STANDOUTS OF THE SUMMER
From Lambrusco to well-aged rosé, the best of my drinking list for the season
I write two “personal” columns every year. One is my year-end review; the other is this one, in which I look back on what I drank over the summer. Please note that this is about drinking, as opposed to tasting. I taste year round, but during the summer I drink my fair share of good bottles.
Here are a few standouts. I love drinking aged wine, so hopefully a few of these might inspire you to do the same.
LAMBRUSCO, 15, GRASPAROSSA DI CASTELVETRO (PRIVATE IMPORT, $27.50)
Three dinner parties later, and my 12 bottles are gone. I wrote about Lambrusco last December after drinking buckets of it during a trip to Italy. No wine goes better with charcuterie, Parmesan cheese and pickles. Every time I’ve served this off-dry red bubbly to someone, they’ve been wowed. If you order this on private import from Moreno De Marchi (lenoteca. ca), you’ll need to buy six. The Lambrusco choice at the SAQ is limited, but the Monte Delle Vigne (SAQ # 11873190, $19.70) and Roberto Maestri Quarticello (SAQ # 13737941, $26.20) are very good.
THE CHAMPAGNES OF BÉRÊCHE
The Bérêche family has been making Champagne since 1847. The wines are textured, mineral and so flavourful. Expensive, yes, but for a treat they are some of the best I have tasted. I drank four cuvées and it was hard to pick my favourite. The somewhat weird rosé Campania Remensis (SAQ # 13253314, $124.25) could be the most intriguing, though that may have had as much to do with its raw surfand-turf accompaniment of beef tartare and oysters.
THE VERY OLD ROSÉ
Five years old, to be exact. The 2013 Bandol rosé from Tempier was still full of fruit, but had started to gain more of an herbal edge. It was more textured than you might expect for a rosé, and was perfect with paella. Rosés can improve with age, and no region makes them better than Bandol. There are so many great ones listed at the SAQ, from Dupéré Barrera’s India (SAQ # 11900805, $24.80) to Domaine de la Bégude (SAQ # 13622538, $28.80). You need patience, but it’s worth the effort.
DEISS’S 2005 GRUENSPIEL
I had been holding on to this wine for over a decade, and with a mixed cheese plate on the table, it was time to open it. This field blend of gewürztraminer, pinot noir and riesling is yet another classic from the Deiss family in Alsace. So rich, so aromatic and so ready to drink. The 2012 is available at the SAQ (# 12160941, $55). If you want to see why I love Alsace so much, this is a great place to start.
CHAPOUTIER’S 2007 CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
I drank a number of older Châteauneufs this summer, and this one may have been the most delicious. It has the thinness I look for in older grenache, where the grape takes on a more Burgundian expression. Delicate fruit, dried flowers and herbs, so incredibly lengthy — it really had it all. I drank it with grilled mackerel and it was perfect. The 2015 (SAQ # 10259868, $50) is still available.