TOP WHITE OF 2003 - Toronto Star Pick

[Craig Camp]

Interesting choice. Has anybody actually dropped the 65 bucks on this wine and tasted it?

TOP WHITE OF 2003: E & J Gallo 1999 Estate Chardonnay ($64.95, 94) a silky textured, buttery layered toasty fusion of power and elegance.

[Mark Sommelier]

The expensive wines are not called E&J Gallo, they are called Gallo of Sonoma. BFD.

[budrichard]

In graduate school, my wife and i purchased Gallo "Hearty Bugundy' at $2/gal because that was all we could afford. I would have hard time spending $65/bottle for anything that said Gallo. In fact I have a hard time spending $65/bottle for anything! -Dick

[Alex]

I'm with you, bud. Although I assume that's $65 Canadian, which now would be about $50 US. Still, a wine would have to be pretty special for me to plop down even $50 retail. I've done it occasionally, but not much. I guess that most of the time I'd rather buy five good $10 bottles, three very good $17 bottles, or two really good $25 ones.

From what I recall (fresco, please correct me if I'm wrong), the Star is more of an everyman's tabloid-style paper, as opposed to the more serious Globe and Mail; kind of like the Chicago Sun-Times as compared to the Tribune. I wonder, therefore, if this was an "everyman's" kind of top white wine -- big and oaky. Any tasters out there?

[fresco]

The Star is a broadsheet, but has the largest circulation (500,000 plus) of any newspaper in Canada. So, yeah, it has to cover the waterfront. It is closer to the Tribune than the Sun-Times, but I've never thought the Tribune was much of a paper, either. Still, $C65 for that particular wine sounds like an odd call.

[futronic]

As a Toronto Star subscriber, and one who has chatted with Gordon Stimell a few times, I must say that his weekly wine selections are absurd, as are these "Wines of the Year" that he chose. Basically, just disregard what he writes. The column was much better a year and change ago when Tony Aspler was still writing it.