Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Question: What are they talking about with using the term reverse osmosis in making wine?

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Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon has been a favourite Australian red wine of your scribe for a long time featured on this Blog several times including recently for more detailed reference on January 2, 2023 linked here and January 18, 2021 here. It always delivers intense fruit with distinctive Coonawarra minty terroir at lower alcohol of balanced elegant complex flavours with excellent ageability. A credit to the winery and their talented winemaker Sue Hodder and her team. Sue has a long fantastic history at Wynns having joined in 1993 and becoming the senior winemaker in 1998 producing some outstanding wines over those years. An excellent profile on Sue Hodder and team plus tasting the 2019 by renowned Vancouver Sun columnist Anthony Gismondi on October 26, 2024 is here. Their first Black Label Cab dates back to 1954 and a personal old treasure is the 1976 that won the JImmy Watson Trophy in 1977 for Australia’s top red wine award.

On September 24, 2025 at the Terminal City Club in Vancouver an educational Masterclass tasting was held by Wine South Australia showing “Beyond the Expected”. Some interesting wines tasted among the highlights being a lighter fragrant 2021 ASHTON HILLS Pinot Noir from Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills using 6% whole bunch with indigenous yeasts and basket pressed into French oak casks & puncheons. Also at the following reception a classy well made 2021 Chardonnay PIccadilly Chardonnay at good value from Ashton Hills shone very brightly indeed. One of the profiled wines at the Masterclass was 2022 WYNNS COONAWARRA ESTATE BLACK LABEL CABERNET SAUVIGNON – THE 67TH VINTAGE. An excellent slide presentation with details on each wine was shown to the audience and the Wynns one is posted with this Blog. It noted that the wine was “Produced only from the top quality 20 to 25 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon fruit grown in our terra rossa vineyards. 21 days on skins and matured for 16 months in new and seasoned French oak hogsheads and barriques.” It showed the retail price of $40 and the alcohol level posted at 15%. Your scribe tasted the wine and remembered my discussions with Sue that even in a warming climate she would be trying her best to keep the abv below 14. It didn’t finish with heat or alcohol that showed more on my palate with the 2022 MOLLYDOOKER WINES GIGGLEPOT CABERNET SAUVIGNON FROM MCLAREN VALE $65 at 15 abv. Your intrepid bold taster questioned the speakers that he did not believe the Wynns Cab alcohol was properly noted at 15 abv. They scrambled to the empty bottles and surprisingly to them noted 13.4 abv – not 15. Check the back label shown below. It has useful information such as “Estate was founded by pioneer John Riddoch, who planted vineyards in 1891 and completed the estate’s famous triple gabled winery in 1896.” They no longer in 2022 give the information provided on earlier vintage bottles that “Coonawarra is renowned for its unique soil and climate which provides ideal ripening conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon. Supple cloaking tannins frame all the elements to create a focused, elegant and classic “Black Label” Cabernet Sauvignon which will once again provide a benchmark for this remarkable region.” Words missing now on the back label but still so true!.

Sue and her team have successfully done it again delivering a beautiful balanced outstanding Wynns Black Label Cab at lower alcohol. Amazing how they can produce such great impressive wine at large production. Except for the Pinot all the other wines were minimum 14.5 and up including Grenache, GSMs, and Shiraz. The expectation of the slide developer obviously was for Australian rich reds to be at higher alcohol. By the way, the ten year younger 2013 (58th Vintage) at 13. 5 abv now is drinking harmoniously on a best plateau of enjoyment. So will the 2022 vintage with more bottle age. A winner. Well done!

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Question: Is it easy for an experienced taster like you to notice the difference in quality of a Champagne rated 95 points, versus one rated 96 points?

Answer: I really like your question. As you have noticed on this long time Blog I do not score wines. I have been required to score in wine judging competitions and on other occasions. However, I don’t believe in simplifying the sensory experience of wine tasting with just a number.

Easy to do so using a 1 to 3 star system or the IWFS Vintage Card scoring conceived by Andre Simon with a maximum rating of 7. Even the 20 point range seems to work better where 17 is a pretty good score but the equivalent 85 on the 100 point scale isn’t.

A problem with the 100 point scale started successfully by Robert Parker is that it allows too much small differentiation of scores – like a 95 vs 96. This “experienced taster” as you kindly called me can’t tell the quality difference between a Champagne (or other wine) scored 95 or 96.

It is important to look behind the score to see who is the scorer. Is this someone who consistently tends to score higher or lower than the norm? Perhaps the scorer makes a big leap every 5 points so a 95 is quite a bit less quality in their eyes than a 96 – sort of like the established difference between an 89 and a 90. A big difference indeed! Much more so than say between a 92 and 93 score. Moreover scores in a vertical, horizontal, or other comparative wine tasting probably are more credible and easier to interpret as to the perceived quality of each wine among the group judged.

Also there’s just too much “wine score creep” where perfection at 100 now is all too common and generally scores are inflated being much higher right across the board than in the old days. See “What is a 100 point wine?” posted October 12, 2015 linked here and “100 Point scores should be taken with a grain of salt” on May 27, 2019. Maybe all wine scores now need to be taken with skepticism! Will AI solve this for us?

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Port has been an important focus on your Blog dating back to the first Vintage Port article December 30, 2013 on our 2 year Anniversary linked here. Your scribe is coming up to completing his 14th year of “wine & food ramblings” for the IWFS website and looking back there are many Port highlights posted for background reference including Masters of Port October 24, 2022, Older Vintage Ports January 8, 2024, and Taylor Vintage Ports April 29, 2024. We also have highlighted Tawny Ports with Taylor on October 24, 2016, and November 11, 2019 plus Graham on March 5, 2018 all linked here for you. Milena & Jim Robertson the long time indefatigable leaders of the IWFS Vancouver Branch are Port aficionados and have been instrumental in organizing these educational Port seminars. Another brilliant one was held on November 7, 2025 featuring a tasting/lunch of nine Vintage & Nacional Vintage Ports all from Quinta do Noval. The event was in support of Vancouver DICED (Diverse Innovation in Culinary Educational Development) Culinary School. We were fortunate to be led through this insightful tasting by visiting Cristiano Van Zeller (making Port Wines in the Douro region since 1982), his wine agent Jack H. Segal Managing Director of Seacove Premium Wine & Spirits, and Leagh Barkley Master of Port Canada 2022 Competition winner. Cristiano generously donated a bottle of VZ 1888 Vintage Port to the DICED cause so watch out for the auction or sale of this old treasure.

Our tasting list included three regular Vintage Ports and six Nacional Vintage Ports from 1997 back to 1963. The Quinta do Noval name first appeared in 1715, was acquired by a port shipper Antonio Jose da Silva in 1894, and since 1993 is with AXA Millesimes Group. It is the only historic Port shipper that bears the name of its unique vineyard. The famous ungrafted “Nacional” vines planted in 1921 are grown there but only 1 hectare left and Cristiano added 1900 vines in 1987. The long history includes the legendary 1931 (only declared by 3 shippers after the big crop late picked widely declared 1927 with 30 – the largest ever) that established their reputation. Your scribe has been privileged to taste the 1931 several times (but not recently) including a vertical by Haskell Norman for the Marin County IWFS on January 26, 1986 of nine Noval Vintage Ports from 1955 to 1931 – at 55 years comparable to tasting the 1970 today at the same age. Haskell played an important marketing role in those days for Vintage Port with annual end of January historic tastings of Warre (1990), Croft (1989), 1945s (1988), Graham (1987) and Quinta Do Noval (1986). We had 1931 and 1934 both regular & Nacional but surprisingly on this occasion the regular of both vintages shone more brightly with smooth full mellow balanced fruit. The 1931N was sweeter but more spirit came through in a different liquorish sticky style. Barney Rhodes said it was “not the best bottle” and Andy Quady found “Roast beef coming out of the oven”. The 1934 (12 shippers) regular was the group favourite and Cristiano confirmed it is his fav as well – maybe because those historic younger vines were three years older. Good one in 1934 to look for at Auction at an underrated value price.

1997 QUINTA DO NOVAL VINTAGE: Smaller production than the great 1994 but widely declared. In answering my question as to what to look for Cristiano advised that in younger Vintage Port you want “Blackberry with an intensity of black fruits plus a lot of structure” then as they mature at 10-15 years “an evolution of density – like an iron fist in a velvet glove” and “very old become mellow with a drier character of tertiary development with complexity”. This regular impressed Leagh who found “very good fruit and excellent colour nearing 30 years of age.” Nice start.

1997 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Darker than regular right to the edge. Clean, rich, and spicy. Structured yet mellow. Coming around and showing beautifully already. Can develop further.

1994 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Deeper look. More depth of ripe concentrated black fruits and even more structure than 1997. Perhaps slightly baked. This should continue to develop well with still lots of fruit left

1975 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Lighter year declared by 17 shippers showing a definite “Maple” note with softer well developed tertiary notes. Noval was not at the top of its present high quality curve. Drink now.

1970 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Loads of wonderful fruit developing complexity here. 23 shippers declared this classic vintage. Liked the cinnamon plus mocha notes with the full voluptuous balanced texture. On a fantastic plateau of enjoyment now. Group fav and found to be showing remarkable by Cristiano & myself.

1966 QUINTA DO NOVAL VINTAGE: 20 shippers of this undervalued vintage. These are 60 years old or twice the age of the mid nineties tasted above. Ready. Showing more development than Fonseca. 1963 got the better initial ratings but recently have found 1966 their equal and often surpassing it. Fonseca & Graham 1966 are exceptional and more youthful than this. Cristiano doesn’t know why 1963 is so adored as he feels “1966 is a better Port vintage”. Noval is powerful and rich but colour fading. Drier. Enjoy.

1966 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Similar look but more plums and better acidity freshness. It has complexity of flavour and some length. On a lovely plateau of tertiary best drinking now.

1964 QUINTA DO NOVAL NACIONAL: Not a well known vintage. Looks light red from a distance but a very tawny colour look in the middle. Dried fruits and maple syrup. Some figs, nuts, and toffee caramel. Surprise of the tasting.

1963 QUINTA DO NOVAL VINTAGE: 25 shippers of universally declared year. Looks like a very light tawny port. Tastes very dry and a tawny would have better nutty long wood aged sweeter styling. Drink up.

Excellent Ports on their own and with the tasty chicken thighs lunch outstandingly prepared by Milena – and those pistachios. More wines from Portugal were available including refreshing acidity JOYA white at only 9.5 abv, small production aged 2004 Curriculum Vitae CV at 15 abv Douro DOC Tinto barrique aged, and magnum of 1997 Porta Dos Cavaleiros from Dao.

Cristiano says Chinese food can work with Vintage Port and if you have dry ports even sushi. Experiment.

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Question: Would you please update us on how the harvest in Bordeaux is looking for 2025?

Answer: Early days but reports are coming in about the heat and reduced yields but optimistic on the thick skins phenolic ripeness of the grapes. Even Sauternes has finished picking with favourable botrytis. It probably will be somewhat variable from property to property but 2025 in Bordeaux is showing great promise. Historically every 5th year starting with 1985 has resulted in excellent vintages. Will 2025 join that roster? Kim Mead the wine advisor for the Vancouver Branch of The International Wine & Food Society (with Alvin Nirenberg CellarMaster of Commanderie de Bordeaux in Vancouver) have just returned from Bordeaux and filed today this detailed report of first impressions here on My VanCity at https://myvancity.ca/ Check out this excellent update and stay tuned in for more developments.

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