WTN: Joseph Perrier Vidonia l'Arrosee Montelena

With Canadian Turkey Day Dinner

1990 Joseph Perrier Champagne Cuvée Royále – light amber colour, a subdued pettilance, some nice caramel and vanilla notes in the nose and on palate a very mild oxidative note that if anything added to the flavour interest of the wine. At the end of its life but it went down fighting.

2018 Suertes del Marqués Valle de la Orotava Vidonia – tasted blind. Mid straw colour with lemon in the nose and very faint oxidative hints along with a bit of candle wax. Clean and crisp on palate with a decently long finish. Where is it from? Well, Spain technically, but from the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands half way around the top hump of Africa. Made from the local varietal Listan Blanco, fermented and aged in oak. A chardonnay ringer but with extra elements that made one unsure about guessing that. Great wine for blind tastings!

1985 Château L'Arrosée – this St. Emilion is one you rarely see but it was brought into my province for many years and a group of followers resulted. The colour was getting just a tad pale, and the nose was a good currant and mint, with an interesting smoked meat element that developed as it opened up. Smooth in the mouth, balanced and with a long soft finish. Good.

1992 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate – the twentieth anniversary wine, cellared by me since release. Similar colour – perhaps a tad deeper, and a nose that continued to evolve for more than two hours. Obvious mature cab, with more spice than the Bordeaux showed, and elements of mocha and then tobacco and black currant showed up. In the mouth it showed soft tannins and good length. Still in fine shape, having added secondary elements that both mellow the wine and increase complexity. I love these wines (this is one of my very favourite Cal-cabs). Bought on release and working my way slowly through a case of this vintage.

Funny you should mention Château L'Arrosée . At the winestore downtown, we were just talking about a terrific flight tasting we did close to 20 yrs ago. A memorable evening.

[Jenise]

and working my way slowly

Understatement of the week!

I think Israel is Tenerife's number one export market. For some reason, three producers are already being imported.

Thanks for the report on the 1992 Montelena estate cab. I, too, bought a case on first release, but, alas, I only have one bottle left. It has always been a wonderful wine over the years, which is why I wasn't able to keep my hands off it.

-Paul W.

Chaim - if any of the other wines from Tenerife are that quality I will keep an eye out for more!

Paul, I manage to keep my hands off things by having too much wine to be able to easily locate particular wines - until about 4 years ago when I put it all on Cellartracker, it was akin to sticking your hand under a blanket and drinking whatever came out. I had a dozen cases of Bordeaux stacked in piles with lists tacked to them, but disassembling 'wine mountain' to get at the bottom case was certainly an incentive to choose something else.

Next week, another blind tasting wine lunch (American theme) and I was able to find a wine I bought a quarter century ago with no problem!

I bought a whole bunch of wine racks. If I buy a case, I take the bottles out of the case and shelve them. There are tags on the shelved wines, but I'm not consistent about what producers/regions/vintages go where on the shelves. I just put then where there's room for them. I've lost wines in the cellar, most notably a few bottles of 2000 Saintsbury Carneros pinot noir. I thought I'd drunk that all up at 10 years past the vintage, but in 2015 I found four bottles I didn't think I had. It turns out that with that much age, it had evolved into a dead ringer for a fine Nuits-St.-Georges, so I lucked out there.

I keep track of things in a table in a Microsoft Word document. I periodically print this out, put it on a clipboard, and take inventory in the cellar. When I last did this a month or so ago, I also noted which bit of shelving the wines were on. It's a lot easier to find specific wines now.

-Paul W.