As much as I would like to be a respectable member of society, I was educated and have worked for many years as an engineer. What that means is that I am a member of a very small fraternity. We a tend to be exacting perfectionists who can drive people crazy but tend to be invaluable to society. Allan Park Pete (Mechanical Engineer) has taken the Martini as one of his crusades. Vermouth, gin sometimes vodka and an olive. Add some secrete stuff, et voila, a thing of beauty. I simply cannot approach his and I have no idea why. He researches, tests and develops religiously.

What does this have to do with wine. Well, Sprucewood Shores is a winery which is dominated by engineering talent. Why is this important to me? Well as I have said engineers are bright, exacting, but most of all, are innovators and this makes me believe that engineers should be able to make superior wine.

Oh yes, they are now open. Tso and I were there Saturday and it was amazing the response they had. It was very busy, but no real signage or advertising. This my friends is a very soft opening. I guess alot of people like me had kept an eye out for the opening and have taken a drive thru to take a look. I cannot recall the poor fellows name but he worked extremely hard and those two lovely ladies from Detroit were sooo nice and a joy to have a drink with.

The buildings are as beautiful close as they look from a distance. Though not quite finished they are gorgeous and the view from the upper floor will be wonderful in the spring and summer. They have done a wonderful job.

Now the wine. A full review will follow in time, but lets go through the offerings.

Reds

Pinot Noir: an 04-from tasting it was quite good and a nice color. Tasty too. Thank you for making a Pinot.

Cabernet Duo: an 04 -a Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon blend-very nice

Meritage: an 04-tso really liked this and I think this could be great with a roast

The beauty of the reds is that they are all quite balanced and when oaked, not overly done and I like wine that way

Whites

Riesling: tso and I both liked it and I am waiting to open a bottle-this one has potential

Chardonnay: tso and I split on this one. She really liked it and I was ok with it.

Overall I was very impressed with this winery. The structure is very nice and will be a hotspot for weddings and parties. The wine, well if this is the first offering, it is amazing. They have done their homework and I expect great things from them in the future.

Oh by the way, I left with a six pack. 3 Pinots, 1 Duo, 1 Meritage and a Riesling. I am looking forward to opening them.

Sometimes I really think that people just miss the point when it comes to wine. I was watching a show while sipping my morning coffee and what I heard I really couldn’t take without laughing. Well the host said that a good Pinot should smell like a barnyard. Now come on. I’ve read this before but you can’t be serious. Petrol in good Riesling, manure in good Pinot. Are people insane, on groupthink, or just want to keep all the good stuff to themselves.

My point is: Why do you drink wine??? I really don’t want to smell donkey doo, I want to enjoy myself and the wine. Prior to meeting tso, I would periodically travel to the Roundhouse to buy expensive wine. One holiday, I managed to break the $100 dollar mark for ingredients for my dinner. Yup, just for me. Barolo, veal chop and it was excellent. But I will gladly trade all that for a bottle of ‘Summer Sun’

 on my patio with tso waiting for the ‘shrimp on the barbee’. What I mean is that wine is to be enjoyed with other people, to laugh, joke, enjoy.

Does a good bottle help. Certainly, that is just reality. But when you open a bottle with friends, do you all sniff it, compare notes, roll it in the glass then sip and comment. Not my friends. We pour, may take a sniff, have a swallow then say, man this is good, or it goes with dinner quite well, or ‘why did you open this bottle of carburetor cleaner when I wanted the Gewurtz’. We look for the good points, the enjoyment, and often, the choice isn’t proper to their taste and they preferred the previous bottle, but hey they usually finish it.

It’s like golf clubs. People go buy the latest works of art, pontificating how adding little weights on the perimeter will stop them hitting the ball into the next fairway, how the irons are so good that it gets them five stokes; then I proceed to hit it just as far and sometimes just not quite so right as them and my irons shots may clear the grass and my stuff is ancient, but I enjoy playing, meeting all the trees and shrubbery, saying: ‘hello mr squirrel, please don’t kill me’ and the famous “can I play my ball from your pool”. The fellow with the best just misses the point and I see it with the wine snobs too.

That point is ok with me. I’m happy to drink local stuff, enjoy it and see it for what it is. It’s not Opus 1, but it certainly isn’t bad. I’ve never smelt one that smell like donkey doo(nor want to), I want it to smell like berries and stuff like that but that isn’t the whole game. It needs to taste good. That’s all-it needs to taste good. It could cost $6 or 60(I’d like it closer to 6), it doesn’t matter. If you enjoy Bulgarian Chardonnay, good for you. If you must only drink wines from Napa, I really feel sorry for you. Life is short, enjoy.

While it is often very difficult to admit error, revise one’s viewpoints or utter the famous “mea culpa” it can often lead to education and possibly sea change.

I had one of these experiences on Friday. I had some time, so I decided to go to Harrow and see what is happening and well maybe get some wine.

I visited the usual suspects and on the way back home I decided to stop somewhere where I usually wouldn’t.

Well, I stopped in at Colio. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. My memories of Bianco Secco are not the best, but I just knew that Carlo Negri could make a good bottle of wine; he wins tons of awards; he is just too talented. So I figured, give it a shot.

So when I explained to the wonderful lady in the store that I wasn’t exactly a fan, but decided to give them another chance; she took the absolutely correct  tack. She calmly looked at me and then said “tell me what you like and you’ll see”.  A challenge you say. Well to the field of honor, the tasting bar.

She first parried by finding what I liked then employed a Gewürztraminer as her opening salvo. So I tried it and it was………good. Yes I said good. I actually like this. Then she struck again with a Riesling and yes this isn’t bad either. I rather enjoy this. I was feeling rather embarrassed at this point and I really think she was enjoying my pain. Then a Cabernet Franc: now this grape is really hitting for me now and this one was very good. Then reality set in, she went to the well one too many times and tried to get the home run. Merlot: just like the fellow from “Sideways” I really have issues with Merlot, and well it was ok, but if she was a major league hitter she would be getting about 15 million a year.

What is the lesson here??

Personally, I have just been taught a little lesson to keep my mind open, forget preconceptions and take life with open eyes, kinda like a child.

For any company: employ people like her, that really believe in your product, take an interest in improving the brand image. She spent a lot of time with me and won me over. A wonderful and impressive job and kudus to you. Just tell Carlo that I demand he gives you a raise.

So in the end  she managed to sell me four bottles: Gewürztraminer(tso liked it too), Cabernet Franc(I am really looking forward to this one), Gamay Noir(a Bourgundian grape so its my Pinot light and well I like Pinots and I grew up on Beaujolais so this one is for my misspent youth) and a Late Harvest Cabernet Franc(yummy!!!!). Overall, the wines exceeded my expectations, the service was exemplary and to quote Arnie “I’ll be back”.

As I re-printed my post of last year I will also give the site of the uplifting video of a song by Terry Kelley an east coast musician. Its worth seeing.
  http://www.terry-kelly.com/introduction.htm

the link is terry.kelly.com

Please say a prayer for our boys in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia

Today is Remembrance Day. At 11:00 am the First World War ended. It is a time to reflect on those brave men and women who took up arms to preserve our freedom. Time to think and pray for our brave troops in Afghanistan who are trying to and will bring freedom to those poor people.

My father and his fellow Canadian soldiers brought freedom to the Dutch in 45 and I pray that the sons and grandchildren of his comrades can do the same for the Afghans and that they too can become our close friends.

So when you drive around today think about some of the  funny street names around Memorial Park. Ypres, Somme, Mons, Vimy, Amiens, Arras and the others are WW1 battlefields where  our boys showed the world how brave we as a people are. At Ypres, we suffered in the first gas attack of the war and held our position while others ran. The Germans discovered a deep respect for out lads then and it may have been the root of our nationhood.

Walk to Dieppe Gardens and take a moment. It is not named after a founding family but a little town on the coast in France. There in 42 the Essex Scottish participated in a calamitous raid that was horrific in its costs. Here the Essex Scottish managed to get the farthest inland of any unit. This park is sacred ground, a shrine to those poor men and not a place to party.

Wear you poppy proudly. Those gentlemen who sell them are heroes who forfeited so much so that we could remain free. Treat them with respect and honor . So if he or she looks cold offer them a coffee, it’s the least we can do for them.

I guess it is that time of year. Went to a couple of wineries with tso and it looks so sad. All the grapes except for the ice wine grapes have been harvested and the grapes vines are withering. Its kinda sad but I know its wine making time; so the vintners are busy and I await their results. It just isn’t pretty anymore.

Therefore, I’ll entertain myself and hopefully you with my best of the year pronunciations. It’s a major award and I know everybody will be proud if they win and claiming conspiracy if they don’t. Kinda like Jose Mourinho.

Least Favorite Winery:  Beyond a doubt it’s Peninsula Ridge. They make great wine, but nobody should be treated the way they treated us. I had come from my mentor’s funeral, so I was in a suit and Tso was dressed well too and their manager decided it was better to conduct an interview at the tasting bar rather than serve a customer. Not only is interviewing a worker publicly completely classless, I would have bought more wine. Now I hate the place. I cannot get the image out of my head. So, when I’m the power wine reviewer I will not forgive them. Tso wants to go to the restaurant, but if I did I would ask how Ned is. The owner fired him years ago and Ned seems to be doing quite well for himself in Calgary now.

Nicest Winery People: well right after we left Peninsula Ridge we went to Malvoire. Now, they didn’t have a strong act to follow, but they were excellent. Not only did they treat us as if we were important, they guided us to other cool wineries that all treated us well and were cool like them. Moreover, having a winemaker named Shiraz is simply too cool.

Most Beautiful View: Angel’s Gate. It was just beautiful all around and the wine was excellent too. I really want to go back there. And this time I hope I get their Pinot, which is supposed to be great. I still find it hard to believe that I wasn’t in Napa. It just didn’t look like Canada.

Now I will divide the awards to Local and Niagara, as we simply don’t have the beauty that they do. Smith and Wilson is very nice, and has a beautiful view but cannot compare to Angels Gate.

Favorite White Wine

Local: this one wasn’t even close until I tasted Wagner’s Sauvignon Blanc. That wine just floored me. It was soooo good, but I have to still say my local favorite white wine is Muscedere Riesling. I just love this wine and it is so different from the other local Rieslings. It is round and just soo fruity. The other locals remind me of California wines, which is good too, but the brothers just hit this one right, I just hope it wasn’t a one-year event and will become typical.

Niagara: wow this is a tough one because I had so many good ones, but I will have to go for Konzelmann Grand Reserve Riesling. It was very very good and it compares nicely to the good ones from Alsace or Germany.

Rose

Local: Erie Shores  Summer Sun– I just think they hit this one right on. Not trying to be ‘special’ but is so much fun to drink. It is my summer choice beside Vinho Verde from Portugal. A wine for fun evenings on the deck. I like others but this one hits the fun of rose spot on.

Niagara: though none are as good as Erie Shores to me, they are also very good. Their failing is that they try to make too much of the rose and miss the fun. I do like the offering from Angel’s Gate the best.

Red

Local: this is a tough one. There are a lot of really good reds being made here so the choice is a hard one. But if you had to make me choose it would have to be ‘Bird Dog’ from Sanson. It is a great bottle of wine. I have a few bottles hidden away so when they run out I can still have some.

Niagara: I can’t pick one here. It’s so tough. Malvoire, Angel’s Gate, Ridgepoint, Konzelmann all made such great wine. To pick one I’ll take the Angel’s Gate Gamay Noir. It was so classy so nice. Yup, that’s my choice and I’m sticking to it.

Dessert

Local: Smith And Wilson Raspberry Ice Wine. I know they call it something funny but it is just so special, fruity and just classy.

Niagara: Peller Estates Cristal Sparkling Wine. They charge this one with ice wine. Just really nice and a major cut above their other wines.

Favorite Winery

Local: Smith and Wilson. I hold by the belief that the wine is made in the vineyard and since George is a farmer whose family has been there for over 100 years he falls into my theory. He makes great wine, but his strength is his fruit. He makes a variety of wines and I like them all, from his fruit wines thru his big reds. Yes, you heard it here, I like his big reds. Now that he is playing with gamay noir grapes, I am even happier. He somehow avoids the trap of making too many varieties and none good by making a lot of variety and they are all good. I don’t know how he does it but he really seems to enjoy his work and it shows in his wine.

Niagara: I would say Malvoire as the place is really nice and the people were so good to us. The wines are excellent and their methods are quirky. Gravity flow, no metal wires holding the grapes up (bad vibes) and then there is Shiraz.

Up and Coming Winery: Muscedere. They released their first wines this year and they are all (4 varieties) very good. I even enjoy their Chardonnay. I just can’t wait till they get a few vintages under their belt, but by then I probably won’t be able to afford their wines as they probably won’t be able to meet demand if they keep going like the way they are.

Biggest Disappointment: the non-opening of Viewpoint. I was looking so forward to the event and just wonder what the problem is. It is a wonderful site, which looks just about finished except for the landscaping.

Since I don’t want to end on a low point I want to congratulate the organizers of the wine fest at Fort Malden. You did an excellent job and made it more fun than last year. Next year I think I will get a hotel room.

So there are my choices. No scientific study, but I have been to all the open wineries down here. The quality has risen greatly with the addition of the newer wineries and I believe will get much much better in the years to come. Look to the Meritage and Reserve Pinot Noir from Pelee Island to see what a large winery can do and to the three offerings from Colchester Ridge to see what a new small winery can do. Add the marketing ability of Erie Shores (they do it so nicely that I can’t call it marketing but the open house was superbly done) and Muscedere and I see a great future. You heard it here first– in twenty years; Harrow will be the place to live. Bistros, artists, B&B’s: they will be the epicenter of the wine district and Lake Erie North Shore will be a very well known and respected Appellation.