In an article entitled "A bang for your $7.45 - Fuzion fires a frenzy at the LCBO," Rod Phillips, wine writer for the the Ottawa Citizen recently wrote: "A colleague told me last week he'd been in a "near-riot" at the main LCBO store at Rideau and King Edward. Noticing a commotion in one of the aisles, he found customers jostling to get their hands on bottles of Fuzion, the Argentinian shiraz-malbec blend recently added to the LCBO's list. He managed to grab two bottles." We'll see if this wine is worth fighting for.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY - All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed
fuZion Shiraz-Malbec 2007 Argentina 13.5% alcohol about $7
Usually I start an article by quoting the Liquor Board's marketing materials. Interestingly enough, here there aren't any. So I'll quote the back label, my own translation from the French. [I think this wine was so popular that the Ontario commission brought in bottles from neighboring Quebec, hence the French.]
Origin: Mendoza, Argentina.
Food Pairing Suggestions: Barbecued meat, pasta, and sharp cheeses.
Tasting Notes: Intense violet color. Prune and black cherry aromas. Silky wine, moderately full-bodied, fairly concentrated with a long finish.
The label then goes on to tell you about the producers, the Zuccardi family in Argentina.
As per our quoted introduction, this wine really created a sensation in our neck of the woods. A major wine writer compared it favorably to $20 bottles and for a while you couldn't find it. I made sure not to read the reviews so as not to be influenced. To get my hands on a bottle I had to go to a never before visited outlet. I asked the cashier what she thought of it but she hadn't tasted it. Then I went to the wine store cited above and purchased five other bottles for this series. I asked the guy at the information desk for his opinion. His answer, "What do you expect for $7.45." And now for my thoughts.
The first meal was a Middle-Eastern specialty, ground meat in ground bulgar and semolina jackets with a somewhat spicy tomato sauce. The fuZion was very pedestrian and quite short. I did taste some cherries. The smell bordered on the unpleasant. I tried it with homemade apple cake. In response the wine became flat. The finishing touch was a rather tasty fruit juice candy that simply overpowered this liquid. So far so bad. I do have the idea that by letting the wine breathe it might improve.
The second meal should have been a fine pairing. It consisted of Pot Roast to which I added Harissa, a Tunisian fiery pepper sauce and soft wheat kernels with carrots. I poured the wine into a wide glass well before consuming it. This was not a very successful pairing. The wine remained short and harsh. It wasn't at all round and didn't have much taste. It definitely wasn't worth a near riot.
I tasted this wine with two local cheeses; a yellow Cheddar and a white Munster. With the first cheese the wine had a pale taste. It was sort of grapey. The fuZion actually perked up with the Munster. It wasn't bad. So maybe this wine could be served at a wine and cheese party, especially one on a low budget with low expectations. I snuck in a final tasting with a cherry strudel. For the first time the wine took on some acidity but it was weak. Just in case you don't know my policy, I never blame a wine for weird food pairings that don't work, like this last trial. But I do blame it for food pairings that should have worked.
So I won't be driving all over the place trying to scrounge some bottles. In fact, I won't be finishing this one.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including http://www.theworldwidewine.com with his new weekly column reviewing $10 wines. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which teaches you how to download and run Damn Small Linux on Windows computers, even if they are "obsolete."
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