A few months ago, I turned to Twitter on a quest to find a dry, white, Ontario wine that would change the minds of some friends who swore they had never had an Ontario wine they preferred to their favourite international vino. As an added challenge, it had to be available at the LCBO.
As always, Twitter came to my rescue. I got a number of great responses and the one we went with – Cave Springs Dry Riesling – was divine. I believe, though I can’t swear to it and sadly forgot to favourite the Tweet, that the amazing wine expert Konrad Ejbich (winezone on Twitter) recommended the Cave Springs. If I’m wrong, please forgive me, but irregardless, Konrad is an incredible resource for great wine information.
Michèle Bosc (mbosc on Twitter) suggested the Chateau des Charmes 2010 Aligoté. Michèle is married to Paul-Andre Bosc and handles marketing for Chateau des Charmes, but she’s never steered me wrong on a wine, so I looked for that one too. I couldn’t find it in time for the party, but I did pick some up when we visited Chateau des Charmes in September.
Those same friends were joining us for New Year’s Eve this year, so we broke out the Aligoté and I have to say we were all very impressed. It’s dry and fruity with crisp acidity. This is a wine that’s eminently drinkable and just unique enough to be a great conversation-starter. Michèle had suggested I try to get our friends to guess the grape, but I don’t think we would have gotten very far with that. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to determine what it was!
For proper tasting notes and more information on this wine, I encourage you to visit the Chateau des Charmes site: http://www.chateaudescharmes.com/our-wines/2010-aligot%C3%A9-st-davids-bench
You can also order the wine there if your LCBO doesn’t carry it. I know it was difficult to find near me.
We’ll definitely be drinking more Aligoté now that we’ve discovered it. Did you find a terrific wine this holiday season? Please share it in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook. I’m always looking for great wine finds!
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