First off, an exciting announcement to make right off the bat: Capital Wine has partnered with LOLLO in the Byward Market to create a new wine shop right in downtown Ottawa! LOLLO will continue to offer their full feel good food menu of salads, sandwiches, coffee and more snacks to accompany your wine! Thanks to the pandemic regulations with restaurants now being allowed to sell bottles at least until the end of 2020, we’ll have racks full exclusive wines, including most of the wines you’ve been reading about here along with many more! It’s a partnership between Capital Wine and LOLLO, inside the LOLLO space at 60 George Street, and we’re calling it the Byward Wine Market! We’re planning to be open by Tuesday August 18 with website and e-commerce to come, but for now please follow us on instagram for updates! We’re @bywardwinemarket.

Now for this week’s feature:

We’ve been working our way through some great themes like Cottage Wines, BBQ Wines, Summer Sparking, Mixed Cases, etc. But one question I constantly get asked is: what’s your best value wine? This question keeps coming from the perspective of folks who are used to grabbing $12-$15 “everyday” kind of wines from the LCBO, wondering if there’s a better alternative within the same price range. The answer is absolutely, yes, 100%. We have lots of great wines in this range, several of which have been part of past weekly features. And it’s hard to pick just one from so many, but if push came to shove, the wines of Laurent Miquel are really hard to beat in quality for price.

The Miquel family acquired their first vineyard in 1791 following the French Revolution. That was the now famous Cazal Viel vineyard which has had quality winemaking history back to Roman times, but due to the poor soils (which are bad for yields, but counter-intuitively are great for quality) this vineyard wasn’t profitable for volume at the time and didn’t realize it’s full potential until centuries later when it would be prized for those poor soils producing top quality wine. The Miquel family purchased more vineyards back in the 1970’s and 80’s when land was literally dirt cheap before the Languedoc, Roussillon, or the South of France became fashionable and recognized for quality. In many senses they were a pioneering family for wine in the south and had quite a bit of land before it became expensive. All of this is key to understanding why Laurent Miquel can make such great quality wine for such value. And a lot of it is the lack of overhead on a fair amount of vineyards.

I’ve written about their Cazal Viel Rosé as one of my favourite go-to rosés several times this summer, and I’ve featured their Albariño Lagrasse as an extra interesting and really delicious white, both great values as well. But today’s focus is on a line of wines he calls “Vendage Nocturnes” or “night harvest”. This is his entry level or bistro series wines. While Laurent makes many top quality wines, like his Verite Viognier that has won ‘Best Languedoc White” and “Best Viognier in the World” at the London International Wine Challenge…so they’re very serious winemakers. But the Vendage Nocturnes wines aren’t trying to be these top trophy winners. Their aim is to be the best easy-drinking, every day, simple, bistro wine. Perfect for lunch, dinner, or just sipping on their own. Not overly complex, but perfectly balanced, versatile and delicious. In other words, the best inexpensive every day wine for $14. And on top of all of that, they’re organically grown and certified sustainable!

My favourite story about the unique roll these wines have played in the price/quality conversation is from one of Ottawa’s very best restaurants (which I’ll keep unnamed). They would buy several cases per week for the kitchen to make amazing sauces with, but the wine was so good that they would also serve it by the glass for parties and banquets in the dining room (and they also buy his other top wines for the list too!). It’s nearly unheard of that a wine that is inexpensive enough to cook with is also good enough to be served by the glass in one of the country’s best restaurants. That is the unique niche that the Vendage Nocturnes wines seem to have. Here’s some quick notes on each wine:

LAURENT MIQUEL, ‘VENDAGE NOCTURNES’ BLANC 2018
This is a classic Languedoc blend of 60% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Colombard, 20% Ugni Blanc. If you haven’t heard of those last 2, they’re actually the most planted grapes in all of France. How is that possible, and that you don’t know about them? They’re mostly used for Cognac and Armagnac. They make lovely table wines, but are mostly distilled for France’s top spirits. Here they lend some great freshness and acidity to the riper Sauvignon Blanc from the warmer Southern France climate. But if I hadn’t told you it was a blend you would probably think it’s entirely Sauvignon Blanc…it certainly drinks like it is! Perfect for that glass of white after work or on the weekend and great with salads and fish.

LAURENT MIQUEL, ‘VENDAGE NOCTURNES’ ROUGE 2018
Balance and drinkability are really at the core of this wine. You can have it with bigger meat dishes at dinner and you can sip it all night long on its own. It’s medium bodied, juicy, but dry and fresh. This has become the house wine of so many friends, family, and clients. It’s 40% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 20% Merlot, 10% Carignan and 100% delicious. If you’re looking for an easy drinking versatile red in the $14 range, this might just be your new house wine.

And lastly, the deadline for Friday home delivery is by Wednesday at noon. So please shoot me a note or reach out through the CONTACT page on Capital Wine if you need anything! And just a reminder that all the past features are archives at Capital Wine on the FEATURES page. You can scroll through there for recommendations on top Natural Wines, BBQ Wines, Mixed Cases, etc. Cheers!