Wine: Aspiring to the Bench By Mark Criden The honey cake was the most delicious thing I had put in my mouth all day...until I got to the Viognier. There I was in Daniel Lenko’s kitchen/tasting room, watching the proprietor of his eponymous winery in Beamsville, Ontario, swipe credit cards and fetch bottles of artisanal wines for a busload of thirsty tourists. Daniel’s mother Helen teased the crowd with platters of baked goods the size of manhole covers.“Try my cookies,” she cooed. “Or some honey cake.” Her son packed off the last of the tourists and smoothed out his mud-caked Wines of Wisconsin tee shirt. “Did you know they made wines in Wisconsin?” he grinned. Forget Wisconsin. They definitely make wine in Beamsville. If you’re a local wine lover who bemoans the distance to Sonoma and Saint Emilion, get thee to a local winery. From Hammondsport to Hamilton, this area is loaded with dedicated winemakers, many with the mojo to produce top-quality juice. Much of the greatest excitement is just a few miles past the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge along the Niagara Wine Route. Niagara encompasses two wine regions: touristy Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the Niagara Escarpment, the rocky ridge climaxing at the Falls.Because of its height, exposure, and moderating influence on Lake Ontario’s climate, the escarpment is a phenomenal agricultural spot, spawning a wine-growing area stretching from Vineland/Jordan to a narrow strip just past Saint Catherines called the Beamsville Bench. And the Bench may just be the most promising natural winemaking region between California and France. Like most winemaking areas, Beamsville producers run the gamut from long-term grape growers who needed to move beyond commodity-based agriculture to survive in a global market to multimillionaires who fell in love with wine as a hobby and found the pocket change to pursue winemaking as a second career. So come expecting farmers and arrivistes, visionaries and poseurs. There are winners and losers in each camp on the Bench. Even though every bottle of wine has a story to tell, not every story, of course, has a happy ending. Malivoire Wine Company The list of Beamsville visionaries has to start with partners Martin Malivoire and Moira Saganski, with an impressive dual commitment to both careful land stewardship and stunning aesthetics. Not only is Malivoire the only Ontario winery included in Peter Richards’ book Wineries with Style, the wines were one of the two best sets I tasted. Malivoire, a former cinema special effects producer, trolled the world to find a suitable vineyard to develop and found his dream in Beamsville, where, for a decade, he and his team have treated their vineyards—one certified organic, one farmed according to principles of sustainable (i.e., minimal chemicals) viticulture—as sacred ground. This emphasis on sensitivity to the environment led them to adopt the ladybug as the winery’s symbol. Maybe the coolest aspect of the winery is its gravity-flow operation.Grapes move through several steps on their way to winehood, and most wineries pump their juice from one stage to the next. Pumping, though, is rough on fermenting grape juice, so Malivoire, permitted by a thirty-foot drop in the property elevation, moves its juice from one stage to the next by the gentle force of gravity. The proof of all these impressive techniques is in the bottle.Talented winemaker Ann Sperling, whose roots are in a British Columbia vineyard, make wines as beautiful and stylish as the winery itself. It’s hard to go wrong here with any of the whites, the Rosé, or the stunning Gamays (among the most delicious red wines I’ve ever had from these parts). Peninsula Ridge Estates Former oil trader Norman Beal spared no expense transforming old orchards near Grimsby into a showplace winery, and since its opening in 2000, Peninsula Ridge has been the very model of winery as tourist destination. From the Queen Anne Revival Victorian mansion housing its restaurant, to gleaming bi-level fermentation tanks, to the polished counters in the tasting room, Peninsula Ridge exudes all the class that money can buy. Naturally, I was prepared to hate it. But Peninsula Ridge turned out to be both hat and cattle. Not only are the facilities state-of-the-art, so is the winemaker. Former head winemaker at the esteemed Domaine Laroche in Chablis, Jean-Pierre Colas has earned his chops: his 1996 Chablis Les Clos was Wine Spectator’s 1998 White Wine of the Year. But the wine world is like the rest of life: what have you done for me lately? And the answer is: quite a lot, actually. The Peninsula Ridge team is aiming high; Colas has been quoted in the Toronto Star as striving for wines exhibiting “power and complexity with an elegant, long finish.” While the vines are still very young (the oldest are only six years old), the whites are already quite wonderful, especially a sensational Sauvignon Blanc and a pair of elegant Chardonnays. While the reds are not yet convincing —especially to a Northeast red wine agnostic like me—it will be fascinating to follow the progress of this estate, as maturing vines provide wonderful grapes for this talented winemaker. Angels Gate Winery High up on Mountainview Road, above the town of Beamsville, sits perhaps the area’s greatest paradox.A property that was once owned by the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Christian Charity, and which later failed as a mink farm, is now yet another example of the Disneyfication of the local wine business. Angels Gate Winery is Falcon Crest on the lake: big, opulent, showy, and obviously developed by a bunch of rich guys, busy turning big fortunes into small ones. You know the formula: More is less. But another talented winemaker, in this case, Natalie Spytkowsky, has instead adopted Mies van der Rohe’s famous dictum: Less is more. Her philosophy of letting nature take its course, and treading lightly in the vineyard, has produced a fine set of wines. Angels Gate, guided by Spytkowsky’s minimalist approach is making not only delicious whites (excellent Chardonnays and Rieslings) but startlingly convincing Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon as well. Thirty Bench Vineyard and Winery After three excellent stops, I have to admit I was pumped for my next visit, Thirty Bench, about which I had gotten several recommendations from knowledgeable wine-geeks. “Concentrated wines made from grapes that were thinned while still growing on the vine.” “Committed winemakers.” “Artisanal methods.” “Old vines.” “Hand harvesting.” “Sustainable agriculture.“ All my buttons were pushed. I figured I’d fall in love for sure. Well, it often hurts to be in love.Despite all the advance hype, I found the reds from Thirty Bench excruciatingly tannic, the confusingly broad range of Chardonnays unremarkable and indistinguishable, and the Rieslings bizarrely tricked out with oak.The only wine I tasted that I enjoyed was their 2004 Very Early Harvest Riesling ($14), a crisp and refreshing Riesling Nouveau. Was I having a bad day? Given that I tasted excellent wines before and after Thirty Bench, I wondered if the winery was having a bad day. At this point, the future is uncertain for Thirty Bench. In May, the winery was sold to giant Andres Wines, Canada’s second largest producer of wines and the owner of Peller Estates and Hillebrand in Niagara-on-the-Lake.Andres is retaining the present staff, including founding winemakers Tom Muckle and Yorgos Papageorgiou.Given what friends had told me, let’s hope this promises many better days ahead. Daniel Lenko Estate Winery Just past the village of Beamsville, heading west on Regional Road 81, you’ll come to the following sign: “Luke, I am your father. Come to the Dark Side. ...” That’s the only sign you’ve arrived at one of Ontario’s most exciting wineries, Daniel Lenko. Other than that sign, and his credit card swipe machine, Lenko shares none of the twenty-first century with Malivoire, Peninsula Ridge, or Angels Gate. If one stop along the Bench takes you back to the days of yesteryear, with winemakers more farmers than businessmen, with parents passing on secrets to children, it’s here. Daniel’s father Bill is considered the godfather of Vinifera (European) grapes in Ontario, sort of the Canadian equivalent of Konstantin Frank.His plantings of Chardonnay in 1960, merlot in 1975, Riesling in 1980, Cabernet in the mid-1980s and Viognier in the early 1990s all qualify as ancient vines in such a young wine region, and these old vines produce intense, rich grapes. Daniel took over the family business in 1998, and has emerged as a thoughtful, talented, serious winegrower. His commitment to his land is reflected in sustainable vineyard practices and eschewing commercial fertilizers.With his farm-based operation and complete lack of glitz, he resembles the artisanal, small-scale winemakers who have taken France by storm—the so-called “garagistes.” These are the essence of small-batch, handcrafted wines. The Riesling and Chardonnays are all fabulous, but the white wine star is the Viognier, an ethereal, aromatic varietal that rarely shines outside France’s Rhone Valley. Due to limited production, the wines are currently only available at the winery. Further bad news: You’ll have to wait until February to visit, since Lenko closes from August until mid-winter once he runs out of wine.But believe me; it will be worth the wait. Recommended Wines from the Beamsville Bench Beamsville, Ontario is perhaps the most exciting wine region between France and California. The area is already producing stellar whites, with Rieslings and Chardonnays being reasonably safe bets for delicious drinking. Don’t overlook other white varietals, though, like Malivoire’s Pinot Gris, Peninsula Ridge’s Sauvignon Blanc, and Lenko’s astonishing Viognier. And some of the reds are more than credible, including the dense, juicy Gamays from Malivoire. All prices are Canadian. Malivoire Wine Company 2004 Pinot Gris ($18) Elegant, ripe, and complex with a long finish. Delicious and versatile as a dinner table companion. 2004 Chardonnay Musqué ($18) Perfumed like fine Italian Moscato. Fresh, sweet, and gently sprity. 2003 Chardonnay Estate Bottled ($22) Smells like a baked apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Creamy, balanced, and complex. 2003 Gewürztraminer ($20). Fans of this varietal will be bowled over by complex aromas of ginger, lychees, roses, and peaches. Dry and rich. 2003 Moira Vineyard Chardonnay ($36). Rich and round; an elegant wine that reminded me of a good Meursault. From a vineyard now certified organic. 2004 Ladybug Rosé ($15) Shame if you avoid delicious, dry rosés like this. Explodes from the bottle with strawberry and herbs. Perfect for Mediterranean-style cuisine with oil, garlic, and olives. 2003 Gamay Estate ($16) Most famous in the Beaujolais region of France, Gamay also produces luscious reds in cooler climates such as the Loire Valley and Niagara. This little gem, best with a slight chill, is soft, plummy, brambly, and peppery. 2003 Courtney Gamay ($25) Deeper and more intense than the Estate Gamay, this limited production wine is ripe, dark, and a veritable cornucopia of vanilla-scented berries. Fabulous wine; a red to make believers out of northeast red-agnostics like me. Peninsula Ridge Estates 2004 Sauvignon Blanc ($19) Captivating citrus and green apple. A beautifully integrated Sauvignon Blanc with a long, minerally finish. 2003 INOX Chardonnay ($20) Minerally, crisp, and fresh, like a good Chardonnay from the Maconnais area of Burgundy. 2003 Chardonnay Reserve ($25) Another yummy Chardonnay from a man who knows this grape. Rich, with vanilla and citrus and oak. Angels Gate Winery 2003 Old Vines Chardonnay ($24) Oaky and limey, deep if not particularly long. 2004 Riesling ($14): Reminiscent of Alsatian Riesling. Crisp and refreshing. 2002 Pinot Noir ($19). Best pinot I tasted on the bench. Medium-bodied with real pinot character. 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) Best red here by far. Silky tannins and long, sweet finish. Daniel Lenko Estate Winery 2004 Reserve Riesling ($16) Bracing, limey, honeyed, elegant Riesling. 2003 Viognier ($35) Opulent, layered, and soft. Endless finish. Impossible to spit. The greatest Viognier I have experienced outside the Rhone’s Condrieu. 2003 Unoaked Chardonnay ($15) Beautiful lean, cool-climate chard, brimming with citrus and apple. Crisp and refreshing. 2002 Signature Chardonnay ($40) Old vine viscosity and richness. Deep, long, and wide. A great rebuttal to the Anything-but-Chardonnay crowd. 2002 Old Vines Chardonnay (French oak) ($30) Beautifully balanced, rich and creamy, just fabulous! 2002 Cabernet Franc ($35): Sexy, smoky, and lavish, brimming with flavor. For fans of the too-much-is-never-enough style. 2002 Meritage ($43) Merlot/Cabernet blend is a tannic beast, but it’s complex and has the potential to develop for a decade. Mark Criden, a non-profit executive, is the former chair of the Buffalo Branch of the IWFS. You can reach him at mcriden@yahoo.com. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top