Wine: Blitzing the Ontario wineries

By Mark Criden

Cave Spring
Vines at Cave Spring.
Photo courtesy of Cave Spring.
Most of the reward of being the Spree wine columnist is intangible; while other critics drive home with bling-swollen trunks, my bags get stuffed with wine-stained press releases. But sometimes the thrill of discovery is booty enough. Take last year’s revelatory wine tastings at Malivoire and Daniel Lenko, where it became easy to believe that the narrow ledge of the Niagara Escarpment east of St. Catherines possesses one of North America’s best microclimates for grape cultivation.

In April, I blitzed another eight Ontario wineries near Jordan and Vineland, but unfortunately, quickly made a big mistake: I started out at Creekside Estate Winery. After an hour at this humble winery, I knew odds were short that I’d feel this level of excitement again along my route. It was 9:30 in the morning and I had already climaxed for the day. Happily, there were many other joys to follow, like the wines produced at the tiny, artisanal Thirteenth Street Winery (www.13thstreetwines.com). Founded in 1998 as a labor of love by four talented and experienced home winemakers, Thirteenth Street produces delicious, handcrafted table and sparkling wines at reasonable prices from mature vineyards lovingly tended by the owners and their friends. If this kind of winery appeals to you, stop by some Saturday, the only day the winery is open. (The owners all have day jobs.) But make it soon, because these small-batch wines sell out quickly. Try to score some of their vibrant 2004 Riesling, convincing 2002 G. H. Funk Cabs/Merlot (a major mouthful for $20), juicy 2003 Sandstone Gamay, or terrific unoaked 2004 Chardonnay Musque Dechene. At $20, this is a sensational value in high-class Chardonnay. (All prices are in Canadian dollars. For a complete list of all recommended wines, see sidebar.)

Creekside
The barrel room at Creekside.
Photo courtesy of Creekside.
The two most famous area properties are Vineland Estates and Cave Spring Cellars. Unlike shoestring properties like Thirteenth Street, these operations are (cue orchestra) SERIOUS WINE EXPERIENCES, featuring well-groomed tours and glamorous, expensive restaurants. Thankfully, there are some very good wines behind all this flash. Despite its very modern restaurant and winery, there is a sense of permanence about Vineland Estates (www.vineland.com). Established on a homestead dating from 1845, vines were first planted here on well-drained limestone soils in 1979 and still account for most of its 50,000-case production. Because of the hype, it is sometimes difficult to take the wines seriously, but many of the bottles are in fact pretty wonderful, especially its Rieslings (the 2005 Dry and 2004 St. Urban bottlings were especially good) and its long, complex, 2002 Cabernet Franc and 2002 Cabernet-Merlot Reserve.

Cognoscenti have long regarded Cave Springs (www.cavespring.ca) as Niagara’s best winery, but I’ve often thought of it as the most schizophrenic. To hear the winery’s story, replete with details of limestone caves and mineral springs, the unbreakable connection between vineyard and wine, and stringent vineyard techniques, you might think you’d see owner Leonard Pennachetti or winemaker Angelo Pavan on a tractor, or repairing the silo roof. But Cave Springs Cellars is smack in the middle of the town of Jordan, next to the owner’s Inn on the Twenty, and completely divorced from the dirt that birthed their wines. That kind of cognitive dissonance normally gives me a headache, but the wines didn’t, especially a delicate, classy 2004 Reserve Riesling and a sweet, deep, long 2004 Indian Summer Late Harvest Riesling. It’s hard to imagine that Flat Rock Cellars (www.flatrockcellars.com), one of the newest kids on the block, will ever devolve into a twee wine experience. Owner Ed Madronich may be already poised to be the great public advocate for the Niagara Escarpment, combining serious vineyard management and winemaking with an irrepressible enthusiasm for his region. Madronich, who seems to be channeling the late, great Keuka Lake winemaker Willi Frank, is dedicated to providing visitors with a great winery experience—fun, welcoming, and unpretentious.

Constellation
Madronich has some serious wine chops to go along with this accessibility. His young vineyards are already producing excellent fruit, and he’s fully committed to preserving that fruit with the best of modern winemaking techniques. The truth, of course, is in the bottle, and you can’t help but be impressed with the quality of Flatrock’s Riesling and Chardonnay. All four white 2004s I tasted (the regular and fabulous, hard-to-spit Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling and the regular and Rusty Shed Chardonnay) were astonishingly delicious for wines from such young vines. Madronich predicts great things for his beloved pinot noir grapes, too, but his reds did little at this point to overcome my skepticism about Niagara pinot.

I also tasted some great stuff at the ten-year-old Willow Heights Winery (www.willowheightswinery.com) where former businessman and amateur winemaker Ron Speranzini is relentless in the pursuit of quality. This self-styled Chardonnay specialist turns out one fine cool climate white after another from meticulously tended vineyards. Several of the whites were sensational, especially the 2003 Chardonnay Reserve, 2004 Chardonnay Sur Lie (a terrific value for $12), and an excellent 2004 Riesling. And good news for U.S. consumers: citizens can now buy these lines online at www.canadianwinesdirect.com.

The use of premium oak barrels is the cornerstone of Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc specialist Stoney Ridge’s (www.stoneyridge.com) program, but the wines are luxuriously well-balanced, complex, and not at all over-oaked. Producing 30-35,000 cases annually, the folks at Stoney Ridge, from COO Art Coles to winemaker Liubomir Popovici, are about the nicest people you’ll meet on the wine route and a joy to taste with. Of special note were their excellent 2003 Charlotte’s Chardonnay, hugely aromatic 2004 Muscat Ottonel and lush, silky 2004 Reserve Cabernet Franc.

But wherever I wandered that day, it was hard to get my mind off Creekside Estate Winery (www.creeksidewine.com). Yes, I tasted other wines later that day that were as satisfying, and just as companionable at the dinner table. But nowhere was I rocked with the sense of uncompromising quality and creative distinction as here, where I tasted with marketing director Matt Loney and winemakers Craig McDonald and Rob Power. I can’t say this any clearer: McDonald and Power are the most talented, creative, innovative and ingenuous winemaking team I’ve met between Europe and California. Veteran Australian winemaker McDonald and former Toronto sommelier Power are producing more exciting, complex, and elegant wines at Creekside than anywhere else on the Niagara Peninsula. Since they arrived in 2000, they’ve defied all expectations and raised the bar for Ontario winemakers. All that skill would be wasted without the terrific raw material the Creekside vineyards provide, courtesy of the commitment of owners Peter Jensen and Laura McCain-Jensen, who acquired the fifteen-acre vineyard and cottage winery in 1998. After some inaugural successes, the owners expanded their vineyards and cultivated Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Viognier. In addition, the owners invested in the latest in winemaking technology and installed a state-of-the-art production facility and underground barrel cellar, where Power and McDonald are encouraged to go the mad-scientist route.

There is an enormously high standard of excellence here. As for recommendations, it’s not hard to know where to start; it’s hard to know where to stop. The 2004 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc is terrific, with a lovely, long finish. The 2004 Reserve Chardonnay is very fine and balanced, and a great value at $19. Both the lean, elegant 2001 Laura’s Blend Meritage and the ripe, rich 2002 Cabernet/Merlot were standouts. But your jaw will really drop when tasting the 2004 Shiraz, a sensational wine, and an astonishing, beautifully extracted achievement for $16. Experimental lots of 2005 Viognier and a 2004Syrah/Viognier combination invoked the greatness of the Northern Rhone Valley. One only wonders what McDonald and Power could do with their own patch of Cote Rotie. Creekside wines are unbelievably good and will give you a thrilling, joyous ride of discovery. I can’t wait to go back, and neither should you. Just one piece of advice: try to end your day here.

RECOMMENDED WINES

Our friends in Ontario have three nearby wine areas: Niagara-on-the-Lake,
Grimsby/Beamsville, and Jordan/Vineland. The latter two are east of St. Catherines
and possess fabulous natural conditions for winemaking. I’ve recommended
Grimsby/Beamsville wines in the past (see Buffalo Spree, September 2005),
but Jordan and Vineland are even closer and have many wonderful wines.

Creekside Estate Winery:
•2004 Sauvignon Blanc—$20
•2004 Chardonnay Reserve—$19
•2001 Laura’s Blend Meritage (Cabernet Sauvignon,
Cabernet Franc, and Merlot)—$18
•2004 Shiraz—$16
•2002 Cab/Merlot—$13
•2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve—$29

Thirteenth Street Winery:
•2002 G. H. Funk Cabs Merlot—$20
•2004 Riesling—$16
•2003 Sandstone Gamay Estate—$20
•2004 Erv’s Burger Blend—$16 (their kitchen sink wine)
•2004 Sauvignon Blanc—$16
•2001 G.H. Funk Vineyard Premier Cuvee Sparkling—$28
•NV Noirs—$17 (a juicy blend of pinot noir and gamay)
•2004 Chardonnay Musque Dechene—$20
•99 G.H. Funk Blanc de Blanc Sparkling—$38
Vineland Estates:
•2004 St. Urban Riesling—$20
•2005 Dry Riesling—$13
•2002 Cab Franc—$40
•2002 Cab-Merlot Reserve—$40

Cave Springs:
 •2004 Riesling Reserve—$18
•2004 Riesling Indian Summer—$25
•2003 Chardonnay Reserve—$20

Flat Rock Cellars:
 •2004 Nadja’s Vineyard Riesling—$20
•2004 Riesling—$15
•2004 Chardonnay—$17
•2004 Rusty Shed Chardonnay—$25

Willow Heights Winery:
 •2003 Chardonnay Reserve—$20
•2004 Chardonnay Sur Lie—$12
•2004 Riesling Reserve—$17

Stoney Ridge:
 •2003 Charlotte’s Chardonnay—$25
•2004 Muscat Ottonel—$15
•2004 Reserve Cabernet Franc - $30

—Mark Criden

Mark Criden (mcriden@yahoo.com) is a nonprofit executive and the former chair of the Buffalo branch of the International Wine & Food Society.


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