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Shaking Off the Winter Brews

Posted on June 8, 2018

by Shawn
I don’t normally play beer favourites based on season, but of course, it’s just natural to reach for those light, possibly fruity, possibly tart, crushable beers. Now is about the time when brewers will start introducing some of their more summery beers, and this tasting is purely to showcase these! These somewhat loosely themed tastings are where I can let loose and try to turn people's heads, change minds, defy expectations and really just show off. Don't like pales and IPA? Well here's a couple that you're going to love. Can't handle fruit and flavoured beers? This horchata inspired beer is everyone's cup of tea. Hate sours? Well, some things I can't help, but I can at least mourne in that case!
So what goes better with beer than cheese and meats? Nothing I can think of… so that’s what we got, from our lovely neighbours Peasant Cheese. I picked out 6 of my most summery beers, along with one darker style that I feel went along well enough. Now sit back and come with me on a quick little journey through the tasting, and just you try to stop your mouth from watering.

The Bruery Orchard Wit: This is what a Wit should be! Brewed in the style of Belgian Wit, but taken to another level with the addition of Bavarian wit and French Saison yeast on top of the typical Belgian Wit. On top of all that, a light souring with house cultures and foedra ageing. Crisp, fruity and wild! ($9.69 for a 375mL bottle)
Burdock Brett Apricot: This saison is aged in neutral oak barrels on top of apricots and apricot puree for 1 year. Super delicate like a pretty white wine, a light vinous character with robust stone fruit flavours and lively carbonation. A subtle but fantastic beer. ($14.79 for a 375mL bottle)

Banded Peak Pink Boots NEPA: Crisp, with a creamy, grainy body. Oodles of mango, papaya and exotic citrus fruits thanks to the plentiful hopping. Low in alcohol and IBUs make this just the most crushable. (Available for a limited time on our growler bar)

Breakside Kids These Haze: Bigger body than our previous beer. Still plenty of tropical fruits and heavy citrus. Mellow alcohol is still present and beneath a wonderfully assembled malty base. ($11.39 for a 650mL bottle)

Evil Twin Kolata: Milkshake IPA with pineapple and coconut. Thes best kind of pina kolata. Starts sweet and ends dry, with good coconut tones, light fruitiness and a good base malt. ($6.79 for a 473mL tall can)

The Bruery Or Xata: A blonde ale made like a horchata! The addition of rice, cinnamon, and vanilla turn this beer magically into a creamy, summery drink with light spice and silky body. Drink cold! ($18.49 for a 750mL bottle)

Outcast the Forgetful Brewer: At the last minute, Outcast brewer Patrick decided to make a  stout inspired by a hazelnut spread, with big additions of hazelnuts cacao, and vanilla. This light-bodied stout, funny enough, ha...

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Rum Rebellion

Posted on June 5, 2018

by Comrade Hunter

Why do we call this class Rebellious Rums? Are rums rebellious? I don’t think so. If anything, rum is silky, soft, sweet, caressing, easy, fun … ho, what have we here? 69% Alcohol? What is the meaning of this? That isn’t rum, that’s pirate’s grog! Where is the sweetness, the caressing touch of my Zaya, my Zacapa

There won’t be any of that here. Time for a change, a mutiny, a rebellion of sorts. It is the time for REBELLIOUS RUMS!

This silly vignette aside, rum has stumbled upon this ridiculous portrayal in the last years. Why? Perhaps to cultivate a mass consumer appeal for the spirit, for a long while considered by some a struggling market. Where does rum fit in the spirits world? Is it a high-falutin brown spirit for only the most distinguished of palates, or is it a back bar spirit for cheap highballs and tiki drinks? Why can’t it be both? Rum can be extremely varied in style, and is, but the market has a preconceived notion of what rum is supposed to be: a sweet, syrupy drink that gives you terrible hangovers. Yes, it is made out of sugar, but no, it is not inherently sweet. Much of what distillers produce is quite the contrary; dry, savoury, oddball spirits that are so unique one couldn’t find a similar experience in anything else in the world. But as demand is for the more stereotypical rum, most mainstream producers shy away from such styles.

This tasting was intended to shed light on the other, darker, unvisited side of rum; the place which dwellers of the high seas only whisper about in the corners of dark, dank bars. Here is what we tried for Rebellious Rums, or, What Rum Ought To Be according to Hunter.



Plantation Nicaragua 2001
Starting off low and slow, this bottle is the Trojan Horse of the night. Get comfortable, this is what we all remember from our previous rum experiences. Nothing fancy, just an easy going, silky, deceptive dessert to get warmed up with. The beauty of rum is you start with dessert and move on to the main course following. Procured from an anonymous Nicaraguan distiller, likely Flor de Cana given the size of their operation, this rum is column distilled spirit adding to its overall sweetness. What makes plantation stand out as a whole is their practice of putting single origin rums in cognac barrels for the last part of maturation, adding wine and wood spice tones to the spirit. Imagine a banana flambee with layers of fruit sauce layered on top. Baked apple and the general assortment of spices, delicate cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and brown sugar. The most popular release of the night, and a generally favoured pick for the standard rum crowd. The sweetness of this product makes it easy for anyone to enjoy. $75

Plantation Over-poof 69%
A marriage of rums from Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana, this molasses-based over-proof was ma...

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Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada Outturn for June 2018

Posted on October 5, 2018

So now it is June. We are already near the halfway point of 2018. The planet keeps spinning through the days and orbiting through the months with seemingly no inclination to stop and take a breather. Summer might not be officially underway but we have had some days where it feels like it is already here. Winter is remembered only as a quaint concept, at least until we get a freak snowfall in the middle of Stampede next month.

This past May was an impressive month for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada. We hosted two separate Outturns over a two week period. One focused on the typical seven new single cask releases we showcase at the beginning of each month. The other was quite a bit different, featuring the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's first foray into Gin as well as an Armagnac, two Cognacs and a stellar Single Grain. All told there were a total of TWELVE new bottles released in the past month, with many still available to sample and purchase for Society Members.

That number of new green bottles will not be topped this month, but we do have seven more for your enjoyment, and the lineup includes some very unique bottles:

Two special Islay bottles from the 2018 Feis Isle
One special Speyside bottle from the Speyside Whisky Festival
This Speyside bottle also happens to be the first SMWS bottling from this distillery to make its way to Canada, and it is worth a try. This specific distillery was not well known until it was purchased last year by a group led by Billy Walker, famous for reviving Benriach, Glendronach, and Glenglassaugh Distillery over the past 15 years.
The lowest ABV in the lineup is still at an impressive 56.1%. The highest weighs in at a nice, round 65%.
Also in the lineup is bottling from a Lowlands distillery only seen a few times over the past couple of years.

All of this information, plus the information on previous releases that are still available can be found on our website here. If any SMWS bottles show as being out of stock on our website please contact us – we might still be able to get more. As always we would like to give a big thank-you to our awesome neighbour’s Peasant Cheese for supplying the small bites for the tastings.

What does this all mean? What does it add up to? Will I ever stop stalling and padding out sentences and just get on with the bottle information already? Only time will tell, and you must find the patience to endure until then, for now, I am tempted to place more commas and become more heavy handed with the use of run-on sentences if only just to test you further. Words. Words. Words.

Just kidding! Read on below.

Cheers,
Evan
evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com
Twitter and Instagram: @sagelikefool
Instagram: one part of @kwmwhisky



37.98 - A TRIFLE CITRUSY
This 14 year ol...

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New Beers for the Rest of May!

Posted on May 30, 2018

Alright, so we're at the end of the month now. The sunny days are finally lasting until 9ish, and the heat has started pumping! I'm excited about summer, and all the tasty light, sour and fruity beers that come along with it. I think I have a few such things in this little update, but before I get there, I wanted to tell you about an exciting new Canadian brewer that will be hitting our shelves this week. I'm more than excited to try each and every one of their offerings, Burdock brewing out of Toronto has a number of well-crafted beers, but there are a few I'm a little more than intrigued by their beers which are inspired heavily by the wine industry and that is showcased quite a bit in some of the beers specifically coming into KWM! Take a quick read of what beers have just arrived, along with all the non-Burdock beers to arrive on the back half of May.

Burdock:

Saison du Must II ($14.79 for a 375mL bottle)

Three ($6.19 for a 355mL can)

July ($11.69 for a 375mL bottle)

Bumo ($19.99 for a 375mL bottle)

Brett Apricot ($14.79 for a 375mL bottle)

Auko ($13.99 for a 375mL bottle)

Ok, now here's the rest.

Les Trois Mousquetaires Ceci N'est Pas un Gueuze ($22.99 for a 750mL bottle)

Knee Deep Breaking Bud ($5.79 for a 473mL tall can)

Crux Playwave Pale ($4.59 for a 355mL can)

Coronado Orange Avenue Wit ($9.59 for a 650mL bottle)

Gigantic Pinacoolada ($9.79 for a 500mL bottle)

Breakside Kids These Haze ($11.39 for a 650mL bottle)

Outcast Last Minute Stout ($19.19 for a 4-pack of tall cans)

Zero Issue Outlander Kolsch ($16.39 for a 4-pack of tall cans)

Fahr North Dunkelweisse ($5.19 for a 500mL bottle)

Coronado Peach Cruiser IPA ($9.59 for a 650mL bottle)

Founders KBS ($8.09 for a 350mL bottle)



And that's it for May! Hope the month was great, but that the summer gets even better! Stay tuned for some excellent new beers through June including 2 Crows from Halifax!
Cheers!
Shawn
beerguy@kensingtonwinemarket.com
Twitter: @ShawnsBrewsCGY...

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Weirdo Wines

Posted on July 14, 2018

By Abigail

In this day an age, we pretty much stick to what we know; the average person drinks no more than 20 different varietals, that almost 0.001% of what varietals are grown in the world (not really, but just for dramatic effect). This was a tasting to explore some of the 99.999% of wines out there, and to get people interested in the weird and unknown.

Here’s what we tasted:



Movia Puro 2006 organic
This was a treat. An undisgorged 2006 sparkling rose from Slovenia. This was a fresh and funky wine, and a great way to start off the tasting, especially when Bryan kindly demonstrated to everyone how to disgorge your own bottle, which got everyone ready to try some wine. This 100% Pinot Noir was a light orange hue and a touch haze in the glass and was extremely fresh on the palate. $38.99

Domaine de l'Idylle Jacquere Old Vine
From the small region of Savoie, France comes this little gem of a wine. Jacquere is extremely popular within the region, given its bright acidity, and vibrant, yet slightly savoury palate. This wine is perfect for any cheese board, especially one that consists of Comte or other high-alpine cheeses. $23.99

Birichino Malvasia Bianca
Birichino is a small production coming from the cooler climate of the Central Coast in California, focusing on making wines with the perfect balance of perfume, poise, and puckishness. This Malvasia Bianco is something rather different than what we would regularly enjoy, with a minty freshness and notes of alpine herbs, blossom and a fruity finish, which creates a beautiful elegance and express wine. $28.99


Broc Cellars Love Rose
Broc Cellars is a newer, minimal intervention production coming from an urban winery in Berkeley, California. Broc Cellars makes are delicious wine, though sometimes they can be a touch expensive and even hard to find for us regular Joes and Janes. Because of this, they decided to create the Love wine label, which consists of the same values as their other wines but created with a more inexpensive and easy drinking style in mind. This rose consists of 90% Valgiguie 8% Zinfandel and 2% Trousseau, which produces a beautifully dry, crisp and fruity wine. $33.99

Menti Monte del Cuca
A Weirdo Wine tasting would not be complete without some orange wine! Menti is a fantastic production coming from Northern Italy, with focus on minimal intervention, organic and biodynamic agriculture.  If you have not experienced orange wine yet, Menti is a great place to start. It is well-balanced and has everything you would expect from a wine made from white grapes (fruit, floral, freshness), but it also has those added notes from the skin maceration (tannin, a touch more body, and a hint of funky character on the nose and palate). This wine is made from 100% Garganega, resulting in an orange wine that has beautiful aroma...

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