WTN: A decent Pinot from Ontario. Is that possible?

I admit it. I have this weakness. I am a pinotphile. I keep trying them from everywhere including Ontario.

Translucent ruby red. A wonderfully spicy nose of pine cones, red currants, strawberries, and cherries. Tingling acidity with juicy red fruit, especially cherries and strawberries with silky tannins. Nice medium finish of tart red fruit with an acidic afterglow.

Great match with beer-infused spice rubbed chicken. The spiciness of the wine and the chicken meld well on the palate.

This wine speaks terroir to me, which is probably the first Ontario pinot I can say this about.

Nice well balanced, food friendly wine. Only thing that could be significantly better is the finish.

Wine: Le Clos Jordanne, Pinot Noir Village Reserve, 2005, 13.5% abv. $25 $CAN I will buy it again.

[Robin Garr]

I admit it. I have this weakness. I am a pinotphile. I keep trying them from everywhere including Ontario.

Nice notes, Tom ... makes me want some of that wine. Frankly, I don't find the notion of Pinot from the Niagara Peninsula all that odd or unusual. It's those guys trying to grow Merlot or even Syrah up there that bother me! Seriously, I would expect Niagara's annual climate range to be more like Burgundy than like Northern California or the Mediterranean. Once you've got the climate, and the appropriate Pinot clones, then the rest is all about wine making and experience, and I don't doubt that will come.

It's those guys trying to grow Merlot or even Syrah up there that bother me! Seriously, I would expect Niagara's annual climate range to be more like Burgundy than like Northern California or the Mediterranean.

Robin, this might sound strange coming from me, but I would like to defend at least the Syrah growers up here. Honestly, the ones I have tried have all been vastly more impressive than any Cabernet Sauvignon, or even Cab Franc I must say (waiting for the howls for my mentioning this last one). Peninsula Ridge makes an unusually peppery, complex Syrah that shows no signs of unadaptability in Niagara's climate, save potential winter-hardiness issues. It's the high-cachet Bordeaux varieties that I'm most skeptical about in our climate - Cab Sauvignon simply needs a longer ripening season than what we have here; it always produces green wines lacking in the sort of cohesive blackcurrant fruit that those from warmer climates produce. I have tasted a small handful of elegant Merlots from Ontario, the best ones being from SW Ontario in my experience - a notable exception was Inniskillin's '99 Merlot was was very nice. Cab Franc? It's so highly touted up here everywhere you drive through Niagara, yet I have yet to be wowed by a single one in my ten years of drinking Ontario reds.

Nice notes, Tom ... makes me want some of that wine. Frankly, I don't find the notion of Pinot from the Niagara Peninsula all that odd or unusual. It's those guys trying to grow Merlot or even Syrah up there that bother me! Seriously, I would expect Niagara's annual climate range to be more like Burgundy than like Northern California or the Mediterranean. Once you've got the climate, and the appropriate Pinot clones, then the rest is all about wine making and experience, and I don't doubt that will come.

Hi Robin,

I agree with your assessment of the climate, with the other factor being climate change. Our winters are getting milder here, even the past one that had lots of snow has not had the really bone chilling cold of winters of just 10 or 15 years ago. This helps out with the planting of the proper clones, because winter survival is easier. As for you trying one, I will try to remember to bring one to MoCool this year. I have a Le clos Jordanne Claystone Terrace 2005 pinot that is supposedly even better than the Village Reserve. It would be nice to test this out in person with another wine lover.

Peninsula Ridge makes an unusually peppery, complex Syrah that shows no signs of unadaptability in Niagara's climate, save potential winter-hardiness issues.

Snap!! Just yesterday I bought a couple of bottles of their Shiraz. The guy at the check out eyed them suspiciously, saying "I wouldn't take a chance on Ontario Shiraz." I bought the Shiraz on an impulse, based on the fact that I have been very impressed by the Peninsula Ridge Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc.

Will let you know on the Shiraz.

I'm sure we'll be able to try both Shiraz and Pinot Noir during our NiagaraCOOL Saturday tour.

Howie,

Have you ever tried a Le Clos Jordanne pinot? They make the best pinot I have ever tried from Ontario. Flat Rock Cellars also makes a decent pinot they call gravity. The other Ontario pinots I have tried don't really have the quality these two wineries produce. Of course, I have not tried them all. I have had pinots from about 6 other wineries in Ontario, including Jackson and Triggs and Chateau des Charmes.

Hi Tom - I tasted the Flat Rock at the winery last year and have a bottle in my cellar. I don't recall if I tasted the Chateau des Charmes, but they do make some nice Gamay. Recently I had the Inniskillin, which, at $14 was a good QPR along with Warm Lake Estate, which is the same micro-climate, but on the US side of the river. Here's my post: http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14405&p=120376

Flat Rock Cellars also makes a decent pinot they call gravity.

I agree about Flat Rock. I have a bottle of the 2003 PN that I've had in my cellar since my trip to Niagara in summer 05. Not only was it the best PN i had in Niagara, but it was also easily one of the best (red) wines I tasted the whole trip.

BTW, I would assume my '03 PN will be drinking VERY nicely now...?

In the mid 90's, I had an Inniskillin Pinot Noir in Quebec that was quite promising. though, as Tom noted, in had no sense of place... no terrior. It was well made, had lovely fruit that was clearly Pinot, but lacked any backbone. I've had two or three other Ontario Pinot's since then, but they were very disappointing. Has anybody had a more current Inniskillin? I found an interesting site a while ago while surfing cold hardy grapes, a current interest of mine, and offer it: http://www.bringmywine.ca/canadian-pinot-noir.html
there is also a good history of the "new" Canadian wine industry at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/ ... 006049.htm
It's frustrating that, even with NAFTA, the Canadians seem to drink all the good stuff up there, except for icewine, which they now ship around the world. I think I read somewhere that, after the US, Taiwan is the largest export market for Canadian Icewine. However, the wines of Ontario and BC are getting great press, so maybe it's time for a cavort to Montreal.

Howie,
Just noticed and read your note on 2006 Inniskillin. Their web site describe 4 different levels of Pinot. Have you had the more expensive ones, or a single vineyard wine? I wonder if those now have a real sense of terrior. I'm afraid I'm a die hard Burgundian at heart. I like to think I can still tell a Corton from Close de Beze, even with my aging palate.

Howie, ... Have you had the more expensive ones, ...

No, just the low end one. I bought it with what was left over when I bought 50 gallons of fresh juice from the presshouse around the corner from Inniskillin and had just enough Cdn funds to purchase that and a bottle of the Gamay.

It's frustrating that, even with NAFTA, the Canadians seem to drink all the good stuff up there, except for icewine, which they now ship around the world.

Believe me, Bill, I have felt exactly the same way for years about Eastern American wines of quality that never get imported into Ontario. We have, supposedly, the foremost puchaser of alcoholic beverages on earth in our LCBO monopoly - yet they cannot see past their myopia to at least once in a while search out a fine Pennsylvanian Chambourcin, a New York varietal Diamond, or a Missouri Norton. There is a crisis of interjurisdictional paralysis in terms of fine estate wine movements all across North America - a silliness that has its roots in the Prohibition disaster that befell our continent.

There really needs to be a lifting of these antiquated, useless rules so that Ontarians can easily purchase that Missouri Norton, that Virginia Cab Franc or that New York Diamond - and vice versa - without all the dogmatic nonsense that continues to exist today.

Of course, there's also the problem of limited production, which would still compound the issue even if restrictions were instantly lifted ...

BTW, I would assume my '03 PN will be drinking VERY nicely now...?

Hi David,

I hope so, but I am not sure. I bought a Willow Heights 1999 pinot in 2000 and the winemaker suggested cellaring it for 5 years. I gave it to my brother James with those instructions. James tried it in 2004 but it was definitely over the hill, with not much fruit left and kind of acidic. Most Ontario pinots have not been made to age, but I think there is more aging potential in Flat Rock Cellars gravity pinot. I had the 2004 last year and I really liked it. I have the 2005 in my cellar and I am letting it age for a while. I would not let the 2003 go too much longer (6-12 months) if I were you.

I bought a Willow Heights 1999 pinot in 2000 and the winemaker suggested cellaring it for 5 years. I gave it to my brother James with those instructions. James tried it in 2004 but it was definitely over the hill, with not much fruit left and kind of acidic. Most Ontario pinots have not been made to age [...]

Tom,

There's something to that. Just yesterday too, while drinking that Chateau des Charmes Cab-Merot, I kept thinking about how green the nose was and how short the wine was on the finish; no real fruit to speak of, and as it stayed in the glass, it just got shorter and more sour ... not too good. I think the problem is in the nature of our growing season: It spikes hard and high for about 3 months, but then just as quickly as it starts in the spring, it drops off in the fall.

Warm-climate viniferas really need a milder, but longer, more drawn-out growing season to develop complexity. The marketing types though seem mainly to care that a famous grape name is on the label - that's something that I don't abide personally. Start with grapes that fit your terroir, I say, and pursue a unique path that works in your climate. Many French red grapes just aren't all that good a fit, despite the desire to replicate those wines here.

Still, there's probably hope that the fickle Pinot, being used to cool (not cold!) climates, will make some nice lighter reds here.

Global warming is going to solve all this. It will soon be warm enough at higher latitudes around the world to take advantage of the longer day. In a hundred years we'll all be drinking Swedish Chardonnay and pinot from Iceland. Of course, Bordeaux will be under water, and San Francisco Bay will extend up to St. Helena. Our great grandchildren will take their grandchildren fifteen miles out to sea to view the torch of the Statue of Liberty sticking up out of the water, and shore frontage on Hudson Bay will be selling for twenty thousand a foot. I'm glad I'm old.

By the way, speaking of not being able to find wines you want to try, have any of you had one of the really great Pinot Noirs from Central Otago that are getting all the press, like Bald Hills?

By the way, speaking of not being able to find wines you want to try, have any of you had one of the really great Pinot Noirs from Central Otago that are getting all the press, like Bald Hills?

Hi Bill,

My experience is limited as I have only tried one or two pinots from Central Otago and those were at a tasting, not ones I had bought myself. I liked them but was not overly impressed. Most of my New Zealand pinots have come from Marlborough or Martinborough (one of the best was made by Delta). They are good to very good, but like the pinots from Ontario, they have a way to go yet before they catch up to burgundy.

BTW, I would assume my '03 PN will be drinking VERY nicely now...?

I would not let the 2003 go too much longer (6-12 months) if I were you.

Well, I had been planning to drink it for a few months already, so I'll post a TN when the deed is done...