4 Wonderful Wines to Choose From for Your Dinner! Wouldn’t it be perfect to walk into a liquor store and know what wines to choose? The ones you really love. There are so many wines and you want to try them all.…those sexy wines from all over the world. But then you stop….you remember those disappointments when you bought a wine and you did not like it. We asked an expert - wine agent Fred Lamprecht to suggest wines that are wonderful. He has been in the wine industry for 21 years traveling the world and bringing back the best wines he can find. His goal as a wine agent is to find wines that have great quality to price ratio. Wines, that when you taste them you are sure that they should cost more than what you paid. And Fred, being focused on those wines, knows which wines have that right ratio. Here are 4 recommendations from the 500 or so wines he imports and all 4 are currently available at the LCBO, Vintages section. Check the availability in locations close to you on LCBO website http://www.lcbo.ca/products/productsearch.shtml by entering the wine number. Availability can vary from store to store. One of his favourites is a sparkling wine from Alsace, France - CREMANT D'ALSACE PINOT NOIR - J. GEILER #47191. It is made in the traditional method. In Alsace this wine is served in lieu of Champagne, a wonderful alternative bubbly for your next celebration. It is excellent with this month’s recipe of Quail Amaretto.  It costs $19.95. This wine was rated as a pick of the week in the Globe&Mail. His next suggestion is a white wine from Austria - MOORHOF MUSKAT OTTONEL 2006 #728667. This Muscat has an expressive nose of acacia blossom, peach and table grapes. Dry, light, very refreshing with a good finish. A great summer sipper or try it with pan-fried freshwater fish. It is a great aperitif and excellent with this month’s recipe of Quail Amaretto. The wine is $15.95  Another suggestion, one that is reasonably priced at $21.95, is OLSEN WINES BIG FELLA CHARDONNAY 2004 from Australia. #34884. Created for those who enjoy a full-bodied style of white wine, this Chardonnay offers subtle tropical fruit aromas and hints of oak. Great with Thai food and also this month’s recipe of Rabbit with white wine and Portobello mushrooms. Very buttery. For people who love red Bordeaux wine CHÂTEAU COUTELIN-MERVILLE 2003 #902965 AC Saint-Estêphe, Cru Bourgeois for $34.95 is an exceptional value considering that 2003 was the best fall weather for red wines…warm and dry. The grapes got a lot of sun and concentrated taste. A real pleasure to drink. Rich, powerful, spicy nose - mocha. Sumptuous, very concentrated, massive, burly but impressive with huge ripe tannins. Good length. Score - **** (out of 5). (www.decanter.com) It is excellent with this month’s recipes of Pheasant with red wine and fruits and Quail with Tapenade I also asked Fred why wines vary in price so much. There are 2 primary reasons for some wines being more expensive than others. One is the price of the local vineyard land. Sections of vineyard in Burgundy are the most expensive real estate in the world. We see French and Californian wines being priced higher for the same value than from other countries. Demand for limited supply wines also drives prices up. The second reason is reduced yield per vine. Basically a vine can only successfully ripen a limited number of bunches of grapes. If allowed to produce unchecked, the vine will try to produce many more bunches of grapes, with the resulting wine made from them being thin, not concentrated in flavour, and overall poor taste. To achieve high quality and more concentrated flavour in the wine, the vines are allowed to only produce 6 to 10 bunches of grapes each, instead of 20 to 30.  Thus the vines’ ripening and flavouring abilities are concentrated on fewer grapes, with each grape having a much more wonderful flavour. One of the examples of a more expensive wine is Pinot Noir. This is a grape variety that is more sensitive and has lower yields than many other grape varieties. The 4 wine suggestions above are an excellent example of Fred’s focus on comparable prices and great quality. Simply a pleasure to drink.