Food With A Point

One of my missions while in BC was to seek out some harder to find wines, such as Washington Syrahs and Oregon Pinot Noirs. So between sessions, I made it a point to peruse some of the wine stores and scope out their offerings. Upon my first visit in one of these locations, I almost fainted when I saw some of the prices. In comparison to what's available in La Belle Province, these same products seemed way overpriced. At first I thought it was because these are independent store locations not operated by the government and they were looking to make a (big) buck. But after a few discussions with some clerks and owners (yes, I went to numerous stores), I learned that BC actually has the highest rate of tax on alcohol in all of North America. The PST in Canada and in BC on most products is 7% but for alcohol, that number goes up to 10%. So for example, the Menetou Salon by Henri Pelle retails here for $19.20 but for $24.90 in BC. Insanity is how I summarize that... but it looks like I won't have to worry about a bottle of wine exploding in my bag - my wallet and my whites are safe.

Someone who remains anonymous had the genius to say:

"HAM AND EGGS - A day's work for a chicken; A lifetime commitment for a pig".

While doing some research before a recent Chianti tasting I attended, I came across a rather interesting random fact.

Chianti is one of the more famous Italian wines and regions (located in Tuscany). There is so much history surrounding the area, the regulations, the wines and the winemakers that one, no five posts, probably wouldn’t cut it. As a sidebar however, SuperTuscans (click here) are essentially rebel Chiantis. There was a period of time when Chianti wines were identified by being bottled in slim-necked, fat bottomed bottles with the telltale straw surrounding the base. These bottles are actually called fiascos – appropriate for a wine that has seen its fair share of these in the occurrence sense… Fiasco is actually the Italian word for flask.

The first mention of this type of bottle dates back to the 1300’s and the production of them continues today. The Comissionaria Industria Fiaschi (manufacturers association) was established in city of Empoli and to this day maintains strict control over the use of the trademark packaging. With the arrival of Super Tuscans, who not only use Bordeaux-blends in their wines but Bordeaux-style bottles for their wines, the fiasco is now only authorized for officially designated DOC Chiantis.

Mae West, American actress and seductress once said: "There are two things in life I like firm and one of the them is jelly"...

This term doesn’t refer to particularly amazing wines or beverages capable of delivering extra (fill in desired superpower). The origin of this term comes from  a break from tradition during the 1970’s when some of Tuscany’s wine makers decided to eliminate the white grape from the typical Chianti blend, which is regulated by the DOC(G) classification. This lead to wines that had more Bordeaux-esque blends but also meant that these wines, the first being the Tignanello, were now simply categorized as table wines. While the wines remained Tuscan in origin, they were considered region less. However, while being rebel products, they also managed to garner tons of media attention and capture numerous awards – much to the surprise of the more traditional wine makers and the oenological community in general. As such, they were named Super Tuscans because they were turned out to be “miraculously” great products.