Michael Pinkus Wine Review - On the Road with the Grape Guy

Report from - Luce Dinner “The 10 Year Vertical” … October 23, 2012

16 Feb 2013

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It’s hard to imagine 30 generations of anything – but the Frescobaldi family can count that many in their native Italy. Tonight we enjoyed 10 years of Luce wines with the 30th generation of the Frescobaldi family: Marchese Lamberto Frescobaldi.

Lamberto has a Toronto connection, which is why he always enjoys coming back – it dates back to 1974 when he was just 11 … 23 years later Luce made its first appearance in the province.

The history of Luce dates back to 1993 when California winemaking icon Robert Mondavi wanted to return to his Italian roots … the idea was to blend an Italian grape (Sangiovese) with something that signified the wines of the west coast (Merlot) – grown in Montalcino, Italy – the name “Luce” came later … as told by Lamberto, just before the first bottling.

The blend of Luce is usually a 50/50 mix of the two grapes, or at most a 55/45 break down; there has only been one vintage (2002) when the Merlot far outweighed the Sangiovese to the tune of 75/25 … Merlot is the earlier ripening grape and is picked 20 days before Sangiovese.

In 2004 Constellation bought Mondavi and Frescobaldi decided to take over the Luce line they had developed, instead of running it like a partnership with Constellation – the reasoning seems to be that it was no longer two proud families running the operation, therefore it was up to the one remaining to carry on the name.

Tonight’s tasting spanned the vintages of 1999 thru to 2009 (Luce first vintage was 1993) with commentary by Lamberto himself – I highlight my favourite 5 below along with some of the more interesting comments: ... (see the pics and read the reviews here)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.

Report from - British Columbia Wine Tasting ... January 15, 2013

15 Feb 2013

Details: Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

Just finished reading an article by Rick Van Sickle about his take on the BC promotion of their wines in Ontario … I was part of the walk around tasting and lunch on January 15, where 21 BC wines were tasted and would have to say they did not have to stoop to these levels and hire questionable wine-personalities to get their message out. Ontarians are already very much interested in wines of the west (just ask California) and British Columbia is of special interest because they are so rare in our part of the world (you’d think they’d be plentiful because we’re in the same country – but that is not the case). BC wines speak for themselves, the high prices might be a bit of a turn off, but the wine in the bottle is very enticing and exciting. The good news, I did find some really good bargains while wondering about, but below is my list of my favourites from this afternoon of wine and food:

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.