being true to oneself

2002 Dunn Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Fame and fortune. Or a quiet, comfortable life. What do we go for, while we're young and can afford (or rather, are compelled) to make a push for it. We can never be too satisfied with how things are. It's incredibly frightening, but I'm pushing 30 and I feel like I've accomplished nothing. Niente. Not in my professional life, certainly not in my personal one. So what do we do? Well, in my case, I think at the very least, I've identified the path I need to be on to achieve what I want. As I told my parents, it's a far, far shot to actually make it, be on Forbes, but at the very least, it should be something to aspire to. Fame and fortune - one shot at it, one big push.

So, on the eve of my farewell to Toronto, a lot of things running through my mind. Deep insecurity. Uncertainty. I have no problem admitting that I'm a bit scared. I don't know what to expect, from the program or from my classmates. And yes, I do want to make friends, but I also want to remain true to myself. I'm a prick. And I don't like most people. Not the best quality in an MBA candidate, but I'm too old, too tired to be untrue to myself. Now that's a quality that I respect.

And with that thought, I want to talk about the Dunn. A big time wine that we bought after tasting it at the California Legends tasting earlier this year - a truly epic time with my best buddies. This stood out. A good amount of bottle age, showing an amazing depth and almost saline minerality. So my buddy and I bought 3 - one each, with one to share. And last Friday, we opened it as part of my farewell dinner. Peking duck and steamed eel, among other things. Decanted for about 6 hours, showing all the concentration and pure fruit of Californian fruit, with that graphite minerality and darkness of cabernet sauvignon. Alcohol at 13.8%, what I think of truly great Napa Valley wine. Fabulous.

Dunn is a good example of a producer that shuns hype and hyperbole, that's simply content to present the wines as they are. True confidence that is. And truly inspirational. You let your work speak for itself, without need for false promises. I'm reminded that I want to remain a good and decent man, that above all, I want to let my character and achievements speak for itself. I'm far, far away from it, but we all need to take first steps, and in one day, I begin mine. 

Here's to being true to oneself.

DF

divining its purpose

2011 Calera Chardonnay | Central Coast

I had a conversation with friends over dinner Saturday about how despite all the talk about terroir and expression of place, the single most important factor of how a wine tastes is the preferences of the winemaker. It all comes down to the palate of the winemaker, doesn't it. And if they're doing it properly, they're making wines that they like. Because wine can be selfish that way. Sure, there are lots of big wine companies that pump out millions of bottles annually who stick to a formulaic approach to wine, but anything else should be an expression of the winemaker's taste. Really, if you think about it, if you're dedicating your career to wine, shouldn't you at least be working to make wines that you like to drink yourself, that represent what your taste is? Otherwise, the fuck are you wasting your time for?!

Shit. I shouldn't swear, especially not with a photo of Calera wine posted. Because Josh Jensen is a true gentleman, and a visionary of what California wine is, and should be. These wines are so true to the west coast - alcohol way over 14% - yet so impeccably balanced and truly expressive. The acidity is high, but great wine is more than something that ticks off all the boxes chemically-speaking. As idiotically nonsensical as it sounds, there is something we can call soul in wine, as impossible as it is to define empirically. And Josh's wines have SOUL. Breathtaking really, how a wine as simple as this - a blended chardonnay from Central Coast vineyards - can have such expression. Ripe, sweet citrus aromas, that made it stand out so much during the tasting, but at home, in a more contemplative setting, the wines shows as even more profound. Minerals and all that, but the palate is so elegant, so balanced, so sure of itself. Class and soul, all we hope for in a wine.

So we ask ourselves, what's the point of wine? Is it mostly an exercise of ego, of arrogance? A chance for us to fawn at the skill of the winemaker, and how great their taste is? No. Because as we conversed about over dinner, it's ridiculous to automatically pre-suppose that winemakers have good taste. No, it still, as clichéd as it may be, comes down to what a true expression of the wine is. And what is that? Well, it may take a lifetime to divine that true purpose.

The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.

- Katsumoto, The Last Samurai (2003)

DF

finding value in California?

2010 Foxglove Chardonnay | Central Coast

What is value in Californian wine? Actually, before we get to that - I got the hiccups last night for the first time in years and it was horrible. Never laugh with your mouth wide open when it's windy outside, lesson learned. So right, value wines. California is tricky - it's a badge of honour to charge more than your neighbour for your trophy cabernet, chardonnay, and increasingly, pinot noir. But it's all a bit vulgar, isn't it, viewed through Euro-centric lens? Not to mention the wines all taste depressingly the same.

So what's the point of Californian wine? If you want jammy, goopy wines, why not just go super-cheap, some South American confection? Why must we pay ridiculous amounts of money for what amounts to character-less, personality-less, emotion-less wines? So we look at what we can find at the other end, if there is such a thing as a value Californian wine. And yes, I believe there is. The sweet spot seems to hover around the $20 mark. The wines, both cabernet and chardonnay, seem to be more honest - less interested in being impressive so much as simply bringing pleasure to the drinker. Mostly moderated alcohol and oak, which incidentally, reveals more of what the wine actually is.

The Foxglove, a delicious wine, one of the leanest examples of chardonnay I've ever tasted out of California. I don't want to say Chablis, because nothing quite represents that racy, steely style. But this shows full chardonnay aromas, with that acidic backbone on the palate. And if there's something that elevates a chardonnay into true excitement, it's that kind of extract and structure in the mouth. A wonderfully fresh and vibrant wine.

DF

changing tastes

2009 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay | Columbia Valley | Washington State

I used to despise chardonnay. All in that sort of irrational way, the that's the way I am kind of justification. You know when people are trying to convince you that the only reason you don't like something is because you haven't tried the right one? Like, if you had 'the right' food/wine/whatever, you'd be all up in that shit? Well, thanks for the advice, but fuck you. Everyone has their preference for things - stop trying to convince them that they're doing something wrong if they don't share yours. 

I've come around, but there's still a lot of chardonnay that pisses me off. It's a victim of its own success almost, like cabernet. Most of the wines being produced are flavoured primarily of oak and excessive lees aging and overdone malolactic fermentation, and all that ... outside of France it seems, few people are doing that lean, structured, varietal style of chardonnay. And even the French hiccup sometimes - chardonnay has that propensity for unctuousness that it's almost so easy to go overboard. Drinking a buttery, vanilla-tinged confection is no fun for anyone. American chardonnay is what it is - the American palate goes for that rich style, but some of the sub-$20 examples are drinkable. Take this one, from Columbia Valley. Made in a style that's immediately recognizable on the nose, that almost overt caramel/butter note, but good amounts of acidity on the palate save it. Because yet again, it's all about acidity.

Everyone excited for the holidays yet? Busy with scheduling parties, choosing which get-togethers to attend? I'm actually looking forward to this year, yeah. Some things to take care of first though, with one more business school application to send out. Hoping to wrap it all up in the next 10 days or so. I've been prepping the wines though, and while not particularly eye popping, I think it's an interesting lineup. Still a few more weeks of hard graft left ... and then I'm not sobering up until mid-January.

DF

looking for some sunshine

2009 First Press Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley

We were lucky in Toronto - intense wind and rain last night, but nothing too catastrophic from Post-tropical storm Sandy. Was looking at pictures of New York, and they've been hammered. Hope my buddies in NYC and Chicago are ok ... stay dry and safe my friends.

I don't drink much Californian wine. Price certainly has something to do with it, but it's also that much of what I drink seems to be so boring. Yes, we all know how much Americans like fruit in their wines, but really, by that logic, they would just as be well served by drinking juice. Wine is wine only because it expresses something a bit more than middle-of-the-road, clean fruit flavours. Oak and alcohol are always going to be obnoxious issues to talk about in American wine, but in this wino's opinion, it's how they choose to express their fruit that turns me away from these wines. Of course, I'm generalizing here, as you could make the same claim for any new world wine.

I like First Press a lot. Maybe it's just me, but it's always these sub-$20 wines that seem more interesting. A little less ripe, a little less showy - simply more drinkable, pleasant wines. This cabernet, showing all the slightly jammy fruit that reminds you of its origin, but with this subtle stemminess that holds onto that bit of varietal character. Alcohol a bit high, but balanced, and altogether, a very agreeable wine with dinner. Now why can't more new world wines be like this? I mean, is it so painful for people to pick just a bit earlier, and hold back just a bit on the extraction?

Eventually, I think all the worst excesses of this whole high alcohol, macerated fruit nonsense will be reined back, at least in America (the Australians can keep their syrup wines). But as consumers, we have to send a message that what we're looking for is elegance and balance - true balance, with acidity - instead of a wine that's constantly shouting and trying to prove how impressive it is.

DF

a few things I've been drinking

2009 Giacosa Fratelli Nebbiolo d'Alba | DOC Piedmont

2009 A to Z Wineworks Pinot Noir | Oregon

2010 First Press Chardonnay | Napa Valley

2009 Caves De Gigondas Le Dit De La Clapassière Séguret | AC Côtes Du Rhône Villages

All I ever want to do is drink interesting things. I'm just a simple guy - no matter how long I've been a North American, I'm still an immigrant. And I'm ok with the fact that I'll have very limited opportunities to taste rare, great wines. My parents taught me the importance of financial planning from a very young age - the sort of spend a dollar like it's ten kind of idea. We're always saving you see . . . sometimes for no particular reason except to have money ready when things go to shit. New immigrants (from China at least) don't go through that thought process, but for those of us who came over in the late 80's, it's a deeply ingrained habit that you save, save, save. It must be nice to be new immigrants, living off your parents money, doing fuck all. We know a lot of people who've sent their kids over to North America to do 'school' - heavy sarcasm, deep eye-roll - somehow equating success as getting married and having kids ASAP. What the fuck kind of world are we creating when spoiled, juvenile brats are having kids themselves before the age of 25? They go through the motions at school, barely get their degrees (if at all), and have no intention of getting proper jobs. They don't even need to raise their own kids, because of course, mom and dad will take care of living expenses and raise the kids for you, while you sleep until noon and hang out with your other rich, useless friends.

Useless people that's all it is. I sound increasingly bitter. This is because whenever I return to Shanghai, it's as if I'm the failure for not being married, not having a kid, not being able to buy my own house. Are you fucking kidding me? I don't want to be anything like you motherfuckers. If anything, I'll go out of my way to avoid turning into you, because there's no pride in gaining anything you haven't earned yourself.

All I want is to drink interesting things.

I've cut my wine budget significantly. I figure I'd rather drink a case of $13-20 bottles a month, than drink 2 or 3 bottles that fit the definition of what people think good wines are. Whatever the fuck that means. I'm cool with it. Because we all know Barolo is a fabulous wine - it'll be a great experience, but the knowledge you gain from it is incremental. It's the more obscure, humble wines that give a much more meaningful lesson. These are some of the wines I've been drinking recently.

So a downgrade from Barolo to a nebbiolo d'Alba, though from a very good, traditionally-minded producer. The Giacosa Fratelli, flawed as all hell with volatile acidity (comes off as sharp and vinegar-y, as well as used frying oil), but with considerable old country charm. Good nebbiolo character, ornery but give it some time - it proves that there's as much beauty in imperfection as there is in perfection. The A to Z pinot noir, admittedly a mistake . . . I had originally planned on picking up their chardonnay. I've never made that mistake before, but I could have sworn it looked lighter in colour when I bought it. A simple, clean, pure pinot noir. See what I was referring to, when I spoke about charm? These 'correct' wines simply reflect the bias of the winemakers, who are so terrified of anything un-sterile that they end up robbing much of the character of the wine. You can make clean, sterile wine anywhere. But character . . . ay, that's where so many producers take a stumble.

Napa Valley chardonnay fits a very specific profile. Do we really expect anything other than big, oaky, alcoholic wines from there? One does get the sense that they're dialing it back, at least compared to 10 years ago. Interestingly enough, you only get that really obvious, really fake kind of wine in the upper price ranges, the sort of wines Parker gives 95+ to. There's quite a bit of balance to be found in wines towards the lower end, which is why I had to taste the Wine Press Chardonnay. Moderate levels alcohol at about 13% abv and fresh with great balance. Creamy oak, but it's all offset by lots of lemon citrus aromas, great amounts of acid and extract. Some herbal aromas too, to keep it all interesting. A fabulous find, and because it says Napa on the label, people will think you balled out for it.

I haven't drunk Rhône wines in a long time. I'm reminded that these are some of the wines that first impacted me deeply, when I first started drinking. It just seems that (on the low end at least), these wines have become more homogenized in taste. They've been made higher in alchol, with more overripe, macerated fruit, and with softer textures. Almost the exact opposite of the Rhônes I first started drinking - those wines were massively structured and masculine, yet showing incredibly fresh, earthy aromas. Wild wines. This bottle, the Caves De Gigondas Le Dit De La Clapassière, from the village of Séguret, reminds me more of that traditional style. It has the ripe fruits and structure, yes, but also of that freshness good red wines need. There's also this great stemmy quality I associate with country wines.

I have a thing about non-conformists. We need to celebrate these wines, like we celebrate people who refuse to take the easy way. Just as noble and grand wines come from vines who struggle to survive, so do great people. I'll probably piss off a lot of people for writing this. But at least I know how to wipe my own ass.

All I want to do is drink interesting things.

DF

happy drunk on chardonnay

2010 Sols & Sens Laudun Blanc | AC Côtes du Rhônes-Villages

2009 Domaine Raphael Sallet | AC Mâcon Uchizy

2009 Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay | Wolff Vineyard | Edna Valley

We drank some interesting things. All sorts of shellfish, so I wanted to pour some heavier, more substantial white wines. Chardonnay drunk, simple bottles but oh so righteous. Prep took about 2 hours, and of course, you can't do it without a few glasses to keep you company. That white Rhônes, lovely viscous texture and all kinds of tropical. Good amount of alcohol too, leaving me more than a bit happy when I started cooking.

Mâcon Uchizy is just always reliable as a source of simple, expressive white Burgundy. This one is a better example, showing lots of structure and great extract on the palate - all at under 13% abv. The perfect wine to drink with oysters and clams. And then we got to the real surprise of the evening: a Californian chardonnay with style, class, and absolute charm. The Mount Eden Vineyards chardonnay pours a deep gold, with that obvious Cali character. Lots of creamy oak, ripe fruit. But give it some time, some air, and suddenly it shows a lot of minerality and freshness. Great amounts of acid on the palate, but still has that rich texture. Alcohol a bit high, but altogether, a beautiful wine.

Three bottles in, and a few after dinner Tom Collins', I got bombed out of my mind. So hungover I barely got out of bed the next day. But at least I didn't have to pray to the porcelain gods. Just a little château-ed, but when it's on good chardonnay - absolutely worth it!

DF

fruit and heat and all that

2009 Hogue Genisis Syrah | Columbia Valley | Washington

2010 Wits End The Procrastinator | McLaren Vale | South Australia

My uncle and aunt visited us from Melbourne at the end of April into the first week of May. It was great - we last saw each other briefly in April 2010, in Shanghai. They were on a big trip around North America, touching pretty much every major city on both coasts. Unfortunately, they had been out traveling a bit too long by the time they reached Toronto, and needed some rest. We didn't drink as much as I had hoped, but things happen, not to mention my preoccupation with GMAT.

We had a big dinner the last Sunday they were here though. Roast duck and all that love. I asked my uncle what he preferred - a white or red. The white was going to be an Australian semillon, and the red was the one above, a Washington state syrah. As I thought, being a middle-aged Chinese man, he went for the red. Under screwcap, it was typical of that big American style. All alcohol and overripe fruit, layered under oak. Not much there.

Which reminded me of a McLaren Vale cabernet blend I had drunk a few weeks earlier. The Wits End The Procrastinator is a blend of 63% cabernet franc, 23% merlot and 14% cabernet sauvignon. Is it hopeless to expect a wine of finesse from this part of Australia? More of the same, that macerated fruit, the total and utter lack of any varietal character. What's the fucking point? It drinks like a science experiment, totally devoid of any nuance or charm. I'm really hoping to come across a bottle to prove me wrong, but is McLaren Vale nothing more than a wasteland of 15%+ alcohol, sugary confections masquerading as real wine?!

Oh right, the Washington syrah. No syrah character whatsoever, but my uncle enjoyed it. Which is what those chemists were going for, isn't it.

DF

straight truth

But seriously, when it comes to spirits, I'm a cheap motherfucker.

Count on the Americans to not be able to manufacture a screwcap sturdy enough for more than 20 twists. It's all a conspiracy to make you drink more, I swear. I found an old bottle of Jim Beam Black Label that someone gave us, I forget. So I started drinking. And not even 1/3 of the way in, the screwcap breaks. It just keeps turning and turning now, never getting any tighter. How does that even happen?! I was stuck. I pretty much had to chug the rest of it and get alcohol poisoning, or let it all oxidize and go to hell. So I had to get creative. My friend (not so friendly anymore) once came to a dinner with a bottle of one of those tragic home-kit wines. The wine somehow went down the drain, but I ended up with a clear bottle. Good for something at least.

A bottle of bourbon is kinda my new thing. Whatever. Bourbon, any weird blended whisky, my love for Havana Club. Sometimes I just want to have a proper drink. It all starts with a touch of sweetness, then rounds out to something quite elegant. For late and lonely nights, because after all, we're not alcoholics.

DF

4-28, uncork and swirl

If I was in a better state of mind, I'd have planned the wines out a bit better, I suppose. More coherence from one to the next. But we had a good time drinking, finishing with a 2001 Les Ormes de Pez, elegant and subtle, at the cusp of maturity. But the most satisfying? Goddamn, if it wasn't the simple, humble muscadet.

DF

cheap and cheerful on a birthday

Birthdays suck. Now that we're (slightly) older, all it does is remind you that you need to be more responsible, more mature, more adult-like.

Went out to get a birthday gift for a friend - cedar shoe trees, the sort of old-timers thing I really like. Nothing makes a Harry Rosen sales rep go soft faster than when you say, yes, that's all I'm looking for. No I don't want two pairs. No, I don't want to look at anything else. Kind of amazing how transparently sales-oriented they've become there (on a consistent basis), that sort of attitude of fuck off, you're not worth my time, as soon as they realize you're not willing to drop more than a few bills. Even more disappointing is that you expect better from middle-aged men, who, let's be fucking frank, play dress-up and hustle rich customers for a living. As if wearing expensive suits and matching handkerchiefs with ties means anything. Such a shame. I met Harry Rosen a few years ago, when he gave a lecture at my school about entrepreneurship. You'd imagine that under his watch, such behaviour would not be tolerated . . .

I'm allowed to say shit like this once in a while because it's absolutely true and because, well, I'm a grumpy prick. A bit too lazy to bother putting up the names of the wines pictured, but they're all big labels, easy to find, and really, they don't need any more trumpeting. Cheap but cheerful wines to celebrate my friend's birthday this past weekend. We were going for wine to go down easy and just be fun - no thinking required (or desired). Low alcohol, so we could drink a lot. Pure, clean fruit flavours, balanced acidity. Freshness, because my buddy had prepared a large amount of food. And well, cheap - all for under $12 or so a bottle.

I think I did rather well in the 6 bottles I picked up. A box wine chardonnay, to mess around with another wine-loving friend, but French Rabbit's always been very drinkable. My first taste of Fuzion shiraz/malbec, as shitty of a wine as I had imagined it to be. The rest were actually quite good. The C'est La Vie from the Midi, gorgeous pure red fruits, very, very fresh. And the pair of Cono Sur wines, always dependable. I've been drinking their $10 pinot noir since second-year university, and in my opinion, it's one of the best wines at that price. Good acid, good fruit, even a bit of minerality/earthiness. The last two bottles, brought over by said wine-loving friend, a Bordeaux and a vermentino from Lodi(!) were solid, if unspectacular.

As these things go, we ate a long lunch, drank a shitload of wine, and promptly became hungry again. 10pm on a Sunday evening, out to get some congee before calling it a night. A great day. Wine is for thought and contemplation and all that, but sometimes, on a rare occasion (for me), a simple drink is all I want. Simple, honest, chuggable juice.

DF

falcon punch of bitter

Tree Brewing Hophead Double India Pale Ale | Kelowna | British Columbia

Southern Tier Brewing Company Unearthly Imperial India Pale Ale | New York

One East Coast, one West. One American, one American-wannabe. Oops . . . meant to say Canadian. But that's ok. We all (to some degree) want to stand under Old Glory.

The beers are delicious, clear proof that the most exciting beer in the world is being brewed by North Americans. But these incredibly hoppy brews that really slap you around a bit have the effect of altogether making you more aggressive, even slightly combative, than say, if you were drinking a Guinness. It's almost all a bit too much. It's a great thing that the pendulum is swinging back from the horrid, tasteless, fizz water that Bud, Coors and the rest of those fuckers sell, but one has to remember that it can swing too hard the other way as well. Certainly depends on your point of view of why you're drinking, but knock-out beers require a particular state of mind to enjoy.

But I need to go back and make clear that the beers are stunning. Vibrant and penetratingly well made, that seam of hops just roaring and tearing at your palate. Certain not for lovers of subtlety. With food? I wouldn't chance it, unless it was in the dead heat of summer and in front of the grill. There's no finesse here, just sheer power, although both beers do manage to stay agile, despite the high alcohols. Think Dwight Howard instead of (Lakers) Shaq. Really impressive beers, but I'm yet to be sold on this kind of style. I'll be meeting with a British brewer this weekend - really looking forward to having some of my beer questions answered. We'll keep it under wraps until then, but please come back for updates.

We'd all like for certain things to be knock-outs, and that takes into account the area of women as well. But on occasion, you want what's in your glass to be a bit more calm, a bit more mellow, and just a bit less . . . American. Should I make a Napa cab/Barossa Valley shiraz stereotype?

DF

our 2011 New Year's Eve

2009 Perrin & Fils L'Andéol Rasteau | AC Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages

2008 Sonoma Junction Cabernet Sauvignon | Sonoma County

2008 Sella & Mosca Riserva | DOC Cannonau di Sardegna

2006 Château Fongaban | AC Côtes de Castillon

Back to work tomorrow! Depressed, but since I'm not the offspring of a business mogul, back to spreadsheets and deadlines. It's been a fairly subdued holidays, but I did get to drink myself silly. Not silly drunk, but I did have a few good hangovers. Going through the photos, New Year's Eve seems a bit hazy. I vaguely remember doing an interlocked arm wine toast with an uncle. It's going to be painful having to get up before noon (sometimes 1pm) again.

Sometimes great drinkability is all you want. No fuss, although a bit more pure fruit would be nice. And with these long dinners with so much food on the table, so much interplay between savoury, sweet, sour, and spicy flavours, pure fruit and high acid, with not too much tannin are really the way to go. Of course, in an ideal world, we'd all be drinking Champagne and nothing but Champagne with these kinds of meals. Maybe someday.

Our host always prepares the best, in terms of resources and time required. We walked in and the first thing I saw was a box of lobsters wriggling in the sink, before a bottle of beer was promptly shoved in my hand. Good man. We had so much food. Ending with lobster and sea cucumber. Great stuff, and of all these family dinners we've had over the years, this one ranks as one of the more interesting ones. One of the kids said he had hurt his wrist - one look by the aunties and it was quickly determined that it was a fracture. And when one of us gets hurt, it's everyone's business, so my father and another uncle dragged him into the car and drove him to the emergency room to get checked out. About 2 1/2 hours and a soft cast later, I (tipsy as fuck) went with my mother (she drove of course) to pick them up. Problem solved, and back to the wine and lobster!

So, we had quite a range of red wines on the table. I sampled all of them - maybe a bit too unabashedly. Meaning the bottles were never farther than an arm's reach away from me. I have to be honest, I don't really remember specifics about any of the wines. They all sort of blend into each other, the way larger volume wines from high production producers are. The Bordeaux was good, though maybe I shouldn't be trusted . . . I had forgot that we had even opened a 4th bottle. All that well-made, unremarkable yet solid red wine. Good. Because you shouldn't get drunk on bottom-feeding junk. It's still respectable when the wines are $15+. And just look at those glasses . . . surely you don't expect to be swirling and sniffing from those, do you?

2012 up and at it, here we go again!

DF

white wine: minerality and focus

2008 Markus Molitor Riesling Spätlese | QmP Ürziger Würzgarten | Mosel

2009 Hess Select Chardonnay | Monterey

White wine is the best. You want to talk about transparency in wine . . . you want to talk about minerality; white wines can present that terroir expression faithfully, without all the fuss that plagues red wines (oak and low acid and all that).

I shouldn't be surprised, but these Mosel wines are absolutely singular in how they express where/when they were made. So much minerality in this wine it almost becomes a texture unto itself on the palate. Just breathtaking, how extracted and tangible the wine has captured its terroir. Markus Molitor likes more fruit in its wines, and they always seem to be made in a softer style (less aggressive acid), but this bottle is stunning.

With California chardonnay, is it fair to say that sometimes it's the $20-$25 wines that can actually be suitable to be drunk with food? I don't drink Californian wines because they're expensive for what they are (alcoholic marmalades), and of all the undrinkable elements of a wine, buttery/sickly sweet oak must be the worst of them all. This is a bit toned down, although not nearly as delicious as the S|K|N chardonnay we drank a few months ago. Deep gold, with that creamy oak, but balanced. Obvious, recognizable Cali chardonnay, but with decent acid and contained alcohol, not unpleasant.

A bit of a contrast, no? But then again, the human touch is also a part of terroir. There should be no contradiction - so long as the human touch is always working to express terroir first.

DF

2007 Napa Valley Chardonnay

2007 S|K|N Chardonnay | Napa Valley

Screw | Kappa | Napa. So charming. And Napa often sorely lacks in charm. Is the stereotype/reputation of Americans only making bombastic nukes that are simply utterly undrinkable fair, or is it uncomfortable for the yanks because it's true? Is the high alcohol, passively-aggressive sweetness of the wines simply a product of the Californian landscape or, more self-consciously (for you Americans), simply the red white and blue palate?

Americans have a lot to be proud of, but these turgid $100+ Napa franken-wine makers ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's a shame that so many Californian producers feel that the only way to be successful is to make the wine taste like nothing - not of the grape, not of the land, not of the vintage. But we're compelled to come back. Even ditzes have appeal, at times. Don't lie...shy and delicate is nice and all, but who doesn't turn their head for a second look at the voluptuous brunette with, as Yeezy says, an ass that would swallow up a . . . . .

This was not one of those.

We were hosting dinner, so I was a bit nervous with the wines I was serving. I don't believe in serving the same things over and over - too boring. So I pick out some interesting looking bottles and hope for the best. Dinner turned out great; so happy that the wines performed as well. Our first one of the night. Napa Chardonnay under screw cap, young. Sometimes going for the blockbusters will bite you in the ass, hard. The wieners who charge you $75 get too ambitious you see . . . all designer yeasts and new oak and calisthenics in the cellars. This was a refreshing (figuratively and literally) example of what Napa can do with this varietal if the paople making it humble themselves and take a step back. Wine that doesn't drink well with meals simply does not belong on the table, and it's as if an entire generation of New World producers lacks that basic fundamental understanding.

The wine was fresh, with great varietal character. Ripe fruit, with a creaminess, but the acidity and moderate alcohol made it a joy to drink. And you know it was a good wine when everyone around the table, even the neophyte drinkers, wanted a second (and third) glass. Great start to the meal.

DF

Southern Tier 2XIPA

Southern Tier Brewing Company 2XIPA | Lakewood, NY

Because brewing a simple India Pale Ale isn't enough . . . it has to be a double IPA. Can you believe a bottle of beer is almost running $3? I'm not suggesting that these great craft brews aren't worth it, but yeah, I just bought one. The weather was starting to seriously get a bit chilly, and we were making the most amazing spicy fish dish with green Sichuan peppercorns and a chili paste. I had planned on expecting the extreme hoppiness of this kind of beer to combat the fiery dish, and it didn't disappoint.

Beautiful orange, slightly cloudy colour, with lots of floral, citrussy hop aromas. Full and bitter on the palate, long. This is a very well made beer. It isn't necessarily any more bitter or extreme in any way compared with some of the Ontario IPA's I've been drinking. It's more the quality of the hops used. If you like aromatic brews, this one's it. Nice. Although I'm ready for this hops trend to pass. Let's really see you put your balls on the table and put out a triple . . . no, a quadruple IPA.

DF

2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

2004 Silverado Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley

I'm a bit of a grump with Californian wines; it seems I've had a bad run of them lately. But as long as it's someone else's bottle . . .

My buddy was feeling generous, and we gathered one evening to drink some Napa cab with a bit of bottle age. I was tempering my expectations, but still looking forward to it. We had finished eating dinner (featuring a gracefully presented seigo sashimi), and with a plate of casalingo salami, I was ready to go.

A little measure of redemption. Dark, but not inky, showing full saturation. Pure fruit on the nose, deep and tense; ripe and slightly jammy, but retains a freshness. Alcohol sticks out a bit, showing primary fruit on the palate. As we kept drinking over a few hours, the fruit became sweeter, rounder, but remaining finely structured. Drinking well in fact, and it answered some of the questions I had about Napa cab.

This wasn't a trophy wine, by any means, but these wines seem to all show that same style. Lots of primary fruit, that never really develops any secondary characters. Of course, this is hardly an older wine, but the fruit is jammy, and beginning to fall off at the finish. Does anyone really expect it to get any more exciting? I wouldn't expect this wine to develop much more. But that's not really the point is it. These wines are for people who like big, jammy, flabby fruit. No subtlety, but at least the alcohol doesn't blow your head off. It'd just be nice for a $50+ wine to show just a little bit more nuance.

But then again, it's easy to criticize wine you didn't pay for.

DF

2009 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir

2009 Santa Barbara Winery Pinot Noir | AVA Santa Rita Hills

Do Americans think of pinot noir and syrah as being interchangeable? Does labelling varietal really matter to these people? Someone tell me because I can't drink American wines anymore, I just can't. Tried to give it a shot, but no, unless someone else is paying, I give up.

Santa Rita Hills is supposed to be pinot noir country . . . or is it? Climate and soil is important, but all it takes is a winemaker's leaden palate to fuck it all up. I'm making generalizations of course, but please, someone show me a good, true pinot noir out of Santa Barbara county and prove me wrong. Do it, I dare you.

I set up this wine for failure by drinking it with the previous Central Otago, but still, it shouldn't have been that bad. Heavy chill as well, but so inky, so dark, jammy, sweet - all those things that stereotype American red wines as caricatures. You can't handle pinot noir as a syrah - you just end up with a wine that is unrecognizable as either. High in alcohol, jam in the mouth, sweet oak. Probably not as bad as it could have been, but this is not what true wine can be. I don't give a fuck what rhetoric American winemakers (and writers) use to justify these types of wines, but they are just undrinkable. Can't do it anymore, just can't. Wine that leaves your head spinning after two glasses? You crazy Americans.

DF

Anchor Steam Beer

Anchor Brewing Company Anchor Steam Beer

I guess summer is over. Shit. We've had a really nice, hot one, but somehow it always seems to end too quick. We've made a conscious effort to grill more this year, and on each occasion, starting with beer just seems the right thing to do. I can't get to work to get the charcoal going, fanning and stoking the flames, until I have something good to drink. And this was serious beer.

Anchor Brewing Company is in San Francisco, with a history going back to the gold rush in the mid 1800's. They brew a range of different beers, but this one is the only one available in Ontario, I believe. Here, check out their website. No point in me repeating what you can read for yourself.

This is their most well-known beer. A beautiful colour, malty and round in the mouth, smoky. Finishes hoppy, perfectly balanced, just delicious. North American brewers seem to be pushing the hop profile in their beers - many are successful, but like all things, balance is key. It's very satisfying indeed to drink beers that are well made, and show a more sensible character. Lovely.

DF

2008 Oregon Pinot Noir

2008 Wine by Joe Pinot Noir, Oregon

What an American way to name a wine.

Outdoors grilling again, lots of seafood and greens on the table. A relatively inexpensive pinot noir from what the Americans like to think of as the finest New World site for the varietal. Judging from the prices some are charging, one finds it hard to argue otherwise. Price, after all, is the surest barometer of a fine wine in the 21st century.

I've been burned so many times by Oregon wines, sometimes literally. I always find it amazing that people accept 15% abv. wines as acceptable, especially those with an obvious alcohol burn. This one bucks the trend - it feels forever since I've had a truly balanced American wine. Pure varietal fruit, not much else going on, but a solid, respectable drink. Most of all, drunk outdoors in the heat, refreshing like nothing else.

Printing Really Good on the label and the cap comes off as a bit presumptuous, but the cartoon man carrying the enormous bottles is a nice touch. I like wine. I like drinking a lot of it. And I like winemakers who don't insist on nuking your liver after 2 glasses.

DF