After taking a hiatus the last couple of years, winter has returned to Southern Ontario and made for a fitting backdrop to Niagara's month-long celebration of food and wine: the Icewine Festival. This year's gala officially kicked-off the festival with the usual mix of style and great wine. Thanks to the ice sculptures and winemakers and winery staff dressed-to-impress and pouring some of Niagara's best table wines and Icewines, it delivered a memorable evening for attendees.
Over its 19 years, organisers have built the Icewine Festival into one of Niagara's premier events. Not only is it the single largest Icewine tasting you'll find anywhere around the globe this year, but it's also one of the year's biggest, best and most important tastings of Ontario wine. As the first Niagara wine event of the year, its timing is perfect for catching-up on the late autumn releases you may have missed, while also offering a peak at the wines on the horizon. That combination offers a unique perspective by simultaneously reflecting on the past year and helping set the tone for the coming year of Niagara wine. So with that mind we five memorable wines that showcase where Niagara wines are currently and hint on where they might be going.
1. When it comes to red grapes Cabernet Franc provides Niagara's biggest highs
The original Cabernet has long proven itself a core grape in Niagara. After all, it's winter hearty, it's capable of producing sizeable yields and it ripens at least a critical couple weeks before its internationally popular Sauvignon offspring. But even with those natural advantages Cab. Franc vines shouldn't be blanketing Niagara's vineyards. For Cabernet Franc to truly excel here, growers and wineries need to find the right spot (it takes the right site to bring out its best qualities), manage yields and focus on getting the best expression of vintage and site. Over the past few years a number of Niagara producers have taken that game plan to heart with spectacular results. One perennial standout and a highlight from the Icewine Festival is Tawse and its 2009 Van Bers vineyard Cabernet Franc.
With a charming mix of blueberry, ripe red raspberry and violets this is a wine that draws you in with beautiful modesty. That's a fine approach because the more you spend time with it, the more it shows it has some very lovely layers worth getting to know. Another swirl and sip brings out a complementary soft touch of roasted tobacco, cedar and and warm wet earth before leaving you with its beautiful floral raspberry perfume on the finish. It also delivers on the textural front (which has sometimes been lacking in past cooler vintages of Ontario Cabernet Franc) with a Goldilocks not too bold, not too thin feel. Combine that with some lively food-friendly freshness and you've got an elegant Cabernet Franc to enjoy over a dinner with the best of company.
What makes this bottle all the more impressive is it comes from 2009—a year where summer overslept the snooze button and only showed-up in autumn. In the past that would've been too big an obstacle to overcome for latter ripening Cabernet Franc and likely meant a red that was reminiscent of face-planting in the vegetable garden. But the fact that Tawse produced a wine of this quality with none of that vegetal greenness, is a testament to the current state of local Cabernet Franc and its promising future.
2. Ontario is making some very solid value wines
The combination of climate, yields, costs and taxes make it tough for Ontario wineries to produce wines under the $10 a bottle mark and what is produced at that price isn't really representative what Ontario wineries are capable of producing. It's usually at close to double that price where local wines hint at their promise with Riesling and aromatic whites tending to be the most consistent stars. But thanks to a combination of experience, knowledge and hunger that has begun to change over the last decade. We're now seeing some great red blends with price tags in the lower double-digits to mid-teens. These wines don't just hold their own when you sip them side-by-side with other wines at their price point. With their cool-climate freshness they really shine when you pair them with a meal. One of the outstanding examples at the gala was Coyote's Run with is 2012 Five Mile Red. It's a crowd pleaser delivering plenty of juicy red cherries, raspberries, strawberries, plums and a perfumed peppery finish thanks to a bit of Syrah in the blend. But what makes this Five Mile Red really stand out as a superb value is it also manages to retain that sense of balanced elegance and freshness that you tend to have to go up a price tier to get.
3. Syrah is a rising star
Syrah once again showed that in the warmer parts of Ontario it can be one of the province's most compelling reds thanks to the 2011 Delaine Syrah. Back in the late 1990s when this vineyard was established with the aim of showcasing the best wine Jackson-Triggs could produce, conventional wisdom was Syrah would be amongst the least likely to turn that vision into reality. But over the past decade the Syrah from this warm spot near the Niagara River has become the flagship wine of the Delaine vineyard, Jackson-Triggs brand and an ambassador for the growing quality of Ontario Syrah. Sandwiched between two perfect-for-red blockbuster vintages, this one will probably be overlooked. But just like the 2006 this could become a sleeper that blossoms in the coming years. While you may need to dig a little deeper than the 2010, this vintage sill delivers all the hallmark cool-climate Syrah characteristics of blackberry, black cherry and fragrant cracked black pepper. And best of all it does it with a very elegant Pinot-like flare delivering them in soft layers. The texture has a silky style with a challis-like fluidity. There's a lovely balance with bright freshness on one side, which keep things things from feeling heavy, and the weight of oak-aging and malo-lactic fermentation with spice on the finish and smoky undertones giving it the substance and gritty edge you want and expect in a good Syrah.
4. Ontario wines can age nicely
Ontario is a very young wine region compared to Europe or even other new world regions like California. So one of the big question marks that come with that youth is how do Ontario wines age? It's an especially important one when you're considering pricy bottles you'll likely want to save for special occasions. A couple of wineries took the Icewine Gala as an opportunity to help answer that question. The youngest St. David's Bench winery, Ravine, poured its top tier Reserve Red from 2008. It was a gutsy decision given the vineyard's young vines and a vintage that wasn't exactly known for producing blockbuster red blends. But it was a gamble that paid off for those whose tastes steer them away from big, juicy fruit bombs. After all think of how often you have a sweet cornucopia for dinner compared to something savoury. With tomato leaf, aged balsamic, roasted herbs and soft touches of dried plums, cherries, red currants and berries, this a wine for those with more alternative tastes. It's also a wine to drink now if you have a bottle because the fruits will likely only fade further and its hard to believe its current gorgeous velvety texture that's equal parts rich, luxurious and comforting could get any better. Pair with a beautiful roast and/or a slow cooked ratatouille and some good company and you have the makings of a beautiful winter evening.
5. Icewine is still one of the world's great dessert wines and nobody does it better than Niagara
While you can happily visit the Icewine gala and not try a single drop of the title beverage, you'd be missing out. That's because when it comes to the world of dessert wines, Icewine offers a concentration, purity of natural fruit flavours and balance that's very tough to top. Given the variety and quality on display at the gala and Icewine Festival it's a fantastic opportunity to try some of the best Ontario has to offer. At the festival one bottle stood out to me as it navigated that transition between youthful and aged Icewine beautifully. Southbrook's 2006 Cabernet Franc Icewine was my festival highlight because it demonstrated that a well-made Icewine only really begins to hit its stride as it approaches its 10th birthday. Right now it's showing an initial layer of beautiful strawberry jam and raspberries preserve notes like well-made youthful Cabernet Franc Icewine does so well. But the pleasure doesn't stop there. It also brings a layer of the interestingly complex notes that are only earned through graceful ageing. There's sponge toffee, liquorice and a sweet-herbal tinge reminiscent of a great red vermouth. It's a combination that's pretty special and one that Icewine tends to do well better than most other wines. In the immediate coming years those two flavour streams should further integrate before the aged flavours take over and provide many more years of further enjoyment thanks to the balancing quality of its bright fresh acidity. No matter which way you prefer your Icewine now is definitely the perfect time to pick-up a bottle-up to cap-off a beautiful winter's evening soon or sometime in the future.
Wines Tasted
2009 Tawse Van Bers Cabernet Franc
Price: $49.95
Availability: Winery
2012 Coyote's Run Five Mile Red
Price: $16.95
Availability: Winery and LCBO 283416
2011 Jackson-Triggs Delaine Syrah
Price: $32.95
Availability: Winery, Select Wineracks and LCBO 86553
2008 Ravine Reserve Red
Price: N/A
Availability: N/A
2006 Southbrook Cabernet Franc Icewine
Price: $29.95 for 375 ml Bottle
Availability: Winery
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