I waited all year for this!

For the second year in a row, Pillitteri Estates Winery has been one of our favourite stops on the Niagara Wine Festival Discovery Pass.  Last year, they served its 2011 Cabernet Franc with a loaded baked potato poutine.  I don't still have my notes, but I remember the wine being pretty fantastic: smoke, leather, bell pepper, and raspberry.  We didn't buy any at the time as we had quite a bit in inventory and thought waiting for the next vintage might be worth it, as 2012 was generally regarded as a better growing season in Ontario, especially for reds.

 



2015 Niagara Wine Festival

2014 Niagara Wine Festival



Fast forward one year and, after moving in the winter, our inventory is dangerously low.  Luckily for us, Pillitteri was sampling its 2012 Cabernet Franc with smoked BBQ chicken quesadillas.  We headed out fully intending to bring home a case.  I noticed that the quesadillas had a lot of the same flavours that the poutine had last year - green onion, cheddar cheese, and bacon - and were surprised at how well the wine played off the BBQ flavours.  It was very juicy, even a little zin-like, except the dominant flavor is cherry, not berry, and the alcohol content is much lower.  We did find the mouth feel a little thin, which stopped us from buying the whole case, but we did leave with three bottles ($23 each) and are looking forward to drinking one with some smoked-apple-bbq ribs soon.

Cuvee at Inniskillin

I knew I wanted to end the tour with a dessert wine, but since I'm already pretty familiar with Inniskillin icewine, and since I've blogged about the winery twice already, at first I thought I'd take the group somewhere else.  Then I found out Inniskillin would be sampling three different fifteen year old icewines and I couldn't resist.  Because Ontario icewine is so good when its young, not to mention expensive, you don't often hear of aged varietals.  Fortunately, Inniskillin had enough of its three 1997 varietals in its library.  The bottles were old enough that the corks had become rubbery and soft and required a special corkscrew that had metal arms on either side of the screw to help secure the cork on the way out.

The colour of the three wines really surprised me, as all had developed an orange hue.  The vidal, normally gold, appeared brownish-orange.  The riesling, usually a brighter yellow, had turned peachy and the cabernet franc, typically ruby-red, was now terracotta.  I liked that the winery supplied a standard wine tasting glass, so we could experience the difference a proper Riedel icewine glass makes.  That being said, I was very nervous about spilling while pouring from one glass to another. Basically, the shape of the proper glass first releases then contains the smell so that before the wine hits your tongue, your nose is filled with the big aromas.  Conversely, in the standard glass, in order to smell the wine while tasting it, you have to tilt your head so far back that the wine falls over your tongue all at once, effectively drowning the wine's complexity.

Left: 1995, $157.99
Right: 2008, $69.95

Onto the wines, the vidal smelled mostly of golden raisins and Christmas baking.  All of the fruit flavours of a younger vidal were gone, leaving behind the taste of  browned butter.  The cabernet franc featured a musty, leathery smell, and a taste combining strawberry, leather and a little caramel, not to mention absolutely beautiful tannins.  The riesling actually had a typical riesling petrol smell to it, along with the scent of butterscotch.  The taste reminded us of peach cobbler, with a hint of pear still evident.  I had actually tried to buy this wine several months earlier, but was told then that it was no longer available.  I did snag a bottle this time, paying a  price more than doubled by its age.  Since this visit, I have moved a few recent icewine vintages to the aging section of our wine rack, and hope for equally impressive results.  

Cab Franc Icewine Pairing

Last Sunday marked our second icewine festival and the 1 year anniversary of Newlywined. One of these years, we'll take advantage of some of the other festival offerings, such as the gala, or the Twenty Valley street festival, or the wine and cheese seminars. This year, though, we opted once again for the touring pass. At $40 per passport, I first rolled my eyes that the price had gone up by $10 since last year. However, they've added two additional tickets to each pass, for a total of 8 paired tastings, so the overall value has stayed the same.

As we planned our route, we had two objectives. We were eager to try the much anticipated (at least by me) 2010 vintages, and we were also looking for dessert ideas to pair with cab franc icewines. Our baseline for quality cab franc icewine is now the Peller 2010 (or the Jackson Triggs 2008) so with those in mind we set out once again for Hinterbrook Winery and for Niagara College Teaching Winery.

Hinterbrook

Along with its 2010 cab franc icewine, Hinterbrook offered white chocolate pudding in dark chocolate cups. I've tried dark chocolate with this type of wine many times, and had always been worried that the white chocolate would be drowned out by the wine, or that it would make the wine seem sour by comparison. In this case, it was actually the dark chocolate cup that overpowered the wine. Apart from that, the creaminess of the pudding blending quite nicely with the icewine and the flavours were of surprisingly equal intensity. I am no longer going to be afraid of trying my favourite white chocolate raspberry tart with a bottle of that Peller 2010.

I was especially curious to try Hinterbrook's icewine because its summer offerings last year were full of so many interesting fruit flavours. The nose on the wine was different; yeast was definitely detectable, but Chris and I struggled to describe the fruit.  Cherry?  Strawberry?  Some type of citrus holding it all together?  I've got it: fruit punch!  It actually reminded me of a red fruit punch drink I would get as a kid which came in the same small bottles as apple juice and orange juice to make you think it was real juice too.  The cherry-dominated fruit punch carried through to taste, joined by a hint of spice.  The structure of the wine was not quite acidic enough, leaving the wine tasting a little like syrup.  However, the dark chocolate cup did alleviate that.  Finally, the finish was unremarkable.  Chris and I agreed on a rating of 84.

Niagara College

Let's start with the labels.  NCTW's "Dean's List" brand labels have been redesigned to look like report cards, in keeping with the teaching focus of the winery.  Aside from being cute, though, they also contain all of the wine's tasting notes on them, a very useful feature.  Onto the wine, also a 2010 cab franc icewine, which has a lot of distinguishing features.  Chris described the nose as candied apple - both the candy part and the apple part.  I thought of one of my favourite gelato combinations: strawberry-limone.  The predominant flavour is maraschino cherry, also with some spice (nutmeg?), held together by a wonderfully full caramel undertone which carries through on the medium-long finish.  Chris and I rated this wine 90 and 88, respectively.

NCTW also hit a homerun with its dessert pairing.  It can be difficult to find a dessert wine sweet enough to pair with cheesecake, except when you happen to have a culinary school across the road!  The Niagara College chefs solved this problem by increasing the cheese content and reducing the sugar.  Then they slathered it in salted caramel which further offset the sweetness and brought the wine's caramel undertone to the forefront.  Simply a brilliant pairing!

Niagara Wine Festival (Colaneri Estate Winery)

This is my third visit to Colaneri Estate Winery, as I wanted to make sure I was giving it a fair chance.  We didn't have a great experience on our first visit, but when I stopped by with some friends a few months later, there had been some improvements.  For example, the construction on the villa was far enough along that they could set up a separate tasting area for festival events.  That visit also gave us the chance to speak with one of the owners, who told us more about her family, the winery,  and its unique series of wine labels, each representing one of her relatives. 

Keep in mind, Colaneri is one of the highest priced wineries in the region, with prices very similar to Tawse, which, I must admit, I find a little nervy, since it implies the wines are of equal quality.  This festival gave me the opportunity for a direct comparison, since Colaneri was serving its 2010 Cabernet Franc, and I am very familiar with the Tawse equivalent.  A unique feature of this wine is that it is produced using the apassimento method, meaning that, in this case, 30% of the grapes have been dried before pressing, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar and flavours.  I have heard various opinions as to whether or not this is a luxury, since the time and labour intensive process results in lower yields, all of which raise the price of the wine.  Others insist that good grapes in the correct climate shouldn't need artificially aged, explaining why the process is popular in northern, as opposed to southern Italy.  Anyway, if you have any knowledge of the topic, I'd appreciate your comments. 

This is one of the nicest smelling wines I've ever tried.  The easy to find nose begins with bell and roasted peppers, and possibly dried tomatoes.  As the wine aerates, cedar, eucalyptus and cocoa are all detectable.  Unfortunately, the taste does not live up to the beautiful complexity of the smell.  It is quite dry, and even a little chalky, possibly suggesting its youth.  (Keep in mind this was the release date for this wine.)  Chris noted he could taste the alcohol, but only barely.  The mouthfeel is also somewhat thin for a cab, even a franc.  It did pair nicely with the accompanying lasagna though, and earned an rating of 85 from us both, making it the best wine of the day, but falling short of the expectations set by both Tawse and Peller for this varietal.

Art of Wine & Food





(Left to Right) 2011 Private Reserve Riesling,

2010 Private Reserve Cabernet Franc, and

2011 Vidal Late Harvest.

The Art of Wine & Food is one of Peller Estates many tasting experiences.  Lucky for us, a friend of ours is a Peller Wine Club member so there was no charge for four of us, myself, Carrie, Kelly and Chris, to attend.  At our scheduled time, we were escorted upstairs to an area arranged as a large, but private dining room.  There were four others seated across from us and each place was set with three samples of wine and three accompanying accouterments.  Our host from Peller sat at the head of the table and walked us through the various taste combinations, asking and answering questions as we went, which altogether created the feeling of an informal, but very educational seminar.  Her message was twofold.  First, you don't have to adhere to traditional wine pairings if they don't suit your tastes, but second, some pairings are always better than others.  To prove her point, she had us drink these three pairings first as intended, and then mismatched, as explained in the following chart.

	Riesling	Cab Franc	Late Harvest Vidal
charred corn garden chilie & mango salsa	These flavours blended, taking the heat off of the chilie flavour.	This combo ruined the wine, making it sour and highlighting its alcohol.	These two flavours really fought it out, neither blending with nor improving each other.
smoked pastrami	The pastrami completely overpowered the wine, enhancing the black pepper crust on the pastrami.	These flavours blended, dulling the impact of the black pepper crust on the pastrami while augmenting its smokiness.	(didn't try)
peach walnut biscotti	This wasn't a bad combination, focusing more on the peach flavour of the biscotti.	(didn't try)	The wine nicely brought out the walnut flavour in the biscotti.

Throughout the experience, the host offered up these other pairing tips, all new to me:

• Spicy foods require low alcohol, fruity wines.  High alcohol wines will augment the spice.  Alternatively, serve a sparkling wine as the bubbles will cut through the spice.
• Acidic foods need acidic wines, because acidity neutralizes acidity.  For example, serve spaghetti with either chianti or pinot grigio.
• North Americans drink our whites too cold and our reds too warm.  Take the white out of the fridge for at least 15 minutes, and put the red in for the same.
• When tasting dessert wine, keep the first sip in your mouth for at least 5 seconds to acclimatize your taste buds.  Otherwise, it will taste extra-sweet.

Peller Icewine

It seems I'm getting more particular with icewine.  The last 3 bottles I opened, all bought during last January's icewine festival, didn't quite live up to my memories of them.  Since I'm pretty sure that 6 months isn't sufficient time for icewine to turn, I think my expectations, specifically about an icewine's complexity and structure, are increasing.  Since I was going to be at Peller Estates anyway for The Art of Wine & Food, and since I knew that its 2010 vintages were already winning awards, I tasted all 4 icewines in its current lineup to effectively reset my palate.

Two of these really stood out compared to their respective competition, primarily because, despite their high sugar content, they still resembled the grapes from which they were made.  This is typical for vidal icewines, as their regular harvest counterparts predominantly feature sweet, fruity flavours which intensify as the sugar concentrates while the grapes freeze.  However, there are lots of yummy flavours in a riesling or in a cabernet franc that somehow get lost in icewine production.  Riesling grapes turn into some sort of lemon syrup and cab franc grapes become strawberry sundae topping, and the more distinguishing features of the grapes get lost.

Not true for Peller's 2007 Riesling Icewine, now my standard for the category and earning a preliminary rating of 92-94 using my new wine rating rubric. Don't just trust me though; it also won gold medals in 7 different countries, plus a few silvers elsewhere.  My first impression of the scent was, "It smells like riesling!"  Yes, it has lots of aromas and flavours - lemon, apricot, nectarine and maybe pear - but it's all held together by a background of petrol and minerality that riesling lovers expect.  I'm looking forward to sharing this one sooner rather than later, and will watch out for future vintages. 

Similarly, Peller's 2010 Cabernet Franc Icewine has also started winning awards, despite a relatively recent release date.  Still enthralled with the riesling I'd just tasted, my first words about this one were "It smells like cab franc, [pause to drink] and it tastes like cab franc too!"  So in addition to the usual strawberry and rhubarb characteristics, and even the less-common spiciness, an elegant aroma and flavour of leather adds a complexity that offsets the strawberry, making the whole concoction altogether less like syrup and more like wine.  Like its riesling counterpart, this wine also had a long lingering finish, and will likely also score a 92 or higher.

F'ing Winery Tour (Featherstone Estate)

Our second stop of the day took us further east onto the Twenty Mile Bench.  Featherstone Estates, like Fielding and Flat Rock, is family owned and operated.  I'm rather impressed with the business savvy of the 3 wineries for taking the initiative to work together on this tour, and for recognizing that growing their shared market is a better strategy than fighting for market share. 

Some wineries feel like you're visiting a boutique  that happens to be surrounded by a vineyard.  Featherstone is quite the opposite - a vineyard that happens to house a boutique.  In fact, I'm tempted to call it a grape-farm with its farmhouse for a store, barn to house the casks, and very own ducks for its very own pond.  (They even use local sheep and a trained hawk to help maintain their vineyards, but I'm saving that for another visit and another blog post.) 

The first wine we were offered at the tasting bar was a rose: 50% cab franc and 50% gamay.  The server quite rightly described the nose as strawberry-rhubarb which continued throughout the taste, although on the tongue the strawberry was more dominant.  Unlike many pink wines, this was not a candied strawberry flavour; it had the pungency of strawberries that are one day too ripe, making it taste more like 'real wine'.  Chris noticed a hint of cherry as well.  The server also told us to expect perfect acidity, but we disagreed, remembering the tingly rose we'd tried at Pondview in February. 

Then in the next room we had our wine and crostini pair.  This crostini was topped with chevre noir cheese and Killer Condiments sweet pepper relish which made a FANTASTIC pair with the 2010 cabernet franc.  The wine itself had a scent of leather and red pepper and we were both very pleasantly surprised by its fullness and consistency - much better than the only other 2010 cab franc we've tried from Ravine Vineyards.  We wanted to buy a bottle, but since our wine storage is currently full, we'll wait until we return in the summer to see the sheep at work.

2 cab franc icewines (Day 2 finale)

Stops 1 and 3 for Carrie and I were Southbrook Vineyards and Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery, each of which were serving cab franc icewines.  In hindsight, this is not even a fair comparison.  Simply put, there is a reason why Jackson-Triggs has won dessert-wine medals for its cab franc icewines at the Canadian Wine Awards in each of the last two years and why Southbrook has not. 

 The colour of Southbrook's 2006 Cabernet Franc icewine was on the rusty side of normal, possibly showing its age.  The server told us to expect Christmas spices such as nutmeg to then give way to hints of caramel and vanilla.  Although that was technically correct, there was a pervasive burnt flavour that ruined this wine for us.  Sometimes I enjoy tart dessert wines, but those usually have a refreshing tang to them, not a stale aftertaste of burnt Christmas cookies!  Southbrook offered us a choice of truffles: dark chocolate icewine or caramel filled milk chocolate.  Carrie chose the former and I the latter.  She felt the dark chocolate overpowered the wine, which makes sense because dark chocolate usually helps break though the syrupy sweetness of cab franc icewine but since that wasn't the dominant sensation of this wine, it didn't benefit from the match.  I, on the other hand, found that the caramel in my truffle helped this wine out quite a bit.  On a side note, I asked the server if at 6 years old this bottle wasn't reaching the end of its life and was quite surprised when she told me that it could age for 20 plus years.  I'm assuming she's confusing cab icewine with regular cabs since a quick review of the websites of Henry of Pelham, Inniskillin, and Jackson-Triggs reveals a maximum suggested cellaring of anywhere from 4 to 10 years.  To be fair, though, Southbrook admits that icewine is not its specialty, and the visit was enjoyable enough overall to warrant a return during a different festival showcase.

A few blocks down the road we found a much better example in the Jackson-Triggs 2007 Proprietor's Grand Reserve.  With juicy strawberry on the nose, flavours of cherry and raspberry throughout, and a consistent body and structure, this is the bottle you should use to explain what cab franc icewine is supposed to taste like.  I do question the decision to serve a caramel and pecan topped milk chocolate square though.  Although the caramel and pecan worked nicely, the milk chocolate was the same level of sweetness as the wine so the two effectively had to fight for attention.  Incidentally, the LCBO sells the 200 ml bottle for $24.95 and the 375 ml bottle for $74.95, although you could purchase the 375 ml at the winery during the festival for $44.95.  By comparison, Southbrook charges$26.95 for 200 ml or $49.95 for 375 ml.  Don't bother doing the math; just try the Jackson-Triggs.

Chateau des Charmes (Day 1 of Wine and Chocolate)

Chateau des Charmes was our final stop on day 1, and ended our search for a cab franc to rival our current favourite. If you haven't already, read more about how the day started. Otherwise, here's how it ended ...

Keep in mind that this was the 5th wine we'd tasted in about 2 hours, which might explain the ensuing confusion. The cab franc we tasted instantly identified itself as a contender to Tawse. We thoroughly enjoyed the taste, enthusiastically chatting about it much more than usual, but all I wrote down was cocoa, prune, bell pepper, and more tannin (compared to Ravine Vineyard). In hindsight, I'm not sure how much of that was describing the taste versus the smell. We promptly decided to buy 2 bottles to consume alongside the Tawse, once in the near future, then once again after a few years, and we were shocked when we got to the boutique to discover that the price on this wine is only $13.95.

Here's the problem; I'm not actually sure which vintage we tasted. When I started writing this, I checked my touring pass to make sure I would get all the names correct.  It lists the winery's 2008 Estate Bottled Cabernet Franc.  Panicked, I ran upstairs to the wine fridge, confirming that we'd actually bought the 2009 instead, but I distinctly remember verifying with the boutique staff that this was what we had tasted.  Then I checked the winery's website, and found that only the 2009 is available for purchase.  So, either Chateau des Charmes was showcasing a wine that it no longer actually sells, or there was a typo in the touring pass.  Either way, the winery has a good reputation for cab franc; I found an exceptional review of the 2007 at OntarioWineReview.com. 

This is definitely a winery worth further investigation, both for its high quality and for its low prices.  Chris also wants me to clarify that my lower ranking for its atmosphere only reflects on how much we liked Pondview and Ravine Vineyard, and not on any defect of Chateau des Charmes.  The estate mansion is both spacious and opulent with several rooms available to host simultaneous functions.  The rooms also function as gallery spaces with local artwork on display and available for purchase.  You might perceive a certain country-club stuffiness, but the staff work to avoid this; there is a greeter at the front door to help navigate the various wings and staircases and our server, a delightfully friendly French-Canadian woman, kept things refreshingly down to earth.

Ravine Vineyard (Day 1 of Wine and Chocolate)

Stop 3 of the day was Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery. Now, apparently one of my three blog followers was disapointed that I didn't give a more detailed explanation of my ranking of Pondview the way I did for Inniskillin, so I'll return to that format as I continue to share our search for cabernet francs comparabe to (but cheaper than) our beloved 2009 Tawse Grower's Blend.

THE WINE - The 2010 Sand and Gravel cab franc was one of many nice surprises of this visit, but Chris and I disagreed about it on many fronts. We both found it fuller bodied than what we'd just had at Inniskillin. Oddly enough though, Chris noticed a hint of tobacco when all I tasted was big purple grapes and juicy black plums. He wanted a cleaner finish but I felt it was just right, as reds with less acidity are supposed to stay longer on the tongue. He said it tasted young, but I pointed out that it is younger than all the others we've tried. We agreed to try it again after a  year or so.

THE CHOCOLATE - Although chocolate covered pretzels just might be the perfect snack, this sweet and salty flavour combination neither added to, nor took away from the flavour of the wine. This might be because the wine's flavours were very accessible on their own and didn't need any help. 

THE VALUE - On one hand, the wine serving was more generous than many others have been. On the other hand, a single chocolate covered pretzel looks lonely.

THE ATMOSPHERE - Overall, it had the same feel as the movie Bottle Shock: elegant but eclectic country with a flair of modern hippy. To park, you drive through the vineyards, past an antique rusted-out truck (on which they apparently barbecue in the summer,) before arriving at two buildings each steeped in history. One, a former packing shed originally built in the 1920s, now houses the bistro and the occasional live music event. The other, a residence originally built around 1802 is home to the wine boutique, the tasting bar, and, in the summer, a gourmet fresh bakery of sorts.

 

THE STAFF - Aside from being friendly, the staff seemed to really like wine, really like people and really like working at the winery. They were eager to tell us about the wines and the company history, without making us feel like we were being sold to.

Pondview Estate Winery (Day 1 of Wine and Chocolate)

Pondview served its 2010 Cabernet Franc Rose with a truffle filled with dark chocolate cranberry ganache. This coral coloured wine carries a sharp, yeasty nose. It has an acidic taste  that bites the front of the tongue, before a sourness hits its sides. Apparently this is called tannin, which I've never been able to identify before. Chris, more familiar with this sensation, called it a mild tannin, noting that it stopped this wine's berry flavours from being too sweet. I did find it tough to identify if that crisp berry flavour was strawberry or cranberry, or both, because of the cranberry in the truffle. Overall, this very refreshing, drinkable wine is a serious contender to replace East Dell's Summer Rose on my wine rack.

The winery itself has a lot of potential, including a wide wraparound porch looking out at the vineyards. The tasting bar runs the whole width of the spa-like interior featuring lots of natural stone and rustic wooden accents, including a cozy fireplace and some bistro tables. It would be a great venue for a cocktail reception, but seems to be underutilized. The winery has no restaurant, and so far as I can tell, the space is not available for rent.

Inniskillin (Day 1 of Wine and Chocolate)

Who knew Inniskillin made something other than icewine? This was our first stop of our Cabernet Franc tour, which I summarized earlier; you can read it here. Now I'll explain the somewhat surprising rankings I gave it. Remember that I ranked each winery from 1 (best) to 4 (worst) on 5 different criteria:

THE WINE - Although the 2009 Three Vineyards Cab Franc had a beautiful aroma, it was quite complex, so hard to define. Chris said dried flowers or pot-pourri, I said maybe leather, the server said hint of chocolate and the winery advertises raspberry, currant and hints of tobacco. I wish I'd read that ahead of time because my first gulp of the wine flooded my mouth  with that woody taste that has me fleeing from cabernet sauvignon. Chris disagreed, and thinks I'm just overly sensitive to the flavour of tobacco.

THE CHOCOLATE - The hazelnut biscotti dipped in dark chocolate was yummy, and not as dry as I'd feared.  (I didn't think you should have to dip the biscotti in wine the way you do in coffee!)  More importantly, the dark chocolate overpowered the tobacco and the wine's flavour changed to spicy raspberry. 

THE VALUE - Although this wasn't advertised in the touring pass, Inniskillin also gave each taster a sample of its 2007 Ruby Reserve Cabernet Franc Icewine.  The wine's dominant flavour of maraschino cherry was apparent from the very first taste.  Chris felt this made it thin or simple tasting.  I thought it was a sign of good aging.  Either way, we found it interesting and enjoyable, but not the usual icewine exemplar that Inniskillin tends to provide.

THE ATMOSPHERE - Had I not wanted to try  this cab franc in particular, we would have driven right past the winery when we saw that the parking lot was crowded with vehicles, including a rather large tour bus.  All tastings were being done in the boutique as the building we'd visited last time was booked for a private function.  Despite Inniskillin's extensive facilities, overall I had the feeling of being herded like cattle.

THE STAFF - Noticing that four different wineries had chosen a cab franc to accompany their assigned chocolate pairing, I asked the server why these two things go so well together.  I was expecting an insightful answer about sugar levels, alcohol content or terroir like those we'd received at Tawse or Magnotta, both who use the festivals as opportunities to educate their consumers.  What I got were lines such as "red wine goes with chocolate," "the wine sort of smells like chocolate," and "then there's the whole Valentine's Day thing."  Now, I have a talent for recognizing when someone is making up an answer; you might say I do it for a living, so I don't appreciate it on my weekends.  As best as I can figure, many cab francs have a note of raspberry in them, and raspberry and dark chocolate complement each other quite nicely.

Days of Wine & Chocolate

This event is slightly different from the icewine festival, which allowed passport holders to visit any 6 wineries from Beamsville to Niagara over three weekends in January.  This touring pass only includes the 28 Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries, but you can visit each of them once and have all 4 weekends in February to do so.  According to the festival's website, touring passes are available only at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce, but en route we discovered you can purchase them at any of the participating wineries.

 We're starting to learn some things about participating in these festivals.

• Dress for what will be comfortable inside the boutiques; I've taken to leaving my coat and other winter-wear in the car. I'd rather be uncomfortably cold for the 30 second jolt across the parking lot than uncomfortably hot for the rest of the visit.
• Bring some water bottles for the car. It's easy to forget that you're consuming 1-2 oz of alcohol at each stop and I've ended a few of these tour days with a wicked headache. I might add Advil and maybe bread or crackers to the packing list too.
• Drive vigilantly. We met a couple today who had toured all 28 wineries in two days without hiring a car service. (Note that we have yet to see a RIDE program and assume that the OPP looks the other way on Niagara's biggest - read "only" - industry.)

We visited 4 wineries today: Inniskillin, Pondview Estate, Ravine Vineyard, and Chateau des Charmes.  Our purpose was to learn more about Ontario's Cabernet Franc, constantly comparing them to the 2009 Tawse Grower's Blend that absolutely wowed us.  Before reviewing any one of these visits, I thought I'd summarize our day, so the table below ranks our experiences at each winery across 5 different dimensions with 1 being the best rank.

	The Wine		The Winery		The Event
	price*	rank	staff	feel***	chocolate	passport value
Inniskillin	$22.95	3	4	4	1	1
Pondview	$15.20	n/a**	3	2	2	2
Ravine	$18.95	2	2	1	3	3
Chateau des Charmes	$13.95	1	1	3	4	4

*By comparison, the Tawse 2009 Grower's Blend Cab Franc was $25.70 per bottle.
**Pondview served a rose; comparing to the other 3 wouldn't be meaningful.
***Overall atmosphere

Tawse Encore

Our actual purpose for visiting Tawse during the icewine festival was to taste, buy, and lay down its 2009 pinot noir after reading some very favourable reviews. I must admit I know very little about this grape; my experience with reds centres on cabernet sauvignon. Unfortunately after drinking a bottle of 2006 Liberty School not too long ago, all I can taste in these anymore is tobacco. So, after hearing that Ontario's 2009 pinot noir harvest was exceptional, I've been stocking up to learn about a new red. (Currently we're sitting on 2 bottles of Angels Gate, 2 from Flat Rock and 1 from Tawse.)

My initial impressions of pinot noir included a flowery smell and some berry flavours, but not overly sweet berries. (I know that's not very descriptive but I already told you I'm new at this)! Chris and I both laughed when we realized how well this wine would have paired with last night's dinner; under the mistaken impression that all rieslings go with all salads, I served a less-than-perfect combination that you can read about on our guest's blog, Zippy Sauce.  Because the salad had peppery flavours like arugula and radicchio, it needed a red to stand up to them, but a lighter red so as not to overpower the goat's cheese.  Being used to bigger, heavier reds, I noticed what at first I thought was a watery or thin body, but then realized that's what makes this wine much more drinkable on its own as opposed to with a meal.  I asked the server if it would get fuller with age and she said no, but that I could expect the flavours to blend more, bringing out the earthy undertones.

Based on my comments, we were also offered a taste of the winery's not-yet-released 2009 Grower's Blend Cabernet Franc.  Right away the difference in colour was apparent, the pinot noir being a ruby red but the cab franc more of a purple.  (I foolishly thought this explained the label colours!)  Although the flavours were similar to the pinot, the flavour was both fuller and smokier.  My wine encyclopedia tells me that cab francs are "slightly softer and less rich in tannin" than their cousin, the cab sauvignon.  I loved this wine right away, bought 2 bottles and now have a different "new red" to get to know.  Apparently it goes well with chocolate because this months Days of Wine and Chocolate tour in Niagara features 4 different wineries offering this pair.  We'll be visiting them next weekend and are looking forward to seeing the variety of tastes this grape has to offer.

2012 Niagara Icewine Festival (5 of 6)

Stop #5: Tawse Winery

We hadn't intended to visit Tawse on our icewine tour, but since we were in the neighbourhood having already stopped at Angels Gate and Greenlane, and since we were out of our favourite riesling, we thought we'd stop in and stock up.  Ironically, we left thirty minutes later with five other bottles, completely forgetting about the riesling until we got home.  I'll focus here on the icewines, and save our two new reds for a later post.

Tawse didn't use its regular tasting bar for the icewine festival; instead, we were escorted by a server into one of the underground barrel cellars for a private tasting of two icewines: the 2008 chardonnay and the 2010 cabernet franc.  I didn't even know you could make icewine out of chardonnay.  The server explained that it's not common because of the large investment and risk involved.  Chardonnay is a low yielding grape to begin with, and icewine only yields 15% of a regular harvest.  Combine that with the risk of a mild winter and an additional 15 months of barrel aging and most producers just aren't interested. 

Neither of these wines have been released to the LCBO, so after the tastings we bought one of each.  The chardonnay has a beautiful, mild, floral nose that I didn't expect.  The flavours of vanilla and honey came out nicely with a creamy, mild, brick cheese from the Upper Canada Cheese Company.  I'm starting to understand that icewine doesn't really need a food course to go with it, but only a little taste of something to unlock its flavours.  I will probably serve this bottle within the year, possibly with scones and creme Anglaise.  As an aside, in a prior post I had previously attributed the burnt flavour of Cattail Creek's vidal to the oak barrels, but I must have been wrong because this oaked icewine had no harsh flavours whatsoever.

The cab franc was also very good: richer, sweeter and less spicy than the one we tasted earlier in the day at Angels Gate.  You could definitely taste rhubarb and sour cherry.  The wine was served with Lindt's dark chocolate with sea salt which broke through the sweetness and seemed to ground the flavours.  Chris commented that he's having trouble distinguishing cab franc icewines from each other but I think this was because it was our 8th tasting of the day.  Either way, I'll review it more fully when we open the bottle.  The server suggested pairing this wine with a flourless chocolate cake so maybe we'll share it with some of our gluten free friends! 

2012 Niagara Icewine Festival (3 of 6)

Stop 3:  Angels Gate Winery

Today was our first visit to Angels Gate, although it has become our go-to at the LCBO for its consistent quality and remarkably low prices.  Their riesling is one of our defaults and sells for only $13.95; we've also tried their similarly priced Gewurtztraminer and were equally pleased.

The estate itself feels quite elegant on approach, with a winding stone walkway leading up to a tall oak doorway.  The overall look reminds me of a converted monastery somewhere in the Greek islands.  Its patio boasts a panoramic view of Lake Ontario and a unique menu of tasting platters.  We will definately be back for lunch once the seasonal terrace re-opens  in June.  Inside the building, the staff were friendly, knowledgable and helpful.  They also had some interesting stories about the former EastDell Estates; apparently several of EastDell's jilted brides ended up there in tears.  So did one of its chefs, presumably with fewer tears.

Using our festival passports, we tasted the 2008 "Snow Angel" riesling icewine, served with small blue cheese topped pizza squares.  We knew a riesling wouldn't be nearly as sweet as the vidals we tasted last weekend,  but were still surprised that it wasn't more syrupy.  We simultaneously remarked that it more resembled the late harvests we've tried than the icewines and I'm pretty sure I uttered the word 'tart' at least once.  Chris really liked this one though so we did buy a bottle and will likely put it down for 2-3 years before eventually serving it with a cheese course.  (Apparently the wine should always be sweeter than the dessert but I can't think of any desserts that would be less sweet than this.  Apparently riesling is also the icewine that ages the best.)


The server also offered us a taste of the 2008 "Snow Angel" cab franc icewine.  Compared to the only other cab franc icewine I can clearly remember tasting, the one served at our wedding, this was much lighter in colour: almost a burnt coral.  I know I described its flavour as tangy.  Unfortunately I can't tell you anything else because I enjoyed it so much that I forgot to take notes.  However, I did buy a bottle, so will research what to serve it with and review it more fully another time.

Finally, before we left we took a gamble and bought two bottles of their 2009 pinot noir without first tasting them.  My logic is that many of the 2009 Ontario pinots are getting rave reviews attributed to that year's growing conditions.  (Click here for the reviews).  Although Angels Gate isn't mentioned by the reviewer, I'm really starting to trust this brand.  I strongly suspect that while it sells $6-16 cheaper than the competition, there won't be a proportional difference in quality.  My plan is to try 1 bottle in about a year and a second maybe two years after that.