Lot 914 2021 Australia Shiraz
You’ve heard it all before… Australian Shiraz is over-the-top; it’s a “one-note” red that isn’t complex enough for discerning palates. Well, let us tell you – Lot 914 2021 Australia Shiraz is here to defy your preconceived expectations. Dark, layered, and lingering – it’s a wine that will leave you begging for more.
Lot 914 2021 Australia Shiraz is a symphony in the glass. Its overture is a glass-staining, inky dark, beautiful ruby color. Things get complex very, very quickly with aromas of pepper, dried herbs, fennel, cardamom, and spearmint all soaring and diving in fantastic harmony. The main theme is a bold statement of ripe red fruit flavor that crescendos into a savory, juicy, and emphatic climax. The finish sails gently on lingering notes of black tea and eucalyptus spices. It’s a wine that will defy your expectations of Shiraz and put it on the top of your shopping list.
This red’s awesomeness wouldn’t be a surprise if we could tell about its pedigree. Let’s just say that it comes from a major Australian family-owned producer that’s been in the game for over five decades. They’ve got plenty of Best-In-Class wine competition awards in their trophy case to prove that they know what they’re doing. You’re not going to be disappointed with this Lot (unless you buy too few bottles, that is).
Watch as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes walks us through a tasting of this Australian Shiraz.
Video Topics Include:
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:15 About Australian Shiraz
- 01:00 Color and Legs
- 01:18 On the Nose
- 02:05 Taste of the Shiraz
- 03:05 In your cellar?
Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur says:
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. I’m Chris Lafleur, friendly neighborhood sommelier, ready to talk about Shiraz with you today. We have lot 914 Shiraz from Australia. Now, there’s lots of places in Australia that make Shiraz and very good quality Shiraz. One is probably better known above others, but since it’s not on the label, I can’t tell you which one.
But go ahead and look at the shelves in your local liquor store. You might be able to pick out which one is popping up more than others. So Shiraz, of course. Shiraz. Or is it Syrah? Huh? It is the same grape. In fact, you find Syrah in France and you find Shiraz in Australia. If you want to do a deeper dive on that, we actually talk about this in one of our Q&A videos.
I’m going to tell you to go back over there. But after you finish enjoying this one, because you’re going to want to have a glass of wine in hand while you watch these videos. They’re super fun. So let’s talk about this one. This is Shiraz. You can see from the color it is a little bit darker than some Pinot Noir that you might notice, but not quite as heavy and dark as some of the Cabernet.
So when you are Malbec, maybe, but it still has a great depth of color to it. Ruby, at its core for sure, with a nice pink note to the edges here on the nose. Oh, boy. On the nose on the nose. Okay, so here’s what I’m getting. There’s a lot to unpack with this one. There’s lots here. Here’s what I’m getting.
There’s some raspberry, there’s some bramble, there’s some blackberry, there’s some black currant, and it’s all in a very ripe expression. So it’s standing out pretty dramatically. But around that, I think I’m getting like a note of black tea, a little bit of black pepper, which is a key note for Shiraz. You normally find some black pepper here in a compound called Rotundone.
And I’m also getting a little bit of eucalyptus or spearmint with maybe a little bit of fennel and some cardamom hanging around the edges here. So what is starting off as a straightforward Shiraz is turning into a very complex wine. The more we dig into it, let’s taste it and see how complex it gets over there too. I decided to swallow it last minute.
Decided to do it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to tease you there. If you’re about to spit your wine at the same time as me, which I know a lot of people like to do now, you can’t. So sorry about that. It’s really good. Really, really good. That’s. That’s not my whole review, but let’s start. There was great ripeness of fruit on the palate here.
There’s a really nice expression of tea in Rotundone a black pepper is also a touch of eucalyptus that really lifts this from its spot in the Shiraz category. I think eucalyptus you can find generally in a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon in Shiraz from Australia. But when you do find it on expectedly in a nice high quality expression, it’s delightful, mind blowing, a little bit of fennel as well.
Like I said, you can feel on the palate. This has got great length to it. It keeps going and going and going. So much to unpack with this. So where does this fit in your cellar? Anywhere you want to put it. In fact, I think you probably want to get a couple of bottles of this minimum so you can taste it against other people that are so used to Shiraz being kind of one note and then you can show them this is exactly how complex it is.
Similar to Neo. You should find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. Yes, that is a matrix reference. I know John Wick is more popular, but let’s think about it because we like that movie. So get a couple of bottles for your cellar. Put it anywhere you want into the cellar and open it up when you want to have a casual drink with someone and surprise them with how cool this wine can be.
And I will see you at the next glass.
We hope you enjoy this wine and video as much as we do. Cheers!
Ratatouille Wine Pairing Recipe for Merlot
Ratatouille by CH Wine. Savor the classic flavors of Ratatouille, where roasted vegetables and aromatic herbs meet, perfectly complemented by the smooth richness of our Lot 886 Merlot. A delightful pairing that elevates every bite and sip, creating a symphony of taste that’s simply unforgettable. Download Ratatouille Recipe…
Lot 915 2021 California GSM Blend
The tried-and-true blending of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre grapes (“GSM” for short) has been at the heart of the best reds from Southern France—especially Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vacquereys, and Gigondas. There’s just no denying the winning combination of power, elegance, flavor, silkiness, and intensity that those three varieties deliver when they’re brought together.
But as Lot 915 2021 California GSM will prove, Southern France isn’t the only place where GSM blends thrive. These three grape varieties handle the California sun and heat without breaking a sweat—retaining balance and acidity as they reach perfect ripeness levels. Grenache and Syrah bring the layers and complexity of flavors, while the Mourvèdre provides the structure and backbone to the wine. It’s truly a wine where the sum can be greater than its parts. This wine is sourced from a variety of vineyards within California, meaning we can bring you an unbeatable price for your next on-hand red wine perfect for your next barbeque or any Tuesday night dinner.
Lot 915 is a deep red in the glass. Explosive flavors lift from the incredible nose, calling to mind a basket of raspberries and a bit of bramble intermixed with rhubarb, dried purple flower petals, and rosemary. The aromas alone are difficult to resist. All this re-emerges on the supple palate in a delicious and heady mix of crunchy red fruit and seductive flavors of cherry and even some blueberry, along with floral, black pepper, and baking spice hints.
At $13 price, getting this wine is an easy decision: buy a case or two—some to drink now and some to enjoy over the next 3-5 years.
Watch as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes walks us through a tasting of this California Rhone Blend.
Wine Tasting Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:14 About Lot 915
- 00:28 Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre
- 00:57 Color
- 01:25 On the Nose
- 02:19 The Taste
- 03:09 Where does it belong in your cellar?
Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur says:
Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room, everyone. I’m Chris LaFleur, a friendly neighborhood sommelier. And we’re going to be tasting Lot 915 a GSM blend from California. It’s from 2021. So it’s still fairly youthful, but it’s got just enough development to give you a nice little sparkle as you’re tasting. So let’s have a look at it. I think it’s too much to not tell you about what we have here.
This is Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre. For those of you that are not familiar with the GSM blend, this is usually something you see in the south of France, usually in the southern Rhone region. Some of the great ones would be Chateauneuf du Pop. But what we’re talking about here are grapes that handle the heat of the southern Rhone really well.
So here we are in California. I don’t know about you guys. I’m from Canada. Feels pretty warm here to me. So I think these are going to be the grapes that match this climate and give it a little bit of balance. One of the things I love about a wine in this climate is that if you have grapes that adapt to it really well, you maintain acidity, which also translates to maintaining freshness, racing electricity on the palate.
Let’s look at it and I promise we’ll taste it real soon. So you can see this is a semi-opaque wine. If I put my hand underneath of it, I can still see it, but it’s a little bit fuzzy now. It’s not completely opaque. They can see through and it’s not completely clear. So we’re writing that middle, which is kind of where we want to be when you want to ride the tension of this wine on the nose, it’s incredible.
I have to tell you about it. And that’s the only reason I will, because I want to just sit here and smell this on my own. But I’m getting a lot of red fruit, I’m getting raspberries, I’m getting like bramble, crunchy fruits here. I think I’m getting a touch of apple and plum, but also a great note of rhubarb, which is really cool.
I’m also getting a slight lavender hint and that to me says that we’re dealing with proper Grenache. Grenache usually is defined by notes of Grieg, and some people will say it’s because in the south of France you’ve got a lot of scrubby bushes that give you lavender notes in the final wine. But I think this is also a key to showing that Grenache just has this character unto itself because I’m getting it here with maybe a touch of Rosemary.
It’s great. Very well-balanced with Serrano Mourvedre. I normally expect a little more pepper, but this is really Grenache dominated and you can feel it when you smell it. Let’s taste it. I’m not going to take it any longer. I promise. Mm mm. There we go. I’m only spitting because you’re watching. I have other things to do today. Wow, that’s really good.
It feels crunchy on the palate. That red fruit character really coming through. I’m also getting a lot more fennel in a nice than I did before on the nose, and it feels wonderful on the finish. I’m getting some tannins here. Likely from the more veg in the Sierra, so I would say medium. They’re not overpowering, but they’re nice and coarse, a little chunky and I’ve also got a little bit of that lavender rosemary note that we want when we’re talking about a grape-driven wine like Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre.
So I mean that’s incredible to me and I think you’re going to find it good as well. But let’s talk about where it belongs in your cellar. I think this is going really well right now, and I think it can age for a little bit. So let’s say 3 to 5 years for a wine like this one, even though I think it’ll last.
Well past that. I think if you’re going to put this with any kind of food, you want to put it with something weighty as well, but also perfumed a little bit. So let’s say some pork tenderloin with some rosemary to go alongside it for some spice, to give it some lift, some air. And that’s going to meld really seamlessly.
The tannins here, like I said, are just enough that it’s going to offset the richness of that tenderloin. Oh, I can’t stop talking about this wine. It’s incredible. But I think that’s enough to sell you on it. So I’m going to stay here with this bottle and I will see you at the next class.
Wine Q&A with Sommeliers from The Tasting Panel #2
Frequently asked wine questions answered by Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Katy Long, Director of International Wines for VWE.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Chris and Katy will answer some of your wine questions in this lovely video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- Is it always beneficial to swirl my wine?
- What are the most common wine misconceptions?
- Can a novice appreciate the nuances of wine as it ages?
- What’s the deal with aeration and aerators?
- How do wines get their color?
- What are the different ways to age wine?
- Is there a “wrong” way to drink wine?
- What is malolactic fermentation?
- Submit your own questions
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
Lot 912 2022 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
A Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that satisfies the insatiable demand for the zesty, piquant style of Sauvignon Blanc that New Zealand helped to pioneer.
As you might have heard, there’s been a shortage of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on the international market. This is due to a couple of low-yielding vintages (particularly in New Zealand’s Sauvignon capital, Marlborough) combined with an insatiable demand for the zesty, piquant style of Sauvignon Blanc that New Zealand helped to pioneer.
If you’ve been feeling the Sauvignon pinch, Lot 912 is coming to the rescue. This New Zealand white comes from a multi-decade, certified sustainable producer who farms some of the best vineyard sites in the country, combining Old World/European winemaking techniques with ultra-modern style. What’s more, it also comes from a 2020 vintage whose Sauvignons Decanter lauded as punching “above their weight (some well above) in terms of concentration, purity, balance and complexity.”
That certainly describes Lot 912! Zesty to the core, yet also rounded and smooth on entry, this is an exuberant white that effortlessly combines flamboyant aromas of fresh herbs, grapefruit, starfruit, and lemongrass with exotic tropical fruit and citrus flavors—all lingering for what seems like forever on an expressive finish. It’s exactly what NZ Sauvignon fans have been missing during the international shortage, so grab it while you can.
Watch as Katy Long, Director of International Wines for VWE walks us through a tasting of this Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
Tasting Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:12 Lot 912 Info
- 00:30 Wine Color
- 00:44 The Nose
- 01:18 The Taste
- 01:55 Enjoyment
- 02:04 Pairing
Video Transcript:
Katy Long
Hello. Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. I’m Katy Long, and today I have lot 912. This beauty is your quintessential New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. For those of you who know, you know, Sauvignon Blanc is an oak. Fresh, grassy or basis and so satisfying. And this wine delivers on all those points. Look at that. Beautiful. Just lemon green color.It has star bright clarity. I mean, it’s pretty to look at. Not that you’re going to be spending too much time looking at it for sure. Wow. For those of us who like Sauvignon Blanc, there is good reason for it. It is pronounced on the nose. It delivers grassy gooseberry, some might say lemongrass and or baseness. That is really just so fresh.
It almost smells like spring. And that complements the lovely aromas of citrus lemon, maybe even a hint of lime. But then there’s also there’s also this tropical note, this passion fruit, perhaps, maybe even a slightly underbite pineapple. It’s just really pretty on the nose. Let’s give it a taste. Wow. Team, that is a porch pounder. What I mean by that is it’s not necessarily complicated and it doesn’t have to be.
It just delivers pure pleasure in the glass. That roundness of the Mano proteins. Technical term, it is just really nice to balance. Those are basics and citrusy notes. The finish is slightly mineral, almost a hint of salinity. That sea spray. Wow. It’s fresh. It’s refreshing. This is a wine for everyday enjoyment. And I know that I’m going to get a few of these to enjoy whenever the sun is out or even when it’s not.
Pair this with a salad. Goat cheese is a traditional food pairing with Sauvignon Blanc, but it doesn’t need anything. You can enjoy this with friends or by yourself and I encourage you to find all the fun ways that this wine fits into your cellar. So tell me about it in the comments. And until then, cheers.
Lot 907 Napa Valley Blanc de Blanc
A sparkling Napa Valley Blanc de Blancs made just like Champagne, from 100% Napa Valley Chardonnay grapes.
We had to triple-check that the fact sheets on this great sparkling find weren’t somehow mixed up with a great traditional-method Champagne. Lot 907 is the kind of wine that makes you do a double (or triple) take: “Wait, this is from Napa Valley?!?”
Indeed it is—Lot 907 is a sparkling Blanc de Blancs made just like Champagne, from 100% Napa Valley Chardonnay grapes (with a mere four grams of sugar per liter in the Brut style). Our extended CHW team happens to include a nearly four-decade veteran sommelier and wine director who helped source this exceptional sparkler—aged in the bottle by the producer!—and offered it to us thanks to our deep industry contacts. Simply put, Lot 907 is the kind of wine that put CH Wine on the map for its incredible deals!
Shimmering visually and on the palate, Lot 907 gives much more expensive bubbles a serious run for their money. Opening with elegant floral, toast, and apple notes, the fine bubbles and lifted nose belie the tropical richness that waits once you get into your mouth. Every sip of this sparkler invites yet another, and another, and another… Let’s just say you will want to have plenty of bottles on hand, as this kind of price/quality ratio will put Lot 907 at the top of your “house pour” list this summer.
Opening with a clear light blond hue, a gorgeous bouquet, and a fine, persistent mousse, the casual observer should be forgiven for at first mistaking this for a classy, non-vintage Champagne in the glass. Aromas of white flower blossom, Granny Smith apple, brioche, and melon are met with just-ripe tropical fruit flavors, and the result is a pleasure to imbibe. The mouthfeel is classic Champagne-method bubbly, at once round, smooth and inviting, while also being energetic and buoyant. This 100% Napa Chardonnay sparkler shimmers both visually and on the palate and gives a lot of more expensive bubblies a serious run for their money.
Watch as Katy Long, Director of International Wines for VWE walks us through a tasting of this Napa Valley Blanc de Blanc.
Tasting Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:12 Lot 907 Info
- 00:51 Opening the Bottle
- 01:43 The Pour
- 02:02 In the Glass
- 02:23 On the Nose
- 02:58 The Taste
- 03:24 Serving and Pairing
Video Transcript:
Katy Long says
Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. I’m Katy Long and today lot 907. This gem is a Napa valley 100% chardonnay. It’s a block to block. What does that mean? This is a sparkling wine made in the traditional method right here in the Napa Valley. This is a beautiful wine that has been aged for at least 15 months on its lees in this bottle.So this traditional method, unlike the Prosecco, is that you can also find in our store this wine is made in a way that hearkens back to the old list of winemaking traditions fermented and re fermented in this bottle. So I’m going to go ahead and give it an open. I encourage you when you’re doing this to go ahead and chill the bottle pretty well.
It’ll not only make the wine more enjoyable and then you do drink it, but it’ll make opening it just a little bit easier. So we got to unwrap our cage, and when I open this wine, I’m going to be really careful. I like to open it on the countertop itself, but I’m going to rotate the bottle and not the cork.
So our goal is to make this as quiet as possible. Some might say make it sound like a nun whispering in church. So let’s see if I can do that. Nailed it. So Lot 907. Let’s see what it looks like. I have to pour myself a bit of a generous pour. I have to say I am a fan of sparkling wines.
Of all kinds, but I particularly love method Champagne more so this wine has a beautiful mousse. It is also this gorgeous kind of pale golden color. It is 100% chardonnay, but again, that long aging on leaves is going to give it a bit more of a golden color. And I don’t know if you can see what I can see, but these bubbles are tiny, They are delicate.
They are persistent. These are all hallmarks of a really special sparkling wine. Let’s give it a sniff, huh? Wow. There’s something about a traditional method. Sparkling wine. It has brioche notes. It has kind of a baked biscuit like character to accentuate these really ripe citrus flavors yellow, apple, green apple and almost a hint of, like, sailing minerality. Wow, that’s fun.
And of course, have it. I have to swirl. You don’t necessarily have to swirl in the sparkling wine, but sometimes habit takes over. Let’s give it a taste. Mm. Oh, that is fantastic. Mouthwatering, juicy yellow and green apple. It’s like Meyer lemon, bitter tangerine. This is showing that Napa Valley ripeness of fruit, but a provenance of winemaking quality.
Wow. I know that there are only 500 cases available. This is a wine that is suitable for wonderful everyday celebrations. Pair it with maybe chips or fried chicken even, but it can also be quality enough to show at your most fun, big festive gatherings throughout the season. So I know I’m going to be stocking up on this and I encourage you to do the same.
So until next time, cheers.
How to Properly Open Sparkling Wine
Here to help us properly open sparkling wine (Champagne, Prosecco, etc.) is Chris Lafleur, a sommelier based out of Toronto who focuses on selling and training all things wine.
The most challenging thing that sommeliers get nervous about when tableside is opening sparkling wine.
How do we do it?
What’s the right way?
Is it ok if the cork hits the ceiling?
Watch Chris Lafleur as he shares the basics of opening sparkling wine with us.
How to Properly Open Sparkling Wine Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:28 Opening Sparkling Wine
- 00:49 The Tools
- 01:11 How to Hold the Bottle
- 01:20 Cut the Foil
- 01:59 Remove Foil to Reveal the Cage
- 02:15 Holding the Bottle and Cloth
- 02:29 Open the Cage with 6 Turns
- 02:45 Release the Cork / Open the Bottle
- 03:16 Present the Cork
- 03:29 Pour the First Glass and Top it
- 03:55 Enjoy the Bubbly
Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. We have something a little bit different today. So for those of you who know a little bit about me, I’m a sommelier. I’m based out of Toronto, and a lot of the things that I do are focused on selling wine tableside in restaurants. And this also involves me training other people, servers, other sommeliers to do the same thing.And the most challenging thing, I think that everyone is nervous to do tableside and probably if you’ve ever opened one of these in your home, you know what I mean? It’s opening sparkling wine. Like, how do we do it? What’s the right way? Is it okay if the cork hits the ceiling? Probably not. But I mean, depends on how many breakable things there are in close proximity to you when you do that.
So let me give you the basics on how we do it. First off, we need a corkscrew. We need our cloth. And these are going to be the most important items that we have today that we need our glass. And here’s the thing about glassware. You can pour into almost any kind of glass. Some people like coupe glasses, some people like flutes similar to this.
Some people like just regular wine glasses. For this one, we’re going to stick with traditional flutes because that’s what you’re most of the time going to see. So let’s begin. We take a grasp of the bottle by the neck. We’re very careful. And when we’re serving this to a guest, when we open it, we make sure that the label faces them.
For most of this procedure. Next, we take our corkscrew with a nice sharp knife on it, and we’re going to start to cut below this line. Now, I know if you’re looking at this in the camera, you can see that we do have actually a tag that you can use to pull this off and get it around that way.
You’re welcome to do that. But in a restaurant, because the tags aren’t always completely helpful or they don’t go all the way around instead of getting like one that’s only half pulled, we want to use the corkscrew knife to do it all the way. So like, so we’re going to cut it around underneath the second lip as if we’re trying to cut through the glass itself.
You won’t be able to do it, but it will ensure a nice cut along the foil. Then I make another incision. Incision like we’re doctors, a wine here along the cage, so that I can then use this to pull it up. And off we go. Oh, off we go, Off we go. That happens. That’s okay. Now, goodbye to the foil and goodbye to the knife.
We don’t need either anymore. Next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our cloth. We’re going to turn the little handle away. So it’s over here. We’re going to put our cloth with our thumb over the top of the cork. This ensures that once we open the cage, we never lose control of the cork. If you were doing, say, a certified CMS sommelier exam, this is one of the things you’ll be expected to do.
You don’t want to fail because you took your thumb off. Now I’ve opened up the cage with six turns of the cage six every time. Otherwise it’s a weird bottle. And then we flip the cloth back down over it. We use our fingers to loosen the cage a little, and then we start to open the wine. I’m keeping pressure on the top with my thumb and I’m slightly turning the wine back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
I’m not spinning it on the table and spinning it in my hand. I’m keeping pressure and keeping it fairly stable. Now I’m going to get close to opening it up. We’re going to let only a little bit of carbon dioxide out. So you get a little, little puff and a little sigh and that’s it. The wine is now open and I’ll take the bottle.
We’ll take the cork, will present it to the guests like so you can commemorate this for your first anniversary of the time that you defeated Strahd in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. You dungeon Heads know what I’m talking about. And then we’ll pour the first class. We start with just a light touch, and that’ll be the first sip that they can take to confirm the wine is not corked.
And then we top it up once we start getting around the table, we can still take two pause because of course, with effervescent wine, you don’t want it to bubble over the side. So we’re going very carefully and slowly and sometimes separate pause to pause is totally fine. And that’s it. That’s opening sparkling wine. Now show your friends how controlled and well you can do it.
And then on the second bottle, just pop that cork off and let the party begin. And that is how we do it. So I will see you at the next bottle and glass.
Chris Lafleur
Sommelier
Chris is a sommelier certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and has worked on the floors of acclaimed Toronto restaurants, including Blueblood Steakhouse, Cibo Wine Bar, and Michelin Starred Don Alfonso 1890 (named the #1 Best Italian Restaurant in the World, outside of Italy).