendly for English speakers. I have to really think about which is the name of the grape and which is the name of region.
Anyway, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and there is definitely a floral character the the 2023 Abad Dom Bueno Mencia, though more in the vein of violets. That’s on top of blackberry, blueberry and a black tea character. There’s a lot going, and yet it retains a fresh food friendly acidity.
It tastes like a light red wine, except it’s not. I don’t know either, but it’s $17 and shows the complexity of a wine priced at twice that, and worth trying.
It wants simply grilled meats or vegetables. Let the wine be the sauce.