I didn’t take a lot of pictures at this week’s California Wines tasting, held at a secret location in downtown Toronto. It was invitation only, for trade and press, and it was unsigned in a private barroom away from the restaurant’s main dining room. The theme was a speakeasy, and you were supposed to know the password to be able to get in.
Why would California Wines have a trade tasting, when the province of Ontario won’t allow the sale of them from the LCBO? My source there told me that in lieu of the big tasting they normally hold regularly, they decided to organize the event, and bring in samples through diplomatic channels, as a reminder that California wines will still be there whenever relations with the United States Government improves and the ban is lifted.
But if there’s no wine to buy in the discernible future, why would anyone attend? As a journalist, my excuse was curiosity. Among the trade I spoke to, their reasons broadly fell into two mutually inclusive categories.
The first reason was to support their Canadian friends and colleagues (importers, marketers) whose business has been affected by the U.S. alcohol ban. The second reason was to keep a professional familiarity with the product, with the expectation that it will return one day. Most volunteered their displeasure with the current American Federal administration, but also made clear they considered most California producers broadly to be allies against it, and hoped to keep their relationships with U.S. winemakers, when things got better.
I spoke to one buyer responsible for an upmarket establishment who said that they had always had Californian wines by the glass. They kept their listings this year for a while until they ran out, and replaced them with wines of comparable style. They still list some of the much more expensive wines from the cellar, but it was hard to say if they were selling much less since they didn’t sell that many before anyway.
There remains a lot of California wine “frozen” since the ban in the LCBO warehouse. I asked, if the province agreed to release these stocks to restaurants, would the buyer take some to sell buy the glass again? No way, was the answer. As long as the ban was in place the establishment would keep with it, as they were sure their customers would expect.
What about the wines? There were some treats. Wines were sourced from individual sub-appellation groups, and the Napa Valley producers sent up some lovely old reds from the 1990’s and early 2000’s. There were fun wines from the middle of California too, especially whites made from idiosyncratic grapes. I mean not Chardonnay nor Sauvignon Blanc, although there were lots of good examples of them, too.
It was a good tasting. There were wines in a very New World style that I don’t always love, but I has happy to try them after an absence. There was something for everyone, as befits a giant wine growing area.
I made a few notes, and I hope to share them sooner or later, when things get better.
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WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
It’s all about value and the Quality Price Ratio this week with a $22 sparkler from South Africa, a fresh 16% white from a novel consortium of Douro producers, and a lively, food friendly $16 Mendoza Malbec…
Krone Cape Classique Brut Rosé
Price: $21.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Krone
Country: South Africa
Region: Tulbagh (Western Cape)
Appellation: Méthode Cap Classique
Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay (% N/A)
Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%
Sugar Content: 9 grams per litre
MCC is South Africa’s version of sparkling wine made in the method of a region in France that starts with the letter ‘C’. South African winemakers got very good at making it for domestic consumption in the last half of the 20th century when awkward political circumstances inhibited trade with the rest of the world. Since it became a full democracy, it is our good fortune that South Africa now exports it Canada, because there are few better deals for well made sparkling wines fashioned in the “traditional method”.
The Krone Brut Rosé MCC is a proper party wine, and at $22 a bottle one can afford to share it with a group of freinds. It’s full of lively red berry fruit, and the nine grams of sugar is dissolved into refreshing acidity. It’s the kind of sparkling wine that ought to be handed to guests as they walk in the door, without ceremony or fuss, just the clear communication that the party has started.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/krone-cuv-ce-brut-ros-c-cap-classique-2018-130047