A butterfly flaps its wings in China and I get a steak dinner with Grand Cru Bordeaux. Sometimes the universe is okay. What seems to have really happened is that Daina Paulin, the American born Commercial Manager for Chateau Haut-Bailly, has a friend who married a Canadian and she came over to Toronto from France earlier this month for the wedding.
Since she was here, Paulin got in touch with Craig de Blois, her Ontario agent at Noble Estates, who organized a low key, weekday dinner downtown, so a few wine media types (me, Pierre Ferland (Read Between the Wines), and Anshu Grover (Wine It Up A Notch) could try a few of the wines. In reverse order, we tasted the 2015 and 2019 Chateau Haut-Bailly, the 2019 Haut-Bailly II, and the 2022 HB. Spoiler: they were all delicious.
Opinion at the table was divided on whether the 2015 or 2019 showed better that evening. Beyond the blackberry fruit and cedar notes, I thought the 2015 was calming and really starting to sing, while others responded to a quality of vibrancy and nerve in the 2019. It was agreed that as pleasant as both were now, age would take them further.
The 2019 Haut-Bailly II showed its preponderance of Merlot with red berry (raspberry) notes and fine tannic structure. It’s a pleaser and a pleasure, and was maybe the most approachable of the four wines. The 2022 HB was also great fun, but in a classic Claret way, going back to black fruits, and a touch of violet aromatic lift. I can’t think of a more pleasant wine to serve with a Sunday roast.
The Haut-Bailly wines we tasted, when they’re available, cost around $50, $85, then $275 to $375 a bottle and up - these figures were scribbled from estimations. The point is that they are expensive. These are luxury wines. Above all, luxury brands promise not to disappoint. The premium is paid to avoid disappointment.
Haut-Bailly delivers; the wines are beautifully made from what I imagine is pristine fruit. They are literally flawless: in harmonious balance and showing a sophisticated complexity through the range. An evening in which one is opened, is going to be a good evening.
Another sign of a good evening is the presence of a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino on the table. Michael Godel recently hosted a masterclass and lunch on behalf of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino featuring the 2020 vintage, the most recent to be released into the marketplace. Michael had flown in from Montalcino a day or two before and he was armed with fresh stories from the field.
As the city’s authority on the Sangiovese grape, Michael’s masterclasses blend great wines and stories into a cuvée of education and entertainment. They are really, I think, designed for the sommeliers that make up most of the attendees. But Signore Sangiovese lets a few old hacks like me in to some; all of us grateful to pass some fancy wine under our noses and hear what he has to say about them and people and places that make them.
Eight wines were poured, all 2020 Brunello di Montalcino DOCG from poducers Altesino, Baricci Montosoli, Camigliano, Casisano, Collemattoni, Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Máté and Uccelliera. The wines ranged in price from roughly $50 to $150, with most around a median of $100 a bottle.
The most affordable, Casisano ($55) owned by the Northern Italian family wine concern, Tommasi, drew the room’s approval for value, but all were well received. At lunch after the structured tasting and seminar, I noted that most guests who stayed continued to taste through small pours of as many of the wines again, rather than settling on a glass of a favourite.
The story of how the grape farmers on one Tuscan hill, who switched from growing mostly Moscato for sweet fizzy wines to the local weird version of Sangiovese to create one of the world’s great luxury wines is as remarkable as improbable. But the proof is in the bottles. I suspect the secret is size.
For all of their Grands Crus, there are still mediocre wines from even the lauded sub-appellations of Bordeaux and Burgundy. The one hill of Montalcino is small enough, despite differences in soil, in elevation, in exposure, to create a unified experience in quality, if not precise flavour profile.
Some wines showed darker cherry, even black and blue fruit, some are finer or coarser in tannin. One wine, the Máté, showed the effects of barrique, which is now strikes me as novel as much as old fashioned. But together, they showed balance of concentrated fruit and food friendly Sangiovese acidity, with just a touch of Tuscan herbal scrub.
Brunello di Montalcino is a luxury brand that does not disappoint.
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NEW WRITING AT THE HUB
This week The Hub published my report on the 2025 Alto Adige Wine Summit. And why one of the Südtirol secret wine weapons is its extensive co-operative system. Click here or on the link below to read it.
WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
Ferzo Abruzzo Pecorino Superiore 2024
Price: $17.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Ferzo
Country: Italy
Region: Abruzzo
Appellation: Pecorino d’Abbruzzo Superiore DOC
Grapes: Pecorino
Alcohol by Volume: 13%
Sugar Content: 4 grams per litre
This white wine delivers a straight line of lemon-lime acidity. It is absolutely direct and no nonsense. It quenches and refreshes, with a hint of last on the finish; made for the last warm and muggy nights before autumnal weather sets in. It’s not complicated, it’s $18 and it does the job.
The Ferzo Pecorino would do well with fried calamari or tempura shrimp, but a bowl of plain potato chips, or a white bean spread would work as well at home.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/ferzo-abruzzo-pecorino-superiore-2020-573683
Georges Duboeuf Brouilly 2024
Price: $23.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Georges Duboeuf
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Appellation: Brouilly
Grapes: Gamay
Alcohol by Volume: 14%
Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre
My local LCBO has a dedicated Beaujolais rack in the Vintages section. I almost never see anyone shopping from it. Yet, the selection turns week to week, so it must be getting patronized. Like the cells of a secret organization, we Beaujolais lovers work towards our goal of converting red wine drinkers in anonymity, aware that there are others, but not sure just who.
Success has come with a price: Beaujolais isn’t quite the bargain it used to be. On the other hand, there’s more of it and still great value for food friendly, lighter styled, French wines, like this cru Brouilly. It’s full enough to make a delightful companion to a Friday night steak, or deft and nimble enough for Sunday night’s roast chicken.
Look for a tangy dark cherry character, with a touch of graphite and smoke.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/georges-duboeuf-beaujolais-brouilly-22669
