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.

Cuvee at Stratus

There were two primary reasons that I included Stratus Wines on our tour.  First, Chris and I had never been there.  Also, they were featuring their signature Stratus White blend, which retails for $44 per bottle, and I was skeptically curious as to whether a white blend from Ontario could really be worth that much!  Our initial impressions of the winery were very good; someone greeted us at the door, showed us around and even set us up in our own private tasting room.  I also loved the interior decor, which feels like a very posh library filled with wine!

Stratus calls its white blend, "the white for red lovers."  The blend changes each year, sometimes in the proportion of each varietal and sometimes in the varietals themselves.  All of the individual varietals are oaked though.  The French winemaker explains that he is aiming for consistent quality, not necessarily consistent flavour.  This makes it almost impossible (for me anyway) to infer the effects of age on the 3 vintages we tried.  

2009 - Just released, the chardonnay in the blend really comes through on the nose in vanilla and honey scents, with peach also detectable.  It both smells and tastes a little hot.  The initial tastes are of stone fruits such as peaches and nectarines.  All I recorded about the follow up tastes was that, "it's very complex, but I don't love it."

2008 - Unfortunately, all I recorded was "smells musty.  less sour than '09.  nice."  Keep in mind, this was the 8th wine I'd tasted that day!

2007 - This one must have got my attention because my notes get a lot better at this point!  The nose somehow combined turpentine and caramel with a beautiful result! Jeff called it "Texas-mesquite," which is more flattering than my description I suppose.  The predominant flavour was buttery, but heavier than butter: perhaps olive oil?  I really liked this wine, and would, in fact, consider it at $44.  I also love that Stratus retails multiple vintages of the same wine at the same time, when most other wineries do not.

Only one thing irked me about our visit.  Not liking white wine, Wesley chose to taste reds instead, but they wouldn't substitute his passport offer, instead charging him their standard $10 tasting fee.  Even by their own policy of comping the tasting flight when you buy 6 bottles, this was a tasteless move since our party actually bought 7 bottles.  In fact, Wesley liked the reds so much that he encouraged several of us to taste them, and as it turns out, all 7 of the purchased bottles were red.  I think Stratus owes Wesley a favour.

Cuvee at Henry of Pelham

I included the Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery on our tour because it doesn't usually participate in festivals.  I asked our hostess about this, who explained that smaller wineries often have difficulty staffing festival events, since they need to keep staff both on hand and at the festival park in St. Catharines.  I had heard this before from other small producers, but find it a little hard to swallow from Henry of Pelham, with its production level at 75,000 cases per year.

The first wine we tasted was the 2009 Speck Family Reserve Riesling.  Keep in mind, we'd just been at Thirty Bench, whose riesling is a tough act to follow.  In comparison, this wine is smoother, less complex and featured much more citrus.  It has a yeasty nose , and the taste of unsweetened orange juice.  The acidity is a little lacking and the medium length finish was sour.  On its own, there is nothing inherently wrong with this wine; it's a fairly standard riesling.  It just doesn't compete with those we'd tasted earlier in the day.  (Rating: 85.)

Note: Only Francesca tasted the cab-merlot instead of the
baco noir, and she didn't love it.

Next we tried the 2009 Speck Family Reserve Pinot Noir.  Keep in mind that 2009 was an excellent growing season in Ontario for this grape.  This wine's aroma is dirty, as expected, reminiscent of dried wild mushroom.  The wine's best feature is its nearly perfect balance between its tannin and acidity.  It has a medium body, is dry but not overly dry, and has a medium length finish and a complex palate that we found hard to describe.  A few people noticed a burnt flavour.  Surprisingly, there was no hint of tomato skin or stem.  (Rating: 87).

Since Henry of Pelham is known for its Baco Noir, (or, at least, that's what I know it for,) I was surprised that it wasn't advertised as the third wine of the day.  However, there was an open bottle at the bar, and the hostess let us taste what we wanted, which, for many of us was the 2010 Baco Noir Reserve.  This turned out to be a good business decision as the wine is not available in the LCBO and our party bought several bottles of it before we left.  The wine features a sweet, fruity nose, that gives way to the scent of cigar smoke or campfire.  The fruitiness of sour cherry and the skin of red plum are the first tastes evident, followed by a dry, lengthier finish.  Like the pinot, this wine is also exceptionally well balanced.  This is not exactly a 'big red,' but it's almost a 'big red!'  I won't rate this wine as I'm not experienced enough with this varietal, but I did buy 3 bottles.

Interestingly, no one in our group ranked Henry of Pelham as their first choice for wine.  However, we collectively bought 8 bottles there, more than at any other winery we visited that day.  I suppose this speaks to the unreliability of self reported data?  Aside from the wine, Chris and I both really enjoyed the atmosphere at Henry of Pelham.  The partially undergound wine boutique and exposed stone has a cave like feel, like what we would expect to find on the south of France.  I also found the hostess very helpful, who informed us of an annual Baco Noir vertical tasting at the winery, called Back to Baco, on the last weekend June and the first of July.  I think we'll definitely be returning for that.

Cuvee at Thirty Bench

 I get Thirty Bench and Hidden Bench mixed up a lot, especially since I haven't blogged about either of them. When we pulled into the parking lot, though, I remembered that Chris and I had stopped there once before.  Unfortunately, a large group in a limo had arrived just prior to us and we decided not to wait.  This time, we were the large limo group set to inconvenience others instead!

Thirty Bench arranged a vertical tasting of 4 years of its Small Lot Triangle Vineyard Rieslings.  In the tasting area, several counter-height tables were arranged with place settings and bar stools overlooking the sloping vineyards.  (Really, the views are fantastic at nearly all of the wineries on the Beamsville bench.)  This allowed us to take the time to truly appreciate each wine; it also allowed me to take decent notes on all four!

2011 - This is a very crisp, complex wine with a nose of pineapple and a little petrol.  The predominant taste is of white grapefruit.  It's mild on the tongue, meaning I found it less sour and slightly less acidic than my standby riesling from Tawse.  Its finish is medium length. 

2010 - The nose on this one is smokier, and less fruity, with a barely noticeable petrol note.  It made me think of gouda cheese, and would probably pair nicely with it.  It's taste was even smoother than the 2011, with even less sourness and acidity.  Its finish was longer, and not as dry.  Several in our party chose this as their favourite wine of this stop, and some even for the entire day! 

2009 - Instead of a lot of pineapple and a little petrol, like its younger cousins, this wine smelled like vasoline with a hint of tropical fruit in it!  Erin accurately described the flavour of gruyere cheese.  On the lengthy finish, the pineapple flavour more fully unfolds.

2008 - Compared to the earlier three, this vintage had less petrol and less fruit.  The gruyere was still evident throughout the palate, but strongest on the finish.  The smell of  mold or dirt, 'wet stone' according to our host, was prevalent.  This was the driest of the four.

Depending on how you like your rieslings, any of these four could score a 90.  (I'm at 91 for the 2010.)  Surprisingly, it seems like all four are still available for purchase, but you'll need to specially order the three library vintages.  In my opinion  it was a big business mistake to not have all 4 available for purchase during the weekend.  To be fair, they did offer to ship the 2010 to me free of charge, but I had noticed the staff were pretty slow at the checkout, and I didn't want to take the time to place an order when we were on a schedule and this was only the first stop of the day. 

To their credit, since Wes doesn't like white wine, they allowed him to taste some reds instead, and he bought a bottle of their 2010 Red (blend).  No other bottles were purchased.  At the end of the day, though, various people mentioned regretting this, admitting they had been hesitant to begin buying with four more wineries left.

Cuvee en Route

Every year during the first weekend of March, Niagara's wineries show off their best wines during a three day event that starts with a Friday evening gala and turns into what is probably the region's best wine tour of the year.  For a passport price of $30, each guest can visit every participating winery over the thee days.  Each winery then offers three tastings.  The wines on offer are of a much higher quality than those typically exhibited for festival weekends, and are not always available for tasting or even for purchase.  One hostess we visited called Cuvee, "the Oscars of the Niagara Wine Region."

Left to right: Chris, Jan, Erin, Jeff, Brendan, Francesca, and Wesley.

In my opinion  the event is not well publicized.  Last year, we missed it altogether.  Not to make the same mistake again, we began planning our route back in January!  Three more couples, two house guests and one limousine later, and we were well situated to best take advantage of the high value and rare tasting opportunities.  Our route (Thirty Bench, Henry of Pelham, Stratus, Strewn & Inniskillin) covered 5 different sub-appellations, and a selection of reds, whites and dessert wines, ranging from 2-15 years old.

Wesley's wife, Megan, had to work.

 After the tour I had each taster rank the 5 wineries we visited on 3 criteria: wine quality, staff and atmosphere.  There are, however, a few problems with reporting the results, possibly because by the time we were writing things down, we'd each tasted 16 different wines.  For starters, Brendan seems to have thought we'd visited a 6th winery.  Next, Wesley's ranking system requires its own cipher.  Perhaps most importantly, though, the wines were all different types, varietals and ages, and all of a very high quality, and thus no clear pattern emerges from the data.  So instead, as I blog about each visit over the next week or so, I'll do my best to incorporate everyone else's thoughts.

He got over it.