Pour les fêtes Buvez Québec !

Blogue par Cave St-Jacques – 16 décembre 2011
http://cavestjacques.com/blogue/?p=241

Pour la seconde dégustation à la Cave St-Jacques nous avons eu le plaisir d’accueillir plusieurs blogueurs et blogueuses pour déguster quelques vins. Une fois n’est pas coutume l’honneur était au Québec, et  avec de magnifiques bouchées concoctées par notre traiteur Maître-&-chef nous nous sommes régaler des breuvages locaux.

Trois domaines étaient à l’honneur, Le Domaine du Ridge, Carone wines et Le Domaine des côtes d’Ardoise. Je vais donc m’empresser de vous décrire mon coup de cœur de chacun de ces vignobles…

CABERNET SEVERNYI 2009
Le Vignoble Carone, que j’ai eu le plaisir de visiter la semaine passée, est certainement un des domaines qui va amener la viticulture québécoise vers l’avant. La philosophie d’Anthony Carone est prometteuse, il favorise la qualité en essayant de diminuer ses rendements, il essaye d’utiliser des cépages européens (vinifiera) qui sont plus difficile à protéger du froid…. De plus il s’associe au docteur en œnologie Matteo Meglioli, une des personnes les plus sollicitées dans le domaine de l’œnologie au Québec. Avec tous ces efforts les cuvées d’Anthony Carone s’améliorent d’années en années et la qualité des vins qu’il produit en est le résultat.

Kiwis, men, and our Cabernet!

Thanks to Chef Frederic Laplante, of Quebec City restaurant La Tanière, our Cabernet Severnyi was presented in a blind tasting on the TV show “Des kiwis et des hommes” this morning. The hosts thought that it was a red wine from Spain!

Follow the link and check out the 40 minute mark

http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/des_kiwis_et_des_hommes/2011-2012/document.asp?idDoc=187057

Evolution of Viticulture at CARONE

The three evolutionary phases of viticulture at CARONE and now onto the next stage

The viticulture philosophy at CARONE has changed over the years. We were in the vineyards today, walking by early plantings of hybrids used in some of our lower priced wines, which we have been slowly replacing with modern and better quality vinifera grapes.

Phase 1: “Follow the herd to the watering hole”
The first phase was quite simple, we saw what everyone else was doing and tried to replicate that in the Lanaudière region. This involved obtaining grape cuttings of what was available at the time in the early 1990′s. At that time, French and American hybrids were planted mostly in the Eastern Townships area of Quebec. Seyval, Foch, Eona, Vidal varieties were among some of the most popular cultivars. Victor Dietrich, who provided my Dad with our original cuttings, was a great vignerons but had limited insight of Quebec wine trends. Little did we know when we planted that these grapes had fallen out of favour years before we had even decided to start our winery in Lanoraie.

Canadian wines poised to be contenders (October 22, 2011)

Excerpt from the Montreal Gazette article published on October 22, 2011: The reds are still primarily hybrid-based, and I am not convinced they are working, though an interesting contrast are the wines of Les Pervenches in Farnham and those of Carone Vineyards in the Lanaudière Valley. At the recently biodynamic-certified Les Pervenches, winemaker Mike Marler is constantly experimenting with techniques to turn the sometimes rustic frontenac grape into something more elegant. His 2010 Solinou ($15 at the vineyard) is a great example of the new Quebec red.

Anthony Carone has taken another tack, working on more modern-styled wines with lots of oak aging. While decidedly more technical, they do offer those who appreciate this style of wine a convincing example of what can be done. Try the Bin 33 ($18.25, SAQ # 11004550).

Read the full article: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/food-wine/Canadian+wines+poised+contenders/5582496/story.html

Vin rouge : Carone, un pinot québécois qui détonne (21 octobre 2011)

Anthony Carone produit au domaine qui porte son nom, à Lanoraie dans Lanaudière, des vins qui par leur style n’ont rien à voir avec le reste de la production québécoise. Ce coloré vigneron qui n’hésite pas, à l’occasion, à distribuer des coups de gueule à l’adresse de l’industrie québécoise du vin sur les médias sociaux est probablement le vigneron du Québec qui cultive la plus grande variété de cépages « vitis vinifera ». C’est à dire des cépages nobles, généralement européens, par opposition à la plupart de ses vis à vis qui ne plantent que des hybrides, comme le baco, maréchal Foch ou le frontenac, conçus pour tolérer nos hivers frigorifiques. Bon, Carone en plante quelques-uns, mais la tendance dans son vignoble pointe résolument vers les vinifera.

Is it the SAQ’s responsibility to promote QC wines? I don’t think so!

First and foremost, the SAQ has done an outstanding job of promoting Quebec products. Having said this, I feel it is NOT the responsibility of the SAQ to offer preferential treatment towards QC products. Nor is it the fault of the RACJ that the QC wine industry has not grown as quickly as other Canadian wine regions.

QC viticulture is based on a weak foundation. In order to be taken seriously, the growers have to address three fundamental errors in their business strategy.

Vins du Quebec by Alan McGinty (Oct 12, 2011)

Selected text from Alan McGinty’s article “Vins du Quebec” on Winefox.com, released October 12, 2011:

…Trites was in Magog for the Fete des Vendanges in September and tried lots of wines – she highlighted Anthony Carone’s Cabernet Severnyi 2008.

“It’s very fruit forward, but there’s a bit of mocha too. It was the official red wine served for Will and Kate!” said Trites. No word on what the glamorous royals thought of it on their Montreal visit. It’s $24.30 at the SAQ…

…Charest’s top Quebec tips include Anthony Carone – “he’s audacious. He’s the guy who tries the hardest to make reds”…

Full article is available here: http://www.winefox.ca/articles/vins-du-quebec/

DOUBLE BARREL review

“En 2011, Carone lancera, lors des Vendanges, un vin unique au Québec et sans doute au pays, un «double barrique» DOUBLE BARREL. Vin soigneusement élevé autant dans le champ que dans son élaboration, il passe dans deux types de barriques, ce qui ajoute une finesse et une complexité inégalées. Riche, concentré, élégant, ce vin sature le palais. Je manque de place et de qualificatifs pour vous décrire le nez et la bouche aux saveurs fabuleuses, un super-québécois à l’équilibre impeccable. Ce vin évoluera longtemps encore. Son potentiel est unique.”
André Maccabée, publié le 2 septembre 2011
(Hebdos : L’Éveil, La Concorde, Nord Info et Voix des Mille-Iles)

It ain’t the SAQ

As a Quebec winery owner, I can say that the problem DOES NOT lie with the SAQ but rather with the perception of value and quality the majority of the Quebec population currently has regarding local wines. For years, QCers had to endure the low quality of QC wines due to producers’ learning curve. The SAQ only sells what the public wants…harsh reality, but reality nonetheless. Pour your wines, let the population taste, speak to the people, don’t flood a channel and complain about low margins, they (the SAQ) are not a dumping ground.

Progress is a b*tch for those that don’t keep up

Progress is a b*tch. It is constantly in motion, ever changing, and never waits for the complacent. Our wine industry in Quebec is evolving more quickly than we could have imagined. We believe that the driving force behind this evolution is the need to break from the agri-tourism hold which has inadvertently stifled our growth like a weed chocking off valuable nutrients to our vines.

At Carone, we are first and foremost, supporters of the new millennial of grape growing in this province. We support all growers and the industry as a whole and encourage its evolution be it in the vineyard, winemaking techniques, wine style, etc. The industry cannot continue down the path it has been on for the last 20 or so years. Doing so would only push our industry further behind all other Canadian wine regions.

I do not want to be lectured on our wine industry and its current prejudices or of the “low-quality” perception the average consumer has of its wines. Organizations can conduct all the marketing surveys they wish, but at the end of the day, the perception of some Quebec wines still remains the same – They are considered by many professionals as second rate to internationally produced wines. Why is that? Certainly this perception did not come from the new wineries popping up all over Quebec just releasing their wines. No, this stigma is as old as the Quebec wine industry itself, dating back more than 20 years ago.