RKS 2024 Wine: Portuguese Wines: The Way of the Dinosaur in Ontario

Over the course of 2024 a question has arisen and that is where Portuguese wines have migrated to as very few are heading into Ontario. Vintages releases of Portuguese wines at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) have disappeared while Spanish wines “flourish” as such a term must be interpreted in the LCBO craze for profits from Housewives of New Jersey California wines. The LCBO sells its soul on the altar of California wines leaving homegrown Ontario wines languishing despite the plethora of LCBO doublespeak touting “local”. You’ll most likely see more wines from Georgia at the LCBO than you’ll see from Lake Erie North Shore!

So in this bombast against a powerful liquor monopoly was a rare drop of a Portuguese wine landing in my backyard courtesy of a rogue unit of the Portuguese Airforce based in Viseu. I am a Cavaliero in the Confraria do Vinho do Porto and have the utmost highest connections in the Portuguese Airforce.

It is from Casa de Cambres in Lamego, Portugal.

Aroma: Blackberry, cassis, black cherry, blueberry and milk chocolate.

Palate: Smoothness here of all variety of black fruit. Low tannins with a moderately long finish complimented by a bit of chalky schist.

Personality: OK Ontario readers let me be blunt. At this price range I will whup your butt as to quality and richness. Considering I am a blend of Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca I am pure Douro perhaps visually the most spectacular wine producing area in the world.

Cellarbility: In its prime now. Consume by 2025-year end.

Food Match: Spicy Mushroom and Tofu Mazemen https://sneakyguacamole.wordpress.com/2024/04/24/spicy-mushroom-and-tofu-mazemen/

Price: $14 CDN (Ontario). A Penniless Pensioner Biden Triple Gold Medal Winner at the Liverpool, New Jersey 2024 Old Geezer Wine Festival.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 91/100.

(Casa de Cambres Colheita 2019, Douro DOC, Solar de Cambres, Lamego, Portugal, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS 2024 Wine: Giersberger Crémant d’Alsace

Made with 80% Pinot Gris and 20% Auxerrois. While Pinot Gris is a permitted grape for Champagne Auxerrois is not.

Aroma: Pear, applesauce, Granny Smith apple, mango and peach.

Palate: Crisp and cutting. Granny Smith apple, kiwi, ginger with a hint of bitterness.

Personality: I can’t say I am elegant as I may come on a bit strong but I do the job a sparkling wine can do made by the traditional method. In other words I am made the same way that Champagne is but I can’t call myself Champagne!

Food Match: Food is not essential with a Crémant. Goes well with seafood particularly oysters.

Price: $ 19.25 CDN (Ontario).

Cellarbility: Drink by 2024-year end.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 86/100: Decanter World Wine Awards 90.

(Giersberger Crémant d’Alsace, NV, Cave de Ribeauville, France, 750 mL, 12%).

RKS Literature: The Individuality of American Women (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“The trio of women at the table were representative of the enormous flux of American life. Nicole was the granddaughter of a self-made American capitalist and the granddaughter of a Count of the House of Lippe-Weissenfeld. Mary North was the daughter of a journeyman paper hanger and a descendant of President Tyler. Rosemary was from the middle of the middle class, catapulted by her mother onto the uncharted heights of Hollywood. Their point of resemblance to each other, and their difference from so many American women, lay in the fact that they were happy to exist in a man’s world-they preserved their individuality through men and not by opposition to them.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender is the Night”, 1934.

RKS 2024 Wine: A Casa-Dea Rosé from the County

In Ontario when we speak of wine from “The County” we mean Prince Edward County. It is approximately two hours drive from Toronto when the traffic is good which it rarely is. There are over 40 wineries in The County which is the land of second homes of the bourgeoisie of Toronto. But is also an agricultural centre.

From Casa Dea we try a 2021 Rosé. Grape=Gamay.

Aroma: Cherry, raspberry, strawberry and wet rock (crudely said) or “minerality” if you wish.

Palate: Very dry and not much fruit. Some cherry and raspberry manages to squirt in the back palate. If it was a slab of beef I’d call it extra lean. Short tannic finish.

Personality: I fit into a profile of many County Wines. Lean!

Food Match: Mushroom Picatta over polenta.

Price: $19 CDN (Ontario).

Cellarbility: Drink by 2024-year end.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 84/100.

(Casa-Dea, 2021 Rosé, VQA Prince Edward County, Casa-Dea Estates Winery, Wellington, Ontario, 750 mL, 11.8%).

RKS Literature: “The Harvard Manner” (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“McKisco’s contacts with the princely classes in America had impressed upon him their uncertain and fumbling snobbery, their delight in ignorance and their deliberate rudeness, all lifted from the English with no regard paid to factors that make English philistinism and rudeness purposeful, and applied in a land where a little knowledge and civility buy more than they do anywhere else-an attitude which reached its apogee in the “Harvard manner” of about 1900.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender is the Night”, 1934.

RKS 2024 Wine: Hosmer 2022 Semi-Dry Riesling from Cayuga Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes: Exceptional! Stupendous!

I encountered this Riesling sitting on a beautiful Great Gatsby deck in Aurora, New York overlooking sunny Cayuga Lake two weeks ago. I brought back two bottles to Toronto. A magical setting and a magical wine I thought or was it just the vista and a beautiful June afternoon? No way! The wine may be blessed by a positive experience but tested in a more antiseptic environment stripped of sentimentality it lost none of its brilliance.

Aroma: Pineapple, apple, pear, Moroccan clementine and would you believe it hazelnut!

Palate: Almost no comparison to almost all Ontario Niagara Rieslings because of its gentle acidity. Almost reminds one of Pfalz Riesling from Germany or please excuse me a Müller Thurgau.  Lots of fruit such as apricot, peach and Ataulfo mango. Long finish.

Personality: I am not bashful and say you won’t find much better Riesling than me.

Food Match: Grilled chicken in a white wine, tarragon and cream sauce.

Cellarbility: It would be hard to keep any of this around but if you have the willpower drink by 2026-year end. 

Price: $20 USD.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 95/100.

(Hosmer 2022 Semi-Dry Riesling,  Finger Lakes, Cayuga Lake AVA, Hosmer Estate Winery, Ovid, New York, 750 mL, 11.7%).

RKS Literature: Americans Can’t Out Fornicate Everybody (J.P. Donleavy)

“Do me a favour. See if there are any jobs open for lavatory attendants in London and I’ll come back. But in closing I want you to remember this, that this is America and we out-produce, out-manufacture, out-fight and out-screw the rest of the world but the latter is elusive.”

J.P. Donleavy, “The Ginger Man”, 1955.

RKS Literature: The Life of an Irish Actress (J.P. Donleavy)

“Mary an actress. Dreadful pity. I’ve got to do something about it. I’m to blame, may have even put the idea into her dark head. If she goes to fat they’ll fire her. I believe she’ll screw her way to stardom. Pole by pole. Like others do in marriage. And some to poverty, fewer to riches, less for love and of course there are those who do it for a dirty old thrill. Thank God there are still some who give it up for life.”

J.P. Donleavy, “The Ginger Man”, 1955.

RKS 2024 Wine: Hosmer 2021 Cabernet Franc-Lemberger from Cayuga Lake, New York

Cabernet Franc is a very successful grape in Ontario, perhaps its strongest red grape. Lemberger is somewhat of an unknown. I have yet to see Lemberger wine grown and sold as wine in Ontario. But there is plenty of it in the Finger Lakes.

Hosmer has decided to blend Cabernet Franc with Lemberger. Fifty percent of each. What is the result?

I am surprised by the paleness of the wine thinking that the Cabernet Franc would “redden up” the Lemberger.

Aroma: Lots of smoke much like the Hosmer Lemberger. But there is more Bing cherry influence. Expect to encounter some milk chocolate, cactus pear and raspberry. Light on its feet.

Palate: Given its lightness in aromatics it has some broad-based tannins bordering on moderate. Cherry and raspberry with a light peppery finish.

Personality: I am proud mixie. My somewhat Lemberger soul has been beefed up with a dose of Cabernet Franc but my soul remains anchored in Lemberger. You Canadians out there might want to plant a bit more Lemberger. Sum me up as gentle please.

Food Match: Chilled with a Puglian potato salad. Lake Erie yellow perch tomato based  chowder.

Cellarbility: With such a happy lighthearted quality wine drink this summer and fall.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Hosmer 2021 Cabernet Franc-Lemberger, Finger Lakes/Cayuga Lake, Hosmer Winery, Ovid, New York, 12%, 750 mL).

RKS Literature: All Your Doctor Wants is to Take a Peek!

“And these doctors too. Once you let them get in these white coats and hold you by the wrist they want to tap you on the chest. Then they want to see in the mouth. Later they put you on the table and go to the cabinet for the knife. They say they just want a peek inside.”

J.P. Donleavy, “The Ginger Man”, 1955.