Happy New Year 2018 to everybody! Hope you all enjoyed some interesting culinary wine & food matches to end 2017. Part of our own ritual is thinking back on some of the most surprising quality food and wine we enjoyed during the previous 12 months. Really hard to pick the best because we have been so lucky to have many delightful treats to choose from. Anyway here goes:

FOOD: NEWFOUNDLAND COD – Blown away with the high quality of their fresh cod. Other spots including Alaska & Iceland (with 10 times the volume) also are raising the bar for sustainable fresh fish but what a comeback in Newfoundland from 25 years ago for this industry. The production now is increasing but there are concerns about stocks being still “in the critical zone”.  An excellent article last month in the Globe & Mail provides more interesting details at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/newfoundland-cod-fishing-sustainability-fogo-island/article37170825/ Nevertheless their cod product is fantastic however cooked even as the world’s best fish & chips!

WINE: Hundreds of fine bottles enjoyed to choose from both the low and high end. Picked a white and red both being mid-priced Burgundies as quality surprises. Not cheap but not overly dear either in this high demand top wine market. The 2010 whites really are impressive and so well balanced. What a delightful surprise the 2010 Meursault Perrieres from Bouchard Pere delivers in both a mini vertical and on its own with food. Classic terroir and complex minerals with ability to age. Look for it. On the red side so many possibilities around the world but 2009 red Burgundy are super sumptuous. Admire the rich ripe intense fruit of 2009 La Dominode vineyard in Savigny-les-Beaune by Domaine Pavelot that is enjoyable now (especially with fresh grilled or roasted quail) but will continue to evolve to higher heights of complexity. Another fairly priced winner that is a wonderful surprise for this scribe.

Do you recall a food or wine that delightfully surprised you in 2017?

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Liked that the number 1 question for 2017 was posed by Mary a smart member of our own IWFS Vancouver Branch resulting from an Alsace tasting. I encourage all of you out there to post your questions on the website at iwfs.org so we all can benefit from learning more about so many interesting diverse wine and food issues.

1. What is TDN in Riesling? (04/12/2017)
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2. Decanting Using a Candle? (01/11/2017)
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3. Château Latour? (06/21/2017)
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4. Best Sauternes Vintages? (01/18/2017)
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5. Rubber Smell in Wines? (09/20/2017)
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6. How to Maintain Cellar Humidity? (03/22/2017)
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7. Does putting your fingers around the bowl of the wine glass actually warm the wine up? (09/27/2017)
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8. Best wine choice to suit many different food courses? (08/02/2017)
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9. Rare Cognac Fraud (05/17/2017)
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10. Best Sushi Wine? (09/06/2017)
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Pleased to learn that the growing interest in unique quality Canadian wines topped the Analytics hit list for the Blog in 2017. Your Top 10 confirms the wide ranging topics there are to explore that are both fun and educational. My aim is to never stop learning about wine & food and to help contribute to your own knowledge.

1. Largest Assembly of Canadian Wines Show Quality With Unique Styles (02/20/17)
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2. Paris: Memorable Lunches at Pierre Gagnaire, David Toutain & Les Tablettes + Dinner Michel Rostang (02/27/17)
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3. Wine Aerators: vSpin (12/18/17)
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4. Château Léoville Las Cases Vertical (4/3/17)
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5. Château Leoville Poyferre St. Julien Vertical (1/23/17)
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6. Lanson – A Champagne House on the Move (11/20/17)
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7. Madeira Masterclass (10/23/17)
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8. 1999 Bordeaux Horizontal (5/29/17)
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9. BC Pinot Noir 4th Celebration (8/21/17)
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10. 10 Tips for Facing That Daunting Wine List (3/13/17)
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Question: Was there a book in the eighties that criticized the provincial liquor board monopolies in Canada called Breakfast Champagne?

Answer: Yes an excellent one “Champagne is for Breakfast” by George Bain published in 1972. He was a Canadian political & wine columnist with the Globe & Mail in Ottawa who also won a Stephen Leacock medal for humour. That good sense of humour appears throughout this book too making it a very good read. Quote: “The provincial liquor commissions, to my mind, are perfectly capable of marketing liquor, which is as standardized as canned peas… But wine is different in very many ways. First of all, it is not, except in a small number of situations, most of which ought not to be encouraged, a rigorously standard product. A good wine merchant searches out a good product for his customers, sometimes in small quantities, and often with difficulty. ‘Small quantities’ and ‘difficulty’ are both anathema to public authority.” Highly recommended book!

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Image courtesy: vSpin.us

Your scribe is a big fan of decanting all wine served. Recommend decanting everything from young wines needing airing to open up and help with reductive issues to mature old ones avoiding the sediment for better texture. However both those are very different with no real concern about how long ahead for young wines and minimizing the time for old ones decanting at the very last minute just before first pouring into the glass. However, there are lots of wine aerators (some electronic) now on the market (including Amazon) that claim to expand the surface area of the wine better than decanting but often have problems such as dripping, leakage, acrylic cracking, tubing length, cleaning issues and the like.

The latest one causing a buzz here in the Pacific Northwest is vSpin (vSpin.us) by Bevstir USA Innovations Inc. in Bellingham Washington with their active decanting system in a classy German lead-free Crystal Decanter by Spiegelau that creates a gentle silent spin vertex to fully aerate your wine which  greatly increases the surface area. The base with batteries controls both speed and time settings. It did receive a 2018 German Design Award Winner by the German Design Council. Comes with a 10 year warranty and sells for $220 US or $300 Canadian on Amazon. They are claiming the technology results are “Enhanced aromas, richer bouquet, and mellows harsh tannin textures.”  vSpin on their site hype a “4 hour decant in under 4 minutes”. Also there is a specific spin speed (from 1 to 3) and duration chart for each varietal (different for New World & Old and Young or Mature) recommended by a local award winning sommelier Alistair Veen on their website that you could check out. Chart shows a range from 3:30 minutes at highest 3 speed for Young Nebbiolo to 1:30 minutes at lowest 1 speed for both Mature European or New World Pinot Noir. Interesting and provocative. System looks like it may have some potential. But this oenophile is from Missouri and would be unlikely to ever spin a mature red Burgundy. Much prefer to pour it directly from the decanter immediately into my wine glass and study the development from there even if it takes some time. A top mature red Burgundy deserves this continuous monitoring and the wait if needed. On the other hand some very old bottles may have lost their very best fleeting complex bouquet and best palate by starting to oxidize before the recommended spin time is completed and the wine served.  The distributor is setting up a demo for this scribe sometime in the New Year. Will report to you further on the results.  Do you have any experience with this vSpin or other popular aerating systems? Please chime in.

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