Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

We just completed a great weekend of wine at the 2014 NSLC Port of Wines Festival . We were fortunate to be able to pour some wines for both the afternoon and evening sessions of the Friday show. It was our first time pouring at the show and it was a super fun time. We were volunteers for Mer et Soleil a local wine importing company and had a very interesting time pouring some very interesting French wines. Shannon poured the Terraburdigala Roc de Jean Lys (70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc) and Thienpont Bordeaux White (75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillion). I was lucky enough to pour the Brut and Rose from the Deutz Champagne House  as well as the Famille Bougrier Muscadet. The crowds were very enthusiastic and lively and pouring these wines for them was really great. Friday afternoon was a lot of hospitality industry staff along with some folks who are making a day of things whereas Friday evening was much busier with a more 'traditional' crowd of wine lovers an...

Another wine review and another apology. We were provided this wine by the team at National PR here in Halifax again almost two years ago.  Let's just say this wine has some time to bottle age.  So, thanks for the patience National PR team, we finally got to it.  It is $23 wine locally and very much a quality product when we have had it in the past. On the nose we get a LOT of floral notes, with a nutty vanilla undertone.  That is followed up quickly with a very nice cherries dipped in milk chocolate bouquet and finishes with a faint smokiness. Overall, it is quite complex. The look of this wine is in a word, light, and very typical of New Zealand Pinot Noir.  The transparency of the wine really shows your that it is Pinot Noir.  It has that c‎ranberry juice colour that normally comes with it.  As expected it is a thin wine on the swirl with quick legs.  Once again, typical. The wine is light bodied on the palate b...

This wine was a recommendation from Jason MacPhee at Bishop's Cellar  who mentioned how great it was at a recent tasting in the store. He really knows his stuff (especially French wines) so it was all we needed to pick this one up. He forewarned us that this wine might be a little cloudy but on purpose. The  Hegarty Les Chamans  vineyard is in the Minervois region in the Languedoc and the wine is Marsanne 50% and Roussanne 50% and both barrel fermented and barrel aged and you can surely tell.   Come to find out that slight cloudiness is caused by natural proteins in the wine and is really cool looking. It is a golden coloured wine (think apple juice) but even more than that it is slightly thick on the swirl.  Just a great looking wine and with that cloudiness, definitely unique. The nose is pure butterscotch with strong undertones of bananas and spiced apples.  The oak clearly shines on this wine but a super surprising...

So let's the get the apologies out of the way right off the top. We were provided this wine nearly two years ago. The small matter of our Shannon being pregnant and subsequent birth of our son caused a 'slight' delay in us tasting a couple of offerings from Robert Mondavi that we were given on the 100th Birthday Celebration in 2013. That's right 2013. So, Olivier thanks so much for the wines, our apologies for the delay, and here are our thoughts on the Fumé Blanc. To take all the surprise out of this review we frickin' loved this wine. There is a lot going on with in the glass and for a wine that retails in the $20's it is totally worth it. It is 94% Sauvignon Blanc and 6% Semillon that was hand harvested and barrel fermented as well as aged in oak for five months. In the glass the wine is straw coloured and clear. The legs are very fast on the swirl and it is almost a watery look. Bottom line, it looks very nice and does look as though ...

Barbera D'Alba is pretty good even when it's mediocre.  Most times we think of it as Pizza Wine, so how bad can it be?!  You can get cheaper versions of this wine (it's $19.49 locally) but really the quality of this wine really makes it stand out. The wine is a very dark purple with almost tiny bubbles in the bottom of the glass.  Very interesting.  On the swirl it looks like a medium bodied wine and the legs are extremely quick to come down the sides of the glass. There is a very mild nose on this wine which combines a smokey, toasted oak notes with a black current and berries.  It is a nice subtle bouquet that makes you want to taste the wine and that to us is the job of the smells that a wine produces.  If the nose encourages you to drink that is a super, duper win. We felt as though this wine was on the thin side of medium bodied.  It has a very structured mouth feel which is tart but balanced.  Layer over that so...