Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery - Wow!

Our purpose during this year's Niagara Wine Festival was to visit wineries we hadn't previously tried.  It seems that Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery is another gem of both a winery and a business that has flown under my radar.  Interestingly, although I didn't know what to expect, I recognized its label as soon as I saw it, either from driving past it multiple times en route to Flat Rock Cellars, or possibly from promotional displays in the LCBO.  Either way, it has done an excellent job of branding itself.

The winery owner and winemaker, Sue-Ann, lives on the property and her house doubles as her retail space.  Although this sounds hokey, she has really thought through the visitor's experience and it comes together in a very organized and professional manner.  For the festival, she had hired a student-chef from Niagara College who was stationed on her front porch at the BBQ.  The chef greeted us as soon as we were in vocal range and ascertained we were there for the passport event, so that by the time we were in the tasting room our food was almost ready.  We entered through the dining room which was arranged such that perhaps 10-12 people could taste simultaneously.  Meanwhile a relative of Sue-Ann's provided a lot of background information about both the winery and the wine.  Then we exited through the kitchen which doubles as the normal (non-festival) tasting bar and retail space where we were able to meet Sue-Ann herself.  So before even mentioning the wine and food, we were thoroughly impressed with the efficiency and friendliness of the whole operation.

I thought taking a picture of Chris with the winemaker was a
great idea, but they apparently both found it awkward!

Onto the wine, we tasted the 2010 Cabernet Merlot together with a bacon topped BBQ slider.  This is a very smooth, easy drinking red with nothing hot or harsh about it.  Its nose is peppery and it has hints of raspberry throughout the palate.  It played nicely with the bacon flavours.  At $17.95, this wine is an exceptional value.  I strongly suspect, though, that it is a "drink-now" and would likely not benefit from aging or last for more than a couple of years.  That's the only thing that stopped us from buying a few bottles, and it's certainly not the winery's fault that I just have too much inventory needing imminent drinking!  Implicit in our decision not to buy though was the recognition that we will definitely return to taste more of Sue-Ann Staff's wines.

Non Vieni

Vieni Estates was our first of three stops on the second weekend of the Niagara Wine Festival, and our first disappointment of the event.  To be fair, it has only been open for just over a year.  Then again, the same is true for Mike Weir Wines, which we visited last week with no issue.  The property and the building exterior are very utilitarian; the lot is not paved and parking is a bit of a free-for-all.  The storefront and entranceway are neat, tidy and professional looking, but this somehow got lost in the first impression; I actually didn't notice until I framed the following picture with my phone.  (Sorry about the finger.)

The interior is well laid out and decorated, separated into a merchandising area, a tasting bar, and a checkout.  The retail space does a good job of introducing a casual browser to the winery's products.  It seems to focus on Italian blends, sparkling wines, and grappa.  The tasting bar is a decent size, with four stools plus standing room, but this is where the experience really fell apart.  There were about 8 visitors, including us, in the space when we visited, and the staff were just too unorganized to handle this.  The only employee who stayed consistently behind the bar had her arm bandaged in a tensor which prevented her from being able to open bottles efficiently.  When the wine did come, the servings size was meagre compared to what most wineries pour for these festivals.  In fact, it took planning to make sure we still had wine left when the food came out.  Unfortunately, though, the kitchen staff just dumped a bunch of food servings at the bar and it took another several minutes for anyone to actually give them to individual tasters.  Another few minutes and cutlery followed, as butternut squash lasagna does not good finger food make!  And so, by the time we were able to taste the winery's pairing, the wine was almost gone and the food was cold and chewy.  (That being said, butternut squash pasta and chardonnay make quite a good match, even in those circumstances.)

 

Moving onto the wine, the 2012 chardonnay, it smells like cheap chard and it tastes like cheap chard.  Think of microwave popcorn with less body.  However, it was served far too cold, so I may have missed something.  Using my own rating scale, (see Wine Rating Rubric), it would score around a 79.  The real problem is that it's not cheap chard; at $22.95 per bottle there are several less expensive but higher quality options both from within the region and abroad.  Instead of me listing them, feel free to comment below by sharing your favourite chardonnay costing less than $23 / bottle!

Kacaba Vineyards - Duck, Cab, Goose

Prior to this visit, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery had flown under my radar.  Its two darling grapes, cabernet sauvignon and syrah, require a longer growing season than Ontario typically allows in order for the skin to thicken sufficiently to imbue the wine with tannins, structure, and aging potential.  Kacaba is thus one of only a handful of Niagara wineries to specialize in such 'big reds'.  There are two ways you can look at that; either they must be really good at it, or they just haven't given up yet like everyone else.  Until now, I must have been assuming the latter - that any Ontario riesling will be better than any Ontario cabernet sauvignon, so I might as well not waste my passport coupons somewhere that insists on only featuring its reds during festivals.  Man was I wrong. 

The bridge is near the property's entrance off King Street.  The red roof in the top-left
is both the production facility and the boutique.  Read the sign; it's funny.

In hindsight, I'm glad that Kacaba had a strategy to attract people like me; it advertised such an over-the-top indulgent food pairing that it didn't matter whether or not I would like the wine!  And so, Chris and I headed to Kacaba not for its cabernet sauvignon, but for Chef Ryan Shapiro's Duck Confit Poutine.  This may be one of the best things I have ever eaten.  The hand cut crispy fries were topped with 'pulled duck', aged white cheddar, and a foie gras gravy-like sauce.  That made for four very strong, distinct tastes that complemented each other beautifully.

Enter the wine.  The 2011 cabernet sauvignon not only stood up to each of these tastes, but also tied them together nicely.  It has a very sharp, focused flavor, almost like a malbec.  Although there is definitely dark fruit at play (blackberry? black cherry?), it is under-ripe fruit, and not very prominent.  The taste softened slightly with the food.  Although this wine was not to my particular taste, it was, without a doubt, good wine.  It got me thinking that if Kacaba could produce this quality of cabernet sauvignon against the odds, what could it do in a good year to a grape that grows well here?  With that in mind, I purchased a bottle of its 2010 Reserve Cabernet Franc for $44.95 without even tasting it first.

Back to East Dell Estates ... er, um, Mike Weir Wines

After an entire year away from Newlywined, it seems fitting that I restart the blog where it began 4 years ago on Locust Lane in Beamsville.  Last weekend marked the beginning of the Niagara Wine Festival and we decided that for the month of September, we will focus on visiting wineries about which we haven't previously blogged.  The new Mike Weir Winery opened this June on the property it purchased from Diamond Estates and which formerly housed East Dell Estates, the winery at which Chris and I were married in 2010.  The property has been nicely cleaned up, particularly the building exterior, which in its East Dell days had gone past looking "rustic" or "quaint" through to old or run-down.  Walking through the door it was immediately apparent that we were in a new winery.  The exquisite View Restaurant has been torn out and replaced with a long, sterile looking tasting bar and a rather sparsely populated retail area.  On one hand, it very effectively communicates that this is no longer East Dell.  On the other, I sincerely hope that it will begin to look more lived-in once it has been open longer, as its current atmosphere goes far beyond modern and into lack of character.

 Onto the wine, we sampled the 2011 Limited Edition Weir Family Vineyard Chardonnay.  Weir's "Family Vineyard" label is not available at the LCBO and the wine boutique is largely focused on promoting this label.  We largely disagreed with the winery's tasting notes for this wine, pictured below.  Instead, we found it tasted remarkably similar to the Chardonnay from Malivoire, with both the nose and the palatte dominanted by tropical fruit.  We also detected a light citrus smell, possibly pink grapefruit.  The texture is creamier than Malivoire's but the overall taste is not as clean.  Given that the two wines are priced identically but Malivoire's is available at the LCBO, I probably wouldn't make the drive to the winery just to buy this one.

Each "Family Vineyard" wine has a paired appetizer you can order with it; the chardonnay was served with a maple-smoked bacon and pumpkin tart.  The winery does seem value local business partnerships to provide much of its food.  The tart itself was great, as was the bacon, and both should have gone well with chardonnay, but of the oakier, more buttery type.  With this particular pairing, the wine and food didn't interact much at all.