You would think that I would have more time for wine tours and blogging during summer vacation, but apparently I needed my regular schedule of the school year to resume before I could get back into the swing of things. This weekend is the first of two for the annual Niagara Wine Festival. Last year, Chris and I checked out the festivities at the festival's hub, Montebello Park in St. Catharines, but we were sadly dissapointed by the predominantly trashy atmosphere and the remarkably inefficient ticket system for sampling wine. This year we skipped the park altogether, opting for a $30 Discovery Pass and visiting three of the participating wineries.
Click here to see what this route has to offer, and note that you can buy a passport at any of those wineries, a fact that isn't entirely clear on the web site.
Usually when we plan a route, we pick a theme by visiting, say, three wineries serving the same varietal or three wineries all serving dessert. For these two weekends, though, we're focusing on wineries we've never been to before and we're continually surprised at just how many of those there still are.
Pillitteri Estates Winery has been on our "to visit" list for quite some time due to its reputation for icewine, but it's just never fit into our touring theme before. We have noticed that the parking lot is always busy, partially due to its prime location on Niagara Stone Road. There are three different entrances and each gives a very different overall impression. One opens to the casually elegant primary tasting bar, the next into an impressive showcase of awards and a hostess to direct you around, and the third into a country market / wine store. Unfortunately, we entered through that last one which instantly reminded me of my distaste for
Riverview Cellars. After a brief walk around, though, the careful merchandising and professional staff convinced me that this setup was genuinely "shabby-chic" instead of just shabby.
One thing still confused me; the wines on display in both retail areas ranged from $10 - $189 per bottle, but without the variety in between that such a range would imply. Producing 100,000 cases per year, Pillitteri is neither a cottage industry like
Maleta nor a mass producer like
Magnotta. It's interesting portfolio of wines suggest that it likes to experiment, but produce only what it is best at, and only then in large quantities. It also takes the risk of extensively aging its Family Reserve label, its current offering a 2002 vintage. (Honestly, though, when I think of what $189 would buy me in a French or Californian blend, I'm going to be hesitant to risk that much on what is, at least to me, still an unknown.)
Moving onto the festival activities, Pillitteri offered two different options for Discovery Pass holders: the advertised gourmet grilled cheese with a choice of its mid-range red or white, or a sample of both the red and white from its Bad Company label with an antipasto plate. (I can't recall any other wineries offering such a choice.) We chose the latter of these as it was indoors, warmer and less crowded than the former! Bad Company is Pillitteri's entry level wine, at $10 / bottle and with no vintage year indicated. The upstairs tasting room was devoted to promoting this brand, with a fun, interactive photo area. The servings were generous for a festival, and there were tables with seating to relax, enjoy and discuss.
The Bad Company white is a blend of riesling and gewurztraminer. It has a weak nose of lemon with a hint of mold. It's taste is a very light, clean flavour of yellow grapefruit, but with a rather short, flat finish. Although it is described as off-dry, I would put it on the dryer end of that. However, the wine did provide a very nice background for all of the various flavours in the antipasto, and its hint of sourness disappeared with the food. Chris and I agreed on a rating of 82 for this wine.
The red counterpart is a blend of pinot noir and merlot with a pleasant nose of very ripe, still dirty strawberries right off the bush. Its mouth feel is pretty thin, but very smooth, or as Chris said, "nothing complex, but nothing offensive either." The pinot noir is more evident than the merlot, and the flavour suggests sweet, ripe tomatoes and, again, strawberries. It's finish is more pronounced and a little longer than its sister's. Again, this wine nicely offset the accompanying food, earning a rating from both of us of 83.
Although these wines wouldn't really fit into our usual style, I have been to several events that serve a generic red and white, perhaps with a bottle of each on every table, and these two are better, and likely less expensive, than several I've had in that context. I also figure that if that's what Pillitteri can do for $10, I'm certainly interested in trying some of its higher end offerings.
This is my third visit to Colaneri Estate Winery, as I wanted to make sure I was giving it a fair chance. We didn't have a great experience on our first visit, but when I stopped by with some friends a few months later, there had been some improvements. For example, the construction on the villa was far enough along that they could set up a separate tasting area for festival events. That visit also gave us the chance to speak with one of the owners, who told us more about her family, the winery, and its unique series of wine labels, each representing one of her relatives. 
This is one of the nicest smelling wines I've ever tried. The easy to find nose begins with bell and roasted peppers, and possibly dried tomatoes. As the wine aerates, cedar, eucalyptus and cocoa are all detectable. Unfortunately, the taste does not live up to the beautiful complexity of the smell. It is quite dry, and even a little chalky, possibly suggesting its youth. (Keep in mind this was the release date for this wine.) Chris noted he could taste the alcohol, but only barely. The mouthfeel is also somewhat thin for a cab, even a franc. It did pair nicely with the accompanying lasagna though, and earned an rating of 85 from us both, making it the best wine of the day, but falling short of the expectations set by both Tawse and Peller for this varietal.
