Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Our final winery visit in Napa Valley was to Joseph Phelps Vineyards, which makes some of the best wines in the world.  The winery, however, does not offer tours and tastings are by appointment only.  The entrance and reception was the most businesslike and least friendly of the wineries we visited (see Mondavi and Montelena) as if they are doing you a favour by letting you visit.  Of the two tasting packages available, we chose to sample 6 wines for $30 dollars each.  Although that may seem very expensive, you would have to spend $450 to buy those 6 bottles so it wasn't unreasonable to pay $30 to taste these wines.

Reception gave us each a glass, then escorted us out to the patio, surrounded by beautiful vistas of vineyards.  The serving staff were much friendlier and clearly very proud of their winery and its wines.  The servers had a very standard pour, though, of about 1.25 oz; no amount of schmoozing would get you extra wine here.  Actually, since any purchases are made back at reception on the way out, the servers aren't that connected to the sales function.  I suppose they expect (rightfully so) that the wine will sell itself.

Below are the highlights of our flight of 6 wines.  Each wine was far more complex than these notes indicate.

2012 Sauvignon Blanc, St. Helena, $35 - chemical nose, flowery palate, fuller bodied than most I've tried.

2011 Chardonnay, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - loved it, better than Montelena, brought 1 bottle home.  

2011 Pinot Noir, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - bright red colour, nose of sweet red cherry / pie filling and orange peel,  fantastic balance of acidity and tannin, spicy and juicy with a strong finish.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, $65 - rated 94 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, but needs another 10 years to soften the tannins.  Beautiful mid-palate flavour.  Brad loved it, Chris didn't, Brad drank Chris' glass!

2009 Insignia, $200 - Phelps' signature wine, this vintage rated 95 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.  Tar, spice, sweet red apples.  Better than the cabernet sauvignon, but $135 better?

2011 Eisrebe, $50 - California's answer to icewine is to put the late harvest Scheurebe grapes in a freezer.  Honey, apricot, peach, orange blossom, a  hint of caramel and brilliant acidity.  

At checkout, we needed to purchase some extra wine-skins (wine bottle fitted bubble wrap for travelling) to keep the bottles we'd bought safe in our luggage on the plane.  Much to our delight, Joseph Phelps sells resealable wine-skins, which we'd never seen before.  The ones we usually buy are single use, but can usually be pushed to 2 or 3 uses.  We stocked up on these, knowing we'll never have to buy them again, and comforted by the fact that YOU CAN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD WINE-SKINS AFTER-ALL!  

Chateau Montelena

The iconic castle, (je m'excuse, "chateau,") is a modern
production facility inside.  It appears on all Montelena
labels.

Have you seen the movie Bottle Shock?  It's about Chateau Montelena when, in 1976, its chardonnay beat the world's best French white wines in a blind taste test now referred to as 'The Judgment of Paris."  Because of both the story and the movie, (starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine and Bill Pullman,) I expected this winery to be both very touristy and very crowded; fortunately it was neither.

The inscription reads, "The Judgement of Paris 1976."

The grounds have been extensively landscaped, including a small network of bridges and pagoda-like gazebos over a lake housing two black swans.  The gazebos are for hosting private picnic lunches, which must be booked well in advance.  Tastings, however, are available without an appointment.  For $20 per person, you can taste 4 of its 5 current release wines.  However, there's a two-for-one coupon available HERE and the winery waives one fee for every $100 spent on wine, so the four of us didn't end up paying any tasting fees at all.  When we arrived at the tasting room there were four servers behind the bar each assisting other groups, but we only had maybe a 10 minute wait before trying the following four wines.

2012 Riesling - I was prepared to not like this wine, being quite stuck on Beamsville Bench riesling for the time being.  Earlier in the trip, I had actually told Kim not to bother buying any rieslings in California.  It seems though, that Montelena makes this wine with grapes it purchases from Potter Valley, further North than Napa, with better growing conditions for riesling.  Brilliantly bright with acidity, this wine really tickles your tongue.  The dominant smell and taste we noted was honey, but the winemaker's notes list peach, apple, lichee (agree), rose, apricot, wet stone (agree) and pear.  Since this wine is not available outside of California, Kim did buy a bottle after all.

2010 Chardonnay - Montelena chardonnay is too light for me.  There.  I said it.  Interestingly though, when I compare my notes to the winemaker's, it's like we're talking about two different wines.  The only thing we agree on is that there's a subtle green apple flavour.  What I call thin, he calls creamy.  What I call vanilla, he calls marzipan.  Given that this was the wine that literally won the west, it's fair to say that the problem is probably with me.  I'm assuming that my palate is just not refined enough to taste the complexity, so I'd rather spend $20 for an Ontario chard than $60 for one I don't appreciate.  (Chris really likes this wine, but I suspect it's because he thinks he's supposed to!)

Despite its fame and wealth, Montelena's tasting bar is
humble, approachable and enjoyable.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon - According to the winemaker's notes, "the beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors."  I completely agree, as I've had issues with more typical California Cabs tasting like chewing tobacco, but this one is very drinkable even in its youth while still maintaining a complexity of taste.  It's probably partially due to the 9% merlot + cab franc that are taking off its edge.

When searching for Montelena wines at the LCBO, I always
spell it wrong: Montalina, Montaleena, etc.  When we arrived
I saw it underneath Mount Helena.  It all makes sense now!

2009 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - I can't believe I spent this much on one bottle, but it is the single best California cab I've ever tried.  Antonio Galloni from the Wine Advocate rated it 93, as did Stephen Tanzer from the International Wine Cellar.  Like its non-estate cab cousin, this wine can be drunk now or aged, but its approachability seems to come from superior wine-making techniques instead of blending.  Both the nose and the taste come in layers of fruit, smoke and spice.  Perhaps its best feature though is its structure; the wine just flows back away from the tongue like silk.  I'm not sure how long it will last in the cellar.

Robert Mondavi (the wines)

The tour concluded with wine tasting.  The tasting room was preset for our group when we arrived, and the décor struck an appropriate balance between casual and elegant.  We were informed about the various wine club options, and given literature, but the sales pitch was not overdone or pushy.  Peter, the guide, knew the wine would sell itself, be it through bottle sales or club memberships.  To that end, although the tour price only promised three wines to taste, he threw in a fourth, "just 'cause he felt like it!"

The first wine, the 2011 Carneros Chardonnay, is only available at the winery: not in stores or restaurants. Carneros, the southernmost region of Napa Valley, has very Burgundian growing conditions.  (I learned the word "Burgundian," meaning Burgundy-like, on the tour!)  This, combined with the 14 months of oak aging, has resulted in a creamy but bright chardonnay smelling of passion fruit.  (Chris says bubblegum.)  Peter introduced the second wine, the 2012 Napa Valley Rose, with the statement, "I bet you think all pink wines are ..."  I was tempted to say "crap," but apparently he was going for "sweet."  This particular rose is not sickeningly sweet, but rather tangy, tasting of watermelon.  Interestingly, it's made from a very Bordeaux-like blend that I don't think I've had as a rose before.  The smell is quite yeasty, and the body thin, but both of these characteristics dissipated by pairing the wine with a caprese salad.

The third wine just might be my new favourite, which could prove problematic as it too is only available at the winery.  This 2010 red, labelled "Momentum" is made entirely from Merlot grapes.  It's leather nose is followed by a tangy mid-palate taste of raspberry and silky tannins that made the side of my tongue drool for more!  For my liking, there was a little too much chalk left in my mouth afterwards, but a few years in the cellar should fix that, assuming I can wait that long!  Finally, our bonus wine was the 2012 Moscato.  Peter joked that us Ontarians would probably not like California's feeble attempt at dessert wine, but we certainly did.  With a nose of champagne and honey and an acidity that almost reaches a point of carbonation, this is very versatile for a dessert wine.  Chris suggested it would pair well with Curry.  Brad bought two bottles, neither of which made it back to Canada!

If I haven't said it already, Robert Mondavi Winery was a fantastic introduction to Napa Valley both for novice and experienced wine enthusiasts.  I would go to far as to say that if you are staying in the San Francisco Bay Area and can only get away for a few hours, this should be your one stop in wine country.  Also, at a price per bottle of $36, $24, $50, and $25, respectively as above, these high quality wines also represent very good value.  We will definitely stop by the boutique on our next visit to the area!

Robert Mondavi (the winery)

Before even departing for California, I'd already noticed some big differences between touring Napa Valley wineries versus those in Niagara.  For example:

• very few (if any?) Napa Valley wineries have restaurants in them;
• many wineries (especially the big names) require an appointment for tours;
• some wineries even require an appointment for tastings;
• tours and tastings are much more expensive in Napa Valley than in Niagara;
• tasting fees generally aren't per glass, covering 3-6 wines per visit depending on the winery;
• each visit takes more than 1 hour;
• lots of police officers patrol the wine route, especially at night.
  
  

Mondavi's To Kalon vineyard

Keeping all this in mind, we spread out or visits over three days to allow for time and safe driving. Our first stop, before even checking into our hotel, was Robert Mondavi Winery, which comes highly recommended by nearly every tourist guide I can find, mostly for its dedication to wine education.  On the tour we learned that this evolved from the founder's belief that growing his company meant growing the industry by educating both its consumers and even its competitors.  I've often commented that I wish more Niagara producers would adopt this mentality.

Wine Education Coordinator
Peter Alig

We were only 10 minutes into our 75 minute tour (at a cost of $30 each) when I already concluded it was the most thorough, informative and professional  tour I've been on, while maintaining an intimate and fun atmosphere.  Our guide, Mr. Peter Alig, is an excellent public speaker and was able to answer some pretty specific questions.  Afterwards, I realized why; he's the author of The Everything Guide to Wine: From tasting tips to vineyard tours and everything in between, and he's Mondavi's Wine Education Coordinator.  (We should have that position in Niagara wineries;  Tawse should hire me!)

much appreciated
shaded seating area

Throughout the tour, we would stop periodically to listen to Peter and ask questions in the shaded pergolas overlooking the vineyard - the same vineyard that produces Zippy Sauce's favourite Fume Blanc.  (Actually, we learned we've been pronouncing To Kalon incorrectly; it's "toe-kalone.")  Moving on, a video presentation was made showing the parts of the production process we couldn't see that day - another professional and educational touch.  The tour focused on the best of the best, so we visited the oak fermentation tanks (unique to Mondavi) and the barrel aging cellar, both of which are used only for the winery's best, hand-picked red grapes.

French oak
fermentation tanks

Finally, after a rather luxurious stop in one of the tasting rooms, (see next post), we ended in the exceptionally well merchandised wine boutique / gift shop, where I had a revelation; every winery I've visited, every tour I've taken and every wine boutique I've shopped in are all, in one way or another, imitations of this one (or its prominent Napa Valley peers).  Mondavi's stamp on the new-world wine industry extends beyond the winemakers it has trained or the customer's it has served; wineries founded 40 years later and 2600 miles away have built themselves in its image.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

barrel aging cellar with wine library at far end;
reminds me of Vineland Estate!

gift shop display appropriate for
Featherstone Estate!

Napa Valley Winery Exchange

Last week Chris and I, with friends Brad & Kim, visited San Francisco and Napa Valley.  As such, the next few blog entries will shift the focus off of my usual Ontario winery reviews to recount our exploration of the region that made new-world wine famous across the globe.  Since Canadian customs only allows each adult traveler to bring two 750 ml bottles back into Canada, we planned this trip carefully, intending to only buy wines that are not available (or rarely available or available but really expensive) in Ontario.  One tool that helped us accomplish this was the LCBO app for iPhone, which we used to check inventory levels of different wines across the province.  (Note: the search engine in this app isn't very "smart" so check your spelling carefully before concluding that a wine isn't sold in Ontario.)

For some perspective, consider that there are just over 80 wineries in the Niagara region and that it's taken me a year and a half to blog approximately half of them.  As such, what proportion of Napa's 450+ wineries could the four of us realistically visit in just 3 days?  Solution: the Napa Valley Winery Exchange has shopped most of the region's boutique wineries (and some of the larger ones too) to bring together a collection of wines that generally are not sold outside of California.  It's a small storefront near the not-so-desirable Tenderloin district of San Francisco with limited  hours (10-6 most days), but for wine tourists it is an absolute must-shop while you're in town.  It's well organized inside, with shelves divided by varietal and with professional reviews, tasting notes and ratings beneath most wines.  Perhaps the best feature of the NVWE, though, is its staff.  On one hand, they really know their stuff; you can give a fairly detailed description such as "cocoa and eucalyptus with no tobacco" and they know which bottle to recommend.  On the other hand, if you're not as wine-literate, they will coach you through easy questions, beginning with "red or white?"  Below is a look at the 3 bottles we purchased from this store.  Each photo links to more information about the wine.  However, just like in Ontario, the smaller wineries don't seem to spend much time maintaining their websites! 

Anderson's
 Conn Valley Vineyards
2010 Right Bank

Limerick Lane
2009 Zinfandel
Block 1910

John Robert Eppler Wines
2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
Howell Mountain

New Vintage Festival (Megalomaniac)

Look right in the center of the photo
and you'll see the stone arch rising
into view.  We were 1/3 of the way
from the road when this was taken.

Our stop at Megalomaniac Wines (John Howard Cellars of Distinction) was another nice surprise in our day, beginning with our approach up the property's rather steep drive, from the bottom of which you can hardly see the production facility, carved as it is into the side of the hill so that only the stone arch above the door is visible.  Although the entrance and large oak doors have a medieval flare to them, Chris's overall impression was  bomb shelter, having decided that Megalomaniac is where he will head in the event of a natural disaster or enemy attack!  Indoors, the air is kept cool and most by the surrounding hillside, which was a refreshing escape from the summer's heat.

The winery had advertised a sparkling with a strawberry and white chocolate ganache tart.  First, though, we were offered its Pink Slip Rose, a pinot noir, which tasted mostly of sour strawberry skin and brought out the sweetness in the dessert without sacrificing its own taste.  Although I don't drink a lot of pink wine, I have noticed that all of my favourites are made from pinot noir.  At $17.95 per bottle, it is comparable in price and quality to other better roses in the region.

Next, we tried the winery's first ever sparkling release, also made from pinot noir, which matched beautifully with the strawberries in the dessert but also cleansed our palates from the heavy ganache.  Interestingly, the wine taste didn't change at all with the food.  It is sweet for a sparkling, with very little yeast on the nose, and it is not at all dry.  Although the wine is not yet listed on the winery's website, it is available on site for $28, which is again comparable to other sparklings in the area, and a safe bet to serve at special events for people who don't generally 

drink a lot of wine.

New Vintage Festival (Ridgepoint Wines)

After a disappointing start to the day, the people at Ridgepoint Wines really turned things around for us.  It had set up an area for passport holders and staffed it with a very knowledgeable and friendly host. I loved the little tidbits of information I picked up during this visit.  For example, the cabernet sauvignon grape is actually a cross-breed (most likely accidental) of sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc.  We also learned that a wine's eventual % alcohol can be approximated by its brix level divided by 2.  Sometime during our lesson, we managed to taste 2 red wines accompanied by venison sliders.  Carrie and Chris were a little hesitant to try venison, but were later glad that they did.  

The first wine, the 2009 Monticello Rosso (translation = "little hill") is an odd blend of some lighter reds and even a white.  (Sorry - I didn't record the exact blend but then couldn't find it on the winery's website later.)  It is served chilled, is very drinkable, and not at all dry.  Its fruity / berry flavor has an obvious Italian influence, like many of Ridgepoint's wines.  At $15 per bottle, this wine is good value.  It doesn't require food, but would go well with lots of antipasto dishes.  Although the venison was too big of a flavor for it, the wine picked up both the taste and the smell of the burger's tomato. 

The second wine, the 2007 Meritage, sells for $25.25, low for an aged Ontario red blend.  I enjoyed the musky smell of cigar smoke / wet leather.  Most of the flavor comes early and up front, though, and the finish is both short and weak.  I described the wine as poorly structured, because I experienced the whole taste at once and mostly in one part of the mouth.  Chris described it as too tannic.  Our host agreed with Chris on that note, suggesting that it would benefit from 2-3 more years of aging. (Apparently I can only detect tannin when it's either really young and chalky or really old and silky, recognizing nothing in between!)  This wine went very well with the venison, holding it's own against both the strong flavour and the fat content.  It was one of those mutually beneficial pairings where the combined flavour of the food and the wine is somehow better than either flavour on its own.

We will definitely return to Ridgepoint, probably for lunch, and to try their more unique wines.  As I mentioned, there is a strong Italian influence, and the winery actually grows and bottles its own sangiovese and nebbiolo, which I didn't think was possible in Ontario.  It also offers a white Cab Franc / Cab Sauv blend for $18, $4 cheaper than Hinterbrook's Franc Blanc. 

Good Earth = Bad Business

I've really been procrastinating on this blog post as our visit to the Good Earth Food and Wine Co. left such a sour taste in my mouth - and it wasn't even from the wine!  I considered just skipping this post but that would prevent me from accomplishing my goal of reviewing all 80+ Niagara region wineries, since it's pretty unlikely that I'll visit this one for a second time. 

Chris, Carrie and I visited Good Earth for our first stop of the Niagara New Vintage Festival on the festival's last day.  For this particular festival, tourists buy a passport for $40+HST which contains 8 coupons, each for one wine and food tasting at any of the participating wineries.  I chose Good Earth that day because of it's impressive offering of 3 different wine and food combinations per coupon: a mini 3 course tasting menu of sorts. 

Our initial impressions were quite good.  The atmosphere is cottage like, with lots of pine and a kitschy but cute set of giant utensils in the vineyard.  There are at least 4 different seating areas, 1 indoors and 3 outdoors, providing an intimate feel while still allowing for a sizeable number of guests.  The well manicured garden area bridges the patio to the vineyards, creating the sensation of a sprawling property much larger than its actual size.  Taking in all of these sights, we were rather eager to dive in so we headed into the wine boutique, where our visit began to fall apart.

The boutique, which is also the restaurant's waiting area and a pass-through to the kitchen for the staff, is no more than 200 square feet, was jammed with confused patrons.  After a brief wait, the hostess materialized and explained that the passport tastings would be held at the tasting bar in the garden.  That cleared out about 1/3 of the room and we headed out past the patio, through the garden and found seats at the adobe style bar.  The server asked for our passports.  We explained that we needed to buy them.  She told us we were to have bought them inside but that they were sold out.  We asked what we should do.  She told us to go inside and talk to the hostess who could do something for us.  Chris went inside but the hostess simply confirmed that they had, in fact, sold out of passports, and we would have to go to a different winery to get them.  End of discussion.

Put another way, we showed up to the business of a small player in a large, highly competitive industry, saying "please let us try your product" and were told "get in your car, go to our competitors, and then come back and try our product."  No alternatives were offered or suggested and an overwhelming attitude of "not my problem" oozed from the staff.  Needless to say, we left, bought our passports at the next stop on our tour, and didn't go back.

Now, on the off chance that the owners of Good Earth ever read this, I have some advice.  You cannot afford to be so apathetic or complacent.  I'm sure your wine is palatable, but you are a 10 minute drive from Tawse, Canada's best winery, 3 years running.  Yes, the food we saw on the patio looked and smelled delicious, but only 12 minutes away is Vineland Estate's world renowned restaurant.  You also have a beautiful location with lovely views, but so do Angel's Gate, Thirty Bench and a whole slew of others.  Either I'm missing something and Good Earth is so fabulously successful and profitable that it doesn't need to consider these things when it sends a customer out the door without having tasted its product, or Good Earth is simply out of its league.

Graze the Bench (Hidden Bench)

Since we'd finished our first wine and food combination, we picked up our festival glasses and walked down the hill, through the vineyards, around a pond and into our second winery of the day.  You only have to walk ten steps off of Organized Crime's property to be able to see Hidden Bench Vineyards and Winery.  This was where I figured out that the event pricing wasn't quite as good as I'd thought.  The initial passport, which we'd picked up at Organized Crime, cost $25 per person and included admission to the "graze" areas at all 6 wineries, one glass of wine, one food choice, and a wine glass to take with you door to door.  Additional food and wine was to cost $7.  It didn't say "each!"  So we re-jigged our plan, spend another $14, and got one more glass of wine and one more food plate.  (I drank most of the wine and Chris ate most of the food.)

Of the two wine choices available, I picked the 2011 Chardonnay.  The smell to me was smoky, but lightly so, sort of like the smell of birch bark kindling.  Chris smelled bubblegum; Chris always smells bubblegum in chardonnay.  The winery's own notes say perfumed orange blossom and citrus oil so we'll go with that.  The wine has a nice balance between feeling crisp and feeling oily.  There's only a hint of lemon in the taste, and the most concentrated, distinct flavour, that of hazelnut cream, comes at the back and sides of the tongue.  For a chardonnay, it has a very long finish, but that's when the taste of alcohol surfaces.  We argued over the rating for awhile, settling somewhere around 88.  It's price is $32.

The food accompaniment this time was an oak-smoked beef brisket sandwich, which was an incredible pairing for the chardonnay.  The oaks played off of each other, as did the oils, with excellent results.  Unfortunately, we did not enjoy the music as much at this venue, first because it was too loud and second because the lead singer was not all that pleasant to listen to. Nevertheless, we will definitely graze the bench again next year, but this time will remember sunscreen, a hat, and walking shoes!

Graze the Bench (Organized Crime)

Graze the Bench is a very different wine event from those we typically frequent.  First, only the six wineries on the Beamsville Bench participate.  At each winery, you receive a full serving of your choice of two wines, paired with a light lunch.  The entire event is outdoors, and each venue hosts its own live music.  To top it off, the wineries are (mostly) close enough to walk between, and the new Beamsville Bench Vineyard Trail allows you to take the vineyard filled scenic route rather than the road.  Like most events in Ontario's wine country though, the event was poorly promoted.  We only knew about it because we'd seen the flyers during last year's Wine & Herb festival and knew to watch for it this year.

The Organized Crime Winery

As we approached the wine boutique to buy our event tickets, I grew concerned about my winery choice as some neighbourhood cats had clearly been having a turf war over the surrounding bushes.  Fortunately, though, the food and the band were on the other side of the building, where it smelled much nicer.  As Organized Crime doesn't have its own kitchen, it hosted a food truck, El Gastromundo Vagabundo, who served charcoal grilled chicken with guacamole and hot smoked pineapple habanero hot sauce with herb salad.  The food was yummy, but just a little too spicy for either of the wines - or any other wine I can think of for that matter!

So that we could try both wines on offer, Chris ordered the red and I the white.  The red, a 2011 blend called The Pipedown, went surprisingly better with the food, but it tasted more like sangria than it did a "classic Bordeaux style blend."  Its predominant features are its nose of black pepper, clove and vine-ripened tomatoes, and its already mellowing tannins.  We rated it an 82 without knowing the price as the bottle isn't listed on the winery's web page.  Realistically, I probably wouldn't buy this wine at any price, unless I wanted sangria in the first place!

The white, another 2011 blend  of gewürztraminer and viognier called The Mischief, was much more enjoyable.  Since I agree with the winery's tasting notes on this one, I'll copy them here; "Voluptuous, big and rich in both appearance and on the palate.  Very complex beginning with spice, ginger and a floral hint progressing to a bountiful ripe basket of tropical and stone fruits finishing with grapefruit acidity."  In my own notes, I commented that its a nice balance of crisp but full, and that my mouth was watering near the finish.  At a score of 85, I would pay up to $24 for this wine, which also is not listed on the company's web site.  I also remarked that I would rather have this white blend than those we tried at Stratus for Cuvee.  Overall the winery created a great atmosphere for the afternoon, with the help of a Latin inspired band, Los Caballeros del Son.  The music set a relaxed, festive tone but was not so loud as to prohibit conversation.  For that reason, although we did walk the trail and graze elsewhere, we came back to end our day there.

Cuvee at Inniskillin

I knew I wanted to end the tour with a dessert wine, but since I'm already pretty familiar with Inniskillin icewine, and since I've blogged about the winery twice already, at first I thought I'd take the group somewhere else.  Then I found out Inniskillin would be sampling three different fifteen year old icewines and I couldn't resist.  Because Ontario icewine is so good when its young, not to mention expensive, you don't often hear of aged varietals.  Fortunately, Inniskillin had enough of its three 1997 varietals in its library.  The bottles were old enough that the corks had become rubbery and soft and required a special corkscrew that had metal arms on either side of the screw to help secure the cork on the way out.

The colour of the three wines really surprised me, as all had developed an orange hue.  The vidal, normally gold, appeared brownish-orange.  The riesling, usually a brighter yellow, had turned peachy and the cabernet franc, typically ruby-red, was now terracotta.  I liked that the winery supplied a standard wine tasting glass, so we could experience the difference a proper Riedel icewine glass makes.  That being said, I was very nervous about spilling while pouring from one glass to another. Basically, the shape of the proper glass first releases then contains the smell so that before the wine hits your tongue, your nose is filled with the big aromas.  Conversely, in the standard glass, in order to smell the wine while tasting it, you have to tilt your head so far back that the wine falls over your tongue all at once, effectively drowning the wine's complexity.

Left: 1995, $157.99
Right: 2008, $69.95

Onto the wines, the vidal smelled mostly of golden raisins and Christmas baking.  All of the fruit flavours of a younger vidal were gone, leaving behind the taste of  browned butter.  The cabernet franc featured a musty, leathery smell, and a taste combining strawberry, leather and a little caramel, not to mention absolutely beautiful tannins.  The riesling actually had a typical riesling petrol smell to it, along with the scent of butterscotch.  The taste reminded us of peach cobbler, with a hint of pear still evident.  I had actually tried to buy this wine several months earlier, but was told then that it was no longer available.  I did snag a bottle this time, paying a  price more than doubled by its age.  Since this visit, I have moved a few recent icewine vintages to the aging section of our wine rack, and hope for equally impressive results.  

Cuvee at Strewn

The first time Chris and I visited Strewn Winery, we determined to return to taste its higher end wines.  So when it advertised it would be serving three of its Terroir wines, we made it the 4th stop of our Cuvee tour route.   Of course, we had already tasted 14 other wines before arriving, so the memories are fuzzy and the tasting notes nearly illegible.  (I'm noticing that my choices for quality pictures got pretty slim as the day went on too!)  The wines consisted of three different years of the "Strewn Three" red blend of cabernet sauvingon, cabernet franc, and merlot.  Strewn does not make this wine every year, depending on the growing conditions and the quality of the harvest.

2005 - The sommelier student who served us accurately described the nose as 'cigar box' - rich, thick, sweet and smoky.  The wine is exceptionally dry, but without tasting at all of chalk.  Its taste and body do not live up to what its nose promises.  Its finish was a tad too short and its brick-like colour suggested that it had passed its prime.

2007 - Jeff absolutely loved this wine!  According to the place mat (pictured left), "Aromas of plum and a minerality are found on the nose.  Flavours of cherry mingle with raspberry and plum on the palate.  Supple and silky tannins add to the full round character.  This wine from a stellar vintage year can be enjoyed now or allowed to develop through 2015."

2010 - Based on the description alone, I knew this wine was for me!  "Cedar, maraschino cherry, vanilla, eucalyptus and spiciness on the nose.  Maraschino cherry plays in the flavour with chocolate and a hint of tobacco and a desirable leather.  Structured tannins are well integrated.  Drinking well now but can cellar up to 2016."  The description is bang on, and I bought 4 bottles at $33 each - two of which were for other people.

In addition to the advertised tastings, we were also offered a sample of the pre-release 2011 Meritage.  When it is released this August / September, it will be a good buy for $19 / bottle and we'll definitely look for it again.