Opinions On Ontario Wines..

[pixelchef]

I was wondering what some of the more experienced wine aficionados here at eGullet think about the wines coming out of Ontario (Niagara)?

Personally (although, a mere beginner in the world of wine) feel they stand up pretty well to most contenders from other wine regions. Opinions?

[eat2much]

While I have had some spectacular Icewines and good late harvest rieslings nothing else was all that memorable.

[Robin Meredith]

My wife and I have visited the Niagara Peninsula for touring and tasting at least four times since 1997, and we continue to be extremely impressed with the output from that region.

Since it is clearly an emerging wine region, things are still evolving rapidly, so we've learned that you have to be open-minded and "take what you find" on each trip. For example:

*Initially we were most impressed with the Rieslings we tasted, but the 1997 vintage was just too hot for Riesling - however, it yielded a number of incredibly impressive Chardonnays (a variety we never had much use for in previous years). Thirty Bench, Cave Spring, and a handful of others made some great, oily, viscous, absolutely unique Chardonnays that year;

*Producers vary dramatically from year to year. Thirty Bench has been one of our consistent favorites, and Cave Spring and Henry of Pelham performed very well on some previous visits, but the last time we were there none of these producers were pouring anything noteworthy. The highlights of that visit were Daniel Lenko and Stoney Ridge (Reserve Rieslings from both were outstanding). We've come to the conclusion that you really do have to make the rounds, since you never know who is going to stand out.

*Surprisingly, we tasted some top flights reds on our last trip, including a Bordeaux blend from Hillebrand and an amazing Cabernet Franc from Peller. Both of these wines were from the 1997 vintage, which was a real outlier up there, so I'm not ready to say that they've hit their stride with reds, but they can do some great things in good years.

Producers who have impressed us on at least one occasion include:

Thirty Bench

Cave Spring

Henry of Pelham

Daniel Lenko (a potential rising star)

Stoney Ridge (need to be selective)

Lakespring (but not recently)

Hillebrand (may be on the upswing)

Malivoire (more potential that actual, but worth watching)

All that aside, this is a great place to visit - Niagara-on-the-Lake is a wonderful base for exploration, and some of the winery restaurants are terrific. Definitely worth a long weekend.

[Marlene]

Reif continues to impress my husband with it's reislings and vidals. Reif is better at whites than reds. I agree Stoney Ridge is selective. I've had some great and not so great wines from there. Stoney Ridge's strength seems to be in their reds, rather than their whites. I'm on their advance reserve list so I get notifications of new wines coming out and offerings of older wines. In fact, last night I opened a 1991 Stoney Ridge Merlot Reserve wine that was outstanding.

The ice wines from this region are incredible and have won several golds in international competition.

We usually do a "wine run" to this region twice a year, and have also been impressed with Cave Springs, again, their strength is whites, and Hildebrand which does both red and white equally well.

Edited February 19, 2003 by Marlene (log)

[pixelchef]

Thank you both for your incredibly insightful comments. Your words are obvious reflections of experience. I'm trying to get a pulse on what others feel towards the region.

[Coop]

It seems that modern technology is helping make better and better wines world wide. The trick is to get our attention. The wines of Ontario don't jump off the shelves at me. But niether do the wines of many other parts of the world. Can Ontario and Canada compete with the 3rd level of wines from countries like Chile, Argentina or non AOC wines from France or non DOC wine from Italy. This remains to be seen.

There seems to be enthusiasm from the food industry in Canada to make this happen. It is just very competitive in the great wine lake.

[Rail Paul]

The website "wines of canada" has an overview of the various wineries currently operating in Canada, with coverage of Niagara region, north shore of Lake Erie, the Okonagan area, etc and Newfoundland. (That's not a typo, there are listings for two wineries in Canada's most newly merged Dominion.)

Wines of Canada

The listings and descriptions are similar to how I recall the Finger Lakes of New York in the 1970s, with Dr Frank and his gewurtz, Hermann Wiemer splitting off from Glenora to make his own mark, Walter S. Can'tTellMyName peddling his Goat Red wines, etc.

[ctgm]

Here in the UK we really don't get too many Canadian wines. The last one that I had was a Sauv B (?) from Inniskillin. I would also agree with eat2much and say that I find the Icewine's fantastic. Again this is something that you don't find too often over here.

One of the problems with Icewine is its strength. Maybe you can correct me, but I was led to believe that these were very often over 15% alc. If that is the case they cannot be classified as table wines in the EU (as has to be 15% or less) and that creats some import problems.

[KMPickard]

This past summer while visiting Stratford for some Shakespeare, we has a very nice Daniel Lenko Reisling at Bijou Restaurant.

So this dreary March morning, we decided to take a drive down to the winery and pick some up. It's about an hour's drive from our home here on Lake Erie.

You motor up to the modest house to find a friendly dog spread out on the welcome mat by the door. Upon opening the door, we found ourselves right in the kitchen. Helen Lenko, the matriarch of the Lenko clan extended a very warm greeting. She was making cookies at the oven, a few feet away from the door. Well, nothing would do but that we had to taste the peanut butter cookies warm from the stove. Yumm...

Helen is proud of her kids. We're introduced to her son, "the president of the company". Daniel sits us down at the kitchen table, with some locally made polish sausage, cheese and crackers. The kielbosa is excellent. Then we begin tasting and chatting about the wines.

The Reisling and Gewertz we really wanted are sold out, but the current Reisling vintage will be ready for sale in about 6 weeks. Given our e-mail, he assures us that we'll get word when the wine is ready for market.

Meanwhile, we taste the Chardonnay, a Merlot-Cab blend, Zweigelt, Cabernet Franc and the Select Late Harvest Vidal. We really liked the 2000 Late Harvest and the Cabernet Franc and purchased a few bottles. Business is transacted right there at the kitchen table.

As we get ready to leave, Helen makes sure we have the recipe for her cookies. She also welcomes us to take home a few back issues of local wine publications that are piled nearby. Her daughter has just come in from running a 20 km marathon that morning and is introduced. On our way out the door, Helen grabs a jar of her home made Apricot jam and insists that we take it with us--"please bring back the empty jar when you're back in the neighbourhood".

Needless to say, she's charmed the hell out of us. Don't worry, we'll be back, and soon. By the way, the apricot jam was terrific!

Innocente

[Robin Meredith]

You motor up to the modest house to find a friendly dog spread out on the welcome mat by the door. Upon opening the door, we found ourselves right in the kitchen.

Boy, does that ever sound familiar. We almost kept right on driving when we got there because the setting was so unlikely. Our last visit was shortly after September 11, 2001 - Helen wrote us a very hearfelt note expressing her sympathies and insisted on giving us a book about Canada to take with us.

Once she found out we were in the wine business she recruited her husband to give us a tour of the operation and explain some of their history. Apparently they have been growers for about 40 years, and they were among the first to plant vinifera on the Niagara Peninsula. They just started making wine under their own label within the last few years. The facility is extremely modest, and it was actually quite an inspiration - everyone loves a David and Goliath story, so the fact that their wines are more impressive than some of the palatial estates like Peninsula Ridge just adds to the charm.

Definitely a "must-visit" when you're in the area.