Your Winetasters board is excited to announce the club’s first Ultra Premium event. Through these events, we want to reward members for their ongoing support of the club. Ultra Premium events will feature highly sought-after wines and the member price will be at a rate that is significantly below the fair market value and replacement cost of the wines. We plan to hold these events annually.

For the kickoff event, we will be pouring the last of the 1995 Bordeaux red wines from the cellar.  We’ll let the list of wines speak for itself:

That’s correct, the lineup includes two first-growth wines.

Some information on the 1995 vintage appears below.

We are back for this event at the beautiful and convenient Great Hall at St. Paul’s Bloor Street. The evening will begin with a short reception where you can catch up with friends. Canapes and a reception wine will be served.  Reception starts at 6:30 pm and the event starts at 6:45 pm.

Registration initially is open to members only. In the unlikely event that the evening does not sell out, registration will be opened to non-members at a significantly higher price.

About Bordeaux’s 1995 vintage:

A hot, dry summer resulted in early harvest of healthy Merlot grapes. Relatively tannic Cabernet Sauvignon was picked after a week of mid-September rain. Generous crop levels, are best in Pomerol and Pauillac.   This gave Right Bank a slight edge over the Left Bank.  Merlot and Cabernet Franc-based wines are quite harmonious and full-bodied, with good grip and tannic bite, but also plenty of ripe fruit.  For Cabernet Sauvignon the long Indian summer allowed grapes to ripen well and their thick skins accounted for the vintage’s tannic character.

The vintage was very highly touted at the time, by the press and also by the growers who took the opportunity for some steep price increases.  Almost thirty years on the wines are fully mature and this tasting will give you the opportunity to see how the wines have evolved.  The tasting covers 8 communes (six left, two right) with Haut Brion and Cheval Blanc leading the charge.

As a teaser, Jancis Robinson wrote this about Haut-Brion 1995 “Just lovely wine, …. Excellent lustrous, nuanced ruby.. Clearly a very fine mature wine. Strong liquorice notes (Haut-Brion ‘warm bricks’ earthiness?) For a second I wondered if it was a 1998 Hermitage.  Very complex. Spread across the palate… 18.5   drink to 2030.” 

The full list of wines is here

This is the first of our Ultra Premium events to benefit our members.  Sign-up will be for members only (with up to one guest at member rate), opening to non-members only after ten days if there are seats left.  Members will also get a break on pricing from the full market price.

Date, Location & Price & Sign Up

Date:          Wed Mar 22
Time:          6:30 pm – Registration & Reception,   6:45 – Event start
Cost:           $160 members;   $260 non-members,  HST Included
Location:    St. Paul’s Church 227 Bloor St E
Sign-up: here

Please do not drink and drive, there is transit nearby.