LCBO Food and Drink Holiday 2015

WINE  EXTRAVAGANT GESTURES

MASI COSTASERA AMARONE CLASSICO LCBO 317057, $39.95 Full-bodied and ripe but with a hint of bitterness, aromatically complex and blessed with tannins that feel as soft as velvet, amarone is a style of wine with a well-deserved cult following. Made in the Veneto from Corvino, Rondinella and Molinara grapes that are dried on trays during the winter months, it is thoroughly fermented, therefore dry and high in alcohol, but still carries the illusion of sweetness in its figgy, raisined flavours. Masi’s Costasera is darker and more brooding than some, with bitter chocolate and tobacco notes lurking under the black cherry and damson fruit. Cellar it for years or open it now as an accompaniment to venison casserole or as something to sip with a hunk of Parmiggiano-Reggiano. ALVEAR SOLERA 1927 PEDRO XIMENEZMONTILLA LCBO 383422, 375 mL, $19.95 A hundred miles northeast of the sherry heartland of Jerez stand the two towns of Montilla and Moriles, epicentre of the world’s great vineyards of Pedro Ximénez and source of this remarkable elixir. The barrels from which the wine is bottled were first filled in 1927 and have been gradually topped up ever since, so at least part of this Montilla is almost 90 years old! A rich brown colour, it is undeniably sweet (those P.X. grapes were dried in the sun before pressing) but has enough acidity to stop it cloying. And the aromas! The flavours! The gorgeously complex braid of dried fruit, caramel, molasses, toasted walnuts, marma­ lade and Christmas cake lingers for minutes—even longer in imagination’s memory. Twenty dollars may seem a lot for a half bottle of wine, but it’s worth every cent.

204  FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY 2015