essex wine report

Congratulations are in order to Harvey, Alma and their family over the 5^th anniversary of Erie Shores Winery. They started when it wasn’t really sure that the wine region would fly (very brave) and they are such great people. We enjoy just visiting their winery, as they are just so nice and positive. I suggest you go to their winery offer your best and try their wine.

Tonight, Myles is at band, Terry was on the computer and I was watching footie news(no music as she is working) so I wanted some wine. I’ve had an awful week so an old friend was needed and I found it in Erie Shores Cabernet Reserve.

Well this is new, but I just love these guys so it’s like an old friend anyhow. It’s a Cabernet Franc, which is good too. Its also their first Reserve wine and is a real reserve and not just a marketing ploy….good for them.

Our first impression was a very jammy nose, like a Merlot, but as it warmed a wee bit more, it took on different hues. I smelled a lot of oak, earthy tones and black fruit. As I am a city boy I can’t say it was a prune plum from the 5^th and the Arner but I smelled black plumminess. Very nice.

We has a chunky pasta for dinner: sausage, peppers tomatoes with a nice penne. Terry made it and I liked it a lot. The wine was able to cut through the sauce and held up well, a very food friendly wine.

Looking at it, it is very dark….kinda like blood (note to self…find a copy of Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter soon….a Canadian classic).

This wine is quite different than I expected from Erie Shores. Not to say they can’t make a great wine…they can…but it is really BIG. Terry thought it was from D’Angelo….enuff said. I found it big like the good Niagaras, that is big but not offensive…kinda like a Viking who finds Buddhism. Lots of oak, but not overdone…nice tannins too…I still feel my tongue (not like some Niagaras where I couldn’t feel my toes). I get those dark fruits I smelled, some earthy tones, but I really don’t get pepper….very strange…I taste a wee bit but I may be looking for it..

This my friends is a great wine. It’s got enough umphhh to stand up to food, but I could easily drink it alone. Lay it down and I think it could be a real gem…Hey its great now!!!!

Well Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!

I hate moving! Simply said but it is a drag and I get really grumpy. As this is a slow move which is even worse, Terry and I decided that we should bag the moving for a weekend and take a little trip. A team building exercise.

Well then, is it Chicago….no, too cold…..Cleveland…no, there’s a reason why it’s known as the mistake by the lake…..New York…cool..terrorists..no problem…expensive though and I’m cheap and that would mean flying and we only had 3 days so is that enough time to get through security??

So we decided to head to Niagara and get some wine….gee who would have guessed that. We went to our favourite cheapie hotel in Niagara on the Lake….yup we found one for $55 a night. No bugs, clean, no hookers either.

My suggestion is to take 401 only to London then catch hwy 3. This avoids all the traffic and you get to go through Delhi (I didn’t see one curry house…rather strange) and Simcoe, which are cool old towns. Hwy 3 gets you to the south of the wineries so its back roads from there, but if I managed, you can, and besides we were able to go straight to RidgePoint … closed….. Tawse (didn’t really want to go there but it was across the street..closed) then we made it to Kacaba who stayed open for us.

First impressions were that Niagara is still way ahead of us down here. But after contemplation, there are reasons and many advantages are easily overcome with time. Erie Shores is celebrating they’re 5th birthday(congratulation to you two) , but Marynessan has 35 year old vines. That is an incredible advantage. They’ve got a good head start, but again they had to start somewhere and there seems to be no shortages of new wineries.  Niagara does make wonderful Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Absolutely lovely and should be at $30/bottle. Kacaba makes heavenly wine, but again, I tasted one which is $150 and bought a $60 wine. By all rights it should be better and yes, many are.

By and large, they are miles ahead in the area of Riesling, but this is their thing and they have the perfect climate for it. Now if you don’t like round ones you may not agree with me, but this is my blog and I make the rules here. Everyone seems to make one and I really didn’t have any stinkers. I was even surprised by Cave Springs as they made a really nice one.

Now move to Sauvignon Blanc and I will take ours hands down. I really think it’s the heat here. I didn’t have any that were equal.

Chardonnay is chardonnay but we had some really nice ones. The oaked chardonnay from the Teaching College was quite nice and reminded us of Muscedere’s; and that is a good thing. Overall they we nice but not better than down here.

Now Pinot Noir….well here was the surprise. I was truly underwhelmed with a lot of what I found. Even some really expensive product was just ok. I bought some( I can’t lie..a lot), but most were pedestrian and just not as good or maybe just not better than down here. Here I was really surprised. I was led to believe that Niagara was a Pinot belt, but it maybe wasn’t a great vintage. Kacaba’s was good, along with Malivoire’s(great). Legends was a pleasant surprise along with Niagara Teaching College. Funny, but up there they complained that Pinot likes the heat and they really don’t get enough which is opposite of what I hear here.

What really got me were the Bordeaux varietals. The ones I had were not big in the usual way. These were fine wines which tasted old(many were) and just were there. Now again they were not cheap and I wonder how they would stack up against our best. But overall, I will take our reds over theirs. I will not pretend that we can justify $150 but really who can. At a price point, I think our Bordeaux’s can beat theirs.

So if you go up there I will suggest that you avoid the chain and corporate wineries. Go to places with funny names (Kacaba…well actually its his surname) and don’t be put off if the winery isn’t in a castle. Beauty seems to be inversely proportional to the quality of the wine. Look for wineries which look like they make wine and not image.

So here are my must see’s:

1) Kacaba  wonderful wine and nice people
2) Malivoire  great building, great wine and wonderful staff. If the wine was as good as the service it would be great, but it was better. They remembered us and treated us like old friend’s…if I go to Niagara I must go there
3) Marynessan  once they saw we liked real wine they treated us like royalty. Old style wine…wonderful simply wonderful. I am just pissed that it took me 3 tries to find it
4) Niagara Teaching College- the idea of students making the wine(thus financing their own program) and look of sheer pride on their faces was just worth it. They make really  good wine and makes me wonder about  some of the “name” wineries who could use their help. But the restaurant was closed( students from culinary) so we went away  hungry and me wondering if they would take me as a student (I could get a real degree).

Now other than the college, the above make expensive wine. They are excellent, but you pay for it. I cannot see myself buying $150/bottle wine, but hey someone might. And besides these are all independents who are doing it for love not a paycheck. You can taste it.

Other people of note are:  RidgePoint -because they are who they are: their kids running around… Mauro who came in after doing his chores, all dirty… their good cheer and Nebbiolo….yes you heard it here. I bought 4 bottles on a taste. It seems like he hit it good too!!.

    Stoney Ridge- Val did a wonderful job as host and the cheese was wonderful
    Legends- great service- and it’s not Mike Weir’s(inside joke as I thought it was his…it isn’t…they have a fishin guy…oh well she didn’t get mad)    
    

Terry and I had a great time and now have to sort the wine. Some now, some layed down and some well, whenever. I think that Niagara has some natural advantages but we have our own. They have a large head start and Toronto money. But our land is cheaper, weather may be better and we are just getting going so we may avoid some of their mistakes. I f we can keep the “Big Boys” at bay for a while we may just do fine.

On Saturday Terry and I decided to have a “taste off”, to look at some “cost effective” red wines from Italy. I am always looking to save some money and would definitely like to find the ultimate $7 bottle of wine.

The music of the evening was varied; ranging from Michael Franks to the Style Council. Good stuff and it allowed us to relax until someone noticed that Zoolander was on and since I am a lover of fine cinema, we just had to watch it.

The food was a grilled stuffed beef tenderloin with a Bordelais sauce, asparagus (also grilled) and garlic mashed potatoes.

Let me note that we aerated all of these wines and did not try them fresh from the bottle. I find that with a more “cost effective” wine aeration is a must as it mellows out the wine and gems can be found. To find a real steal look to areas that are not “discovered” yet. These may produce fine wines, but the beautiful people don’t know yet. Some regions deserve to be undiscovered, but at under $10 a mistake won’t cause a bankruptcy.

Our first victim was a Sangiovese from Farnese. I first noted this wine when I was between assignments and couldn’t afford a more expensive wine. At that time it was noted to be from Ortona, which was a very nasty battle for our boys during the Italian Campaign. It was referred to as Our Stalingrad. The region is in Northen Abruzzi bordering on Le Marche. Le Marche is an area to watch. Below the Veneto, this region is on the Adriatic and can make great wine that is undervalued. That I like. They also make some more expensive wines which I like and I always find that buying the bottom of the line from a good company better than buying the top f the line from a maker of carburetor cleaner.

The wine is an ‘05 which is good.

The aroma is very mild and shows some fruit and some jam. Not strong, but not offensive either, rather nice. The colour isn’t great but it isn’t too light either.

Taste wise, we like this wine. It isn’t the greatest wine in the world but at $7 it’s a steal. Think of sins of omission rather than commission. It has low tannins but it is there. The taste is nice and light, mild but no razor blades. This wine goes very well with food especially mushrooms. The tenderloin didn’t make this wine feel out of place.

Our second contender was Spinelli, Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. It’s an ‘06 and comes from Atessa. The wine was redder than the Farnese and was fresher in all respects. More fruit and fresher.

Taste wise, it was a wee bit syrupy and not as mellow as the Farnese. It was a wee bit sharper all around, but it wasn’t offensive. Not bad and worth every cent. I will buy more of this.

Our third champion was another Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. This one is an ‘06 from Citra. This wine is also from Ortona so was approppo for this weekend.

Again, the aroma was not forward, but darker than the Spinelli. The wine was also much darker, more deep red.

It had tons of dark jammy flavours not usually seen at this price point. We really liked this wine a lot. Flavours were similar to the other two, but there was just more of them. Don’t serve this too warm, but at cellar temp it was really nice. I want to have this one with a good Bolognaise sauce, It was a find.

So there it is, my first taste test and I give the victory to the Citra. It is food friendly and very nice. A wonderful wine from a region not known for good wine. The Italians have improved their quality so much in the last fifteen years so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they can do this well at these low prices.

Just to see a comparison and a marker we tried one of Terry’s favourites, Rosemount Shiraz Cabernet. And guess what, it was nice; we were a wee bit toasty, but we still could taste and it wasn’t that much better. It was but it should be as it was twice the price.

So, here you go. With a pasta pizza or beef tenderloin these “cost effective’ reds from central Italy are fine choices, and if the Licbo allows us to reap the pleasure of our strong dollar we should get these even cheaper. Somehow I just don’t see that happening though….oh well.

Racked and tasted our cider. Though it got off to a slow start it now seems that it has a lot of potential.

The apple has a really good balance and is well on its way to being special. The perry has a wonderful essence of pear though I erred when I didn’t let the pears ripen a wee bit more.

Will keep you updated but I really think I have something here. Well we must drink some more Grolsch as we need more bottles.