Vine Lines

Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION

Open-mindedness opens new wine doors

Saturday, Jun. 9, 2012 | Comments: 0

As Patti LaBelle sang a few decades back, "I’ve got a new attitude."

And it’s been serving me very well.

In last week’s column, I wrote about how I used to — emphasis on "used to" — profess to not usually be fond of certain wines either because of varietals, countries of origin, or degree of complexity. While I don’t think I’ll ever change my preference for deeper, more full-bodied wines, I’ve made a concerted effort to be more open to beverages such as Pinot Noirs (the subject of the previous instalment of Vine Lines), Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Grigios, Italian, and Spanish wines.

And I must admit that while I still love my Chardonnay, I’m finding I sip Sauv Blanc occasionally just for a change of taste, since I’ve now found one I really like. (The benefit here is that the Chardonnay tastes even better when I go back to it, because it’s not just the same old thing due to the fact I’ve had something different in the interim. It’s a win-win situation!)

I wrote about this one a few weeks ago, but just in case you missed it, let me recap: The Essenze Sauv Blanc from New Zealand is now a regular resident of my wine fridge. It’s grapefruity, with overtones of green pepper, which I just adore. Well, let me qualify that: While I like the smell and taste of green pepper, I HATE the vegetable itself because it gives me wicked indigestion. But in a wine, it’s a thing of beauty. And so is the Essenze Sauv Blanc. A thing of beauty, that is. I like that it’s got some depth, that it’s gutsy and viscous. It has full, rich, unabashed aroma and flavour. It’s zesty, it’s bold, it’s assertive, and I love it. Even at $18.95 a bottle, I keep it around to reinvigorate my taste buds occasionally. And it goes really well with fish, too!

Jeff Wolfe, who’s the assistant manager at the Tenth and Victoria Liquor Mart, tipped me to this next gem.

"Do you like Italian wine, Diane?" he queried one day a few weeks back. When I confessed I usually didn’t, except for the odd Chianti (such as the Frescobaldi Chianti Rufina Nipozzano Riserva, which sells for $20.09), he said, as he often does, "You’ve got to try this one."

When I was still reluctant, he continued to try to get me to expand my taste horizons.

"Come on," he urged. "Order up your favourite Romana pizza and give this a try."

Because I think the world of Jeff, and because he and I go back a long, long (long) way, AND because he’s got great taste in wine, I bought a bottle of the 2008 Aldegheri Il Groto red blend.

I didn’t completely take his advice, however. We were having Venison Parmesan for supper the next night, and I figured that, although the deer meat gave the dish a Canadian spin, anything Parmesan — with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese — was pretty much as Italian as one could get.

So I chilled the Il Groto, which is $18.36 a bottle, and poured my usual half-glass to taste it before the meal. It was lovely! And the exclamation mark is on purpose, since I really was very pleasantly surprised.

This wine has a rich bouquet — certainly the expected earthiness and mustiness that I’ve come to identify with Italian wine, but there was something more. And I liked it.

As well, many Italian wines, to my taste, are a bit thin — lighter-bodied, I guess is the proper term for it — and the Il Groto is, too. But it doesn’t TASTE thin. It’s got lots of guts — it’s very robust — and it has plenty of charm and presence.

And that’s just on its own. It was spectacular with the Venison Parmesan — vastly better than the fuller-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon we tried just for comparison’s sake. And the success of the Il Groto/Venison Parm pairing caused me to note once again that there’s a reason Italian wines go with Italian foods, and Spanish with Spanish, and Argentinian with Argentinian, and so forth. They just work together. Terroir makes the grapes that make wine, and the tomatoes that make the sauce, and the feed the cattle eat that produce the milk that makes the cheese. No matter how disparate the end products may be, there’s still that common basic element from which they all stem that brings them, ultimately, together.

Anyway, I can’t wait to have Il Groto with my next Italian meal, regardless of what it is. And I can’t wait to try something else unusual to me, or that I’ve been reluctant to sample in the past. Because as I mentioned earlier, I’ve got this new attitude. And it’s working out really well for me. So far.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition June 9, 2012

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As Patti LaBelle sang a few decades back, "I’ve got a new attitude."

And it’s been serving me very well.

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As Patti LaBelle sang a few decades back, "I’ve got a new attitude."

And it’s been serving me very well.

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