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A Night in Reims (Champagne Tasting)

Posted on June 12, 2019

by Abigail

Champagne is a drink of beauty; It’s delicate, yet unapologetically powerful in its elegance. It's a wine style that should be celebrated more, any day of the week, not only consumed on special occasions.

Champagne became known as a celebratory wine during its popularity in the Belle Epoque, a period of time between the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 and the beginning of World War One in 1914. It was an era filled with optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, and innovation.  During this period, Champagne was consumed in plenty and became part of the celebration myth that it is still wrapped up in today.

We open a bottle on new years eve, at graduation and weddings, yet it's not widely consumed on other occasions. This tasting was to show the beauty of Champagne, to see it as versatile as other wine styles, and to show how unique champagne can be.
In this tasting, I wanted to pour everything we have to the shelves, but unfortunately, I couldn't. Instead, I decided to show Champagne in a few different stages and styles; Aperitif, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Vintage. The reason for doing this was to exemplify the difference between each and every style of champagne, without pigeonholing into one characteristic.

Here is the lineup that we tasted our way through!



Champagne Pol Cochet Symbiose NV
A beautiful organic Champagne and a Kensington Wine Market exclusive! "On the nose, its aromas of orange and honey evolve towards notes of mango and mandarin. The palate is fresh, full-bodied, revealing vanilla flavours and lemon meringue. The finish is long and persistent," according to the Champagne house. Serve chilled, as an aperitif or with a dessert such as lemon meringue pie. Mostly Pinot Noir (65%), and the rest is Chardonnay.



Champagne Jacque Lassaigne Les Vignes de Montgueux NV
This is Lassaigne's entry-level Champagne as meant as an aperitif. Fresh, delightful and wonderfully complex. The grapes are harvested by hand—from 9 different sites—at their maximum ripeness before being destemmed & gently pressed. The fruit undergoes complete malolactic fermentation & no sulphites are added to the blend. The wine is aged in new & old barrels for 12 to 24 months and held in bottle for 1 to 5 years until it is disgorged, corked & released.
Pale straw in the glass with lovely mineral, dried fruit and citrus zest aromatics that reflect the purest expression of the Montgueux terroir. The palate is vibrantly alive with crisp citrus and melon flavours that are backed by deft acidity & dazzling minerality. The finish resonates with succulent citrus notes.

Champagne Laherte Freres Rose de Meunier NV
Pink bubbles for a special occasion, or any time you just want to celebrate a day in style. This one comes from the...

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Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada June 2019 Outturn

Posted on June 14, 2019

by Evan

HEY SMWS CANADA MEMBERS: Have you been to the revamped SMWS.CA website yet? The website was just makeover, and it has a new option included for how you would like to receive the quarterly Unfiltered Magazine.

All SMWS Canada members now have the choice between receiving the magazine by mail as usual, or opting out and just reading the online version available through SMWS Canada's website. Choosing not to receive the physical version of the magazine will get you a discount on your annual membership renewal.

The online version of Unfiltered Magazine can be viewed as long as you remain and SMWS member, and the online archive allows you to view a decade of past issues as well. It is definitely worth a login to check out if you have not already.








 

Hey... I know those guys!
So here we are in June of 2019. Summer is officially just around the corner and we have seen a few hot days to lend credence to the idea of this season's actual existence as well. Whichever season it is really doesn't matter, as it is always time for a new green bottle or six!

This month's lineup is quite refreshing and summer-friendly on the whole. Here is a quick breakdown to tease and tantalise:

Everybody's favourite weird distillery is included in the lineup. Loch Lomond made a spectacular splash for me last month with the crazy peated and tea-like (and already sold out) Tarry Lapsang Souchong. June's bottling shows how diverse this Highland (but oh so close to the Lowlands) distillery is, with a Single "Grain" made from 100% malted barley ran through their column still. It is delightfully rich and juicy, and will likely sell out very soon...
On the understated side of things is a 35 that is the elder statesman of the month at 22 years old. It is soft yet delightful with wonderful fruit notes plus a hint of spice and dunnage.
Distillery 48 makes a return to the SMWS lineup, showing bold and juicy and just a wee bit spicier than the two that preceded it. It also shows great value for the price in my opinion.
At KWM we featured a returning bottle from a previous Outturn, choosing to showcase a wonderful and slightly strange bottle from distillery number 44. Is the distillate peated, or is that character coming from what was in the cask before it? Only you can decide... You had better decide to get a bottle soon though, because the last few available are on sale at 20% off regular price...
Number 136 is a massively sherried malt from a Lowland distillery that only started production in 2014. Don't let the age deceive you: if you like big sherry, this one is for you. The Sherry is so prominent the whisky itself plays second fiddle.
Then we have a clean and refreshing 53, showing light smoke and coastal influence in spades. It also happens to be a sister ca...

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Rum Runnin'

Posted on June 6, 2019

by Shawn

Oh boy do I love rum! The rich -and at times unfortunate- history, the variety, the international penetration, and of course the drink itself! Just as I did last time I put on one of these, I wanted to create a lineup of interesting rums from a variety of countries and styles, and of varying qualities, and I think I succeeded in just that. Some newcomers and some old favourites, and natural, because this is Kensington Wine Market, some real rarities!

I’m not all that certain what pirates ate besides limes, so I just asked the lovely Peasant Cheese to throw together tasty boards full of cheese and meat. That works well enough! Well enough for an informative evening of swigging rum and singing a sea shanty at least! Well… maybe there wasn’t any singing, but that’s mostly because I’m not the sort of person to start that sort of thing off. Here’s what was swiggin’ though!





Cadenhead’s Panama 9 year old: This modestly aged rum is perfect to start the evening off with. It’s likely from the Don Jose distillery, which produces Ron Abuelo as well. It’s soft with custard-like creaminess and light white fruit with hints of esters. $125

Zuidam Flying Dutchman 3: Zuidam is the first artisan rum distillery in Europe, and it started small and shaky. A passion project between husband and wife, with a single still and production line. The Rum No.3 is at least 3 years old and spends time in New American Oak, Olorosso Sherry, and PX Sherry casks. The rum is lightly doughy with tangy wine cask notes. Soft and fruity with a moderate sweetness. $57

Teeda Okinawa Rum: This newcomer to the province is the only agricole style we’re tasting this evening. For those who don’t know, Agricole rum is a french style that was created when sugar beets started being used for sugar, and the demand for cane juice decreased. Producers turned to use the cane juice for rum instead of sugar. Agricole rum is softer and often exhibits grassy and herbaceous notes. This Okinawa rum is young and soft with hints of cane syrup and dunder. Mildly funky and fruity. $69

Compagnie des Indes Latino: This French bottler has this line of introductory rums. Their Latino blend is composed of Guatemala, Trinidad, Barbados, and Guyana rums. It’s lightly sweet with notes of danish pastry, vanilla and hints of oak. $56

The Whisky Agency Long Pond 2000: This obscure bottler offers some truly unique rums, and this happens to be one of my favourite. This 16 year old Jamaican is drawn from a single cask from the famous Long Pond distillery. Jamaica is known for it’s generous use of Dunder in their rums, and thankfully, this bottle exhibits nicely. Moderately estery with a mild sweetness underneath. A Raw rum with baking spice notes and a moderate fruitiness. $170
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Scotch Whisky Regions? Really?!

Posted on October 25, 2024

by Curt

The whisky regions of Scotland. A subject bound to raise the hackles of whisky geeks. For those less inclined to delve down into the real nitty gritty of the whisky world, the regions become a simple way to target what they think will be the bottles that suit their palate. Unfortunately, the producers are not so inclined to cooperate. And there' a good reason why. But let's save that that for the end of this rambling little monologue, what say? Read on, folks!

This tasting was focused on an issue that is kinda near and dea to my heart: the value of regions in defining flavour profiles. On its surface, the concept seems rather ludicrous. It wasn't always this way, however. There was a time when those regional boundaries (both real and imagined) literally did define some sort of loose-fitting flavour camps. The question for tonight was whether or not our attendees found value in these designations. And whether or not they would at the end of our time together. But let's come back to that in a moment. (Yes, I'm teasing a bit here. Bear with me.)

Single malt lovers are a rather singular breed. Their passion knows no bounds. And when they fall in love, they fall in love for keeps. Most people find it all begins something like the big bang theory. The great cosmic event, that is, not the TV show. There's one defining eureka! moment and suddenly an ever-expanding universe of wonder awaits. It grows continually and when you get deep enough into it, you realize that there's almost an element of time travel involved. Worm holes anyone? Bending the space-time continuum? Suddenly, contemporary malts won't cut it. Nor will the prospect of upcoming releases. That becomes the point where we start digging into the past. Historic bottlings, closed distilleries, long lost histories. Come to think of it, maybe it's more of a black hole than a worm hole. Once it takes hold and pulls you past the event horizon, there is simply no going back.

But before you ever reach that place, there's a journey of discovery. It begins with trial and error. And internet searches. And books. And chats with your friendly neighbours at Kensington Wine Market. Those early days of discovery are magic: finding the glassware that works best, the distilleries we love most, the expressions that live up to (or exceed) all the hype they generate, and the regions that birth the whiskies we so adore.

It's this latter that becomes so contentious the further you go on this journey. On its surface, it's a relatively simple concept. Each region produces malts of a certain style. And historically, there was a precedent that supported this too. The idea was largely conceived and reinforced by early blenders. They knew what sort of component malts they needed to marry together in order to build the taste profiles they strove for. And as with most of us, compartmentaliz...

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Stillin’ Gin’s Still In

Posted on May 23, 2019

by Shawn

Cheese and gin and cocktails and meat and tonics are all among my favourite things (and commas are not!). Thankfully, a new tasting season means a new round of gins for us to mix up and taste! I’ve said this before, but I feel that the romance behind gin is that it has the ability to showcase the creativity of the distiller. Starting with the base grain, and how clean you want to distill the spirit, you can create a dry and pretty, curvy backbone, or a sweet and grainy base on which you layer whatever flavours you can think of. The weather is starting to warm up, and we’ve already seen a pick up in gin-based traffic. So it was about time to start exploring and find the gin of the season!

I managed to bring together a selection of Gins, each from a different country, and each markedly different from each other. We started off the evening by sampling Eau Claire Distillery’s new Cherry Gin Collins. This ready-to-drink is a straight up Tom Collins (gin lemonade) made with Eau Claire’s Cherry Gin. It’s moderately sweet with ripe cherry flavours and hints of citrus.





Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin: Finely distilled and brilliantly put together, is exactly what you’d expect from these veteran Dutch distillers. Juniper, Iris, Coriander, Angelica, sweet orange, fresh lemons, cardamon, licorice and vanilla are each infused via their own distillation. Overall, 14 distillations are completed. A delicate, herbal and slightly warm gin with a hint of richness is the result.

Ferdinand's Saar Gin: This gin is made to embody the spirit of the Saar region. The countryside provides plenty of sustenance for the likes of gin, wine, and other treasured harvests. Aside from the 30 botanicals, riesling is also used in the gin making process. The beautiful aromatics from the noble grapes combine with their proprietary blend of locally harvested botanicals to create a vista of culinary, fruity and slightly earthy flavours.

Rivo Gin: This newcomer to the province hails from Lake Como in North Central Italy. The gin makers take after the witches of local legend who wandered the countryside near the lake and foraged herbs for their own esoteric use. Lemon Balm and Thyme are among the botanicals used. The gin is incredibly pretty with a big hit of floral perfume, and underlying notes of lemon, tea, and culinary herbs.

Masahiro Okinawa Gin: This unique gin will smell distinct right off the bat, and those who are familiar with Sake may pick up on it right away. Awamori is a rice based distillate similar to shochu, but drank mainly in Okinawa and a couple other countries, and is the base spirit for this gin. The fermented rice and koji are very noticeable as the base, and layered overtop are massive citrus notes, herbal green flavours, and hints of earthy black pepper.

Hendrick’s Orbium: The...

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