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Six wines (not from Niagara) that rocked my world in 2015

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Tasting an ocean of wine every year is kind of what I do. Winery after winery, sample after sample, sip after sip: swirl, sniff, taste, assess and spit. Next.

Don’t get me wrong; I love it. Finding those hidden treasures and being able to write about them and the people who make them, brings great joy and pleasure. Especially when I get to do that right there in my home region of Niagara.

But, you can understand why taking a step back from the routine once in a while and enjoying a great bottle of wine for what it is without jotting down notes is not only an enjoyable respite, it is also a reminder of why I write about wine in the first place. I love the pleasure it brings, the flavours and textures, the way it interacts with food and, most importantly, how it draws us together in conversation, shares in our experiences and is a part of our celebrations no matter how big or small.

Wine is a beautiful thing, a memorable thing.

And so are these six wines that rocked my world in 2015 for various reasons. There are a lot of old cellared wines on this list because, for me, that is one of the best qualities of wine: How they age so gracefully and become this ethereal thing as they round into shape.

Note: The Wines in Niagara Most Exciting Wines of the Year (Top 10 White and Red wines from Niagara, plus Top 5 sparkling wines) will be posted here on Dec. 26. My Top 10 Red and White Wines from B.C. is already posted here.

In no particular order …

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Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 — Let’s start by saying, I developed a fondness for Napa Valley Cabs from my days in Calgary. Regular trips to Napa, a wide selection of Napa wines in the free market that is Alberta, and a city obsessed with big, bold red wines tends to rub off on a fella. Over the years of tasting these over-the-top reds, I soon found myself gravitating to the higher elevation cabs where you find at a semblance of finesse and balance.

Diamond Creek is not for everyone. It is considered the most “unique” winery in Napa, growing fruit from its 660-foot elevation on Diamond Mountain southwest of Calistoga in four distinct vineyards: Gravelly Meadow, Red Rock Terrace, Volcanic Hill and Lake Vineyard. Each vineyard produces its own unique style but share one thing in common — they are some of the longest-lived in Cabs in California.

James Laube wrote in his book California’s Great Cabernets: “Diamond Creek has a reputation for making austere, tannic, enormously concentrated wines. While many people find these wines too extreme and tannic, it is exactly those qualities that appeal to Diamond Creek aficionados.”

Count me among the fans.

The Gravelly Meadow vineyard is only five acres and takes its name from the gravelly, rocky soil, which is well drained. The wines are typically earthier than the other single-vineyard wines and also the most forward.

When I pulled the cork on this 1992 with my trusty Durand I was shocked. Having previously tried one from the same vintage, I was expecting an interesting, but tired wine. This bottle blew me away. Gobs and gobs of mature black fruits, black currant jam, blueberry compote, fortified cherry notes, loamy/earthiness, woodsy oak spice and hints of mushroom and forest floor on the nose. It was brilliant, intoxicating and hedonistic. Then I drank of this amazing wine. It was seductive and brooding on the palate; first the well-matured, no, PERFECTLY matured cassis and blackberry fruits followed by licorice, oak spice and melting tannins that felt like silk in the mouth. The flavours resonated for minutes on the finish. This is the epitome of what wine, aged wine, is all about.

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Vincent Dauvissat Chablis “La Forest” 2011 — Wow! An extraordinary Premier Cru that was simply enthralling. I’ve been back to get more of this wine across the border in Buffalo where they seem to have an endless supply of good Chablis at Premier Wines and Spirits that the LCBO here in Ontario can’t seem to find. It is pure magic with a nose of salty sea breeze, crushed oyster shells, river stones and chalky minerality with white flowers, fresh lemon and dried herbs. It has persistence on the palate but dances lightly, deliberately, releasing its flavours of citrus and lime peel in layers as the utterly profound minerality washes over everything. This is all that Chablis can be, yet few achieve. Brilliant.

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Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1987 — Yeah, not the greatest vintage of this mysterious, notorious and mind-blowingly delicious Pauillac First Growth from Bordeaux, but where I drank it (the Yukon, you can just make out the welcome to Whitehorse sign in the background of the photo) and the story behind it made it magical. You can read the story here or in the current edition of Quench magazine.

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Gaja Barbaresco 1986 — The two bottles I had of this extraordinary Nebbiolo from this prestigious producer were both shared with great friends. The first time at a cottage in Muskoka beside a roaring fire on a coolish summer’s night with Bob and Annie Chant; the second at home with two dear friends and my wife with “crowd sourced” cheese pairings before one of the best days I’ve had in Niagara tasting wine at Stratus Vineyard followed by an afternoon of eating El Gastro Nomo’s Beer Shed Kitchen’s entire menu while enjoying Oast House brews with Dave and Ann Love. The wine? Among the best I have ever tasted, perfectly aged. The company, even better.

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Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve 1986 — I have had a love-hate relationship with Beaulieu Vineyard for decades. Always one of the pricier Cabernets, and the most austere from Napa Valley, it has always been a crap shoot as to what it would turn out like as it aged (which is the only way to enjoy this wine). I, like most people, had a major falling out with BV when they refused to address the TCA problems in the late 1990s until finally admitting the taint existed after a Wine Spectator story outed them.

“We’ve wondered in our tastings why we’ve had so many corky wines,” said BV winemaker Joel Aiken at the time. “Now we know the reason.”

It took a while for me to come back. This oldie from 1986 from the top tier for BV Cabernet is a superb example of what this can be, especially in its old age. This was just past prime but nonetheless a thrilling, well-aged Napa cab with still plenty of fruit on the nose with herbs and licorice and fading wood spice notes. The tannins were resolved and the acidity no longer a factor but it is was a comforting and brooding wine on the palate and quite enjoyable to the very last drop.

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Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1985 — I’m seeing a theme here with my Bordeaux infatuation and it all begins in Pauillac. Whenever a Bordeaux knocks my socks off, it usually comes from that appellation. The commune consists of only 3,000 acres of vineyards in the Haut-Medoc between the villages of Saint-Julien to the south and Saint Estephe to the north but contains three of Bordeaux’s five First Growth wines: Lafite, Latour and Mouton Rothschild. With the prestige, comes the hefty price tag for these wines.

I’ll admit to not sharing this with anyone when I opened it while grilling up steaks for me and my son, Tynan, while my wife and daughter were out of town. It’s not how I like to enjoy wine but, hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I did get to share of drop of this with amateur winemaker Mark Glover who popped by the following day and he was suitable impressed. This was absolute killer wine, still full of life and energy. Bordeaux can do what no one else can with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and it is magical. It is the texture, the silkiness that comes with time in the bottle, that defines Bordeaux’s top bottles. That and the integration of the fruit and spice. It becomes a complete unit of timeless beauty that is never out of fashion and always amazing. I do like the 1985 vintage, it’s not quite as stunning as ’82 and certainly not of the same calibre as either ’89 or 90, but it has stood the test of time and should be considered at least in the second-tier of good vintages.