New Website Launched

I am very excited to announce that after a bit of work and some tweaking my new website is up and running. I have imported this whole blog onto it and added some new touches. I will be working at it over the next couple of weeks to get it up to 100%, but it is definitely ready to go. So please visit the new home of Hunting Vines at www.huntingvines.ca I hope everyone thinks its more attractive and accessible any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks so much for all your reading and support.

Sincerely,

Hunter

Exciting Changes

I am sorry I have not posted in the last week and a half, but I have been working on some very exciting changes. As a very early birthday present Becky bought me a domain and the Hunting Vines blog will soon be an actual website. I will stop using the google blogger software and move to the much more powerful blog and publishing software, WordPress. The new website will not only look much better but also allow for video and audio content. It should only be a few more days of tinkering and then be up and running. So I will post as soon as it is set to go I am really looking forward to expanding my blog and making it a really informative and interesting website.

Sincerely,

Hunter

Spotlight # 2: Keint- He Winery and Vineyards

This is Part 3 of 3 of my PEC Post. My quotations are coming from memory and are not exact word for word, but a representation of what was said. Again my tasting notes were made after I tasted the wine.

My second spotlight will focus on Keint-He and our incredible tasting and conversation with winemaker Geoff Heinricks. I had first read about Keint-He in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of The County Grapevine Magazine. Wine writer and Toronto Life contributor David Lawrason wrote a short piece about some of the exciting wine news taking place in the county in which Geoff Heinricks and Keint-He was mentioned. Lawrason also provided some tasting notes in the magazine for two of Keint-He's wines. Intrigued I did some research and began reading more and more interesting articles about Geoff, who is considered a pioneer of grape growing in Prince Edward County. He is also considered to be one of its best winemakers as well.

Geoff, who did his degree in History at Queens University worked for several years for CityTV in Toronto. Fed up with it all he decided to move out to Prince Edward County and start growing grapes and making wine. He wrote about this subject in his book 'A Fool and Forty Acres' which I have not read, but have ordered from amazon. Geoff is a self taught wine maker and told us that he has just read a lot about wine. He is also an extremely serious and passionate man who had some of the most interesting and poignant things to say while we tasted wine with him.

We met Geoff at 1:30 on Sunday afternoon he lead us into the tasting room of the winery which is where you walk in at the front door. It is a beautiful room with a tasting bar, large rustic wooden table and a gorgeous fireplace. We sat down and Geoff asked us where we had been during our trip to the County. This is where our conversation began as we had been to Closson Chase and as it turns out Geoff used to make wine out of Closson Chase under his own label. He knew Keith Tyers as well as Deborah Paskus quite well. With that we began talking about wine, the County and Keint-He.

Keint-He itself is a very new winery, as it just opened last fall and 2007 is its first vintage. However, the vineyards being used are some of the oldest in the County planted by Geoff over ten years ago. The winery itself is a collaborative effort between three wine lovers (Geoff Heinricks, Bryan Rogers and Ron Rogers) who are committed to producing the best wines possible in the County. As Geoff pointed out to me each partner brings their own specialty and perspective to help make Keint-He what it is.

Geoff takes care of the winemaking and the vineyards where he is allowed quite a bit of flexibility and freedom to really do interesting things. Bryan who has an M.A. in the sciences and arts is the GM of the winery and takes care of sales and marketing, something very important especially to smaller scale operations. Finally Ron, who is a retired VP from BMO, offers 35 years of experience in finance which is hugely invaluable to a new company like Keint-He. Furthermore, he provided the capital investment to help build the new winery as well as acquire the new vineyard sites. All decisions about the winery are made in consultation with each other and as Geoff said "all we do has to make sense to all three of us otherwise they wouldn't be in practice".

Keint-He is not your average County winery. The vines are planted at a very high density, 3630 vines per acre, at a 4' spacing, they have imported two specialty tractors from Burgundy to work on the vines. This forces the vines to complete and produce the best fruit possible. Yields are also kept very low with cropping at roughly 1.5 tons per acre which is around 28 hl/ha. To put that in perspective the average yields in France are about 55 hl/ha. Geoff said jokingly "if you mention my name or high density plantings many winemakers cringe". Keint-He uses only the fruit that they grow and everything is done by hand from pruning, to picking, bottling and even labeling, as Geoff says, "80% of wine is made in the vineyard if you do not see any workers in the field in the middle of summer you should be seriously concerned about the wines they are producing."

The grapes are grown organically and have been organic since they were planted. "we are an organic winery and the grapes have been from the beginning. Most growers spray when the calendar tells them to without even knowing if there is an issue if their vineyard. We are always among the grapes so we know what is happening to the fruit and can take preventative action when we see a problem." When I asked Geoff what he thought of biodynamics he replied "I follow certain principles of biodynamics, but I would not consider myself a biodynamic grower. Steiner didn't drink and thought wine was evil, how can you base your whole growing philosophy on a man who did not drink or know anything about wine?"

All of the wine is fermented using indigenous yeasts and are done naturally Geoff said that they can sometimes take 30 or more days to complete. I asked him if he thought yeast selection played an important role in the final bottled wine. He said that likely 3 out of 5 times the use of commercial yeasts will seriously affect the finished wine. He also said that he wants to make wine as natural as possible. "I want to make wine that changes and evolves when its opened. Real wine should be able to last for a week or more offering up new layers and nuances. Unfortunately most wine is meant to be consumed within the first hour of being opened." Furthermore, all of Keint-He's wines are unfined and unfiltered. All of this leads to Geoff's overall philosophy about winemaking. "With each wine are trying to create a snapshot of that year. From the various indigenous yeasts in the air, to the sun and water levels the vine receives. Each year will be different, but that is what makes our wines so unique they are true representations of where they come from. Some people will not like that, but I am letting the wine speak for itself."

After talking and tasting with Geoff I would have to say that he is one of those few winemakers that is really pushing the limits and moving the County wine industry in the right direction. Keint-He along with Closson Chase and Long Dog mark some of the most important wineries in the County in that they are actually exploiting the true potential of PEC terroir. Many people come to the County as a lifestyle choice because owning winery has a romance attached to it and others come out to make a buck. It is people like Geoff that are actually committed to proving to the world that the County can make some of the best wine around. I could go on much longer on the topics we discussed but I will move to the tasting now and let them do the talking about Keint-He's wines.

1. 2007 St. Laurent Foxtail Vineyard VQA Prince Edward County

This was my first experience tasting a St. Laurent and I was very impressed. The variety is actually part of the Pinot Noir family and originated in France. From there it moved to Austria where it is most commonly grown. These vines were brought to British Columbia in the 1970s and Geoff took some clippings and planted them in the Foxtail vineyard 10 years ago. I asked him why St. Laurent and he replied that he had done some reading and that he thought the grape would do well in the County. After tasting the wine I would say that he is right. The nose was great showing off County limestone earthiness with red berries, cranberry and some uniqueness that I suppose is a character of St. Laurent itself. In the mouth the wine was very interesting, delicious, multidimensional and possessing so much depth. This wine was so fascinating and unique yet was rooted firmly in the County. Geoff said that is could age easily another 5+ years. We bought a bottle, I cannot wait to revisit this complex and fascinating wine in the future and giving it my undivided attention. Score 91

2. 2007 Pinot Noir Little Creek Vineyard VQA Prince Edward County

Geoff is what you could call a Pinotphile and hence it is his most treasured grape. The Little Creek vineyard is their only Pinot bottling for 2007, but they will add another single vineyard release from Foxtail for the 2009 vintage. They planted more Pinot last year on their Big Lake vineyard which will start producing fruit fit for wine in a couple of years and will also be a single vineyard offering. This wine spent about 20 months in French oak with a touch of Hungarian oak for good measure. I don't know how else to describe this wine, but by calling it a showstopper. It has a ridiculous nose with so much going on all I can say is WOW! Sublime high toned cherry, earth, hay, barnyard, pinot fruit with so much depth it evolved in the short time we were tasting it. In the mouth this wine is just as good with a core of sweet pinot cherry surrounded by silken beauty. This wine is amazing to drink with so much depth and those 'je ne sais quoi' Pinot aromas and flavours that just wanted to be teased out over many hours. It finishes long and beautifully and is really the complete package. Geoff said it is drinking very well already even though it is just coming out of bottle shock. He said it will drink well now and over the next few years. We bought a bottle, I do not know how you couldn't after tasting it and I know it will not last long in our cellar as I don't think I have the will power. Most wine reviewers would have to put this wine in the mid 90s, really incredible stuff. Score: 94-95

The next selection of tastings Geoff offered us out of barrel as he showed us the winery.

1. 2007 Sparkling Base Wine

Mainly Pinot Noir with a small amount of Chardonnay and St. Laurent that did not make it into the regular bottlings. This base wine is just delicious and could actually be bottled right now and sold as it is. It will be a serious rich sparkling wine akin to a Blanc de Noirs. In March it is going into bottles for second fermentation I cannot wait to try Keint-He's sparkling it should be very good. As Geoff said sparkling wine has a big future in the County as its climate and soils are like a blending of Burgundy and Champagne. This could be very exciting stuff.

2. 2009 Chardonnay Foxtail Vineyard

Aged in seasoned Hungarian oak. A fresh, ripe, mineral laden Chardonnay with palate cutting acidity. Very Chablis-esque and it is already brilliant stuff. This actually may give Closson Chase a run for best County Chardonnay. Keep an eye out for this one it should turn out to be an incredible wine.

3. 2008 Chardonnay Foxtail Vineyard

Aged in new Hungarian oak. Completely different than the 2009. This is a big, rich and round buttery Chardonnay. If the '09 was a Chablis the '08 is a Montrachet. Really great quality wine, but I actually like the '09 better.

4. 2009 Pinot Noir Little Creek Vineyard

We did not taste this wine but looked at it and smelled it. The extraction is great and it seems that 2009 is going to be a great vintage in Prince Edward County. The nose is already gorgeous and shows some real potential. I will be looking forward to this in a couple of years.

5. 2008 Botrytis Affected Pinot Noir

For several years Geoff noticed that fog would form on one of their vineyards and blow away with winds from the lake by the afternoon and thought it could be a place to make a botrytis affected wine. The fungus is in the vineyards consistently and usually infected grapes are cut off so as not to contaminate other healthy clusters. In 2008 when they were about to get rid of the botrytis infected grapes Geoff said lets just wait and see what happens. Luckily the mornings got a lot of fog, but there was nice warm afternoon suns to dry the grapes out like a good year in Sauternes. Thus noble rot took over and actually worked. Geoff used a technique employed by winemakers in the Austrian village of Rust known for making outstanding botrytis affected wines. The wine took 9 months to ferment, but almost all the sugar was converted. It is being aged in Hungarian oak 2 new barrels and 4 seasoned. Geoff said he will bottle it eventually and the wine should last for decades.

This wine is just incredible, so unique, so interesting! This is unlike anything I have ever tasted. The wine was a lovely deep golden yellow and the nose showed sweet peach, blossoms and refined spice as well as complex that could take days to disentangle. Geoff said the nose changes every time he tastes it sometimes it displays those fruity notes, sometimes truffle and earth and other times earl grey tea. The nose is awesome and evolved in the glass while we tasted it. In the mouth the wine was amazingly rich and full bodied with so much peach and spice perfectly balanced by amazing acidity. The finish was eternally haunting and lasted forever. Geoff joked that one person who tried it said they could taste the wine all the way home. There was some truth to this as I could perceptively taste the finish about an hour after we tried the wine. I guess the closest thing to this wine would be a Hungarian Tokaji, but this is so utterly unique and so different. Geoff said that this is a wine that is made once a decade or maybe once in a lifetime. Truly remarkable stuff this is destined to become a County cult wine. I don't care how much a bottle will eventually cost I'll be buying it.

Overall Keint-He and Geoff Heinricks represent some of the best wine coming out of Prince Edward County. The quality levels are matched by very few and the uniqueness is matched by no one. It is the fact that Geoff is pushing the County to new frontiers that make Keint-He so exciting, I mean who else would try and make a Botrytis affected Pinot Noir and then actually pull it off? If you are in the County this winery should be your first stop then you will know what wine from the County should actually taste like.

Spotlight # 1: Closson Chase Vineyards

This is Part 2 of 3 of my PEC posts. Tasting notes were made after I visited the winery.

The first spotlight from our trip to the County will be on Closson Chase. The tasting was lead by former winemakers assistant Keith Tyers and retail manager Lynn Carmichael. We arrived at 11am on Saturday and were greeted by Lynn who showed us around the winery which is a refinished 19th century barn. It is quite nice with a great rustic appeal and in the summer the barn doors open up to a lovely garden with the vines in the background, very picturesque (at least I imagine it to be, the day we visited it was raining and very windy). The wine used to be made and aged in the barn, but as of last year they have opened a new, larger facility (closed to the public) about 1km down the road, which can be seen from the main winery. I apologize that I did not take any pictures as the weather was so poor. When I am back in the County in the summer I will be sure to take as many as possible. After the tour with Lynn we were met by Keith who lead us into the wineries tasting room.

Once in the tasting room Keith began telling us all about the geological history of Prince Edward County and how it came to posses soils conducive to excellent wine making. I will not try and repeat what he said, but the lesson on rock formation, soil composition, and climate were extremely informative and very fascinating. If you ever get a chance to chat with Keith, who is extremely approachable, you should take full advantage as he is a wealth of winemaking and County information. After a quick lesson on what makes Prince Edward County such a great place to make wine he began to explain Closson Chase's approach.

Closson Chase is a quality driven producer where low yields, dense plantings, growing quality fruit and making terroir driven wines are the guiding principles. The fruit is grown organically with a move towards biodynamics currently underway. Yields are kept quite low at about 2.5 tons per acre which equals roughly 37.5 hl/ha and indigenous yeasts are used as much as possible, save for a case of stopped fermentation or the like. They do make one unoaked Chardonnay, but the rest spend roughly 18 months in French oak (medium toast) where the Chardonnay's are barrel fermented and also undergo natural malolactic fermentation. 25% of the oak is new to impart those rich caramel and butter aromas and flavors and the other 75% seasoned, which Keith says act mainly as excellent oxygenators to fully develop the wine. The wines are hand tended and harvested with a lot of personal care taken in the vineyards. All of Closson Chase wines are unfined and unfiltered.

The head winemaker at Closson Chase is Deborah Paskus one of Canada's most famous and respected winemakers. There has been quite a bit written about her so I will leave that to others and just say that she is a pioneer of Chardonnay in Ontario. She really proved that great Chardonnay can be made in Canada with her Temkin-Paskus wines from her small holding in Steve Kocsis' vineyard on the Beamsville Bench in Niagara. Chardonnay is certainly Closson Chase's specialty and they do an absolutely excellent job. I think the strength in their wines is the depth and expansiveness they posses. All of the Chardonnay's we tasted were complex, rich and serious wines all displaying considerable power and finesse. Here are the notes of the tasting lead by Keith. Again I did not make notes until after the tasting so these notes are based on memory.

1. 2007 Chardonnay VQA Prince Edward County

This wine is sourced from their two Prince Edward County vineyards on the north and south side of the winery from young vines (aged 3-6 years). It is considered a younger sibling to their South Clos vineyard bottling which is sourced from their southern vineyard from their oldest vines and best fruit. The South Clos is completely sold out, luckily I bought one a few months ago and have it in my cellar. If this wine is any indication of how good the South Clos will be I think we will be in for a real treat. This wine had a nice rich tropical fruit nose complicated by notes toast, toasted marshmallow, and PEC limestone minerality. In the mouth the wine had a great acidic backbone that cut right through the palate and displayed great stone fruit and pear flavours with hints of earthy depth. It was a solid wine without a doubt and very impressive for being such young vines. In fact this put many Ontario Chardonnay's I have had before to shame. I do not usually give numerical scores but, I think it may be helpful in this blog. I would probably give this wine an 89-90 out of 100.

2. 2006 Chardonnay VQA Beamsville Bench

This wine was sourced from Closson Chases two vineyard holdings in Niagara the Aberdeen vineyard and S. Kocsis vineyard which were bottled as single vineyard offerings in 2007 and were next in the tasting lineup. An interesting note about Closson Chase's Niagara fruit is that they pick gently there and then bring the fruit to their winery in Prince Edward County where they then press and began making the wine. The only exception are their red grapes in Niagara which they press in the vineyard then bring to the winery. This was a nice big, round and rich Chardonnay of definite quality, but it was unfortunately completely outdone and overshadowed by the other three wines. I imagine it would have stood up quite well to most other Ontario Chardonnay's out there, but being from a weaker year it just could not keep pace. What was interesting and I think this is why Keith put this bottle into the tasting is that this wines components were the two single vineyard bottlings we were trying next so it offered some interesting insight into the Aberdeen and Kocsis vineyards. Score 87-88

3. 2007 Chardonnay Aberdeen Vineyard VQA Beamsville Bench

Sourced from vines planted in 1996 this wine was just stellar. Nice golden yellow in colour the nose is just awesome with so much richness and depth, yet an incredible floral freshness that was like walking through a spring meadow. In the mouth this wine was absolutely mouthfilling and full bodied with multifaceted and interesting depths. At the same time this wine was full of finesse and beauty. A great wine one of the best Chardonnay's I have tried. Our favourite of the tasting we bought a bottle. Score 93+

4. 2007 Chardonnay S. Kocsis Vineyard VQA Beamsville Bench

Sourced from 23 year old vines planted in 1987 this fruit is coming from the vineyard that Deborah Paskus made her name on. I think that this is an important wine to both Deborah and winery if you look at it from a historical perspective. The wine was much darker deep yellow compared to the previous ones. The nose offered up a ton of earthy notes with stone and tropical fruits just lingering in the background. In the mouth there was a ton of richness and complex earthy depth in this soil inflicted wine. Purely terroir driven, it was a big rich earthen beauty of a wine. Really impressive stuff and, just as if not even more impressive, than the Aberdeen. It is of pure personal preference that we choose the Aberdeen over this one but both are stellar examples. Score 93+

Overall the tasting at Closson Chase was a fantastic experience the knowledge, approachability, and professionalism of both Keith and Lynn was just terrific. There is no doubt in my mind now that Closson Chase is currently making the best Chardonnay in Canada. Some may point to a few other wineries like Le Clos Jordanne which offer some stiff competition to this title, but I do not they can compare with these complex, rich, and fascinating Closson wines. If you are tired of bland, boring and uninspired Chardonnay please go to Closson Chase, their wines will prove to you why Chardonnay really is one of the greatest grapes on earth.

Blog# 19 Back to Prince Edward County

I was back in Prince Edward County this past weekend, mainly for celebratory reasons, as my partner Becky and I, have been dating for 5 years. We thought a great way to celebrate would be to head to the County for some relaxation and fun. We had an absolutely terrific time with highlights from the weekend abound from amazing winery tasting and tours to excellent food and accommodations. It was not only the experiences that made this trip so great, but also the tremendous amount we learned over the two days. Our structured tasting with Closson Chase's Keith Tyers and Lynn Carmichael along with our tasting, tour and talk with Keint-He's Geoff Heinricks were were so informative and interesting that we gained a much greater understanding of grape growing and winemaking in Prince Edward County.

We were able to fit quite a few activities in our visit from visiting County markets to delicious chocolate shops. However, this being a wine blog I will try to keep on the topic of wine, of which there is so much to be said. Since this will be a bit of a lengthy post I have decided to split it into 3 major sections. The first, which includes this introduction will outline our trip focusing in the wineries. The second section will be a spotlight on our visit to Closson Chase and our fantastic tasting and conversation with assistant winemaker Keith Tyers and retail sales manager Lynn Carmichael. The third section will then focus on our amazing tasting, tour and conversation with Keint-He winemaker Geoff Heinricks. I hope you enjoy reading my accounts as much as I did experiencing them. It must be said that all my tasting notes were done from memory after I visited the winery as I did not have a note pad with me while actually tasting the wine. Furthermore, I apologize for the lack of photographs it was a fairly rainy and overcast weekend so the camera did not make it out as often as it should have.

Our trip began with an 11am appointment on Saturday morning at Closson Chase. The second section of this blog will be focused on this visit so I do not want to give too much away. I will say that Closson Chase is making some of the best Chardonnay in the County and in the entire country for that matter. After the extremely informative and fascinating tasting at Closson Chase we made a quick stop at the Grange of Prince Edward. We stopped here to pick up a bottle of their newly released (since December) sparkling wine, a methode traditionelle made of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay from the 2007 vintage grown on their estate. This was for celebratory purposes on Saturday night I will post full tasting notes for this wine in a few days.

After picking up the bottle at the Grange we were off to a 1:30pm appointment at one of the County's newest wineries Casa Dea. The appointment was supposed to be with VP of Operations and General Manager Paul Marconi but when we arrived we found out that we had to step out and was not there. Our tasting was "semi" lead by one of their retail representatives who was more focused on a group of customers buying a fair bit of wine than us. Even more disappointing than the absence of Paul and the lack of help regarding any questions we had were the wines themselves. My tasting may have been biased by the strength of the Closson Chase wines we had prior, but I certainly did my best to do an objective job. I certainly did not come in with any negative preconceptions, in fact I was quite looking forward to trying their wines.

The tasting began with their 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay which offered up a fairly neutral tropical fruit nose and an off-putting sour note in the mouth. Overall this wine was quite poor and not even close to the quality of the Closson Chase Chardonnay's we tasted. The next wine we tasted was their 2008 CD Bianco which is a blend of Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. I did not find this wine to be very different from the Unoaked Chardonnay and it also had that off putting sour note that made it quite unpleasant. We then moved to the 2008 Riesling which was an improvement on the Chardonnay and Bianco, but was still very neutral on the nose not offering much at all. It did have some nice lemon/lime flavours in the mouth, but these were ruined by that same sour note that pervaded the previous two. I could understand one off bottle, but each different white had the same awful sour note, what is going on here?

The tasting then moved to reds and with it came their only wine of any sort of interest the 2008 CD Rosso, a blend of Gamay Noir and Zweigelt ( a cross between Blaufrankisch and St. Laurent). Although the wine was served much to warm (room temperature) for my liking it had an interesting pepper spice and smoke note on the nose and in the mouth. We bought a bottle at $12 as it may go quite nicely with grilled sausage or something like that. The tasting finished with their 2008 Cabernet Franc which was pretty much undrinkable, a very poor wine indeed.

Overall I was quite disappointed with the wines of Casa Dea. I understand that their business model is not to make expensive premium wine, but rather every day sipping and dinner wines, which is fine. The problem, however, is that quality is sacrificed for quantity (which drives bottle prices down) and reducing quality in a marginal climate such as Prince Edward County is very risky business. The County is not Italy, France or Spain where grapes grow in relative abundance due to the climate. These countries get quite a bit more ripe fruit at much higher yields, this is a fact due to climatic conditions. Thus, wineries can reduce the quality levels in exchange for higher volume and still make a fairly decent wine that is great for every day consumption. In the County, however, when you reduce the quality the wines really do suffer greatly. I think Casa Dea is a case in point of this and the contrast will become more apparent when juxtaposed to the tastings I had at Closson Chase and Keint-He who are both quality driven producers.

Our next stop was at the winery where we were spending the night, Huff Estates who also have an inn and art gallery. Everything here is very modern and 'feng shui' to borrow the term from Keith Tyers. The Inn itself is quite beautiful and during this time of year marks one of the best deals going. For $99 Becky and I stayed in a lovely room with a king size bed, faux fire place, club chairs and a patio as well as a complimentary breakfast and a tour/tasting. You could not stay in a scummy motel in Ottawa for that much. We were extremely pleased with the Inn and thought the service and atmosphere were excellent.

I was already familiar with some of Huff Estates wines namely their 2008 Off Dry Riesling which I think is quite tasty stuff. The tasting at the winery was lead by their sommelier named Brian along with some other inn guests and I fell that Huff's wines are rather hit and miss. I found all of their whites to be pretty solid with the stand out being their 2007 Pinot Gris which was nicely perfumed and a nice wine overall. Huff's line of red's were also solid, but hardly worth the mark-up. For whatever reason their whites range from about $12-$20 while the red's range from $17-$40 the majority being around $30. I found all of their reds to be decent wines, but hardly worth the $30+ price tag. It is one thing to pay that much for an interesting, nuanced, complex wine, but not for a solid just OK one. This was my biggest issue with Huff Estates I found the wines to be good but not outstanding. Overall the Inn is great the wine still needs some work.

After staying the night at Huff we headed to the County Cider Company for a tasting lead by winemaker Jenifer Dean. It was a nice casual tasting and the County Cider Company has one of the best views in all of PEC. I found their Waupoos Premium Cider to be a real classic with great apple and spice notes and a resoundingly dry refreshing finish. Their two fruit ciders a Peach Cider and Feral Cider (Cranberry-Raspberry) made from their own apples and fruit concentrate from Quebec were both very tasty and refreshing. I could imagine having cold glass of either one on a hot summers day on their patio overlooking Lake Ontario. We also tried their Ice Cider made from European varieties that do not fall off the trees as they are not indigenous to Canada. They let these apples freeze then press them into cider in a process not disimilar to making ice wine. I was pleasantly surprised by this cider as I thought it would be cloyingly sweet, but it was very well balanced and quite tasty. The County Cider Company also makes wine under their Fool on the Hill label. We tried their 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay and their 2008 Pinot Gris both of which displayed an interesting earthy funk nose and flavour profile. We purchased the Pinot Gris and I will put up full notes when we taste it.

We finished off out trip with an incredible tasting and conversation with Geoff Heinricks at his newly opened Keint-He winery. This was an absolutely stellar tasting of which Iwill go in-depth about in Spotlight #2. I will say that Geoff stands as one of the most important winemakers in the County and he is pushing the limits like few others. Again a great time in the County I can't wait to visit again.

Blog #18 Another Delicious Spanish Wine - From Montsant

Tonight I had yet another absolutely delicious Spanish wine, this time from Montsant. One thing that I have really noticed about good Spanish wine is that it has an incredible ability to have intriguing terrior driven notes to please any serious wine drinker. Yet it remains so utterly drinkable and delicious that it is near impossible for anyone not to back for another glass. I suppose this is part of the Spanish wine philosophy to make something more casual for everyday enjoyment. The interesting thing is that with the quality of Spanish wines these days they are getting that ease of drinkability while at the same time making some of the most nuanced and complex wines around. Spanish wine price have certainly not caught up to the value in the bottle, I think now is a great time to rediscover all that Spanish wine has to offer.

Celler de Capcanes - Mas Donis Barrica Old Vines - 2007 - Montsant- Spain

This wine from Celler de Capcanes is made from 85% Grenache grapes ranging from 8 - 40 years old and 15% Syrah grapes which are 10-15 years of age. The vines are grown 150-450 m above sea level in alluvial soils at the lower altitudes and poor mineral based stony soils with granite and slate at the higher altitudes. Harvest is done manually from early September to mid October with a yield of 40-50 Hl per Ha. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks at 27-29 degrees Celsius each variety done separately. They were macerated for 8-12 days and underwent full malolactic fermentation in their tanks.They were naturally cold stabilized, lightly fined and filtered, and placed into new and up to 5 year old French and American oak barriques (light-medium toasted) and aged for 9 months. After this the two separate varieties were blended together in stainless steel and left for 3 months before bottling. As a side note the front label of this wine is absolutely beautiful and very well done, it would catch anyone's eye.

Dark purple in colour with a ruby red rim this wine has an absolutely delicious nose. Notes of sweet blackberry liqueur, spice box, mineral, ripe raspberry, and liquorice pervade the senses in a not too subtle but not too showy fashion. In the mouth this wine defines deliciousness with notes of sweet black fruit, spice and a spine of earthen depth. It is medium-full bodied ripe and round which make it a pleasure to swish around in your mouth. The wine finishes with great subtle notes of spice cupboard, fruit and an earthy funk. This wine really does define delicious, yet it has those intriguing earthy notes that would fascinate any wine fan. This is a wine you could drink all night long and never be tired of. Really, really tasty stuff. Very Good+

Blog #17 A Delicious Ribera del Jucar

Spain can make some really incredible wine there is no doubt about it. In the past I think producers were accused of leaving their wines far too long in oak and to have outdated wine making practices. Luckily for us wine consumers Spanish wine has been having a renaissance and now produce some of the world's greatest wines, yet the prices have hardly caught up. Most wine from Spain is really undervalued and although you still run into an oaky mess of a wine here and there when Spanish wines are on they are really on.

This wine made by Elvi is one of those really delicious Spanish examples with really interesting and tasty notes. I find the more you drink wine the more difficult it is to be impressed by a bottle, but this wine is great and I really was impressed. It comes from the youngest D.O in Spain (officially recognized in 2003) the Ribera del Jucar which is part of the Castile-La Mancha region of central Spain. It has 9,100 Ha of vineyards that sit 650-750 metres above sea level the soils of which are composed of argillaceous chalk which is covered by small stones and pebbles from the Jucar river. It has a Meditteranan continental climate of hot and dry summers and cool winters. The main grape varieties of the region are Tempranillo and Bobal, both of which feature in this wine.

Elvi wines is a family owned winery quite new on the scene and was only began in 2002. They focus on making high quality Kosher wines using international and indigenous varietals. They are an ultra modern winery using their own innovative technology known as RavNet which can be read about on their website. They represent a modern quality oriented producer who use modern wine making technology to its fullest.

Elvi Wines- Ness - 2007 - Ribera del Jucar - Spain

This wine is composed of 39% Merlot, 32% Bobal, 25% Tempranillo and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel where the juice is slowly removed from skin contact using a gentle pump where the juice is drained into an oak barrel. Once in oak the wine is still pumped a few minutes each day until 3 weeks before bottling when this ends. The wines are not filtered nor clarified and like all wines made by Elvi are Kosher.

Ruby red in colour with a purple tinge. The nose is just great and really interesting. Lovely notes of ripe raspberry, cedar, juicy blackberry, and subtle spice mingle together in an interesting and beautiful way. In the mouth the wine is medium bodied and begins with ripe juicy sweet red fruits that are really tasty, by the mid palate the well integrated tannins come to the fore with some earthiness that balance out the sweet red fruit. The finish is a nice and subtle mingling of sweet fruit and earth. This is a really delicious hedonistic style of wine that tastes and smells great and is quite interesting. The nose especially is unique and beautiful. It went extremely well with the lamb stew Becky made tonight, a recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. All in all I would definitely buy this again and I think this has some aging potential. Very Good +