Weingolb

I don't think I drank any "Wines of the Year" last night but I did have an awesome 8-course meal that suited each of these personally chosen white, red and sparkling wines. I thought the flight was going to be French but starting and ending with Spanish wines. It turned out to be Franco-American with a little Irish in there, starting and ending with sparkling wine...

Though Phaneuf grants an additional star to the "Gran Reserva Crianza," this Allegro is packed with personality, giving off hints of sherry and toasty Christmas brioche. It went perfect with grilled slices of pain brioché I picked up at Les Co'pains d'Aboard that we topped with a pintade terrine before heading out to the BYO restaurant "Les Héritiers" (see more at bottom) with the following wines:

A gentle, round and lush yet fresh white for two starters that lead the New Year's Eve "St-Sylvestre" menu. The first one was a tuna amuse-gueule on cucumber and a dash of wasabi served with a melon chaser; the second was a prosciutto "bonbon" -- all garlicky and juicy -- served above a consommé broth.

This wine, which had me dashing to Pointe-Claire the day earlier, was opened with the consommé course and it dealt with the hike in savory flavours a lot better than the young Italian white wine did. It was oaked perfectly and paired nicely with the smoky, rich soup. When the seared foie gras arrived, this Sauvignon from Graves continued to be very food friendly. But now with the bottle running low and heaps of sweet French toast topped by a pineapple reduction sauce clinging to the foie gras, we uncorked our Sauternes sweet wine bearing Bordeaux's Barsac appellation (see dessert entry below). An early but suitable appearance for it, to be sure.

This web excerpt from Les Fidèles de Bacchus led us to believe that decanting the first red of the evening was a wise move. The wine was green peppery with tomato on the nose. It was a Loire-tinged Bordeaux with its 20% Cabernet Franc coming through clearly. 70% Merlot hemmed in the edges and Cabernet Sauvignon making up the remainder. (At about this point, there was a service of what I thought was the best Trou Normand palate cleanser I've ever had -- pear sorbet and Calvados that was a cohesively creamy but refreshing course -- and meanwhile the wine aerated further in preparation for the main course.

There is a large range of opinion on this wine on the Internet. For my money it seems to be among the finest young and ready-to-drink Cabernet Sauvignon varietals around. It offers a sense of festiveness, deep and pure fruit flavours that penetrate the palate and conjure up spices and a sweet-ish vanilla finish, not out of place given the season. In other words, what I'd call a winter wine. It firmly switched gears from the more vegetal and mineral Bordeaux of the same vintage. It continued to pair with the main course of gamy ostrich skewers lounging in a port (but most beef-flavoured) gravy, but it went even better with the asparagus and cheese quiche accompaniments. And the individual cheese plates with candied nuts that directly followed was appropriate fare for it as well.

This was really great with the foie gras poêlé of the third course and so I eventually balked at having more at this stage of the evening. Plus the dessert that arrived was enormous, buttery and slightly dizzying, especially considering the substantial cheese plate we had a difficult time polishing off, so I really could not eat any more food to enjoy this wine with. Espresso seemed a not-too-distant certainty.

It was not personally chosen but this lovely non-vintage sparkling wine is still a favourite of mine. It was promptly served at midnight, on the house, courtesy of our generous hosts at Les Héritiers on de Lanaudière at Laurier in Plateau Montreal. The restaurant is a real cozy place (pictured) that's highly recommended and the staff are fantastic (so it was nice to seem them drink some bubbly too when the clock struck 12). Flutes went around the room and I was surprised to find a glass at my place when I returned to my seat. I loved it. It was restorative in a way no other wine so late into a feast could hope to be: Mineral, edgy and tantalizing. I opted to forget about the coffee entirely.

(And thanks to the friendly people from NDG who sat at the table next to us. The foursome also went with a Pessac-Léognan and some fancy dessert wine but what we really all shared were mini-bottles of Bailey's Irish Cream since they had extras and kindly were handing them out.)

The following is an entry in WBW 54: A Passion for Piedmont hosted by David at McDuff's Food and Wine Trail.

I'VE BEEN DIGGING UP ALL THE DOLCETTO WINE I CAN: PART A, ALBA

It was one taste of a Dolcetto near the finish of delicious Italian meal that made me think: "Note this down for immediate research": Bric del Salto Sottimano Dolcetto d'Alba 2007 - $17.95 (currently hiked to $19.65)

We were having great Italian wines all through dinner -- a lovely bargain Montepulicano d'Abrruzo from Marina Cvetic, and before that, what had to be my favourite Soave ever (fairly uncharacteristic thanks to its zip and pulsating acid). Among winners, the Dolcetto stood out because it was precisely what I personally look for in a wine -- 1) food-friendly, 2) admirably tannic, 3) with a sense of personality and 4) costing no more than $20.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU, DOG: PART B, DOLCETTO DI DOGLIANI

So Dolcetto became suddenly high on the Weingolb Weinshoppinglist. I last tasted this grape before, long ago. That was then. This time, it pretty much made a stunning first impression with me -- like the time a Cab Franc lover discovers Saumur.

First up to try from my shopping list was the cheapest Dolcetto in Montreal. $14.95 CDN (after taxes) was too good to be true for an Italian wine well-reviewed by my peers. Usually praise-worthy Italian wine means I'm going above $20. But not with this one. It was the Bricco delle Lepri Dolcetto di Dogliani 2006 - $14.95.

I was very surprised. The cheapest Dolcetto in Montreal is bold. Huge fruit, it seemed to be unfiltered (some might call it muddy) and gloriously full. Not complex like the $20 Dolcetto d'Alba, and not the same flavour profile. Even the structure of it was different.

And of course each wine is different. By tasting through the 20-deep Dolcetto catalog in Montreal, I explored the various makers and regions that produce Dolcetto, the various styles and use of oak, and the various vintages (though mostly recent vintages for Dolcetto, as it is to be drunk young... don't turn up your face -- youthful wine is my #5 factor in wine I look for).

STILL DIGGING: PART C, OVADA, MONFERRATO ET AL, BUT NO ORMEASCO... YET

Indeed, I explored. I tasted at least 15 bottles of Dolcetto in almost as many days. The majority of the 15 or so bottles was from d'Alba, about four from Dogliani. Then there were others: one Monferrato, one Dolcetto di Ovada and one Dolcetto d'Acqui. No Asti, Langhe Monregalesi or Diano d'Alba were available for me to taste. And no Ormeasco, which is almost never exported from Italy. Ormeasco is what Dolcetto is known as in the hills that approach the sea (but that's mostly in Liguria and not Piedmont).

It seemed from this sample size that you could get a basic picture of Dolcetto. From what I tasted, Albas tended to have elegant, refined fruit -- more floral -- while Doglianis tended to be more bold, more fruit bombs -- usually cherries in cream with spice. I'm sure I'm generalizing as your experience with a particular bottle can certainly be different. For what it is worth, the Monferrato I tasted was a quaint sipper; the Ovada was penetratingly tonic.

Alba Dolcettos more readily carry established wine tradition. They seem more Old World in style, more willing to let a nice bitter finish have the last word. Quite often Alba is pricier, oakier. I expect this is not because it markets the wine as somewhat age-worthy (I'm not generally fond of that). Meanwhile Dogliani generally is less dusty, more charming and approachable (though some would say rustic). Not all of Dogliani is necessarily drink-now and some are designated superiore, which means aged before release (and I think it also means somewhat woody as a result).

DIRECT COMPARE AND CONTRAST: DOGLIANI v. D'ACQUI

This was a blind tasting and during it I searched for something to set these two apart. There wasn't much, even though the Dogliani was a year older. They were L'Ardì Vigne Regali Dolcetto d'Acqui 2006 and Siri d'Jermu Pecchenino Dolcetto di Dogliani 2005.

Both exhibited deep, luscious fruit on the nose and juiciness etched by acid on the palate. Nothing complex but ideally balanced with a pert finish, making a less-than-full body seem rewarding and nourishing, especially with food (though neither was marked by the slight bitterness common in the varietal).

If I were to continue exploring, I would going have to book travel to Italy. So that's what I've done. I leave in three days and will be back in March. I will report back, especially after tasting Ormeasco, that Dolcetto by another name grown and made into Ligurian wine -- could it compare to Piedmont's?

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If this entry focuses more on coffee than wine, you'll have to forgive me. I just got back from New York City earlier this month and Manhattan bottles are more expensive than I've ever seen them -- basically costlier now than anytime in the last eight years. Making matters worse, I was screwed prior to my arrival. I shopped in the online store of 67Wine on the Upper West Side and 4 of 6 bottles shipped were substituted vintages (they falsely promise no subbing).

The experience serves to polish a pearl of wine wisdom for the New York wino. With their cool room and open-late hours, Astor Wines continues to be a jewel, even on this trip when it was only a slight glimmer on a bleak wine buyer's horizon. Astor's also has reasonable prices and they are blocks away the nicest BYO-friendly restaurant in the city, The Noho Star. But, like all wine stores, their bargain markdowns can be product clearances, so it's still buyer beware. Manhattan wino, continue to shop suspiciously.

What you no longer need to be suspicious of, or so it now seems, is coffee in the city. The NYC cafe scene sparked new exuberance and delight in me. (I swear it wasn't just Obamamania in the air.) My coffee fervor grew over the week, and by my final few days I was tripping through the boroughs trying to fit in coffees at every meal, skipping wine tastings for cuppings and hauling away bags of roasted beans instead of heavy glass bottles. It's not like my vacation turned into work, but by the end of my whirlwind tour I felt the need to attribute awards to the places that totally wowed me.

New York Reconnaissance Mission - the results
Cafe Abraço gets the prize for Best Cafe Food.
Café Grumpy claims the Best Coffee Selection award.
Southside Coffee wins for Best Macchiato (I've had Black Cat espresso before but damn I don't remember it ever being this good!)

I captured a small peek into each of these fine establishments and uploaded them with their coordinates as a video. It's my guided New York Drinking Report - Hot Cafes edition. Find the "Drinking in NY" coffee tour with the rest of Weingolb's videos in the box on the sidebar. Or even better, for the easy-loading, compressed YouTube version, just click on the image at top.

Montreal's BU is a wonderful place taste to exceptional artisanal wines (bu-mtl.com). Their Italian whites, like the phenomenal Colutta Ribolla, are great, but don't go expecting many Portuguese wines. The focus is Italian and French. Still, original Portuguese wines like the one noted below make me think of BU. It's feasible it could've tasted differently when released over 18 months ago. My notes don't gibe much with some I've read.

A strange and slightly waxy mid-palate that was big-bodied, suggesting Romorantin or even Chenin (although the grapes are Alvarinho and little-known Trajadura), then, a sudden medicinal finish. It had a nice fruity attack. Dry and savoury. A fairly balanced if a bit disjointed in its overall arc. Nice to nose but even better to look at with its yellow gold -- nearly banana yellow -- colour.

See product details: tinyurl.com/auratus04

I tasted this red Gaillac (Merlot, Braucol, and Cabernet Sauvignon) in a restaurant that was hesitant to let me leave with the unconsumed portions. Too bad because I'd be interested in seeing how it showed the next day. It was a light, bright red hue with clove, honeycomb and plenty of fresh fruits and flowers on the nose. Tasting it, there was a racine raspiness. Instead finishing on a spicy note like I was expecting, it was all mineral, and pithy stone fruit pits with a little vanilla from oak barrels. Good with carrot soup, mustardy sauces ad meats, which is exactly what the French bistro I was in at the time (pictured, above, by caribb) was serving.

Certified organic. 13% alc./vol.

See product details (though note that this wine is not currently offered in SAQ retail outlets): tinyurl.com/candastre04