Valentine’s Day menu: spoil the one you love

There is nothing as powerful as sharing yourself; your time, your energy and your passion with the one you love.

To me very little can encapsulate this idea as readily as cooking a meal and, yet, I know few people who genuinely love cooking these days. It seems as though I’m watching an entire generation grow up in the shadow of fast-food and ready-to-eat meals. In fact, those two areas have been the source of almost all growth in food sales in North America for the past 5 years in a row.

And I’m trying to understand: the busy lifestyle, the need to continually be doing more… we all know that incomes don’t stretch as far as they used to and everyone is working just a little bit (or a lot) more than ever. You’re up before 6 to make it to work by 8 so that you miss the worst of rush-hour. Maybe you work through lunch or, if you go out, it’s for something quick. Then you’re lucky to be home by 6 and there’s just no time to make something from scratch!

Trust me – I get it. I’ve been there, in the trenches with you. It’s not easy yet I find myself pitying the busy-people more than a little. Why pity? Because these people have forgotten the joy one can find in cooking! The joy of creation, the joy of doing something well and the unabashed delight in putting a smile on someone else’s face… with something as simple as a cookie or, in this case, my Valentine’s Day’s menu.

I crafted this for the light of my life:

filet of beef tenderloin, local wild mushroom demi-glaçe

roasted local organic new potato

roast organic gold beets and butternut squash

steamed organic Swiss Chard

 This is not a complicated menu and yet, should you go to your local steakhouse, no doubt you would be charged in excess of $30 per person just for this entree… and more like $45 when one considers that the entire menu is organic and/or local, seasonal. If I told you that the beef came from a local cattle rancher and was grass-fed and free-range, hormone and antibiotic free and dry-aged for more than 40 days then the price goes up again: $60+ in most markets and an easy $100 in Las Vegas.

I’m not saying that it’s easy to afford the $150+ for just the food in a restaurant, much less the $100+ bottle of wine I would want to pair with it. By the time the night is over you will have spent $300++ and no, for most people, that’s not easy. But my grandma told me once when I was very young “Christopher never give money as a gift, it is a poor way to show you care“.

So let me help you show you care. Let me share a few tricks-of-the-trade and you can make this meal for less than half the price (total cost for these ingredients for 2 people was about $50 CAD at Hopcott’s); you and your special-someone will appreciate it twice as much!

1. BEFORE YOU COOK

There are a litany of things that all chefs do before they cook and all of these little steps get generalized as mis-en-placewhich means “putting things in their place“.

notice the marbling, the quality one gets from a local butcher

a) choosing the steak: notice how this beef is marbled; the fat is integrated right into the muscle meaning that, as it cooks, that fat will render and keep the meat moist. I got this from my local, artisanal butcher (Hopcott’s) and if you Google “local butcher” you’ll find one in your neighborhood as well

b) prepping the steak:  bring that steak out of the fridge an hour before cooking to come up to room temperature before you fry it: going straight from the fridge to the pan makes for tense/tough meat. Pat it dry on paper towel to wipe away any excess moisture and allow for proper searing which locks in the natural juices. Season as you will; the better the quality the less seasoning I use… for this steak all I used was Kosher seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

c) heat your pan: seems like a “no-brainer” but so many people neglect to heat their fry-pan enough. How hot does it need to be? Leave it at medium+ heat for 10-15 minutes before you start to cook so that the steaks start searing immediately and never, ever crowd the pan or you won’t be able to keep the pan hot (the steaks should never touch)

As much as possible, everything that can be done before you start cooking should be done. Once again, this is a key element to mis-en-place because our goal in the kitchen is to ensure we can spend as much time focused on cooking our food as perfectly as possible. So do it! Trim your veggies, dice your onions, set the table, open the wine – all before you ever start to cook the steaks. Now pour a half-glass of wine, start to sear the steaks, and enjoy the process! This is great cooking and these are the stunning wines I’ve sourced for you!

2010 Muga Reserva Rioja DOC

91+ points, $25+ CAD, EXCELLENT Value

*DECANTING NOT NECESSARY*

… perhaps the most enticing aspect to this wine is the rich floral aromas it offers at the same time as the ever-approachable ripe red and black berry tones (think of a bowl full of raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries and black currants); hints of vanilla, warm toasty oak and peaty-earth round out the bouquet. The palate is brisk enough to warrant food (medium+ zippy red/black currant acid) and the sultry/fine medium- tannin structure means you can enjoy this on its own, with food or even a great cigar! Bold flavors with a full, youthful expression mimicking the aromas are truly fantastic when one considers that the winery produces over 850,000 bottles of this: more of this is made than the total production of many small to mid-size wineries! Enjoy 2015-2020+ due to excellent construction.

… the only way this wine could be any better, more complimentary, with beef tenderloin is to grill that beef over a wood fire; the smokey tones of mesquite, applewood, hickory or whatever you use for your barbeque will play with the wines’ peaty/earthy tones and bring greater balance to the ample berry notes. The crispness/freshness of the acidity works perfectly with an unctuous sauce like demi-glaçe or a compound butter and the peaty/earthy notes will find unison with the wild mushrooms used in this example.

 2011 Chaberton Estate Reserve Syrah

Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, BC

92 points, $31 CAD, EXCELLENT Value

**Silver/2014 National Wine Awards of Canada, BC**

*DECANTING NOT NECESSARY*

… there are producers in BC whose Syrah/Shiraz is easily on par with some of the top producers in the world. Dollar for dollar these wines can be compared to the northern Rhône valley (France), Barossa (Australia) or Colchagua (Chile) and yet, for the most part, they are unknown. But not for long! Chaberton Estates is just one of a litany of great Syrah  producers and the wine speaks for itself; textured aromas rich with red and black berries (raspberry, blackberry, huckleberry), dark flowers (irises, lilies, roses), cinnamon bark, pink peppercorn all colliding with a stunning synergy. The palate is brisk enough to warrant good food and yet balanced well enough to enjoy on its own; tight/focused full red currant acid frames a full/fine/chewy tannin structure that delivers an excellent concentration of flavors that mimic the bouquet. Excellent structure, this wine has the capacity to age gracefully for years and will continue to evolve: enjoy 2015-2025.

… this is a sophisticated wine; as such, pair it with food that is more subtle. Beef tenderloin is delightfully tender (hence the name) but rather lacking in flavor, especially when one compares it against cuts like a T-bone or ribeye. Let the musky, perfumed floral tones in the wine bring balance to the beef and elevate both! Savor the wine on its own or delight in how the fresh acid keeps the beef from weighing too heavily on the palate… the fresh berry tones will also balance the ultra-rich demi-glaçe.

2. WHILST YOU COOK

a) the pan: pan-searing steak is classic French cooking at its finest so don’t be afraid to emulate classic French methodology! We only drizzle a touch of oil (canola) on the steak before searing but otherwise it is a dry pan. This is important for purity of flavors as, if the oil gets too hot, it can impart unpleasant flavors on the beef.

b) turning the steak: Notice how I don’t turn the steak until it has seared perfectly on one side. How do I know it’s seared? It lifts easily from the pan! Now I just turn it over, spoon a healthy dab of butter on top to ensure it stays moist, and finish it in the oven

c) the oven and timing: I cooked this at 425F and, given the 1.5″ thick steaks, calculated approximately 90 seconds in the oven for every degree of “doneness”: RARE=90 seconds, MEDIUM RARE=3 minutes, MEDIUM= 4 1/2 minutes, MEDIUM WELL= 6 minutes, WELL=8 minutes… if you’re cooking for 5 minutes or longer, take a moment to spoon those lovely pan juices over the steak. It just takes a moment but makes the world of difference!

3. POST COOKING

organic produce just TASTES better!

I love cooking but I do not love cleaning. As such, I make every effort whilst cooking to ensure that when I’m done the kitchen is as clean and organized as possible. I want to enjoy my meal, savor every moment, and when it’s done take my wife and the remaining wine and curl-up on the couch. I can’t do that if the kitchen looks like a bomb went off! So take a moment while the steaks are searing, the veggies are roasting, the sauce is simmering and the greens are steaming: clean a few utensils, scrub the cutting board, wipe the counter. And never forget to just soak your pans when you’re done with them! My clean-up, post-meal, is rarely more than 10 minutes because it was drilled into me from an early age: Clean As You Go!

So enjoy your Valentine’s meal and enjoy the process! You just might find it so addictive that you’ll want to be sharing that special feeling more and more often! And it truly is like anything else in life; the more you do, the easier it gets. It’s still work, even for chefs, but it is rewarding work. It’s fun work and the kind of work that I now share with my 3-year old daughter who comes and helps me season food or scrub veggies in the big sink. She loves organizing my dirty dishes and YES! That inevitably means that I clean up after her cleaning-up but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

My daughter gets excited about baking scones with Daddy. She grabs a chair to come help with dinner and gets mad if she’s shooed off. She actually enjoys helping to unload the dishwasher. Is our family perfect? Far from it. But – but I’ve seen the gleam in her eye, the swelling with pride, when she tastes something that she helped to make and I am so humbled that I helped her find that within herself.

 This Valentine’s Day my hope is that you will remember: the most genuine happiness comes from knowing you have shared with the one you love and shared not just of your wallet, but of your self.

Many thanks to my friends the Hopcott family of Hopcott Meats (artisanal butchers) for the brilliant components for this meal; they truly are some of the best tasting, most tender, steaks I have ever had! And of course to Christopher Stewart Wines: importers of Muga for Canada and to Chaberton Estates of British Columbia for the generous sample bottles. As always you can find more recipes, free wine reviews and my notes on premium distillates and cigars on:

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Haywire “Lunar New Year” wines

 http://www.haywirewinery.com/

 

The challenge with many people in the wine business is that they start treating wine as art and forgetting that it is a business. In and of itself there’s nothing wrong with viewing wine as art but when it interferes with a business’ ability to remain fiscally viable then the vision needs to change. This has never been a problem for the wise folks at Haywire who manage to blend art and function in virtually every endeavor they create: Lunar New Year wines being the example today.

 When I first heard that someone was crafting a special release for the Lunar New Year I thought “Capitalism at its finest; these folks are just chasing the market” which, really, isn’t such a bad thing if it’s done well. China is now poised to be the largest consumer of wine on the planet… who wouldn’t want a piece of that?!

But as my step-family is Cantonese I cringed inwardly. I had visions of ginger-infused syrupy sadness lacking depth beyond Beaujolais Nouveau and tasting more of my morning ginseng tea. I couldn’t have been any further from the truth. Here are wines that any winemaker would be proud to put his/her name to and showcase not only varietal correctness but also speak in sophisticated ways of their terroir. Truly finessed, each of them, I was a bit humbled and started my due diligence in researching just what this could portend: after all, it was only a few years ago that one of the most highly regarded houses of Bordeaux put a Chinese symbol on its bottle.

It caused a wave of sales that outstripped anything conceived.

So the savvy craftsmen at Haywire decide to follow, but, in an unexpected way; you see, this is one of their first releases and it’s for the “Year of the Sheep”. This is considered a very unlucky year by many Asians and this is especially true for children’s birth years and business. Creating a new wine is certainly like a kind of “birth” and this is most definitely business, so why do it? It wouldn’t be the first time a winery created a release on only certain years.

Well as I pondered this I looked at my 8-month old son who was helping me with this article *(all punctuation is his, not mine). Adam is half Italian and half Irish; his Italian family name actually meaning “sheep” in their dialect. It seemed to me, in that moment, that sheep were actually very lucky for some people like me. And I got past the nay-sayers who conjecture doom and gloom at every corner and found the beauty of the “Year of the Sheep”.

Loyalty. That’s a quality to those born in this lunar year. So is generosity. And kindness. Hard for me to imagine bestowing those traits just because of the month they’re born in, but, I’ve heard crazier explanations for the cosmos before.

And I went back to the wines I was making notes on: so filled with generosity of flavor, brimming with “loyal” representation of the grape and the land and with very “kind” pricing… and so it seems, to this writer, that 2015 will be one lucky “Year of the Sheep”.

2012 “Lunar New Year Red”

blend of (mostly) Gamay Noir, small amount of Syrah

89+ points, Very Good Value

$22.90 in BC

*DOES NOT REQUIRE DECANTING

… to get this quality in Gamay Noir from Beaujolais in the south of Burgundy one would need to invest more then $23 CAD and invest it wisely. This wine carries rich aromas of warm earth, dark cocoa, stewing blackberry/plum/raspberry and the hint of Schezuan peppercorn on the finish (thank-you Syrah). The bright, full, fresh palate carries lively medium+ currant acids that titillate the tastebuds and are a brilliant way to start any meal or simply enjoy on their own as the guests are arriving. The medium fine/slightly grippy tannin carry their weight deceptively as they are finessed well beyond the price-point of the wine and deliver a performance more in line with wines twice the cost. This is a wine that at the same time will impress the ardent connoisseur in your midst and be perfect for the friend who “really is more of a beer person” – or so they say. Food pairing options abound from ginger and lemongrass infused beef/pork to the salty treat of soya crispy skin duck; the bold red and black fruit tones will balance salt and yet the warm earthy/spice/pepper tones will delight in bringing balance to Asian flavors. Meant for consuming now (Stelvin enclosure) this wine can age well for several years but will not develop in bottle. Enjoy 2014-2017

2013 “Lunar New Year White”

blend of Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Viognier

90++points, EXCELLENT VALUE

$19.90 in BC

*DO NOT SERVE TOO COLD; 12C MINIMUM TO PRESERVE THE AROMATICS

… this might be the prettiest wine I tried in 2014! Whilst normally this style isn’t a “go-to-wine” for me, this particular blend is impressive on many levels: aroma, balance, structure and value. The aromas are seductively layered with notes of lychee fruit, pink grapefruit, honey and exotic flowers… it’s an incredibly easy wine to want to drink which brings me to the palate. The balance and structure are absolutely flawless for under $20; bright/fresh/zippy medium+ lemon and grapefruit acid dance in unison. This wine loves south Asian flavors: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai… coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass and galangal all delight in the nuanced levels here. Which brings me to value: STUNNING. Want a blend like this from outside of BC? Firstly I don’t know any region blending these varietals but secondly something similar would start at $25 and work its way up… buy a few extra bottles as this gem will easily last a few years in the cellar/wine-fridge if you can resist 

“lucky money” from Canada in the Year-of-the-Sheep

Many thanks to Haywire Wines and their PR firm TownHall Brands (  http://townhallbrands.com/ )for taking the time and expense to send these lovely wines to me.

As always you can find more recipes, free wine reviews and

my notes on premium distillates and cigars:

on Twitter @AStudentofWine

on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/TheChefandTheGrape

an Ode to the humble pot roast

Pot roast:

The lowliest cut of beef turned into the most succulent comfort food. I mean, what says comfort more than pot-roast? Immediately thoughts turn to Sunday evening meals; family is near, there’s good conversation amidst the bickering (it is family after all) and always a decent bottle of wine.

Well as soon as I tasted these two wines I started thinking of pot-roast, and I hope the wineries take that as a compliment! For not all red wines under $20 can actually stand-up to the richness, the intense “beefiness” that is great, slow-cooked meat. These wines deliver concentration, balance and value… perfect for your Wintery-type braised dishes.

THE WINE

2010 Milton Park Shiraz

88+ points, Very Good Value

$14.99 www.BCLiquorStores.com

… deep, dark and inky in the glass – it even looks like a wine for beef! Rich aromas of stewed cherries and blackberries, some fresh thyme and rosemary with that background of cracked pepper that is signature Shiraz. Crisp, light acid and approachable, chewy tannin, the flavors in the wine are much in-line with the aromas and are rich enough to pair with dinner but fresh enough to appreciate a glass or two on their own.

*Shiraz: a note on Shiraz; it is the exact same varietal (grape) as Syrah… no difference at all! The only thing that is worthy of noting between the two is that in the past Syrah was considered the French style of winemaking (and so more restrained, less obvious fruit and more earth tones) and Shiraz was the Australian style meaning big bold fruit, higher alcohol. Well, the times have changed and in a recent meeting of the #WineTastingCircle of Vancouver, industry professionals couldn’t tell which was Australian, American, Canadian or Spanish Syrah/Shiraz. It’s not that there are no differences, but that wine-making has grown and evolved that much in the past 10 years. If you think that you don’t enjoy Australian Shiraz but enjoy full-bodied wines with great concentration, balance and structure then you owe it to yourself to “pony-up” the $15 and give this little gem a try.

Jumilla “Las Hermanas” organic Monastrell

89+ points, Excellent Value

$15.99 www.BCLiquorStores.com

… fresh, fruity, inviting: this is the wine you open as you’re cooking and hope that you have a second bottle for dinner! The aromas are plush with red cherries, currants and young plums and the palate has just enough acid to crave a bit of fatty food but, once again, balanced enough to appreciate thoroughly on its own. A solid wine, this is already on my Top 100 list for 2014~!

*Monastrell: not familiar with it? I find that this grape is very much like Merlot, which all of us can remember as fresh, fruit-driven flavors. This is a classic to serve at social events, but when well-made can offer concentration and structure to pair with classic Canadian winter dishes like pot-roast, tortierre and Shepard’s pie/Cottage pie. As per this particular producer, it’s small wonder that the European Portfolio Manager for the BC Liquor Board (one of Canada’s three Masters-of-Wine: Barbara Phillip) has named this as an “Insider Pick”. This would be a great value even if it wasn’t organic!

THE FOOD

Making beautiful food doesn’t have to be time consuming! And while I can admire the economy of throwing everything into one pot and turning it on, when plating that food it can look sometimes like a plate for the dog rather than the (fussy) kids.

This plate of pot-roast took relatively little extra time to prepare for dinner @ 5:30:

STEP 1:   2pm:      pot-roast in the oven @ 350F (about a 4lb roast)

STEP 2:   4:30:      baked potato and spaghetti squash in the oven

STEP 3:   5:00:      sauté the whole mushrooms on medium-high for 5 minutes, then in the oven

STEP 4:  5:20       steam the carrots 5 minutes, then throw the broccolini in, continue steaming 3 minutes

Kristof’s Pot Roast Recipe

1 fl oz     canola oil

1              yellow onion, finely sliced

6              cloves garlic, finely sliced

4 lb         pot roast

1 lb         green cabbage, rough chopped

½ bottle red wine

1 L           beef stock

½ tsp        each: fresh thyme and fresh rosemary

*salt and pepper to taste

• Start by sautéing the onions in the oil on medium until translucent
• Add the garlic and continue cooking until it’s turned a nutty brown
• Add the beef, sear on all sides. When it’s on it’s last sear then add the cabbage
• When the beef is finished searing, add the wine, then stock, then herbs
• DO NOT salt the dish until it’s finished cooking… as it reduces, the flavors will concentrate. If it tastes perfect at the start then by the end you run the risk of having salty food!
• Just before serving slice the roast on your cutting board and thicken the juice with cornstarch – excellent gravy! Don't forget to rest the roast on that cutting board for a good 15 minutes to ensure it stays moist!

So enjoy your pot-roast dinner with great wine and family or friends. Treat yourself, spoil someone else, and above all: savor the moment~! Many thanks to the Christopher Stewart Wine Agency, representatives in Canada, for the sample bottles. www.christopherstewartwineandspirits.com

As always, I look forward to your thoughts, comments and questions. Here, or:

on Twitter @AStudentofWine

on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/TheChefandTheGrape

Kanazawa “Raku” Syrah on Viognier, Okanagan Valley, BC

www.KanazawaWines.com

If you’ve never heard the name Kanazawa before, much less in reference to wine, be at ease… until just a few weeks ago, I had never heard of him either.

But now that I’ve tried the man’s wines I can state unequivocally that I shall never forget neither his name, nor how to spell it. For Richard Kanazawa is one of those rare breeds of winemaker: a man who makes wine not how he imagines the customers will want it, and not how some pencil-pusher tells him will garner the most points. No, Richard makes wine the way that the vineyard wants to express itself. And he does it with his own particular skill-set of flourish.

Having honed his talent in prestigious workplaces around the world, it speaks to the terroir here in British Columbia that he has chosen this place to create his signature label. And signature it is~! The Syrah that I tasted was absolutely, singularly self; by which I mean that it chooses not to look or feel like any other Syrah from the region, but to express itself in it’s own manner (and very precisely too I might add).

If you care to learn more about Richard Kanazawa, his pedigree, or his current work I invite you to read his website or the words of my colleague and eminent wine-journalist John Schreiner ( http://johnschreiner.blogspot.ca/2012/10/class-of-2012-kanazawa-wines.html ). As for me, you know I much prefer to let the wines speak for themselves:

2011 “Raku” Syrah

85% Syrah, 15% Viognier

91+ points

200 cases produced

• In the glass: a dark ruby core filled with bright highlights – pungent floral tones lifting from the glass with a seductive balance of rose-hips, irises, warm earth and Cab-Sauv-like graphite mineral aromas, pine trees and a last note of fresh thyme in the garden. The palate is food-focused, as the acid can seem out of balance but is simply full of the exuberance of youth. Fine tannin is beautifully integrated already and though this wine could enjoy many years in the cellar, I say drink it now and often! It’s so rare to find a New World Syrah that is so fresh, so inviting, that after one glass one simply looks for another.
• FOOD PAIRING:  a wine like this cries out for wild game, but mostly to me I thought of duck. Duck as only the French would cook it: with Bing cherries. Consider canard au cerises, wild rice – fresh thyme latkes, sweet-soy butternut squash pave, buttered Brussel sprouts. 

I’m reminded of a famous winemaker who once told me : “Some years, only idiots can fail to make good wine. In bad years, only the best winemakers can.” Now I think to myself that perhaps that winemaker was keeping part of the equation to himself. For isn’t one of the keys to being great at something being ahead of the curve? Being that person who thinks just a little differently then everyone else – even when that very way of thinking puts them at odds with the majority?

Today I tried a very special wine from a talented winemaker, and plan on trying everything else that he’s working on. Why? Because I know that soon, very soon, every educated colleague of mine west of Montreal and north of LA is going to being talking about the exciting work of Richard Kanazawa. And I’m going to be the guy with those wines.

Many thanks to FreeHouse Wines: agents ( www.freehousewine.com ) for bringing this to my attention, and my thanks to Richard Kanazawa for the sample bottle.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts, comments and questions. Here, or:

on Twitter @AStudentofWine

on Facebook @www.facebook.com/TheChefandTheGrape

Perseus wines, British Columbia vqa

 http://perseuswinery.com/

 

A winemaker friend of mine told me recently:

   "Sending my wine to competition is roughly equivalent to the stress I might have faced, had I sent my children to beauty pageants."

...

Rob Ingram, owner

A Little Dramatic I thought, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Flash-forward a few weeks and I'm scribbling away at my notes for the new release of Perseus Winery, his words coming back to haunt me. I considered the wineries (relatively) new owner Rob Ingram and what stresses and challenges he must be facing in his day-to-day business as he sends forth his enological minions to all parts of Canada.

One of the biggest stresses must be that he has worked through three consulting winemakers in as many years, trying to find the right fit. Having settled his focus now with JM Bouchard, who is best known to British Columbians for his work at Road 13 just down the street, I can only believe that a greater clarity will come quickly to the wines.

A native of Quebec, which is perhaps better known these days for the decadent "iced-cider" then it is for wine production, Jean Martin (or JM as he prefers) never planned on becoming a winemaker. But that being said, I've met with those who hail from a multi-generation wine-making family and smile in recognition as I hear JM saying "Its all about the dirt!"

You read it in my reviews time and time again, how the top-level professionals in the wine industry have moved in-line with the idea that 90% of making a wine is growing great grapes. We forget, sometimes, how contrary that is to what was wide-spread practice in the industry only a short generation ago (and in some cases, much-much more recent then that!)... there was a time when making wine was more chemistry then artistry, more equation then inspiration and perspiration. We have moved forward, as a collective, by looking back at the "ancestral farming" and even "ancestral wine-making", when less was more and we didn't put into the soil (or the wine) what we didn't want to take out.

And what I took from my glass(es) of Perseus was delightful:

2011 Chardonnay

*BENEFITS FROM A 30 MINUTE DECANT OR 1 RUN THROUGH THE AERATOR

89+ points

• displaying a smokey/flinty mineral-driven nose, this wine has zippy (full) lemon-peel acids that will work wonders with roast chicken! Packing a strong initial flavor-punch of the same mineral tones, I think it safe to say that the winemaker enjoys his white-Burgundy very much. If you want to pair food off the minerality, then oysters/clams/mussels are a natural! Oysters Rockefeller anyone???

2012 Gewurztraminer

90 points

*NO NEED TO DECANT/AERATE

• This varietal is to wine what a sundress is to women: highly complimentary. And few places in the world are producing so many different interpretations of Gewurztraminer as is British Columbia; this being a personal  favorite! The bouquet is a kaleidoscope of lush tropical flowers, peach/apricot compote and yet delicate mineral-tones underneath. The palate is awash in bright (full) grapefruit acids that are going to be perfect with my next seafood Thai dish and the relatively low alcohol means that I can have that food as spicy as I want. Yum~!

2011 Merlot

89 points

*BENEFITS FROM 1 HOUR DECANT OR 1 RUN THROUGH AN AERATOR

• Dark ruby core and bright cherry rim, this wine is a very cool-climate example of Merlot. The aromas are full of bright red cranberry/raspberry/currant tones with a hint of warm/spicy musk/earth underneath. The palate is full of those same, ultra-cool, ultra-bright red berry flavors with the slight earthy background and huge chunky tannin just waiting for big, rich winter foods to balance it.

2011 Syrah/Malbec

91+ points

*MINIMAL DECANTING/AERATION NEEDED

• Stunning. From the moment I poured it in the glass, this wine flooded my room with heady aromas of warm tropical flowers, red and black berries, precise graphite-like minerality, subtle oak and more... the sophistication of the bouquet was easily matched by the concentration and balance of the palate which exuded many of the same characteristics and in a refreshingly unique manner. This is not classical Syrah, nor is it classic Argentinian Malbec, but it is a delightful mix of both those worlds. I want no food with it, only my fireplace and a great cigar. But, if I needed to eat, then certainly I would use beef as the Argentinians do and delight my friends with how brilliantly it pairs with any steak. Bon appetit~!
  

2010 Select lots Cabernet-Sauvignon

90 points

*NEEDS 1 HOUR+ DECANT OR 2 RUNS THROUGH AN AERATOR

• of note: my preference for this wine would be to cellar minimum 2 years to allow it to really come into it's own
• a deep, dark and inky wine, the aromas are full of traditional red and black currant, leather and graphite notes. Medium+ acids and full/chewy/meaty tannin make me want to use this as a food-wine... the palate is very similar to the nose and enjoys a medium or average length finish. Unquestionably a brilliant choice for your Winter dishes of: roast beef, pot roast, prime rib etc. Want a different pairing? Try this with an ultra-rich dark chocolate dessert and be amazed~!

2010 "Invictus"

Bordeaux-styled blend of: 56% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec

89+ points

*BENEFITS FROM 1 HOUR DECANT OR 1 RUN THROUGH AN AERATOR

• so dark it seems more black then purple... bruised one might say. Medium concentration aromas that start with the freshness of red raspberries/currants and develop into some blueberry/blackberry tones, warm savory herbs and earth with more then a hint of vanilla. Crisp med+ red currant acids and chewy full tannin, an approachable alcohol (14.9% ABV) to be wary of - truly a wine made for big meals. Very good balance and good structure with medium- length... this wine won't disappoint with your hearty Winter dishes, or for the person who just can't help but fire-up their barbeque for just - one - more - steak!

Perseus is a young winery even by BC standards, which means that for most of the world it's barely out of the womb. But. But with talented, passionate individuals like Jean-Martin Bouchard to watch over her, and with the determination of an owner like Rob Ingram (who managed to secure said talent!), I have no doubts that the winery and the wines will continue to grow and evolve. And any winery that evolves from making their own utterly unique blends right out-of-the-gate will undoubtedly grow into something worth watching.

The proof is in the glass!

As always, I welcome your thoughts here or on Twitter @AStudentofWine

CINCIN~!!!     SLAINTE~!!!     CHEERS~!!!