I highly recommend this event for any Pinot Noir lovers in the area (this means you Howie, when you’re feeling better
. It’s always run on the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving (which is the second Monday in October).Linda and I attended the dinner at Wellington Court in St Catherines on Saturday night, and were lucky enough to be sandwiched between the winemaker from Coyote’s Run and one of the Speck brothers who own and run Henry of Pelham (I think he was either the winemaker or vineyard manager). We had ten courses, each with a different wine. The other two restaurants served 5 course dinners, with two wines per course (and larger portions, of course).
Pinot Noir is arguably Ontario’s most successful red grape (Cabernet Franc is the other contender), although it’s only really come into its own in the last few years.
Three wineries from previous years dropped out: Inniskillin (no great loss), Clos Jordanne, and Lailey. The new owners of Clos Jordanne lost interest in a premium winery, and the wines have been folded into Jackson-Triggs, from what I've heard. Lailey was a real loss, since they made some very good Pinot Noirs. They were bought by a Chinese firm whose only interest is in making icewine for the Chinese market. They were replaced by Cave Springs, Rosehall Run and Queylus.
Here are brief notes on the wineries’ tastings. I can’t make detailed notes because I have lost my sense of smell (although I can still taste), but it will give an idea of what they were like. There is no official theme, but for some reason, many of the wineries chose to do a vertical tasting this year.
Cave Springs
This winery was new to the event, and frankly, the wines were unimpressive. They were pleasant, fruity, easy drinking wines, but didn’t have a lot of Pinot character. We tasted the 2014, 2013, 2010 and 2008. The latter was the best (I like my Pinots mature). The formal tasting was to be run by “the winemaker and owners”, but we couldn’t schedule it in with all the other tastings, so we just did a drop-in tasting at the winery’s tasting room.
Coyote’s Run
Coyote’s Run usually has an interesting presentation. One year, they tasted Pinot Noir in all its stages: grapes, freshly pressed juice, newly fermented (pre- and post-malolactic), after one year (in both new and old oak), after two years blended in barrel, and finally bottled after 3 years.
This year was less spectacular: they tasted their three 2013 bottlings: Red Paw Vineyard, Black Paw Vineyard (from red and black soil), and Rare Vintage (a best barrel blend of Red Paw & Black Paw, only made in the best years). I always prefer Black Paw to Red Paw (more structure and tannin), but the Rare Vintage was even better. They were accompanied by savoury tartlets meant to complement each of the wines.
They also gave barrel samples of the 2015 Red Paw and 2015 Black Paw, if you asked nicely. They were amazing. I don’t know if it’s the vintage, or if it’s just that they’re barrel samples, which I often find taste better than the same wine when it’s freshly bottled.
Domaine Queylus
(That’s pronounced “Kay-LOOSE”, I found out.) This was a revelation. New to the event this year, it’s owned by a group of 15 Québecois professionals. Queylus’s winemaker is Thomas Bachelder, who used to make Clos Jordanne’s wines. Jenise and Bill Spohn may remember the 2009 Le Grand Clos I brought to their tasting in Vancouver a few years ago. They even have taken over one of Clos Jordanne’s vineyards, as well as planting their own (now 10 years old). The grapes are grown organically and fermented with wild yeasts. Bachelder also makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines under his own label in Ontario, Oregon and Burgundy.
We had a very informative presentation from their assistant winemaker (who actually does most of the work, under Bachelder’s direction) and tasted their three levels of Pinot Noir from 2013. The Pinot Noir Tradition was very nice, the Pinot Noir Réserve was really good, and the Pinot Noir Grande Réserve was wonderful – rich and fruity, but with a good tannic backbone that still needs a few years aging. It’s as good as the old Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos, and $15 cheaper. The Réserve is similar in style, but not as concentrated or as tannic, hence ready sooner.
They also let us play winemaker, giving us barrel samples of the two 2015 components of the Grand Réserve and letting us blend them to our personal taste. Both samples, “beauty” (a softer, very fruity wine) and “beast” (a firmer, more tannic wine), were outstanding, and the blend was even better, since it had both the rich fruit and the tannic backbone to age. I want some of this in a couple of years. I did buy a 6-bottle case of the 2013 Grande Réserve.
Flat Rock Cellars
Another winery that usually has interesting presentations. In the past, they’ve compared different clones from the same vintage, different blocks, with slight;ly different soils and microclimates, from the same vineyard. This year it was a vertical of their Estate Pinot Noir from 2014, 2013 and 2010 and their 2009 Gravity Pinot Noir The latter two were quite yummy. The first two were too young to be yummy yet. The presentation was led by the owner, who gives basically the same speech every year, suitably modified to suit the theme of the tasting. I ended up buying some of the 2010 and [more of] the 2009 Gravity.
Henry of Pelham
This was a drop-in tasting of their three levels of Pinot Noir - ‘Classic’, ‘Estate’ and ‘Speck Family Reserve’ (as well as an introductory glass of their sparkling ‘Cuvée Catherine Rosé’. I forgot to write down the vintages, but I think they were 2014, 2012 and 2010, respectively. As always, I found their wines to be nice, but other than the ‘Speck Family Reserve’ were eclipsed by many of the other wineries. Their wine does seem to age very well. Two years ago, they poured their 1992 Pinot Noir, and it was still very nice.
Hidden Bench
Another vertical. We tasted three vintages of their Estate Pinot Noir, paired with the owner’s coq au vin. The owner, as always, ran the tasting. I’ve always enjoyed their wines, but they’re never quite good enough to my taste to get me to buy any.
Malivoire
The tasting was run by the winemaker, Shiraz (yes, really!) Mottiar. He always runs interesting tastings (different clones, or different vineyards, or different oak levels), and has been going to smaller groups. lately This year, there were only 8 of us in this tasting, and he seemed to recognize most of us from previous years.
We tasted three of their current releases, and got a discussion of the vineyards where they were grown. We also tasted a new sparkling Pinot Noir rosé called ‘2015 Bissou Rosé’, and tasted a wine in a black glass and had to guess what it was (turned out to be another of their Pinot Noir rosés, called ‘2015 Vivant Rosé’. Both of them were off-dry. I ended up buying some of both, as well as a case of their dry ‘2015 Moira Rosé’, which is one of our house rosés. Alas it may be our only one since our other, Rosewood’s Trois Femmes [Pinot Noir] Rosé is no longer made. The reds were all good, but I already had bought too much by then.
Rosehall Run
This is another winery that’s new to the event, and the only one that’s not in Niagara. They’re in Prince Edward County, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, one of Ontario’s newer wine growing regions. They set up shop in Treadwell’s Wine Bar in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
This was yet another vertical tasting, of their 2014, 2013 and 2010 vintages (I think there was one other but I’ve forgetten what it was) , with a selection of local charcuterie. The wines were noticably more delicate than any of the other wineries. The winemaker gave a very interesting talk about winemaking in Prince Edward County (they have to bury the vines over the winter and dig them out again in the spring). Nice wines, but I like a richer style.
Rosewood
Another of my favourite wineries (along with Queylus, Malivoire, Flat Rock Cellars and Coyote’s Run). A few years ago, they did a very interesting tasting, with their 2009 and 2010 Pinot Noirs made with both natural and commercial yeasts. We had to guess which yeast was used in each wine. The natural was considerably better in the 2009, but the 2010 s were very similar. I believe they now only use 'wild' yeasts in their Pinot Noirs.
This year, the tasting, led by the winemaker, started with a taste of the just-fermented 2016 vintage (it did not taste very good!), followed by tastings of older wines from three separate sub-appellations, Beamsville Bench, Twenty-Mile Bench, and Lincoln Lakeshore, accompanied by a selection of cheeses. We concluded with a taste of the 2007 Pinot Noir Reserve, which was yummy, but alas is not for sale. I would have bought some if it was.
Rosewood also makes very nice honey, and related products, since they started life as an apiary and meadery.
Tawse
This tasting involved tasting their sparkling wine, called ‘Spark’, followed by a tasting of two different vineyards’ wine (Cherry Avenue and Quarry Road) from 2013 and 2010, accompanied by cheese and charcuterie. We also got to taste a barrel sample of the 2015 Cherry Avenue wine.
Their wines are organic and biodynamic. This winery is highly regarded, but it just doesn’t do much for me. Chacun à son goût, I guess.