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.
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| 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.
