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I was struggling with how I might mention a recent tasting foray in New York City from the standpoint that I was there and you were not, and how that might be germane to this weekly column.
I found the answer this week at a celebration of life ceremony for a friend who died earlier this spring after a fight with cancer.
John Levine was well known to many in the Vancouver wine community from his earliest days, when he was arguably the first restaurateur in the city to see wine as part of the business and, more importantly, something that might attract a broader base of customers to his establishments. He was the man behind John's Pizzarama on Davie Street when pizza was something you drove to Bellingham to eat, or that you read about in the New York Times. Levine was also one of the first to try to revive the fortunes of Gastown, at least the first time around, when he opened Brother John's in the '70s.
By the time I came to know John Levine he was running the Vancouver Playhouse Wine Festival, which he founded, in a fashion it has never been run since. Flamboyant would be one way to describe John's fervour for wine and his passion to pull Vancouver out of the back-waters of wine-dom. A great supporter of the arts, a lover of jazz, and an endless raconteur on any wine placed in front of him, Vancouver owes much to John Levine's insistence on pushing the city's wine bar higher.
Levine was instrumental in shifting Playhouse fundraisers from bake sales to wine tastings, and those early days at the festival were ground breaking. Most of us interested in wine grew up along with the wine festival and you have to remember in those days the biggest names in wine attended frequently because, frankly, there was nothing like the Play-house bash anywhere on the continent.
The buzz surrounding the annual grape festival inspired many other groups of like-minded oenophiles to get together, taste, discuss and come to know wine all about the province.
Levine also founded the California Wine Society, holding events few Californians could have imagined in their home state, and it was all happening in Vancouver. I sat in on many of those tastings and festivals honing my skills and ironically bested John, among others, in a competition to write this very column in the late 1980s.
It was then I began to meet some of the biggest names in wine. I realized quickly that the more I learned about wine the less I understood, but I was get-ting a first-class education with a grounding of endless blind tastings and discussions that all but the few who were writing about wine in those days could match.
Four decades down the road, Vancouver has a blossoming wine culture that doesn't go unnoticed in the global wine world. I like to think a lot of hard work and experience will get you far in the wine business but it doesn't hurt that John Levine's vision of a wine festival, like no other, helped build Vancouver's international wine reputation and more than likely in some way lead to my invitation to New York City. Not far from the new twin towers, I took part in an extraordinary vertical tasting of Australia's iconic Shiraz, Grange from 1952 to 2010.
In a head spinning day of tasting 58 amazing old wines I felt as if half the city was there tasting with me, including one enthusiastic mentor, John Levine.
Today, six picks I'm sure that John Levine would approve of - may you taste in peace, John.
How good is the Louis Bernard Côtes du Rhône Blanc 2010? This is a delicious mix of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier that is crazy good. The attack is juicy and fresh with apricot skin, pear and citrus flavours. Try it with grilled chicken and or a variety of seafood pastas. What a steal.
The Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay Vintner's Reserve 2010 is awash in honey, peach, citrus and butter aromas with a touch of pear and green apple. The palate is fresh and creamy with citrus, green apple, baked pear, light butter and vanilla flavours. More on the cooler, elegant side than in the past - which we like. C'mon KJ, where is the screw cap?
Rosewater, summer-sausage, grapefruit, ginger and baked pear aromas mark the Cedar-Creek Gewürztraminer 2011. We love the soft, sweet and juicy round palate with similar flavours. This is so perfect for takeout Indian or Thai curries, or serve solo on a warm patio.
Barbecue freaks can reach for the Pascual Toso Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Las Barrancas Vineyards 2009. Typically round with black fruits, spice and herbal, peppery, black olive flavours, this needs meat at the moment. Or cellar it for a few years.
The Altos Los Hormigas Clasico Malbec 2011 is grown at or above 800 metres on mostly low vigour soils in the Valle de Uco, Mendoza. The 2011 follows the excellent 2010, once again offering a fragrant mix of red and black fruit flavours flecked with smoky dried herbs notes. Textures are ultra-silky; the style Euro-classy. Serve for dinner. Great value.
Our final red is another Italian interpretation of Argentina: Masi Tupungato Passo Doble 2010 mixes Malbec and Corvina, the latter grape a Valpolicella mainstay. The attack is dry and slightly lean but with elegant black cherry, savoury, olive, smoky, peppery flavours. Solid value in a barbecue red or try it with spaghetti Bolognese.
THIS WEEK'S PICKS
LOUIS BERNARD CÔTES DU RHÔNE VILLAGES BLANC 2010, RHONE VALLEY,
France
Price: $13
UPC: 604174000974
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Back up the truck. Super value.
KENDALL-JACKSON CHARDONNAY VINTNER'S RESERVE 2010, CALIFORNIA
Price: $24
UPC: 081584013105
Score: 88/100
Remarks: On the cooler, elegant side. Great with food.
CEDARCREEK GEWÜRZTRAMINER 2011, OKANAGAN VALLEY
Price: $18
UPC: 778913020056
Score: 87/100
Remarks: Soft, sweet, round, juicy palate with grapefruit rind, ginger and honey flavours.
PASCUAL TOSO CABERNET SAUVIGNON RESERVE LAS BARRANCAS 2009, MAIPÚ, MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
Price: $20
UPC: 718742000225
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Solid, fruity-style red you can drink now with a steak, or cellar for a decade.
ALTOS LOS HORMIGAS CLASICO MALBEC 2011, MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
Price: $16
UPC: 00806145000017
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Serve for dinner all week long. Great value.
MASI TUPUNGATO PASSO DOBLE 2010, TUPUNGATO, MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
Price: $15
UPC: 08002062001607
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Dry, slightly lean but elegant with savoury, smoky, black cherry flavours.
