Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to organize several winemaker’s dinners here in Ottawa with some of the biggest personalities in the world of wine and next week we will be adding another to that list.

Over the last 20 years Christian Seely has become one of the most influential names not only in Bordeaux where he is based, but throughout the world of premium wine. As Managing Director of the Axa Millésimes group of wineries, Christian is responsible for the production of some of the greatest wines in the world, overseeing such prestigious houses as the Grand Cru Classé Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron in Paulliac, Chateau Pibran in Paulliac, Chateau Petit-Village in Pomerol, Chateau Suduiraut in Sauternes, Disznoko in Hungary and the famous Quinta do Noval Port house in Portugal.  Christian is also the President of Companie Médocaine, one of the most important Négociant houses in Bordeaux.

Christian Seely

To make the most of Christian’s visit to Ottawa, I’m organizing a private tutored tasting and winemakers dinner at The Shore Club. Renowned for his eloquent speaking style and engaging talks, this dinner with Christian would be of interest to any serious wine collector and Bordeaux aficionado. The tasting and dinner will be held in The Shore Club’s private dining room with only 18 seats at the table in a communal dining setting. This will make for a more intimate and memorable evening with great conversation and interaction. The evening will begin with a tutored wine tasting by Christian where he will guide you through several of his world famous wines, including the famous Château Pichon Longueville Baron. Following the tasting we will break for an oyster & white Bordeaux reception in the lounge while the room is prepared for dinner. After the oysters, dinner will include another 4 courses, each paired with some of Christian’s best wines including comparative vertical tastings.

Don’t miss this opportunity to have dinner with one of France’s greatest wine personalities and taste thirteen of his top wines…a steal for $150 all-inclusive. To RSVP for this event please send me an email at ottawawine@gmail.com.

For more information on Christian, his wines, Axa Millésimes or Companie Medocaine, please visit: http://www.christianseely.com/. His blog is really interesting for insider musings on the Bordeaux wine market, harvest and vingtage info, videos as well as his perspectives on Port and Tokaji.

Shore Club Private Dining Room

So it seems I haven’t posted anything since December…its not that I haven’t been interested anymore or haven’t been up to anything, its quite the opposite: I’ve been so busy, I’ve just had so little time. Over the spring/summer I will get back in the swing of things and throw down some interesting posts from recent wine events and anecdotes from my February trip to South America, touring vineyards in Chile and Argentina.

And I’m also happy to see that while I’ve been away from my blog, WordPress has done some nice updates. This will make posting easier too…

Recently I had Norm Hardie of Norman Hardie Winery & Vineyard in Ottawa for the usual fun of showing his outstanding wines to some top Ottawa restaurants. This time however there was an added bit of fun when Norm’s friend Denis Dumas decided to host a vertical tasting at his house showcasing all of Norm’s County Pinot Noirs since their inception. That’s not an easy thing to do anymore, as I don’t think Norm even has a sequential lineup of each vintage since 05, but his good buddy Denis has been fastidiously collecting and wanted to open them and let Norm walk us through his history.

I arrived just as they were getting started, pouring Norm’s first vintage using his Prince Edward County fruit from 2005. There was 12 of us seated around a long table with Norm at the head, and I think he was as excited as we were to see how his earliest wines were holding up. The answer: very respectably. 2005 was a pretty weak vintage in Ontario and his vines were still very young at that point.  The nose had this incredible earthiness, barnyard, moss, and still bright cherry fruit (probably my favorite nose of the whole line) but fortunately the palate had passed its peak. We all agreed that the wine had an incredible aroma, but was falling apart on the palate. It was nothing terrible, it was just a little watery, lacking structure, passing its peak–likely due to the combination of young vines and a weaker growing season. But overall very impressive for his first crack at Prince Edward County Pinot Noir after 6 years in bottle!

We followed with the 06 County Pinot which was overall my second favorite of the lot. It had an aroma nearly as intense as the 2005, but with quite an impressive structure.  This wine was likely at its peak, but not passed yet. Very Burgundian on the nose and palate with its barnyard and cherries with soft tannins and bright acidity. Awesome wine.

Norm Hardie (right) with his '05, '06, '07, '08 Prince Edward County Pinot Noir

Then we got to the famed 2007 vintage, and it was a little underwhelming by comparison. I know that wine will yield dividends in the years to come and it has been judged as one of the standout Pinot Noirs from Ontario, but it was still relatively tight compared to the other wines of the evening. It shows nice dark cherry and strawberry fruit with Norm’s trademark earthy nose and minerally palate, it was just not quite as opulent yet as the rest of the line was currently showing. The famously great year of 2007 was followed by the notoriously bad year of 2008…which of course would have to have been voted the wine of the evening… Continue reading →

Everybody who has been knows what a party the Ottawa Wine & Food Show can be. Almost too much of a party for some, but compared to many other food and wine shows, it is a significantly classier drunk-fest.  This is largely because 70% of attendees dress up: guys in suits, ladies in cocktail dresses and heels. Everybody puts in effort to look good and seem to be genuinely interested in learning about the wines, not just in getting loaded. So much that I’ll probably do a Sartorialist feature on this blog next year for a Best-Dressed at the Wine & Food Show. Big ups for Ottawa.

Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne

Here is a hot tip for next year: Get tickets for the Fine Wine Tasting Alley. This is where we pour the best wines at the show…wines that are too expensive and in small quantities to pour en mass during the main show for everybody just looking for a glass of wine. These are some of the best wines from around the world. Tickets are $85 to get in and you’re open game on sampling 75 top wines for 2 hours. We bring some amazing stuff: Cakebread Cellars Cab Sauv, Mitolo ‘Serpico’, Nicholas Feuillatte Brut Rose, Joseph Phelps Cab Sauv, etc.  Additionally, your purchase of the Tasting Alley ticket also gets you a free pass to the main show. A regular day pass is $21 plus the individual drink tickets. So if you’re really into wine the best value is paying $85 for the VIP Tasting Alley ticket, tasting all those top wines for 2 hours, then getting in free to the main event, needing to only purchase the drink tickets on top. Here’s a few pictures from our table at this year’s Tasting Alley.

Cakebread Cab Sauv and some nice Louis Jadot 1er Cru Pinot Noirs are annual favorites, but this year we also threw in a Chardonnay from Joseph Phelps’ new biodynamic property located in Freestone, Sonoma…aptly named Freestone Vineyards. They produce only outstanding Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and also operate a really cool 2nd label called Fog Dog — which might be one of my favorite label designs ever.

Phelps 'Freestone' Chardonny, Louis Jadot Beaune 'Les Cochereaux' 1er Cru

Cakebread Cab Sauv, Mitolo 'Serpico' Cab Sauv

Another amazing wine to note is the Mitolo ‘Serpico’ in the background below. You may know Mitolo Wines from their outrageously popular Mitolo Jester, a top Vintages Essential in the LCBO. Their flagship line of wines are some of the hottest wines coming out of Australia today. The ‘Sperpico’ is 100% Cab Sauv, but is dried on racks in their old potatos barns for 8 weeks, Amarone-style. This gives it that concentrated, rasiny, nose with super smooth texture that you’d expect from a subtle Amarone or great Ripasso, even though it is significantly less drying time than real Amarone, which can dry up to 4 months. This is clearly an unconventional practice a) with Cab Sauv and b) outside of Valpolicella…ergo using the namesake of Frank Serpico, the real life New York cop played by Al Pacino who went against the grain fighting crime, just like this Cab Sauv goes against the grain in winemaking. Interesting side note: the real Frank Serpico is still alive and sanctioned the use of his name on this wine…Mitolo sends him a case of it each vintage for the royalties. You can still find some Mitolo Serpico for a limited time in Vintages.

If you know me or have been following this blog you’ll know that I really love BC wines. And one of the BC wineries we represent recently received some outstanding accolades at Wine Access Magazine‘s Canadian Wine Awards in Ottawa…

On only its third vintage Painted Rock Winery has become one of the hottest boutique cult wineries in the country. With a maximum 5000 case production and following only their 2nd vintage they won two coveted Lieutenant General’s Awards for BC wines and now on their 3rd vintage Wine Access has named them the #1 winery in BC and #3 overall in Canada. Incredible progress for a winery that has only been in existence since 2004 and producing wine since 2007! So last week as part of the Ottawa Wine & Food Show, Wine Access hosted an exclusive event where they revealed this year’s major award winners and John Skinner the owner of Painted Rock flew in for the fun.

The format was a new one for me, they called it “Speed Dating meets Wine Tasting” which sounded cheesy at first, but turned out to be a great format. In small groups of 10, everybody gets 10 minutes with each of the 8 wineries, tasting their wines, hearing their stories, then when the bell rings you rotate onto the next winery. Because Painted Rock’s 2009 ‘Red Icon’ blend won gold, it was the wine we showed that evening.

The blend for the Red Icon changes every year based on the expression of fruit that each vintage provides. The Icon was conceived as a Bordeaux-like blend, but to be distinctively Okanagan. For Painted Rock this development came in consultation with their eonologist Alain Sutre who commented that the Painted Rock estate ripens Malbec and Petite Verdot like no other site he’s seen in the world. Therefore they should use Malbec and Petite Verdot as starting componants of the blend, not as touch-up ingredients like in Bordeaux. So instead of starting the blend with a base of Cab Sauv and Merlot, in their first two vintages they started with Malbec and Petite Verdot and built the Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Merlot around that. Now in its third vintage, because of the expression of fruit they decided to leave Malbec right out of the mix and instead use 1% Syrah to add something completely unique. Adding a Rhone variety to what was a Bordeaux blend is not a faux pas because they are insearch of a distinctly Okanagan wine, not Bordeaux or Meritage blend. With a final blend of 30% Merlot, 29% Cab Franc, 25% Cab Sauv, 15% Petite Verdot and 1% Syrah it looks like it worked out, as Wine Access named the ’09 Icon the #3 red wine in Canada!

Andrew Rastapkevicius, Lifford Wine Agency & John Skinner, Painted Rock Winery

Unfortunately after a long trip to China immediately followed by two days of presentations and tastings with Ottawa restaurants before the Wine Access event, John lost his voice, needing me to co-pilot and help present his wines. In a hilarious turn of events, Anthony Gismondi suggested John start pounding back red wine to help get his voice back. When a top Canadian wine writer insists you start hammering back your own $90 wine, what can you say? But it worked! By the 4th or 5th group John was back in action presenting his wines.

Overall the event was a great success and Painted Rock was honoured to be recognized as a top producer of Canadian wines so early on. Since I needed to help present the wines, Rene Wallis (fellow blogger and sommelier at Brookstreet Hotel – www.wine-base.com/blog, @ReneWallis) grabbed my camera and snapped all the pictures for this blog. The following are a few shots of some top wineries at the evening with Wine Access. Continue reading →

Its not every day (or year) that someone as important in the world of wine as Jacques Lardiere comes to Ottawa. Jacques is in a way who I want to be when I’m in my 60′s. This guy is the stuff legends are made of in wine, I’d heard many of his theories 2nd or 3rd hand, but had never met him. He’s influenced winemakers in all regions of the world, but never made wine outside of Burgundy. He’s almost like the wine version of the Dos Equis man. He has an effortlessly cool panache with his full head of curly white hair behind black rimmed Armani glasses paired with a turtle neck beneath a blue blazer (with elbow patches), a red handkerchief and a turquoise watch…and he makes some of the best wines in the world.

He’s been the head winemaker at Maison Louis Jadot since 1970 and has seen just about every scenario that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can throw at you. Negotiant houses in Burgundy can often get a lesser rap for the larger scale of their production by purchasing fruit from other producers and sub appellations in a region that is grounded in territorial singularity. Maison Louis Jadot under Jacques direction has elevated its reputation and separated itself from those kinds of producers by owning property all over Burgundy and producing estate wines that they’ve grown themselves and overseen completely. What fruit they don’t grow themselves they purchase from farmers that they have had long-standing family contracts, some only handshake agreements spanning generations…after all Louis Jadot did celebrate its 151st birthday this year.

So for Jacques special trip to the capital, I organized an intimate tutored tasting and lunch for about 25 people at Restaurant E18hteen. We started with a flight of 4 whites: Continue reading →

I’ve had a busy few weeks following this event and have been meaning to post a follow up, but its gotten away from me until now.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t make note of how amazing a dinner the crew at E18hteen presented by partnering with Swedish Michelin Starred Chef Gustav Trägårdh. I’d love to try capture it in words, but at this point I should let some pictures do the talking.  The following are a mix of photos taken by myself and Damian Hadala, head bartender at E18hteen.

Continue reading →

Heads up Ottawa foodies!! There are a few spaces left for an incredible dinner with one of Sweden’s top chefs from the Michelin starred Sjömagasinet restaurant!

Every so often Chef Matthew Carmichael and the culinary crew at Restaurant E18hteen host top chefs from other cities for collaborative dinners where they blend their various cuisines to come up with incredible evenings of food and wine. Back in June they hosted Derek Damon and his team from Montreal’s DNA Restaurant for an outstanding dinner.  In similar fashion, this Tuesday October 25th Restaurant E18teen is partnering with the Swedish Embassy to present another very special guest, Chef Gustav Trägårdh from Göteborg, who will prepare a special 5 course menu in Ottawa.

Gustav Trägårdh is one of Sweeden’s most celebrated chefs. His cuisine is simple, but full of flavors with Japanese, Thai and Swedish fusion. He has been working as head chef at Basement restaurant in Sweeden since 2001 and achieved his first star in the Michelin guide in 2004 and is currently at Sjömagasinet . He was awarded the best chef of the year in 2010 for his modern and simple creations at the culinary competition in Sweden.

When somebody says Swedish Chef, I usually think of Jim Henson’s clumsy Muppet chef known for his many mishaps in the kitchen, as seen here being held up at gunpoint by a gang of lobster banditos. But the Michelin starred Chef Trägårdh couldn’t be further from this. Here is a brief video showcasing his take on Lobster Salad, one of his signature dishes.

The food is not going to be the only incredible part of this evening. I am partnering with Eighteen’s Sommelier Lachlan Dennis to present the evening’s wine pairings with some great selections from Lifford Wine Agency.  Among others the evening will include wines from Norman Hardie Winery in Prince Edward County, Malivoire in Niagara and Charles Smith Wines out of Washington State. This is definitely a unique gastronomic feast for the sense that is not to be missed!

If you’re interested in getting one of the few remaining seats, you can contact the restaurant directly at 613-244-1188 or email them at events@restaurant18.com.

Does this ad make you want to visit Paso Robles or drink Zinfandel?  I’m not sure how I feel about it: on one hand its nice to see a cheeky, high-gloss ad for wine, but on the other hand this Old Spice and Molson Canadian parody just makes me want to chant “USA! USA! USA!” sarcastically.

And c’mon, who doesn’t care about Crljenak Kaštelanski??

- Andrew

I recently had Mark Vlossak, the president and winemaker at St. Innocent Winery in Salem Oregon visit Ottawa for a day of exclusive wine events.  St. Innocent is consistently regarded as one of Oregon’s overall best wineries: prized by the most enthusiastic collectors, listed by the best restaurants and rated highest by the critics. The man behind the wine is a former pediatric doctor who moved to Oregon for an internship in 1980, then after being randomly inspired by an article in Bon Apetite magazine that predicted Oregon to be the best location to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in America, he changed careers and never looked back.

Since then Mark has become one of the foremost advocates of Oregon wines and is regarded as one of the Willamette Valley‘s pioneers and greatest ambassadors. This was more than evident when he came to Ottawa, as he wanted to educate everybody on top Oregon wines overall, as well as his own.

So to best showcase Mark’s wines we reserved the entire Wellington Gastropub for a Masterclass on Oregon wines followed by an intricate four course lunch designed by Chef Chris Deraiche to pair perfectly with the wines. Then we invited a room full of Eastern Ontario’s top buyers of American wine and wine writers to learn all about Oregon.

Brookstreet Hotel Sommelier Rene Wallis, also a blogger: http://www.wine-base.com/blog/

The great thing about this seminar was that Mark didn’t want it to be just about his wines from St. Innocent. He asked me to bring some other great examples of Oregon wine from our portfolio to showcase alongside his to help build context and promote Oregon as a whole. Luckily we have an outstanding portfolio of Oregon wines in addition to St. Innocent, so I was able to bring great examples from Westrey, Bethel Heights, Adelsheim Vineyard, R. Stuart & Co. Winery, as well as Amity Vineyards. It was such a great learning experience because Mark not only knows all the winemakers from the rest of these vineyards personally, but in many cases has shared vineyards or even made wine with them.

Always animated: Mark using a knife to explain something about Oregon Sub-AVAs

The major takeaway points of Mark’s presentation were that his wines are made to go with food, to be an extension of a meal, in a sense built to heighten the pleasure and experience of dining. They tend toward higher acid levels rather than being overly fruity, jammy or alcoholic; they are spicy, savory, incredibly complex and age worthy wines. All of Mark’s wines are grown organically and in most cases biodynamically.  He believes this adds complexity to the grapes while they’re in the vineyard, rather than needing to compensate for uninteresting fruit with overly intrusive wine making techniques in the cellar. They key to really great wine is starting with really great fruit, and when you can let nature do most of the work, minimal intervention in the wine making process will produce far more interesting wines. He looks to Burgundy for inspiration in his wines, in other words: they’re complex, spciey and earthy like his ‘Momtazi‘ Vineyard, but there is a subtlety and elegance even in his more powerful vineyards like the ‘Freedom Hill‘. Another major focus of the seminar was highlighting the outstanding white wines of Oregon. Likely most famous for its Pinot Noirs, Oregon often gets overlooked in its ability to produce some of the very best Burgundian style Chardonnays and Alsatian style Pinot Blancs and Pinot Gris. In fact, the St. Innocent ‘Vitae Springs Vineyard’ Pinot Gris was one of the day’s favorite wines.

Since the lunch seminar was geared toward those in the wine trade, we wanted to have a slightly less academic version open to the public in the evening. The great team at Restaurant Eighteen volunteered to host the dinner and Chef Matthew Carmichael created an outstanding six course tasting menu paired with seven of Mark’s wines from St. Innocent for $150/person.  This intimate wine dinner was capped at 30 people and sold-out immediately. Mark entertained the guests throughout the evening with his famous passion, dry wit and keen insights into the wine. Most winemakers are really interesting and passionate people who are crazy about one thing or another in relation to their wine…Mark’s passion lies in wine dinners.  This is why he makes wine: to enhance a great meal. So the very best place to find him in his element is at an outstanding wine dinner, and he said that the dinner at Restaurant Eighteen was one of his most memorable.

2008 & 2007 St. Innocent 'Momtazi Vineyard' Pinot Noir @ Restaurant Eighteen

Since Mark’s visit to Ottawa, St. Innocent has really taken off in the city. The wines have been bought by the case by many collectors and has found homes on many amazing wine lists around town. For more information on the wines themselves you can visit Lifford Wine Agency, St. Innocent Winery, The Wine Advocate or The Wine Spectator.

These wines are produced in very limited quantities and often have waiting lists for the following vintages, but you can still find lots on wine lists around town for your next great dinner out at Restaurant Eighteen, The Wellington Gastropub, Brookstreet Hotel, Hy’s Steakhouse, The Shore Club, Play Food & Wine, Fraser Cafe, Bin 790, Juniper Kitchen & Winebar, Courtyard Restaurant or Absinthe Cafe.

And finally here is a fun video interview with Mark Vlossak by our very own Nick Keukenmeester for Lifford’s ‘Wine of the Week’.  If you are interested in more info on St. Innocent or just want to be informed of similar events and wine dinners in the future feel free to contact me at ottawawine@gmail.com

St. Innocent Winery from Lifford Wine Agency on Vimeo.