I know a few lawyers in private practice who could buy and sell a public servant like me on eBay. Yet, when we chat about wine, all they want to know is whether I can recommend something tasty in the $10-12 range. Spending $20 everyday on parking downtown is okay, but anything more than $15 for wine on a Wednesday is somehow immoral. This is a psychological barrier common to both my young, successful friends and my older, fixed-income mentors: you can only relax and enjoy a wine on weeknights if you know it is cheap.
Since my last column on cheap wine, I’ve been hard at work researching in the dim corners of the LCBO, trying to find the best value to celebrate in the Short Cellar. However, I always like to make things a little challenging for myself. After all, anyone who has the smarts to spell P-O-R-T-U-G-A-L can find a drinkable beverage for under $10.00. So, I set out to find a rare bird indeed: a cheap but delicious Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir is a light-bodied red grape. It acquired a kind of heroic cachet in the wake of the popular movie Sideways. According to the hype, it is finicky and thin-skinned, but can communicate an ethereal subtlety that other, less poetic grapes, can only dream of. This airy-fairy romanticism gives me a headache. I like Pinot Noir for some very practical reasons. First, like many other reds, it is capable of great depth and complexity, but unlike grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, it has very light tannins. This means that people who get headaches from red wine or who generally don’t like its taste often find themselves pleased with Pinot. Secondly, unlike most red wine grapes, it grows well in cooler climates like Ontario. Thirdly (and for me, most importantly), it goes great with salmon.
Of course, it does have a downside. It is hard to grow, which means that it tends to be more expensive than other wines. Finding a tasty Pinot on a budget can be very tricky, but also very rewarding.
The prize to find is Cono Sur 2007 Pinot Noir ([Ed. note: 2007 no longer available] $10.40, LCBO #341602). Cono Sur is a large Chilean winery that has somehow found the secret of mass producing quality wine. Their Pinot is an inviting treat with a procession of well-defined if somewhat angular flavours: tart rasberries, juicy cranberries, raw vanilla bean and twigs. The acidity is bright and refreshing, while the mild and sandy tannins only assert themselves in the finish. As a package, it has a remarkable amount of complexity and restraint, which is unusual in an inexpensive New World wine (they tend to be overly fruity and simple). It may not have all the elegance of a top flight Pinot from Burgundy, but it is one eighth the price, so who cares.
This weekday wine goes smashingly with one of my favourite weekday dinners: Smoked salmon and brie quiche. Try it the next time you want unleash your inner gourmet for less than the price of parking.
Matthew Sullivan is a lawyer with the Department of Justice in Toronto. He writes a weekly blog entry here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca