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.