With a Polar Vortex rolling into Ontario this week, many of us will be cozying up to some comfort food, couches, and fireplaces. Big reds are usually the go-to move for this but whites can be surprisingly nice in the winter as well, particularly as a match for the right meals. Since we did all different Cabernet Sauvignons last week, let’s do some nice interesting whites this week. But let’s go beyond the usual Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, or Pinot Grigio that most people default towards. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are by far the most popular white wine grapes internationally, and as such, they’re most people’s default purchase. And nothing against Chard or Sauv Blanc, they make some of the greatest wines in the world, but there is such a wide world of white wine out there, we’d be remiss not to explore it.

I often come across people who don’t like the oakiness in Chardonnay, so they insist on having “unoaked Chardonnay” to remedy this instead of broadening their white wine horizons. While there are certainly good examples of uoaked Chardonnay (most notably from the Chablis region of Burgundy in France), more often than not, unoaked Chardonnay can be kind of boring. There’s something about oak aging (even if very subtle) that gives Chardonnay so much more texture, body and balance. And there’s not all THAT many white wines around the world that see oak aging, so when clients ask for Unoaked Chardonnay, I often try steer them towards trying one of the many other great varieties that are typically unoaked. Grape varieties that aren’t really meant for oak aging, so they’re produced in stainless steel tanks or concrete vats instead. And to me, these can be so much more interesting than simple Unoaked Chardonnay from Ontario or California which can often taste kind of hollow. So this week we’re looking at some favourite varietals beyond the usual go-to Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, or Pinot Grigios. Varietals like Chenin Blanc, Marsanne, Verdejo, Gewurztraminer, and Torrontes.

A participant’s view of Andrew live from his cellar last Saturday, talking Cabernet Sauvignon on Zoom.

And because it’s been really well received so far (or because everyone is so bored) we’re going to have another Lockdown Zoom tasting on Saturday featuring these wines. If you’d like to participate, here’s what you need to do:

1) Buy any of these wines featured this week, either by-the-case from Lifford or stop by the Byward Wine Market and grab a bottle. You can also click here to order online for in-store pickup or delivery within Ottawa.
2) Then just email me to let me know which bottle you have and that you’d like to join the Zoom.
3) I’ll reply with the Zoom link and see you online Saturday at 7pm!

And we’ll plan to keep doing one every week while in lockdown to keep you both entertained with some fun conversations about wine. So let me know if you have any requests or suggestions! We started with a Sparkling Wine Zoom on NYE, then Biodynamics the week after, then New World Cabernet Sauvignon last week, and now we’re diving into whites Beyond Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc for this coming Saturday, featuring any of these wines:

CHENIN BLANC

Chenin Blanc finds it’s ancestral home in the Loire Valley, France. It is the grape behind the famous wines of Vouvray and Savennières and bears some broad similarities to Chardonnay or Viognier. Chenin is the kind of grape that attracts passionate cult following. Chenin lovers really love Chenin. And it’s often a grape I suggest to Chardonnay lovers looking for something different. Chenin is quite versatile in that it does really well with or without oak. After France’s Loire Valley, South Africa is probably the most famous place for Chenin Blanc today. The terroir has proved pretty perfect for it, expressing it’s freshness and minerality, but also nurturing that unctuous richness that it can develop. Here’s two current favourites from South Africa that we have in the shop, showcasing both the fresh unoaked style and the rich, luxurious oaked style.

BADENHORST FAMILY WINES, ‘SECATEURS’ CHENIN BLANC | SWARTLAND, SOUTH AFRICA 2019
$23.99 x6 from Lifford Wines, or $27 per bottle from Byward Wine Market
Adi Badenhorst was one of the leaders of what came to be known as the Swartland Revolution in the early-mid 2000’s. Swartland was historically a cheap jug-wine producing area with less expensive land than the established Stellenbosch, Walker Bay, or Wellington areas. And with less strict rules on production styles and varietals for wines, Swartland inspired a young generation of winemakers to move in, buy some land and start making some of the most interesting wines in the country. Interesting white blends became the specialty and Chenin Blanc was one of the flagship varietals for the region and movement. So here we have 100% Chenin Blanc fermented in a combination of cement vats and foudres—large neutral oak barrels that are 1000+ litres. After first few years of use, the oak doesn’t impart any oaky character and just helps to nicely develop the wine in such a large vessel. This wine shows classic pineapple, tangerine, saffron, and honeysuckle. Both floral and fresh with nice textured fruit character with nicely balancing zippy citrus acidity. Pure, fresh Chenin.

Someone else’s nice bottle shot. Savage has such great labels.

SAVAGE WINES, ‘NEVER BEEN ASKED TO DANCE’ | PAARL, SOUTH AFRICA 2018
Sold Out at Lifford, but $57 per bottle from Byward Wine Market
I first met Duncan Savage at the London Wine Fair in the UK, back in 2015. Similar to Adi Badenhorst, he’s part of the revolutionary younger generation of winemakers re-invigorating South Africa’s reputation for super high quality, interesting wines. I cracked a bottle of this last week and here was the note I posted on Instagram: “Wow. Just wow. ‘Never Been Asked To Dance’ from Duncan Savage. Ironically named, as I’m sure this beauty will have a very full dance card. Only 12 bottles, get ‘em while you can! $57 each. 100% Old Vine Chenin Blanc from South Africa’s Paarl region. Rich, textured, mineral, and honeyed. Notes of dried apricots, honeysuckle, preserved lemons, honeydew melon, cardamon, and salty sea breeze. Rich on the palate, but with nicely balancing acidity. Smiles guaranteed.”

MARSANNE

Another richer-style white that similar to Chenin Blanc can sometimes act as a stand-in for Chardonnay is Marsanne. Native to France’s Rhone Valley, it is typically blended with Roussanne, Viognier, or Grenache Blanc. If you’ve ever had any Cotes Du Rhone Whites, you’ve likely had some Marsanne in there. Its typical tasting notes lean towards the spicier, savourier, dried fruit characteristics. Think Quince, apricot, beeswax, acacia. And if aged in oak maybe add some almond and baking spice notes like nutmeg, saffron, and clove.

CHATEAU DU TRIGNON, ‘COTE DU RHONE’ MARSANNE, RHONE VALLEY, FRANCE 2018
$21.99 x12 from Lifford Wines, or $25 per bottle from Byward Wine Market
Since it is most common to blend Marsanne with Roussanne, Viognier, etc, this is a rare gem that showcases Marsanne in its finest Cote du Rhone style, solo, without any other varieties blended in. It is lightly oaked, with 20% fermented and aged in barrel before blending. It results in a nice full-bodied wintery white with rich notes of acacia, quince, white peach, honey, almonds, and beeswax. A very traditional Rhone white, a great value, and a real beauty to drink.

VERDEJO

Lesser known in North America, Verdejo grows mostly in the Rueda region of northwest Spain. If you’ve never had or heard of it, you can think of it almost like a Spanish Sauvignon Blanc. It’s typically unoaked, fresh, and herbaceous with notes of citrus fruit, grapefruit pith, grass, fennel, citrus, and white peach. Vibrant and very drinkable.

TELMO RODRIGUEZ, ‘BASA’, RUEDA, SPAIN 2019
$18.99 x12 from Lifford Wine, or $22 per bottle from Byward Wine Market
Telmo Rodriguez is one of our all-time favourite winemakers. One of the early organic and Biodynamic Pioneers in Spain, a terroir-hunter seeking out old abandoned vineyards in interesting, hard to find terroirs to showcase how extremely special Spanish wines can be. Most people only think of Rioja or Ribera Del Duero reds when they think of Spain, and Telmo wants to bring back to life wines from all the unique corners of the country that have been making epic wines for millenia. Click here for more on why Telmo and his wines are so great. ‘Basa’ is a traditional Rueda white. It’s 90% Verdejo and 10% Viura. Look for fresh notes of lemon, lime, fresh flowers, pea shoots, fine herbs, and chalky minerality. It’s not pandering to international flavour profiles, just a true, local, Spanish white like you’d find if you were visiting Rueda.

GEWURZTRAMINER

One of the 6 grape varieties grown in the Alsace region of France. In keeping with how they make Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Muscat, Gewurtztraminer (or Gewurz for short) is usually off-dry, if not medium sweet. There’s something special about Gewurz grown in Alsace, the terroir and the climate is perfect for it, maintaining acidity for balance with this naturally low acid grape. Grown in hotter climates it can come off as too fat and un-balanced with a lack of acidic freshness, but grown in the right places and it can be sublime. Gewurztraminer is typically off-dry and very perfumed and expressive. Think notes like ripe lychee, ginger, roses, tangerines, and flinty or slatey minerality.

DOMAINE ZINCK, ‘PORTRAIT’ GEWURZTRAMINER | ALSACE, FRANCE 2018
$27.99 x12 from Lifford Wines, or $31 per bottle from Byward Wine Market
In the 2000’s Philippe took the reins from his father Paul Zinck who had started the winery in the 1960’s. The vineyard had been farmed conventionally by his father, but Phillipe gradually converted everything to organic and biodynamic viticulture as well. Biodynamics had actually been used on the farm by his grandmother in her garden, she followed the lunar calendar, and made her own composts. Now, full circle, back to their roots on a grander scale beyond the garden, to the whole vineyard. Domaine Zinck wines have long been regarded by restaurants and collectors as some of the very best quality values for the price in all of Alsace. This Gewurz is off-dry with mandarin, lychee, honeysuckle, exotic spices, and ginger. It’s a great pairing with pungent blue cheeses, spicier Mexican, Indian and Thai food, or just a cozy rich after dinner glass.

WILHELM WALCH, GEWURZTRAMINER | ALTO-ADIGE, ITALY 2018
$22.99 x12 from Lifford, not available from Byward Wine Market
Little known fact: Gewurztraminer is not native to Alsace. Yes, that is where it is most famous and most-widely planted, but it’s actually not of French or German origin at all. It’s actually from the northern Italian town of Tramin. Tramin is in the Alto Adige region which has went back and forth between Austria and Italy during the wars (similar to Alsace between France and Germany). The name Gewurztraminer literally means: the spicy grape from Tramin. Gewurz = Spice, Tramin = Tramin. What makes this wine unique and particularly special is it’s dryness. It’s still 4 g/L of residual sugar, which is very dry for Gewurz across the board. And coupled with the nice acidity, this wine is a unique gem that is a crowd pleaser to almost any kind of wine fan. Look for a spicy bouquet of lychee and roses with a crisp and mineral drinkability. This wine is usually $28 x12 but is currently on sale this month…that’s $60 off a case!

TORRONTES

If more people knew about Torrontes they’d probably drink less Pinot Grigio. It’s such a pretty, light, and floral grape with nice minerality that is very easy drinking and a versatile pairing with food. And it’s inexpensive because it comes from Argentina. Torrontes has become Argentina’s white grape the way Malbec has become it’s main red grape. While there is another white grape variety called Torrontes in Spain, it is genetically entirely different (there must have been a mixup somewhere centuries ago when Spaniards were settling Argentia). So Argentine Torrontes seems to be unique to itself and has become Argentina’s main white wine.

AMALAYA, TORRONTES / RIESLING | SALTA, ARGENTINA 2018
$16.99 x12 from Lifford Wines, or $19 from Byward Wine Market
There was a year when the winemaking team accidentally filled a stainless steel tank with Torrontes that still had a small amount of Riesling in it. The ratio worked out to 85% Torrontes and 15% Riesling. At first they thought this was a disaster. A whole tank of Torrontes ruined…tained by 15% Riesling, an entirely uncommon blend. But then they tasted it, and man was it good. So they decided to bottle it and send it to the World Wine Awards in the UK, where it ended up winning Best International White Blend. So because of this happy mistake they have made it every year since then. Look for mixed citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon peel, melons, and minerality. An excellent easy drinker that any Pinot Grigio fan should consider!

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The Byward Wine Market will remain open throughout the lockdown for take-out and wine shopping. We are constantly cleaning and have several ways to safely get you some amazing wine during the coming stay-home orders: You can stop by in person to pick out your wine for take-out, we can offer curbside pickup with online orders, or you can choose local delivery within Ottawa at the online checkout.

Just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday case delivery is Wednesday at 9:30am. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on instagram for daily wine content at @bywardwinemarket and @capitalwine.ottawa!