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!