ottawa foodies

Hello,

My wife enjoys the Pelee Island Cabernet Merlot (with the yellow bird on the bottle, thats how she insructs me to pick it out!).

I noticed there is a 1.5L bottle which costs around $14 and change, and there ia a "reserve" bottle which is 750ml and about the same price.

Both are 2006.

I'm not in the know when it comes to wines, can someone explain to me what the price difference is for?

"Even though this term is found on U.S. wine labels, it has no legal definition, which means it can't be relied on to have any special meaning. Reserve appears on labels in a number of ways-Private Reserve, Proprietor's Reserve, Special Reserve, Vintner's Reserve, or simply Reserve. For some producers-like BEAULIEU VINEYARDS and BERINGER VINEYARDS-the term Private Reserve means the wines are their top quality. These wines are either produced from grapes coming from special vineyards or blended from superior batches of grapes. But the terms do not always indicate high quality and are often used simply for as a marketing ploy. The bottom line is that wines using any of these terms should be judged on their own merit and not on the labeling."

Source: www.epicurious.com

Good opportunity to do a little mini-tasting and see for yourself what it means in practical terms. I know in some cases it means it's from barrels the vintner set aside as the best of the season. Like beer, fine wine can vary somewhat from batch to batch. And like beer it is reliant upon the best ingredients to make the best product.

In fact, this may make a good intro for me into the world of wine so I may go buy them myself and drink them with the wife (who loves red wine).

The Henry of Pelham Cabernet Merlot is very good as well. I don't find Ontario reds to be as consistant as the whites, but I do like that one. From memory, it's about $15 for a 750 ml bottle. I will have to try the Pelee Island sometime, as that's a pretty good price.

Thanks for the info, everyone.

I have not seen the 1.5L bottles at the Montreal St or Ogilvie locations, but it is at the Innes location in Orleans, incase anyone was looking to pick some up. The other locations do have the reserve.

Pelee Merlot. What a lovely wine, I love that wine. It's after taste lingers lovingly. It's great anywhere, anytime, alone or with other's. LOL.

I'll drop into "corporate shill" mode here and point out that the 2008 edition of Billy's Best Bottles is going to be hitting store shelves some time soon. I use it all the time to figure out what good-tasting wines I can buy without totally breaking the bank.

www.billysbestbottles.com/

I've been to one of his wine-tasting seminars (when I was still living in London) and it was a total blast. He's got a good, honest, down-to-earth, numeric-scores-are-for-suckers approach to finding good libations.