Saturday Wine Ruminations - Ontario Reds Strike Back!
Posted by Sasha Grigorieva in beverages, wine on June 16, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Well, the SipOntario event that took place in the Distillery District on June 12th has certainly been an eye-opener to me. I have never tasted so many beautiful Ontario reds before and rather assumed that if I am buying Ontario wine I should opt for the whites and icewine. Boy, was I wrong! Granted, a medium white Ontario wine still is a much better bet than a medium red one, but now I know that at least some of the Ontario red wines can be really spectacular.
But first a couple of words on the event itself. The Ontario Wine Awards were instituted by the famous Torontonian wine writer Tony Aspler twelve years ago, and have grown and prospered ever since. SipOntario is the public tasting and celebration of the award-winning wines. Although it is not always easy for a beginner to navigate through the awards list - there are up to 30 different award nominations! – the awarded wines mostly do deserve one’s attention. Their complete list can be down-loaded from here for future reference.
At SipOntario this year there were about 30 wineries displaying their wines, both award-winning and those that they just wanted to show. They were also flanked by presentation stands of local Ontario hotel restaurants that presented some finger and not-so-finger foods for the occasion, specially designed to be paired with wines. Most of it was indeed excellent: emu carpaccio, foie gras on French-style gingerbread, goat cheese mousse with asparagus etc., but I especially enjoyed hot slow-braised pork with spaetzle from the Niagara country Inn on the Twenty. Good food does make a lot of difference for events such as this, when one simply has to eat something from time to time to be able to keep a (relatively) clear head till the end of show.
And now to the reds. I tasted a few truly amazing Baco Noir varietal wines, not to be compared with Ancient Coast or 20 Bees concoctions that are just plonky with no character at all. Baco Noir is a humble French hybrid of Folle Blanche (that is considered to be good only for Cognac and Armagnac making in France) and American vine Vitis riparia (almost no famous varietals have American parentage, all are the progeny of European Vitis vinifera). It seems that here in Ontario it has finally come into its own. Gold Medal Baco Noir Reserve 2005 of Henry of Pelham is definitely worth its $24.95 LCBO price, as is the Bronze Medal Lakeview Cellars Reserve 2004 ($19.95). The other two Baco Noir medalists (Rockway Glen 2005 Silver and Waupoos 2005 another Bronze) were absent, so I can’t say anything about them, but I suspect they could be pretty amazing too. How to describe a good Baco Noir wine? It is fruity, meaty and opulent, with fine chocolaty or even mocha notes in the bouquet, but it has plenty of freshness at the same time. It is definitely a wine I am looking forward to this summer.
Other red wines that have impressed me very much are the extraordinary velvety Enotrium Gran Riserva 2003 of Magnotta winery, Magnotta Cabernet Franc Special reserve 2005 (Silver Medal) with a classic touch of mint in the bouquet and unfiltered Marynissen Cabernet Franc 2004 (Gold Medal), that had almost a port-like aroma. Some beautiful Shiraz wines were also present, such as Lakeview Cellars Syrah Reserve 2004 (Silver Medal). I even discovered one unexpected Zweigelt (originally an Austrian varietal) – Konzelmann Reserve 2004, with a great smoky and soubois bouquet. There were a few very decent Gamay (the Beaujolais varietal) wines too, some even sporting a fine Burgundy style aroma (Château des Charmes Gamay Noir Droit 2005, St. David’s Bench Vineyard, Bronze Medal, its winemaker Paul M. Bosc is the 2007 Winemaker of the Year - a Vintage Hotels Award). On the minus side many Bordeaux-style and Meritage blends (even the awarded ones, like Château des Charmes Cabernet/Merlot 2004 Bronze Medal or Stoney Ridge Meritage 2003 Gold Medal) had a touch of green, vegetal flavour that wasn’t entirely to my liking.
Still, there were many more brilliant wines (including whites, icewines and even sparkling) that could possibly fit into this article. I have lots of tasting notes and pictures left so I hope to write more features on Ontario wineries this summer to do them justice.
June 17th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Thanks for recognizing all of the work we have done with our reds, especially Baco Noir.
Below is an e-mail I sent out to friends recently as I was walking the vineyards — some of your readers might find it interesting (see below).
If they want to reach me they can go to http://www.henryofpelham.com and ask for me.
Regards,
Daniel Speck
Co-owner
Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery
Hi all
Just walking Olive and Popeye (my dogs) and thought I’d send you an update on the vineyard:
The Baco Noir just started flowering overnight which means that Chardonnay, Pinots Noir and Blanc and Gamay won’t be far behind. Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and the meritage reds (Merlot, then Cabernet Franc, then Cabernet Sauvignon) will follow, all in roughly that order. So, with flowering just started it will be about 100 days from the end of flowering till harvest (rule of thumb) — but a lot can happen along the way speeding up or slowing things down. Harvest for still wines usually starts in the second or third week of Sept so we’re right on track.
After a slightly slow start this year the vineyards are in major growth mode. We actually prefer a slow start (meaning cool weather through mid-to late May) since it delays bud break. This means less risk of damage should we get a late spring frost. (If the buds aren’t out then they are less susceptible to frost damage.) We worry more about winter frost than say Napa or NZ, the latter of which suffered from a very bad spring frost in ‘03. I only mention this for context — this is why you see so many wind machines in those places. We have them too and could use them if necessary but winter is really our biggest frost worry, not spring.
In Niagara the season goes from winter right into summer. Spring is very cool and short so the vines barely react to it. When the heat comes on though the green growth explodes out of the vines. The green growth on the Riesling has been about 2 feet in the last 2 weeks and it isn’t even the earliest to bud! I’m looking at a baco vine as I write this and it has had 3-4 feet of growth in 2 weeks.
The mild winter has meant a very good bud count that is evenly distributed on the vines. This means buds every 4-6 inches on the vine so we have a very consistently distributed crop which we will now go through and thin (shoot thinning now is about picking the best buds and removing the lesser ones). Consistently distributed buds, all at the same height on the vine, rows planted north/south for even sun exposure all equate to consistent high quality fruit from the vineyard.
It has been a fairly dry spring so far and we’d like to see some rain. Having said that our vineyards are all in the Short Hills Bench on heavy clay which has moisture deep into the soil. As our vines are all quite established with deep roots they have access to water far down in the ground. The dryness hasn’t been an issue for us to this point and won’t be for a while.
Let’s hope for rain at night and warm weather during the day!
Back to running the dogs (Popeye is off chasing a jack rabbit the size of a small kangaroo!)
Daniel
PS- please feel free to forward this to anyone who might find it interesting.