Tag Archives: Niagara Wine Festival

Four Blondes, Five Wineries

 

 

 

This past weekend, I was able to bring my friends Terri, Shelly, and Cindy up to Niagara to experience some Canadian hospitality. And to check out the Niagara Wine Festival. After a brief stop to see Niagara Falls, and enjoy a great first night dinner, we began our journey the next day with Niagara Vintage Wine Tours. Gus, our awesome guide, was so friendly and knowledgable, he did an amazing job of filling in the picture at each winery we visited. He also gave a wonderful, anecdotal history of the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Our tour (which included lunch at The Charles Inn) stopped at the following four wineries:

  • Konzelmann ~ Located on lakefront property, when they opened their doors, in 1984, they were the seventh official winery in Ontario.There are now over 140. They had a great presentation by J.R. who gave a crash course in wine tasting and the proper way to sip effectively. He also talked about how it’s best to allow the wine, especially Icewine, to move to the back of the tongue (with a tiny bit of hang time) to get the full flavor and texture. It was amazing how much more depth there was to the samples we tried.

Four Blondes Pick: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

  • Pilliteri ~ One of the world’s largest producers of Ice Wine, Pilliteri is steeped in history and family tradition. The Carretto, featured prominently in the awards room and pictured on many of their labels, is a Sicilian cart that provided transport for families and their belongings or moving their goods to and from market. The barrel cellar/events room is one of the coolest I’ve seen. A stunning concrete table, about 500” long is surrounded by 23 stainless steel chairs on the walls above. the chairs are specially engraved to commemorate significant dates in the history of the winery. Style definitely meets substance as this is a fully functional cellar, maintaining a constant temperature of 12 degrees C with increased protection against light and no vibration to disturb the ageing process. Shelly and I thought it was so cool, we fell behind in the tour and almost got a tardy. But Gus took pity on us and helped us catch up to our group. We joined them just as Francine, our winery guide began our tasting. We sampled quite a few and with such a variety of Icewine, including a Sangiovese and Cab Sauv, it was difficult to choose just one.

Four Blondes Pick: 2010 Exclamation Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2012 Cab Franc Icewine.

  • Between The Lines ~ After lunch, the skies cleared and we headed to the big red barn that houses this smaller, young winery. BTL has a lot of heart and maintains a preference to keep things small but real. Their wine is only available at the winery or via delivery (only in Canada) or at select farmer’s markets in Niagara and surrounding Ontario regions. I found the wines we sampled a bit young tasting but I believe they have great promise. Cellaring for a couple of years could just bring out the depth and complexity that I tend to look for. I like what Greg and Yannick are doing here, and the commitment they have to stay smaller and focus on creating a great product rather than mass produce and lose what’s unique. They’re headed in the right direction.

Four Blondes Pick: 2012 Lemberger Reserve

  • Marynissen ~ Our last stop was the home of wines chosen by former Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien to be served at official state dinners. It also boasts the oldest commercial planting of Cabernet Sauvignon in Canada. We tasted a few wines ranging from the Unoaked Chardonnay to their notable Gamay Noir. A very pretty boutique winery, it was a quaint stop to round out our tour.

Four Blondes Pick: 2013 Unoaked Chardonnay, which Cindy thought was, “very nice for the region.”

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Peller Estates ~ This winery was not on our tour but we stopped in to round out our day. Beautiful and stately, Peller was a winery the girls spied as we drove into the old town of Niagara-on-the-Lake and mentioned that they wanted to look inside. There was a big country hoe-down going on and while we thought about sticking around to try the mechanical bull, we had dinner reservations so…                                                                                                                                                                                                                Four Blondes Pick:  the Riesling Icewine, fresh and crisp, it was an different alternative to traditional the Vidal.

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Four Blondes Big Pick: 2012 Wayne Gretzky Estate No 99 Vidal Icewine. The delicate floral vibe on the nose and liquid amber, honey and butterscotch taste was heavenly.The rich, velvet-y mouthfeel was also incredibly pleasing. If this was in the Stanley Cup playoffs of Ice Wine, this number 99 just won the shootout.

The Niagara Wine Festival continues today and wraps up September 27 and 28.

Thomas Wolfe once wrote, ‘you can’t go home again.’ Well, in fact, you can. And if you’re really lucky, you can bring some great friends with you.

Cheers!

©TheWineStudent, 2014

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Face-off! 2007 Mike Weir vs. 2007 Wayne Gretzky Pinot Noir

2007 Wayne Gretzky Estate/ Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir

2007 Wayne Gretzky Estate/ Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir

Last night, I had a little tasting with my friends Judy and Terri and I wanted it to be as unbiased as possible. Since I’m an ex-pat from the Niagara region, I’m partial to many wines from that area, not just the Icewine that it’s noted for. Maybe I’m feeling a little homesick especially since it’s Grape and Wine Festival time. Sigh. I know it’s called ‘The Niagara Wine Festival‘ now, but it’ll always be ‘Grape and Wine’ to me.

For years, I’ve enjoyed the whites and particularly liked what had been coming off the vine from Mike Weir Wine. Having never sampled anything from Wayne Gretzky Estates, I wanted to try something different and compare the two. To keep things on equal footing, I chose the same type and vintage, otherwise it could be like comparing apples to oranges, and not really a fair fight. We poured both through an aerator since we didn’t have time to decant.

Armed with both the Wine Aroma Wheel and Mouth-feel Wheel, we started with the 2007 Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir. The color ranged from a burgundy (Terri) to light claret (me) to garnet (Judy). We all agreed that, sadly, there didn’t seem to be much on the nose. As for mouth-feel, it seemed to be a bit thin and watery; as if it could’ve been cellared longer. We found the taste to be more tart berry; Judy thought it had a grippy, alcohol feel. Terri thought it had more of a chemical, bitter feel. She described it as ‘gird-y’: for her, it produced more of a burn-like sensation going down. Overall, it wasn’t bad, it just tasted quite young. I wondered if pairing it with something like Brie and fruit might have brought out more of its depth.

On to the 2007 Wayne Gretzky Estates (Estate Series) Pinot Noir. By comparison, the Gretzky was richer in color; a deep garnet with nice floral notes on the nose.  The mouth-feel was warm, satin-y and supple with a viscous, mouth coat texture (yes, ‘mouth coat’ is listed in the wheel). Terri found it had a smoother, softer, fuller texture compared to the Weir. It tasted of rich cherry, sulfur with a light smoky, butter finish, and would probably pair well with a nice filet or roasted chicken. We thought it was a nice wine to drink all on its own, from start to finish.

Looks like, for now, No.99 is still the Great One.

Cheers!