Chateau Montelena

The iconic castle, (je m'excuse, "chateau,") is a modern
production facility inside.  It appears on all Montelena
labels.

Have you seen the movie Bottle Shock?  It's about Chateau Montelena when, in 1976, its chardonnay beat the world's best French white wines in a blind taste test now referred to as 'The Judgment of Paris."  Because of both the story and the movie, (starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine and Bill Pullman,) I expected this winery to be both very touristy and very crowded; fortunately it was neither.

The inscription reads, "The Judgement of Paris 1976."

The grounds have been extensively landscaped, including a small network of bridges and pagoda-like gazebos over a lake housing two black swans.  The gazebos are for hosting private picnic lunches, which must be booked well in advance.  Tastings, however, are available without an appointment.  For $20 per person, you can taste 4 of its 5 current release wines.  However, there's a two-for-one coupon available HERE and the winery waives one fee for every $100 spent on wine, so the four of us didn't end up paying any tasting fees at all.  When we arrived at the tasting room there were four servers behind the bar each assisting other groups, but we only had maybe a 10 minute wait before trying the following four wines.

2012 Riesling - I was prepared to not like this wine, being quite stuck on Beamsville Bench riesling for the time being.  Earlier in the trip, I had actually told Kim not to bother buying any rieslings in California.  It seems though, that Montelena makes this wine with grapes it purchases from Potter Valley, further North than Napa, with better growing conditions for riesling.  Brilliantly bright with acidity, this wine really tickles your tongue.  The dominant smell and taste we noted was honey, but the winemaker's notes list peach, apple, lichee (agree), rose, apricot, wet stone (agree) and pear.  Since this wine is not available outside of California, Kim did buy a bottle after all.

2010 Chardonnay - Montelena chardonnay is too light for me.  There.  I said it.  Interestingly though, when I compare my notes to the winemaker's, it's like we're talking about two different wines.  The only thing we agree on is that there's a subtle green apple flavour.  What I call thin, he calls creamy.  What I call vanilla, he calls marzipan.  Given that this was the wine that literally won the west, it's fair to say that the problem is probably with me.  I'm assuming that my palate is just not refined enough to taste the complexity, so I'd rather spend $20 for an Ontario chard than $60 for one I don't appreciate.  (Chris really likes this wine, but I suspect it's because he thinks he's supposed to!)

Despite its fame and wealth, Montelena's tasting bar is
humble, approachable and enjoyable.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon - According to the winemaker's notes, "the beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors."  I completely agree, as I've had issues with more typical California Cabs tasting like chewing tobacco, but this one is very drinkable even in its youth while still maintaining a complexity of taste.  It's probably partially due to the 9% merlot + cab franc that are taking off its edge.

When searching for Montelena wines at the LCBO, I always
spell it wrong: Montalina, Montaleena, etc.  When we arrived
I saw it underneath Mount Helena.  It all makes sense now!

2009 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - I can't believe I spent this much on one bottle, but it is the single best California cab I've ever tried.  Antonio Galloni from the Wine Advocate rated it 93, as did Stephen Tanzer from the International Wine Cellar.  Like its non-estate cab cousin, this wine can be drunk now or aged, but its approachability seems to come from superior wine-making techniques instead of blending.  Both the nose and the taste come in layers of fruit, smoke and spice.  Perhaps its best feature though is its structure; the wine just flows back away from the tongue like silk.  I'm not sure how long it will last in the cellar.

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.  

Cuvee at Henry of Pelham

I included the Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery on our tour because it doesn't usually participate in festivals.  I asked our hostess about this, who explained that smaller wineries often have difficulty staffing festival events, since they need to keep staff both on hand and at the festival park in St. Catharines.  I had heard this before from other small producers, but find it a little hard to swallow from Henry of Pelham, with its production level at 75,000 cases per year.

The first wine we tasted was the 2009 Speck Family Reserve Riesling.  Keep in mind, we'd just been at Thirty Bench, whose riesling is a tough act to follow.  In comparison, this wine is smoother, less complex and featured much more citrus.  It has a yeasty nose , and the taste of unsweetened orange juice.  The acidity is a little lacking and the medium length finish was sour.  On its own, there is nothing inherently wrong with this wine; it's a fairly standard riesling.  It just doesn't compete with those we'd tasted earlier in the day.  (Rating: 85.)

Note: Only Francesca tasted the cab-merlot instead of the
baco noir, and she didn't love it.

Next we tried the 2009 Speck Family Reserve Pinot Noir.  Keep in mind that 2009 was an excellent growing season in Ontario for this grape.  This wine's aroma is dirty, as expected, reminiscent of dried wild mushroom.  The wine's best feature is its nearly perfect balance between its tannin and acidity.  It has a medium body, is dry but not overly dry, and has a medium length finish and a complex palate that we found hard to describe.  A few people noticed a burnt flavour.  Surprisingly, there was no hint of tomato skin or stem.  (Rating: 87).

Since Henry of Pelham is known for its Baco Noir, (or, at least, that's what I know it for,) I was surprised that it wasn't advertised as the third wine of the day.  However, there was an open bottle at the bar, and the hostess let us taste what we wanted, which, for many of us was the 2010 Baco Noir Reserve.  This turned out to be a good business decision as the wine is not available in the LCBO and our party bought several bottles of it before we left.  The wine features a sweet, fruity nose, that gives way to the scent of cigar smoke or campfire.  The fruitiness of sour cherry and the skin of red plum are the first tastes evident, followed by a dry, lengthier finish.  Like the pinot, this wine is also exceptionally well balanced.  This is not exactly a 'big red,' but it's almost a 'big red!'  I won't rate this wine as I'm not experienced enough with this varietal, but I did buy 3 bottles.

Interestingly, no one in our group ranked Henry of Pelham as their first choice for wine.  However, we collectively bought 8 bottles there, more than at any other winery we visited that day.  I suppose this speaks to the unreliability of self reported data?  Aside from the wine, Chris and I both really enjoyed the atmosphere at Henry of Pelham.  The partially undergound wine boutique and exposed stone has a cave like feel, like what we would expect to find on the south of France.  I also found the hostess very helpful, who informed us of an annual Baco Noir vertical tasting at the winery, called Back to Baco, on the last weekend June and the first of July.  I think we'll definitely be returning for that.

Cuvee at Thirty Bench

 I get Thirty Bench and Hidden Bench mixed up a lot, especially since I haven't blogged about either of them. When we pulled into the parking lot, though, I remembered that Chris and I had stopped there once before.  Unfortunately, a large group in a limo had arrived just prior to us and we decided not to wait.  This time, we were the large limo group set to inconvenience others instead!

Thirty Bench arranged a vertical tasting of 4 years of its Small Lot Triangle Vineyard Rieslings.  In the tasting area, several counter-height tables were arranged with place settings and bar stools overlooking the sloping vineyards.  (Really, the views are fantastic at nearly all of the wineries on the Beamsville bench.)  This allowed us to take the time to truly appreciate each wine; it also allowed me to take decent notes on all four!

2011 - This is a very crisp, complex wine with a nose of pineapple and a little petrol.  The predominant taste is of white grapefruit.  It's mild on the tongue, meaning I found it less sour and slightly less acidic than my standby riesling from Tawse.  Its finish is medium length. 

2010 - The nose on this one is smokier, and less fruity, with a barely noticeable petrol note.  It made me think of gouda cheese, and would probably pair nicely with it.  It's taste was even smoother than the 2011, with even less sourness and acidity.  Its finish was longer, and not as dry.  Several in our party chose this as their favourite wine of this stop, and some even for the entire day! 

2009 - Instead of a lot of pineapple and a little petrol, like its younger cousins, this wine smelled like vasoline with a hint of tropical fruit in it!  Erin accurately described the flavour of gruyere cheese.  On the lengthy finish, the pineapple flavour more fully unfolds.

2008 - Compared to the earlier three, this vintage had less petrol and less fruit.  The gruyere was still evident throughout the palate, but strongest on the finish.  The smell of  mold or dirt, 'wet stone' according to our host, was prevalent.  This was the driest of the four.

Depending on how you like your rieslings, any of these four could score a 90.  (I'm at 91 for the 2010.)  Surprisingly, it seems like all four are still available for purchase, but you'll need to specially order the three library vintages.  In my opinion  it was a big business mistake to not have all 4 available for purchase during the weekend.  To be fair, they did offer to ship the 2010 to me free of charge, but I had noticed the staff were pretty slow at the checkout, and I didn't want to take the time to place an order when we were on a schedule and this was only the first stop of the day. 

To their credit, since Wes doesn't like white wine, they allowed him to taste some reds instead, and he bought a bottle of their 2010 Red (blend).  No other bottles were purchased.  At the end of the day, though, various people mentioned regretting this, admitting they had been hesitant to begin buying with four more wineries left.

Cheap, but nothing to be ashamed of

Over the holiday season, I've had quite a few bottles of Angel's Gate 2010 Susreserve Riesling.  I actually stocked up on this one without even tasting it first based on the incredible 2009 vintage which scored at or above 90 by various reviewers and won a handful of awards.  So, for $13.95 per bottle, I didn't think there was much risk.

I describe the scent as a combination of honey, citrus and lemon, but other reviewers interpret this as pineapple.  The wine is definitely sweeter than the 2009, but without being too sugary.  There are two distinct layers of flavour to this wine: the slightly sour, citrus and mineral flavours that you would expect from a Beamsville Bench riesling, backed up by a smoother flavour of fruit (possibly pineapple and / or nectarine) and honey.  Since the susreserve method involves adding unfermented riesling juice to the finished wine, I wonder if those two parallel flavours come from the wine and the juice respectively.  The mouth feel is thin, but very consistent, with a longer than expected finish.  In a neat coincidence, I also did a blind review of this wine.  My sister-in-law served me a glass when I'd asked for white; I didn't realize at the time that she'd sent my husband out shopping so he just bought what he knew I liked!  Overall, this wine is very drinkable and refreshing.  After much debate, Chris and I both rated it an 86.

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.

More about Maleta

This is a follow up to Wine & Herb day 2 (Riesling)

Maleta was a little hard to find, and even a little hard to spot from the road, and its exterior doesn't look like much. When we entered the property's small cottage-turned-retail-space, though, we were greeted with a very genuine "Welcome to our winery" which set the tone for the rest of the visit. As I've mentioned before, sometimes small wineries don't take full advantage of passport events, being more concerned with cost minimization than capitalizing on the opportunities walking through their doors. Maleta certainly avoided this mistake; the hostess (who, from what she said, is the spouse of either the winemaker or the owner,) explained to us that the food pairing would take a few minutes to prepare, so offered us a glass of the 2009 Rose Reserve made from a blend of gamay and merlot. I didn't take many notes on this one, as it wasn't the 'main event,' - and I was thirsty! I do remember thinking cranberry, and that unlike many roses, this one isn't candy, or 'boat wine' as I now call it. However, the winery's website has very descriptive tasting notes (copied below) that really ring true of my two tasting experiences.

Wine	2009 Rosé Reserve	2008 RIESLING (MEDIUM-DRY)
Price	$15.95 (750 mL)	$16.95 (750 mL)
% Alcohol	12.0% alc.	11.5 % alc
Sight, Smell & Taste	This wine shows a very pretty salmon pink. A delicate nose of red berries with just a hint of wet leaves – it’s really amazingly complex for a rosé. Light and fruity in the mouth, flavours exhibit strawberry and cherry fruit with a hint of red licorice. It finishes dry with lingering cranberry notes. A very refreshing wine with enough structure for light protein dishes such as roast chicken or veal scaloppine and makes a special companion for onion tart.	Pale gold with subtle green highlights, the colour is still showing youth. The nose is delicate with green apple, lime and just enough of Riesling’s petrolly pungency to make it more interesting. The mouthfeel is gentle and elegant with a round smoothness and flavours of green apple, lemon and lime.The finish delivers some zippy acidity and plenty of length. This is an all round sipper for easy drinking on its own or served with sole almondine, seafood risotto or creamy pasta.
Aging Potential	Perfect for your valentine, or enjoy it with Easter ham and summer picnics. Drink by the end of 2012.	There is no need to wait, drink now, although the wine will cellar well into 2013.

The hostess' passion for her products really set this visit apart from the others. She spoke enthusiastically about their new branding efforts to distinguish their three wine categories; the Grape Brain label is intended to be approachable for easy drinking, the View label lends itself to fine dining and the Meritage wears its own label to set it apart as the winery's signature product. She also pointed out the winery's tendency to age its bottles before releasing them, so when you buy them they're ready to fully enjoy. Finally, she shared with us the story of how, upon learning that her assigned herb was pineapple-sage, she had to Google it to find out what it was, then find recipes that included it, then learn how to make marmalade, then select a wine to match it all. She made it sound like a labour of love. The result was excellent, and highlighted both the riesling and the pineapple-sage while other wineries hid their assigned spice in a dish that best showed off their wine. All in all, Maleta's efforts paid off as I will return, taste, and buy several of their wines in the future, once we've made more room in our bar.

Wine & Herb day 2 (Riesling)

Since the Wine & Herb passport includes Fridays, and because Carrie and I always get the Friday before the long weekend off work, we headed out for the afternoon to the three wineries exhibiting their rieslings: Joseph's Estates Winery, Ravine Vineyard , and Maleta Estate Winery.  We also stopped by The Ice House, because it was on our route and its assigned spice was arugula, which I absolutely love.  Since I've blogged about Joseph's and Ravine before, I'll focus here just on the riesling pairings, and will give a more thorough review of our visits to Maleta and the Ice House at a later date.

The Contender - Ravine Vineyard

Coming third in a 3 person race perhaps isn't something to brag about, so I should note that all 3 rieslings we tried today were very enjoyable.  I should also note that Carrie disagrees with me about the relative order of 3rd and 2nd place.  Our main point of contention is that Carrie likes sweet wine, and Ravine Vineyard's 2010 Estate Riesling rates a 3 on the sugar scale.  The server explained that this is an organic wine, and that its sweetness is the result of a particular fungus which would be eliminated were the vines to be chemically treated.  After a weak grassy nose, I was a little taken back by both the sweetness and body of this wine, for an Ontario riesling, and I invented a new category: boat wine.  (Boat wine is wine my parents would drink on a Sunday afternoon at their boat, requiring no food accompaniment and often leading to a headache despite not tasting in any way like alcohol.  The exemplar for all boat wine is the Beringer White Zinfandel from California.)  The wine's flavour is fruity, and lemon seems to stick in my mind, but this is probably because it was paired with a lemon tart infused with citrus thyme.  The intense lemon flavour from the dessert seemed to suck up all of the wine's sweetness, leaving behind a flatter, more tart taste, especially on the sides of the tongue.

The Runner Up: Joseph's Estate

Joseph's offered a very similar pair, matching its 2007 Riesling to a lemon square seasoned with thyme.  In this dessert, the lemon was slightly more subtle, the crust more buttery and flaky and the thyme more prominent; Joseph's definitely did a better job with its assigned herb pairing.  Although Joseph's does bottle a sweet riesling, it offered instead its drier version, a 0.5 on the sugar scale.  It has a weak nose with a hint of grass, and a clean flavour featuring yellow grapefruit.  There was initially a pronounced tartness near the front of the tongue, but the addition of the lemon square dulled it, evening out its taste and consistency.  The resulting flavour was very much like that of Ravine's combination.  If that's the result I was looking for, though, I would be far more likely to buy the Joseph's bottle at $9.95 than the Ravine one at $28.  (It is entirely possible that I just don't know how to appreciate extra-sweet rieslings though, or that organically produced wines always sell at a premium.)

The Winner: Maleta Estate

Maleta's 2010 Riesling is all around more subtle, complex and sophisticated than the other two visits of the day.  I noted an aroma of tomato vine or stem but didn't take any notes about the delicate taste as I was too distracted by the fantastic and well thought-out pairing of baguette, brie and marmalade made with the assigned spice, pineapple sage.  (I'd never heard of pineapple sage; it looks like regular sage but smells like pineapple.)  The wine was very well balanced, falling in between Joseph's and Ravines on sweetness and smoothness.  Like Joseph's, though, it must be purchased at the winery (for $16.95) as it is not available at the LCBO.

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.                

F'ing Winery Tour (Fielding Estate)

Seriously. That is the actual name of this annual event co-hosted by Fielding Estate, Featherstone Estate and Flat Rock Cellars, three F-named wineries all in the Niagara Escarpment regional appellation. A $10 passport buys you two wine tastings at all three of the wineries, each accompanied by a crostini topped with a local cheese and well paired example of Killer Condiments.



We had driven by our first stop, Fielding Estate Winery, several times en route to East Dell Estates, but had never stopped in. Situated right on the Beamsville Bench, Fielding's sleek facility almost looks like a modern Swiss ski lodge built on the side of a mountain. After the long driveway, you turn behind the building and enter the second story from the back, to be greeted with panoramic windows overlooking the sloping vineyards. This first room features the regular tasting bar and the very well organized wine boutique. The other half of the building houses the 2 story casks surrounded by a catwalk, where the passport tastings were held.

The crostinis at this stop were topped with Ermite Bleu cheese and Killer Condiments' maple-caramelized onions. The first wine, a sparkling riesling, really picked up the maple, and brought out the smoky flavour of the onions. It also stood up surprisingly well to the blue (albeit mild) cheese. I wouldn't usually think to serve a sparkling wine with an appetizer, but this one would certainly work.  On it's own, the wine struck a nice balance between the sweet riesling grapes and the dry bubbles, with no obvious taste of alcohol. Its nose was weak, but its palate carried a refreshing taste of citrus.

The second wine, Fielding's 2009 Red Conception is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.  I have stayed away from blends on this blog because I was worried the tastes would confuse me and I wouldn't learn anything useful.  However, as soon as I tried this one, I immediately tasted the advantage.  Until now, to get away from the harsh woody flavours of cabernet sauvignon, I have been favouring milder reds like cab franc and pinot noir;  the blended approach allows you to keep the cabernet sauvignon flavour but tone it down with the merlot.  The nose on this wine was decidedly weak, and we had to swirl a lot to get a decent whiff of what we think was cedar.  The aromas, like the flavours, were very muted.  This wine also picked up the maple flavour and nicely complimented the Ermite Bleu, but was slightly overpowered by the strong taste of the onions.



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!)

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.