It’s been a few weeks since the Finale of Picard. During the ten episode run I decided to pick up a bottle of Burgundy to enjoy with each episode. It was a nice indulgence and was something to look forward to every week. Beyond just enjoying a nice bottle of wine each week I’m not sure what I was hoping to learn. Finding affordable (good) Burgundy at the LCBO every week was a challenge. I live near the Summerhill LCBO and work near the Front and Spadina LCBO – both carry nice selections of Burgundy. I tried to set my budget at about fifty dollars a bottle – which is already A LOT to spend on a bottle of wine every week. So what did I learn?
First, I want to give a spoiler free assessment of the show. Even without an exciting bottle of wine to open I was a big fan. If you are new to Star Trek – you may want to do some homework before diving in. The show does build on many minor characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. The show also doesn’t have the same vibe as older Star Trek series. If you have been watching Star Trek Discovery the more cinematic and grand visual style is what you’ll expect with Picard. There’s moments in Picard that it almost feels like they’ve taken Star Trek and given it a Star Wars treatment (and I know I said no spoilers – but this is complete with a shoot out in a tavern). I loved every minute of this show. Right down from the vineyards in the first few episodes to the (SPOILER REDACTED) in the finale. In fact, I found it impressive that the writers were able to deliver so much fan service while delivering something completely new.
My budget was a good place to start. With Burgundy the sky’s the limit – and most of the bottles at Summerhill feel like they hover closer to $100 a bottle than to $50. I had a few people over for the premiere of the series and we opened up bottles of entry level Latour that are easily found at the LCBO. The Chardonnay (LCBO 55533 – $21.95) was delicious and offered solid value. The Pinot Noir (LCBO 69914 – $24.95) was underwhelming. It tasted like Pinot Noir – but the wine was tannic and one dimensional. At that price I found myself thirsty for something with a little more depth. And while it’s hard to find great Pinot Noir around the twenty dollar mark from anywhere you can get into some great Pinot from Ontario or New Zealand for ten bucks more a bottle. Making the leap to fifty dollars, while challenging, brought a lot of interesting bottles into the house. So when surveying the wines consumed during Picard I spent between fortyfive and eighty dollars per bottle. And one thing rang very true – price definitely didn’t correlate between quality of the bottles.
As I mentioned, I had a hard time finding bottles to suit my budget. My trips to the LCBO didn’t give me a lot of options. I was trying to buy wines from different regions in Burgundy but the fifty dollar budget leaves you at the entry level – I had bottles from Pommard, Mercurey, and Nuit-Saint-Georges. I ended up ordering a few wines from the Vintages Classics catalogue. Every month the LCBO has a catalogue of smaller lot wines available for sale and they get shipped to an LCBO at your convenience – You can check out these wines here. Since my trip to France I have been indulging myself with one bottle a month and so far I haven’t had any issues finding something unique around the fifty dollar mark. If you’re not a hardened wine snob Pinot Noir is a great option when you start looking to spend a few more dollars on a bottle. In general it’s pretty approachable if you decide to open the bottles young (and definitely more approachable than say wines from Bordeaux or Tuscany). Approachable while young is fine – but I did still have a routine of opening my weekly bottle when I got home from work, putting it in a decanter and letting it sit for a few hours before sitting down to the latest episode. I also made a habit of setting the decanter outside for a few minutes to drop the temperature a few degrees.
Talking about price and quality. The biggest disappointment of the run was opening a 2016 Domaine Jean Monnier & Fils Beane-Montrevenots Premier Cru (LCBO 585215 – $81.40) – this was thin and one note with cranberry flavours … and that’s it. This was the most expensive bottle I opened during the run of Picard. Fortunately, it was the only bottle that I bought that completely disappointed me. I’ve said before on my podcast that the worst feeling opening a bottle of wine is feeling ripped off. That being said – I can honestly say that this is the only bottle of wine that I opened that completely disappointed me.
All of the wines were good – and definitely worth the price. But having a nice cross section of wines to choose from there were a few that definitely rose to the top of the heap. Here are my three favourite wines I opened.
2013 Marchand Tawse Nuits-Saint-George – $63.00 – Vintages 484030 – Even though this was a few years older than most of the wines I opened it still needed a bit of time in a decanter to fully soften. Rich and complex with floral and ripe cherry notes.
2017 Francois Raquillet Mercurey 1er Cru Les Vasées – $55.00 – Vintages 11750 – The texture on this wine is amazing – rich cherry and spice that fills your mouth from cheek to cheek and a long finish. This was my favourite of all the wines opened. I can’t wait to taste it again.
2017 Cellier des Dames Mercurey 1er Cru – Vintages 13231 – The striking label jumps off the shelf. This was rich with nice floral notes that soar over black cherry and spice notes. Another bottle that if you come across you should be in a hurry to grab it.
So that’s it – until Season 2 I will have a hard time justifying opening a bottle of Burgundy every week. But that being said – I do plan on continuing to order a bottle from the classic catalogue every month. Did I learn anything profound from this experiment? Well, for one I am going to have a bit more balance in my diet – it turns out there is more to life than all the Chardonnay I’m used to drinking. I also learned that Ontario is doing a great job at delivering a lot of wine at reasonable prices when it comes to Pinot Noir. When I think of high quality producers like 16 Mile, Stanners, Westcott, Flat Rock Cellars, Trail Estates, Rosewood, Meldville, Bachelder, Rosehall Run… I’m sure I’ve missed some of our great producers – but the fact of the matter is all these wineries sell their top tier wines for less money than most of the producers from France I enjoyed.
So – let me leave you with the list of wines consumed. As I was enjoying these for the TV show I never opened them with the intention of reviewing them so I apologize for that. I’ll make sure for season 2 to track the tasting notes – but to be honest the must buy wines are listed above.
2017 Domaine Theulot-Juillot La Cailloute Mercurey 1er Cru 2017 – Vintages 473793 – $53.00
2017 Domaine Pavelot Savigny-Les-Beaune – Vintages 12235 – $44.95
2016 Albert Morot Beaune Bressandes 1er Cru – Vintages 610584 – $67.00
2016 Domaine Gilbert & Philippe Germain En l’Orme Beaune 1er Cru – Vintages 12177 – $57.95
2017 Vaudoisey-Creusefond Pommard – Vintages 13478 – $56.00
2016 Bouchard Pere & Fils Pommard – Vintages 413013 – $66.00
