JANUARY 22

New Year, New Beer by Alex Keevil

I no longer make New Year’s resolutions. Long ago I made a resolution to never make another one and, unlike most resolutions, I’ve stuck to it. With that being said it is nice to start a new year with something a little different. Something to help you define this year from last, not as tangible as turning the page in a calendar, but a proverbial line in the sand none the less.

I drank my fair share of beer in 2011, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process. The problem was that by December there were times I found myself staring blankly at the beer cooler, unable to make up my mind, truly, in need of something different. Thankfully, I’ve been able to start my new year, with some new beers, so far it’s been thoroughly enjoyable.

Here are a few of the new beers which have been tickling my fancy over the last few weeks:

Les Trois Mousquetaires, Porter Baltique, (750ml)
St. Bernardus, Abt 12, Belgian Quad, (750ml)
Ommegang, Hennepin, Belgian Style Ale, (4-pack)
Ommegang, Rare Vos, Belgian Style Amber Ale (4-pack)

OCTOBER 30

Rigorous Research by Alex Keevil

After two days rigorously spent coming up with creative new tasting events I figured I’d take a little time and let everyone in on the creative process, as well as offer up a few teasers pertaining to some of the upcoming events. It all starts in the specially designed Bin905 sensory deprivation chamber. Without the distracting influence of fine wines, bubbles and beer we get to work crafting the most entertaining, innovative, educational, and transcendent tastings our minds can concoct. After countless hours of sweat blood and tears (don’t worry the chamber is disinfected afterwards) we emerge, victorious and ready to present our tastings to the world.

Excuse me while I take my tongue out of my cheek and finish this last oyster.

In all seriousness there is lots of hard behind the scenes work that goes into every Bin905 event. The staff spends many hours researching the products we plan to present and putting together concise, educational and entertaining presentations. The goal of all our tastings is for the customers to go home thoroughly entertained and a little more knowledgeable about wine (at least by the next morning when all the wine wears off). The benefits for the staff are simple, the work is fun and when you’re having fun it hardly feels like work at all.

It’s fun going through Bin905’s extensive library stock to see what awesome vertical lineups we can pull out for our new ‘Vertical Series’ tasting events that will be beginning in the new year. It’s fun thinking of holidays and what events we can base around them. Like the French Love Affair, a food and wine event for Valentine’s Day. Or the April Fools blind tasting event where we try and throw you, the customer for a loop. It’s fun to spend a little time thinking about what we want to taste and how we can develop that idea into a tasting event.

That’s how last Thursday’s lunch evolved into an oyster feast. We were hashing out the details for our December 9th ‘Oyster Pairings’ tasting and trying to work through the logistics of shucking and serving 20+ dozen oysters when we realized it was getting dangerously close to lunch time. Heading some famous advice; “no battle plans ever survives contact with the enemy” we decided we’d better get shucking and put our plan of attack to the test. The test proved to be both informative and delicious but our data is still a little inconclusive. I think I see some more rigorous research on the horizon.

SEPTEMBER 12

BBQ and Chenin Blanc by Alex Keevil

I love to Barbeque, and I especially love when I can make my entire dinner on the Barbeque. Obviously there is going to be some kitchen prep needed (peeling, dicing, marinating, etc.) but once everything is ready to start cooking you can relax outside and enjoy the weather while the delicious aromas waft by. A juicy steak and a great bottle of Bordeaux usually complement this endeavor very nicely but when the sun is beating down and the thermometer is still pushing 25 degrees I prefer to opt for some lighter fare, and one of my favorite white grapes; Chenin Blanc. Here are a couple meals I’ve done recently which paired beautifully together.

Char crusted chicken breast sliders with apple coleslaw and corn on the cob.

I like to keep the prep pretty simple, and I didn’t make the coleslaw at home.

1. Coat the chicken breasts in Char Crust (I used the sundried tomato flavor)
2. Slice a tomato, the mushrooms and an onion, put the mushroom and half the onion in tinfoil with olive oil
3. Cook the chicken, corn and mushrooms/onion (in the tinfoil) on the grill
4. When it’s all cooked slice the chicken breast, peel the corn on the cob (I cook it with the husk on) and bring it all to the table
5. Assemble sliders in small rolls with char crusted chicken, tomato, sautéed mushrooms/onions, fresh onions, mayo and some coleslaw.
6. Eat them with the corn and more coleslaw on the side.

I paired this meal with the Chateau Pierre Bise Anjou White and it was awesome. The ripeness of the Chenin Blanc complemented the sweetness in the coleslaw and harmonized with the spice of the Char Crust. The wicked acidity held everything together wonderfully. The glass I drank while cooking everything was pretty good too.

Spicy Italian Sausage with a roasted sweet potato/onion medley and grilled asparagus.

1. Score the sausage so it can cook through without having to char the outside
2. Peel and dice the sweet potato and onion, put then in tinfoil with olive oil and garlic salt
3. Brush the asparagus with olive oil and garlic salt
4. Put the sausages and sweet potato/onion medley on the grill first. The asparagus takes less time
5. I also brushed some honey onto the sausage as it cooked for a little added sweetness
6. No assembling or peeling for this one. Just cook and serve

I had a bottle of off-dry Montlouis with this dinner. The sweetness went great with the sweet potato and the honey glaze on the sausage. It also balanced the spice in the sausage very well. The oily mouth feel worked well with the sweet potato/onion medley as well as with the olive oil brushed asparagus. I think a Demi-Sec Vouvray would work even better with this meal as well.

Here’s Hoping last week’s excellent weather returns for an encore and we all get a few more chances to enjoy spending the evenings outdoors

SEPTEMBER 05

Cleaning the cellar…the fun way by Sylvain Courel

When i go visit my family in France, the first thing i do when i arrive there is to go down “a la cave” and see how my wines are doing. This time i’ve been brave and worked my way through a massive reorganization and exhaustive inventory of the cellar my dad started 35 years ago and i followed up for the last 7 years. Alissa, my fiancee, and a bottle of Deutz NV were great help in this difficult task.

First move was to extract all those bottles that are way passed prime, some unknown Chateaux mostly from Bordeaux from the late 70’ and early 80’s. I brought those bottles up and opened all those wines; they all had a somehow pleasant fragance (saddle leather, sous-bois) when first opened but the palate was far from being attractive: no fruit left, high acidity, vinagary finish? So off they went down the drain.

Secondly, i reorganized the cellar by section: Bordeaux, South West, Loire Valley, Rhone, Burgundy, Whites and New World. On a quick note here, all the wines from the latter section comes from BIN905, i had to bring them back 24 bottles at a time instead of loading my luggages with clothes...it’s all about priorities, wear clothes or fill the cellar up.

Thirdly, draw some directions into the collecting program: drink what needs to be drunk, but also eliminate those single bottles (by drinking them). I find it very frustating to enjoy a great bottle of wine and not being abble to revisit again. On the other hand, when i found multiples, i open away to figure out where the wine’s at, how much more time for it to peek, unless i know the wine very well.

So here are a quick sumary of my encounters.

Chateau Bouscasse Vieilles Vignes Madiran 2002: Last time i was in France, i visited the winery and snapped this bottle straight from there, then cellared it for couple years; This beautifull beast impresses with its opaque color, when you see it you know it’s a tannic wine that could make your teeth fall. Made out of 100% Tannat, the wine boasts aromas of Cassis, black cherries and chocolate toast; It is so big that it makes those 2005 left bank looks like babies; i also found it bigger than Montus 2005 we drank with my coworkers the week before in Calgary.

Chateau La Grace Dieu Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 1996 Bordeaux France: Light red core to lighter rim, this wine was surprisingly soft for a 1996 Bordeaux. A lot of Capsicum on the nose at first which eventually blew off to let some room for traditional sous bois aromas from Bordeaux. You always expect much more from those Bordeaux wines that use the words “grace”, “god” and “grand cru” on the same label; it leads you to believe an archangel will show up as soon as you pop the cork...it didn’t.

Chateau Bouscasse Madiran 1999: Tannat 65 %, Cabernet Sauvignon 25 %, Cabernet Franc 10%, medium garnet core to light cherry core, a nose of wild berries, sour cherries and saddle leather. A full bodied wine with a lot of lenght; However not my favorite vintage, a touch ferrel when i would care for more fruit...perfect match with Duck Magret anyway, which was cooked “a la Plancha”.

Domaine Labranche Laffont Madiran 2003: Baught in Dando Distribution, this was a “coup de coeur” wine or featured wines by the caviste; purple fuschia color, shiny, cassis jam, black currant, blueberry jam, this was overall an extremely modern wine from an atypical vintage; my first impression was: Am i drinking Malbec? a great buy that we enjoyed side by side with the Bouscasse 1999, and i hate to say it but it was the table’s favorite.

Rockburn Pinot Noir 2002 Central Otago New Zealand: We were having salmon and despite my love for Madiran as you might have guessed, it was time to let go the Tannat and bring in something a touch lighter. The color was quite intense, a black cherry core to a cherry rim, a touch reductive, the wine was quite full bodied and boasted some aromas of Cherries, leather, wild forest and more dark notes; 14.5% alcohol, a light wine?

Maxwell Lime Cave Cabernet 2002 Mc Laren Vale Australia: A dark cherry core showing a little bit of color degradation. From the nose to the palate, this wine is trully Australian with even more acidity one might expect from it. Raspberry, Chocolate and menthol/eucalyptus. The structure is seductive with those round sweet tannins, a perfect wine to kick off a fun party when guests only drink red wine. Amazing bang for the back.

Scali Syrah 2002 Paarl South Africa: Only 18 barrels where made from this wine. I recalled it being quite ferrel and tannic at the time, but now it shows beautiful; The color is still really deep with a black cherry core to slightly lighter color on the rim, the wine boasts aromas of sweet espresso, chocolate and black berry with some leather notes; the tannins are round and sweet. A great product from South Africa that i should keep collecting.

Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Beaucastel 2003 Paso Robles United States: 50% Mourvedre, 27% Syrah, 16% Grenache, 7% Counoise. If you like Chateauneuf du Pape, this wine is for you. A little bit of age on this bottle added so much more to it. Its was salmon-orange hue was brilliant and shiny, its fragrance was dominated by raspberry and strawberry flavors, the palate reflected the nose plus it also had some spicy note to it, like cinamon and white pepper. If you have some of that in your cellar i recommend to let it age another 5 to 10 years, the tannins would get even softer but the fruit content would stay for sure. Tres chic.

Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz 2002 South Eastern Australia: I believe this bottles had passed its prime unfortunately, or maybe it is not meant to be aged. The fruit bomb became a rotten fruit splash and the wine was unbalanced, probably due to the lack of acidity in it.

A la votre!

Sylvain

AUGUST 13

Drink Canadian Eh? Part II by Alex Keevil

The question I posed before leaving for my trip was ‘how much of the enthusiasm (for Canadian wine) I once had returns with me from Osoyoos’. The problem is that I’m not sure how to answer that question. My knowledge of wine, my taste for wine and my ability to judge wine has changed considerably (I’m hoping for the better) since my first trip to Okanagan.

While tasting wines on the first day in Osoyoos I realized, I’ve lost the blissful ignorance I once had and I can no longer be as enthusiastic about Canadian wine as a whole. While that statement may sound negative, I see it as a positive. The Canadian wines I do enjoy I can enjoy on a much deeper level. Even as a ‘blissfully ignorant’ consumer I always knew when I really liked a certain wine, but I never had the ability to properly understand, or voice what it was that I liked so much. What was so enjoyable about my latest trip was being able to pinpoint the wines I really enjoyed and then being able to understand and communicate what attributes in those wines spoke to me.

Overall it was a fantastic trip. Osoyoos, and the whole Okanagan, is such a beautiful part of B.C. I certainly found lots of wine I really liked (I came home with a mixed case) and I’m going to make a point of going back next summer to checkout some of the wineries I didn’t have time to visit. One thing I know for sure is that there are so many different wineries, doing so many different styles of wine, if you look around there really is something for everyone.

AUGUST 03

Drink Canadian Eh? Part I by Alex Keevil

My plans for the days off I have coming up include a quick jaunt down to Osoyoos as part of my commitment to cram as much summer fun as possible into the month of August. Naturally, while I’m down there I plan on sampling some of the wine and that got me thinking, I really don’t drink much Canadian wine these days. Probing further, that thought raised the question, where did my enthusiasm for Canadian wine go?

It was late August 2005 when an impromptu trip, destined for Osoyoos, sparked in me what has become a true passion for wine. From those humble beginnings I have spent the last six years sampling different wines and learning as much as I can about wine, I even had a brief affair with winemaking, albeit in the basement of my house. Looking back, I think the more I discovered new regions and new styles I had never tried, my enthusiasm for Canadian wine was pushed aside.

I have a friend from Kelowna who is unabashedly pro Okanagan. If I ask him to bring a bottle of wine to a BBQ, I know where it will be from. I don’t expect to return feeling quite that way, but I am interested to see how much of the enthusiasm I once had for Canadian wine returns with me from Osoyoos. I’ll explore that in part II. 

JULY 31

Experiments with Sangria by Erika Johnson

What do you consider the ultimate summer drink?  For me it is Sangria.  It is just so delicious on a warm summer evening.  It is easy to make, cheap and always a crowd pleaser. Unfortunately as the evenings get hotter it can sometimes be just a bit much.  So I did some research and found some recipes for White Sangria and Cava Sangria. 

They were amazing!  A must try for any Sangria lover.  I found that they were not as sweet as the traditional red Sangria and very tropical (although that might have been the fruit we were using).  We macerated papaya, mango, pineapple, kiwi, and the traditional lemon, lime and orange in St. Germaine Elderflower for about 45 min with sugar and a touch of salt and then did the regular blend of ginger ale, wine, fruit and ice.  The wine I choose was an Albarino which is noted for its distinctive aroma, very similar to that of Viognier, Gewurztraminer, and Petit Manseng, suggesting apricot and peach. The wine produced is light and generally high in acidity with alcohol levels of 11.5–12.5%. Albarino is grown in northwest Spain and Portugal.  It was an instant success, every sip was even better than the last.  The drink was clean, light, fresh a nice change of pace. 

As for the Cava Sangria we used the same fruit and liquor as the white sangria but instead of wine we used Cava.  Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine.  It was perfect! A hot evening with a fruity glass of bubbles, I had no idea that Cava could be so much fun.  At first when we were making it I thought about Grandma’s fruit punch with the rings of orange and other fruits, but this is not how it tasted.  It was fun, dry, tropical and pleasing to the palate.

If you enjoy sangria as much as I do then please try a white or Cava Sangria I promise you will enjoy it.

Erika XOX

JULY 30

My foray into sparkling wine…. by Alex Keevil

Before I started working at Bin905 my experience with sparkling wine was limited to say the least. There were the bottles of Baby Duck my hockey team drank after winning the intramural championship in university and I also bought a bottle of Baby Canadian Champagne when I graduated high school, but I was young and everyone makes mistakes. The only other experience I had was restricted to the odd glass of Cava or Proseco at weddings or family events. It wasn’t until I started my sommelier training that I had a proper glass of Champagne. Aiming to fix this grievous error on my part I’ve taken it upon myself to begin a sparkling wine regiment by sampling some of the delicious selections we have here at Bin905.

My first step was to realize that bubbles don’t have to be reserved for special occasions. In fact, I was doing them a disservice by thinking that way. Instead you should think of Champagne and sparkling wines as great pairings for food that is can be hard to pair with a still wine, like spicy Thai food or an assorted Sashimi selection. You should think of Champagne or a sparkling rose as a great drink to sip on your patio, or down by the riverside, on a hot summer or fall day. You can even use Champagne or sparkling wine to celebrate life’s minor milestones, like finishing work on the last Sunday of stampede or waking up before noon. However you choose to incorporate more bubbles one thing is for sure, your taste buds will thank you.

Here are a few selections I’ve recently tried and really liked.

Henri Billiot Brut Reserve, Champagne, France, $65

Champagne made from 100% Grand Cru Vineyards in Ambonnay. It’s not a Blanc de Noir, its 75% Pinot noir and 25% Chardonnay, but expresses some wonderfully fresh and bracing red fruit flavors along with a weighty mid palate. Because the wine does not undergo malolactic fermentation the wines are very lively and can be quite reductive when first disgorged. As an interesting experiment try decanting a bottle. You lose some of the carbonation but the reductive aspects fade away and the Pinot Noir come screaming from the glass.

Taltarni Brut Tache, Australia, $31

Made using traditional Champagne grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier) Taltarni is fermented in its original bottle and matured on yeast lees according to traditional methods. The term Tache come from the French word for ‘stained’. At disgorgement the wine is stained with red wine imparting a beautiful salmon and peach color. The wine itself has floral aromas mixed with ripe strawberries and yeasty characteristics. It had a wonderfully juicy acidity and intense fruit on the palate.

Alex

JULY 30

Stuck in a rut… by Heather McDougall

I am as guilty as anybody else when it come to my wine choices. Left to my own devices I will gravitate the the same safes choices over and over. My cellar is stocked with Burgundy (red and white), Barolo, and Bordeaux. While I am waiting for them to age I would bring home, yup you guessed it, more of the same. It wasn’t until I started here that I really started to taste (and buy) outside my comfort zone. I have developed a taste for Riesling (both dry and sweet, thanks Liam), Aussie Shiraz (this was Nigel’s doing), and the Rhone Valley (from it’s biggest fan, Sylvain). Over the past year I have become more adventurous with my choices, and let me tell you, diversity is delicious! 

Cheers,

Heather

MAY 31

Dieu du Ciel Spring releases by Nigel Bousie

Well back for another mother of swilling God’s great amber fluids perfectly right for Calgary’s long dreamy summer and if I hear one more person talk about the rain “I’ll gie ye a skelpit lug!”

For this pleasant month we have 2 newbies from the land of poutine, mobsters and secessionism, both from our favourite little Micro Brasserie Dieu De Ciel. While being very typical large beers not shy of challenging all but the most sturdy swillers in the world, they are excellent products that compliment the already outstanding range available.

The first is the Chaman IPA which is the “everything is bigger in America, even TEXAS” style IPA. Developed for the bleak weather of the Pacific North West Coast, think what you know about India Pale Ales and multiply the hop factor leading to an awesome dram. The hops in this can make a grown man cry and reek of another favourite Canadian past time: not hockey.

The second classy dram is the Equinoxe De Printemps. This combination of traditional Scottish cask aged ale style and Canada’s favourite condiment means, no maple syrup for the Sunday morning brekkie fry up, use this beer on the pancakes and sausages instead. Malty, woody and finishes sweet due to the inclusion of maple syrup, love this Bonnie Bairn.

MAY 09

Bin 905 is hiring! by Geoff Last

Bin 905 is currently looking for both full and part time sales assistants. Applicants must have a good level of wine knowledge and preference will be given to those with formal wine accreditation. We offer many excellent benefits, salary is negotiable. Please contact general manager Geoff Last @ 403-261-1600 for more info. 

NOVEMBER 25

We are the Riesling Kings! by Geoff Last

We are the Rieslings kings! We stock what is not only the best selection of premium German wines in Calgary but, apparently – the whole entire world! In October one of our favourite Germans -Johannes Selbach – was in town and came by Bin 905 to conduct a staff tasting. Johannes is a tireless traveller and his exceptional Mosel wines can be found in 135 different countries. As such he sees a lot of wine stores. After perusing our German section he informed us that we have one of the best Riesling sections he has ever seen, period. This didn’t happen overnight. For years Riesling has been the best kept secret in the wine world despite high praise from such iconic wine writers as Jancis Robinson, who has declared Riesling as her favourite white grape. We embarked down the Riesling path ten years ago, slowly but surely spreading the doctrine. Why? Here is the sales pitch: “Tired of over-oaked, over worked Chardonnay? Looking for a wine to go with pad-thai, roast pork, sushi, curry, ratatouille, asparagus, artichokes, teriyaki chicken, fruit pies, sweetbreads and goose? Are you interested in white wines that will age for decades but don’t cost a king’s ransom and can still be enjoyed young? Let me show you our Riesling section”.
As I happily explored the German countryside, signing up high quality producers as fast as I could, it became apparent that I was perhaps a little over zealous. At that time we had more German Riesling than customers, which can be problematic. As such a few gems slipped through our wine-stained hands, and Toni Jost was one of them. Now, I am happy to report, they are back, one might even say with a vengeance. If ever there was a grape that deserves sweet (as well as off-dry and bone dry) revenge, after all, it is Riesling. View our Exclusives section for more info on Toni Jost.
Geoff Last

OCTOBER 14

Califonia’s silver lining by Geoff Last

At Bin 905 we love wines from California. We carry an extensive selection of wines from the state, including such elusive treasures as Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Bond, Colgin and Sine Qua Non, to name but a few. These are very expensive wines and the recession has had little impact on their prices (although it has made them available to us, at the very least). These ultra-collectable wines represent a small percentage of our California selection however, and the good news is that we are seeing an ever-increasing array of high quality, reasonably priced wines coming out of the state. Take our Summers 2005 Reserve Cabernet ($ 54) from Napa Valley, for example. This is premium Napa Valley Cab, immensely drinkable now but capable of aging for a decade or more. At $54 it is not exactly cheap but this wine competes with some much more well-known Napa Valley wines costing twice as much. Or how about the wines from Cameron Hughes? This California négociant has built a 300,000-plus case production business yet he owns no vineyards or a winery, for that matter. He has been able to take advantage of depressed fruit prices across California, scoring juice from some of the best vineyard sites and bottling it under his own label. Not bad for a guy who started out selling wine out of the back of his car. Here are a few more of our favourites that offer great vale:
Cannonball 2007 Cabernet - $29 –Big, juicy wine for a big, juicy burger
Revenge 2007 Napa Red Wine - $39 – revenge can be sweet but in this case it is dry, red and delicious
Cameron Hughes Lot 172 2007 Atlas Peak Cabernet - $32 – a serious wine from a special locale
Rockledge 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon - $42 (was $65) – very tasty now and even better with time
Ojai 2005 Santa Barbara County Syrah - $35 – A Bin 905 exclusive, first rate Syrah from a first rate producer

Geoff Last, GM

SEPTEMBER 07

Point to point by Geoff Last

Bin 905 has never really bought in to the rating networks, be it Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator, or any number of publications that rate wine on a 100-point scale. Without going into a lengthy diatribe about the faults inherent to rating wine in this manner - they are, after all, fairly obvious - we simply go about the business of buying and selling wines based on what we taste, and we taste everything prior to buying it and again when it arrives. That being said, we respect the fact that people do buy wine based on these reviews and, truth be told, some of these publications have led us to the door of some excellent producers. We discovered Summers (Napa Valley) via Robert Parker, a producer who is delivering some terrific wines that are modestly priced, at least by Napa standards. In the latest issue of Parker’s Wine Advocate he singles out two producers that are near and dear to our palates, Ojai (from California’s South Central Coast) and Villa Matilde (southern Italy). We have been carrying both producers exclusively for some time now but we thought we would pass on the latest accolades. Parker was clearly taken with Ojai’s impressive Syrahs, saying that “this is a special group of Syrahs from Adam Tomach’s Ojai Vineyard. Moreover, prices have remained stable, so consumers should be standing in line to buy these wines”. And of Villa Matilde, Parker’s Italian specialist - Antonio Gallardi - had this to say: “these superb whites were among the best under $25 (U.S.) wines I tasted this year”.  So do we feel smug to have our opinions validated by the world’s most influential wine publication? Well, perhaps just a little.
Geoff Last, GM

AUGUST 24

2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Does it live up to the hype? by Geoff Last

2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape – Does it live up to the hype?
By Geoff Last
The term “vintage of the decade” is bandied about with a fair bit of regularity these days, so frequently in fact that we tend to regard such claims with a certain degree of skepticism.  The problem with vintage assessments – especially within the mainstream wine media – is that they damn the producers who manage to rise above the challenges of a difficult year. This is especially true of regions like Burgundy where quality is often achieved by rigorous de-selection of fruit and absurd attention to detail. We have all tasted great wines from so-called “bad” vintages at one time or another and as such I tend to place more importance on the producer rather than the generalized vintage conditions. But every now and then a vintage comes along that was so perfect that the wines almost make themselves. This was the case in 2007 in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a year described by Robert Parker as the “vintage of a lifetime” accompanied by such adjectives as historic, profound and flawless with numerous 100-point scores to back it all up. As prone to hyperbole as Parker may be he appears to be pretty much bang-on in this instance. We have amassed a nice selection of wines from this vintage and they are truly remarkable. They offer beautiful ripeness – but not overripe as they were in years like 2003 – backed by excellent acidity and muscle, in short, the perfect vintage to lay down.

Good Chateauneuf does not come cheap – most sell in the $50 to $100 range – but relative to other collectable, world-class wines they remain a bargain. One only has to cast a disparaging gaze towards classified-growth Bordeaux or grand cru Burgundy to figure that out. These are wines that will pay off in spades with time in the cellar and my advice is to buy as much as you can afford while you can. In larger markets around the world the vintage has essentially sold out. On a recent visit to San Francisco, for example, I couldn’t help but notice that several prominent wine stores had sold out entirely of the 07 vintage and were moving on to 2008. One wine merchant I spoke to described it as panic buying, especially after the Parker reviews came out. At Bin 905 we currently have a great selection of 07’s still in stock including wines from Chateau Beaucastel, Domaine la Barroche, Clos Saint Jean (including their Deux-Ex Machina described by Robert Parker as “the single greatest wine I have ever tasted”), Domaine du Pegau, Domaine Vieille Julienne, Clos des Brusquires, Domaine de la Morderee, Boisrenard, Olivier Hillaire and Pierre Usseglio.  Many of these wines will be included in an upcoming in-store tasting, keep your eye on this website for details.

AUGUST 20

FAREWELL TO KAREN RALPH by Geoff Last

Farewell to Karen Ralph – by Geoff Last, General Manager

After nine quick years Bin 905 is saying goodbye to Karen Ralph. I have known Karen for over 20 years and we have been friends for a good part of that time. When I first met Karen it was in the early days of Calgary’s small, incestuous punk-rock scene which was centered in and around the long lost Calgarian Hotel. Karen was wearing a green garbage bag that had been fashioned into a mini-dress of sorts (we were really young). She had lots of attitude and a wicked sense of humour. She still possesses both of those traits and they are among the many things we will miss as we forge on without her. If you visit our website on a regular basis you will have undoubtedly read one of her entertaining blogs, many of which are centered around her fearless forays in the culinary realm. Turkey marinated in Baby Duck anyone? On behalf of all the staff at Bin 905 I would like to say we will miss you and we wish you nothing but the best in the pursuit of life, love and happiness. We raise our glasses to you. Cheers!

JULY 21

3 Dog Night Cortes Island by Karen Ralph

The best way to greet old friends is with a smile, a suitcase full of wine, and a firm departure date of no more than three days after arrival
I was finally going to visit Daphne and Richard on Cortes Island. Getting there wasn’t easy. I hate flying and almost every flight heading west out of Calgary is turbulent. This one was no exception. We shudderingly descended into Comox through dense fog that completely discombobulated my sense of direction until suddenly the ground was coming up fast and we touched down.  Shivering, I walked off the plane and down the stairway into the cold, harsh light of dawn. It was 6:30 AM local time and a friend of a friend was going to pick me up. I had no idea what she looked other than that “she liked tequila”. 
Retrieving my suitcase from the carousal I tried to call Cortes. No signal. I tried the pay phone. No answer. Thinking I could always get the shuttle I headed for the driver who was talking to a small blond woman. I walked up to her and said,
“Do you like tequila?”
Actually I asked her if she knew Daphne. She smiled and said,
“Yeah, I can’t remember your name, but I’m Jamie, I can take you to the ferry but I have a few errands to do.” I introduced myself and we headed out into the drizzle. She had to find a “Woofy’s”; they had the dog food that her beloved rat terrier Tonto could eat. He had been on a different kibble and it didn’t agree with his stomach. Tonto was a sassy little black, brown and white dog. He made himself at home on my knee. His stomach issues were pretty obvious as I rolled down the window.
Jamie knew all the locals in the ferry line-up and after a quick good-bye to her and an introduction to Brian I was loading my suitcase into the back of his car. He was a chicken farmer who had moved to Cortes from Chili, his car was full of chicken feed but he managed to fit in my suitcase. It was a quick jaunt across the water to Quadra Island where Richard picked me up. We drove across the Island to catch the next ferry for the one- hour sail to Cortes, making it on as the last car. The island ferry can squeeze 24 cars onto its deck. Approaching the terminal, we got back in the car, drove onto solid land, and in a very short period of time I was following Richard as he dragged my suitcase past their 5 dogs up the steps and into their house.
Cortes is famous for its seafood, and they use the term “merroir” to describe the flavours different waters will yield in the shellfish, like “terroir” for wine. It is a ruggedly beautiful island with a climate that is mild enough that my friends heat their house with a wood- burning stove. They stoked up the fire to take the edge off the damp for their dry weather friend.
It would be nice to say that we opened up a bottle of Krug rose, but my budget dictated Canella Prosecco.  The wine was cold, the sun was starting to come out and the lush vaguely tropical greenery was steaming. We headed outside with our glasses and had a toast on the deck.  Prosecco is always my go-to wine. It’s inexpensive, bubbly, has notes of tropical fruit balanced with gentle acidity, pairs well with most foods and most importantly, elevates the mood. We paired it with local smoked tuna and thin rye crisps for a delicious lunch. 
I had packed two bottles of Canella Prosecco, two bottles of Sperino Rose, two bottles of Houchart Rose and two bottles of Paul Zinck Cremant. 
Five dogs equals a lot of walks. Sperino Rose is Italian nebbiolo at its finest; deep reddish pink, medium bodied, slightly sweet and completely delicious, this is perfect for tippling while dog walking. Harnessing the dogs we headed downhill through the jungle for the ocean. The rain forest was heavy, the thick light filtered through the canopy of leaves.  Glass of rose in one hand, fistful of leashes in the other, keeping an eye out for cougars, we hopped over stumps and vines, crossed a shallow ravine on a mossy log and finally reached the rocky beach. We could smell dead flesh. A bald eagle and large hawk were ripping chunks from a big grey piece of what looked like whale skin that had washed up. The dogs charged in and at the last second they reluctantly flapped up and circled overhead while we threw sticks for the dogs to chase and sipped our wine.
The next day we went to the Cove restaurant where I had several of the best Mojitos ever. Paired with the company, the sun, the beach, the ocean, the mountains, the smoked octopus and fresh prawns, the shoe string fries, the possibility of skinny dipping right off the patio, it was all too much. We overdosed on summer.
Morning came early. There was a party planned for the evening and we had a lot to get done. Clearing our fuzzy heads with strong coffee and a few hours of hard work in the garden, we headed for the kitchen and started cooking. I made bread and helped with the marinating of two delicious local chickens and a standing prime rib roast. Daphne’s mom, sister and niece had brought several types of cheese, breads from Victoria and made fantastic salads, introducing me to the delights of pear vinegar for the first time. The outside table was on tall sawhorses, putting the food out of reach of hungry dogs. We broke into the wine stash and it was back to bubbles with Paul Zinck Cremant d’Alsace.  Zingy and dry with notes of apples and toast, this wine is feistier than the prosecco, but we needed some feist to give us a kick. Guests started arriving, and the dogs lost their minds every time someone came to the gate.  Daphne’s sister had come with her two dogs, both Australian Shepard rescues, Tonto was there, in all there were eight dogs having their own party. We had roasted the prime rib to rare, it had rested for at least an hour, so we cut it up with the chickens in the kitchen. Everyone was rowdy and having fun, Richard lit the fire with a tiger torch and the party was officially under way.  We drank the Domaine Houchart rose, a dry,classic French Provencal rose, Palacio Vendemia a dry, lean Spanish wine which was brilliant with the beef, lots of artisan beer, Victoria gin, Alamos tequila and more Paul Zinck Cremant d’ Alsace.
I woke up and didn’t immediately know where I was. Someone was pushing me out of the bed and when I pushed back was greeted with snarling. There was loud snoring. More than one set of lungs creating the ruckus.  Opening an eye, I realized I was in my room at Daphne’s under a duct- taped duvet with three dogs; Punky the Jack Russell, Bobbi the bird dog and Smudge the bull- dog.  It was time to go home.

JUNE 05

How Spring Ruined Our Party by Jeff Jamieson

When Spring showed up at my door this year it was well dressed and very pleasant.  It said a few nice things to my fiancé and entered our home as a friend.  All was quite lovely and we bantered back and forth like old friends should.  I left the living room in favour of the kitchen where I could refresh my cocktail and upon my return I discovered that Spring had noticeably changed.  Only moments before Spring had been a proper, well behaved season but in the amount of time it takes to mix gin with tonic, Spring had become rude and slovenly.  He was now slouching down on our couch as if he wished it was a bed.  His eyes had gone from bright and piercing to murky red orbs that look less like eyes and more like marbles that had been left outdoors over the winter.  One side of Spring’s shirt had escaped from his jeans and lay disheveled on his lap.  These jeans, I had just noticed, were covered in stains that I secretly hoped were caused by dirt and dirt alone.  I knew at this point that I was in for a long unpleasant visit from this moody seasonal friend.

Throughout the evening more partygoers began to join the festivities and all of them were abruptly disgusted with the way Spring was acting.  He had now become incredibly “chilly”.  His conversation was negative and offensive and I noticed that when he spoke with a gentleman at the party he would make aggressive movements, his bloodshot eyes staring out from under a furrowed brow.  He had the very same expression when speaking to women at the party, only the grumpy gaze shifted a few degrees south.

I was doing my best to keep one eye trained on my unpleasant guest but it was becoming more difficult due to the fact that he was entering conversations in every corner of my home.  Every time I found him he was in the middle of “raining” unsolicited opinions down on every one of my guests.  I had managed to drag him from a group of increasingly agitated friends and was graced with even more “rain”, this time in the form of a boozy mist that sprayed from his barely functioning lips as he informed me that “everyone here zeems like a real arsehole.”

I had lost my patience.  “I think it’s time for you to go, Spring.”

“I can’t,” he slurred, “Summers my ride and zhe ain’t here yet…” This answer was unacceptable to me at this point so it was with great exhaustion that I asked when she had planned on showing up.

“I don’t know, sheez alweez late.” His speech was now mimicking that of a Welsh man whose lower jaw was missing.

“Okay, well I’m calling her.” I left the party and walked onto the front step so that I would be able to speak to Summer in peace and to clear my head of the frustration that was now becoming pervasive.  I had not even had a chance to pull the phone from my pocket when my fiancée swung open the door with a look of revulsion that is normally reserved only for me.  I knew however, that this revulsion was directed at our unwanted guest.

“There you are!  I thought you were watching Spring.”

“I only left for a minute!  I am trying to get a hold of Summer so she can get his ass out of here!”

“Well hurry up.  Autumn said she caught Spring making it snow in our bathroom and apparently he has been doing it all night!  I want spring gone. NOW!”

My fiancées wish was to be granted.  Just as she slammed the door to return to the party, Summer arrived.  As Summer and I entered the party a great sigh of relief encompassed the room.  We all knew why she was here, and it did not matter that she was late.  It did not matter that Spring had been ruining everyone’s mood for what felt like a millennium.  All that mattered was that Summer was here and with that, Spring would be gone.  And good riddance, he is an unpleasant, prick of a season, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want him around.  Of course, even Spring looks okay compared to his brother Winter, but that is another story all together.

Enjoy Summer Everyone!

MAY 10

Gnocchi, Ralph Style by Karen Ralph

Gnocchi- Ralph Style
After driving home from a weekend in BC to a seemingly empty fridge, I was depressed. I hate an empty fridge. How did this happen?! I usually have all kinds of back-up in case of an emergency. In fact, my freezer contains frozen chicken backs for stock, chicken wings, edamame beans, random perogies, duck confit, smoked duck legs, frozen berries, herb butters, my very own puff pastry, fish heads, black bananas and a Coopers hawk that hit the window last year. I’m going to paint it, not eat it. The pantry was a little better, yielding flour, 3 or 4 types of sugar and salt, canned oysters, herring fillets, tomatoes, beans, a bag of rice, rice noodles, Italian pasta, curry powders and spices and tons of other stuff. The wicker stand that I call the root rack had yellow onions, shallots, pearl onions, red onions, russet baker potatoes, fingerlings and creamers.
I thought about it. This is the stuff that you have when you are low on supplies. Who do you think of? Peasants. What do they eat? Rice, potatoes, onions, beets, and if they’re lucky, a chicken or an egg. What did I have? Potatoes, flour, eggs, salt.
Gnocchi!
I picked the sprout-y big spuds out of the root rack and turned on the oven for 400f. Washing the pomme de terres and cutting off the sprouts, I set them on a cookie tray and put them in the oven setting the timer for one hour. Then I headed for my studio to paint. When the beeper went off I came upstairs, poked the potatoes and found that they were done. Taking them out of the oven, I put them on the stovetop to cool and went back to the studio. After a while I came up to see if they were cool, at which point the skin simply pulled off of them.
Dispensing with the awful food mill, I mashed the potatoes with my Grandma’s masher: grill style with a black handle. Mashing them a bit, until they were granular, I added 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, a Tbl. of salt and 1 ex-large farmers market egg. Then I mixed it all up with my hands. The dough was easy to work with. I broke off a piece and rolled it into a long rope which I cut into ½ inch sections and rolled each little piece into an oval and over a fork to create the sauce catching grooves. Setting them on a parchment paper covered cookie tray to dry, I went back to my studio.
When Ian came home we simmered water and added the gnocchi which should cook for 20 minutes, floating when it’s done. I made a brown butter sage sauce and in the interest of frugality used up some of Thursdays tomato sauce.
Da da! Dinner was done!
The gnocchi were light, tender and delicious.
As an added bonus the shape was good. They were plump and round, something you actually wanted to put in your mouth. I paired them with some semi- flat Paul Zinck Cremant that I opened yesterday. Not Champagne by a long shot but it was still pretty good. Dead in the glass, the fizz was all in the mouth and quite yeasty but it matched well with the spuddy goodness of the gnocchi.
In conclusion I would say that peasants are under-rated capitalists, I’ve seen Gnocchi priced at $20. We don’t even want to talk about offal, but that’s another blog.

I’m ready for an uprising.

APRIL 29

Gnocchi Files Italy by Karen Ralph

Gnocchi Files: The Italian Job
Long before Napoleon said “an army marches on its stomach” the Genghis Khan rampaged his way across Central Asia and China with his Mongol hordes. They slept in leather and felt yurts living on dried milk, occasionally switching it up by opening a horse’s vein and drinking its blood.
As my friend Tomme said, “This is why I don’t camp.”
He likes dumplings though, so he can thank Genghis Khan for uniting the nomadic tribes of North East Asia, causing a veritable dumpling explosion.  Genghis Khan never got to take his most faithful warriors on a pillage and rampage through Italy for their year- end bonus because he fell off his horse and died from his injuries. However, the humble dumpling flourished in Italy thanks to the Romans who brought it back from the Middle East.  They either didn’t get the whole recipe, missing the part about the filling, or decided it was a frivolous waste of time when they could be engaging in gladiatorial combat while wearing short leather skirts and strappy sandals.
In any case, the Romans made dough from potatoes, formed small balls with it, added a sauce and some cheese, or herbs and butter, and called it Gnocchi which translates to “lumps.”
Having made the French version of Gnocchi last week, I decided to try the Italian. Instead of forcing the potato through the holes in my colander as I had done with the French gnocchi, I went out to buy a potato ricer, was up-sold, and left with a food mill which the excellent sales lady assured me was exactly what I needed.
I boiled the potatoes until they were soft, cooled and skinned them. There was a problem figuring out how to assemble the food mill because I had recycled the box and the instructions. We managed to put it together and starting milling the spuds. This proved to be just as hard as pushing them through a colander. Regardless, with some help from my boyfriend, they got riced.  I added flour, one egg and some salt. So far, so good. I checked my recipe. It said to bake the potatoes. Well, too late now. My dough was sticky and wet. I added more flour. Still sticky. More flour. Sticky. Flour. Sticky. Flour. Stiff and dry. I was starting to stress. Those damn Romans and their lumps!  Taking a deep breath, I added a tiny bit of water and finally the dough felt right. Next, I started rolling it into little balls over a fork. This was time consuming, but hopefully would be worth it. My shoulders were aching from all the rolling and kneading. I was starting to understand how you might want to go on a rampage after a gnocchi making session.
The precious balls of dough went into a frying pan filled with simmering water where they cooked for 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon I very carefully lifted them out of the water and like the recipe said, laid them on a tea towel to drain. They stuck to the cloth. Giving up, I started laying them on the counter. That was messy, so I I just threw them right onto the plate and added tomato sauce and a bit of grated Gran Padano. We opened a bottle of tequila and swigged it straight. Actually we opened a bottle of Garifoli Monte Reale Sangiovese. Notes of stewed tomato and cherry, a bit of earth, good structure, this was a perfect pairing for my misshapen but tasty lumps of dough.
French vs Italy Gnocchi- a tie. Both good, both different. The Italian version was denser, more conducive to rampaging. The French dumpling was lighter, more feminine.
Total Cooking Time- 4 ½ hours. Total Eating Time- ½ hour.

APRIL 22

Gnocchi Files by Karen Ralph

Gnocchi Files
While trolling the pasta section aisles of our local grocery store I found packets of ready- made gnocchi. Mode d’emploi: Boil until they float, drain and add sauce. Simple. The disturbing thing was that they weren’t hard like dry pasta, they were soft, like fresh pasta. They obviously weren’t fresh and the paragraph of complicated ingredients confirmed that they were enriched with preservatives. They were the undead gnocchi.
I decided not to buy them. Every culture has some sort of dumpling and the one made from a humble potatoe belongs to the Italians.  Gnocchi could be considered foody minimalism or poverty food: all dough, no filling. Knowing that they were made of some combination of potatoes, flour, salt, water and an egg I decided to make them. How hard could it be?
That night I searched my cookbooks. No Italian recipes! My cookbooks were all French all the time. Opening the trusty Mastering the Art of French Cooking I flipped to the back, looked for Pomme de Terre, and voila! A French gnocchi recipe.  It called for big baker potatoes, boiled, cooled, skinned and riced. The problem was that I didn’t have a ricer. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. I boiled and skinned the potatoes and forced them through the Star of David holes in our ancient tin colander. Success!
Next up was the choux pastry. One cup boiling water, half a stick of unsalted butter, throw in all at once 1 ½ cups of flour and stir into a thick paste over the heat until a film coated the bottom of the pot. Removing from the heat, I added 4 eggs, beating them in one at a time until well mixed at which point the riced potato was mixed in. These were fiddly little buggers to make. The dough was rolled into little oval dumpling on a fork and gently set them in the water to cook for 20 minutes. Removing and draining them they were gently placed in a buttered tatin dish, covered with swiss cheese and broiled until they were golden brown.
Total cooking time: 3 ½ hours. Total eating time: 15 minutes.
Review: They were light, fluffy little dough pillows. We tried them variously with tomato sauce, brown butter and sage and of course the melted Swiss cheese. My boyfriend liked the cheese gnocchi because they were “like scalloped potatoes.” I liked the sage and butter.
When I described the recipe, my Italian co-worker Erika said, “The French are weird.” My French co-worker Sylvain said, “Ah, sounds good!”
Wine Pairing: Pierre Marie Beaujolais Rose. Dry, pink and unusual, like a French gnocchi. Notes of strawberry, pear and red currant.
Coming up, Italian Gnocchi.

APRIL 16

Dinner by Karen Ralph

As usual, over lunch I was thinking about dinner. Steak and salad appealed, so on the way home from work we stopped at the butcher and then at the local health food store. I wanted mixed nuts for a salad and only the finest, most expensive nuts could accompany the finest most expensive steak. At the health food store I wandered into the dairy aisle and ended up buying a small tub of non-dairy, “Cultured Soy Creamy Yogurt Style Real Fruit Kiwi-Lime.”

My partner was dubious. 

“Don’t buy that! It sounds gross. Lime in soy yogurt?”

I ignored him, added it to my basket and we headed for the till. Our total was $18. for one small container of aforementioned soy product and three small handfuls of tamari coated mixed seeds that had been picked and prepared by humble but noble, very photogenic and presumably well paid peasants who care deeply about the health and purity of the developed world’s nut supply even if they themselves don’t have potable water. By comparison the chubby, unhealthy looking tattooed and pierced minions behind the counter didn’t even look up as we forked over a twenty for a few nuts, declined to buy a bag for a quarter, and left.

As an aside, when there are rolls of plastic bags freely available all over the store, from the produce to the nuts, we bought three types of nuts which required three, big, well made, heavy clear plastic bags to contain our small purchase- I’m not proud of it, I’m just sayin’, why are you looked down upon if you ask for a bag at the till?

As soon as we got home I put the fine looking t-bone into a mixture of red wine, olive oil, and diced shallots. While the steak marinated, I peeled new potatoes which we boiled, browned in lots of butter, sprinkled with lemon juice and put in the oven to bake.

Actually the first thing we did when we got home was open a bottle of Pierre Marie Fleurie, a fabulous Beaujolais that is as close to Pinot Noir without actually being one as you can get. I love this wine. It is food friendly and really delicious on its own. It’s a deep, clear red in colour, has notes of raspberry, blackberry and minerals on the palate, violets on the nose, it’s feminine and feisty. While I took care of the wine, and made the salad, Ian took care of the steak. My salad became increasingly complicated as I wilted spinach, shredded beets, julienned carrots, cut razor thin purple onion slivers, topped it all with tamari coated pumpkin seeds and whipped up a maple balsamic dressing. 

Finally we were ready to eat. The steak was done to the glistening rareness that we love, the salad was dressed and the potatoes were crispy and slightly puffy.  We chased the cat off the table, sat down helped ourselves and started to eat. After a couple of bites, Ian said, “Hm. Chocolate chips. Weird.” He gestured with his fork at the salad, “Did you just make that up?”

I looked at the salad.  I had sprinkled chocolate chip laden trail mix on top of the greens. Dessert! We picked off the chocolate and saved it for later. 
The next day I packed my lunch for work including the soy yogurt. Opening it up, I was looking forward to trying something new. I peeled back the protective plastic wrap and looked into the small tub. It was a grey. I stirred the gelatinous mixture. Instead of ending up with smooth and creamy it was lumpy and grey.  It didn’t look good. I scooped up a tentative spoonful and gave it a try. It was a challenge. Thick, gelatinous, and sort of sour, I let my friend Tomme try it.
He took a small taste and gagged, “Oh my God it’s like canned mushroom soup with sweet and sour sauce. It says here, “The best organic cultured soy product.” If this is the best, it’s still terrible!”

I agreed and threw it out.

Tonight is Friday night and a new week-end of culinary adventures await. I will be sipping Paul Zinck Cremant from Alsace.  It’s dry, zesty and bristling with bubbles. I will be pairing it with Gnocchi that I am making with my new food mill. More to follow…

MARCH 16

BEST BEERS MARCH 2010 by Sylvain Courel

10. D’Achouffe La Chouffe 750ml- BELGIUM $11
La Chouffe is unfiltered Belgian strong pale ale which is re-fermented in the bottle. It is pleasantly fruity, spiced with coriander, and with a light hop taste. This “classic” beer is sold in large champagne-sized bottles of 750ML, which encourages people to share it with friends and families, but also is available in smaller format.

9. Leffe Blonde 341ml- BELGIUM $3.5
Leffe Blond is a pale abbey beer, with a full, sunny, golden colour. It has a smooth and full-bodied taste. It’s an overall easy to drink beer, with a clear clove note. It titles 6.6% alcohol, for once a Belgian brew that doesn’t kick you in the jaw! Great, I’ll have 2!

8. Dieu Du Ciel Aphrodisiaque 6 X 341ML - CANADA $23
This Cocoa and Vanilla Stout displays aromas and flavours of vanilla, dark chocolate, bourbon and roasted malt. The vanilla and cocoa marry nicely, without out-competing each other, to produce a surprisingly well-balanced beer. Its colour may be intimidating, but it is a very smooth beer within reach of most beer drinkers.

7. Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2008 500ml- UNITED KINGDOM $9
First released in 1997, Fuller’s Vintage Ale is brewed in limited batches with each bottle being numbered. It can be enjoyed immediately, or Fuller’s recommends lying the beer down to enjoy when it peaks in 3 to 4 years and consume at cellar temperature.

6. Hitachino Nest Commemorative Ale 2010 330ml- JAPAN $5
One of the coolest beer additions in our fridge this year! Kuychi brewery is nested in the city of Ibaraki, in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan region, Japan. This winter seasonal Ale is brewed with the usual suspects: coriander, orange peel, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla beans. How often are you offered spiced ale from Japan? Kanpai!

5. Lagunitas Hop Stoopid aLE 650ml– UNITED STATES $8
I just checked up my account and I realized I drunk 2 cases of this in 2009, it’s that good. What’s a good beer anyway…I’ll tell you since you’re asking: it’s a beer that you never get bored of. And this is an extreme example hopped to Stoopidness at 102 I.B.U, giving this brew a fruity bitterness, just like biting in a very ripe grapefruit.

4. Howe Sound Rail Ale Nut Brown 1L - CANADA $10
A lightly hopped nut brown ale with a sweet malt character, Brewed in recognition of the Westcoast Railway Heritage Park located in Squamish. A great Canadian brew which only comes in “sharable-format”.

3. Charlevoix la vache folle Mixed pack 4 x 500ml - CANADA $27
Each 4 packs contains 2 ESB, 1 Imperial Milk Stout, 1 Amarillo Double IPA. All those beers are worth checking out, why try 1 when you can try them all?

2. Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Lupulus 750ml - CANADA $20
Being available in bottles helps the DVL get around a bit more but, unfortunately, it is not widely distributed. Light to medium hazy gold pour; fruity (descriptions ranged from citrusy to sweet, spicy, and flowery. This is the beer with OMG tasting notes.

1. North Coast Brewery OLD RASPUTIN Russian Imperial Stout 4 x 341ml - USA $15
And the winner is…the Old “never say die” Rasputin! Produced in the tradition of 18th Century English brewers who supplied the court of Russia’s Catherine the Great, Old Rasputin seems to develop a cult following wherever it goes. It’s a rich, intense brew with big complex flavors and a warming finish.

MARCH 08

Cassoulet Finale by Karen Ralph

After cooking and prepping until midnight on Friday, I got up Saturday morning, had a coffee, threw on an apron and started the day by browning duck legs, draining beans, saving cooking liquids and finally assembling layers. Beans, lamb, beans, hand-made pork cakes, beans, pork sausages, beans, cubed pork loin, beans…there was a LOT of beans. Humming the theme to Jaws as I held a duck leg in my greasy hand and looked at my medium sized but already overflowing casserole dish, I thought of Quint’s famous line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The cassoulet was my Great White. I had to contain it. This was a job for the turkey roaster, which would be able to contain approximately 10 lbs of meat and beans. I carefully poured and shook the contents of the casserole into the roaster, destroying my meat/bean layers in the process but there was nothing that could have saved them.  I smoothed the top of the cassoulet down with my hand, redistributed pieces of meat, tucked the duck legs into the top layer of beans and covered the whole thing with breadcrumbs and chopped parsley. It looked like the picture in the cookbook. This was encouraging. Using my core strength I carefully lifted it into the fridge.
Not content to end the week-long cooking binge, I started to flip through “Baking with Julia”, looking for a desert that would be light and easy. Ha! This was the wrong cookbook for that. I found a recipe for a lemon tart. Having made puff pastry earlier in the week I decided to use it to make a lemon meringue pie, even though I had never made one before. How hard could it be? Looking through recipes, I turned up one for lemon curd, several for meringue, and the puff pastry was already made, so I was ready to start what might have been an unstable, hybrid creation. Rolling out the pastry, I put it in a pie dish, weighed it down with black- eyed peas and baked it for about 15 minutes. Using Julia’s lemon curd recipe I whipped eggs, sugar, lemon zest and meyers lemon juice over a double boiler until my arm felt like falling off.  When it finally took on a custard-y consistency I added butter, whipped it some more and let it cool. The meringue recipes were all slightly different, so I added a little cream of tartar, a little cornstarch and substituted honey for sugar. Then I whipped the egg whites into stiff peaks. The black eyed peas stuck to the pastry and it took awhile to carefully remove them. When I finally assembled the Franken- pie, its stiff, corn-starched, cream coloured meringue appeared to float on the layers of buttery puff pastry and lemon curd. Broiling its glossy, stiff, botoxed meringue to a golden brown hue, I put it in the fridge to set. Hopefully it would be as tasty as it looked. I candied some Meyer lemon rinds and used them to decorate the desert plates.
I had made a couple of loaves of bread, but due to the heavy nature of the main dish we didn’t bother with appetizers. I simmered the cassoulet on the stove for half an hour and then baked it at 350F for one hour. When I tried to broil the top of the crust for that final golden glow, my broiler wouldn’t turn on. I thought maybe it was because my oven was too hot, it had been in constant use for about a week. Our guests were arriving, and the cassoulet was cooked, so we relaxed with our friends and had a drink before dinner.
There were 6 people and several wines: Champagne, Rose Beaujolais, Beaujolais, Chablis and Spanish Granache. My favorite was the Pierre Marie Beaujolais Rose and the Grenache with the cassoulet. It wasn’t too heavy and the fruit and acid in the rose balanced the earthiness of beans and meat.
We were hungry. My boyfriend carefully walked the 12 lb Cassoulet to the table and set it on the cutting board. It was still bubbling. Dishing up, we fell silent as we ate. The flavours were melding, but still distinct. The lamb, the pork, the savoury pork cakes and the duck all combined to create a rich, satisying dish grounded by the earthiness of the beans. Almost everyone had seconds but there is still about 6 lbs of cassoulet in my fridge.
The lemon pie was consumed that night. The curd, unlike the meringue, hadn’t completely set and was a bit runny but after the bean and meat fiesta the lemon was light and refreshing. We ate the entire pie, then sprawled around the living room, too full to do anything. It was worth the effort.
This heavy dinner would be perfect in colder weather, after a day of skiing, or some other outdoor activity, but this is Calgary, the weather can change radically in an hour. You can’t depend on it to co-operate for your dining pleasure.
I never would have thought that a bean dish could take almost a week to make and burn out my oven. Sunday morning I tried to turn my oven on, but it had no heat. The Maytag wall oven was no match for the Cassoulet. A repair man will come tomorrow and fix it. Until then it’s stove top cooking.
I’m up for the next dish.  Time to get out the cookbooks…

MARCH 05

Cassoulet The Heartache by Karen Ralph

Cassoulet The Heartache

Cassoulet the tears, (apology to Bryan Ferry)
It is 9:47 PM Friday night. Instead of being at Broken City watching Bronto Scorpio throw buckets of blood and violate frozen turkeys with 10” silver uh, appliances, I have been cooking since 5:00 PM. The Cassoulet is a demanding mistress.

Those damn French farmers and their beans! I wanted to start the cassoulet on Wednesday, but didn’t have the right beans. I had the right pork: raw, unsmoked pork belly with the rind, but my pantry contained black eyed peas and not Great Northern white beans. In the day that it took me to procure the proper beans, the pork went sour and I threw it out. Regardless, I started soaking the beans on Thursday, confident that I would be able to replace the pork. This morning I learned the error of my ways; it had all sold. Fortunately, Eric the butcher is also a chef and has spent time in France, specifically the parts of it that specialize in Cassoulet: Toulouse and Castelnaudary.
He was able to suggest an alternate part of the pig, a shoulder end with lots of fat. He chopped it up and told me that the rind imparts a tinny-ness to the cassoulet that is counterbalanced by the sugars in the onions. The shoulder would do the same, but to sear it instead of boiling it and cook all of my other meat in the fat and then add the pork to the beans. I did all of that, in addition to the six pages of Cassoulet labour and wisdom from Julia.
It took about 3 hours. The lamb was browned in a heavy French oven. I added tomato paste, 2 cups of browned shallots, (ever the dilettante, I was out of onions) thyme, a bottle of dry white wine, 3 cups of beef stock, salt and pepper. Then I cooked it in the oven at 350F for 1 ½ hours. In the meantime I made pork cakes, two batches of bread dough, cleaned up the kitchen and called my Mom. Then I strained and reserved the liquids from the lamb and the beans. The lamb juice was added to the beans for the flavour and topped up with reserved bean liquid, simmered for 10 minutes and will now be left until needed for final assembly, at some point tomorrow. The meat is outside on the deck to cool and I am exhausted. On the last page of this recipe there is a section called VARIATIONS. It is additions or substitutions for the meats in the preceding recipe. For example I could have used Polish sausage instead of making pork cakes, but other than saving time what would the fun have been in that?!
This recipe has been a challenging, but let’s keep it in perspective: it’s beans and meat. Hopefully it will be delicious. I’m pairing it with Rose Beaujoulais, Beaujoulais, and Spanish white.

There are variations on the Cassoulet the world over. You ate what you could grow and in that region of France it was beans, pork, tomatoes, herbs, duck, goose. Viola! Cassoulet.
Looking in my backyard, if I had to eat what I could grow, I would be living on raspberries, crab apples, rosemary, thyme, borage, violets, nasturtiums, squirrels and slugs. The recipe for that would be at least 8 pages long, require days of preparation and liberal lashings of Vin and Beurre.
Tomorrow is the party. Must get my beauty sleep.
“The proof is in the eating.”

MARCH 04

Cassoulet Island by Karen Ralph

While flipping through Mastering The Art of French Cooking last week I came across French Baked Beans: Cassoulet. It sounded good. It was a winter dish and a week ago it was cold. Inspired by our friend Laurie’s successful Boeuff Bourguignon party, I wanted to invite a few people over to dinner and thought Cassoulet would be perfect.
French Baked Beans. How hard could it be?
For starters, Julia Child’s recipe is six pages long and includes “A Note on The Order of Battle.” But it is wordy, I thought, as I blithely forged ahead. The party is on Saturday. It is now Thursday. I thought I would start soaking the beans last night so I went to the pantry to get the Great Northern white beans that the recipe calls for. Instead I found a big bag of black- eyed peas. While the beans were supposed to be soaking, the pork rind was to be boiled, cooled, boiled, cooled again, and cut into thin strips and the strips into little triangles. Then simmered for half an hour to freshen and soften the rind, which will “lose itself as it cooks with the beans.” That is, if I had beans. It was late and the stores were all closed. I couldn’t do anything until morning.
At 8:00 AM I was the first one in the grocery store, sprinting ahead of the elderly crowd as soon as the doors were unlocked. l grabbed a basket and loaded it with four bags of white beans, two herb bouquets, tomato paste, ground pork, tomatoes, parsley, lamb shoulder, and pork loin. My Saturday night Cassoulet dinner seemed to be slowly, shakily, coming together. I still needed duck legs in confit. After work I trotted down to The Cookbook Company and bought 6 confit duck legs and beef stock. Hurrying home I put on a big pot of cold water and as soon as it was boiling dumped in 5 cups of freshly purchased Great Northern white beans. Then I got out the pound of pork rind and bacon that I had bought a few days ago. I had done a poor job of wrapping it after not using it last night. The skin felt sticky and it smelled a bit. It was past its prime and I had to throw it out rather than risk poisoning my friends with a dodgy piece of pork. I could only shake my head. First I had pork and no beans and now I have beans and no pork.
“Some Words of Advice:
…too often a debutant cook will start in enthusiastically on a new dish without ever reading the recipe first. Suddenly an ingredient, or a process, or a time sequence will turn up, and there is astonishment, frustration and even disaster.”
On the bright side I still have two days and the beans are soaking and look great. However when it comes to Julia’s “Notes On The Order of Battle” I am at square one. Wish me luck.

FEBRUARY 25

Boeuf Bourguignon Throw-down. by Karen Ralph

Our love affair with Mastering the Art of French Cooking is still burning brightly. I know this for a fact because in the last four days I’ve eaten Boeuf Bourguignon five times. Boeuf Bourguignon is a classic dish that fell off the radar until brought back to life by the movie Julie and Julia. It can take two days to make and you have to be organized. You don’t want to be attempting to peel 24, 1” diameter pearl onions while timing the baking of flour onto meat in an uncovered casserole at 450 F at 4 minute intervals as you are sauteéing mushrooms in butter. Read the recipe through first. 

It started on Saturday when we went to our friend Lori’s house for dinner. She is an accomplished cook, and helped me out enormously with my Xmas lobster fest.  She had started making Boeuf Bourguignon the day before and her house was permeated with the rich, meaty, fragrant smells. Her chocolate lab Stella, was in a wiggling frenzy of joy: a new chew-toy and the co-mingling of scents: guests who smelled of cat mixed with the intoxicating scent of pork and beef.
We were drinking Champagne and talking.  I kept getting strong wafts of sulpheric gas and was giving my boyfriend the sideways evil eye when Lori mentioned that Stella had gotten into the garbage and scarfed down an entire pork rind, beef strings, chunks of fat, onion skins and carrot tops. She said she was a little worried, but Stella seemed fine. She was shaking her pink chewy rabbit with enough force to spray drool.  Suddenly Jocelyn covered her mouth with her hand, blurted, “I’m going to throw up!” jumped off the couch and fled into the kitchen. We looked over with alarm to see what had happened, Stella was still by the chair, arching her back, vomiting hugely and profusely. We ran into the kitchen, and opened doors to air out the room. Stella was losing it at both ends and ran outside into the snow. Lori was as cool as a cucumber, cleaned it all up, poured large glasses of Champagne. We all had a good laugh, but hoped that Stella was alright, and sat down to eat.
This was the first time I’d had Boeuf Bourguignon and it was delicious. Lori served it with small roasted potatoes and green beans and carrots on the side. The beef and wine merged into a well executed tribute to this great French dish.  We drank a magnum of Louis Jadot Beaujolais with dinner. It was a very happy pairing. 
Finishing with fresh strawberries, little cheesecake filled chocolate balls, more wine, port, and eventually coffee, we could barely stagger to the living room.  We agreed that we had to eat together more often, not to be a deterred because we might be making a dish for the first time on the day of the party. We would throw caution to the wind, kick up our heels, maybe put on some heels and cook bravely forth.

My co-worker Sylvain came in on Monday and announced that he was making Boeuf Bourguignon, and needed a bottle of wine. When he brought his leftovers in on Tuesday and left them unattended for a moment, I quickly had a few spoonfuls. He had put it on macaroni noodles and the beef was tender and succulent.  It was good. Better than good, it was French food made by a Frenchman.

Now it was a challenge. I was up for Bourguignon throwdown, an Iron Chef in my own mind, the ingredient: beef cubes.

I went straight to the butcher and bought a slab of uncured pork belly and about 3 pounds of cubed beef.  How hard could it be?
That night I opened Mastering the Art of French Cooking to Boeuf Bourguignon and got to work. Cutting about 8 oz of pork belly into lardons I boiled it for about 5 minutes.  Then dried it and fried it until it was crispy and set it aside.  Drying the beef cubes, I browned them in the pork fat and set them aside and sautéed sliced carrot and onion, added the pork and beef and 2 tablespoons of flour and stuck it in the oven for 4 minutes at 450F, stirred and put it back for another 4 minutes.  I added 3 cups of red wine (Canadian Syrah) 2 cups of beef stock, covered it and turned the heat down to 350F and cooked it for 4 hours.  In the meantime I peeled about a hundred pearl onions and sautéed them in butter and oil and then simmered them in a red wine and beef stock mixture with a bouquet of parsley, thyme, and bay leaf for about an hour. I sautéed mushrooms with lemon and butter and set them aside and put some baby potatoes on to boil. It was almost midnight when I strained the liquid from the solids, plated the beef and added the onions and mushrooms, poured the liquid over the top and set the potatoes around the edge of the platter. A few sprigs of parsley completed it. We weren’t hungry any more but I had cooked all night so we each took a small amount of my Boeuf Bourguignon and sat down.
It was dense, extracted and super rich, an old school Shiraz of a dish. The creamy onions were a nice counter point to the intensity of the flavours.  Maybe it was the Syrah used in the cooking that gave it such concentrated power, but it was heavier and darker than Lori’s or Sylvain’s.  Little nubbins of pork belly were delicious, fatty counterpoints to the lean beef cubes and earthy, lemony layers in the mushrooms.

Like I said earlier, I’ve eaten Boeuf Bourguignon leftovers for dinner and lunch all week. I get it, I’m ready to move on.
I’m thinking duck. Duck and pork and sausage and lamb and beans.
Next up: Cassoulet!

FEBRUARY 21

Sail Away by Karen Ralph

The experience of being on a sailboat, eating and drinking local food and wine is as close to paradise as I’ve ever been. It was thrilling, educational, fun, and instilled a deep appreciation of Canadian and Pacific Northwest wines and cuisine. I was given the opportunity to sail around the West Coast when my aunt and uncle, nomads at heart, moved to Vancouver Island with their two dogs and bought a beautiful 52’ teak sailboat named The Viking Princess. They planned to live on it and sail around the West Coast, up to Alaska and down to Mexico.

The Viking Princess was an odd name for a boat originally from Jamaica. She had been a rumrunner, working the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribbean Sea, eventually crossing the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean and following the coast, ending up for sale in Vancouver, Canada. She was beautiful, with engraved images of hunting tigers on all of the doors and beams, like tattoos. There was a surprising amount of space for a boat that looked so compact. She could live two, entertain four and sleep six. This boat was built for adventure and I was happy to be invited to go with them on many of their forays into the Gulf Islands and beyond.

The galley on a 52’ sailboat is small, but cooking in a space the size of a broom closet was surprisingly easy: everything was within arms reach. The fridge was the size of a suitcase and unreliable so we would buy fresh fish as close to dinner as possible. Shrimp, salmon, crab and ling-cod were usually available from the commercial fishers moored around us. We used the fridge for storing beer and wine and eggs. Everything on a boat has a dual purpose and can be latched and locked in case of high seas. The propane stove hung off of a horizontal iron bar that inserted into the counter on either side, ensuring that even if the boat was rocking violently, the stove would always hang level. The table sat six and could be folded down into a double bed.

They moored over the winters in Campbell River’s commercial harbour. The Viking Princess became a popular spot to visit on cold, rainy winter evenings when the rain would be blowing in horizontal to the ground. The teak interior was warm and inviting. Most of the boats around us had fibreglass interiors and were cold and hard to heat, especially in the cold damp of a West Coast winter. We drank delicious BC whites, my favourite at the time being Grey Monk, Pinot Gris, an off pink, off dry white with lots of tropical fruit and great acidity. It paired perfectly with seafood, especially fresh oysters and shrimp.
Canadian wines never tasted better.

Sailing into Whaletown on Cortes Island, we moored, admired the luminous jelly fish floating in the water and bought fresh oysters, prawns and chanterelle mushrooms from the locals. The oysters were cold, briny and slightly crunchy, perfection in a shell. We ate them plain, unadorned with sauce or spice. The prawns were cooked in butter, lemon juice, white wine and a diced shallot, the mushrooms sautéed in butter and served on toast. Quails Gate Chardonnay was the perfect match, its buttery lime leaf and subtle mineral note complimenting the briny oysters and fat prawns and mushrooms. Heading out the next day, we went to the Southern tip of the Island, to the Oak Bay Marina. We spent the night there and early the next morning we crossed the Juan de Fuca Straight. Halfway across we were approached and hailed by the USS Nimitz, a supercarrier that was like an entire city block on the water. The men on deck were the size of ants. It turned gracefully in the water and in a matter of minutes was disappearing down the Straight.

Reaching Washington, we moored and headed into town. Port Angeles is small and grungy. Supported by timber and fishing it’s also known for big waves and is a surfers destination. We bought crabs from a morbidly obese local on the boat just down from us. He was decked out in filthy red long johns and rubber boots, swilling beer from a litre bottle. We took our crabs back to the boat and boiled them for dinner with green beans and rice, drank Pikes Pale Ale and sat on the deck in the drizzle. The dogs, Sumi, an Akita and Red, a Papillon amused themselves by chasing a cat that turned out to belong to the harbour master. My uncle was worried and against our wishes we set sail back to Vancouver Island into a storm and a tide change. The winds were 40 knots, the boat rocked and slammed and we put up a sail to steady ourselves. The dogs slide back and forth across the floor in the hold, leaving deep scratches in the wood with their claws. The latches on the cupboards broke, spilling pasta, flour, oil and cans of provisions everywhere. We tried heading into the troughs instead of hitting them head on, zig- zagging our way across the Straight. The troughs were 20 to 30 feet deep, would tower over us and then disappear as we rode them to the top. We all had life jackets on, but it seemed like a puny effort in the face of tons of raging water. I went downstairs to see if my aunt was ok. She was laying on the bench reading, like nothing was happening. She had cleaned up the spilled food and was planning dinner. I started to feel seasick as soon as I entered the cabin and lost the horizon line. She was asking me if I wanted a bacon sandwich for dinner,
“Oh, there you are dear, what about bacon sandwiches? I think we should have a bacon sandwich. And some Mimosas, we have Cava.”
That did it. The idea of a bacon sandwich made me run for the head where I was violently sick and had to pump it out before it came back at me.
We made it to the Oak Bay Marina in one piece; the Viking Princess proved her seaworthiness. No bacon sandwiches were consumed but we did knock back a few Mimosas.

Even though I’m landlocked, the taste of a Canadian white wine brings back memories of great times. I can’t wait to do it again.

FEBRUARY 16

Curry In A Hurry by Karen Ralph

The short grey days and long dark nights of February were taking their toll. I was sick of my own cooking, out of dinner ideas and couldn’t face the idea of food shopping. Unless I was craving sushi, donairs or Vietnamese subs from the car wash on Elbow (seriously) or “Chinese style steak” from the place down the street, the local take-out options were fairly unappealing.

Opening the fridge for the tenth time I realized inspiration comes in many forms, and not wanting to leave the house inspired me to look at the big Hutterite chicken lurking in the back of the fridge with fresh eyes. We had red peppers, mushrooms, lemon grass, celery, onions… condiments galore:  soya sauce, fish sauce, five types of hot sauce, coconut milk and red and green curry paste. Curry was going to be the answer to my cookers block.

Using my Le Creuset 5.2L round French Oven with lid in Cobalt I put it on my Bosch glass-top stove*, and accidently turned on the wrong element, almost melting a spatula and setting a t-towel on fire. Quickly regrouping, I turned the stove off and got organized, focusing on curry ingredients. I was already off to a bad start that got worse when both jars of curry paste turned out to be moldy.  This was a serious setback.  Opening the pantry I started looking through old bags of spices. I had almost given up hope when I found a box of Chicken Masala powder behind the marmite and peanut butter.

The writing on the box was so small it was hard to read so I decided to skip it, how hard could it be to add powdered curry? I pulled the chicken off the bone, chopped and sliced onions, celery, mushrooms and peppers and peeled and pulverized lemon grass. Finally I opened the coconut milk and dumped it into the pot, adding two tablespoons of fish sauce, some soya sauce, two tablespoons of honey, a pinch of salt and the vegetables. Opening the Masala powder over the pot was a bad idea. One tablespoon would have been more than enough, but I was tugging on the tightly sealed bag and suddenly it opened with a pop and most of the powder puffed out in a big red cloud, settling onto the coconut milk and vegetables.  I sneezed, stirred and tasted. The Masala was so hot that my lips were numb, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  To say this dish was over- spiced would be a massive understatement.  I added more honey, a lot more. Then I added another can of coconut milk and more fish sauce.

The curry was so hot that I ran to the fridge looking for a beer. I had two bottles of Dieu de Ciel Vanilla-Chocolate stout left over from a party and I chugged the first one right from the bottle. It was cold, fizzy and took the edge off of the inferno in my mouth. It had a sweet, chocolate-y finish and a heavy, rich mouth feel. It was delicious. I drank it all and opened the other one which I took the time to pour into a glass. Turning back to the curry I added the chicken, put the lid on the pot, turned down the heat, put on the rice and continued drinking my beer.

While the rice and curry were cooking I made put fresh mint in the blender with some honey, rice vinegar and a bit of water and made chutney. The rice took about an hour, after which we opened a bottle of Pfaffenheim Gewurztraminer and sat down to eat.
I would have preferred another chocolate stout, because you can drink beer faster than wine, but the sweetness of the Gewürztraminer helped calm down the furious heat from my death curry.

Combined with the beer and wine, the curry created a very explosive combination.  In retrospect, I would never recommend eating anything made with free- pour Masala powder, but I would drink the chocolate stout and Gewurtztraminer again in a heart-beat.

*Shameless Product Placement

FEBRUARY 05

Follow Your Nose by Karen Ralph

Scent is one of our most powerful senses. It evokes memories and enhances our other senses. We receive a lot of information through our noses.

Wines are all about the nose. You will detect petrol on some Rieslings. Chateauneuf de Papes will give you straw, mushrooms, horses and manure, the essence of barnyard.  Sauvignon Blanc is famous for its notes of “cat pee on a gooseberry bush.” Syrah will remind you of moccasins, bacon and smoke.  Muscadet, a dry white wine from the Loire Valley, is steely and flinty with a hint of mineral. Barolo is often described as a bouquet of tar and roses.  Taken out of context these descriptors might not bring the word “delicious” to mind, but in the wine, that is what they become. 

What we consider to be a good or bad scent can be culturally unique, ie: the Western gag reflex caused by the smell of durian fruit. Durian fruit had always intrigued me. I’ve always been a sucker for great descriptions like “Tastes like Heaven, smells like Hell,” or “eating ice-cream in an outhouse.” This sounded like the fruit for me. I went straight to T&T but didn’t end up buying one. In real life they are a big, woody, prickly fruit, sort of like a giant, solid pine cone. It scared me. I had no idea how to get it open or what to expect if I did. To my boyfriend’s relief I gave it a pass. At the time I worked in a restaurant and one of the cooks heard about my durian quest. She was thrilled to share what she considered a homeland delicacy and brought me in a big glistening slab the very next night. It was smelly, but not wanting hurt her feelings I took a heaping spoonful and manged to choke it down. The texture was slimy, like licking a raw kidney. The odor was what I would expect during a plane crash:  fear, fuel, sweat and sulphur. “Wow!” I drooled. She nodded her head and told me how she knew I’d like it.
How could thousands of Asians be wrong?  I was still convinced that durian would be delicious if only I could bring myself to eat it, so durian pudding was next on the must try list. The packaging was festooned with happy bunnies and it looked non-threatening. Pulling the plastic top back, super condensed durian flatulence was released into my face. The durian dream ended for me at that moment.

One man’s dead goat is another man’s frommage or Epoisses de Bourgogne, a cheese that smells like a dead goat.  Casu Marzu, also known as maggot cheese is deliberately riddled with live insect larvae. Instead of associating the presence of maggots and the over-powering stench of rot with death we (well, some of us) enjoy this cheese on crackers.  We are culturally conditioned to like cheese that smells like a rest- stop outhouse on a hot day, but we turn our noses up to sewage scented fruit.

Sometimes we need to live on the edge. Don’t be afraid to follow your nose. Try a new wine and food you are scared of. It might not work out the way you had hoped, but it’s more fun and less commitment then a tattoo, an affair or a tragic hair-do.

JANUARY 15

Beer, Beer,Glorious Beer by Karen Ralph

Looking at our Bin 905 beer fridge, I’m impressed by our huge selection of import, artisan and cool local beers. Right now we have the best selection of beer in Calgary, maybe even in Alberta, what the hell, probably all of Canada.  We have beers brewed by Belgium Monasteries; the Chimays; red, white and blue, Trappistes; 6, 7, 8, St. Bernardus Abt. 12, the Kwak Karmelit, Holland’s Konings hoeven Tripel Trappist Ale, Trappist Achel bruin bier, to Germany’s original Wheat-Doppelbock; Aventinus, Pinkus organic Alt Ale, Avec Les Bons Voeux Brasserie Dupont, the Rogue beers from Oregan, Howe Sound Ale from BC, the Dieu de Ciel line-up from Quebec, Coopers Sparkling from Australia, to Big Rock, Keiths, Pikes, Kronenberg, Stella, Heinekin and all of the usual suspects.

Growing up in BC, I’m old enough to remember the beer strikes that occurred every summer. The Big Three, Molson Canadian, Lethbridge Pilsner and Labatts Blue thought nothing of mistreating their customers by walking off the job as soon as the weather warmed up to beer drinking season. Although I was too young to drink, I remember my Dad and uncle driving to Alberta to buy beer. The RCMP were on the look-out for illicit beer buying. Every-one suspected the police drank it themselves because they never made you pour it out and didn’t bother with fines. Sometimes they would overlook a case or two. Since Dad was also burning purple gas (cheap gas dyed purple, supposed to only be used in tractors etc) which could result in a big fine if you were caught, they decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and started drinking Heidelberg, a cheap German beer. My Mom occasionally drank hideous sweet wine coolers like Lonesome Charlie.  The wine choices in Dawson Creek, BC in the ‘70’s were limited. There was Calona with a “C” it came in a big jug with a screw cap and a handle and of course, Canadian “Champagne,” namely, Baby Duck. 

Frustrated and dedicated beer drinkers finally took matters into their own hands and started micro-breweries. It was hard work; in addition to honing their craft they had to go head to head with unions and the government to break the big breweries monopoly and bring quality beer to the parched masses. 
Twenty years ago Kokanee was a rare and sought after delicacy found only in BC.  Albertans would actually go on a road trip to BC. for it. The cool kids had it at their bush parties and the REALLY cool kids had Coors, the holy grail of hard- to -get beer. The rest of us stood around our bush fires choking down sweet wine coolers and O’Keefe’s Extra Old Stock, listening to Kiss eight tracks played on a truck stereo.
Today, as I sip my Lambic Peche, delicious, peach flavoured beer from Belgium, I promise myself that I will never take our luxury of choice for granted. We still sit around outside fires and occasionally listen to Kiss, but as long as we have choice, I will never drink Old Stock again.

JANUARY 14

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly by Karen Ralph

Ascending the dizzying heights of home-cookery there are occasionally a few slipped rungs. When you destroy dinner don’t apologize or explain. Put it down to experience. If you avoid rushing, cooking drunk or with a horrible hangover, not reading recipes through or burning the crap out of your food, you are ahead of the game. If you have guests who are waiting for food and you have done nothing to get it started, fry up an onion. The smell will lull them into thinking that food will be forth-coming. In the meantime, keep their drinks topped up, the drunker they get, the more time you have.

The following are some of the problems I’ve encountered and what I did about it:

Unfamiliar ingredients used freely and fearlessly;
“If less is more, think of how much more more would be.”
“I heard these peppers weren’t that hot.” Famous last words, as I added a can of smoked Chipotle peppers to corn- bread batter.  At dinner the bread looked good, but after swallowing a mouthful and feeling my stomach start to burn and looking at the various expressions of pain, fear and anger on my guests faces I realized that in this case more was too much. We had to throw it out.
The faulty recipe is another hazard and can bring down the most experienced chef, if they aren’t familiar with the recipe. A friend who is a great cook was making biryani for a dinner party. It called for a quarter cup of rosewater. Having never used rosewater in anything before, he thought, based on the overpowering smell of roses that it seemed like a lot but added it in. It was probably supposed to be a quarter of a teaspoon, because when he served it, it was inedible. A few guests tried to soldier on and put on a brave face until he declared it inedible and threw it out.
Disregarding suggestions on the food item can also lead to disaster;
When I saw a huge chicken clearly marked “Stewing Chicken $5” I bought it, took it home and tried to roast it. It was so tough you couldn’t bite through the meat. I cooked it for a total of 20 hours over 3 days, finally admitted defeat and made stock with it.
Trying something for the first time can also lead to terrible dinners. In this case it was the salt crust. I had read somewhere that you can cover your chicken in salt and bake it. The salt forms a crust and seals the juicy tenderness of the meat inside. It sounded easy. I bought a small chicken, covered it in a thick coat of salt, threw in some vegetables, put on the lid and stuck it in the oven. After about an hour and quarter I took it out to check on doneness. The salt crust had disappeared, steaming off in the covered pot. We tried the chicken, it was basically brined, as were all of the vegetables around it. It was like chicken jerky gone horribly wrong, it was so salty that it made your tongue hurt. It was inedible and went into the garbage.
I haven’t tried that one since, although I’ve heard that it’s delicious when it works.
How could I forget The Lemon Gravy? While cooking a chicken I squeezed on some lemon juice. I’ve done this plenty of times since with no problem, so I think that maybe the lemon was rotten, although it looked fine. When we I took it out of the oven my boyfriend, who was starving quickly cut off some breast meat and ladled on the gravy. Then he took a bite.
“How is it”, I asked, concerned by the look on his face.
“As soon as I get my eyes uncrossed I’ll tell you,” he choked. I tried it, it was like lemon acid, so sour and caustic that it could have stripped paint.The whole thing had to go into the garbage.
My solution to fixing a bad dinner? Throw it out and order in. Try it again at a later date.

There is always a new food trend. Sometimes it will stand the test of time and become a classic but will often be the equivalent of the 1970’s avocado coloured stove and fridge. You want to shake your head and go “what were we thinking”?!

The following are some of the hits and misses of the last decade, some of which will flourish in the teens and others will fade away;

Au revoir:  Pomegranate molasses, truffle oil, green tea as a cooking ingredient, fois gras on and in everything. People are tired of paying $40.plus for Canadian wines and Australian wines seem to be in decline.

Allez Allez Allez: These we like- Cheeks; beef, pork and veal, secondary cuts of meat, offal, pork belly, wine bars, buying local, sustainable and ethically raised foods. The rise of artisan breads and cheeses.
Pinot noir is still gathering steam, as is rose, champagne, prosecco, malbec, retro cocktails and exotic and artisan beers. Restaurants with proper stemware, well trained staff and fantastic wine lists, here to stay, yay!

Nouveau:  yuzu juice, real pizza, rednecks who eat sushi, know the difference between Malbec and Chablis and drive hybrid cars.  Albertans not voting Conservative.

Probleme:  blue fin tuna, collapse of the wild salmon run, factory farming, food terrorism, Ed Hardy’s wine, seal meat. 

In the meantime keep cooking. It’s good for your mental and physical health. There is no substitute for home-made food, no matter how calamitous the experience and while you might not get a meal out of it at least you get a story.

JANUARY 11

GOOD BYE 2009! by Sylvain Courel

Happy New Year everybody! What will 2010 bring us? I do not know. A bunch of last year’s top whatever 10 lists, eh! So as a nice black sheep (baaaaah) I thought it would be appropriate to describe my top 10 best of. Let’s make it 5 actually, let’s keep it tight but thick and intense, just like a 330ml of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout.

Here...we go!!! Crank the volume! P A R - T A Y!

5. Zee crazy beer selection got crazier! Firstly you now can enjoy a wide selection of single bottles (perfection starts at $4). Secondly, the big formats:  it’s now time to share a bottle of beer like you would a bottle of wine. Thirdly, you can drink the best beer of the world for the price of an “everyday” wine, so why wouldn’t you?

4. Our features wall displays an abundance of killer$25 bottle, red and white, old and new world, close your eyes and blind pick from there, you’ll always be surprised.  It’s crazy all the good deals available out there! Check the bin-ends too!

3.  The tasting room schedule. People did manifest lots of interest for our events and it is very rewarding to fill a room with wine enthusiasts like we had. Awesome time spent tasting with you guys!

2. My visit of Chateau Montus and Chateau Bouscasse this summer was definitely a highlight from 2009. Monsieur Duboscq had my fiancée and I do a 3 hour tour of the facilities and vineyards, then we ended up in the tasting room for a taste of the whole line up (25 wines). I scored some Montus Prestige cuvee 2000 and some Montus XL 98, wines not available in Alberta.

1. Being offered a bottle of wine is really nice. When you are given the best bottle of wine you ever tasted it makes you wonders about 2 things:
a. What level of perfection can a wine reach?
b. What was I drinking before?

Thanks again to all the staff, licensees and customers for making Bin905 such a unique place where I very much enjoyed “working”.
Cheers!

JANUARY 10

Julie & Julia, Fact or Fiction by Karen Ralph

If Julie Powell cooked her way through “Mastering The Art of French Cooking” in one year I will wrap my hat in puff pastry and eat it.
After reading “My Life in France” by Julia Child, followed by “Julie & Julia” by Julie Powell, and watching the movie of the same name, I was inspired. I bought “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking” and “Baking With Julia.” This led to the purchase of a Kitchenaide 610, the DC10 Caterpillar version of a mixer. It can make pasta, sausages and mix your dough into a warm, malleable ball of soon-to-be-deliciousness. There is no end to its magic. I had started baking about a year ago, starting with bread, moving onto scones and the occasional chocolate cake and batch of cookies. There were hits and misses but when I read how Julia Child and her co-writers had tested the recipes between fourteen and thirty times and not only in France but in America, I was excited. One of the big problems I have encountered with baking recipes, especially ones from the coast, is that they simply don’t work here in Calgary. The altitude and dryness have to be taken into account. Extra water, baking powder and longer baking times are needed. When I tried Julia’s recipes, everything turned out perfectly. The bread rose, pastry puffed, the meat browned, the lobster glowed. “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” is genius. A true labour of love and dedication, she brought French cooking to women in North America who don’t have staff, although it would be extremely helpful to have servants to do the shopping and prep for these recipes. They are fool-proof but extremely labour intensive.
I learned the hard way that you need to sit down and read them through before starting, although if I had done so I probably never would have attempted, for example, puff pastry. It looked easy. Combine dry ingredients, add liquid, form into ball, fold in four sticks unsalted butter, roll and fold. No problem. Then I turned the page and saw the rest of the instructions. Keep folding and rolling so the dough is 24” x 10” five more times, making sure that you chill the dough between folds. I was rolling dough until nine that night, which brings me to Julie Powell.
Like her, I have a full-time job, a supportive boyfriend, a cat, and I like to cook and write. From “Mastering The Art” I’ve cooked the Milanese tourte, the puff pasty, cheese puffs, onion tart, lobster thermidor, lobster American, coq a vin, leg of lamb and numerous vegetable dishes. Not including the time spent shopping for ingredients, letting the dough sit overnight, etc. Julia Child’s recipes can stretch into two days, with cooking times of up to eight hours. These are definitely in the Slow Food category unless you have made everything the day before and are assembling and cooking the day of.
The climax of Julie & Julia shows Julie boning a duck in front of her TV to an old French Chef video. She bones the bird, we see her sewing it up, wrapping it in pastry, baking it and serving it on her cute roof top patio wearing her pearls. Fine. Just let me ask, with her full time job, when did she shop for the giant sewing needle and heat- resistant thread, make the pastry, not to mention the duck stuffing, and all of the side dishes. After work?
Did she really cook over 500 recipes in 365 days? .
In the movie Julie Powell talks about hoping for book deals and fame from her blog. She was hurt that Julia declined a meeting, saying that Julie was “vulgar and not serious.” A “flimsy”, Julia’s word for people who weren’t serious about food. You can’t blame Child for being protective of what took her and her partners Louisette Bertolle and Simone Beck ten years plus to write and perfect. Powell probably seemed like an entitled brat trying to cash in on Julia’s life’s work for her own benefit.
Julie Powell wanted to change her life and did. She was blatant about her desire and is now a successful writer and minor celebrity. She became so by doing it and that is admirable. I believe that she cooked a lot, fought with her boyfriend and wrote about it all, but cooking her way through 524 complicated, labour intensive recipes with often hard-to-get ingredients, spread out over 684 pages, not including the index? In 365 days?
She wanted to prove that she could finish something, but did cooking her way through a legendary cook-book on a time limit make her a foodie or even a cook? “Mastering The Art of French Cooking” will always be a great achievement by Julia Child.
Julie Powell’s feat is like good reality TV; dramatic, reveals some truths, but the “reality” is manufactured. It’s simulacrum, like using Splenda instead of sugar, or margarine instead of butter. Julie & Julia is closer to fiction then fact.

JANUARY 06

January Needs Love Too by Karen Ralph

After the brutal end to 2009, January is not a time for restraint. It’s already a long, cold, miserable month. Why make it worse? Why should January be the month for living off of salad and water?! Being holed up inside, freezing because you are trying to save money on your heating bill and it’s -40 outside, eating frying- pan steaks with canned grey mushrooms and boxed wine or worse while wrapped in a snuggy is one of the most depressing things I can think of, other then being holed up inside giving yourself coffee enemas and living on lettuce.
That is why you have to let go of those vague ideas of practicing fiscal restraint and eliminating household debt. These things stand in the way of style and taste. Stop worrying. Take off that disgusting blanket with arm- holes, put on some real clothes and head straight for a good wine shop and specialty food store. A quick browse through Holt’s never hurt anyone. A snuggy is no way to waste your pretty.
Welcome back to civilization.
Don’t waste time, it’s cold out and when you get home you will have cooking prep to do and wine to drink. (Cotes du Rhone would pair nicely with duck) Once at the wine store ask your wine mongers for advice and put together a case; four whites, two sparkling, six reds. Don’t be stingy. Buy the best wine that you can afford, your body will thank you for it.  An example would be, two Chablis, two Pinot Gris, two Champagne, two Cotes du Rhones, two Burgundys and two Sangiovese. This wine will get you through the month in style.
A glass of wine with a friend and a meal is healthy and fun. Wine with your meal will lift your spirits and give you hope that the dark nights of winter will soon shorten, the sun will come back, and you will be drinking Viognier in the backyard just like old times. It might even help you decide to like winter and take up skiing or snowboarding.
Wine is the answer.

JANUARY 05

Jesse’s 2009 Year in Review by Jesse Willis

2009 Year in Review

With 2009 now in the history books I thought I would take a moment to reflect on my personal wine triumphs and upsets. 

Top 5 Wines of the Year:

In scanning my memories and tasting notes for my top wines of the year one thought comes to the fore-front…my life is awesome. I had a hell of a time narrowing the list down to 5, but in no particular order these are my most memorable wines of 2009.

» Ridge Monte Bello – Most of my colleagues know that Ridge Winery, perched high atop the Santa Cruz Mountain district of California is one of my favourite producers in the world. 2009 brought my first chance to taste their top wine, the Monte Bello Bordeaux Blend, not once but on four separate occasions (did I mention the awesome nature of my existence?). I was able to taste the 2005 Monte Bello at the winery during my trip to California in June and was blown away by the purity, elegance and structure of the wine. The 1996 Monte Bello was a knockout during my Bordeaux Battle Tasting and left the group speechless with its beautiful aromatics and impeccable balance. One of the highlights of my young wine drinking career came on my birthday when I opened my coveted magnum (1.5L) of 1987 Monte Bello, which was drinking near perfection with notes of fresh earth, mineral, moist tobacco and black cherry. A stunning wine and although not inexpensive ($150.00 per bottle) this is an excellent value compared to the top wines of Bordeaux.

» 2004 Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc – You cannot believe the shock and awe that arose when our friend Andre showed up to last year’s Bin 905 staff Christmas party with two bottles of this legendary and exceedingly rare white Bordeaux. Despite the huge volume of wine flowing that night I managed to keep my small sample of this set aside so that I could continue to revisit it throughout the evening. This was my first chance to experience the legendary “waxy” texture of great white Bordeaux. The wine was a powerhouse, with notes of lemon meringue pie, honey, key lime, grapefruit, fresh flowers and more. The depth of this legendary wine was unbelievable and it’s seemingly endless layers will haunt my memory for years to come. 

» 2007 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese – There is perhaps no other wine in the world that can bring a smile to my face more readily than a great German Riesling. 2009 brought my introduction to the wines of Egon Muller, one of the greatest producers in the famed Mosel region of Germany. One of the things I love most about Riesling is the excellent value it usually delivers. That being said there was more than a little sticker shock when I saw the shelf price of these wines, with a full bottle of the Auslese coming in at $310.00 on the shelf. So it was with great anticipation that I lifted the glass containing my first taste of this Rolls Royce of Riesling to my lips . This is one of those wines you experience rather than taste. If the Haut-Brion Blanc hit like a hammer, this hit like a feather. It was like the voice of god whispering in your ear, like a perfect snowflake gently landing and melting on your tongue, like your first kiss with a new flame…an experience that transcends words. Well this may be the most expensive Riesling I have ever tasted, the wines of Egon Muller truly are on their own level in terms of quality. This will easily age for 20 years and likely much more.

» 2004 Le Macchiole Messorio – undoubtedly one of the best tastings I hosted in 2009 was the Iconic Italian Merlot tasting. Out of the outstanding line-up of 7 wines, there was one wine that in my mind was the clear favourite…the 2004 Messorio. Messorio is a wine that collectors scramble to get their hands on and a perfect 100 point score from Wine Spectator Magazine made this wine even more sought after. Now as much as I sometimes love to hate these kinds of “cult” wines I would have to agree with Wine Spectator in this instance as this truly was close to perfection. This wine jumped out of the glass with aroma’s of dark fruit, spice, freshly ground espresso, vanilla, cedar, earth and more. On the palate this was pure sex, with silky tannins and a long finish displaying more blueberry, cinnamon and cigar box. For anyone lucky enough to have this in their cellar do yourself a favour and give it another 3-5 years to come around and your patience will be greatly rewarded.

» 1999 Bruno Giacosa Barolo “le Rocche De Falleto” – From the heart of the famed Falleto vineyard and produced by an Italian Icon this was extremely special indeed. I love the wines of Barolo and I have been lucky enough to taste some amazing examples and to visit the region in 2007. The local Nebbiolo grape finds its greatest expression in the Langhe hills around the town of Barolo. This is very light in colour, almost Pinot Noir like, with a bouquet that opens up like a symphony with lifted notes of rose petal, earth, tar, spices, tart cherry and more. On the palate this is like a linebacker wearing a velvet dress. At first very pretty with bright fruit and vibrant acidity, then the classic Nebbiolo tannins kick in giving a reminder of why these wines have such famous aging potential. The greatest Barolo I have ever tasted. Thanks to Brad Royale for putting on an amazing 1999 Barolo Horizontal Tasting that this wine was a part of. Definitely the most informative tasting I attended in 2009. 

Top 5 Value Wines:

» Dr. Loosen Riesling “Dr.L” – Mosel, Germany – Simply delicious, with just the right amount of sweetness and a mouth-watering apple character that’s a sure crowd pleaser. $16-18
» Telmo Rodriguez “Basa” Bianco – Rueda, Spain – From one of Spain’s hottest winemakers this was my house wine for the summer of 2009. Fresh, crisp, lively and expressive. $15-17
» Chateau Pesquie Cotes du Ventoux “Les Terrasses” – Southern Rhone Valley, France – Customers at Bin 905 may well be sick of me constantly recommending this wine, but I will continue to recommend it likely to my death. A blend of Syrah and Grenache from the more obscure region of Cotes du Ventoux, this is delicious with loads of blueberry fruit and peppery spice. $15-18
» Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre IGT – Veneto, Italy – This baby Amarone from one of my favourite producers from the province of Veneto is a sizzling value. Given that the price of Allegrini’s Amarone is now hovering around $100.00, the Palazzo Della Torre is a great buy at just over $30.00. With 1/3rd of the grapes dried on straw matt’s for 3 months, this wine has a plush mouth-feel and notes of black cherry, milk chocolate and vanilla. This is well worth keeping an eye out for and the newly landed 2006 vintage is stellar.
» Remondo Palacios La Vendimia Rioja – Rioja, Spain – With a bubbly personality and a fun label to boot this is one of my standard party wines. A blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Tempranillo this $20.00 gem shows why Alvaro Palacios is one of Spain’s greatest winemakers.

Worst Hangover: Hendricks Gin – Under a list of healthy methods to cope with a break-up would likely be activities such as yoga, a mountain retreat or a bubble-bath. I learned the hard way that one not-so-healthy way to cope is to go out with a bunch of guys, mix a gin and tonic IN the bottle of gin and then end up dancing like an idiot by yourself in a crowded bar, throwing your expensive prescription eyewear on the side of the road and eating pizza by yourself sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Not exactly my proudest moment. Instead of the delicious rose and cucumber extract that Hendricks Gin is known for, I was left with only the taste of shame…lesson learned.

Most exciting addition to the cellar: 2005 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin – This was the one bottle in the Bin 905 high end wine cabinet that haunted my dreams the most. In fact if you look closely at the glass in front of the bottle there is likely a permanent mark from my face being smeared against the glass so often, pearing in with anticipation. Victory is finally mine and this sits as the new king of my cellar (although a very modest cellar it is). This wine is only made in the best vintages and only 4000 bottles are produced annually. An unusually high proportion of the Mourvedre grape from very old vines makes this a legendary monster of a wine. I may not be drinking this beast until my 40th birthday, but it will be well worth the wait!

Best tasting: Palate Destruction 2009– This tasting was a lot of fun and in the end was so popular an encore tasting was held. This featured a great line-up of wines including Martinelli Lolita Ranch Zinfandel, Saxum James Berry Vineyard and more. The highlight of the tasting however was the extremely rare Velvet Glove Shiraz from Australian producer Mollydooker. This was so thick and plush it was unbelievable. The finish was pure blueberry pie and lasted for several minutes. Crazy stuff!

Favourite meal: Although I have eaten a lot of great meals this year I think the most memorable was still the 2008 Bin 905 staff Christmas party (January, 2009) which was held at The Ranche Restaurant in Fish Creek Provincial Park here in Calgary (http://www.crmr.com/theranche/). This rustic historic building is absolutely beautiful and the food and wine was out of control good.

Oldest wine consumed: 1979 Chateau Montrose – Although showing its age this geriatric Bordeaux was still delicious. This was a very generous contribution from a guest at a friend’s 30th birthday party.

2009 was a huge year for my continued development and learning in the world of wine. In addition to my already amazing group of friends and family, I am blessed to work with and learn from some of Canada’s top wine professionals. I am also grateful for the great clientele we have here at Bin 905 and I look forward to helping to make Bin 905 bigger and better in the New Year.

All the best in the New Year,

Jesse

DECEMBER 30

Lobster-Vision 2009 by Karen Ralph

The Challenge: A soiree ménage-a-trios covering a Birthday, Winter Solstice and Christmas.  The challenge is not making the birthday boy feel marginalized as Xmas babies often are: “Here ya go, Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!” as you give them one present because you cheaped out. I’m guilty. I’ve done this.

The Solution: Live lobster sacrifice, lots of wine and the perfect present, a vintage Ludwig supraphonic snare drum.

The Reality: The fridge broke down a week before the party and due to the blizzard we were unable to get a repair man to come out until the day before the party. We put the food out on the deck where it was buried in the snow and some of it was lost. We will be harvesting frozen shrimp off of our deck in the spring.

More Reality: The perfect present, the 1970’s Ludwig Supraphonic snare drum is rare. After exhausting all leads in Calgary I turned to e-bay where I was outbid on the first one, learned my lesson, put in a huge bid on the second one and sweated it out.

Too Much Reality: Fresh lobsters arrive in a box with air holes.  They are alive and feisty. You have to kill them. The question is, do you want to do this in front of all of your guests?  Traumatize the vegetarians and scare the children, one of whom is Charlotte, your boyfriend’s twelve year old daughter who is vegetarian and a PETA member? Even if you answered yes the answer is no.

Our friend Laurie, an experienced lobster cook, said it was best to do the killing and cooking the night before. The meat can chill and so can you; enjoy your guests instead of spending the party slaving in the kitchen. She asked if I had a big lobster pot, lobster crackers and picks and a small container with a candle for keeping butter hot. The answer was no. She offered to help and showed up on Friday night with all of the supplies, most importantly a chilled bottle of rose champagne. Prioritizing, we cracked the champagne and filled our flutes. Then we filled the lobster pot with water, lots of salt, lemon juice, white wine and bay leaves.

As soon as the water was boiling Laurie picked up a lobster up by the back and cut off the elastics on its claws.  It was surprisingly agile for a crustacean and almost pinched her as it flailed. Unperturbed she started to rub it between the eyes while holding it upside down. This is supposed to relax them and put them to sleep at which point you dunk them head-first into the boiling water which allegedly kills them instantly.  The first one went in without a struggle.  My boyfriend thought it was cruel. His method was to stab them between the eyes and drop them into the water. Charlotte picked one up but it was particularly aggressive and thrashed violently, causing her to scream, laugh and throw it. Quelle la horror, it almost tipped over the champagne!!! We had twelve to kill and two pots of water on the go. We could do three in one pot and two in the other. It took about four hours to finish them off. Charlotte would rush them out into the snow to stop the cooking as they came out of the water. We made a celebratory lobster Xmas tree with a champagne bottle base and a butter stick star in the fresh clean snow.

The real work was removing them from their shells without slicing my fingers to shreds. Lobster is messy and demanding, you have to work for the deliciousness. I was covered in lobster shrapnel; it was even on the kitchen ceiling. We still had to make the dips, the Spanokopita, the pizza and bread dough and all of the other party prep. The fridge was full of party food so we put the wine outside in the snow. The trick is not to forget about it and let it freeze. Charlotte was the designated wine watcher, cat wrangler and sous chef. She did a fantastic job.

For the party I had mainly chosen white wines that would pair with the mighty crustacean: Comte Lafon Macon Milly Lamartine, an outstanding French Chardonnay with lots of power and structure, Olivier Merlin La Roche Vineuse, another beautiful French Chardonnay featuring great fruit, minerals and lime leaf. There was Bellavista; Italian sparkling at its finest. We had it in magnums, rose and brut. There was champagne: Pol Roger Rose 1998, (my favorite) Drappier Rose and Brut, De Sousa Cuvee Caudalie, a keg of Rogue Yellow Snow IPA and assorted beers from around the world. For red wines we had : Chave Mon Couer, a stunning Cote Du Rhone and friends brought beautiful French Syrahs, Chateauneuf de Papes, more champagnes, rose proseccos, still rose, designer gin, it was a Bacchanalian revelry. The lobster was devoured, the house was still standing and the recycling was legendary.

The next day, a friend had spent the night on the torturous pull out couch so he was up and already planning an afternoon of visiting and bowling. Since it was Sunday, already getting dark and we ate some pickled herring, crackers and left over cheese and had a cheer to the season.

The Result: A fun party with great friends, food and wine. I won the ebay bidding war on a Supraphonic, and it arrived the morning of the party.It was in mint condition and even came in its original case. Ian loved it and played it that night. Looking forward to the new decade and new party challenges.

NOVEMBER 24

Lobster L’amour by Karen Ralph

Step One: “Don’t take the bands off the claws until the lobsters are dead.” This is really good advice but if I had followed it dinner wouldn’t have been half as exciting. Besides, it gave the lobster a chance to go down fighting.
Step Two: It depends on which recipe you are following for step two. Do you pull the raw meat from the shell? Do you blanch it and then pull it from the shell? Do you leave it in the shell and poach it in the butter sauce that you should have prepared no more than one hour earlier while dreading the prospect of stabbing a feisty crustacean in the head?  I like to consider all the options and then go with what’s easiest. 
Step Three: Leave it in the shell to poach it in the butter sauce that you realize should have been made as step two.
Step Four: Make the butter sauce, or beurre monte as it is called. This requires a heavy bottomed pan, a couple of sticks of unsalted butter, a thermometer so that you don’t burn or boil the sauce and a tablespoon of water or wine.  Heat up the liquid to about 180F and add small chunks of cold butter, whisking it in until you have a smooth, velvety sauce. At this point you can add a finely chopped shallot, some salt and other herbs if you desire. Keep your heat at about 160- 180 F. Don’t let it the boil or it will break. Breaking is bad.
Step Five: Read the entire recipe and realize that you are missing several ingredients and you should have deconstructed the lobster into smaller parts before tossing into the sauce. Removing the meat from the shell previous to cooking would have been the best.
Step Six: Read the part about pouring boiling water and a little vinegar on the lobster to partially blanch them, allowing you to a) refrigerate them until use which b) cools the meat enough to easily pull it from the shells.
Step Seven:  Open the wine you were saving for dinner, a Comte Lafon and start drinking. This is no time for a glass of cooking wine, you have spent half your monthly income on this dinner and are now so stressed out that you’re shedding.  Deep breath.
Step Eight:  Fish lobster shells from the butter sauce and pull the burning hot meat from it with greasy, burnt fingers. Repeat until meat is removed from shells and is glistening in the butter sauce. 
Step Nine: Boyfriend cautiously comes into the kitchen and asks what else you are cooking, picks up butter sticks and makes joke about “Last Tango In Paris.” We are not amused.
Step Ten: Dump package of pre-made potato gnocci into boiling water, chop fresh sage, strain gnocci, add sage, butter and salt.
Step Eleven: Pour lobster in buerre monte onto half of your most beautiful serving platter, add gnocchi to other half, garnish with a few sage leaves, chase the cat off the table, and proudly present the lobster of your labour.  Bon Appetit!

NOVEMBER 04

FFU-845 at the Ranchmen’s Club by Brad Royale

FFU-845 is a small group of wine lovers.  For whatever they have decided to call themselves FFU-845.  I’d call the reasons behind the name a secret, although I’m not really sure the origins are secret?  I could spill the beans here, but I won’t …and I’m not even sure why?  I suppose if someone were to ask, but probably no one will, so steeped in mystery they will lay.  FFU-845 celebrated their inaugural first annual big bad wine bash at the Ranchmen’s Club.  The idea for the evening was to bring the best thing you could possibly muster.  Our parade into our cellars gave the eight attendees a wide eyed and big bellied evening.  Certainly one of the most wonderful tastings I have ever participated in. 

Egly Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny 1er Cru – Youthful, packed and stacked.  Drinking best in 2-3 years.

1982 Krug – Crazy wine.  Seemed so young when first opened.  Only with a little air did the nuances of age come about.  Hard to imagine this staggering anytime soon.  If you have this in the cellar I suggest cracking one (if you have multiples) to taste the magic.  Then sit on the rest for whenever you like….this will plateau for an easy decade.

1989 J. Lassale 1er Cru, Chigny Les Roses – Pure and viscous and fully mature.  Delighful now. 

1996 Bollinger R.D. – Firm and touch bruising to the kisser right now.  Best left for a decade.

1989 Jos. Christoffel Jr. Urziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese ** - Beautiful and pure.  Mature scents with crushed rock, petrol, sour apples, quince.  Drink now. 

1990 Château Petrus – Medium hue with ruby core and tawny rim.  Wonderfully aromatic with cedar, pencil lead, quite floral, red currents.  Quite exotic with notes of fig, licorice spice and amazing depth.  Lots of youth here despite showing signs of age.  The palate offers an amazing depth of power while being extremely elegant.  Tannins are grainy and the acids have plumped up, showing a certain sweetness.  The finish is fully developed and sits for oohhh, maybe like a day and half…just crazy!  Loads of graphite and mineral resonate in the mouth after each sip.  Just brilliant.  Drinking well now with surprising youth, will plateau like this I suspect for some time.  Drink now to 2025. 

1990 La Mission Haut-Brion - Medium hue with ruby core and pronounced tawny edge, sediment present.  Quite pungent meadow floral notes, stone mineral, elegant red currents, caramel and sesame.  Nose leaps from the glass with each swirl, very enticing.  On the palate the tannins remain a touch dry despite obvious age, while the acids and have settled to a very integrated low rumble.  A good core of sweet fruit fill the mouth, teaming with liquid mineral.  The wine obviously has some time ahead of it, but I wonder if the tannins will fully integrate into the body.  Shows well right now with a certain sense of maturity to it.  I suspect a little dinner, perhaps roasted quail, would deal with those tannins nicely.  Drink now till 2020. 

1995 Château Mouton Rothschild – Quite dark ruby with a solid core and some noticeable age on rim.  The nose is quite closed offering a shy array of dough, cream, raisin, chocolate and more subtle scents of graphite and cedar.  The fruit on the palate seems almost jammy.  Acids are fresh with the tannins being somewhat hard, compressing the palate somewhat.  Out of a couple recently tasted bottles this one was certainly the most shut down.  Mouton always needs a good decade under the belt to be friendly in such firm years as 1995.  With some coaxing this will perform, but I think more patience is warranted.  Best after 2012 and will sit happily in your cellar to 2025. 

2000 Château Margaux – Youthful dark ruby hue with a touch of opacity within the core and a solid rim.  The nose seeps new wood, anise, vanilla, cedar, graphite…so very expressive, simply gushing.  A decadent palate with perky acids and firm but subdued tannins.  This wine is magic in the mouth, the flavours feather across the tongue.  Godamm this is bloody delicious.  Drinking now will elevate every pleasure sense known to your nerve system; however patience will bring a bigger reward.  Drink now to 2035. 

1982 Château Leoville Poyferre – Showing a good deal of age, but still ruby tones in the core.  Sediment is very evident.  Quite aromatic with clay, floral, wet stone and autumnal scents.  Developed with a certain youthfulness here.  Tannins are supple, as are acids, definitely mature.  Palate delivers hay, clay, cherry cola, black minerals and truffle and very ripe red currents (showing the heat of the vintage). Beautiful right this very minute, drink up. 

1998 Château Lafite – Quite dark ruby core with hint of opacity, youthful.  Doughy ripe currents and graphite ooze on the nose.  Very expressive.  Structure here is firm, youthful and wonderfully placed all throughout the palate.  Truly just lovely to have this in my mouth, excellent execution.  I had guessed a much more lauded vintage, just goes to show why Lafite is Lafite.  For some this was close to being the wine of the night.  Truly wow wine and I wish I had this in my cellar….like I really really wish I did.

1996 Château Margaux – Youthful hue of purple-ish ruby.  Pretty red currents, peach, heavy mineral, very enticing with some development. The palate is superb with pin point red fruits, floral notes and cedar.  Alcohol is a touch warm, but not intrusive.  Tannins are grainy and along with the acids are soothing to the fruit.  Very Cabernet dominant.  Drink now and hold for another 15 easy. 

2000 Château Mouton Rothschild – Quite a dark hue with an almost opaque purple ruby core.  Dark rich scents of wood are very lifted, caramel, black currents, fig and licorice abound on the nose.  Decadent palate and quite showy right now.  Very youthful structures and overall still quite component.  Finish is delicious and open, stuffed with black fruits.  Needs time to integrate everything.  I was surprised to find this to be Mouton, seems so flashy for an estate that can be so shy in youth.  Hold for another 5-8 to taste and will surely see a healthy 20 - 30 years ahead of it.

1990 Château Haut Brion – Having walked downstairs to the cellar, our tomb of tasting if you will, we spotted this glorious bottle in the Ranchman’s keep.  Keen for sure, only moments went by before the sommelier was drilling into it.  Opportunities like this need to be seized, pondering is for the spectator.  The first line written in my book is, “Out of control nose, good God.” Good start I think..haha.  Super mineral, very spicy with incredible depth.  Almost too much to take, the nose sits like an aura around the glass.  The palate is perfect, stream lined tannins and plump sidelined acids play an open field to ripe, warm red currents and huge mineral.  Wine of the night in my opinion.  If you own this we have to be friends, I’m easy to get along with and like having fun.  Drink now and will sit for another 15 plus. 

2001 Château Larrivet Haut Brion Blanc – Lovely depth on the nose with sesame, honey dew, molasses and pineapple.  Youthful but with a hint of development.  Should plateau here for a few years gaining richness of mouthfeel and more pronounced mineral.  Drink now to 2016.

1999 Dominus – Unexpectedly rich!  Even in a line-up of Bordeaux where one would think this would show the nuances of Napa, this really came to the table tonight!  Saturated black fruits and a grainy fulsome structure.  Delicous with ten years of age to it.  I have found often Dominus is best with around a decade of cellar time to it.  Blossomed.  Drink now to 2019.

1997 Quintarelli Alzero – Massive power, super decadent.  A touch of VA on the nose gave way to immediate Veneto guesses here.  I’m pretty sure Josh actually called this wine out….crazy!  To say it stuck out in this tasting would be a ridiculous understatement.  Qualitatively on par, but stylistically just wow and in another realm.  Raisins, figs, black rocky soils, foresty-autumnal scents?  Wine coats the mouth with weighty tannins and viscous acids.  Once swallowed the wine literally just sits on the palate….waiting for what I don’t know….If I were to leave the wine would still be here, waiting (does that even make sense?) If you can find this drink it, with caution.  Best now to 2030.

2005 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon – Excellent purity here with saturated black fruits and plowed black earth all through the wine.  One can see why this wine gets so much attention from the critics.  The beauty of Spottswood is in its power approach to elegance, well done and true to Napa Valley.  Approachable now but will sit well to 2020. 

1975 Château d’Yquem – Beautiful spicy botrytis lends itself to sandalwood, crème caramel and matsutake mushroom.  Palate is rich but starting to feel lean due to age, interesting to note how the perceptible amounts of sugar change over time, often having richly sweet wines ending up relatively dry.  The palate is persistent with a full finish of nutmeg, white flower, angel food cake, canola oil and apricots.  Just lovely and such a rarity.  Drink now. 

1977 Graham’s – I’m not even going to lie here.  By this time in the tasting I was ….a little drunk.  I’ll make a note now saying I did request spit buckets upon arriving to the tasting, this failed miserably.  Upon the first drop of wine (1990 Petrus) I knew this was a futile expenditure of breath.  Notes here simply read, “…lively, seductive and I love it.” Seems fair. 

Cheers,
Brad

NOVEMBER 02

Party by Karen Ralph

The last time I wrote was the night before our Labour Day party. Then, Fall happened, we were busy and I neglected the follow up to “Everything But The Kitchen Sink.” A quick catch-up: the garburator was fixed. The plumber showed up at 6:00 AM and ripped it apart. He found two more hair-ties, a white plastic pot scraper and a screw. He replaced the broken part, charged us $100. and went on his way. We went back to bed and got up later to resume the party preparations. I had bought a lot of wine because all of our friends love drinking, drink a lot and the thought of running out makes me anxious. At the last minute I decided to make a punch as well. It was a delicious, old school concoction consisting of pink lemonaid, a bottle of Iceburg Vodka and all of the ends of left over bottles in the back of the fridge and the pantry, so that would be ¼ of a bottle of cassis old enough to have turned brown, ¾ of a bottle of Pimms, date of purchase unknown, 1/3 bottle of Triple Sec, 1/6 bottle of Patron Silver Tequila, a few 200 ml bottles of Vermouth and the dregs of an old brandy bottle. It was delicious!!! The disturbing thing was that you couldn’t taste the alcohol. This was the undoing of a couple of guests, one of whom tried to wreck a drum kit with his head when he face planted into it. We moved him outside where he tried to take out the fence with his head when he face planted into that with enough force to almost break boards. He never dropped his drink.
We had three cooking stations: the oven, the gas BBQ and the brick BBQ that requires bricquets. We cooked ribs, chicken wings, a beef tenderloin, 4 medium freshly caught trout (courtesy of my Bro-in –law Bob) potatoes, onions, peppers, plus there were dips, bread, olives, pickles and charcouterie, sausage rolls, a fine selection of mustards and to top it off, a beautiful chocolate cake from Brule.
We ate, we drank, some-one threw a can of beans on the fire causing a rushed evacuation followed by an awesome, powerful, potentially blinding and disfiguring explosion. We moved to the basement where we were graced by the presence of a several extremely talented musicians who played and sang until the sun came up. All in all, it was an excellent way to end summer.
The wines that I purchased for the party paired well with the foods and were inexpensive and delicious. Here they are: Palacio La Vendimia (Spain) Estampa Viognier Chardonnay (Argentina) Dominio de Aranleon les Bles Crianza- we just call it Bles. (Spain) Canella Prosecco (Italy) assorted Cote De Rhones, gifts of Burgundy and cases of assorted beer.
There were no survivors.

SEPTEMBER 05

Everything but the kitchen sink… by Karen Ralph

Like a highly skilled and highly paid athlete, the night before a party being my equivalent to a big game, I abstain from sex. (Do they still do that?) This is to concentrate my energy into scoring that trifecta of a clean house, food that is delicious and non-lethal, and making sure that guests are happy and entertained.
As anyone who has ever had a party knows, you are so bagged from trekking around farmers markets, Italian markets, wine stores, bakeries, Superstores and discount liquor depots, spending insane amounts of money on things that you aren’t even sure you know how to cook, then getting home, unpacking, putting it all away, preparing whatever can be made ahead of time and then cleaning the house- did I remember toilet paper?!- that getting rogered is the last thing on your mind. Today, we did all of the above. (Except the rogering, should that be capitalized?) As I was applying the dry rub (that I made with my very own chapped little hands) to the pork ribs, I noticed that the sink was full of greasy water. I hit the garburator switch and it was draining nicely, purring away, then suddenly, an impotent wheeze, and nothing. Silence. I gave it a dirty look, like that’s gonna help, swore at it, turned it on and off a few times, but nothing. I turned it off and stuck my hand down the hole. Ever since I found the source of a terrible smell down there last fall, (a chicken neck! gak.) I really hate doing this, but sometimes it has to be done. I felt an elastic, and pulled. It was black hair elastic, I put my hand back down and found another one! I yanked them out and turned on the switch. Nothing. It was dead. We have a party looming, lots of food to make, and no kitchen sink?! Or rather, a non-draining kitchen sink full of greasy, grey water and everyone hanging out in the kitchen? My boyfriend got out the phone book and called a plumber who told us that if the motor is destroyed it could be between $200-$600. to replace it. The thing is, you need a sink, so the plumber is showing up at 7:00 AM in the morning to see if it is fixable or if parts need to be ordered. The fridge works just fine and it had a bottle of Meo Camuzet Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes De Nuits 2006 that I was saving to drink with Ian at 4:00 AM after the party. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. I opened it half an hour ago, breaking out a Riedel extreme chardonnay glass to enhance the experience. Rich, soothing, creamy yet vibrant, light mineralty, a hint of lime leaf, almond, peach, shale, and the ocean, elegant and calm. This wine speaks volumes about terroir, of vines growing in chalky soil composed of a million years worth of oyster shells, and the winemakers skill and passion in creating this beautifully nuanced white. It encompasses all of the things that I love about white Burgundy. It gives you the space needed for perspective. On that note I think I will go find my boyfriend…

SEPTEMBER 04

Long Week-end Woooohooo by Karen Ralph

It’s Labour Day week-end. If it wasn’t for World Skills kids would be just starting back at school instead of already having been in for a week. If I were still a kid I would be bitter about that. Getting ripped off on your summer holidays to watch girls paint cars and boys make cakes would be inspirational if you were thirty to sixty looking back at thirteen to eighteen but actually being thirteen to eighteen? Maybe kids are more job oriented now, how would I know? I sell wine. I know nothing about kids other then that when they try to buy alcohol when they are sixteen, they still think that wearing sunglasses indoors and trying to buy tequila and absinthe are signifiers of someone who is of legal age. We thought that too. We were wrong. The signifier of someone who is just legal drinking age, which in the province of Alberta is eighteen years old accompanied with proper gov’t ID, is a confident swagger around the Smirnoff Ice Coolers and affecting airs as you approach the spirits, talking louder than is necessary about the merits of Captain Morgan vs Don Julio.
I personally bee-line for Burgundy, looking for the best deals and when I’m having a party, France, Spain, Italy is where I look.
Tonight I’m planning a party, and will keep you posted as to what direction I decide to go with it.
There will be meat. There will be wine. Hopefully there will be sunshine.

SEPTEMBER 03

What to drink on a full moon slug hunt by Karen Ralph

(Imagine Peter Mansbridge or Katie Couric reading the first paragraph)
The heat of the last ten days has done nothing to quell the alarming rise in the Calgary slug population that increased expedentally during the summer monsoon season. They are on a very slow rampage of mass destruction. Nibbling and sliming everything in their creeping progress through the lettuce, into the beets and squash, they have even taken on the invinsible, invasive and prickly borage with a few tiny, tentative bites on the young leaves. This is a call to arms. The scabby, holey lettuce must be be saved! 
The first step was talking to other gardeners: “Use chopsticks to pluck them off the leaves and into a salt bath.” As if. I can barely feed myself with chopsticks, let alone grabbing slugs off of leaves.
“Soak a board in the worst beer you can find and leave it in the garden overnight. The slugs will climb under it and you can easily pick them up with chopsticks and drown them.” Enough with the chopsticks already! We gamely tried it anyway but there weren’t any slugs under our Big Rock Grasshopper soaked board. That was clearly the fault of the beer. The quality was too high for the slug palate. They would probably prefer stale dated Pilsner or maybe flat Growers Cider.
“Spread ashes or egg shells in the garden, the slugs don’t like to crawl over them.”
Maybe my mighty hunter didn’t understand the “ashes” part, because the next morning there was a large, charred log in the garden, replete with slugs. We decided to give the egg shells a pass because slugs are one thing, maggots are another.
Finally, we asked my Mom. She trotted out the fingers/chopsticks method of picking the little buggers off the leaves and killing them, but then mentioned that they love beer, and a small bowl, buried so that the lip is ground level and filled with beer is the slackers way to kill slugs. Yes! We had found our method. We gave it a try, using the flat dregs from the leftover can of Grasshopper to fill a few shallow plastic containers and bury them to the lip. The next morning my boyfriend was out at the crack of dawn to check his trapline. Success! The dishes were full of slugs. That night the moon was almost full and the breeze was warm. To celebrate our slug traps we sat by the garden slug pool and drank a bottle of Zind Humbrecht Zind, a wine from Alsace. It was off dry with notes of apricots and citrus fruit. Complex and delicious it helped assuage my feelings of guilt about drowning slugs. Especially the two who were on a romantic date, having sex by the beer pool under the full moon. Ian flipped them into the pool and let them drown. We both felt bad about it. We decided that we were like the psycho killers in teen horror films: teenage slugs having sex outside, he was the jock/bully slug and she was the slutty/badass slug, suddenly an unseen monster kills them. Classic horror film cliche.
The following night the moon was full. We opened a bottle of Oliver Merlin Saint Veran, a fat, creamy, unoaked French Chardonnay. Vibrant, tropical and fresh, this wine reflected the chalky soils and dry fruity style of the best of Bourgogne. We sipped it while contemplating our black, dog shit and slug infested soil, glowing brightly in the moonlight. Slugs that were stretching tentatively over the beer pool were given a helping hand in, we became partners in slug slaughter. The wine had never tasted better. Tonight, I think a little rose by the slug pool will be in order. Something dry, but with medium body and little strawberry and raspberry note- Mordoree Tavel Rhone rose will elevate the experience.
P.S.
What we actually ended up drinking:
By the time I got home from work the wind storm that had been blowing garbage down 4th ST all day was full on. Trees had branches broken off, and our plants and recycling were tipped over. It seemed like a rain storm might be blasting in. This wasn’t rose weather! It was romantic though, in an end of the world sort of way, and for thirteen slugs it was the end of the world. We hunkered down on the rocks and gently opened a split of Bellavista Cuvee, Italy’s most delicious sparkling wine. Dry, with a hint of toasty yeast and tart apples, bristling with tiny bubbles this is one of my all time favourite sparkling wines: a blend of 90% chardonnay, 10% pinot bianco and pinot nero. It kicks prosecco’s butt and breathes hotly down champagne’s neck. If you love bubbles, this wine is a must both for price point and quality.

Gently clinking our flutes together we looked at the hundreds of slugs silently devouring our garden, oblivious to the few unfortunates in the beer pool. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and I think this is one of them. We felt fortunate to have food stores and not rely on our garden as a sole source of sustenance, ‘cause we would starve to death eating slugs.

To the slugs, an existential quote (with apologies to Simone de Beauvoir),
“The earthly meaning of eternal life was death and she refused to die.”

AUGUST 18

Rose Makes You Look Thinner by Karen Ralph

Really. It’s true! After a few glasses I swear everyone is thinner, younger, funnier, sexier and richer. Rose is the magical elixer. That’s how I met my husband. Ok, maybe not - it was actually sambuca that propelled me on that particular evening; I proposed, he accepted. As they say in Dawson Creek, which is where I am from, “She offered her honour; he honoured her offer; and all through the night it was on her and off her.” My point is, sometimes the stars line up, the wine or spirits are magical and history is made. 

AUGUST 18

Oh, Mr. Liver! by Karen Ralph

Summer holidays are over and I am the proud owner of a liver that probably resembles that of a fois gras duck. In addition to wine mongering, for the last two summers I have had a sweet, sweet gig as First Mate on the Thetis barge which is moored in France. Last year we started in Paris and headed down the Seine and then the L’Yonne. This year we started in Strasbourg and spent our time on the Canal de la Marne Rhin ending up in Nancy. In addition to passenger safety and throwing lines onto bollards as we went through locks, I felt it was also my duty to do quality control on a large amount of Alsatian wines. I didn’t meet a pinot gris, pinot blanc, gewurztraminer or rose that I didn’t love. Unlike the parts of Burgundy that we were in which only sold Burgundian wines, in Alsace we were able to buy champagne, sancerre, chablis, chateauneuf de pape and a large selection of bordeaux. There was also beer: Kronenbourg, Stella, Heinekin, Chimay, Leffe, Kreik to name but a few. Cheese. Did I mention cheese? Tarte Flambe? Choucroute? Foie gras? Chaud chevre salad? The delicious and pretentious little Bresson poulet? Seafood of every description, smelling sweet and briny, so fresh it was still twitching? Markets so loaded with fresh, local produce that it was hard to choose. We were spoiled for choice.
Not knowing where we would be mooring each evening added a sense of adventure to the trip. We made sure to have at least three dinners and breakfasts worth of food on board. If we were in a small town, Frank the Skipper and I would get up at 6:00 AM, hop on our bikes and ride into town in search of a boulangerie to buy bread and hopefully a petite cafe, or two. The best way to find the marche is to look for the old ladies pulling their wheeled carts into town. We would see them and follow at a discrete distance. They will always lead you to the food.
Barging is a great way to see parts of a country that are otherwise invisible. We puttered through remote dark, forbidding forests on the edge of Germany, where the story of Hansel and Gretal and the Wicked Witch originated as did Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. We saw Charlais cows, lots of sheep and lush, deep, bumper crops of wheat and barley. My French lessons helped a little, but being there is the best way to learn the language. They say wine is good for the heart, but what about poor mister liver? I need to give mine a rest, but more to follow on the food and barge cooking.... 

AUGUST 04

GO DRINK IN FRANCE by administrator

I believe it was an April’s fool joke that started the rumor...alcohol consumption in public in France will be banned on July 1st 2009. People! It was a joke! Go to France and enjoy a glass of rosé on the patio, go to Paris plage and crack a can of Desperados (that’s what i’ve done today). Vive la France my friends! 

JULY 11

Every good thing has an end… or not! by Veronique St-Laurent

Bin 905 can seem like a place to find rare distinctive wine for some, a pretentious store for others or, just a place to hang out and taste awesome wines.  To me, it is a special place where i got the opportunity to define my passion for that wonderful fermented grape juice.

I had the chance to work with a wonderful team who shared wine knowledge with me but also… I met incredible characters with whom I learned to shoot Booker’s with, to dance “le tektonik”, to express my creativity with Avril Lavigne’s music and, a classic, hot potatoeing expensive Champagne!

My experience at THE Place to find rare wine has been “Bin ended” but it is just the begining of a long and exciting journey for me.

To you faithfull cutomers and to you, my ecletic group of friends i wish you all the best…

I will miss you guys!

Sincerely,

Veronique Perfection St-Laurent xx

JUNE 18

A Spirit-ual experience by Jesse Willis

Occasionally in life you come into contact with people who are driven to excellence…the kind of people who will go to painful lengths to improve their craft and refuse to compromise. They are the small minority willing to push the envelope and defy convention. Sometimes these people produce faster cars, pants that make your ass look amazing or radical architecture. In the case of Hangar One Distillery…they make Vodka that will blow your mind.

Vodka is an anomaly in the world of Spirits. In most cases the more money you pay for a premium spirit such as Scotch Whisky, Gin, Rum or Tequila you get more flavour, more aromatics and more complexity. In the case of Vodka however the tradition has been that the more you spend, the less you get. Vodka distillers such as Grey Goose are proud that they put their vodka through so many distillations and filters that you basically get something that tastes like water with the ability to get you drunk. On the other end of the spectrum you can find vodka in almost every flavour known to man, often created with artificial flavours and used to mix with Coca-Cola.

On our recent trip to Hangar One Distillery just outside San Francisco in Alameda, California my brother Cody and I found out that Master Distiller Lance Winters and the good people at Hangar One have a different idea. They produce small batch, hand crafted vodka made in classic pot stills in a 65,000 square foot building which once served as an operational aircraft hangar at the old Almeda Naval Station. As we entered the Hangar One tasting room on a casual Monday afternoon we had no idea what was in store for us.

Now on to the Vodka. Their straight vodka, which is made with a blend of grain and Viognier grapes, has a great texture with a slight viscosity, unreal purity and an outstanding citrus character. Their “flavoured” vodka’s are nothing short of a spirit-ual experience…get it? Vodka is a spirit? Sprit-ual? Why am I so hilarious?

Anyway, the line-up is truly an orgy for the senses.  I swear they have somehow created a microscopic army to ram fresh fruit straight into your nasal cavity and have genetically engineered fruit molecules that pole-dance on your taste buds. They source the freshest and most expressive ingredients possible including kaffir lime, mandarin blossom a crazy little fruit called “Buddha’s Hand” which is quite possibly the weirdest fruit I have ever seen. They also produce a duo of seasonal vodka’s created from fresh Fraser River raspberries in the spring and spiced Bartlett pears in the fall. 

Then things really get crazy. Deep within the re-furbished aircraft hangar sits “the lab” where Lance creates experiments born of pure awesome, some of which end up in the Hangar One “Alchemist Series”. The first bottling of Alchemist Series vodka involved the use of 500 pounds of Wasabi. I can only imagine how intense that effort would have been as it will likely never be produced again due to the nasal clearing, eye watering effects of its distillation. I did however have the pleasure of tasting the second bottling of Alchemist Series which is Chipotle, produced from a base of distillation of fresh peppers and then blended with distillations of roasted chipotle, fresh Fresno chillies, habaneras and dried pasillas. I can safely say this stuff is intense. Beyond the obvious spice that caused me to stomp my feet and slap the bar like an idiot there was a symphony of flavours almost beyond description. The hallmark of all these vodkas is their purity and the Alchemist Series is no exception.
While vodkas are the hallmark of the Hangar One brand, these madmen/genius’s also produce a wide range of spirits under the St. George Distillery label. Here founder Jorg Rupf and Lance Winters create a range of superb spirits ranging from superb Eau de Vie, outstanding Whisky, an apple brandy (think Calvados), their own version of tequila produced from 20 tons of Agave they shipped up from Mexico and more.

After a lengthy tasting session, which included their entire range as well as some crazy “experiments”, we bid farewell to our outstanding hosts. In a world of spirits dominated by large conglomerates and products marketed in rap songs it is truly a breath of fresh air to know that there are still those willing to rise above the hype and dedicate themselves to excellence. We had made a pilgrimage to California in search of great wine, but we left with a craving for vodka.

For more information check out http://www.hangarone.com and http://www.stgeorgespirits.com.

Cheers,
Jesse

JUNE 16

Monday is for Montrachet by Brad Royale

Afternoon phone calls should always be returned when missed I say.  Morning phone calls must be returned too, but for different reasons.  The morning phone call usually means there is work on the other end of the receiver, and as you have the entire day to fill with work, why shouldn’t it be.  The afternoon phone call is different as the work day is almost over and other possibilities lie awaiting on the tips of tongues that may mean something other than work, something fun….like drinking Montrachet. 
I see no other occasion to drink Montrachet other than Monday afternoons.  Appropriate as anything I say considering the absurdity of the wine itself.  How does one go about timing a wine like this, so massive and ridiculous, so overwhelming, so avoirdupois?  One doesn’t, it does.  Much like beards, Montrachet is a natural act, cosseting you, administering its decision, softly and against the cheek.  It finds you on Mondays, the most modest of days for the most immodest of wines.  Juxtaposition I suppose, as if Montrachet knows this word, it only knows itself, neither you nor Mondays.  It creeps, surrendering itself at the last moment, the moment of pause between do I and don’t I.  Such drama. 
Hardly fair to plan something that just keeps getting bigger and more grandiloquent, where to put everything once it’s unfolded, surely not under the bed, nor in the closet?  The size of Montrachet is always the issue, how much space do I need?  Best let it come to you. 
How to propose this, Montrachet, to someone else?  How to reveal with only a shred of insight what will become of us once this, Montrachet, has opened and starts to spread and devour our entire beings.  Disregard, only way, complete disregard for the situation is the only way, I’m pretty sure.  Simply to let it burst, let it fall upon you, without consequence. 
Mondays are without consequence, mainly due their starting position within the week.  Had Mondays been born as Thursdays then we would certainly need to make room for plan b’s and such as for surely Thursdays are not without consequence.  Therefore, through careful consideration and much deliberation, I am quite sure Mondays are for Montrachet. 

Cheers,
Brad

MAY 23

Where there’s smoke…there’s fire by Jesse Willis

If you find yourself with the strong desire to have a bonfire in your living room, but visions of a burning house and charred loves ones are holding you back, why not open a bottle of Octomore and set it on your living room table instead. Octomore you say? Can this give me the same experience? Well, I will promise you it will cover the smoke inhilation component at the very least.

I am referring to the latest release by Scotch Whisky legend Bruichladdich, hailing from Islay, Scotland. This distillery has really been pushing the envelope recentley with everything from their renegade series of rums, aged in first growth Bordeaux casks, to the subject of this entry...Octomore. Octomore is a Single Malt Whisky, 5 years of aged, bottled at an amnesia inducing 63.5% alcohol. What really makes this bottling special however is that Bruichladdich claims this is the most heavily peated Whisky ever created. For those of you that think that Lagavulin and Laphroaig are smokey bastards, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Bruichladdich has peated the barley for this malt to an incredible 131 parts-per-million...an unheard of number.

The release of this whisky was so highly anticipated that Bruichladdich sold the first batch as futures...meaning the first run was pre-sold to customers before they had even tasted the whisky. Only 6,000 bottles were made available for the first public release.

If your into peaty, smoky whiskies, or know someone who is, it is basically your duty to purchase a bottle of this beast. We just received 6 bottles of this whisky, so this may be your only chance to make your friends weep like little girls from the pure awesomeness of this whisky. So good, once you drink it you won’t care whether awesomeness is a word or not.

Until next time,

Jesse Willis

MAY 13

BEST SUMMER EVER! by Karen Ralph

The latest Start Trek movie is exceptional.
It balances convincing effects and make up with just the right amount of cheese.  It stays true to the whole Star Trek ethos while luring new blood to the Trekkie legacy.
You could compare this awesome cinematic experience to a stellar new world interpretation of the classics.  David Abreu’s Madrona Ranch 2001 is one such example.  Much like the Star Trek legacy, Abreu’s history is long and every detail

APRIL 19

Summer Spirits by Jesse Willis

As I gaze longinly out the windows of Bin 905 on a sunny Sunday afternoon I can’t help but think about all of the wonderful things I could be doing outside of these walls. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bin 905 and I love all of our wonderful clientelle, but I can’t help but confess that a warm sunny patio and an afternoon barbecue would also be glorious.

And what goes better with a sunny Sunday afternoon than a nice, refreshing adult beverage. While our main focus at Bin 905 happens to be wine, and while many people’s summer beverage of choice is beer, don’t forget the delicious array of spirits that line our shelves. Whether they be straight up or molded into martinies or other variations of cocktails, a little summer spirit might be just what the doctor ordered. In keeping with this theme I give you my 5 picks for summer spirits.

1. Hangar 1 Vodka...any of them ($51)
As the name suggests this artisan Vodka producer, based out of San Francisco, operates out of an old aircraft hangar. They make small batch, premium Vodka using pot stills (the same stills that are used to make fine Scotch Whisky) to make dynamite vodka. While their regular Vodka is great, it’s their line of flavoured vodka’s that really steal the show. Using only real fruit, aromatic leaves and fresh blossoms they produce hands down the best flavoured vodka’s I have ever tried. The line-up at Bin 905 includes Kaffir Lime, Fraser River Rasperry, Citron “Budda’s Hand”, and Mandarin Blossom. These are all so pure and smooth they can be enjoyed straight up or on the rocks. If you are feeling creative or want to whip up some cocktails they have a great forum on their website including hundreds of drink recipies. Be warned however, once you’ve tried these outstanding vodka’s there’s no going back…
http://www.hangarone.com

2. Hendricks Gin ($39)

This Scottish Gin has been making big waves and is slowly garnering a cult following. The infusion of the usual flurry of botanicals, as well as cucumber and Bulgarian Rose makes this a complex, refreshing and delicious spirit. Try a Hendricks and Tonic, or a Hendricks Martini (1 1/2 oz. Hendricks, 3/4 oz. dry vermouth, shaken and garnished with a cucumber slice) for a refreshing cocktail. Check out their website for more adventurous ideas. http://www.hendricksgin.com

3. Scotch Whisky

Some may not consider a nice single malt as a great summer beverage, but I disagree. A silky, seductive and lightly peated dram sipped slowly in the throes of a comfy patio chair and accompanied by a great book is akin to perfection in my eyes. Some suggestions for great summer single malts are:

A) Murray McDavid Dufftown 1997 ($56) - This 10 year old whisky is finished in Zinfandel casks purchased from acclaimed winery Ridge in California. This has a level of smoothness and drinkability well beyond it’s 10 years of aging and shows great berry fruits, raisins and vanilla.

B) Glenmorangie Nectar D’or ($76) - Finished in casks formerly used to age the great sweet wine of Sauternes, this luxurious whisky is rich and delicious, showing great notes of citrus, pastry, honey and spice.

C) Tullibardine 1988 ($91) - A soft, seductive bottling showing great white chocolate and vanilla. An easy sipper or a great after dinner malt.

D) Springbank Rum Wood Finish 16 Years Old ($130) - This is crazy stuff. Bottled at cask strength and with an unreal viscosity the finish literally lasts for minutes with notes of coconut, tropical fruit, vanilla, spice, fresh sea air, raisins, cream and more! An awsome bottling and limited quantities are available.

4. Barbancourt Rum ($63)

This Haitian sensation is a fantastic rum. Aged 15 years this is a true crowd pleaser either straight up, on the rocks or in your favourite rum based cocktail (although I strongly urge you to try it on it’s own first...it’s killer). This shows outstanding complexity and drinkability with awsome notes of caramel, vanilla, spice and fresh oak. A perenial BIn 905 favourite! Sip on this and think of a Caribbean Island.

5. Herencia de Plata Tequila Reposado ($42)

This Tequila is very well priced compared to it’s shelf-mates and provides outstanding quality. Throw down a classic Margarita with this and you will be a happy camper...perhaps even literally if you happen to be camping...in which case make some s’mores while your at it...and maybe someone will have an accoustic guitar.

1 ounce tequila
1/2 ounce triple sec (an orange liqueur)
1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
simple syrup to taste
salt

Make a slice in a lime wedge ad run the edge around the rim of a glass (in order to make a wet edge on the glass). Dip wet glass edge in salt. Fill a large cup with ice and add remaining ingredients. Shake well. Pour ice and drink into salt rimmed glass for margarita

So next time you’re looking for the perfect beverage to accompany that nice summer day/evening, give one of these a try. You’ll be glad that you did!

Cheers,

Jesse Willis

APRIL 16

What Do Thieves Drink? by Karen Ralph

The sun is starting to come up and the street is coming to life. I’ve been at the store since about 3:00AM after receiving a call from our security co. that we had been broken into. At that hour the streets were deserted and luck let me hit every green light so I made it downtown in record time. Upon arriving I was met by two security guards and a hole in the window large enough for me to walk through. Glass was everywhere. When the police showed up we cautiously walked through the store but it was obvious that the culprit had fled with at least one broken bottle. There was a trail of wine going from the hole in the window across fourth street and down the alley beside Vin Room. After giving a statement and calling our building manager, the long suffering Barry Wood, to inform him that we needed someone to come and fix the window ASAP, I started to look through the security video footage. The first thing I noticed was how fat I looked on camera. It really does add ten pounds. My purse didn’t look as good as I had thought it did with my coat, I need a hair cut and I have bad posture. After obsessing about my appearance for a few minutes, I sucked in my gut and continued to look for the thief on video. There he was! In Italy, loading a bag. He looked Italian, black curly hair, head down as he concentrated on stealing as much as he could carry. He was on camera for less then ten seconds and then he was out. He went for Italian white and possibly some Sicilian red. The Amarones were untouched which was odd because they are more expensive and closer to the window. I guess he just needed a few bottles of Feudi Di San Gregorio Falanghina, Jerman Chardonnay and Inzolia Contempo.  The police said that there are lots of break-ins in this neighbourhood and now that we’ve had one we will most likely have more. I guess it’s just a sign of times.

APRIL 14

The French Paradox by Roisin Hutchinson

Most North Americans are familiar the French Paradox. It’s all we can do to explain how the French seem to be able to eat and drink rich and delicious foods without gaining a pound or sweating it out in warrior 2.  For decades North American women have struggled to emulate that certain “je ne sais quoi” that drives us mad with envy.  Any woman who has been to Paris will understand exactly what I mean. 
Slender, fashionable but not dressed like too much sausage in not enough casing, adorned in exquisite scarves, riding around on their bicyclettes, and munching on bloody baguettes as if they’d never heard of carbs. Who are these people, and am I eleigible for citizenship?
Speaking to a young french woman, I commented on how all I’d seen her eat were doughy pizzas, les sandwiches and those gruesome little Michelina’s dinners.  She just looked at me, tossed her dark hair and replied, “I’m french” while she effortlessly engaged her core.
WHAT!?!?!
Well, I have my revenge.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially outlawed drinking outside as of the 31st of July.
HA!
I’ve already been to Paris and drank my weight in claret and champagne in the splendor of autumn!  I won’t be affected by their attempts to save my liver and the enamel on my teeth. The French government is also in the process of systematically transforming the cultural institutions of the French paradox as well as advertising the negative impacts of alcohol. What is the world coming to? Soon the Irish will throw away the frying pan, and Calgarians will boycott SUVs if this disturbing trend continues.
So, let those elegant French women dilly dally around in their dainty shoes and fabulous eyewear - I’ll be drinking inexpensive Shiraz and eating nachos on the patio of the Ship and Anchor in the sun.  Who’s better off now?

Miaou Mixe.
Roisin

APRIL 14

What to Drink Now by Karen Ralph

April 14 and I look out the window into a blizzard. That’s right. It has been spring for almost a month but winter is behaving like a boorish party guest who doesn’t know that it is time to leave. This makes for interesting wine choices. On the one hand you think, “It’s spring. I want some rose, or bubbles, or a light crisp white.”
On the other, “It’s snowing. A lot. I want a big, elegant red, or a lean Pinot Noir, or a Super Tuscan….”
Why does it have to be so hard? You just want to drink of something delicious. Decisions must be made. What should we drink? To narrow it down, ask yourself some questions. Will we be drinking the wine with food? If so, what are we eating and how will it be prepared? Will there be more then one or two people? If so, how many? What time of day will the drinking commence? Brunch? Lunch? Dinner? Will it be a party after dinner or maybe an after party? What is your budget? Are you picking it up or having it delivered? How much time do you have to shop? This where your friendly wine store staff come in. We are helpful and knowledgeable. We will ask you these questions either in person or if you are too busy, over the phone. Then we will put together your order and if needed, deliver it to you. Using our expertise will take a lot of stress out of entertaining and enable you to enjoy your soiree and take credit for brilliant wine choices that match your food and budget perfectly.
Now back to wondering what to drink when the weather is acting like a frenemy.

There are many wines that will work in these conditions, but I’m narrowing it down to four: 
1) Rose.
2) Pinot Noir
3) Chablis
4) Cabernet Sauvignon

1) Rose.
Why Rose? Why not? The thing is, spring is here whether winter wants to admit it or not. You can see it with your own eyes. The trees are budding, there is green grass starting to show under the snow, birds are arriving and making nests and the weather is temperamental. This is a typical Calgary Spring. So crack the rose.  There are quite a few to choose from. They are dry, elegant and delicious. They pair well with food and come in varying price points. I have four that I really like. 

Domaine Tempier Bandol, 2007 France.
This awesome wine is drinking really well right now. It is made up of 50% Mourvedre, the rest is Cinsault, Grenache, Carignan and occasionally Syrah, but not in 2007. Pale, peachy pink in colour it has aromas of peach and stone fruits on the nose.  The palate is fresh and lively with notes of strawberries and a hint of pear. Firm, well balanced, crisp and delicious, this is my favorite wine in the entire world right now.  $39.00 and worth every cent. Pair with expensive lingerie and thousand thread count sheets.

Domaine De La Mordoree, 2007, France.
This wine is hand picked and horse harvested. Made from 60% Grenache, 20% syrah, 10% cinsault, 10% Clairette, it is deep pink in colour, with a nose of orange zest and cherries. On the palate it is round, fresh and supple, more muscular then I was expecting, tasting of raspberry, peach and a slightly mineral note. Pair this with grilled lamb, cold meats, ham, dishes with fresh herbs, pasta and lightly spiced Asian foods. $33.00 and I didn’t look back.

Artazuri Rose, 2007, Spain.
Artazuri Rose is from the Navarra region, and is made from Grenache. This inexpensive little gem sports a nose of fresh strawberry, raspberry, cherry and vanilla. Smooth and clean on the palate with strawberry, watermelon and cherry. It has fairly low acidity so make sure that you don’t over chill it. Pair with mild appetizers and lightly spiced dishes. $17.00 worth of good times.

Copain Le Printemps Rose, 2007, California.
Light pink in colour it has rose and strawberry aromas. On the palate you will find strawberry, apple, and cranberry notes. Copain Le Printemps Rose is refreshing and light. Perfect for grilled fish, chicken, vegetable dishes and lightly spiced Asian foods. $17.00. Not enough left over for a shot of Tequila but you will be able to buy a tube of lip balm, which you will need in our dry, harsh climate.

2) Pinot Noir.
Just because it’s fabulous! It was the belle of the ball last year after Sideways came out and it hasn’t lost it’s luster. French Pinot Noir is my favorite. We generally tend to drink our wines too young, but this needn’t deter you from enjoying them. Decanting is your friend. Fat is also your friend. If you have a tight tannic wine, decant it over night, or even a few hours before you are going to pour it. Serve with a fatty cheese or a marbled steak, duck, you get the idea. A mouthful of fat will go far towards softening up a tight, tense, tannic wine.

Vincent Girardin Volnay, 2005, France
A powerful, bright, forward Pinot Noir, ideally would be cellared until 2010-2017, but who’s counting?!  Rich in minerals, well integrated and sophisticated with notes of black cherry and herbs, this wine will benefit from being decanted and served with food. Duck would be perfect, as would grilled lamb. $59.00 worth of French goodness that will knock your knickers off.

Robert Chevillon Nuits-Saint- Georges les Perrieres 2005, France
Did I mention that 2005 was a brilliant, spectacular year in Burgundy? Take advantage of it before the vintage is sold out.
Brilliant and spectacular brings us to Robert Chevillon NSG Perrieres 2005. This wine is complex and plumy, with notes of smoke, earth and sweet blueberries. It is a savoury combination of fruit and berries, with a meaty undertone.  $95.00 Still less then a pair of Louis Vuittons.

3) Chablis and Aligote.
Chablis is versatile. Heavy enough to hold its own against red meats, its true love is lobster. Light, medium or heavy bodied, depending on which Chablis you are drinking, it is always a beautiful, rich, elegant wine that is perfect for a cold wintery evening or a summer day on a patio. It elevates every occasion often without an elevated price point.

Domaine A&P De Villaine Aligote, 2006, France
De Villaine, Aligote from the town of Bouzeron in Burgundy is a fantastic value at only $33.31. 100% Aligote, it is a delicious combination of minerals, melons, peaches, grapes, stone fruits, herbs and wet stones. White green with a hint of gold in colour and the subtle scent of vanilla on the nose, the minerality is in harmony with the essential richness and balance of this wine. It can be drank now or aged for ten years. It pairs really well with seafood, rabbit and the acidity works with cream sauces and rich creamy cheeses.

Vincent Girardin Emotion de Terroirs Chardonnay, 2005, France
Old world goodness for the new world palate, Emotion de Terroirs has notes of minerals and oak, citrus and banana. Balanced with silky acids and a toasty finish, it is a pleasure to drink. Pair this wine with seafood, chicken, grilled vegetable and creamy cheeses. $35.18, still cheaper then a flight to France.

4)Cabernet Sauvignon
Sometimes you just need something a little bigger and richer then what you normally drink, especially if it is cold and windy outside. The best way to chase away the spring blues is to braise some lamb shanks on low heat for an entire day and when they are done, open a bottle of something big, red and fun. I suggest Cignale.

Cignale 2004, Italy
Cignale, meaning the wild boar in ancient Tuscan is actually a Super Tuscan: a blend of Cabernet and just a whisper of Merlot. Cignale spends twelve months in French barriques. Deep red in colour, this is a powerful, rich, unfiltered wine with great concentration, structure and longevity. For only $73.24 the silky tannins and notes of black cherry, cedar and wild strawberry will put a smile on your face. 

APRIL 02

Wine Myths and Etiquette by Karen Ralph

Wine Myths:
You can tell if a woman is wearing cheap lipstick by the way it sticks to the glass rim. WRONG!
One night when I was working in a restaurant we were polishing glasses and we were looking at lipstick that was stuck to the rims. Some-one said that the woman must have been wearing cheap lipstick, because the expensive ones wouldn’t stick like that. We decided to test the theory. There were eight of us, and we had Chanel, Mac, Bobby Brown, Clinic, Avon and several assorted drug-store lipsticks. We put them on, and started kissing the glasses. We marked them with wine foil to make sure they didn’t get mixed up and ran them through the glass washer.
Some of the glasses were spotless and some had the telltale greasy, red-stain on the rims. When we checked our list we discovered that cost had no effect on the tenaciousness of the lipstick on glass. The Chanel ($30. a tube) stuck as much as the inexpensive drugstore lippy. 

All German wines are sweet. RUBBISH!
They can be bone dry. The German people mainly drink dry wine wines. A dry riesling is a thing of beauty. We have a huge German section. Come and check it out, and take home a delicious bottle of Riesling-Kabinett. It will make you swoon with delight.

All roses are sweet. NOT!
If you think rose is sweet, you are thinking of WHITE ZINFANDEL! This is NO RELATION to a delicious, elegant rose. Try a bottle of Bandol Tempier 2007 Rose. I did last night and I feel like I might still be drunk, although it took a lot more then a shared bottle of rose to get me to this point. Try it! You will like it!

Real men don’t drink rose or wine. FALSE!
Real men drink wine. They drink white, they drink red, they drink still, they drink bubbly and yes, they drink rose. They do it with tall, elegant glasses or small stubby wine tumblers and we love them for it.

Sulphites cause hangover/ headaches. NO!
The main cause of a wine-induced head-ache is not the sulphites, it is dehydration caused from drinking too much. Squeeze in an occasional glass of water during the festivus. You will feel better in the morning.

“I’m allergic to sulphites.” SHUT-UP!
Ok, maybe you are, but remember, there are more sulphites in a teaspoon of salsa then in an entire bottle of wine. It is a naturally occuring preservative. If you really do have a reaction to sulfites, vodka can still be your friend. Otherwise be warned that we want to hear about an allergy as much as we want to hear about a meatless, wheatless, sexless life.

Smelling the cork will give you an accurate idea as to the state of the wine. AS IF!
Smelling the cork will make you look like Steve Martin in The Jerk. If that is your goal, party on. If the top of the cork is all moldy and nasty looking, that is not an indication of bad wine. It just means that the cork is disgusting. The wine shouldn’t be. 

Coffee and cold showers will sober you up faster. DREAM ON!
The coffee and cold shower might make you feel more alert but it will not lower your blood alcohol count. The only thing that will do that is time. Apparently a slap in the face will also perk you up and probably get you into a fight. Maybe give this one a miss.

Bad Etiquette:
Pouring yourself a brimming glass then grudgingly doling out a couple of ounces to your friends.
Going to nearby friend’s house to have a glass of wine and leaving with a full glass. Don’t treat your friends as a wine drive- through.
“Liberating” bottles from anyones outside wine fridge on your way home. Do not do this. No matter what. Ever.
Taking an entire bottle of Champagne from a friendly bartender at a wedding and drinking it all by yourself. Hogging is bad etiquette.
Sending a bottle back because you don’t like it.
Demanding that the waiter fill the glass to the brim.
Holding the bottle between your knees while standing at a table to open it.
Turning up your nose at a bottle of wine that a guest has brought to your home.
It might be swill but they probably didn’t know about your finely tuned and delicate palate. Be polite. You like them for reasons not involving their deep seated fondness for Yellowtail.

Now put on your lipstick, go forth and share your wine with your friends. Even pours for all and practise some restraint. You can do it. 

MARCH 28

The High Cost of DIY by Karen Ralph

We have been eating a lot of curry lately. It started when I was sucked into the vortex of the impressive Indian spice section of our local Superstore. The rich, pungent smells emanating from the bags of seeds, powders and mysterious pastes seemed like a great way to chase away the end of winter blues. My impatient boyfriend finally pulled me out of it by saying, “Just get whatever it is you think you need and let’s get the hell out here.”
Fair enough. We left with little bags of cumin, tumeric, fennugrek leaves, dried lime leaves, cardamon, ghee, anise, dryed beans, chick peas, and a few jars of various pastes. When we got home I started a yellow, medium spicy, chicken Thai curry. I put tumeric, cumin, chilis, and lemon grass into a big, heavy Le Creuseut round roaster. I added fish sauce, maple syrup, salt, lemon grass, a bit of soya and fried it until our house really stunk like fish, then added coconut milk and let it all simmer for a couple of hours. While that was melding, I made naan. The dough was perfect. I let it rest for two hours during which time I put the chicken in the coconut curry mix and let it cook slowly. I had the oven at 500f and cooked the naan on the pizza stone but it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. In Indian restaurants they slap the dough on the sides of the Tandoori ovens and it puffs up in about two seconds. In my case that didn’t happen. It tasted fine and was a great side to the coconut curry but it didn’t rise as much as I has expected and was unevenly cooked. We drank a bottle of Willm Pinot Gris with it. At least that was perfect. The inexpensive and delicious Alsacian pinot gris was a perfect pairing for the lightly spiced curry. We put the lack of naan success down to a first time try.
The BBQ might have worked better than the oven. My boss, Geoff Last, is an excellent cook. (he teaches sold out classes at the Cookbook Co.) He said that when he cooks naan he uses his BBQ for the best results and that oven temps can be off by as much as 15 degrees. He suggested buying an oven thermometer for an accurate temp.
It seems that inexpensive food (like the side dishes that we take for granted), is all extremely labour intensive. For instance a side order of naan is about $2. for 2 big pieces. Spring rolls, 4 for less then $5. Wantons, perogies, etc. all labour intensive and extremely cheap. You try making those dishes at home, and I have, you are looking at 3-5 hours of hard labour on top of the shopping. For the time and work it takes to create those dishes, they should be priced way higher. My spring rolls would be about $20 each. Wantons, $5.00 for one. Perogies, $30. for 5. Salad rolls, those tricky little bitches with the flimsy soaked rice wrappers, $25. each or $30. if you want some home-made peanut sauce! Don’t even mention crab-cakes… expensive ingredients, 2 or 3 shop stops to get everything- it can’t be supermarket crab, it has to come from a “proper” fish shop, and once home you are chopping, sauteeing, “ lightly sweating the onions and chilis,” gently massaging the crumbs into the crab mixture, lightly forming the cakes and then resting them for a couple of hours until they are in the right mood to be cooked. For the best results you have to treat crab cakes like they are a Kobe beef. It was worth it. They were delicious and I know I will make them again.
We are are lucky enough to have choice. What I see when I look at the price and origin of these foods is the global market. Those foods come from countries that have large, poor populations using indigenous ingredients to create the foods and flavours that encapsulate their area. There is a strong argument to be made for labour and gender inequality and what could be described as cultural pillaging. We have all seen the TV shows of the celebrity chefs going into poor countries to “understand” the food, the better to replicate it in a more authentic way once they get home. They are often in the small, humble kitchen or yard of a local family who is showing them how to cook and flavour their food. The North American or European chefs are thrilled. This is local colour at it’s most authentic. They all smile, have a few shots of the local drink, the chef has dinner and experiences the “salt of the earth” etc. before heading home to his/her commercial kitchen to recreate and sell the dishes to a willing and affluent clientele who can now enjoy from a safe distance and the comfort of home the “authentic” food of whatever region was visited. This makes us complicit in the exploitation of the people who gave up this recipe for nothing more then being on TV with a famous chef. It is hard to seperate food and guilt. If you eat meat you don’t want the pleasure of the meal tainted by the horror of the slaughterhouse, but that meat didn’t magically appear. Like I said, we have choice. Lots of it. We make the choices that we can live with. 
Maybe our culture is now at the pinnacle of the food cult. Right now it shows no sign of slowing down but maybe in 50 years our kid’s will see an old Cuisinart at a garage sale and smile nostalgically for the days when their grandparents went hunting and foraging in supermarkets and farmers- markets for the right ingredients and then spent a whole week-end trying to re-create the street food of Lahore.
Well, so be it. It is my choice to keep doing it. In the end, it isn’t about how spring rolls that would be almost free in a restaurant ended up taking a whole day to make and costing about $20. (each) It’s about the satisfaction and ability to create something to feed the people you care about. It doesn’t always turn out the way you hoped, or like the picture in the recipe book, but it’s a fun way to spend an afternoon. Just don’t run out of wine.

MARCH 23

9 Tigs and a dead fish by Brad Royale

Josh asked me a little while ago if I was interested in trying a vertical of Antinori’s Tignanello that ranged from 1985 to 2001 with about seven variations in between.  He had sleuthed out a little haven that had the lot for sale and was considering throwing a grandiose occasion to investigate their insides.  I stared at him; silence ensued, the reply awaited, I stared, the moment became awkward, feet shuffled, and someone coughed.  Silence was broke by Josh touching my arm asking me if I was ok and if there was something wrong.  I stared. 
You see, no one had ever asked me that question before and I was unsure of how to express the excitement that was welling up within my delicate skin-walls.  The rush of excitement was like a gunshot through my heart, opening up my arteries and spewing out a gross amount of emotion.  This expulsion of fluid-gush at hand required sensitive and social compliance and left me with two parts of the sum to deal with.  First; tell Josh that yes I’m in and it sounds like a great idea.  Set a time and date and offer any help to make the event a success.  Discuss the usual topics that follow such an offer like provenance of the collection and the ullage levels of the vintages and offer personal quips of past Tignanello encounters….the thisandthats of tasting verbage.  Second; control my insides so that the maelstrom of excitement inside me didn’t materialize like a fish out of water being pummeled to death by a gang of delinquent adolescents (no excuse for animal abuse I agree, however when the ocean from whence the fish came is inside you, and figurative, it’s hard to govern roaming gangs of adolescents who may or may not be related to you and who may or may not care about fish). 
By now with this detail you can decipher two things from this slight, scant, poorly product detailed intro.  The first is that I was terribly excited to taste this line up of Tignanello as it would prove to be an excellent perspective on a few relative topics that actually are, I can sense your doubts, discussed in the paragraphs below in some detail.  The second is that I had a fish when I was younger and it died.  I cried and my friends laughed at me for being a baby.  To deal with the pain of having my sorrow stepped on by my friends, hurt and a touch revengeful, I imagined an ocean within myself.  Into this internal ocean-abyss I confiscated away my friends, jailing them up and spewing them into my chest; I tormented them, making them cry just as they had done to me.  Of course when I did this I had no idea they would mutiny, dock their pain-raft (as I called it) onto my heart and beat the hell out of the memories of my poor dead fish.  Funny how things come full circle….children are cruel….Tignanello is delicious. 
When tasting a specific wine spanning three decades there are some questions that you have to ask in order to fully appreciate the differences the bottles are going to offer.  Obviously the climate details of each vintage will prove to be substantial and must be assessed, but there are others too that weigh on the profiles of each wine.  Below are three little bits-and-pieces to jaw on before we get down to bottle-by-bottle business. 
Uno:  Have the wines over the years been made and thought about in exactly the same way.  Are we dealing with the same beast, replicated with dogma over and over regardless of anything?  Or do we have a progression that impounds the currency of modernism.  Was the 1985 Tignanello made in the same way as the 2001, were the ideologies of the winemaking the same during the space of sixteen years?  I Doubt it.  Tignanello has an aristocratic heritage, ideas of tradition buried deep into lumpy folds of squishy grey Tuscan brain matter, this is for sure.  However, they are also an innovative company that rolls with the times and uses new ideas as anyone who’s progressive should.  So, we may speculate, speculate as those Tuscans are rather sheepish with details at times; that perhaps ever so slightly the wines have progressed with more modern vinification techniques that may offer fuller fruit components and riper, grainier tannins. 
Dos:  One would be a loony not to use better viticultural techniques to grow their plants more efficiently garnishing better, healthier more concentrated fruit.  So we can figure there will be some advancement in the concentration of the harvested fruit over the time span given for the tasting.  Viticulteral advancement is certainly not isolated to Italy, the world over has seen wonderful progression in fruit purity. 
Three: No one can argue that it’s hotter now than it was twenty years ago.  The increase in temperature will affect everything; lowering acids, creating leaf burn or plant shut down (even plants will take a nap if it’s too hot…reduction in photosynthesis…drat….), drop in mineral structures and rounder fleshier fruit profiles can be noticed.  Not much one can do about this with regards to existing vineyards besides adjust canopy management and irrigation techniques and hope for the best when the temperature soars outta control.  This is not to say the more current vintages of Tignanello will show less minerality, however, they may not be as noticeable when vintage- young due to heavier fruit profiles. 
Quatros: I lied, there are four.  Consumers, such a picky bunch.  Back in 1985 the world still looked to Bordeaux for firmly structured, sometimes backward, ageable reds that required some time to show their fruits, if you will.  If it didn’t age, you weren’t trying hard enough.  Nowadays, Bordeaux doesn’t even look at itself for style guidance; the world is open to interpretation for quality wines.  The firm hard styles of wine are the wilted leaves of wine’s salad days.  Concentration, pure fruit and youthful balance is where the ticket is found on today’s market.  I would think consumer tastes toward little short-skirted Merlots and Pinots over the years would certainly have had an effect, even slightly, on Tignanello’s taste profile.  Who wouldn’t add a curve here and a just-above-the-knee-skirt there if you could?  I would, curves are sexy. 
Down to business…the wine!

A little note here:  Provenance for this line up is assumed to be of fair to good quality.  Nothing showed damaged qualities and overall the wines were a delight, however, there is a slight prickle in my mind they could have been a little fresher.  Would these wines have shown differently coming out of Antinori’s cellars, possibly? 

1985: Medium hue, very garnet ruby with watery tawny rim.  Very integrated nose with dusty spices, chocolate powder, dried cherries.  A little redundant, but just beautiful Sangiovese character here.  Nose is definitely developed and very tertiary, wholesome and complete.  Palate offers soft, barely noticeable tannins and still fresh acid with subtle fruit notes.  These elements have combined completely, offering the fortunate drinker a chance of experiencing mature wine at its most harmonious and stately.  For surely on the back end of its plateau.  This bottle could hold for a few more years, but if ya got them, drink them!

1989: Touch darker here than the ’85 with a bit more ruby saturated in the garnet robe.  Touch more power here on the nose too freeing up handsome grilled meat notes, smoke, sandalwood, iron and cherry pit.  Palate cuts a broad swath of chinatto, clay and hints of black cherry.  Showing a little rugged in its tannin structure, but permitted due to the deliciousness of the medicinal, forest brush finish.  Could sit for a while, by why wait?

1991: Medium hue with an even tawny ruby core through to rim.  Less expansive nose here offering powdered chocolate, dusty stone, cold black tea and subtle cherry pit.  Tannins are drying and a bit aggressive still, not sure if these will ever soften.  Acid is keen, but not enough to bolster the fruit through to maturity.  I think the wine may dry up before the tannins start to behave.  Showing good development and maturity.  Drink with dinner to sap up the fruit and heel the tannins. 

1993: Medium hue with a ruby core inching into the tawny rim.  Surprisingly a touch closed, but cedar, red cherry and plums prevail.  A hint of greenness on the first impression too.  Showing development for sure and the tannins offer a lingering dryness that, much like the 1991 will outlive the fruit.  However definitely Tignanello and will live for awhile yet.  Best now through 2013.

1994: Offering a lighter robe than the 1993, although the rim is fuller with a lovely garnet hue.  Christmas cake, cured meat, hints of spice.  Dense but unshowy, full and elegant at the moment.  Palate is lovely offering a superb balance of developed tannin and rounded fleshy acidity that pushes the fuit right into the mix.  Show the power of the hot start to the vintage.  Drinking well now with a good chunk of fruit squished in the middle to hold itself together for another 8-10 years.  Delicious. 

1995: Even flow here from core to rim with pretty garnet ruby.  Touch stalky on the nose, marshmallow, sweet red cherry, bergamot, anise and citrus.  Supple juicy acids and very approachable tannins.  Excellent follow through from start to finish, a very complete and pretty Tignanello….very Sangiovese.  Drink now through 2015.

1996: Showing more age here than I would expect, especially coming after the 1995.  Garnet ruby core with a watery slightly tawny rim.  Sleepy cherry, black tea, blueberry, hint of grain.  Development is starting here although tannins are firmly holding their grasp, interesting to see if they calm down in harmony with the rest of the structure, perhaps a touch more wood tannin showing here due to the dry nature of otherwise a grainy past.  Acid is fresh and the fruit is even.  Wine shows a bit awkward and balance is an issue without the dinner table.  Let sit for another 3 to 4 years and check in on development. 

2000: Medium to dark hue, slightly opaque with a slight blackish tinge to the ruby.  Touch watery on the rim.  Warm nose offering hints of blueberry, black cherry, market spice tea, iron?  Hint of cola.  Still very primary.  Rich palate with lots of fruit, firm youthful tannins and bouncy vibrant acids.  Could drink now happily for the fruit portion, but will sit easily for another 10 years with good balance at the finish line. 

2001: Coats the glass with a gleam of blackish ruby with only the rim showing a bit of lighter hue.  Cassis, mocha, mashed brandied cherries, decadent spice with a hint of mineral.  Not as fruity as the
2000 with a broader range of aromas, certainly the more complex of the two.  The palate is decadent offering morello cherry, blueberry…acai? Tannins are grainy and well placed with the acid showing a plumpness and good direction.  There is just a slight drop in the movement of the wine towards the finish that may drop the real long term aging here….or maybe I’m splitting hairs?  Best in 5-8 years with a good plateau thereafter. 

To conclude this little tittle-tattle of Tignanello we can see with the younger wines a suppleness that is extroverted and keen to please.  Was there continuity of style structure and an overall awareness of the wine? Yes absolutely.  Tignanello showed that it is very definable and distuingued wine with a very firm sense of place.  Well done Antinori’s in harvesting a beautifully well made wine with some serious pedigree.  Personal preference here for aging is around the ten year mark where we still see the pretty Tuscan fruit and yet have the complexity that comes with a little age. 

Cheers,
Brad

MARCH 14

SPRING FEVER…? by Veronique St-Laurent

What is better than biting into a apple? Drinking it!!
With the nice weather coming up, why not cheer up and try something different?
“Kir aux pommes” sounds like the answer to me.

It’s simple! 

Gently mix:
1 oz of Domaine Pinnacle, ice cider
6 oz of Nieto Senetiner, sparkling brut nature or your favorite

And TAK! You have a fabulous beverage.
It’s fresh, crispy and delicious!!!

Enjoy the fruit of the nature!

Cheers,
Veronique

Sylvain says:” I have the best basket in town!” Well i don’t know about that…

He baptised it, THE Morning tonic! Avec un M majuscule!
Check it out: Canella Mimosa + La Spinetta, Moscato d’Asti + 2 Go vino plastic tumblers

All of that for 48$

Cheer to sunday mornings!

Jesse thinks that in the end wine is all about passion and if your looking for passion is there any better place than Spain? Jesse presents his “Spanish Passion” basket for those who want to experience what Spanish wine is all about or for those looking to stir up a little passion themselves! This basket of awesome value features three wines from three different catagories: white, red and rose! The wines include:

Artazuri Rose - This Grenache rose from the Navarra region features juicy strawberry and raspberry notes with refreshing acidity. Just what a good rose should be!

Jose Periente Varietal Verdejo - This awesome white from the Rueda region of Spain jumps out of the glass with tropical fruit, gooseberry and citrus notes. Fresh and irresistable!

Altos de la Hoya Monastrell - This versitile red from the Jumilla region of Spain is truly a hidden gem and one of the best values in the store featuring lively fruit, impecible balance and a spicy finish. Perfect for barbeque season!

Pick up this lovely trio for only $60.00 today!

MARCH 11

I want Ortolan! by Brad Royale

Funny Karen mentioned this devilish little dish…..quite humorously too I might add.  I’ve tried to have numerous chefs over the years make this dish as the final vision of having a table of twelve hide themselves under their napkins is almost too much to bare…hiding like an ostrich from an omnipotent space-bound God…hahaha, too much fun .  Some Chefs are knowledgeable about the dish, stare at me when I ask, laugh, I reply that I’m serious, then they shudder and that is pretty much it. We go our separate ways and I, sulkily cover my head with my napkin and eat my grilled chicken sandwich.  For the Chefs who are unaware of this torturous culinary practice the description of their upcoming preparation is worth its weight in gold.  The punch line hanging in the air like an Eddie Murphy finale is the best, “….and then once you serve the little whole roasted bird everyone hides their heads under a napkin.  This allows you to savor the aromas and doubles as a hideout tent from God.  This white Frette cloth will hide your evil deeds from the all knowing, thus avoiding eternal flesh burning of your own in Hell.” Hahaha….wide eyed, they usually shudder and that is pretty much that. 

haha....if you make it....I’ll hide my head......haha.....

MARCH 09

Ortolan by administrator

I love nature, and really, who doesn’t. Even people who hate camping can appreciate nature as they drive through it and occasionally over it’s denizens. When I’m out walking, looking at flora and fauna, listening to the birds, admiring their songs and beauty, I don’t think,"I should catch that cute little bird, keep it in a dark box, poke out it’s eyes and feed it until it’s gained four times it’s body weight then drown it in cognac, roast it whole and eat it, bones and all while hiding my head under a linen to either,

a) Enjoy the aromas of tiny, whole roasted bird while I suck it’s insides out of it’s anus and enjoy the exquisite agony of the tiny bones cutting my mouth.

b) Hide what I am doing from God.

If I were an old school French chef, this would seem like a good idea. It was often the fate of the tiny, endangered song bird, the Ortolan.
There is a huge fine for hunting and cooking these wee protected birds.The late Francois Mitterand had thirty Ortolans killed and roasted for his last New Years party. He himself ate two: the height of gluttony. It was the last thing he ate, he died of cancer shortly thereafter.
.
Bon appetit.

MARCH 09

Pimp My Shallot by Karen Ralph

For the Gibson drinkers out there this is a special treat. For those who don’t know what a Gibson is, it is a classic gin martini, garnished with a pickled onion. After purchasing a good bottle of gin, (I like Tanquery) buy yourself a bag of smallish, pink shallots and a bottle of rice vinegar. Peel and wash the shallots. Now there are two choices to make, pickle fast or pickle slow. It depends on how anxious you are for that martini. For almost instant gratification, pour the rice vinegar into a pan and heat. Add the shallots, turn down the heat to low and simmer for an hour. Remove from heat and cool. When cool, pour them into a sterile pickling jar, place in the fridge and thoroughly chill. If you opt for slow pickled shallots, put them in a sterile jar, pour rice vinegar on them and leave in a dark cupboard for a week. The shallots will last about three weeks in the fridge. While you are waiting for the shallots to cool, put your martini glass in the freezer and chill it. I keep my gin and vodka in the freezer so it’s always ready to go.
Take your martini shaker and add a handful of ice, two ounces of gin and a touch of vermouth. Stir the gin gently, and then strain into your frozen glass over two pickled shallots.
This is an excellent martini and after a couple of them you can rest assured that shallots won’t be the only thing getting pickled.

“I like to have a martini
Two at the very most
After three I’m under the table
After four I’m under the host.”
Dorothy Parker

FEBRUARY 05

Feeding The Musicians by Karen Ralph

In the build up to a party there is always a lot of prep to be done. This includes band practices. Since practice is held in our basement and usually right after work it happens in the evening about 7:00 or later. I will make some sort of communal pot of food that can be left on the stove and everyone can help themselves. The following recipe is very flexible and you can tweak it to suit what is in your fridge. The idea is to use what you have. Save your money for the party, don’t blow the budget on the practice and that extends to making sure that the band-who are also my friends- don’t drink the party wine. I make sure that I have a mixed case of good but inexpensive wine, mostly from Spain, France and Portegual on hand for them. Periquita, Chateau de Moujan, or something from the Cote du Rhone. There are lots of choices.
The following recipe is a re-imaging of Coq au Vin.
Pre-heat the oven to 425f. I use my Le Creuset 14L goose pot for this dish.

Coq au Ralphers

1 whole chicken, cut up with fat and skin removed

I smoked pork hock

2 or 3 smallish onions, chopped

2 or 3 chopped carrots

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 cups of mushrooms white and brown, chopped

3 or 4 small shallots, peeled and whole

7 or 8 small potatoes

2/3 bottle of good quality red wine, I recommend a Bourgogne

1 Tsp. of Dijon

Dollop of molasses

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

1/4cup soya sauce

Dash of Balsamic Vinegar

Sprigs of Rosemary and Tyme

1 heaping tsp. Flour mixed into about 1/3 cup water

Sprinkle of Fleur de Sel

Pepper

Lightly fry the chicken in a cast iron frying pan with butter and a good splash of wine. I always boil my pork hocks before use to remove some of the preservatives and salt, but this is optional. In another frying pan sauté the onions and shallots in a bit of canola oil. As they start to sweat, add in the red peppers, mushrooms, celery and carrots. Givethem a quick fry to coat with oil, remove from the frying pan and put them on the bottom the goose pot. Nestle the pork hock onto the vegetables, in the middle of the pot and add the hot chicken and more wine.
Next, add the Dijon, molasses, Worcestershire , balsamic , soya, salt and pepper and herbs. Don’t worry about mixing these ingredients; as they cook they will meld. Add the water/ flour mixture, put on the lid and stick it in the oven. Time it for 30 minutes, at which time you will add the potatoes, give it a stir and time it for another hour. The aromas will be heavenly, earthy, smoky, and rich. People will be drifting into the kitchen to see what smells so good. Shoo them away, drink the remaining Burgundy and open another bottle. When the potatoes are soft, remove from the oven and let the dish rest for about 10 minutes. Serve with bread and rest assured that this easy and delicious one pot meal will keep the everyone happy. Serve this with bread. This dish pairs well with Belgium beer and inexpensive Spanish and French reds.

EASY BREAD

All you need is time to make this easy bread. You have to leave it alone for 12-24 hours.

3 Cups All Purpose Flour
11/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Instant Yeast
13/4 Cups Warmer then Warm Water

In a large mixing bowl mix up dry ingredients. Add the warm water and mix the dough by hand until it’s shaggy and stringy. (About 2 minutes.) Cover the bowl with a piece of cling wrap and cover that with a clean tea towel. Put dough in a warm spot and ignore for 24 hours. Uncover. The dough will have risen to stick to the cling wrap. Gently pull the wrap away from the dough, punch the dough down and re-cover. Heat your oven to 450F. and put a covered heavy pot in at the same time. When the oven is at 450F, remove the hot pot and lightly dust the dough with flour. Drop the dough ball into the pot, put the lid on the pot and bake for 30 minutes. At that point remove the lid from the pot and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and put the bread onto a rack to cool. You will have round, rustic loaf, crunchy on the outside, dense and satisfying on the inside. Serve hot with Coq au Ralphers.

FEBRUARY 03

After Party by Karen Ralph

There comes a time in every evening when you have to leave the bar/restaurant/function because they are closing and it would be rude to keep the staff there all night serving you and your friends drinks. As tempting as that is, remember, when one door shuts another door opens. This may very well be your own door if you decide to host the “after party.” In order to do this late night soiree justice you have to anticipate that it could happen. The chances of hosting the after party are excellent if you have a couple of cases of cheap wine on hand and a some non-perishable snack items, like bags of chips and pickled herring. Round up the partiers, which can be likened to herding cats and flag down or call cabs. After arriving at your house, break out the wine. Everyone is already tipsy and someone will be commandeering the stereo to put on the best of Enya, or whatever they feel like dancing to. There will be dancing. Drunk people love to dance. They also tend to break your glasses and spill wine and drop food everywhere but they are your friends and you want them to have a good time, so grab a drink, start dancing and don’t worry about tomorrow. We have a band room full of musical instruments and this is a great way for people to entertain themselves. Most of our friends are musicians and this has resulted in some really fun jams taking place late at night and the formation of at least one band. Drinking doesn’t improve motor skills so the playing is often messy and chaotic, but spirited and everyone gets into it.  Parties often break down into sub-parties: the upstairs stereo party, the downstairs live music party, the ever popular kitchen party and of course, the bathroom party. This is fun, but ensures a big mess in every room in your house. There will probably be drama. In addition to dancing, drunk people love to break-up, make-up and have sex in your bed. Not necessarily in that order or with the one who brung ‘em. There might be tears, recriminations, drunken phone calls and texting. As long as there is no physical violence this is fine.

Making sure that your guests get home safely is a major consideration. Call taxis and offer spare beds and couches for the really wasted. If it is winter, go outside and take a look to ensure that none of the smokers have passed out in the cold. This is also a good time to pick up bottles and glasses that have been left outside. The neighbours don’t need to know everything.

The last after party that we hosted was only a couple of days ago. We had had our annual staff party at The Ranche, a beautiful rustic old ranch house located in Fish Creek Park. We had our own private room and brought our own wine: forty bottles for thirty people. We rented two fifteen seat buses to pick us up and drop us off at our downtown location. Everyone dressed up, breaking out the festive attire for what was actually our Xmas party. We disembarked, and sauntered into the Ranche where we were greeted with flutes of Bellavista. I was standing by the bar when I saw the frosted bottle that contains the deep rich pink wine that can only be Larmandier Rose, one of my favorite Champagnes. I chugged the rest of my Bellavista to switch to Larmandier Rose. We managed to drink six bottles of Larmandier and three magnums of Bellavista and hadn’t yet entered the dining room. When we finally drifted into our private room which was set with three long tables, we were met with an epic line- up. The wines were outstanding.  Including the three magnums of Bellavista and the six Larmandier Rose’s, there was almost thirty bottles, more if you include the thirty splits of Drappier:

1 x Magnum of Wittman Riesling Trocken “S” 2007

2 x Meo Camuzet Clos De Vougeot 2003

1 x Magnum of Pichler “M” 2007- only 6 bottles were allowed into the country, (the M stands for Monumental.)

2 x Haut Brion White 2004 courtesy of Andre

1 x Magnum of Quinta Do Vale Meao 2005

1 x Magnum of Vincent Girardin Puligny Montrachet 2005

1 x Magnum of Brancaia Ilatria

2 x Williams Selyam Drake Chardonnay

2 x Araujo Syrah

2 x Vice Versa, American Cabernet Sauvignon

2 x Artadi Grandes Anadas 2001

3 x Diebolt Vallois Blanc De Blanc

1 x Henriques & Henriques Malmsey 15 yr Madeira

1 x Linkwood 30 Year Old Malt Scotch

30 x Drappier Champagne 200 ml which were supposed to be drank on the bus, but the driver was a party pooper, so they were given out as stocking stuffers.

We shot the 30 year old scotch and chased it with the Drappier minis at the very end of the evening like the professional boozehounds that we are.

The menu featured scallops, duck pate, sea bass, elk, and I dimly remember a chocolate desert that had something to do with prunes. It worked all well with the wines and the service was excellent but the food was ultimately overshadowed by the sheer magnificence and volume of what we were drinking. 

This party was also the last that we would have as the current team, since Brad Royale who has worked at Bin 905 for almost a decade is moving on. He is now in charge of the wine programs at Calgary restaurants Divino, Cilantro, Velvet at the Grande and The Ranche, Banff properties Buffalo Mtn. Lodge and Deer Lodge and BC properties, Emerald Lake Lodge and Painted Boat in Sechelt. 

Geoff Last gave a moving speech about his time with Brad, and we will all miss working with him.

In a case of perfect timing, the buses pulled up just as we ran out of wine. This brings us back to where our story started, with the after party. Since our house is close to The Ranche, Ian and I invited people over. Mid invite, I realized that after the insane line-up that we had just quaffed our way through, I had the wine equivalent of raw, warm, bulk-bin wieners from a corner store. I was panicking. Peter, the General Manager of The Ranche came to my rescue. Leaning in he said, “Karen, do you want some wine for your party? Just re-order it for Wednesday.” Reading between the lines he meant, “If I give you a bunch of wine to take to your house will you and your drunk friends please let us go home?” It was win win for both of us. Peter put together 18 bottles assorted wines, we got on the buses and headed to our house. Some people stayed on the bus to go home or back downtown, but an impressive number got off and staggered up the steps. We played guitars, Roisine did a solo interpretive dance to Enya, and Veronique, our newest staff member impressed us all by climbing a spruce tree in a mini skirt and high heels. With shredded nylons and sap in her hair, and we knew she would fit right in.
It was now about 5:00 AM and no-one could get a cab, so we just kept drinking, and calling cabs. At about 6:45 AM. a couple of taxis pulled up to the house. The last of our guests lurched out into the dark morning and took their long waited for rides home. I stood in the living room and surveyed the destruction. The floors were shiny, still wet with spilled wine. I put a load of glasses into the dishwasher and went to bed, but couldn’t sleep because cabs kept pulling up and ringing our doorbell. It seemed as if my friends had called every company in town and now, in the cold, grey light of dawn, they were finally arriving. I sent them away and had just finally started to sleep when the annoying, tinny sound of The Entertainer crushed that dream. Someone had lost their phone and apparently they liked waking up to the sounds of ragtime jazz. Trying to locate it, lurching around the house with a brain crushing hangover was hell. My feet were sticking to floor from the spilled, now sticky wine and the cat was perched on a chair to avoid the same fate. Finding and shutting off the phone, I resigned myself to the fact that sleep wasn’t going to happen so I may as well start cleaning. Beer and wine bottles were everywhere, a lot of them only half finished, accompanied by wine glasses with dregs in them. There were patches of broken glass, corks, beer caps, napkins, cheese, crumbs, wine stains and assorted pickles. Party shrapnel left by drunken guests. All of the half full bottles of wine had to be dumped out because of the “Hot potatoing” a term used to describe a group of
people chugging out of the bottle. There had been parties in every room, so the entire house had to be cleaned. It took about five hours of hard labour, but we worked through our hangovers and the clean house was worth it. Cleaning with a hangover is ok, but cleaning when you are still drunk is not to be recommended; you are tired, your judgement is impaired and accidents are bound to happen. I have cut my feet on broken glass,
chipped $400. decanters, broken glasses and thrown out things that I wanted to save. Plus, you aren’t really doing a good job and will have to re-do it when the sun comes up and you see everything you missed. Hiring a cleaning service would be ideal, but when we drink like royalty I like to think that the realities of everyday life, like cleaning up after yourself and taking out garbage, keep us grounded.

FEBRUARY 01

En excerpt from life at Bin 905 without Brad Royale… by Jeff Jamieson

Jeff Jamieson – “Welcome to Bin 905, can I help you find something?”

Bin Customer – “Um, actually, is Brad in?”

Jeff Jamieson – “ohhhh, I’m so sorry, Brad got promoted, he’s no longer in the store.”

Bin Customer – “Really?  Well Brad usually helps me, he kind of knows what I like.”

Jeff Jamieson – “Well, give me a shot.  I can help you out, trust me.”

Bin Customer – “Okay, I guess that will be okay.  Well… I’m looking for Vosne Romanee”

Jeff Jamieson – “Not a problem at all. ‘Vosne Romanee’ is the blue alien that sits behind Jabba the Hutt and advises him on various types of intergalactic gangster shit.”

(extended silence)

Bin Customer - “I’m not sure that’s correct.”

Jeff Jamieson - “Listen pal… I think I know my Star Wars.”

JANUARY 24

On a Royale Departure by Jeff Jamieson

The end is nigh my friends.  Brad Royale is leaving Bin 905!  There are many wizards behind the curtains of our fair company, pushing buttons and pulling levers, and they have decided that a man of his unique skill set is far too important to let amble the aisles of our happy boutique.  In around one weeks time he will leave Bin to begin his role in his new, heady post.

Brad will now be running the wine program for the entire Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts Conglomerate.  As most of us know, this new position will come with new responsibilities for Brad, but what many do not know is that the position also means that Brad must choose a new name.  Just as anointed Cardinals who become Pope shed their clan name in favor of a more holy moniker, and just as young Temujin of the Steppe became the powerful Genghis Khan, Brad will now take on a name that will better suit him in this new chapter of his life.  Here is the short list…

1. Emperor Oenotheque I
2. Guy Water Yudoing
3. Master Bateus Oftenus
4. Doctor Thesis Von Science
5. Watashi Me-Kurabu Animaru

Whatever name he decides on, he will surely be missed by staff and customers alike.  So make sure you get on down to Bin this week to say hello and goodbye.

DECEMBER 19

Dinner at Cilantro Mountain Cafe by Brad Royale

Cilantro at Buffalo Mountain Lodge has reopened and being a good little wine director I was on hand for a little staff training and menu tasting.....all went swimmingly.  I like the new menu we’re offering, small plates of cured meats, cheeses, and a kick ass Alsatian tart done on puff pastry....just freakin delicious.  To celebrate everything good about life and to enjoy the new Cilantro menu I decided to have some friends up for dinner. I take care of dinner, they take care of the wine....I’m pretty sure I owe them another dinner as the wine they poured into our glasses was sublime.

NV Egly-Ouriet Brut Rose Grand Cru - Egly Ouriet just simply has an excellent handle on power, purity and just making the most sensual of Champagnes.  This was showing beautifully.  We drank these out of wine glasses, I find myself drinking all Champagne this way now, and the nose of sweet herby strawberries and wheat cracker was dense and beautiful.  This could certainly sit for a while in the cellar, but tough to resist such a beautiful wine now. 

2003 Chateau Laville Haut Brion - White Bordeaux on this market is something of a fish out of water.  We see very little of it, seemingly because the market doesn’t demand it and therefore buyers simply don’t order it.  But why?  Seeing this Laville Haut Brion open up over the two hours we drank it was exceptional.  White Bordeaux, especially at this level is something we need to see more of.  Definitely time to revisit this classic area and start drinking more White Bordeaux.  Sexy deep nose of pound cake, sunflower seeds, marmalade and pear.  Huge minerality and a viscous palate that ends as large as it starts.  You must try this wine. 

2000 Chateau Canon la Gaffeliere - Will these 2000’s ever close down?  From the start this vintage has had a very open sexy character to it, delivering exceptional winsome drinking experiences from seemingly every corner one can taste from.  This bottle of Canon La Gaffeliere was on fire, having just opened the bottle the wine was ready to perform and put on a delightful dance of sweet smoky mineral, forest notes infused into sweet black currents and a generous mouth feel perfectly balanced.  Certainly best to keep it in the cellar if you have some as in another 10 years this will be completely over the top, although not far off from that pointy peak right now. 

1995 Chateau Angelus - Good Christ!  If you have any of this in your cellar we should be friends too!  And then you and I can enjoy many of your bottles over dinner...I’ll buy dinner.  This is just an explosive wine.  Not even opened for a minute it leaped out of the glass and just gave everything it had, no holds barred.  Supremely balanced nose of liquid mineral, subtle cold timbers of burnt wood, expansive mouth feel with glowing acidity and pure grainy tannins all working symbiotically to make my mouth love it.  A love machine really.  Drink now and for the next 20 years. 

Happy Holidays,
Brad

DECEMBER 06

Antics of Sam and the Gang by Brad Royale

A few nights before last before last before last I had the pleasure of hanging out in the cellar of La Chaumiere with Joe, Sam and mindful boulevardiers to feast on some bottled curios.  A petite aperçu follows.........

1996 Dom Perignon: Always a good way to start of and such a vintage of power for Dom Perignon.  If you have any in your cellar, first off you’re lucky and second hold onto this for a good ten years from this minute, it’s only getting better. 

1996 Bollinger RD: Rich, developed nose of autolysis.  Buttery, brioche, lemon custard, angel food cake.  Hang tight if you can, best in 10.

2007 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese: From the master of Scharzhofberg comes one of the most anticipated Auslese from anywhere in Germany.  The wine moves through your mouth like the flapping wings of a bird following the curves and contours soothing each molecule of you with love. 

1994 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne: So young!  Martray is one of the only producers who really only makes one wine....Corton-Charlemagne....and a good chunk of it too and when one thinks about it, it’s the only Corton-Charlemagne one should think about drinking.  Excellent balance, toffee, apple pie, soothing minerals.  Good for another 10.

1997 Ramonet Bienvenue Batard Montrachet: At eleven years old it’s starting to show its age.  Full of butterscotch, warm chamomile, marmalade.  Drink up. 

2005 Chateau Haut Brion Blanc:  lucky stars, again...haha.  The 2005 is quite closed this minute requiring a few years to open up and reveal more of the candle wax, candy, liquid mineral, neoprene and nectarine essence buried in the vast depths of this beast.

1990 Chateau Mouton Rothschild:  A very rich bottle with excellent presence of maturity and lineage.  Striking meadow flower, graphite, and current.  Drinking well now, will sit for another decade easily. 

2000 Roberto Voerzio Rocche dell Anunnziata Torriglione: Arguably the greatest Barolo I’ve ever had, just an essence of everything great about Piedmont.  It smells like the air surrounding the Langhe hills.  The best!  Drink in 10 for perfection. 

2003 Chateau d’Yquem: Nectar like no other, saturated botrytis all the way through, ending on peach puree and love from God.

2000 Chateau Margaux: Sweet, graphite, cedar, super balanced.  Love it!  Black pepper, richly perfumed.  Raul’s quote “...the penetration is great!”

1981 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse: Good maturity and showing really well for its maturity.  Cedar, spice, black licorice, black earth.  Drink ‘em up!

2005 Alto Moncayo Aquilon: The top dog from this esteemed Garnacha estate.  Takes the varietal to the brink of concentration, super stuffed.  liquored cherry, red licorice, coffee cake, grilled meat, awesome power.  Not on the market, but if you have some save it for a few years and then rock your brain.

2004 Artadi Vina El Pison: Celery salt, spice, liquored blackberry, bread notes, bit boozy but the package is big enough to fill the pants...haha....drink in 10 for a sublime experience. 

2003 Guigal La Landonne: Did not guess Northern Rhone at all.  Super viscous and heavy with all its scents and perfumes, quite monolithic and brooding right now.  Very rich.  Lavish and over the top, think Marie Antoinette.

2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon: Spice, black current, basil, black olives, graphite, lots of power here, love it.  Guessed Shaffer HSS...wrong...Joe called this down to the vintage...it was awesome to hear!

2003 Chateau Angelus: Quite developed with a tawny hue at rim, surprising for such a young wine.  Interesting and well balanced but development of profile makes me think it may have been a little weird.  Best to try again.

1998 Elderton Command Shiraz: Jube jube, Christmas cake, raisins, rum.  Lots of structure and starting to develop, quite delicious, with ample spice, really well done and will be best in another 6-10 years. 

2004 Lucien le Moine Mazis-Chambertin: Spicy, wet clay, cocoa powder, asphalt, big tannins.  Big future ahead of it, needs half a decade to come around.  The vintage was handled very well.  Like Mounir’s style here. 

2005 Vina Sastre Pesus: Liquored everything!  Chocolate fudge, maraschino cherry, Bookers bourbon, Oh my God, just so intense and doesn’t let up.  Not sure how they got Tempranillo this massive but kudos for whatever it took.  I like it ‘cause it hurts.

Cheers,
Brad

NOVEMBER 08

Krug By the Glass at Divino by administrator

Simply ridiculous.  For the cold winter months ahead Divino will be serving Krug Grand Cuvee by the glass for $38!!!  The usual pinch for this golden swath of pleasure is a cool $125 per stem.  However, in keeping with their mandate to pour crazy things into your mouth they have taken on an ecclesiastical sense of well doing and are simply, really, it’s pretty clear...giving it away. 

Careful planning dear Binners as this offer will become as evanescent as delicate bubbles rising through the cut details of crystal stems.  The boulevardier hiding in your mind-closet simply can’t resist luxury being strung out for such a rara avis occasion. 

NOVEMBER 08

Andre’s b-day, a mix bag and a Ritchie you say…. by Brad Royale

October was arguably one the greatest tasting months I’ve ever been a part of.  Comprised of three individual tastings, some planned while others by lucky star chance.  I thought it would be fun to post some tasting notes online in some sort of tasting-blog-map of my whereabouts over the previous month.  Calgary is certainly not prone to the wall when it comes to breaking out the good stuff, but moly, it’s like Emile Durkheim’s ghost was wasted the whole month and the collective consciousness was singing of Grand Crus and Uva Rara. 

Listed below is a stream of my tasting consciousness….hope you enjoy.

Part 1: Oct 5th.  7pm.  My house.  Andre’s Birthday.

I find often when I’m in one of my more moistened moods of character, with my lips no dryer, that Andre is usually present and no less dripping with guilt of managing to open what would be considered no less than 10lbs of sugar in a 5lb bag worth of wine.  Such engagements are not without consequence, these roughhousian bibes require mass expenditures of resources and a very nonecclesiastical amount of time spent in bed on Sundays.  An ominous pile, toppled over and heaped up with braces this line up required some serious belly-stuffing and orders of delicately titled “shit ribs”, a house specialty, were ordered for the occasion. 

Thanks to everyone for making this a very special night and thanks to Andre for being so generous and the best Dutch person I know!

2005 Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne Quintessence Double Magnum - This three liter of Corton-Charlemagne is a the result of really old vines from a small parcel that Girardin buys from.  As one would imagine this was a baby with a very firm grip of structure still overshadowing the nose and palate.  Andre had decanted this really early the day before (if not the day before that!) and so some of the cantaloupe-apple, riverbed washed stone and pine were showing through.  Lovely stuff, especially to taste out of this format.  Best after 15 and will easily sit for another 40. 

2004 Francois Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre Magnum - Magic clouds…made out of the finest liquid apples and minerals and then gassed into magic clouds that float down so you can bite at them like cotton candy…except they’re magic clouds….magic!  Best in 8-12 and will last until the magic doesn’t love you anymore….so who knows…be good.

Krug Grand Cuvee Magnum - As a celebratory gesture to Andre, it felt right so we went with it, we drank this out of the bottle in a serious hot potato battle.  An older bottling of this NV cuvee it had toasted brioche, baked apples, sesame, hint of soy and such a fat mouth feel, really quite viscous.  Sublime. 

1978 Robert Ampeau Puligny Montrachet Combettes 1er Cru - At age thirty this gave a big “not your pointy figure” to those who stress that white wine is sub par to red and doesn’t age.  Beautifully round acid added weight and texture to the beautiful pie crust, lemon custard and flint that swam in my glass blissfully unaware of time and space.  Drink up. 

2004 Chateau Haut Brion Blanc - I’ve mistaken this wine for JL Chave’s white Hermitage a couple times…more on this later…it has such weight of personality.  I suppose glass doesn’t’ really bend to a point where it looks as though it’s lazy, but really this wine has that kind of power….glass bending.  Firm wood upfront, the Semillon in control right now with pure honey comb, lanolin, and marmalade.  Infused with minerals from head to toe and a shear delight to taste.  Best in 10-12 with 20 years ahead of it. 

1994 Artadi Grandes Anades Magnum - On fire, just pumping.  This wine sang from this magnum and showed us why the 1994 vintage was so heralded upon release.  Fresh earth, cedar, tobacco and sweet red fruits gave way to superbly balanced wine.  Drinking well now if you have to…or want to…but will sit well for another 20.

1999 Quintarelli Rosso del Bepi Magnum - I think Andre said he decanted this sleeping monster six times to coax it out of its shell…we’ve come to know that in order to party with Quintarelli you beat them up first and then dance with them…only way.  Having someone deliver news that you just won a million dollars in the most quite, discreet way possible is like having this wine slip down your throat.  Drink now if you’re prepared otherwise leave it alone for 10 and best for 20. 

Part 2: Oct 6th.  5pm.  Eau Claire Sheraton Suites.  One mixed bag of Grand Cru Burgundy.

I received a call from Sam telling me to call Patrick from the Sheraton to get a seat at his Burgundy tasting….so I did…and Patrick was kind enough to let me attend.  Having celebrated Andre’s birthday in the above mentioned tasting notes my head was a little left of center for this …but one must prevail in the hands of Grand Cru Burgundy.  A couple lots of Burgundy had been purchased at an auction in Montreal (why don’t we have auctions here?) and a little tasting formed to go through an assortment of various bottles.  A simply lovely way to spend a hangover. 

1976 Louis Latour Chambolle Musigny - Well aged with herbal tea notes, powdered cocoa.  Lots of sediment visible in the glass.  Fresh acid with tannins and fruit a bit lacking at first, but picking up near the end of the tasting.  All in all drink up if any are hovering around the cellar. 

1983 Mommesin Clos de Tart - Beautiful nose with firm colour, good clarity and no sediment.  Herbal, fresh earth, fresh raspberry, hint of cake.  Structure really soft with acid dominant and quite fresh, tannins are silky and starting to drop out.  Lovely example here of well aged burgundy that has hit its prime with regards to structure.  Drink up. 

1984 Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache - The vintage was a brutal one with nothing nice to say…at least nothing I could find online.  The terroir of La Tache spoke through the terrors of the vintage with bergamot, herbal tea, fresh earth and a lifted decaying cedar aroma.  Notes of raw meat and earth on the palate.  Structure shows the greenness of the vintage, but the house handled it well and the wine currently prevails to be still together and still interesting to drink, if not a bit beyond itself.  Drink now. 

1995 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee St Vivant - Still very ruby hue.  Lots of mint and cranberry on the nose with a typical coldness I attribute to wines of Vosne Romanee.  The 1995’s have proved to be a fairly hard vintage and this bottle showed that well.  Quite tea like with its tannins, the wine showed compressed fruit and some pretty floral and earth notes.  Gonna have to wait it out with this one.  Beauty is to be had here for those who wait another 10 for full maturity to start to seep in. 

2001 Domaine de Lambrays Clos de Lambrays - Bright hue with pretty ruby and a hint of purple still.  Cedar, raspberry, wet stones and a hint of wood still.  Lovely youthful balance with power emerging as the wine moves through the mouth.  Starting to come around but really needs some time for everything to come around, especially a little bit of wood still sitting on top of the fence.  Best in 10 through to 20.

2001 Domaine de la Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot - Lovely ruby here.  Red licorice, lipstick and clay, pipe tobacco are all things delicious to smell here.  Nose showed good promise, however the palate was still very youthful and quite compressed.  Fresh acid sits atop the pile with tannins in tow.  Try after another 5-8 and will see 15-20.

2001 Perrot Minot Chambertin Vieilles Vignes - Very rich hue, dark ruby purple.  A very open and decadent nose here, vanilla, white flowers, cumin, hints of cola, wild ripe raspberry.  Excellent mouth feel with acids plump and ripe tannins giving way the sexy fruit.  Lovely wine now, but will last another 15 easy.

2002 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Grand Echeaeaux - Delicate ruby hue.  Clay, facial cleanser, pencil lead, roasted meat, quite creamy.  The structure is very balanced with everything really in sync.  Lots of herbal notes with clay fresh red fruits.  Excellent wine and very cool to taste.  Should age seamlessly for 20 years, check back in 10. 

2003 Meo Camuzet Clos de Vougeot - Very dark, quite purple.  Opposite of the Vougeraie with huge open knit power off the nose.  Decadent fruit…almost jammy, cool black earth, black stone.  Rich palate with grainy tannins and plump acids.  All in all very liquor like in its behavior.  Hard not to drink now, but one should really wait another 8 or so to see some secondary development here. 

2004 Mommesin Clos de Tart - Lovely ruby purple.  Cranberry tea, fairly compressed nosed but one can see the depth.  Palate is a bit lean for what this wine usually delivers, perhaps showing some of the greenness of the vintage currently.  Check back in 8-10 and this should emerge as a pretty version of Clos de Tart…the freshness here I could preserving this wine for some time. 

2005 Dominique Laurent Clos de la Roche - excellent purple ruby.  The wood on the nose if vibrant with charming black currents, raspberry, toffee hints and vanilla.  Easy enough to like this wine here as the wood adds in some chocolate notes, however the fruit is pushed back and may not have enough muscle to merge with the powerful oak.  Best in 8-10 and good for 15, however wood use here is a bit concerning.

Part 3:  Oct 9th.  The Wine Cellar.  Ritchies Auctioneers

While walking to Divino for my usual Thursday night of festivities with Bryan and Jamie I bumped into Francois from the Wine Cellar.  He casually mentioned the Ritchies Auctioneers were hosting a tasting at his shop and that if I had so much of a minute or two I should stop by….as noted with other wine people the use of the word casual really has no casual meaning at all in the wine world milieu.  I took Francois up on his offer and quickly, like a bunny, bolted out of service and down the street for a not so casual line up of wine. 

Now just before we get to the tasting bits and pieces I would like to throw out here a plug for auction houses and for that matter I would like to remove the plug on the pipe preventing us from getting one.  We could use an auction house here in Calgary.  Maybe a couple auctions a year where we could all meet on a sunny Saturday afternoon, taste through some lots and bid on some gear that we wouldn’t normally have access to.  Now I am of the highest opinion of our freedom loving market and there is nary a moment when I’ve an itch left unscratched…but let’s face it the only thing better than freedom is freedom on freedom and having a little auction action is just that.  Auctions present a good addition to the market by being able to offer older vintages, producers who may not officially be in the market and lovely access to whole collections…..all super cool things in the eyes of the wine world.  Auctions….bring em on…..especially when they open stuff like this to make friends. 

1997 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche – I like 1997 as a year for Burgundy…warm, supple wines right now that offer superb drinking…this Clos de la Roche is no different and from Dujac none the less.  Showing very well with a lovely amount of tertiary colourfulness. 

1997 Chapoutier Pavillon Ermitage - Trying these wines in youth is often a touch of a chore as they are quite compressed.  However with some age these wine offer an extreme sense of purity with varietal acting soley as a medium for its environment.  Sublime and one of the stars of the night.  Drink now and for another 10-15. 

1998 Chateau de Beaucastel – From a big year and offering lots of power.  I find Beacastel, like most of the wines served this night, is at a loss in its youth…requiring time to find its complexity.  This is delicious after 10 years and will easily see another 20. 

1990 Chateau Leoville Barton – 1990 was a warm year and full of powerful wines.  This has hit a stride and was perfumed with warm currents and autumnal scents.  Drinking well now, however it will sit well for another 10 or so with its pretty fruit.

1994 Chateau Clinet – Not a super strong vintage for Bordeaux, the 1994 vintage has been drinking well for some time now.  Clinet offered a good amount of age and showed a fine concentration and real evenness of structure….if you got them, drink ‘em up with dinner for something particularly delicious.

1986 Chateau Margaux – The height of perfume in Bordeaux.  ’86 was a strong vintage for Margaux and this bottle showed exactly why we think of Margaux as the most finely perfumed of the first growths.  Cedar, roses, airy minerals.  Beautiful.  Drink now and good for another decade.

1986 Chateau Mouton – Again what a lovely treat!  A stunning pencil lead and earth covered stones.  A good match for the Margaux, strutting more Pauillac power over Margaux elegance.  Drinking beautifully.  Drink now and for another ten. 

1982 Chateau La Lagune – Anytime you can drink wines from this sexy sexy sexy vintage from Bordeaux take it!  Voluptuous, holding its own and just superb.  Drink now with a further ten pretty easy.

1991 Groth Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – From a much heralded vintage from this producer.  Elegant and shows the structure of this wine.  This was released when Groth was very much a small cult like producer.  Drinking very well with some year ahead of it.  Lovely purity.  Drink now and for another 8 years.

1986 Caymus Special Select – Back in the day Caymus used to make this wine as a cellar selection to its sibling, the Cabernet Sauvignon.  Showed a great sense of softened structure...this would have been formidable in its youth, with pure Napa black currents, cedar and black earth.  Absolutely delicious right now. 

Cheers,
Brad

SEPTEMBER 20

One more glass of bubbles. by Karen Kho

There is never a guarantee that you are going to like the environment that you have to work in.  More often than not your relationship with your co-workers does not extend into your personal life.  I am thankful that in my time at Bin 905, I have not only looked forward to going to work, I enjoy the company of my peers.  Throughout my 5 1/2 years at the store I have had the pleasure of working alongside some of Calgary’s most eclectic, intelligent and talented wine professionals.  When I first came to this city I knew very few people, but I had made the decision that I wanted to learn as much as I could about wine.  I was intimidated by the staff at Bin, my wine knowledge was limited to what I like to drink and little else.  Thankfully I was given the opportunity to work with individuals that were not only knowlegeable but enthusiastic about food and wine.  They also liked to drink in the afternoon.  I had found my home.  Though I successfully completed my sommelier certification, the bulk of my education has undoubtedly come from my wonderfully eccentric and often inebriated colleagues.  Most of my closest friends have also been my greatest mentors in this industry.  Their influence has taught me to be a better sommelier, cook and host to my guests both at home and at work.  As a result, I have compiled a short list of valuable wine tips that I have accrued during my tenure at Bin 905. 

First and Foremost:  Moderation is for suckers

2.  There is such a thing as breakfast wine.

3.  Champagne is the best reward for a hard day’s work.

4.  Everything tastes better out of a large format bottle.

5.  Do yourself a favour and buy good glassware.

6.  White Burgundy tastes better directly from the bottle.

7.  Don’t try to pack for a trip after 3 bottles of wine.  Especially if you are taking the red eye.

8.  Rose is always a good idea.

9.  It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of it before.

10.  Most importantly, the best occasion for opening a good bottle of wine is with really great friends.

Today is my last shift at the store.  I am very sad.  My friends gave me a beautiful bottle of 1996 Mouton-Rothschild.  I plan on drinking it with them in the near future.

Cheers,
Karen Kho

SEPTEMBER 08

MADIRAN SUPER POWER by Sylvain Courel

In a fascinating study from the Queen Mary’s School of Medicine in London, being published in the journal Nature, scientists studying the markedly higher longevity of men between the various regions in France found a connection between greater health & longevity, and consumption of local red Madiran wines native to this region of southwest France. 

They found that Madiran wines produced in the southwest of France, where men live longer than the average, have higher levels of Procyanidins - which helps repair cells in arteries that feed the heart, have strong antioxidant properties and other health benefits (Procyanidins are also found in such foods as dark chocolate, cranberries and apples, among others, although in lower concentrations than Madiran red wine using the Tannat grape).

Winemakers in the region use their local Tannat grapes and soak them longer with their seeds than most wineries, further boosting the amount of Procyanidins present in the resulting juice. Madiran wines produced in the region are often about 70 percent Tannat, blended with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc or Merlot. Tannat grapes have also been widely planted in Argentina and Uruguay, with Uruguay producing a large amount of Tannat-based wines.

Okay, so what about those Pinot Noirs, Cabernets and Merlots I’ve been drinking? Should I switch to Madiran wines made with the Tannat grape? 

Possibly yes, if you’re already a wine drinker (in moderation, of course!) and are optimizing your diet for health and longevity. But there’s another reason, particularly if you’re a red wine lover: these Madiran, Tannat-based wines can be some of the most interesting, complex, earthy wines out there.

TANNAT BEST BUYS AT BIN

# DON RODOLFO TANNAT, Argentina, Cafayate Valley $15

#CHATEAU MONTUS, France, South West, Madiran $42

CHEERS

SEPTEMBER 04

Variety or late life dementia. Your call. by Jeff Jamieson

I would like to begin this blog with a brief lesson in science. 

When we learn something new our brain creates a pattern.  It bridges firing neurons with something called synapses.  These synapses form a connection, and that connection strengthens with every recall of that thought, or repetition of that action.  This can lead to some curious results.  For instance, I cannot remember many of our regular customers names.  This is because I have only heard them once or twice.  The synapses responsible for these recollections are young and weak.  I can, however, remember that World Vision Canada Headquarters is at 56 Sparks St. Toronto Ontario, M5W 1E6.  This is because when I was growing up a hippie known as Bruce Cockburn recited this address to me every single day via commercials on the CBC.  I don’t even know what they do but I know where they are.  Much stronger synapses…. get it?

Recent studies have shown (I’ve always wanted to write that) that building new synapses on a regular basis can help mental health in your later years.  Basically all you have to do is keep learning new things and you immediately reduce the chance of degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimers and dementia.

You may be asking yourself, “What does all of this have to do with drinking wine?” Well, many of you are not building new synapses bridges by trying new things.  And frankly that is just unhealthy.  If you continue on this reckless path of repetitive purchasing you are not only denying yourself a whole world of great wine, you are putting your health at risk.  I believe I speak for all of us at Bin 905 when I say we do not want to be a part of downward spiral of cognitive strength.  Therefore we are always going to try to get you to experience new things.  We are not wine bullies, we’re just looking out for your well being.  After all, a weakened mind can lead to a lot of unfortunate scenarios. Who knows, you may develop late life dementia, which is a lot like being drunk at a funeral.  Sure, you’re having a good time, but trust me; everyone else is really uncomfortable with the situation.

So come on down to the store and let one of our wine experts suggest something for you that is outside of your comfort zone.  It will expand your horizons and you will be learning something new, which will in turn build your mental strength so that your mind is honed even into your autumn years.  This will make certain that you never have to grapple with tough questions that can afflict the mentally ill.  Questions like, “Why is this chair bolted to the floor and full of water?” or “Where are my licorice allsorts?” Or perhaps more troubling delusions like “Is there kryptonite around here? Because when I tried to fly to the 7-11 for a pack of smokes I think I threw out my back.” All of these embarrassing and potentially dangerous situations can be avoided by adding a little variety to your purchases.

We can help, if you only let us try.

AUGUST 22

Where to go and the Felton Road by Brad Royale

Where to go?  Always the question at 11pm Thursday night, and always one with the same answer, “I don’t know, you pick…. I’m not going there….pshh, you’re kidding…didn’t you puke there once….ugh.”.  While Calgary is hussle and bussle and the “new” this and that (remember the theme song to Dallas?), the nightlife here kinda sucks for low-light-bass-crooning-sleepy-lounges.  Maybe we don’t need anymore pubs with wing specials and just maybe we don’t need anymore pints of something on tap and perhaps we don’t need anymore “where to gos?” I just want some cushy seats, some inspired lighting ….the lower the better, especially after I’ve had 4 gin martinis and my hair changes from Mergers and Acquisitions to something called Rick. I want some personable staff that understands that they work in an adult environment filled with adults who are neither adult nor sober…. people who will show me a good time, swear when they need to and drink bourbon behind the bar while they work.  I’m pretty sure all of this is very reasonable.

So, “where to go?” turned into going to my house with a bottle of 2006 Felton Road Chardonnay from Central Otago, New Zealand.  For those with sleepy bellies who haven’t yet awoke to this brilliant estate let me pull the blinds and expose the sunny days of Felton Road.  Blair Walters is the dude who makes all the crazy juice under this label.  Much like Blair’s skills the wines exude a focused knowledge of their varietal content and climatic conditions.  You would be surprised to know how many bottles of Chardonnay think they’re Ungi Blanc and haven’t a sniff as to where they came from…a stork you say….hmm.  This wine reminded me a tad of Domaine Leflaive’s Bourgogne Blanc. With it’s lemon pith, white wash chalky minerals and a perfume that lays somewhere between a delicate apple/pear puree and that summer lotion your girlfriend wears when meeting the girls for brunch.  The acid is focused and plump and viscous and just makes the perfect feeling in your mouth for more more more. 

The Pinot Noir range from Felton Road is perhaps what makes them so famous, however don’t discount the Riesling or for that matter anything they make…. it’s all so good for those nights where there is nowhere to go.

Cheers,
Brad

JULY 18

Stampede Sam and his posse of 8 by Brad Royale

Waking up at 9am on my Le Corbusier chaise lounger was interesting.  These chairs are curvy, sleek and I think quite beautiful.  A perfect chair for killing half a bottle of wine while reading the paper, and I find a simple pleasure knowing it’s a common prop on porn sets.  These pleasantries aside, they are not meant to sleep on.... or to wake up on...random or otherwise.  Upon waking I thought maybe it was the afternoon (of which day I’m not sure) and had treated myself to a nap...nope...the night before cleared up that thought pretty quick for me.  I tootled around, found my watch and sheepishly (funny doing this when you’re all alone) trundled off to bed...for about an hour before getting up for a second time and heading off to work.  Now all this is interesting, or not...I don’t know, however, how I ended up on my chaise is a much more delicious yarn. 

Sam generously bought at a charity auction a dinner for eight people at Rouge.  Not only was a dinner donated by Rouge, but also a selection of wines from an upstanding wine supplier that were to be paired with the dinner were donated as well.  Instead of the donated wines, a careful selection from Sam’s cellar and a few choice bottles from the guests’ cellars filled the dinner table.  We all amassed at Rouge around 6pm and started into our stairway (up or down?) of wine.  Starting outside (so much space outside at Rouge, lovely) we zipped through a mag of Weinbach Gewurztraminer Cuvee Laurence and three bottles of Champagne as one must be properly lubricated to take on the steady stream of plates and magnitude of wine ahead of us.  Dinner was delightful; crab and halibut cake…juicy, firm and crispy on the outside.  A generous slice of brioche with an assortment of mushrooms alongside a cup of mushroom cappuccino hit my spot…who doesn’t like things smothered in wild mushrooms?  Pssshhh, everyone does.  All the wines for dinner were served blind with the table doing an excellent job of voicing opinions…. appropriate or otherwise…. civil or wild. 

I held my own until the end with my only regret being a refusal to Chef Paul for a truffle omelet at 1am….I should have said yes.  I arrived home from Rouge feeling beautiful and …purple.  I had one cleansing ale to straighten me out…or otherwise…and then had thoughts of bed….and then I thought maybe I should get a dog…and purple is nice….and then… …uhmm, 9am?

1995 Charles Heidsieck – Creamy, buttery, rich and quite youthful.  Drinking well now, but will hold for another 10-15 easily.

2005 Weinbach Gewurztraminer Cuvee Laurence 1500ml – Pillowy and soft, very pure scents of lychee, rose water, touch of richness on mid palate.  Will keep for sure, best in 5years, but hard not to drink right now...especially out of this sexy mag!

1996 Bollinger RD – Heavy toast here initially, butter, creamy, lemon juice.  Well structured, taught in the mouth, very youthful here, needs 10 years for the acid to fatten.  Beautiful.

1988 Krug – Showing a gold straw hue.  Fat nose, very toasty, brioche, almond oil, miso, sesame, brown rice.  Still very much an adolescent, will evolve richly for another 15-20 years.

1999 Opus One – Opened in honour of Bob.  Showed very well with lots of talk of Bordeaux around the table.  Sweet black fruits, graphite, well integrated chocolate notes, garden lettuce.  Tannins are quite grainy and well focused.  Showing age and drinking well for whoever wants to grab a bottle from the cellar.  Best in 5 and will hold for another 10-12.

2006 Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir – Quite floral, sweet fruit, vibrant cherry, cola, cheese, anise.  Rich palate and full bodied for the varietal, fresh acid and warming alcohol.  Well put together and exciting to drink.

2002 Shafer Hillside Select 1500ml – Badass and huge.  Big wine and such a sexy format to indulge in.  Very dark colour, spice, liquored black fruit, chocolate, dough, cherry jubilee.  Very high alcohol on the palate, bacon, super mocha, smoke.  2002 is such a flamboyant vintage, so good.  Shows more alcohol here than last time tasted, perhaps a little awkward tonight.  In this format best in 10-15 and will easily age for 20-30 more.

2000 Chateau Pavie – Touch of age showing on rim.  Hint of cork?  Touch of booze on the nose.  Really rich deep fruit and liquored like minerals.  Quite delicious.  Decadent palate with tons of graphite, black slate like mineral and smoke.  Drinking well tonight with lots of pleasure to give.  Best in 10 to 15 and will last 25 plus.

2000 Chateau Monbousquet – Great colour, rich dark ruby hue.  Smoke, black earth, cola, crushed stones, cedar.  Touch boozy.  Very ripe and a bit pushed.  Interesting to try this side by side with the Pavie as they are both owned by Perse and they certainly show the same interest in styles. 

2003 Cos d’Estournel – Very rich colour, dark purple tinged ruby.  Dough, brown butter, cream, mocha, black earth mineral, notes of brush.  Nose is well balanced and pronounced.  Rich in all its components the wine was straying me towards Napa due to how rich it was.  Sublime.  Very sexy and really drinking well tonight.  It’s hard to stay away from these ’03 Bordeaux’s ....just so delicious. 

1998 Henri Bonneau Reserve des Celestins – Uhm, like wow, this stuff I could drink all day...and if I sold my car I probably could...partridge eye in hue, the aromas are very lifted, black pepper, mince meat, kirsch, raisins, figs, Cognac, sous bois....and so concentrated in such beautiful, elegant manor.  Anyone wanna buy a car?

2004 Vina Sastre Pesus – The big bad man from Sastre.  Stylistically speaking we knew this was going to be a monster just by the way the estates more entry wines are made....lots of ripe fruit, creamy browned butter like oak use and a certain chocolate/cherry quality.  This was right off the scale, just a monster.  Huge dripping fruit liquor, it almost felt like chocolate running down your throat.  One guest thought it was Harlan.  Massive wine for people who just can’t get enough.  Best in the cellar for a decade and will last for 30 plus years....

1990 Chateau d’Yquem - Haha...out of full bottle too.  This was oxidized a bit, not enough to detract from the palate, but the nose was muffled.  Sandalwood, smoke, sweet wild mushrooms, apricot preserves, crushed riverbed stone.  Lots of power here...drink whenever you have a chance and as often as possible. 

2002 Weinbach Gewurztraminer Furstentum Cuvee d’Or Quintessnse of Grain Nobles Grand Cru – Just like a pillow made from lychee, apple skin, pear puree and loads of flowers.  Perfectly integrated structure allows for seamless fruit expression.  Thrilling to try for its harmony and confidence.  Drink whenever you have a chance and as often as possible.

1999 Il Paradiso Brunello di Montalcino – Quite clear and showing a touch of age on rim.  Black tea, bergamot, orange peel and backed spice.  Touch of booze.  Drinking well now, but best in 6-8 and will drink well for 10-15 more.

1997 Quintarelli Alzero – a bit of brett here...used well.  The wine should have been a giveaway for its bitter chocolate, figs, and mincemeat personality.  So much power on the palate, tannins are fabulously grainy and so pure.  Almost all Cabernet Franc here....quite unreal.

2004 Alonso del Yerro Maria – Very black colour, almost opaque purple.  Very young.  Black currents, black tea, wine gums and a touch floral.  Youthful palate requires time...best in 10 and will sit for an easy 20.

2000 Chateau Giscours - Bordeaux gaminess, brown rice, saddle leather, anise, current, peach.  Very balanced mouth feel.  Hay, americano, quite floral with notes of dough.  Just lovely to drink as the balance here is fantastic.  Hard to stay away, but another 5 years would be great and we can sit for
15-20 more easily. 

2003 Castello dei Rampolla Vigna d’Alceo – Always so good...deserves more attention on our market I think.  Dark colour, sweet black fruits...almost spicy, graphite, black current, raisins.  One can feel the heat of the vintage here...touch pruney.  Drink now through next 20...this will be interesting to follow due to the vintage.

1997 Chateau Le Fleur – light floral notes, an easy balance to the nose, delicate and pure with cedar, cherry, hint of older leather, coffee grounds, white pepper.  Showing development with tannins softening and acid filling out.  Quite pretty and drinking well.  Should hit a nice plateau soon, best through 2018.

2000 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou – corked......reasons for screwtop?

2003 Guigal La Turque – This has consistently been one of my favourite wines since first trying the
1995 over Chinese food...just the best.  I had this pegged for Syrah from Paso Robles....just a smotheringly huge wine with a juicy concentrated core of sweet black current syrup and lily oil...over ripe yet balanced, baked chocolate cake.  Hedonistic.  Best in 10 to let the fruit evolve...hard to say if it will ever close down...and hard to peg when this monster will lose steam.  Gotta try it. 

2001 Chateau d’Yquem – Who says you can‘t go back to sweet?  What’s better than one bottle of d’Yquem....two bottles of d’Yquem..can you hear The Count laughing in the back ground...oh wait,that’s me...haha.  Just a mind-blowing wine.  Such pure, invigorating botrytis...it practically drips like honey.  Apricot, crushed white stones, peaches, crème brulee, marshmallow.  Acid is powerful, full and extremely integrated.  Just awesome and will age arguably forever.

2003 Chateau Leoville Poyferre – Huge wine with pretty Bordeaux mineral notes tucked underneath layers of black fruits, coffee and new leather.  Great balance on the palate, speaks with class.  Hard to wait...but keep tight...this has yet to even start to blossom, try after 2012 and much much further.  Really very great and for those who bought this on futures ....good job!

2000 Chateau Pichon Longueville – Lots of black fruits here, tell tale Pauillac graphite, toast and black earth notes.  Quite floral and pretty for its size.  Showing well, but needs time to develop.  Try after 2013 and should drink well for 20 plus. 

1999 Miguel Torres Manso de Valasco - Corked.

2005 Tikal Jubila - Sweet, whipping cream, maple, delicious, cinnamon, black current.  Well balanced structure and quite drinkable.  Large and modern.  Needs some time, best in 5 and will sit well past 10.

2006 Mollydooker The Velvet Glove – Opaque color.  Cumin, black pepper, orange peel, cranberry, bergamot.  For a wine to have such a viscosity this is very well balanced and comes together in the mouth with good form.  Sweetness is balanced by curvy acidity and the tannins are handled accurately enough to be structural yet not dominating or drying.  Takes a lot of skill to handle this kind of concentration.  Drink now through 2030.

2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild – If one must go out, go out with Lafite.  This really is a baby and is best left alone for a good while to coax out all the goodness.  But if you can’t wait...we obviously couldn’t....you may find a good shaving of graphite (all over the place really), pure dark floral notes, crisp ripe black currents, delicate cedar, notes of black earth (forest like).  Pure pure pure and very pretty.  Beautiful wine that shows why Lafite is so special.  Try in 7 years to get a taste and try again in 12 to feel the full the power of First Growth action. 

Cheers,
Brad

JULY 16

The Package Deal by Roisin Hutchinson

Everyone’s doing it you know.
Happy Meals, Mail-Order brides, Lunchables, a tank of gas and a six-pack of Coke, 5 strippers and an eight-ball… All fine examples of one-stop shopping and the beauty of convenience.
At Bin 905 we also want to give our customers the option of convenience as well as deliciousness. Following are a few options for you and your friends this summer.

Package 1: The Veuve Cliquot Traveller
For just over 100$ you get two champagne flutes, a bottle of Veuve and a super cute carrying case.  Canary yellow is in this season, and you too can rock this look with your loved one or fellow epicurean at Prince’s Island park. 
Try it, love it.

Package 2: Cheap ‘n’ Easy
A bottle of Gazela Vinho Verde, Artazuri Rose or Lindeman’s Verdelho and two Govino cups.  This combo rocks, (as if cheap’n’easy wasn’t already a promising combination), because the wines are under twenty and under screwcap.  Keep it simple at the lake, the beach, the cabin or the pool with no need for corkscrew or fear or breaking your wine glass.  The Govino cups are made from lab grade plastic, WITHOUT any of that horrible toxic plastic ingredient that has been banned from baby bottles.  The Govino cups are also shaped like those wonderful Riedel O stemless series glasses and even have a little indentation so you know how to hold it.  This is an added feature which enables you to drink even more without dropping your cup.  Put a couple cups and one of the aforementioned bottles in your handbag and you’re ready to go commando!

Package 3:Get one Free!
Any self- respecting social climber should know how to make and, (more importantly), how to pound a solid martini, and still be able to go back to work.  For this segment of our consumer base we have 4 Lara martini glasses for the price of 3. The best part is that this will only cost you 15$! These glasses have elegant stems and are excellent hosts to olives, a twist or our beloved pearl onions. However you like it, but if you ever expect to make it beyond your own social circle you will need to have four of these babies in your cupboard.

Package 4: Dionysian Academics
So you know somthing about wine, and how its made and where it comes from, but you long for the power and respect that only higher learning can bring.  In that case we are able to offer you Robert M. Parker’s Jr. definitive Bordeaux bible for 52 dollars instead of the usual 75.  You can also buy back issues of the Wine Spectator or Gambero Rosso for half off.  Stock pile these babies, pick up 6 bottles for homework and you’ll be impressing your less erudite friends in no time.

Package 5: Your finest ale please!
For those not so impressed with the gifts of the vine, grain may hold a greater pull.  Our resident Frenchman will be hosting a beer tasting with an impressive and varied line up on Friday, the 25th of July.  This is not to be missed and is only 35$.  Holy mead Batman!  35$ could get you four beers including tip at your favourite pub, or you can taste 9 of them at Bin for the same price -AND save 10% on whatever you buy after the tasting!

Needless to say, the highly qualified, experienced and attractive bin employees can invent, wrap and even deliver an infinite number of package deals for any occasion. So come in, taste some wine or beer and see what we can come up with.
May the Meow mix be with you,
Roisin

JUNE 26

Grilled rodent anyone? by Geoff Last

Here is a recent obeservation on my trip to Sonoma County a couple of weeks ago. If Napa Valley were California’s answer to Bordeaux then Sonoma might play the part of Burgundy in that equation. Not really because it produces considerably more Pinot Noir than Napa – which it does – but because it offers a more laid back approach to its wine scene. While tasting a range of Pinot Noirs over dinner at Zazu – a great place to eat in Santa Rosa – a fairly prominent winemaker turned to me and asked if we have gophers in our part of Canada. I informed him that the prairies are teaming with them and he replied, “That’s good, they’re delicious, squirrels too,” he added. Now being the owner of a backyard somewhat over-populated with squirrels I was naturally curious about this remark. Do you just shave them and thrown them on the grill or do parts have to come out? Are there laws against eating varmints? Apparently they need to be skinned and cleaned like any other form of meat and then quickly grilled. In some ways this story serves as an analogy for the differences between Napa and Sonoma; your Napa valley winemakers would never grill a rodent (they don’t go well with Cabernet) but in Sonoma anything goes. I like that about Sonoma, I think I need to drink more wine from this region. Geoff Last

JUNE 20

The Amazing Adventures of… The Hangover by Jeff Jamieson

It was a dark and stormy Saturday morning.

I stumbled into Bin as I always had.  Five minutes late. I was a touch foggy from the previous nights festivities but honestly, I felt somewhat invigorated.  Truth be told I was in rare form.

This feeling would not last long. 

I began walking to the front of the store when it happened.  A thirsty customer had been waiting at the till to pay for a bottle of Gin.  I was eager to help the chap and I was pleased that there was another human being in the city that was thinking about Gin at 11:15AM on a Saturday.

I was in the midst of wrapping the bottle of spirit into lovely red tissue paper when out of the corner of my eye I spotted him.  He had slithered his way passed the counter before I caught a glimpse of his face under his dark hooded sweater.  His eyes were sunken so far back into his head that I was momentarily star-struck, believing that I was in the presence of Skeletor from the wildly popular 1980’s cartoon series “He-Man, and the Masters of the Universe”.  His complexion was that of a piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken with the skin peeled off, beige with a tint of blue.  The odd vein was visible under careful inspection.  As he made a break for the door I noticed two bottles of Grey Goose peeking out from beneath his urine stained clothing.

It was then that I began to feel myself change.  My throat suddenly seemed dry and I began to feel a headache.  My muscles were seizing up and I noticed that my mouth was dry, and pasty.  With every faint beat of my heart I grew more nauseous, and anxious.  I had ceased to be “.  Mildly drunk wine store clerk.” I had changed into something much more powerful and frightening.  I had become… “The Hangover”

The vagrant thief made his way onto the wet pavement of Fourth Street and was heading north at breakneck speed.  I called upon my special “Hangover” powers to assess the situation.

First I used my hyper sensitive “Hanover Hearing” and noticed that his heart was beating much faster then the heart of a normal human.  Could this be some sort of mutation giving him superior oxygen transfer abilities or had his heart just been racing from repeated doses of methamphetamine.  My somewhat numbed “Hangover Deduction Skills” led me to believe it was most likely the latter.

As I made chase I summoned the awesome power of my “Hangover Anger” and hurled insults at the hapless degenerate.  While this most likely cost me speed and energy it was wildly entertaining.

“You can’t run forever!” I yelled as we crossed the Starbucks and made a hard left into the alleyway between the two streets, “You haven’t slept in days, and I have had a solid two and a quarter hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep!” “It’s simple physics!” My “Hanover Logic” was clearly honed on this day.

As we turned north down Fifth Street I could see the degenerates legs begin to crumble underneath him.  It was obvious that four blocks in a full sprint had begun to burn up the last of the energy reserves in his body.  (Hot tip for would-be thieves – A Twix bar, consumed thirty-seven hours before a heist does NOT provide enough sustenance for a prolonged getaway on foot.) Luckily I used my “Hangover Metabolism” power to tap into the energy provided by the pizza I had consumed only four hours earlier.

As the scumbag began to buckle I grabbed him by the sleeve and spun him around.  The escape had taken its toll on the young drug addict.  His face was covered in exhaustion and mucus.  I grabbed the bottles of booze and began to walk back to the store when I heard him ask dejectedly, “Who are you, man?”

I slowly turned to him, so he could see my face.

“Who am I?  I am the regret and the despair.  I am the pain and the suffering.  I am the reason housewives take percocet.  I am the morning after, and you cannot run far enough or fast enough to escape me.  I will find you, and I will make you pay… I am… THE HANGOVER.”

And then I puked.

MAY 31

9/3=3 by Brad Royale

Being a professional wine-peruser I dare say that I have a certain amount of stamina when it comes to bibbing.  Locked down with glass in hand I can steer my way through the obstacles of social distortion with the likes of any meaty-red-nosed jobber…uhmm,.hmm..dammit….I just checked my nose.  A few nights ago I was generously invited to a friends house for a lovely, presumably casual dinner. …side note: the Surgeon General states that along with random cocktails prepared poolside, the act of presuming may also lead to an array of deleterious side effects known as premeditated mass consumption….dinner was not at all casual.  The wines opened for dinner were all exceptional and there was a lot of them…dinner lasted until, had I had an office job, the morning office hours.  All of this hullabaloo aside (or perhaps on your bookshelf for later reference) there was three of us dinning that night and below is a little overview of what ensued….

My gracious hosts prepared a fanciful table including a lovely grape, walnut and blue cheese salad, a lovingly prepared carpaccio and racks of perfectly seared lamb…glowing…and well in tune with the wines of the evening…. all of which were more than plentiful and extremely generous!

NV Egly Ouriet Blanc des Noirs Grand Cru: Firm and fruity on the nose showing the more aristocratic side of this style.  Very ripe and quite vinous.

2004 Georges Mugneret Chambolle Musigny Les Feusselottes 1er Cru: Surprisingly ripe for the vintage and offering wonderful drinking this night.  Fine tannins and a wonderful bouquet.  Starting to develop and shows us why vintage charts are garbage.

2005 Anne Gros Chambolle Musigny La Combe d’Orveau: This was a first for me.  The famed Anne Gros estate is one of the hardest bottles to come by (Thanks!).  I was surprised by the approachability here, gentle caressing tannins, juicy acidity…this just got better and better.

2005 Jacques Prieur Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru: I’ve had this on a couple occasions recently and have always been struck in a blind situation whether to blurt out brand new tight white Bordeaux or Grand Cru white burgundy…always stick with your gut.  Super young and requires one of two things, a cold cellar for 8-10 years or a reeeaaal long decanting…. beautiful wine. 

1995 Chateau Margaux: Uhm, wow.  Just so freaking pure…like the real essence of stone and smoke and black current and so well balanced in the mouth, a real harmony here between acid and tannin.  The nose one could smell for some time.  The 1995’s are really starting to show their guts now.  This will sit for another long while, 15-25, but for those who want to check out what’s been in the cellar all this time go for it. 

1988 Chateau Pichon Longueville: A touch of cork here couldn’t keep this wine from delivering the tell tale signs of graphite and black earth of fine Pauillac.  Steadfast in the mouth with beautiful integration of pretty much everything…Divino has some on the list right now, get it before I do….

2003 Chateau Pichon Longueville: Such a fun follow up to the ’88.  Showed its breeding well considering the freakishness of the vintage.  Huge fruit profile and really well rounded…hard not to drink this now and a little difficult to say how long it will go…ball park here…drink now and for 20-ish more.

1998 Chateau Pavie: This was always a highly touted vintage for the right bank and this bottle showed all the volume, voluptuousness and sex appeal that critics bantered on and on about…not quite the monster that this wine has become….more restraint and with lovely purity.

1986 Chateau d’Yquem: Good lord, GIANT!  Chateau d’Yquem in any situation is a good one and any d’Yquem with age on it is a better situation.  Good lord!  If you could make an angel food cake molten and pour it down a nectarine mountain that was spotted with boulders of cumin, sandalwood and white chocolate and then strap me to it you would have an idea of what took place in my mouth. 

Cheers,
Brad

MAY 14

Joe Likes Wine….I like Joe…. by Brad Royale

I was honored to be invited to Joe Mathes’s house a few Sundays before last for a little blind tasting with some friends.  The long standing charismatic front man at La Chaumiere has long been known for his passion for wine and I was excited for a chance to check out some cellar selections that he had for surely stashed away long ago.  The cellar at La Chaumiere (and Joe’s house) has a long standing reputation for providing their guests with an excellent array (and stock) of older selections....always a favourite of mine for masterfully aged Bordeaux. 

Rarely have I ever entered a house and asked, “Are these gazelles?” They weren’t.  Not to my surprise I really have no idea what a gazelle looks like.  I think Joe said they were either Oryx or Impala’s...maybe both...maybe not at all....I don’t really know, there was so many of them.  With my head crammed and cranked in all directions to take in the animal show I almost fell down the stairs.  Joe hunts.  Joe hunts a lot, and a lot of different things...things like zebras, lions, bears, wolves...and I think he’s killed everything with horns....if you’re reading this and you have horns, Joe is probably hunting you right now....I would just offer him your horns and ask for peace...then maybe run.  Needless to say the tasting environment was awesome!  Heads everywhere.  There is one living animal in Joe’s basement, a thirty-year-old turtle.  I asked Joe when he was going to shoot the turtle....he’s not....in hindsight I should have known this...turtles don’t have horns. 

The wines were all served blind.  I adore blind tastings.  They eliminate the ego of label with tasters and create a pure, honest description of what they taste.  Everything comes from inside the taster, lots of passion and pure energy, most of all honesty.  Only when the label is uncovered does the taster have the opportunity to remark on what the wine “should” taste like.  All in all the group fared really well with their guesses...for the sake of my delicate ego I’ll forgo printing my own blind guesses.  Here is what we tasted.

I’ll make a side note here before we begin that Joe graciously provided us with unlimited amounts of delicious, beautifully prepared antelope.  This enabled me on several occasions to say, “Please pass the antelope.” I loved that. 

1999 Bollinger Grand Annee - great breeding here, well defined by house style.  Drinking well this night.

2005 Jacques Prieur Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru - Really compressed here, super young….delicious however.  Needs 8-10 years to open up. 

2006 Chateau de Beaucastel Roussanne Vieilles Vignes - Had the good fortune of tasting a week prior too....good lord, just unbelievably delicious.

2003 Bouchard Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Cailles 1er Cru - Shows the vintage well, dense and quite ripe.  Lots of dark earth and power here. 

1979 Chateau Leoville Poyferre - Impeccably aged.  One of my favourite houses and this showed why.  Lots of smoke, graphite, sweet cherry and earth.

1976 Chateau Brane-Cantenac - Such a treat to try, showed extremely well.  Great storage.

1986 Vega Sicilia Unico - Really rich, super balanced and quite powerful.  Staying power for years.

2000 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanee Beaux-Monts 1er Cru - Always great to try Domaine Leroy wines.  Showed her characteristic power and richness. 

2000 Chateau Trotanoy - Superb power.  Drinking well now and will last another 20 easy.

2001 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve - Extremely rich, well done.  Will make super old bones.

1998 Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de Cadettes - served out of magnum...yes!  Round, supple and drinking really well.  Best in another 10.

2003 Chateau Angelus - Monster wine with so much breeding.  Dark black minerals.  Best in 10-15.

2003 Chateau d’Yquem - Beautiful wine with so much power, drips with botrytis...again, giant!

Cheers,
Brad

MAY 08

Born To Kill by Karen Ralph

“Born to Kill” is the name of a song by The Damned recorded back in 1977. I’m sure that a lot of you old punk rockers as well as younger folk who, thanks to magic of IPods “sounds like” feature remember or know who The Damned were. Their single “New Rose” was the first UK punk single. It beat the SexPistols. My boyfriend, Ribsy, got into punk at 18. It got him kicked out of his top-40 band! He bought the album, “Damned Damned Damned” which has “Born to Kill” on it. I was drinking Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) in the tub and Ribsy was blasting the record. I thought they were singing “Chenin Blanc! Chenin Blanc!” and I got really excited, thinking this awesome punk band had planted a subversive wine reference into one of their songs. I convinced myself of this by thinking, “Well, they are from England, and they probably partied in France.” I later learned that their first gig WAS in France, playing with a bunch of other bands (along with Nick Lowe. They got into a fight on the bus- he had long hair- and tore each other’s shirts off. He ended up producing the record). Later, glass in hand, I said, “I can’t believe they’re singing “Chenin Blanc, Chenin Blanc”!  Ribsy looked at me with dismay and told me they were singing “Said I’m born, Know I’m born to kill, Yeah I’m born, I’m born to kill!”
It is a damn good record, as good as the wine that they SHOULD have been singing about. We just recieved about eight new Vouvray’s and I am in my glory. I love Vouvray! Earthy, mushroomy, delicate, delicious. Chenin Blanc! Chenin Blanc! 

MAY 05

Lies of the land by Roisin Hutchinson

There are two texts out there on the global multimedia autobahn right now.  One is a book titled, “In defense of Food” by Michael Pollan and the other is a British Documentary by Molly Dineen called “The Lie of the Land”.  Though both of these texts explore the growing disparity between ourselves and our food they both illuminate our current political and dietary identity crisis.  the distance between is and our food continues to grow exponentially and most people don’t seem to be terribly concerned.  Probably because most people aren’t aware of it.
In Alberta, everytime we go to the Safeway, the Co-op, Community Natural Foods or wherever we go for groceries, we are reminded of the geographical distance between us and our food.  Bananas , tomatoes, apples, oranges and avocados, from Chile, Argentina, Florida, and California remind us where they come from with their friendly little stickers.  Of course we have to buy our fruits and most of our vegetables from these other places because Alberta is the land of beef and oil, not milk and honey.  Aside from your usual meat and dairy culprits, the sotry is the same in England and most of America.  The point is that it is cheaper for us to import produce from South America than it is to encourage our own farmers to grow it.  “The Lie of the Land” examines this political, ethical and social dilemma in detail in her documentary.
“In Defense of Food” explores how our the act of eating has been transformed into a multibillion dollar industry focused on our habits and the deconstruction of food.
Although the issue of food, diet and politics is much more complex and complicated it is important to be aware of how our buying and our eating habits have a ripple effect on the world around us.  Everyone is aware the food prices are increasing and there are potential bread and grain shortages as a direct result of government manipulation of agriculture through subsidies.  This gives us all the more reason to maybe try making our own bread, ( which Ralphy can now add to her extensive list of culinary accomplishments), or seek out local bakers.  This increased focus on local producers may not necessarily reduce bread costs, but will mean you are eating less preservatives and can be more certain of the quality of what you are eating. 
Though we may not be able to buy local when it comes to wine, we can always focus on biodynamic producers ( Kreydnweiss, Zind-Humbrecht, Nigl, etc.), and ask about smaller production wineries that are less likely to use copious amounts of preservatives and chemicals in their wines than the dionysian behemoths.
Don’t misunderstand me - I hate patchouli oil, loathe incense and understand that your friendly “organic producer” can still use copper sulphite sprays and other harmful chemical concoctions, but this doesn’t mean we can’t all strive to make more health and environmentally conscious decisions when we shop, drink and eat.
You can read more about, and even watch Dineen’s documentary on http://www.channel4.com/blogs/page/fourdocs. Michael Pollan was on CBC"s The Hour recently and you can read the introduction to his book at http://www.michaelpollan.com to get more of an idea what he’s talking about.

I love sausage and grilled flesh as much as the next Bin 905 gal, but this doesn’t mean I’ll take home any old salami.

APRIL 25

If I Were A Cat by Karen Ralph

If I were a cat I would like a big, masculine, hearty Barolo to chase the butter snack that I had while cleaning myself on the kitchen table. It’s awesome when the cover is left off of the butter dish. While the humans are puttering in the kitchen, but the grilled salmon is resting unattended on the counter, a delicious Marcel Kreydenweiss, like the Clos Du Val with it’s concentrated minerality and lime notes is such a perfect pairing that it makes my hair stand on end. The crunchy, smoky skin and rich, fatty fish flesh make my eyes close with delight… but wait! Is that watermelon? I LOVE watermelon! Licking it all over, it doesn’t even look like I touched it. It really is lovely and refreshes my kitty palate. I don’t usually drink Canadian, but something like See Ya Later Pinot Gris, drank outside with a some fruit and cheese while sitting in a sunny spot is divine. I really, really like cheese! The soft ones in particular, like a triple cream Compte, paired with Champagne, tulip leaves and stems and some grass… it makes me purr with delight. I do love sweets and I can’t begin to say enough about Fois Gras, so Hello! Leaping onto the table, almost right into the Fois Gras and Sauternes?! Meow meow meow!!!! That is what you call luck! The trick is to just eat enough that it isn’t missed, the humans might be a little suspicious that it looks smaller and a bit more, well, gnawed upon then when it was put on the table, but I’m now back in my chair, licking my whiskers and planning a quick nap so that when the wine is flowing and the food is unattended, I’ll be ready for another course. 

APRIL 22

The more the merrier…if your name is Karen by Karen Kho

Sometimes you just can’t get enough of a good thing.  There are now 3 Karens working at Bin 905.  We temporarily lost one but quickly replaced her with another Karen.  As one of the 3 Karens I fully endorse hiring a few Karens of your own to help strengthen your small business or perhaps add an extra hand around the house.  We’re industrious, hard-working and sassy, Susans or Marys we certainly are not! 
Upside of multiple Karens at Bin 905:  Anytime you call you’ll always get a Karen
Downside of multiple Karens at Bin 905: We get into mischief when left alone.  Kind of like Gremlins.  Don’t feed us with booze after midnight.

Which Karen is right for you?
Here’s a quick bio of each:
Karen Ralph: Quick witted, excellent cook, drinks mostly French wine (but I’ve seen her chug rye straight from the bottle) Her Specialty: Excellent Party Planner (ask her what she can do with a turkey and a bottle of Baby Duck)
Karen Kho:  Healthy, adventurous appetite, drinks globally but loves the old world (and has also been known to drink rye from the bottle) Her Specialty: Putting Together a Case of Wine in less than 10 minutes (she also thinks she is taller than she really is)
Karen Lyons:  Newest member, (yet to drink rye a la Karen style....or has she?) Red Seal Chef, Restaurant Industry Pro, Her Specialty:  Wine and Food Pairing

APRIL 22

Say it loud and proud…..and correctly by Karen Kho

This is not wine snobbery.  Honestly.  Consider it a public service announcement.  For any further clarifications please feel free to call and ask your local wine geek.  Except for Brad.  He’s from Saskatchewan. Haha, sorry Bradley, I had to get a dig in there at some point.....

FRANCE
Syrah: pronounce Sear- AH NOT Shir-Ah
Chabis: pronounce Sha-blee NOT Chab-liss
Puligny-Montrachet: pronounce Poo-lin-eee Mohn-ra-shay NOT Pull-ig-knee Montra-Chet
Pinot Gris: pronounce Pee-know Gree NOT Pee-not Griz
Viognier: pronounce Vee-On-Yeah NOT Vee-Og-Knee-er

ITALY......side note: Italian: pronounce It-al-ee-an NOT Eye-tal-ee-an
Amarone: pronounce Am-Ah-Row-Nee NOT Am-Ah-Rown
Chianti: pronounce Kee-On-Tee NOT Chee-Ant-ee or Kee-Ant-ee
Sangiovese: pronounce San-Gee-Oh-Vey-Sea NOT San-Gee-Oh-Vase
Valpolicella: pronounce Val-Poll-i-Chell-Ah NOT Vallee-Polli-Chell-oh (that one seriously kills me)
Brunello di Montalcino: pronounce Brew-nell-Oh Dee Mon-Tal-Chee-No NOT Brew-nell-Oh Dee Mon-Tal-Sea-No
Barolo NOT BAROLIO!

SPAIN
Tempranillo: pronounce Tem-Prah-Nee-Oh NOT Tem-Prah-Nill-Oh
Rioja: pronounce Ree-Oh-Hah NOT Ree-Oh-Jaw
Priorat: pronounce Pree-Or-Rat NOT Preye-Or-Rat
Albarino: pronounce Al-Bah-Reen-Yo NOT Al-Bah-Rhino

ALSO
Riesling: pronounce Ree-Sling NOT Rise-Ling
Gruner Veltliner: pronounce Groo-Ner Velt-Leaner NOT Grun-Er Velt-Liner

Sorry folks, I just needed to get that off of my chest.  Happy Drinking!  KK

APRIL 19

Self Medication by Karen Kho by Karen Kho

This week I fell down a flight of stairs and sprained my ankle. (no, I was not drunk) While I was propped up on my couch nursing my wounds and feeling sorry for myself I found solace in a few tasty bottles of wine.  By my third glass I was convinced that I had found a magic painkiller.  As a result, I now fully endorse self medication through French wine and countless hours of bad television.  Sure I’m still limping around and the nagging pain has yet to disappear from my ankle; but at least I’m caught up on my celebrity gossip with a belly full of delicious vino.

My cure for a nasty spill: Take two glasses of any of the following and call me after Dr. Phil

2005 Domaine de la Ferte Givry- great value from Burgundy
2004 Chateau de Chamirey Mercurey Rouge- delicious Pinot Noir, goes well with grilled cheese sandwiches and Oprah
2005 Alain Graillot Saint Joseph- beautiful spicey, floral Syrah from the Northern Rhone
2004 Sancet Blanc- funky, cheap and cheerful white that has become a new staff favorite
1998 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape (thanks Lorin!)
2006 Alphonse Mellot ‘la Moussiere’ Sancerre- I was propped up in a corner drinking this at the store today
Domaine du Minot Sparkling Cider- drink this as often as you can this summer
1 stiff Hendricks Gin and Tonic- take immediately after the fall, preferabley made by Bryan Childs

APRIL 07

What to drink on a Monday? by Karen Ralph

For the 14th time this year it’s Monday.  Typically, Mondays are pretty slow at Bin, and fewer customers come into the store.  Presumably, they are at home recovering from a gruellingly slow start to the week and trying to ready themselves for yet another working week.  This probably includes making thier lunch for the next day, ironing, laundry, the weekly bath or flossing or whatever they need to do to make it through the next 5 days.  More importantly, most people are abstaining from the drink, fearing a hangover for the next few days or worse. Ultimately, everyone is at home trying not to upset the routine for the rest of the week.
Poppycock!  What better day to drink than Monday?
After all, it is the most difficult day to drag yourself out of bed and into the office/sweatshop/ bordello. All the more reason to thank the powers that be that it is over.  This is the day you are in genuine need of a treat to lift you up and give you a reason to go on.  What better to lift the spirits on a cool April evening than some Calamari and Ojai rose?  Or a baguette, spicy bruscehtta, and Argiano Rosso di Montalcino? Perhaps a big juicy ribeye, and a few glasses of Clos Martinet Priorat?
Better yet, a bottle of Bruno Paillard, or Bellavista Vintage Rose and a bath filled with bubbles? Truly the possibilities are endless, and why not treat yourself on the day you need it most?
Of course Mondays are a challenge, but we only make it worse when we punish ourselves by not drinking on this most prosaic of days. 
So, here’s my advice: make Monday your bitch with a glass of white Burgundy and if you feel guilty you have the rest of the bottle.

Keep drinking junior woodchucks, and Merry Monday.

p.s. Monday is also a great warm up for any midweek debauchery you have planned.

APRIL 07

Spring Party Wine by Karen Ralph

Spring is here, complete with the usual four seasons a day that we get here in Calgary. This morning on my way to work it was hot and sunny, way above the -1 that the CBC had announced. I was roasting as I walked down 17th Ave in my heavy winter coat and scarf with my large heavy bag and yoga may hanging off of my back. By noon it had clouded over, by 3:00 it was snowing, a full-on blizzard and by 3:30 the sun was out and it was a once again a beautiful spring day. Who knows how the rest of the day will go. I know that warm weather parties are on the horizon, and the wine should be lighter, fun, food friendly and easily approachable. And relatively inexpensive. Like about $15. to $25. a bottle. My favorite spring party features fresh oysters, grilled leg of lamb, herb roasted baby potato’s, asparagus, a light green salad, lemon and blueberry tarts, fresh strawberries and variety of cheeses. I like to start with Prosecco or if you want to spend more, Champagne or Bellavista. (Champagne style, but from Italy) In the spirit of sticking to a budget, go with Prosecco. Nino Franco or Canella are both under $25. and if you really wanted to save money you could even pour a Cava (Sparkling from Spain) sweetened with a splash of Cassis. I love bubbles and I have happily drank them through the entire meal, but many of my friends prefer still wines and for them I like to have a nice Sancerre on hand, French Sauvignon Blanc. Lemony, medium bodied with zesty minerality and well balanced fruit and acidity it is the perfect pairing with fresh oysters. Muscadet is also a great, inexpensive choice. At about $20. a bottle it is steely, loaded with minerals and flint. Your shellfish will never taste better. Prefering lighter styles of red wines with lamb I almost always choose a Cote du Rhone. Perrin & Fils Cairanne Cotes Du Rhone at $22. a bottle is a favorite. A blend of grenache, mourvedre and syrah, this wine has great structure. Rich, full bodied with redberry and dark cherry notes it is delicious with the rosemary roasted lamb and potato’s. I also love a red or white Burgundy with lamb, but that blows the budget. With the cheese plate and lemon tarts I personally prefer to go back to bubbles, but also have an Italian Vin Santo, a bottle of port, scotch and some heavier bodied Spanish reds that are grenache based for the salty robust flavours of Manchega, Stilton, and whatever else my local cheesemonger felt fit to sell me. Then it’s time to set up the band, break out the tequila and dance off some dinner. Spring is here!!!

APRIL 06

1997 Meo, a bubble bath and the Vienna Symphony… by Brad Royale

While certainly being a manly man, the staff at Bin will back me up here....I do have a beard now after all and sometimes I do look under the hood of the company truck with very certain hmmss, ahhhss and other noises.  This manly stature aside, I must confess that I really like drinking wine in the bath tub.  A certain warm relaxation occurs and the this-that-and-other-thing of the day seems to melt away only leaving me, some bubbles and a glass of wine.

Good fortune came my way while in Vosne Romanee.  The wonderful Jean Nicolas Meo, so kindly, gave me a bottle of his 1997 Vosne Romanee to drink at my leisure, or to do really with what I thought appropriate...had he envisioned a bubble bath with the bearded one tucked neatly inside, probably not.  Either way, good fortune.  The 1997’s are drinking really well right now for anyone so keen as to pick these up when released.  Now, if one recalls the 1997 vintage, it was a warm one, with a certain variability to the quality of what ended up in the bottle.  Winemakers were quoted as saying it was a “Californian” vintage, with wines of high sugar levels and soft acid profiles.  While these elements in Burgundy can be quite attractive, it does take an experienced hand to bring out the purity of the land.  After all, we are not dealing with the California fruit here; only a resemblance of style, in order for things to still be Burgundy, the terroir must dominant.  Lucky that Meo is an expert when it comes to handling such vintage characteristics, one might even say that 1997 played into the “Meo” style of wine, that is to say, lush, vibrant, power driven wines with strict adherence to balance.  This 1997 in my glass right now would suggest such a statement.  The wine is developed, maturing in the structure, perhaps even hitting a plateau here.  The fruit is pure black cherry with smokey notes (forest campfire) and lots of raw stony black earth mineral.  Well composed and beautiful right this very minute.  These wines were not available on the market when released, Bin didn’t start to import Meo-Camuzet until the 2000 vintage (bloody delicious now as well).  However, anyone who bought the wines abroad could, if they wanted to, start to get into these fantastic bottles and be pleasantly, maybe even wonderfully, surprised with how lovely they are right now. 

The bath tub, getting cold now, me too.  I have a date with the Symphony at the Kursalon and one mustn’t be late for the Symphony when in Vienna. 

Bubbles and Beards....

Brad.

APRIL 04

Four shirts lighter…Schnitzel…and 5 star Vienna…. by Brad Royale

Managing to melt my only direct link to the outside world in a wall in a hotel room in Germany…they were really nice about it….I have recovered with the help of the ever so taught Austrians and their firm grasp of what I should be doing right NOW!  Thanks to the wonderful and extremely efficient staff of Le Meridien in Vienna (a bad ass “BAwLeR” hotel as the French guy would say)… I HAVE POWER!  Haha, that made me laugh. 
I’ll have more thorough notes in the weeks ahead, but here is an overview of where I’ve been and who has now barred me from their cellars….just kidding, they love me!
Since the melt down I’ve been in Champagne, where Jimmy (Domaine Wines)and I did some very serious research into the growing grower (sounds weird doesn’t it) Champagne market…more on this later….really we did!  Diebolt-Valois and Gimmonet were pure expressionists in their own right, leading drinkers from the glossy pages of Vanity Fair to real life drinking experiences.  Larmandier Bernier the next morning was pure and concentrated.  We even found a new house that may make a splash into the market, Janisson, who was so freakishly concerned with consistency and quality it made me blush!  And by the way anyone who can find a bottle of Selosse….drink it…pure genius!  Alsace was brilliant and somewhat nerve wrecking as I had an appointment with Oliver Humbrecht…he is very tall and so very intense he can melt the wax off a candle…through shear intensity!  Marc Kreydenwiess was a great contrast to Zind-Humbrecht in terms of style, but not ideals.  Both of these producers master their terriors and deliver intrinsic mineral pureness in everything they do….note to bibbers, Divino currently has the Kreydenwiess Riesling on by the glass…get it while you can, it’s like drinking liquid minerals from some guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who lives in Andlau who makes this stuff with his dad. 
A travel through the Mosel made me a much wiser man who really does stand to question why anyone would work these vineyards…they are pretty much vertical and made of rock…rock, not soil, rock!  It gets cold and rainy, even snowy, and these angels of wine who make this stuff persevere in all of this as if it’s natural.  And of course it is, to them, and thank God.  If someone had to explain to the “new guy” what his first day on the job was going to be like when first looking at the Mosel, no wine would ever be made in the Mosel.  The vineyards here made me grasp for breath as one can only do when one has to stretch his neck so far back to see to the incline of these “bergs”.  Stunning.  The Nahe was new to me and what a better way to get aquainted with an area than to see the super cult super star of the region…in this case, the mighty Helmut Dönnhof.  These wines I have seen on many a three star restaurant and have drunk a few with a friend collector from Vancouver, but oh my, these wines destroyed me!  So rich, so pure, so genius, so outrageously delicious I will say with whole hearted certainty that these wines will bring any person to love something they hated yesterday, they will make one think about why flowers smell so good, they will make one eat spinach, they will make one dance in an elevator all by themselves, they will make one laugh out loud while in the middle of a meeting regarding something very serious….you get the point.  Lucky for us a local wunderbar importer has picked them up and soon, oh so sweetly soon, you’ll have these morsels of deliciousness prancing on your tongue.  Sell something if you have to, just get these wines!  On a more humble note they also have four of my shirts.  Weird, yes, odd, for sure.  I was in a bit of a hurry to get into my road trip to Austria from Germany and in such a fever; I left my clothes in the hotel I was staying at.  They, while extremely hospitable, decided not to deal with my laundry and as such forwarded them to one of the world’s greatest wine minds to deal with….uhm, really…yes, Brad.  So now while awaiting our allocation of some of the finest Riesling to be had in the universe, we are also awaiting the lovely yellow flower printed shirt Brad bought in San Francisco and had hoped to wear in Vienna…some things you have to wait for I guess. 
Austria is just some place any wine lover who loves soils and aspects and valleys and hills and everything to do with vineyard specifics must come to.  Mineral purity and power combined; only perhaps in Burgundy does one get such a gratifying experience from knowing what is where and why it is…..why it is just what it is and why it makes it just so.  The Terraces here might make the Portuguese jealous and while not as steep as the Mosel, just as intense.  The power of Pichler matched against the almost absurd consistency of Knoll.  Prager with an aristocratic like hold on things (pure Grand Cru) to the crystalline pureness of Hirtzburger and the dedicated, truthful wines of Nigl.  As said before, if you’re not drinking Austrian wine..then really…what are you drinking? 
More to come in the weeks ahead…… the moist tender insides of a finely fried Schnitzel have arrived and my bottle of Blaufrankisch will not drink itself….I must attend to the pork….

From Europe with love (and Schnitzel)

Brad.

APRIL 01

Ooooh La La…This, I Don’t Know…. by Karen Ralph

I grew up in the ‘70’s, in BC, on my parents’ farm in the Peace River area (half an hour West of Dawson Creek). It was beautiful and a lot of hard work. For the most part, we lived the 100 mile diet, simply because that is what was available. There was, and still is, a big garden with a couple of acres devoted to the potato. Digging and bagging them in the fall, with the cold wind blowing dirt in our eyes and up our noses, and in spite of the chilly weather still managing to get stung by the occasional hornet, turned me off of spuds until I was in my late 20’s. My parents have always encouraged bee-keepers to put their hives on our land in exchange for honey, and in those days, as well as the usual assortment of cows, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, dogs, cats and pigeons, we also had 2000 sheep. During the mid summer after seeding and before harvest my parents would invite the neighbours and have a big summer BBQ.  This would require a trip to town to stock up on Baby Duck, Calona Rose, (with a C and a handle), Heidelberg beer, because the Big Three breweries went on strike every summer, lots of rye, especially the Five Star and Silk Tassel variety, and some sort of blended scotch, like Haig & Haig Pinch. A pit would be dug and filled with willow, apple and cherry wood, burned down to the coals and then a lamb that had slaughtered the day before would be skewered onto a home made rotisserie and the bbq would begin. As farmers, we had a large, fully equipped, heavy duty mechanic shop which would be cleaned up and the party would take place there. After a few drinks someone would be swinging on the chain- hoist and dancing and revelry would ensue. At midnight the lamb would be removed from the coals, carried down to the shop, still on the skewer, and carved. Grampa always made bannock and there were green salads and roasted potatoes. If the Baby Duck hadn’t exploded because it had been forgotten in the freezer, it would be popped, downed quickly, and it was back to rye. The food and wine pairings weren’t perfect, or even recommended, but the quality of the lamb and produce was so exceptional that it more then made up for the sugary fizz of the Duck and the flat acid of the rose. Those parties were about the celebration of summer, of being together with family and friends, and the wine played a very minor role. I remember the smell of the roasted lamb, running through dewy early morning grass as the sun was coming up, the dogs sharking around for lamb bones, and Mom bringing everyone up to the house for breakfast before sending them home.
When I have a party I want the wines to be good, but not always to be the focus. In this business it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that generally, most people don’t drink the crazy wines that we get to try on a weekly basis, so for parties I try and find wines that are user friendly. Wine should not only enhance and elevate the moment, it should also be versatile enough to take a supporting role when required.
Next blog: more on my favorite party wines, and which ones have been the biggest successes.

APRIL 01

The choice at what cost? by Sylvain Courel

I remembered being as frustrated as a frenchman can be looking at the price of wine on Calgary’s wine store shelves. In particular those 20 dollars bottles that you find for less than 5 euros in supermarket, medium but consistent quality, Paul Zinck riesling from Alsace would be a good example.
In the mean time, I was very pleased to discover such a wide variety of wine that I never met before. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Australia, United States, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Chile, South Africa… even Hungary and Greece are represented in BIN!

Only a few stores in France sell a wide range of international wines, LAVINIA in la Madeleine, Paris, would be THE PLACE to see, schedule 2 to 4 hours of your free time when you’re there and check it out! This store allows its customer to enjoy any bottles at the restaurant (on the 3rd floor) at the shelf price, introducing a wine list of over 10000 labels.

So back to Calgary where the price of booze is one of the highest in North America, what’s best for you? Drinking always wine from your country or being able to switch as your mood swings? What about canadian wine everyday? It would be so nice, NOT! Cheers!

MARCH 31

Banff…. by Karen Ralph

Brad is writing from Europe, I’m writing from Calgary, Alberta, after returning from an overnight trip to Banff. (Pronounced Banfff-fff.) We all jet-set in different ways, and ours is less jet, more trek, as in we walk everywhere. This is because we decided not to get a car due to environmental concerns, lack of parking and we live close to everything that we need, so it isn’t vital. Being wheel free does pose a few difficulties because Calgary wasn’t designed with walking in mind, but we manage and sometimes, like this week-end, we say the hell with it, rent a car and drive to Banff. It’s only about an hour away, but a world apart from the noise and stress of the city. We usually try and stay at Buffalo Mountain or Emerald Lake Lodge, but my boyfriend Ribsy’s band were playing at The St. James Gate, and they were given a free room located right above the bar. The band room. This allows all of the band members to take advantage of a bar tab because they don’t have to drive home at 2:30 in the morning through a blizzard, which is what we drove through to get there. Arriving, we found a parking spot and headed into the alley to yell up at the back window because the bass player was already there, laying on a bed watching the hockey game. The back alleys of Banff might be in a beautiful setting but they smell just as bad as any other alley in the world that is festooned with dumpsters full of restaurant garbage. Eventually we got a bar manager to let us in and drop off our sleeping bags and pillows. Bedding is provided, but who knows what critters might be lurking in them. We decided to go for sushi, so just walked out the door, around the corner and walked up the stairs to the Sukiyaki House. Banff has a lot of sushi restaurants, but this is one that I usually go to with my brother and I have fond memories of good times that have been had there. The server was friendly, it was busy, but we didn’t feel rushed and it wasn’t overly expensive. I ordered a small bottle of Yoshi No Gawa organic sake ($29.) to go with my red tuna sashimi and negatoro roll. Served chilled, the sake was fairly light bodied, clear in colour and had a slightly oily mouth feel. It was delicate and had notes of dried apricote and fresh quince. It was delicious. I also love a Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer or some such Alsace blend with sushi, but the list was limited as was our time frame so we finished and paid the bill. Once out on the street, we walked up Banff Ave, stopped at the famous Welches’ candy store, bought some sugary treats and headed to the Cascade Hotel to see if we could have a quick glass of Prosecco before Ribsy had to play. Unfortunately, the Cascade Hotel closed its old bar and is now home to Tony Roma’s. We headed down a side street and saw a wooden entrance with a warm, welcoming glow. It was The Maple Leaf Restaurant. Walking up, we asked if we could sit at the bar and have a drink, we were welcomed in, headed up the stairs and given drink menus. The two bartenders were really friendly. The only bubbles on the menu was Pares Balta Cava at $8 something a glass, so that is what I ordered. Ribsy doesn’t drink before he plays so he just had a sparkling water. We gave the bartenders some of our candies, asked for the bill and headed for the St. Jams Gate. The bar was filling up when we got there but Danny the bass player had saved a band-side table. Ribsy went to finish setting up his gear and I ordered a pint of Keith’s. It was cold, refreshing and went down quickly. Dustin, the singer and guitar player and his girlfriend Whitney had arrived, so the drinks just kept coming. The bar was packed with Irish people from Ireland and the Irish were in fine form. The ones we talked to said they were here to ski, and that the snow in Banff blows the snow in Swiss Alps away. They also prefered Banff to Whistler, saying that while Whistler was lovely, Banff was less expensive, less pretentious, and you not only get the best snow in the world, you also get the sun. The band started playing an instrumental, “Sissy Strut” followed by a Dire Straits song, “So Far Away.” The older crowd knew all the words and many were singing along. Along with the groups of sozzled Brits and Irish, packs of children raced up and down. The St. James Gate license allows children, so parents were able to bring them into the pub while they watched the band and got their drink on. The kids who ranged in age from 5 to 8 and few older ones, probably about 10 to 13 yrs. were having a great time, learning new words and dancing around the floor when they weren’t running in a feral pack through the bar. The beer kept flowing, there was a pause for a round of fiery, raw, tequila, and more beer. Nachos, mini yorkies, and some sort of lobster/spinch/feta dip arrived and was eaten. It was now time for the highlight of the third set… a cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” and in true Will Farrel style, they brought out the cowbell. Whitney and I started playing it, but were set upon by two zealous cowbell wannabes who actually scratched Whitney in their Cowbell Fever. We relenquished the prized bell and they immediately stopped playing it and started posing with it for pictures. Ribsy yelled into the mic, “If you’ve got it, you’ve gotta PLAY it!”, so they lamely whacked away out of time until the song ended. We were all quite giddy as they played their last song for the night. We got in a final round and talked to Dia and Gord from Ireland, who were arguing about whether they were going to make it snowboarding in the morning. I would say they didn’t, but what do I know. We retired to the luxury suite above the bar. It isn’t a bad room as far as band rooms go. It has a kitchen, complete with glasses stuck to the shelves, a sticky floored bathroom with a lovely, fluffy, emerald green toilet lid cover, four single beds, a TV that works and a fan that doesn’t. It faces South into the alley. Look down and you see dumpsters with cooks in grubby aprons smoking next to them. Look up and you see beautiful mountains. It was night and we were having too much fun, so we closed the blinds and unpacked the bottle of Fiano Di Avellino, Dei Feudi Di San Gregorio, wine glasses and corkscrew that we had brought from home. This wine is 100% Fiano do Avellino. Hand harvested, a pale, straw gold colour, on the nose it is it is floral, with notes of honey, sweet clover and mead. On the palate it is floral and flinty, medium bodied, dry and elegant. This wine pairs well with lighter style dishes such as chicken and grilled vegetables. I can say that after a night of drinking beer and eating pub grub, this wine is refreshing and uplifting and it gave us a second wind. We partied into the early hours and finished the evening with salt water toffee and hard candies before crawling into our sleeping bags and passing out. Salut! 

MARCH 31

Just say no ! by Roisin Hutchinson

Just say no to Sauvignon!
Dearest customers, please do not panic.  Bin will still sell New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc this spring and summer, and Kim Crawford, Cloudy Bay and Oyster Bay are doing well as ever.  The production of mutant gooseberry sauvignon should not be affected by any housing slump or credit crunch.
All I want to do is encourage you to leave the sauvignon Matrix and awaken your palate to the delicious reality of other white wines.
Although Sauvignon Blanc has a history to recommend it, your palate must look to the future. Sauvignon blanc is one of the two grapes permitted in Sauternes and white Haut-Brion, ( two completely different wines made from the same type of grapes, but equally expensive...), gives us the lemony elegance of Sancerre and Menetou- Salon, and is Didier Daguenau’s clame to sinewy, candied citrusy fame.
Most of us overlook or simply do not know where Sauvignon Blanc comes from or what it can do, because we are stuck in Middle Earth.  New Zealand has grown in notoriety and reputation since the world has discovered their particular brand of Sauvignon.  Just as they do in Bordeaux, New Zealand blends their Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon to flesh out the prickly nettles of Sauvignon.  New Zealand definitely produces quality Sauvignon, and is as dependable as the German rail system.  This is at the heart of the Sauv conundrum though- there is no variety in style or sense of terroir in the wines.  Of the 10 NZ Sauvs on the shelf 9 out of 10 will taste the much the same.  Worse yet is that the weight, alcohol, and viscosity of NZ Sauv spoils the palate for future oenological enlightenment. The NZ Sauv experience is so intense and pungent we become accustomed to the bombardment and come to expect it, and if we do not get it we judge the wine negatively.
Mark my words, Chardonnay is no longer the largest threat to our palates. Sauvignon is now the enemy.
New Zealand SAuv is to white wine what Yellow Tail type shirazes are to red.
Of course, we like what we like and are not obliged to rationalize or explain or choices and tastes to anyone. Though maybe, the next time you want a bottle of white, why don’t you buy two? Make one a familiar fave (if you aren’t ready to cut the umbilical cord to the matrix just yet) and make the other a bottle of Gruner Veltliner, or white Rueda?

Roisin

MARCH 30

hmmm, melted plastic smell and then darkness… by Brad Royale

I had high hopes for writing from Europe, however I have just melted my adapter in a German hotel....currently writing this in the dark as the fuse has gone too.....we’ll see what happens from here.....drat!

MARCH 24

From Burgundy with Love…and dinner with Jimmy by Brad Royale

My first day in Burgundy.  Lovely, just lovely...although the weather seems a little more like Calgary with a cold snap and snow as I arrived into Lyon...go figure.  I drove from Lyon up to Vosne Romanee where I met with the Meo’s.  They were happy to see me, not quite as happy as I was to see them though..haha.  I have rented a house from them located in the village of Concoer, just up the Haut Cotes from Vosne Romanee.  The house is very darling and perfectly outfitted to supply me with whatever I may require during my visit here...mainly coffee for the morning and a warm bed...haha.  To get to this house from the Meo’s one must drive past the vineyards of Romanee Conti, Richebourg, Romanee St Vivant and La Grand Rue...not such a bad drive way!  Settled in I get myself into Beaune to have dinner with Jimmy, our broker, and his lovely wife Marina.  We started off with a bottle of Gonet-Medville (more samples of this Epernay...can one drink too much Champagne?  Yes you can!) which was toasty and with a certain degree of maturity to it.  The bubbles were a fine start to the evening and made for a perfect precursor to our scallops and asparagus.  A Hospice de Beaune offering came next from Meursault Genevrieres 1er Cru.  As so the system goes this was bought finished in barrel and then elevage takes place under a negociant label...this was from Durant.  One usually doesn’t find things in Burgundy to be excessively over oaked all that often....I found this flaw here, moly, did they just forget to take it out?  Either or, I’m in Beaune, so not so much of a concern right now.  The main course was roasted La Bresse chicken.  This chicken has its own AOC and rightly so.  Is this really why everyone eats chicken?  Legs still attached and with a stunning yellow skin this has to the mother of all roasted chickens.  Every other chicken I eat from now on will simply be a lie of what it should be.  One could travel to France simply for these chickens, gain a gazillion pounds by eating only these birds of God, return home, have a heart attack, die 300lbs heavier and be happier for it.  To wash down God’s chicken Jimmy poured 2001 Rousseau Chambertin Clos de Beze....if there must be God’s chicken then surely this would be God’s wine....could the almighty gain 300lbs from eating too much chicken?  Seductive and coy, the Rousseau (a master here) seemed to unroll slowly, letting its layers come undone one by one.  Supreme balance of tannin to acid (although both aggressive right now) and fruit harmorny all in touch with one another.  Beautiful now and best with another 25 years to it.  Jimmy, thank you!  I brought a colheita from Kopke from the famed ‘63 vintage.  Perfumed and ripe with tawny orange peels, roasted almonds, orange pekoe, bergamot.  Sugar starting to be absorbed and the acid playing nicely against the alcohol.  What a perfect intro for 1999 Soldera Brunello di Montalcino (Jimmy joked that he had 5 cases of this sitting in his foyer when I arrived...he did!).  Sweet nectar of cherry, worn saddle, intricate spice and all things nice were here to dazzle.  Interesting the Rousseau and the Soldera were not really all that far from one another (or is that the port talking) with complexities that dove deep into their bodies and acid levels being the more dominant of the two basic structures.  Each in their own right Grand Cru and each being maybe a cousin of one another rather than just friends.  All of this, plus a few cups of coffee, one walk with Absente (Jimmy’s beloved canine buddy) led to a nap on the couch and an eventual squinty eyed drive through Grand Cru vineyards at 9am.  Back at home in my “petite maison” I curled up in bed, read about Burgundy and took another nap...hahaha. 

MARCH 21

Candy is Dandy, Liquor is Quicker by Karen Ralph

This year St Patrick’s Day was on a Monday and the thought of lining up to get into a crowded bar that smells of farts, spilled beer and vomit wasn’t that appealing so we stayed home and ventured out on Tuesday. Five of us went to the Ship at 5:30 on Tuesday, got a table by the door on the new side (well, it was new in 1994, but that is what we call it) and ordered a round of drinks. Since they have about 20 beers on tap, it made sense to order accordingly. We asked for a pint of Trad, two Crown Floats, a Kilkenny and a gin and tonic with lemon. The lovely server quickly brought them to us and we settled in to hear about Brad’s (my bosses) upcoming trip to Europe that you will be able to read all about when he gets back. The Ship was cold and dark and seemed a little depressed after the St Paddy’s day party. A table of girls wearing green soccer socks and short shorts that were a major distraction to the guys at our table. 

MARCH 17

An ode to the potato by Roisin Hutchinson

In honour of St.Patrick and his chasing the pagans and the snakes out of Ireland, I offer an Ode to all things Irish. 
Especially the…

Potato, Potato
Lump of lovely starch
You mash so well on sheperd’s pie
You are the potato of my eye

in the Home of the frying pan
you taste so good when you’re made into bread
and fried up for breakfast with my clan

You taste great with Bacon and sausage
better with butter
exquisite with stout
without you I pout

Now I will wait for the Norton Anthology people to contact me.  While I wait, I recommend sheperd’s pie with Guinness if you make a particularly rich pie with lamb and veal, or the ESB porter.  Roast beef and yorkshire pudding, along with sheperd’s pie, also pairs well with Bordeaux and Red Burgundy from the Cotes de Beaune.  Think Vosne- Romanee.
Slainte.

MARCH 17

All Roads Lead To France by Karen Ralph

Actually, we started in Italy. It was Friday night March 14 and we were joking about “The Holiday” and if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can google “March 14, the man’s holiday.” It involves steak. Anyway, we thought that we should have some bubbles, so we opened a bottle of Bellavista cuvee Brut. This bubbly is from Franciacorta and is made up of 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Bianco and Pinot Noir. It is made in the style of Champagne and is creamy, peachy, fizzy and brilliant. I love Champagne, but Bellavista holds it’s own. We finished our glasses and decided that perhaps another bottle was a good idea. Bellavista is $42. a bottle so we thought somethiing a little more affordable would be in order. Roisin offered a bottle of Canella Prosecco. Canella is made from Prosecco grapes in the North Eastern Veneto region of Itay. It is not as expensive due to the secondary fermentation taking place in tanks as opposed to individual bottles. It is grassy, with notes of straw and tropical fruit. Fresh, lively, soft and affordable, ($22.) this bottle is the cheap date made in heaven. We quickly finished it and decided to go to my house. Mia’s boyfriend (the designated driver) picked us up in his black Chev shaggin’ wagon van, complete with mushroom windows and red velvet bed. I was riding on the bed on a bubble buzz and felt like I was in a David Lynch movie.
Arriving at my apt. we headed in and I unloaded my Sid and Nancy bag, which contained the ingredients for a pizza and a bottle of Alsaces Marc Kreydenweiss Andlau Reisling ($31.) The wine was just slightly colder then room temp. which was perfect, so we opened it and I started rolling out pizza dough. Marc Kreydenweiss is a biodynamic producer who makes beautiful, elegant, delicious wines that taste way more expensive then what they are and that is what we are always looking for. The 2006 Andlau Reisling had notes of minerals, peaches, flint and lime. It was lively and concentrated. We used the Schott Weisel red wine glasses spun with titanium because they are harder to break, and when you are drinking with friends who are all arm wavers and crazy dancers, this is an important consideration. We were in the bag and the pizza was in the oven. The Kreydenweiss proved it’s deliciousness by being drank in record time. chugged might be the word I’m looking for. At about this time some of the boys decided that they should go to Flames Central to see Ace Frehley, Kisses guitar player on a solo tour, so they took off. This left the women with more wine, so we opened up the 2005 Hugel Gentil “Hugel”. We refer to this wine as, “Huge Genitals” and at $16.96 it is one sweet deal. It has all the grapes, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Muscat and Sylvaner. These make it a spicy yet refreshing wine with a lot of finesse and a great body. The pizza was done, so I pulled it out of the oven without burning my fore-arms on the edge of the stove and sliced it up. This called for some red, so out came the Domaine Du Vieux Lazeret, Cotes du Ventoux 2006, ($18.) A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault it can be served chilled with meats, cheeses and olives. We had cheese and olives, and it wasn’t chilled, but we also still had the Huge Genitals. I decanted the red and we ate some pizza, listened to some Chet Baker and suddenly the boy was home. The concert was “Awesome!” but he had left his friends at the bar at Divino, drinking large glasses of scotch. At this point, beer seemed like a good idea. I floated over to the fridge and scrounged up a Stella. It was cold, refreshing and delicious. Rammstein was now blasting on the stereo and we were considering opening up a bottle of Chateau L’Oiseliniere Muscadet 2006. ($21.) ‘cause nothing complements German metel like a steely, flinty Muscadet. However, we were quite wasted and suddenly an Amy Winehouse video playing. Since were almost out of wine and it was 4:30 AM the remaining guests took their leave. I don’t remember getting to bed, but I clearly remember waking up at 7:00 AM with a raging headache, stumbling to the bathroom for aspirins and my boyfriend congratulating me for being a good sport about, “the holiday.” This week-end there should be more good-times, until then, Salute! 

MARCH 09

Tasting notes from Gala Event at La Paulee San Francisco by Brad Royale

Here is a selection of some of the wines tasted at this monumental event.  I had high hopes for this event as previous reviews came in over the web with a sort of reverence feel to them.  The original La Paulee event was developed by Dominique Lafon’s father, a pure celebration held in Meursault every year.  Each participant brings a selection of cellared Burgundy for the dinner table.  Guest’s converse with one another sharing bottles of beloved gems, some of them stored lovingly for decades.  The feeling of pure enjoyment of peers is unparalleled in anything I have ever attended previously.  A tasting that will last a lifetime in my mind.  Dinner was served that night from the likes of Daniel Boulud, Michael Mina and Traci de Jardins.  The food as you can imagine was killer with a charcouterie board of perfection by Boulud.  The wines came fast and furious with barely enough time to evaluate one wine before another was propositioned over your shoulder...I just love that!

2000 Joseph Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche - Dense, perfumed, very approachable,lots of power.  First wine of the night….things are going to go well I think. 

2005 Comte Lafon Meursault Charmes – really closed, great mineral peeking through.  Needs a good 10 for sure.

2005 Bernard Morey Chassagne Montrachet – great balance, well done, best with time.

2000 Pierre Morey Meursault Perrieres – powerful, rich and nutty with some development showing.  Developed palate with good reach into finish.  Really well done.

1996 Frederic Mugnier Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses – power, liquor cherry, delicious.  Really floral with lovely development.  Drinking very well.

1995 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Saint Vivant – Closed, meaty, dense, needs time to come around, quite deep.  Loads of power here, palate is open with pure Vosnee Romanee aristocratic power.  Saw the last couple ounces of this bottle sitting on the table about two hours after I took down this tasting note...pounded it...awesome!

2000 Jean Marc Pillot Chevalier Montrachet – Geoff and I brought this.  I opened this wine at 10am, drank it a 10pm, good move.  So very good with great concentration, drinking very well.  Just awesome, Pillot is so good.

2000 Domaine Lefaive Puligny Montrachet Les Combottes – Butter, creamy, roasted nut shells, hazelnuts.  Fantastic, secondary nuances present and will develop for some time. 

1966 Maison Leory Le Corton – So sweet! Fruit is super concentrated and liquor like…quite unreal! So balanced and precise.  Earth and caramel.  Cloudy with a tangy cherry hue.  Wicked.

2001 Alain Burguet Mes Favourites Magnum - Sweet and sexy, very ripe with delicious house style exuding a delicious suppleness.  Good focus on the finish, great bottle.

1996 La Chablisienne Mont de Milleau 9 liter – Served by sommelier legend Larry Stone...out of the original bottle…wow!  Developing, very delicious, great density very well rounded.  Good for a while yet.

1990 Federic Mugnier Le Musigny – Uhm, for real!  Yep, just off the charts.  Earthy and sweet, lots of fruit depth here.  Very spicy and super perfumed.  Massive character, so much power in the mouth.  Awesome.

2002 Domaine Leroy Savigny Les Beaune Narbonntons – Beautiful and sweet.  Touch stinky, needs time. 

2000 Dujac Clos de la Roche – My first Dujac!  Wow, lovely concentration with earth and herb highlights.  Fruit reminds me of California sunshine.  Just love drinking these 2000’s right now.

1991 Domaine Leory Clos de la Roche – Interesting and herby, very stinky, liquored mineral, quite beguiling.  Tangy palate, herb, orange, green tea, touch of bergamot.

1996 Domaine Leroy Vosne Romanee Les Beaux Monts – Root beer candy, juicy and lifted.  Keen palate, lots of fruit.  Needs 10 years.

1999 Simon Bize Latricieres Chambertin Magnum – Awesome, really well done with lush presence.  Best after a decade or two. 

1999 George Roumier Chambolle Musigny Les Cras – Deep nose, very floral and rich.  Drinking really well and delicious now. 

1995 Joseph Roty Charmes Chambertin – Minty, touch stinky, bit reduced.  Big palate, very structured.  Not as charming right now as Charmes can be. Needs time.

1991 Domaine Leroy Chambertin – Really candied, raw gravel, quite fresh.  One of my favourite wines of the night.

1990 Roumier Ruchottes Chambertin – Delicious, sweet fruit, deep core.  Excellent purity with a great amount of pleasure.  Superb balance. 

1989 Comte George de Vogue Le Musigny – I’ll take this!  Earthy and precise with great Vogue character.  Lots of manure, crazy rich, sweaty, raw black earth, smoke.  Will ride for a long time.

1990 Claude Dugat Charmes Chambertin – Spicy, cherry, coffee cake, caramel. Super concentration, decadent.  Christmas cake, blood, great finish…lasts a minute.

1976 Roumier Le Musigny – Chocolate cake, sweet roasted nuts, fresh ground coffee, lots of depth.  Incense, candle wax, touch hot, well developed….love it.  Everything has been put into a liquor like form, so pure.  I could drink this forever.

2005 Pierre Yves Colin Morey Batard Montrachet Magnum – Awesome nose, brooding and rich, pure power.  Packed and stacked with floral notes, pineapple, apple puree, liquid minerals.  Oily and give me more.

1998 Comte George de Vogue Le Musigny Magnum – Very rich, dense, smokey, pepper cream.  Coming around and offering much.  Best after 15 plus.

2005 Comte Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre – Super Lafon character, nice very young acid structure, quite grainy, ripe and well defined.  Really rich fruit content. This will push back for quite some time.  Best after 2018. 

1961 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva – What? Really? Could this be true?  But we’re at a Burgundy tasting?  Yes, the world’s greatest compliment to Burgundy isn’t even another Pinot Noir growing area, but super fine aged to perfection Barolo.  The collector whose wine this was commented on the importance of acid structure when it comes to high acid varietals such as Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo, “…the acid is really what the focus should be when thinking about where the wine is going.” I couldn’t agree more.  The sheer power of this wine and the complete integration of acid with fruit is unbelievable.  A monster of a wine, the nose is pure liquefied black chocolate, hugely concentrated and absurdly profound….lost through the depths of the nose.  Fascinating!

1961 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva – Same story as above, simply mind ruining. 

1971 Produttorie di Barbaresco Rabaja – Oh my good fortune.  Arguably the world’s finest co-op, best illustrated right here in my glass.  Meaty, saturated cherry…..oh my!

1991 Frederic Mugnier Le Musigny – Lots of chocolate…this wine gives such strength to the 1991 vintage.  Numerous collectors commented on the pure, thrilling wines of the top end range that immerged from this completely lambasted vintage.  Goes to show that there is a very strong argument here for why vintage charts cause more problems for consumers that they do good….this example is very tough to ignore, sublime….same goes for 1992.

1993 Jean Grivot Vosne Romanee Clos de Reas – Wow, super lifted nose, really developed and punches from the glass.  Just fantastic.

1959 Maison Leroy Ruchottes Chambertin – Pure pure pure pure pure pure….so detailed and with exceptional focus.  For those who believe that Pinot Noir is a delicate grape and should be drunk in youth…I say not!  Give me AGE!  Full of force and a pleasure sensory factory of delicious things that make me giddy.  A floating dream of wine.

1982 Louis Jadot Corton Charlemagne – Earthy and minerally.  Creamy with notes of a brown butter, sage and forest floor, Pine trees after a rain….

1990 Joseph Roty Charmes Chambertin Vielles Vignes – Corked, too bad.  Tasted anyway so get a sense of the palate….this would have been another experience all together….really so very great. 

2003 Francois Raveneau Valmur – Good lord!  Marshmallow and a creamy crispness to it that only this master can provide.  Extremely exciting to taste…so oily…very dense.

1989 Louis Jadot Chevalier Montrachet Les Demoiselles – From a small plot next to Chevalier proper, rare.  Huge profile, immense mineral fusion with liquored orchard fruit and oily structure.  Perfect.

2002 Emmanuel Roguet Vosne Romanee Clos Parantoux - From the great vines of the late Henry Jayer come this lavish wine of opulence and grandeur….one should argue that be of Grand Cru character through and through.  Literally climbs out of the glass and stuffs itself into your nose proceeding right to the brain.  Power.

1989 Comte George de Vogue Le Musigny Magnum – Yep, tasted twice from two different formats…..uhm, wow!  The mag version offering a sterner structure profile with ramped up gobs of deliciousness from the 750ml version.  All things are better in magnum…haha.

1978 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays 3 liter - My first with this domaine, starts off with a double magnum, what a great start!  Full of power, very vibrant and with such a lush vigor.

1990 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne – I asked the lovely couple who was sitting with this bottle if they would mind if I tried some.  Very kindly they told me to help myself.  The gentleman look so familiar I wanted to ask him what his name was.  Too late, while I got lost in the nose of crushed mineral rock and super oily orchard fruit liquor, the couple excused themselves and retired from the tasting.  Geoff came up a couple minutes later…I’m still tasting the wine…I mentioned to him that the man whose wine this was looked a lot like Tim Mondavi.  Geoff grabbed the bottle and read the collectors name….Tim Mondavi…..just awesome! 

1996 Bouchard Pere & Fils Meursault – delicious palate concentration.  Drinking very well and quite creamy.

1993 Pierre Demey Chambertin Clos de Beze - Touch tannic and taught. 

1985 Clos Frontin Echezaux Magnum – Lovely developed nose.  Palate is really still tannic, not sure if this will ever come around.  Always fun to try.

2002 Camille Giraud Criots Batard Montrachet – Creamy with a soft powerful focus.

1985 Maison Leroy Savigny Les Beaune Les Serpentens – very vocal and screaming of wonderful Maison Leroy upbringing.  Sweet liquored cherry and super soft structure, pleasure.

1994 Dujac Clos de la Roche – Second Clos de la Roche from Dujac tonight, my second experience with this domaine only…good start.  Killer.  Really developed with a well composed acid lift.  Needs time for the structure to soften a little, best in a few.

1969 Champy Beaune 1er cru - Touch old, but creeping around with dusty cherry and tangy acidity. 

Cheers,
Brad

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