Familiar Favourites and New Loves Emerge at Taste Ontario!
by Erin
Taste Ontario rolled into Toronto this week for its annual big-city love-in for the province’s wineries.
It’s one of the few tasting’s Courtney & I would not miss and we were there with glass-in-hand, offering air-kisses and hugs while we tasted out way through familiar favourites, and discovered some new ones.
Here’s a list of some that really stuck out for us:
The Foreign Affair “Dream” 2008
VQA Niagara Peninsula
Available at the winery or online $28.95
The Foreign Affair Winery was built upon the the Italian appassimento wa
y of doing things — drying grapes before fermentation, a la amarone. The bulk of their wines only goes through partial drying, though their top three labels goes through total drying of the grapes. Dream is a partially-dried Bordeaux blend made predominately of Cab Franc. Mid-weight, with beautiful earthy and bell pepper flavours mixing with dark & red berry fruit, the dry, but well-integrated tannins make this a match for seared duck with sour-cherry sauce.
Henry of Pelham Pinot Grigio 2010
VQA Niagara Peninsula
LCBO $14.95
A crowd pleaser if ever there was one. This is the first crack at the popular Italian varietal for the Speck brothers, and a well-done one at that. A round, fruity nose full of ripe orchard & citrus fruit, follows through on the palate, with ripe white peach, lemon meringue, candied grapefruit, with sweet raw almond on the finish. A tiny bit flabby, I would of liked a notch or two more acidity, but this is good drinking for the price.
Coyote’s Run Estate Winery “Black Paw Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2009
VQA Four Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula
Available at the winery or online $35.95
This wine is named after the black-clay soil where the pinot grapes are grown. A thoughtful pinot with lots of barnyard funk, toasted spice, damp earth, black olive and sour cherry, its complex and tasty. It’s fun to try the Black Paw Pinot against its sister Red Paw Vineyard Pinot Noir, which, grown in red clay soil, is a bit more easy going and approachable with upfront fruit and warm spice.