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Intro to White Wine

Posted on February 24, 2018

By Abi
White wine is something to be enjoyed year round. Yes, it is a blistering -20 degrees, and you don't necessarily want something cold when you're trying to warm up; But, these white wines will make you forget that hellish cold air outside, trust me.
This tasting will be focusing on the white Noble Grapes, transporting us around the world to some of the most classic examples of each. It's a tasting that will teach you the basics, but also (hopefully) change your perception on some wines.

So, what is white wine?
Believe it or not: just about any grape, be it red, pink or white can be made into white wine. The grape's skin colour doesnâ€™t necessarily excuse a grape from being made into a white wine. Indeed: most black or red grapes that you can name actually have white flesh under the skin. In order to make white wine, the juice is fermented without the skins (red and rose wines are fermented with contact to the skins, and thus, extract colour).
Okay, now what?
After the grapes are harvested, pressed and the juice is separated from the skins, the juice then goes through settling (removing any sediment from the clear juice), and then alcoholic fermentation happens (sugar + yeast = alcohol + carbon dioxide). After this, it either goes straight to bottling, or it can go through a few more steps.
Before aging, the winemaker might choose for the wine to go through malolactic fermentation which changes the tart malic acid into smooth and buttery lactic acid.Â After this choice is made, the wine can be aged.
There are many ageing options to use, but the majority comes down to wood vs. stainless steel. Wooden barrels, mostly seen as American or French Oak, is a beautiful thing. There are so many decisions going into the barrels; How big are the barrels going to be? Are they neutral(used) or new? French or American? Toasted to what degree? Â The two types of oak have different impacts to the wine. American oak adds notes of coconut, vanilla and cream soda to the wine, whereas French oak is more subtle with spice and can add a silky or satin-like texture to the resulting wine. Wood is also porous, so the wine can interact with oxygen during the ageing process, where it tends to relax the wine in a way.
Stainless steel is another option. Itâ€™s reliable, can be more temperature controlled and doesn't add any flavour to the wine. Typically they are used for younger, fruitier wines.
And the wait is over...
After aging, the wine is simply filtered and transferred into bottles, where there are then either aged some more (to meet certain appellation regulations) or sent right to our shelves.
Noble Grapes
Noble Grapes are kind of the stars of the wine world. They are the most popular and most planted, which has made them into to royalty. The Noblest of the Whites are listed below:

Sauvignon Blanc
Planted almost everywhere, Sau...

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Intro to Red Wine

Posted on February 7, 2018

by Abigail
Red wine is the drink of the season. Itâ€™s cold, snowy and you need some hearty vino to get you through the January blues. The tricky thing about wine is knowing what you want and what to look for. Â Itâ€™s a challenge to roam through a wine store after a grueling work day/week, and having to really think about what to look for; Knowing certain Domains or Chateaus and their signature flavours, or knowing certain varietals and which ones to go for and which ones to avoid, or even knowing if you want old world earthy vs. new world fruity. So many questions, but so little time.
Lucky for you, you have come the right place. Our little crash course in Red Wine will teach you the fundamentals, and then itâ€™ll be easy to build from there. We will be covering all the basics, from how red wine is made, what the ageing process is, and focusing on the Noble Red Grapes.
So...What is red wine?
Red wine is wine made with red grapes, and that the juice has had some serious contact with the skins, seeds, and maybe even the twigs. Skin holds most of the power found in red wine, it contains colour, tannin, Â and certain flavours and aromas. To extract this, the juice and skin macerate together. This can last from hours to weeks, depending on the winemakers' preference, and the grape varietal involved. Â Fermentation also happens at this time, and much to everyone's disbelief, most red wines are fermented until dry, leaving very little, if any sugar behind.
Okay, now what?
This is where the waiting game comes in. Depending on the varietal or decisions made by the winemaker, this is the part where the wine is ready for some malolactic fermentation and some ageing. Malolactic Fermentation is simply turning the malic acid (astringent) into lactic acid (smooth).
There are many ageing options to use, but the primary choice comes down to wood vs. stainless steel. Wood, mostly seen as American or French Oak, is a beautiful thing. There are so many decisions going into the barrels; How big are the barrels going to be? Are they neutral(used) or new? French or American? Toasted to what degree? Â These two types of oak have different impacts on the wine. American oak adds notes of coconut, vanilla and cream soda to the wine, whereas French oak is more subtle with spice and adding a satin or silky texture. Wood is also porous, so the wine can interact with oxygen during it ageing, where it tends to relaxes the wine in a way.
Stainless steel is another option. Itâ€™s reliable, temperature controlled and doesn't add any flavour to the wine. Typically they are used for younger, fruitier wines.
And the wait is over...
After ageing, the wine is simply filtered and transferred into bottles, where there are then either aged some more (to meet certain appellation regulations) or sent right to our shelves.
Noble Grapes
Noble Grapes are kind of the stars of the wi...

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Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada Outturn for February 2018

Posted on February 3, 2018

If you either follow @smwscanada on Twitter or reside in BC then you may have found news over the past few weeks surreal, bizarre, and discomforting. Talk of theÂ "prohibition-style raids" of whisky from four SMWS partner bars in British Columbia has taken over what is typically a fun place to talk about whisky. The news even left a slight feeling of unease hanging over the amazing Victoria Whisky Festival and the charities' supported by the event, though the SMWS Canada still found a way to power through.

Luckily for us in Alberta, it is highly unlikely that something like this would happen here. If you would like to show your support for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada and your whisky-loving brethren on the left coast in this battle over archaic liquor regulations you are welcome to sign this concerned whisky fan-authored petition here.

#FreeTheWhisky #FreeOurWhisky

It probably goes without saying that the fresh enthusiasm of January is gone and we are currently forced to view reality on its own terms - making our way through the cold, brutal slog of February with Valentine's Day being the one bright star showing in the distance?

Disregard all of that: it is my own cynicism and overwrought sentiment taking over. These second-month-of-twenty-eighteen blues and this bitter winter weather are taking their toll. For me there is only one cure: I want more cask strength whisky poured from those marvelous green bottles!

February's SMWS lineup continues on the trend of seeing more new-label bottles with only one of the older look bottles in the lineup (42.30). It also contains no Islay whisky.

The second Outturn of the 2018 seems to have a theme of everything happening in 'twos' For this February the SMWS Canada has graced us with:

2 bottles from Speyside aged 20 years or more
2 single casks are at 60% or higher
2 peated single malts from Highland Islands
2 cask finished single malts
2 distilleries we have not seen in a while, including one that has not had a Canada release since 2014!

So enough of the doldrums and bad news. Let's jump into the lineup!

Cheers,
Evan

The Lineup:

41.95 - JOUSTING WITH FLOWERS
ThisÂ 11 year oldÂ Speysider comes in at 56.2% after maturing in a refill barrel
Flavour profile: Juicy, oak & vanilla
Outturn: 226 bottles
Panel's tasting note: "Armed with huge floral bouquets the two jousting horsemen faced each other and raised their caramel wafer shields. With a kick of the heels they charged and the tremendous impact launched buds of roses, hyacinths and carnations into the air, giving rise to a sweet scent that mixed with the soft leather of the harnesses. A gust of wind blew the surrounding conifer and eucalyptus trees, blending a fresh citrus and peppermint bre...

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Introduction to Whisk(e)y with Hunter

Posted on January 23, 2018

When standing in front of imperious and daunting whisky walls as a customer, I oft times felt the urge to buy bottles that I knew. The comfort of spending my money on something that I knew was at the least popular was comforting; it at least indicated that other people enjoyed the bottle I was considering. The individual self I am referring to with respect to the previous passage is that of seven years ago, an individual who was intimidated by the variety of whisky choices available while still wanting to be adventurous. I wanted to experience the excitement of unique tastes, but what I was absolutely unsure of was what I actually liked. My first single malt was a patently poor spirit, but I forced myself to enjoy it. Something similar can be said for my first bourbon experience, but not my first Canadian whisky experience, of which in retrospect I would consider to be quite quality. What is funny about this is that I undertook a search for more single malt and bourbon experiences even though my initial impressions were objectively poor, and, perhaps one might even consider them self-forced. Further, considering that my first Canadian whisky experience was good one might imagine I would further pursue experiences of that sort.
Looking back, I believe what I lacked was a basic understanding of what each spirit had to offer, alongside a belief that certain whiskies were clearly superior with respect to others, hence my lack of Canadian whisky pursuit. No matter the number of articles or posts on whisky that I read, I still had not a clue of what kind of whisky I actually liked. Thinking back, the kind of information that may have been helpful back then would be a fundamental understanding of tastes, outside the abstraction that one might glean from readings. Through this class, Introduction to Whisk(e)y, I attempted to provide such a foundational understanding of different spirits from around the world. It should be obvious that such an approach is difficult, for even within specifically classified spirits such as bourbon, Irish, single malt, etc., finding an appropriate representation is a challenge. Every classification is of itself an umbrella definition for what one should expect experience wise, so no spirit truly reflects the entirety of a distinct spirit class. Instead of trying to craft the perfect tasting to perfectly express each category I have simply chosen what I felt would hopefully, going forward, equip people with the tools to make their own informed decisions. If that was done, wonderful, otherwise, my only other hope was to offer the attendees an enjoyable and diverse whisky tasting, and I daresay this tasting did less than that.

Royal Canadian Small Batch Whisky
Canadian whisky is generally in the territory of sweet, and this whisky holds a fair amount of candied sweetness. Thicker, opulent, toffee driven in style, and easy to drink, this spirit typifies most standard Canadian whiskies. What this bott...

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Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada Outturn for January 2018

Posted on January 8, 2018

Happy New Year!

We have turned the page on 2017 and we now start another year of great tastings here at Kensington Wine Market. As has been the case for the past five (!) years we ring in the new year with a fresh Scotch Malt Whisky Society Outturn. Nothing can get you excited for another spin around the sun like SEVEN brand new cask strength offerings!

The septet features quite a few familiar distillery numbers though some are shown in a different light when compared to other recent bottlings - much of this due to a total of three cask finishes in the lineup. It also seemed to carry a theme of 'out with the old - in with the new': only one of the old-look bottles was on hand. The other six were all showing off the new look for SMWS bottles with the light accents of colour that are not necessarily all SMWS GREEN(TM). I am sure we will see more old look bottles this year but this is surely a sign of things to come.

Another feature of the January Outturn is the inclusion of a bottle some may already be familiar with: SMWS 10.117 - SMOKY, SALTY, SWEET PORRIDGE. Though this Outturn is its regular-sized debut, the is also a 100mL version was included in our sold-out 2017 Kensington Wine Market Whisky Advent Calendar. As we have done over the past few years - we featured a special 100mL SMWS bottle on the 25th day of the Calendar and this time around it was the above mentioned smoky, salty and sweet Bunnahabhain. We have a few extra bottles of the 100mL version for Society Members who would like to add another mini to their collection.

Curious about the Scotch Malt Whisky Society? More information can be found on our website here. Past releases and other available bottles can found on our website as well.

A big thanks as always goes to our neighbor's Peasant Cheese for supplying the food compliment for the tastings.

Cheers,
Evan

Here is the January 2018 SMWS Canada Lineup:

35.157 - REWARD FOR A BRASS BAND
This 14-year-old Speysider is 58.2% after maturing in a 1st fill barrel
Flavour profile: Juicy, oak & vanilla
Outturn: 228 bottles
Panel's tasting note: "The initial nose was clean, fresh and alluring, offering chocolate, nougat and honeycomb toffee; gradually balanced by dried grass and flowers â€“ we could imagine honeyed apricot flan and corn dollies laid out on a polished boardroom table â€“ classy. The palate had two complementary levels â€“ a lively bugle blast of juicy, succulent sweetness (fudge, cinnamon biscuits, currants, orange zest) underpinned by a very dry, deep tuba-like reverberation of toasted oak. The reduced nose became slightly more perfumed â€“ fresh marigolds and nasturtiums instead of dried. The palate discovered a compromise note of putty, oiled cricket bats and waxed wood. A rewarding dram."
Drinking tip: "Might be too ...

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