New Vintage Festival (Megalomaniac)

Look right in the center of the photo
and you'll see the stone arch rising
into view.  We were 1/3 of the way
from the road when this was taken.

Our stop at Megalomaniac Wines (John Howard Cellars of Distinction) was another nice surprise in our day, beginning with our approach up the property's rather steep drive, from the bottom of which you can hardly see the production facility, carved as it is into the side of the hill so that only the stone arch above the door is visible.  Although the entrance and large oak doors have a medieval flare to them, Chris's overall impression was  bomb shelter, having decided that Megalomaniac is where he will head in the event of a natural disaster or enemy attack!  Indoors, the air is kept cool and most by the surrounding hillside, which was a refreshing escape from the summer's heat.

The winery had advertised a sparkling with a strawberry and white chocolate ganache tart.  First, though, we were offered its Pink Slip Rose, a pinot noir, which tasted mostly of sour strawberry skin and brought out the sweetness in the dessert without sacrificing its own taste.  Although I don't drink a lot of pink wine, I have noticed that all of my favourites are made from pinot noir.  At $17.95 per bottle, it is comparable in price and quality to other better roses in the region.

Next, we tried the winery's first ever sparkling release, also made from pinot noir, which matched beautifully with the strawberries in the dessert but also cleansed our palates from the heavy ganache.  Interestingly, the wine taste didn't change at all with the food.  It is sweet for a sparkling, with very little yeast on the nose, and it is not at all dry.  Although the wine is not yet listed on the winery's website, it is available on site for $28, which is again comparable to other sparklings in the area, and a safe bet to serve at special events for people who don't generally 

drink a lot of wine.

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.



Day 2 of Wine and Chocolate

On the second weekend of Wine and Chocolate, Chris and I decided to spend our quality-together-time with other people.  He went to visit his sister in Toronto, and Carrie came with me to four wineries that she picked based on their descriptions in the touring pass.  I'll begin with our very disappointing, but also very informative visit to Diamond Estates.  After this, Diamond and I will be going our separate ways.

First of all, its location is not a pleasant visit for a festival; it looks and feels more like a roadside fruit stand than a winery boutique.  Second, we didn't enjoy its wine and chocolate offering at all.  The server prepared cocktails of its 20 Bees Brand sparkling wine and late harvest vidal, a 4 and a 10 on the sugar scale, respectively.  Now to begin with, the proportions were all off; similar cocktails I've tried have had relatively much less bubbly and much more dessert wine.  Not that this mattered much, though, because Diamond's chocolate pairing was a white chocolate truffle with a creamy pomegranite flavoured ganache center, easily 10X sweeter than the cocktail, and made the drink taste even more bitter.  Although I usually appreciate when a winery sets up a private room for festival tasters, in this case it made not liking the wine even more awkward.  Carrie suggested later that the winery should have provided spitting buckets!

My real reason for giving up on Diamond, though, is that we learned it has officially discontinued the East Dell brand Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, arguably the two best wines it produced, so as to avoid brand confusion amongst the several labels that it bottles.  It plans to continue with its Black Cab and Summer Rose, the former which I never liked as much as everyone else seems to, and the latter which I'm just going to replace out of spite!