LCBO Food and Drink Holiday 2015

WINE  EXTRAVAGANT GESTURES

BACHELDER SAUNDERS VINEYARD CHARDONNAY VQA VINTAGES 324103, $44.95 Celebrated Canadian winemaker Thomas Bachelder (formerly of Le Clos Jordanne) makes incredibly specific Chardonnays (and Pinot Noirs) in Niagara, Oregon and Burgundy, each one expressing its terroir via the most meticulous vinification. Made with organic old- vine fruit from Warren Saunders’s vineyard on the Beamsville Bench, this is awesome, barrel-fermented Chardonnay—nimble, taut and intense, with marvellous length. Richly flavoured, it’s as much about minerality as it is about pear, Meyer lemon and buttered almonds—a wine to be savoured. Bachelder’s own favourite food match? “A roast chicken with crispy skin, a light gravy and some roasted potatoes or Gratin Dauphinois.” SONOMA- CUTRER RUSSIAN RIVER RANCHES CHARDONNAY VINTAGES ESSENTIALS 608653, $26.95 There’s always something so juicy about a well-made Chardonnay from Sonoma’s Russian River area—and this wine is very well made indeed. Sonoma-Cutrer describes it as their flagship wine, a blend of carefully selected fruit from many sites in the rocky foothills of the Sonoma Coast appellation; I’d go a little further— it’s everything you hope a California Chardonnay might be. Elegant, limpid, perfectly balanced, each element seamlessly integrated… Aged on its lees in French oak, it shows a delightfully subtle hint of smoke on the nose which translates into a dab of vanilla crème brûlée tucked into the flavours of pear, hazelnut, lemon blossom and apple.

200  FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY 2015