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.

Emily's 30th Birthday

After spending the weekend in a Niagara-on-the-Lake cottage, my contribution to the festivities was to plan a wine route on the way back to Hamilton for myself and three other girls.  Our first stop was Reif Estate Winery, where tours are offered daily at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm for $5 per person.  The guided tour lasted about 30 minutes, taking us through Reif's sensory garden, antique barrel storage, vineyards, production facilities and bottling line.  In hindsight, leading such a tour for a group including a chemist and an engineer seems like a daunting task, but our guide, Jenn, did a fantastic job; by the end it basically felt like she was part of our group!  The tour ended in a private tasting room for the four of us where we sampled the following three wines.

Riesling - The 2009 Riesling, a 1 on the sugar scale (which I think translates to an 'M' for medium under Ontario's new sugar code system,) smells very green; think fresh cut grass, tomato stems or a rainy forest.  It's predominant flavour is lemon and its mild flavour fades away quickly and cleanly.  Although I didn't dislike it, it didn't stack up to the other two rieslings we had this weekend: a 2009 Angels Gate Susreserve and, my favourite, the 2009 Tawse Echos.

Cabernet-Merlot - In this 2009 blend, the cabernet franc really comes through on the nose with strawberry and leather.  Unfortunately, the strawberry was too prominent on the palate, tasting almost candied.  This is not a wine I would purchase and I think the girls agreed with me.

Vidal Icewine - The colour, the scent and the flavours of the 2009 Vidal Icewine were as close to perfect as they might be while still maintaining a unique expression of the winemaker.  I am so confident about this one that I plan on serving it to the folks over at Zippy Sauce the next time we visit.  On the server's advice, we swirled this wine quite vigorously, then swooshed it in our mouths like mouthwash.  Although it looked and felt ridiculous, it allowed us to experience all of the flavours - peach, apricot, honey, vanilla, caramel, mango - simultaneously and with a giggly smile!  At $47.05 per 375ml, this one's a "strong buy" in stock market terms, and we were able to use our tour tickets to get a $5 discount in the boutique.                

2012 Niagara Icewine Festival (4 of 6)

Stop 4: Greenlane Estate Winery

Confession: we only picked this winery on our festival tour for two rather superficial reasons.  First, it was our day to taste riesling icewine and no other wineries in the Beamsville area were serving any.  Second, they were also serving gourmet grilled cheese, which placated Chris after the Gorilla cheese fight the week before.  We'd never even heard of Greenlane, probably since it only opened in 2010, and were a little skeptical when we drove up because of the small barn like exterior, the unpaved parking and the fact that the public washroom is in a separate building on the other side of the lot!  So, when we walked into the small but stylish tasting bar to be greeted warmly by a hostess despite the crowd of tasters, we were instantly impressed.  The hostess took her time to explain the tastings, took our passports and ordered what turned out to be our lunch.  The sampling included 2 wines and 2 baguette sized gourmet sandwiches.  This really impressed me because the passport itself only costs $30 for six tastings so the winery only gets $5 for each of us, less any fee it has to pay to the industry association for festival advertising, etc.  Greenlane treated this as an opportunity, perhaps a marketing expense, to gain exposure to new consumers whereas some other wineries treat the $5 as cost recovery and some even try to profit from it by keeping their portions extra small.

The first tasting was their 2007 Cabernet Merlot with an aged cheddar and bacon sandwich.  Since we were so impressed with the experience so far, I really wanted to like this wine but in the end agreed with Chris that it was a bit too thin and acidic.  The second was the 2008 riesling icewine with a grilled Gorgonzola and spinach sandwich.  Chris felt the gorgonzola was too strong for the wine but we weren't really there to review the cheese, and I personally don't think a gorgonzola can be too strong. This riesling was entirely different from the one we tasted earlier in the day at Angels Gate.  It was very juicy, like biting into a ripe green apple, and somewhat more syrupy.  It's finish wasn't quite as clean as most icewines, implying not enough acidity, but I actually like this quality.  (The longer it lingers on the tongue, the less likely I am to drink the whole bottle!)  Interestingly, the wine really picked up the grilled butter on the baguette.  Since this is the second time I've noticed this, I'm determined to try serving icewine with Grandma's traditional Scottish shortbread next Christmas season.  For the bottle I did buy, I was thinking maybe grilled pineapple to go with it.  (Please comment if you think that's a terrible idea and a waste of an otherwise good bottle!)