Going to Hali for Cali, and a Kiwi Excursion

Tuesday is as good a day as any to sample fine wine, so I jumped in the BRUBUG for another road trip to Halifax for a tasting with Bob Lindquist, founder of Qupe Wine Cellars, and his wife Louisa.

Lindquist started Qupe Wine Cellars (pronounced Q-pay) in 1982, in the central Californian coastal region now commonly referred to as "Sideways Country," where he planted the Rhone variety syrah, as well as some Chardonnay. He eventually stuck with Rhone, planting grenache, rousanne, marsanne, mourvedre and viognier. Lindquist is one of the original Rhone Rangers and I was very excited to taste his iconic wines, which I had tasted only once before on a trip several years ago.

However, before heading over to the Lord Nelson Hotel for the Lindquist tasting, I popped into a tasting at the Port of Wines. My wine-loving brother had alerted me to their tasting with Alexis Goodman, a winemaker for Seresin Winery, in Marlborough, New Zealand.

Meeting Goodman was particularly interesting for me, since she is a transplanted Nova Scotian, originally from Halifax. She started her winemaker education in Ontario, then moved to New Zealand and finished her university degree there. She is getting really involved in biodynamic grape growing, so we had an interesting discussion about the effects of moon phases.

Alexis Goodman was pouring two sauvignon blancs, the 2009 Momo Certified Organic ($20.34) and the 2008 Seresin ($25.43,) both from Marlborough. The 2009 Momo was a fairly typical Kiwi sauvignon blanc, with gooseberry, intense tropical fruit and a crowd-pleasing, ripe, fruity palate, with decent acidity. The 2008 Seresin was much more in the Loire style, very elegant, with lots of minerality and firm acidity on the palate. I would never have guessed New Zealand.

After this diversion to New Zealand, I headed up to meet Mr. Lindquist and his wife Louisa, the winemaker at sister winery Verdad. It was nice to hear that they were travelling around Atlantic Canada on a holiday; I knew already that they have great taste!

Lindquist spoke to the group of tasters about how Rhone grapes are more suited to his California terroir than the Bordeaux and Burgundy varieties. (But it should be noted that in 1989, he joined with Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat to build a shared winery in the Bien Nacido vineyard, so he is indirectly complicit in the pinot dominance there!)

We tasted a 2009 Verdad Albarino Sawyer ($39.99 – all prices are for Halifax's Harvest Wines and Spirits,) from their Lindquist vineyard. It had a typical Albarino nose, floral, apricot and good body, if a bit soft in the acid department. It was a warm vintage.

Next was the 2009 Marsanne from Qupe from the Santa Ynez Valley. It was rich, creamy, a bit leesy, with a long finish with evidence of smoky oak (it had some time in 3 year old barrels, plus a touch of Rousanne oaked in 1 year old casks).

The third white was a 2007 Rousanne ($59.99) from the Bien Nacido Hillside Estate vineyard. This is big, rich, buttery white, with loads of Burgundian oak, but it has the stuffing to hold it. There are hints of lemon and baked goods and excellent length.

For reds, we tried a soft, plummy 2007 Tempranillo from Verdad, a quite forward 2008 Central Coast Syrah from Qupe and finally, the fantastic 2006 Bien Nacido Hillside Estate Syrah ($59.99.) The Bien Nacido is 100% syrah with pepper, earth and mineral notes, blessed with a pleasantly smoky, old world, meaty stink and has firm tannins, built to last. Bob said that is could go 10+ years easily and probably 15-20.

Sales representative Ed Simmons, who arranged the tasting, explained that Lindquist was recognized as one of the world’s Top 50 Most Influential Winemakers from Wine & Spirits Magazine and Qupe as one of Wines & Spirits’ Top 100 Wineries in America for 8 of the last 9 years.

It was an honour to taste these wines with Bob and Louisa and I hope they had a great trip visiting the best coast!

Cheers!

Craig Pinhey is a writer and Sommelier, available for private tastings. Visit him at www.frogspad.ca and follow him on twitter (@frogspadca.)