I have been scooped by the headline writers at The Hub. The one they gave this week’s column is: ‘The wine world will have to adapt to a tough 2024.’
Read it here: https://thehub.ca/2024-01-19/malcolm-jolley-the-wine-world-will-have-to-adapt-to-a-tough-2024/
The cliché is that journalists don’t write the headlines. That’s true but not quite the whole story. The editors pick what they see as the main point of the piece. So, while I thought I was principally writing about the adaptability of wine making, as embodied in Levi Dalton’s excellent podcast interview about 70 years of wine making in Burgundy and Oregon with Robert Drouhin, the main takeaway was likely the paragraph where I enumerate a number of woes befalling the world wine industry right now.
By all reports, there is currently too much wine and not enough drinkers. There is also, I think, too much expensive wine and not enough consumer cash to pay for it. I have despaired over the last decade or so at the increasing volume of perfectly good, well made wines that retailed for $30 to $40, that in my humble opinion were ‘worth’ more like $20 to $25. What I mean is that a lot of $35 bottle of wines are objectively comparable to a lot of $20 bottles of wine, and the market is overdue for a correction.
From South Africa and Australia respectively, the two LCBO Vintages wines I recommend this week, combine the two ideas above. Both are from wine growing regions that are having hard times. The ANC government in South Africa likes to evoke its national liberation past, and one of the ways it does it is beating up on its mostly white owned and run wine industry. Even if Australia hadn’t suffered through a trade war with China, it has an over supply problem, and wine industry in trouble. The 2021 Aslina Chardonnay ($22.95) and the 2021 Wakefield Estate Label Cabernet Sauvignon ($19.95) come from wineries that buck trends and offer great value.
Please enjoy these recommendations. They are free for all subscribers for now. Soon just in time wine recommendations for LCBO Vintages releases, Ontario wine releases and wines on direct offer from importing agents will be reserved for paid subscribers to Malcolm Jolley Wino Journalist. That and more. Get ahead of the curve today and support my work by being a paid subscriber.
WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
Aslina Chardonnay 2021
Price: $22.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Aslina Wines
Country: South Africa
Region: Stellenbosch
Appellation: Western Cape
Grapes: Chardonnay
Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%
Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre
Aslina is not just a black owned and operated South African winery, its founder Ntsiki Biyela is also a woman and a stranger to The Cape who grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Notwithstanding Aslina’s remarkable intersectionality, nor Bilela’s inspiring story, the 2021 Aslina Chardonnay is a really lovely wine at a very reasonable price.
Made in slightly old fashioned way, with a touch of old wood and blend of wines that have and haven’t undergone malolactic fermentation, it begins lean and citrussy and ends heavier and rounder on the palate. It’s fancy and suitable for Friday or Saturday night. If it were from California it would cost twice the price. A creamy fish pie would pair well at the table, or a salmon mousse as an appetizer.
https://www.thewineimporters.com/aslina-chardonnay-stellenbosch-2021
Wakefield Estate Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
Price: $19.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Wakefield Wines
Country: Australia
Region: South Australia
Appellation: Limestone Coast (52%), Clare Valley (48%)
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol by Volume: 14.5%
Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre
When I saw Justin Taylor in Toronto this September we tasted through a number of his family’s older and pricier Wakefield Cabernet Sauvignons, the grape that seduced his father Bill to move from the wine trade in Sydney to making wine in the Clare Valley. They were superb, but the note from the meeting was the exceptional value in the Estate Label. Taylor told me that after the inflation shock of the past year his family was doing everything they could to keep their prices from rising despite increased costs. So far, it looks like they’ve managed to do it, as the 2021 Estate Label Cabernet Sauvignon is very well made wine at a fair price.
Black winegum cassis runs through this food friendly dark fruit Cab. In my humble opinion it tastes just like a Cab should, and could identified blind with ease. Past the juicy black currant, there are some smoky, leathery notes, but it’s altogether food friendly and approachable. This is a wine that would do well on the table after a day of winter sports, like skiing or maybe just shovelling the walk. It wants red sauce or red meat, grilled or stewed.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/wakefield-estate-cabernet-sauvignon-2019-744235