Winter Blues? Join us at Joy Bistro for an exciting Cuisine and Wine Dinner on February 28th, 2008
Nick Hirons of the Merchant Vintner will be joining with Executive Chef Bryan Burke of Joy Bistro to present an exciting a seven course dinner matched with some of our exciting and interesting wines.
$100.00 (exclusive of gratuities & taxes)
Please contact us for further information and tickets.
Joy Bistro: info@joybistro.com 416-465-8855
Merchant Vintner: nick@merchantvintner.com 416-463-9496
Stratford Chefs School Lunch Tasting
In cooperation with both Rundles and The Old Prune Restaurants, Tony presented three of our wines to journalists and others on Thursday, January 24th. The guest chef was Yvan Lebrun from Quebec City’s “Restaurant Initiale”, which is a member of the prestigious “Relais et Chateaux” organisation.
Tony showed Dom Berthier’s Pouilly Fume 2004 (fast disappearing at Vintages) followed by Chateau Flaunys 2005 and finished with the Barolo Chinato, both from our Consignment portfolio. Every wine garnered its fair share of “Oohs’ and “Aahs”.
March of Dimes Chocolate Tasting — The Design Exchange
On 6th February we will be pouring our Barolo Chinato at this event and fully expect to be inundated with enthusiastic interest from the attendees.
Call 416 425 3463 for details and tickets.
Address: TD Centre, 234, Bay Street, Toronto.
New wines in the pipeline
Adding to our Western Australia portfolio in Consignment, we will soon be receiving two new reds from Picardy. One will be a Bordeaux (Right Bank) blend (Merlot, Cab. Sauv. and Cab. Franc) and the other will be a very elegant Shiraz.
On the 15th March, Vintages will be releasing a very rarely seen wine—from the French Savoie area – Dom de L’Idylle “Roussette” 2006 at $16.95. This is a very nicely flavoured white, with good length and firm flavours, which are accentuated by decent acidity. And quite versatile to match with a variety of different foods.
From close to it’s southern border with Spain, France sends us “La 66” Cotes de Roussillon Villages 2006, from Dom de La Deveze. Retailing for $17.95 it has lovely warm spicy notes from mainly Grenache and some Syrah. Incidentally, his yield is only 25 hl/ha — WELL below than that allowed for Grand Cru Burgundy!!
Older News
We are pleased to open up our website with some interesting news about several of the wine producers with whom we work.
First of all, and to not show favouritism, we will go alphabetically and give our warmest congratulations to Balnaves of Coonawarra. James Halliday, well respected reviewer of Australian wines has chosen Balnaves to be his “Winery of the Year for 2008”.
The wording of his comments and high scores over the years has made it inevitable that this should happen, because year in, year out Balnaves consistently make high quality wines which are superb ambassadors for Coonawarra. As well as awarding stars to their wines Halliday feels they rate 5 Stars [out of 5] as a winery too,
We have just sold the last of their 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon through our CONSIGNMENT program, and eagerly await their 2005 in the New Year. Vintages has ordered their 2005 Chardonnay and their 2005 Shiraz, so one way or another you will have three of their wines, maybe even more, to enjoy next year.
It is generally acknowledged that Olivier Humbrecht of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is not only one of Alsace’s but is also one of the World’s finest wine makers. He became France’s first Master of Wine in the late 80’s, and year after year, like Balnaves, his wines receive rave reviews from Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator, Decanter and others.
Vintages has recently placed their largest order ever with Zind-Humbrecht for a wide variety of their 2005 vintage. Some are already in the stores [see our price list]. Others will be released gradually over the next several months into Vintages stores [including the unpublicized “In Store Discoveries”], plus Classics and Internet.
Zind-Humbrecht converted all their production several years ago to biodynamic, and on Saturday, 9th February there will be a serious biodynamic tasting “Renaissance des Appellations” in which we will be pouring their wines. It will be held in The Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District in Toronto. We understand 150 producers will attend of whom 75 are French.
We really love “The Grape Vine”, because certain serendipitous things have a happened recently. This means that we will be working with two new (to us) wine producers from Western Australia. Alkoomi – whose wines show in our CONSIGNMENT list – and Picardy whose wines are in transit. Like Balnaves, James Halliday awards both wineries 5 Stars. At the time the introductions were made Dianne and I were visiting suppliers in Austria, so Nick took the ball and ran with it—quite brilliantly, I should say. It’s nice to see him taking more and more on his plate, and showing a natural affinity for this business of ours (maybe it’s the genes showing through?).
These two wineries now complement the first shipment here of the McHenry Hohnen Sauvignon Blanc Semillon from Margaret River, currently in Vintages stores (see our VINTAGES list). The circle has made a complete turn for me, because I started working with David Hohnen in 1991 when we were the Ontario agents for Cape Mentelle (and Cloudy Bay) and David was at the helm of both wineries.
Rightly so, in my view, David has been chosen as the first recipient of the newly created “Len Evans Award for Leadership” for the foresight and commitment he has shown in creating and leading both wineries in their respective countries and also for his contributions to Margaret River viticulture in general.
