Went to dinner at Jamie Kennedy's wine bar in Toronto. Nice little place! Great tapa style food and nice wine pairings. REALLY knowledgable staff on wine who went out of their way to explain the choice you selected and suggesting which might be even better choices even if the price was lower. Imagine that!
2003 Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss Moenchberg Pinot Gris
This wine poured out rather medium deep golden in colour. Richly sweet, almost auslese level of sugar, but still a good but low acidity, some apricot, nutiness, and spiciness but rich and thick. This is not what I thought an Alsace Pinot Gris would be like but it was interesting. Paired with a Pork Rillette and country pate so the off-dry nature, the fruit and the acidity worked well with this dish. It did not over power it but had enough acidity to make the dish less fatty.
Noceto Sangiovese Hillside 2004
Second wine tonight, was a Californian Sangiovese. I did not realise that this was from California so was surprised at the density of color and the nose, which was ripe and very full. On is own, it is okay, lots going on, spicy, some nice acidity, ripe and dense but paired with a duck confit, which was heavily spiced, the wine was almost perfect. It was just big enough to stay with the duck. As a matter of fact, if I did not know that it was sangiovese, I would have thought that it was a nice rhone while eating…then again, maybe it just develops in the glass quickly.
If I lived in this ncely mixed use urban area, I would be very tempted to use this as the evening simple dining spot rather frequently.
probably head to Hapa Izakaya again....