Tasting Niagara

So, another tasting trip to Niagara recorded in the tasting notebook. A very educational trip this time, expanding my understanding of the 2009 vintage, getting a glimpse of 2010, and gaining more insight into what works or not in Niagara. Highlights: the 2009 rieslings are stunning. Precise, austere, and aggressive, needing a long time in bottle. Syrah is going to be an important varietal in Niagara, as long as more producers are courageous enough to commit to it. The ones who make it are showing that intense, complex, and varietally-true syrahs can be made in Niagara that rival any cool-climate examples from the rest of the world . . . if only there was more courage. Until there is, we have to celebrate and support the few producers who are working hard for these wines. My dream is to see every single cabernet vine ripped out of Niagara, and replaced with syrah. One can dream, no?

Tasting at Thirty Bench Wine Makers
Tasting at Flat Rock Cellars
Tasting at Fielding Estate Winery

Finished the day off with a mad dash to Upper Canada Cheese, to pick up a hunk of their sublime Niagara Gold Guernsey Cow's milk cheese. Then, a 30 km sprint to Niagara on the Lake, to pick up raspberry jam at Greaves. Not for me - I'm pretty sure my mother would not let me back in her house if she knew I was in Niagara and didn't pick up her favourite jam. Early dinner at my favourite spot, Old Winery Restaurant. The spiced curry lentil soup was beautifully seasoned, although a bit gritty in texture. The Mediterranean pizza was so satisfying, with artichoke heart, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta cheese - crust perfectly thin and crispy. After a long day of tasting dozens of wines, the only thing suitable for dinner was a pint of Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale. The perfect pick-me-up for the long, congested drive back to Toronto.

DF

Tasting at Fielding Estate Winery

It's been a while since I've been to Fielding. I have one of their wines in my cellar - a 2006 riesling icewine I believe, one of those head-scratching purchases that you just can't explain. Not that it's a bad wine; if I recall, it was quite nice, balanced with good acidity, a rarity among Ontario icewines. I just don't have any experience with Fielding's wines, a good reason to pay another visit and taste. Hoped to taste the 2009's, as well as the 2010's. Some producers are more open to allowing you to taste barrel samples - this one was not. But that's fine, I'm not naive as to the reason why.

Beginning as always, with the whites. They have a Riesling Sparkling Brut, not vintage dated, but this is made entirely from 2009 grapes. I find these wines odd - riesling just doesn't seem as aromatic as a sparkling wine, doesn't have that lift or intensity. 2009 Riesling, much more successful, extracted and long. The 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay, made with 50% chardonnay musqué, was balanced, with good richness and nicely contrasting acidity. The 2009 Chardonnay is soft, and unfortunately, without character.

The red wines I tasted were certainly interesting. The 2008 Pinot Noir was intense, complex, and well-structured. 2007 Merlot, very interesting, one of the few Ontario merlots surprisingly more than just mediocre. Tight and structured, but already quite fine. And then we got to my favourite - the 2007 Syrah. I have high hopes for this varietal in Niagara, and this wine fits the exact profile of what I'm looking for. 2007 was a hot, dry vintage, and this wine reflects that with pure fruit, fine tannins, and incredible aromatics. Just a hint of white pepper underneath the fruit, but this needs a good 7-10 years to unwind. A great success - expensive, but a wonderful wine.

The philosophy behind this producer is unique - they're focused on making wines according to vintage conditions for each varietal. Therefore, you won't find, for example, a riesling every year. That's unique, and not necessarily something I agree with. A modern producer all around, making stylish wines that manages to yield a few surprises (a syrah!!!).

DF

Tasting at Flat Rock Cellars

Some of the finest people I've ever met, I've met during my tasting trips to Niagara. Always generous with their knowledge and wines, always welcoming and friendly. Gushing aside, onto the wines . . .

I'd been looking forward to visiting this producer for quite some time. Schedule never able to cooperate, but this Sunday was the perfect opportunity to visit Flat Rock Cellars, to taste through some of the 2009's (including some exciting new wines!) as well as the embryonic 2010's. A few things before I begin on the actual wines tasted. Not all the 2009's have been released yet - of the reds, I believe only the estate pinot noir is on the market. I know it's sexy for wine writers and bloggers to write about how they get to taste out of tank/barrel; it's certainly exciting for me as well to experience a wine in its developmental stages, but to write about them as if they were finished products is very misleading. In a sense, they aren't wines yet - not until they are bottled does one get a true sense of what they are, something to keep in mind the next time you read a tasting note from a barrel sample. And of course, with ego kept in check . . . it's all about the wines and the stories behind them, no?

A few exciting new wines being produced here, beginning with a new sparkling wine. There are actually two sparkling wines, the first being the one I tasted, the 2007 Riddled (with higher level of dosage), and the 2006 Brut. Both made from a traditional Champenoise blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, but in differing styles. The 2006 Brut, focused and bright, perhaps a bit more fruit and less of the autolysis character you find in Champagne, but nevertheless a very strong first effort. Both wines bottled under crown cap - this should be an interesting exercise to see how they age. A few new reserve wines also being released: a pinot noir as well as a 2008 Reserve Riesling, in which the winemaker's decided to do malolactic fermentation, an entirely unique process for riesling - unfortunately, I think he shouldn't have messed with a good thing. Changing the structure of the acidity completely robs the riesling of its character - a riesling without its racy acidity is like non-fat yogurt, and no fun for anyone. For a richer body, more weight, why not play with lees age, oak, something else . . . inducing malolactic was a mistake. Fortunately, the rest of the wines tasted were delicious, with lots of character. The 2009 Estate Riesling, bright with lots of energy and ripe fruit.

We headed downstairs to taste through some 2010 tank and barrel samples. As mentioned earlier, these tasting notes are of wines in its earliest stage, fledglings which have yet to truly resemble finished wines. Many of the wines tasted were barely finished (or still) fermenting. Therefore, I won't go into each specific sample tasted - rather, I'll attempt to frame the tasting notes in a broader sense, and give an indication of what to expect from this vintage. However, a few things are clear (or rather, unhazy). Beginning with . . .

The 2010 vintage is going to be an exciting one.

The wines are incredibly precise in varietal character. Chardonnays from all the various plots have beautiful ripe citrus flavours, showing creaminess but also a lovely acidity that picks up the dense minerality. Rieslings are in a more extracted style, with ripe fruit and electricity running through them all - instantly identifiable as wines coming from the Bench. Gewurztraminer, spicy with a lovely lychee element, textbook flavours for this varietal. The chardonnays that see oak will be interesting - this producer is playing with barrels sourced from various cooperages, the goal being to match the character of the wine with an appropriate cooper. A unique approach, which speaks to elevating a wine to the best of its inherent potential, instead of fashioning a wine to a specific taste profile. All the oak-aged chardonnays are showing good creaminess, texture, and balance, although these were harder to judge at this stage, the majority having just finished, or still undergoing, fermentation.

The pinot noirs are exciting as ever. Lovely ruby colours already, just luminous. Elegant, floral bouquets, complex and very fine indeed. Flat Rock always makes distinctive pinot noirs - looking forward very much to see these in bottle.

This producer has proven its ability to make consistent, charming wines in the past - these new wines are an exciting addition. Having spent some time here now, it's clear that something special is going on. Inspired winemaking is the key to success, regardless of where you're producing the wine. The winemaker here planted mustard and buckwheat in between the vines this past vintage, to introduce more nitrogen into the soil (alleviating the need for synthetic fertilizer), as well as to attract predatory insects (to combat pests). The team here is committed to using just screwcaps, hence the push to bottle one of the (very) few sparkling wines on the market under crown cap. And the idea is to tone back the use of new oak, using puncheons, and really matching the appropriate type of barrel to the kind of fruit each parcel is producing.

Inspired winemaking, all around.

DF

Tasting at Thirty Bench Wine Makers

I drove up, alone, to Niagara this past Sunday to get my first serious look at the 2009 vintage in the bottle. As you may recall, I was in Niagara during the 2009 harvest last October - I most recently tasted a few barrel samples this May. While the majority of red wines have yet to be bottled, the 2009 rieslings are mostly on the market.

My first stop was to Thirty Bench Wine Makers. A stunning producer of rieslings above all else - but they seem to enjoy telling everyone about everything but. A shame, because let's be honest, their vineyards, and winemaking team, were made for creating distinctive, terroir-specific rieslings. Austere with impeccable balance, with discernible character across all their vineyards, these rieslings are simply stunning in their purity, clarity, and luminosity.

Their estate level riesling, the 2009 Winemaker's Riesling is always quite developed in its minerality early on, creamy lanolin and citrus. High acid as always, but the fruit seems riper. Clean wine, that needs a good 3-5 years to come around. Onto the single vineyard rieslings. I always have a hard time choosing between Steel Post and Triangle Vineyard - each vintage seems to favour different vineyards. 2005 and 2006 were clear successes for Steel Post, but in 2007 and 2008, Triangle Vineyard showed better. Of course, this is how I judged them when they were just bottled - I can't yet determine a correlation between vintage conditions and each vineyard.

2009 Steel Post Riesling, shining in its minerality and high levels of extract on the palate. Very austere, extremely high acidity completely hiding the residual sugar, but balanced and very long. Will need at least 5 years, but this is very exciting. 2009 Triangle Vineyard Riesling, more fruit-forward at this point, lots of grapefruit and citrus. High acid, and at this point, still very primary. 2009 Wood Post Riesling, a bit fuller in body and rounder, and again, the fruit is obscuring all else.

Finished off the tasting with two other wines, just to gain a bigger picture of the rest of the white wines. 2008 Pinot Gris, made in a slightly sweet style, round, and very, very soft. You know, I never thought much about pinot gris - this wine certainly did not do much to change that opinion. 2008 Chardonnay, showing some overt oak at this point. The acidity shows as balanced, but soft - of course, this was after tasting the absolutely electric rieslings.

This tasting showed without a doubt how successful the rieslings are here. I won't go into specifics about why I think they make so many other white (and red) wines, instead of sticking exclusively to their strengths. I'm not naive - wine production isn't all romance, it's a business. But I do think Thirty Bench can do a much better job of promoting their range of rieslings. These are exciting, electric wines. Powerful too, a different style than the absolute finesse and precision of say, Mosel wines.

Always a pleasure to taste these wines. Slowly but surely, building my vertical. With a solid push, a surprise entry in some international riesling contest, more aggressive promoting, whatever . . . these wines speak for themselves, and all it takes is for the right critic/writer/trade professional to have a taste, for them to get the recognition they deserve.

DF

Back from a day in Niagara

Spent the day tasting in Niagara today - beautiful day, time to take a closer look at some of the 2009 wines being released, as well as some of the baby 2010's. A very successful trip all around. More detailed analysis of each producer I visited later, and the wines tasted too . . .

DF